This is an ancient event.
A woman gave birth to many children. They were all girls. Not a single boy was among them. She reached the age when she could have no more children, without a boy.
The old man, her husband, would say, “What misfortune God has brought me. How can a man have so many children, all girls without a single son.” He often complained that way.
One day he returned from the cattle-camp to visit his wife at home. Then she conceived despite her age. The baby grew very fast in her stomach.
He wondered, “I am confused by this woman. In the first place, how did she become pregnant at her age? And how can the baby grow so fast when she has just conceived? I cannot understand.”
The baby continued to grow very rapidly. And within a short time, his wife gave birth. This time it was a boy.
The boy's skin was decorated in many colors. There was black skin, white skin, red skin—all these colors were on him. The father was puzzled.
He took out a bull and killed it in sacrifice. He also took out a ram and killed it. He then took out a second ram and killed it.
Then he sat and said, “I will just wait and see why God is doing this. Why He has at last given me a son without making him a normal human being, why He has colored his skin in this peculiar way, I cannot understand.”
The baby was named Agany. He grew up very fast. He grew with every night that came. People were completely bewildered. Whenever his blanket was removed from him, people would run away in fear. No one dared to look at him closely.
His father was very rich. Each of his many daughters was married with many cattle and he kept all the cattle. So great was his wealth that he gave herds to relatives to help him take care of them. His brother-in-law kept a large stock. Each of his daughters also kept a large stock. And he himself remained with a large herd.
He kept his son at home. He would not take him out for the public to see.
In the meantime, Agany continued to grow very fast. That same year he grew so fast that he caught up with an age-set that was to be initiated. So he was initiated with that age-set.
The initiated group stayed in his house, and his family prepared food for the entire age-set. Women from the families of the other men stopped cooking altogether because their initiated relatives were served so much food in Agany's house.
Then they were released from initiation and went to the cattle-camp. Agany turned out to be an extremely handsome man who was popular with his age-mates as well as with the entire cattle-camp. He was especially popular with girls. Wherever he was, the girls of the camp all rushed over to have a glimpse of him. When there was a dance, he became the center of attraction. Even when he sat doing nothing, he drew everybody's attention.
All this bewildered Agany. He did not know what he should do about it.
When the cattle were released from the camp and he was seen displaying himself in the goor dance [a dance form in which people act as though in battle, running in single file behind a leader, jumping up and down, twisting themselves as though dodging or throwing spears; it often occurred as a prelude to ordinary dance, but was also performed on other occasions for joy], no girl would leave the camp. Whenever a girl was sent away from the camp on an errand, she would say, “How can I leave the cattle-camp when Agany is dancing. That cannot be!”
Since his display would stop the activities of the cattle-camp, his father would ask him to stop. Then he would stop and sit.
When he was asked to get married, he refused, saying, “How can I know which girl to marry when they all behave alike towards me? Besides, I understand that there is a plot by girls to kill whichever one I choose to marry. How can I choose a girl and endanger her life? I cannot. It is better that I remain unmarried.”
Each year came and the question of his marriage was raised, but he maintained his position and remained unmarried.
One year, he left his father in the cattle-camp and went to his mother at home. He told her that he had at last decided to marry, but had not yet made up his mind about the girl. He said he was returning to the cattle-camp for a few days and would come back to tell her of his success or failure in finding a girl.
He left her but did not return to the cattle-camp. Instead, he spent the next days in the forest, hunting monitor lizards and skinnig them. When he had collected a large number of skins, he made them into a suit exactly fitting his shape, covering every part of him so that it looked like his own skin. He even made room for his fingers, toes, eyes, every part of him. Then he tried it on and worked on it some more until it fitted him perfectly.
Then he returned to the cattle-camp. He went to his father and said, “It is now in my heart to marry. I shall leave to look for a wife. For my journey, I would like two milk-gourds to be cleaned and filled with milk.”
Two gourds were cleaned and left in the sun to dry. Then they were filled with milk. He took his skin, wrapped it carefully, and tied it to a stick. He took his milk-gourds and also tied them to the stick. Then he placed the stick on his shoulder.
