There was once a widow woman who had one son and two daughters. On a
certain day she went to her garden, taking with her one of the girls.
While she was away the boy quarrelled with his sister and killed her.
In the course of the day the woman sent the girl that was with her to
the hut, and when she came there a fly told her what had happened. She
did not believe it.
Then a mouse told her the same thing, but still she did not believe it
was true.
Afterwards the fly told her to look in a certain place, and there she
saw the head and the bones of her sister.
When the woman came home and found out what had happened, she killed
her son. Then she gave the girl a stick, and told her to go to her
uncle’s house, saying that when she got there she must strike the
ground with the stick, and all the clothes and other things that
belonged to her would then rise up out of the earth. The woman said she
was now all alone, and therefore intended to kill herself.
The girl was very sorry, but she did as her mother told her. When she
was a little way off, she looked back and saw smoke coming out of the
hut, from which she knew that her mother had burned herself and was no
longer a person under the sun.
After this she met an old woman, who called to her, but she took no
heed and walked on. Next she met a mbulu at a place close by a river.
The mbulu said, whoever wetted any part of their body in crossing the
river must go in and bathe. The girl was standing on the bank, and the
mbulu struck the water with its tail and splashed it in her face, so
that she had to go in and bathe. Then the mbulu took her clothes and
put them on.
When the girl came out of the water she asked for her clothes, but the
mbulu said: “I will give them when you are dry.”
So they went on together. After a while the girl asked again, and the
mbulu said: “I will give them when we get to the village.”
But when they arrived there the mbulu said: “You must tell the people
here that you are my servant, and that I am the daughter of a chief.”
The poor girl was so afraid that she promised to do so. They were well
received at the village, because the people believed that the mbulu was
a great person. They wondered at her voice, but she told them she had
been ill and her throat was not well yet.
After a time one of the men of that kraal married the mbulu, and the
real girl was sent to the gardens to drive the birds away from the
corn. While engaged in this occupation she used to sing about the mbulu
taking her clothes and passing itself off for a person, until the women
who worked in the gardens took notice of this song of hers.
Then they made a plan to find out if what the girl was singing was the
truth. They said: “The tail of a mbulu will want mice and fat,” so they
set snares to catch the mice. In the night the tail was pursuing mice,
and itself got fast in a snare. The mbulu then asked the man who was
married to her to go and get some medicine, as she was sick, and when
the man went she took off the snare.
After this they made another plan. They said: “The tail of a mbulu will
seek milk,” so they dug a hole in the ground, put milk in it, and
required every one in the village to jump over the hole. The mbulu was
unwilling at first, but they urged her. She tried to jump quickly, but
the tail could not pass the milk. When it went down the people saw that
this was a mbulu, so they killed it and buried it in that hole.
After this the same man who had married the mbulu took the girl to be
his wife. She had a child, and one day, when it was playing, a square
pumpkin came out of the ground where the mbulu was buried, and tried to
kill the infant. But the people chopped the pumpkin in pieces, and
burned it. They afterwards threw the ashes into a river, so that
nothing more could come of that mbulu.