He walked and walked until it was dark. Then he put down his load, sat down, and drank some milk. Afterwards, he went to the top of a tree to spend the night safe from wild animals. He slept until dawn.
Very early the next morning, he put his load on his shoulder and left. He walked and walked and walked, until it was dark again. He stopped for the night and slept.
The next morning he again left very early. He walked and slept for a third night on the way.
On the fourth day, he arrived at a large cattle-camp at about the time when the cattle were returning from their day's grazing. He saw many girls on the edge of the cattle-camp. Some girls were pounding their grain. Others were clearung their utensils. And still others were fetching water from the river. He hid and put on his skin. He speared a frog, went back to the camp with the frog, and approached one girl, begging her, “Girl, would you please cook this frog for me?” [For the Dinka, who did not eat frogs, to think of eating a frog is despicable.]
The girl, disgusted with his skin and the frog, shouted back, “Get away, you monitor-lizard-looking creature! Have you ever seen your kind honored by a girl? How can anyone cook for a person like you?”
He left that girl and went to another one: “Girl, would you please give me some water?”
She laughed at him and said, “Look at this monitor-lizard-looking creature! How can you expect me to give you water?”
He went around the camp begging help from the girls and being rebuked until he had approached nearly all the girls in the camp.
Then he came to the family of an elderly couple. He found an old woman who was called after her eldest daughter ‘Ayom's Mother.' Her daughters, Ayom and her three sisters, were pounding grain. Nearby was another little girl, also their sister, called Aluat. Aluat was an extremely beautiful girl, but she was still only a child.
As soon as the older girls saw the man, they chased him away: “Be off and do not stop or look back!”
Aluat, who had taken the gourds to her family's compound in the cattle-camp, saw her sisters speaking rudely to the man. As she saw the man leave, she ran towards her sisters and said, “Ayom, where did that man you were rebuking come from?”
Her eldest sister, Ayom, immediately retorted, “You with your search for trouble! Have you seen what he looks like?”
“He looks like a human being to me,” said Aluat.
“He wants someone to cook a frog for him!” explained one of her sisters.
“In that case,” responded Aluat, “let me go and take it. I shall cook it for him.”
She ran after the man, calling to him as she ran. When he heard her, he stopped and looked back. When she reached him, he asked, “What do you want from me?”
“I came,” she explained, “because I saw you talk with my sisters and leave in a disappointed way. So I thought I would ask you to tell me what you wanted and whether I could help you. At least, see whether I will answer like my sisters.”
“Is that why you came after me?” asked Agany.
“Yes!” she said.
“Well, I was looking for someone to cook this frog for me!”
“Then give it to me,” she said.
He gave her the frog. She took the frog to her compound and then returned to him. She led him to a different part of the camp where her best friend, a little girl of her own age called Ayan, was. She called on her and said, “Ayan, this man is a traveller. I would like him to sit here in your place because ours is too exposed and people tend to fear him. I would rather he stayed in a less open place.”
Ayan accepted and seated Agany.
Aluat then returned to her family and told her father about the man. “Father,” she said, “a man came here before. When he asked your daughters for help, they sent him away. So I went and took him to the other side of the camp. But I would like to take some milk to him.”
Her father allowed her to do so. But when her older sister heard what she said, she became enraged: “Do you have to entertain any creature that crosses your way? I don't think you should take up with this man!”
But her father insisted that cows be milked and the milk given Aluat to take to the man. The cows were milked and she took the milk to Agany.
By that time, her girl friend, Ayan, had taken leave. So they were left alone. Then Agany spoke to Aluat and said, “Aluat, what you see is not my real body. Although the skin you see on me is ugly and poor, I have a different skin under that, the skin God created for me. So, take back your milk, my interest in you forbids my drinking it. [Among the Dinka a man did no eat or drink in the house of his girl friend; and even after marriage a certain ceremony had to be performed before a bridegroom might eat among his wife's family.] After returning the milk, please come back. I will tell you the rest.”
Aluat said that she would have to get permission from her father before coming back. “I am a little girl,” she said, “and my father will be disturbed if I stay out late without his permission.”
Agany agreed and Aluat went to her side of the camp. She went and sat near her father and said, “Father, the man wants me to return to him and I would like to go. May I?”
“Yes, you may,” said her father.
So she went. When she was with him, he said to her, “Make a fire so that you may see my real body. But when you have seen me, you must not tell anybody. You must keep the truth to yourself. The rest of the people will see me when I return in the future. Now let me tell you that I have come in search of a wife. Even if she is very young, if she has the character I have been searching for, she is the one I want. If an older woman had behaved the way you did, I would have shown myself to her and asked for her in marriage.”
The girl kindled the fire and saw his real body. She was amazed and silent for some time, and then she left.
The following day Agany picked up his gourds and left early in the morning. He spent the same number of days returning that he had spent on his way from home. Then he arrived at his cattle-camp.
He went and spoke to his father, saying, “Father, I have found a girl. She is still a very small girl, but she is good-natured and beautiful. I was not really after beauty; I was after a girl with a good heart, a girl who would not despise a human being no matter how ugly he might be. I have found her. So I will now marry.”
“Son,” said his father, “I was always for you marrying; you were the one refusing. So if you have now found the girl of your choice, I am exceedingly glad.”
Agany's age-mates in the cattle-camp were called and three bulls were brought out and slaughtered for a feast. One hundred cows and ten bulls were released to be taken to Aluat's family as bridewealth. Agany and his age-mates drove the cattle. Together with the cattle were oxen to be slaughtered on the way for meat. There were also cows to provide milk on the way. As the men drove the cattle slowly, they spent many days on the way. They would go some distance and stop. They would tether the cattle and make them rest. When they reached the territory of Aluat's family, they found that the cattle had been moved from the camp to the villages. As they travelled, people wondered, “Where is this large cattle-camp going?”
People would answer, “It is not a cattle-camp; these are bridewealth cattle!”
“Whose daughter is being married?”
“The girl is to be found where the cattle are being taken. No one but the husband-to-be has as yet seen the girl.”
Onlookers would say, “What a lucky man to receive so many beautiful cattle for his daughter. She must be a very beautiful girl. What else would a father wish for?”
People kept asking these questions all along the way until the visitors arrived at the bride's home. The visitors asked, “Is the senior gentleman by the name of Ayom's Father at home?” [As a matter of courtesy, the Dinka often referred to men and women by the names of their first-born, male or female.]
A village was pointed out to them: “That is the village of Ayom's Father. It will not take you much longer to reach there.” Agany began to run in the goor dance, accompanied by specially decorated oxen. Some men danced and some sang over the oxen as they entered the homestead. The elderly gentleman came out to meet them. The visitors spoke to him, saying, “Father of Ayom, we are your guests.”
“What guests are you?” he asked.
“We are marriage guests,” they answered.
“And the girl?”
“We do not know the girl,” they said. “Only the bridegroom does. But we shall tell you tomorrow after a good night's sleep.”
“Very well,” he said. Once he knew the bridegroom, he knew he had come for his little girl, Aluat. The word went around that the monitor-lizard man had returned for Aluat.
Ayom's Father welcomed the guests and seated them. He brought out four bulls from his cattle-byre and slaughtered them in hospitality. Plenty of food was prepared. And the people slept.
The bridegroom was in his monitor lizard's suit. Some people wondered, “How can a monitor-lizard man come and ask for our Aluat? Such an ugly man! It will never be! Whatever his wealth, we must refuse.”
The girl, Aluat, knew what he really looked like because she had seen him, but she remained silent.
The morning came. People gossiped and waited, but nothing happened. Many became very impatient. Some longed for the sun to set because the evening was the time when gentlemen were to meet with young ladies and discuss the question of courtship. Girls from the neighboring areas were invited. They all came.
People still argued that Aluat should not be given to the monitor-lizard man, whatever amount and quality of cattle he had. “Such an ugly man! Such a coarse skin! This cannot be! He cannot take our Aluat. What are cattle compared to our fine Aluat? We do not care about wealth; it is Aluat who matters to us. We will never agree to this proposal!”
Agany's age-mates became impatient with this insulting talk. “Now, Agany,” they said, “we have had enough of this abuse. Reveal yourself! You have brought scorn and disrespect on us. Show yourself!”
“Very well,” said Agany, “I will reveal myself.”
It was night. Agany said, “Make three huge heaps of straw and set them on fire so that you may have sufficient light to see my body!”
The heaps were made and lit. Agany stood in the middle of the three huge fires. He then stripped the skin of the monitor lizard off his body and said, “Now see me, whether I am ugly or handsome.”
The girls began disputing, each one crying, “He is for me.” “He is mine.” “I want him.” Even Aluat's eldest sister made her claim. “This man is not for the little girl Aluat. He is for me, the eldest!”
All the evening activities turned into a fight over Agany.
The next morning, he woke up and danced the goor in front of Aluat's mother's hut. The age-set ate the feast. The festivities went on for days. Then the guests were ready to leave.
Agany spoke to Aluat's father and said, “Father, I came all the way here to avoid the sort of competition among girls that happened last night. That is what drove me away from my own territory. I come from a very distant village. Your daughter Aluat, whom I am marrying, is a small child. That is why I cannot take her now. If she were old enough, she would not stay here. I would take her to my home. But her age has stopped me. I am leaving her, but I am making a special request for you to take very good care of her. For I am afraid that I might lose her.”
“Don't worry,” said the father, “I will look after her.”
The age-set then left, and the father took special care of his daughter.
The following year, Agany said to his father, “Father, I must leave. My heart is heavy. I fear that something may have happened to Aluat. So I must go to see her. Whether she has grown up or is still small, I shall not leave her behind this time.”
His father agreed. And he left for Aluat's home.
In the meantime, Aluat had trouble in the cattle-camp. Whatever a girl said, she was humiliated in comparison to Aluat: “Who do you think you are? Aluat, the girl married by Agany?” This became too much for most girls. The girls of the camp came to resent Aluat and her marriage. They got together and schemed to do away with Aluat. They announced that they were going to collect wild fruits. Girls throughout the cattle-camp got together and left. They walked and walked, until they were very far from the cattle-camp.
Then they said, “Aluat, we are very thirsty. That is a river over there, where there is a cluster of big trees. You are the youngest and therefore the proper one to send. Please go and fetch us water!”
“With what shall I bring you water?” Aluat asked.
“Why don't you just go,” they said. “Perhaps you will find some containers there. If not, we shall then go ourselves!”
“All right,” she said and left.
They watched her go until she disappeared. Then the girls dispersed. They returned to the camp. Only her best friend, Ayan, remained.
Ayan followed Aluat, running and shouting after her. When she caught up with her, she said, “Aluat, why are you heading for the wilderness? Don't you understand what the girls have done to you? All this was a plan to lead you astray. We may never be able to trace our way back, but we must try.”
As they began their journey back, the sun went down. They became confused and did not know what to do.
All the other girls reached the cattle-camp. When Aluat's father heard of his daughter's absence, he cried and cried: “This is exactly what I was warned against! Now the girls of our camp have proved Agany's suspicion to have been right!”
The two girls struggled to find the way back. One would go this direction and the other that direction and they would both meet going the same way. So confused did they become that they decided to spend the night on top of a tree.
As soon as they were on top of the tree, a lion came. He smelt them from under the tree but could not see anyone around. He wondered, “What is this human smell without a human being around?” Then he would look around and into the distance. He would look up to the top of the tree. But he saw no one. He waited and waited, deep into the night, and then gave up.
The girls spent the night in the tree. Early the next morning they descended from the tree and left. They eventually managed to find their way back to the cattle-camp, partly guided by the bellows of the cattle.
When they were seen, it was a very great event. After the story was told by Aluat and Ayan, each brother seized a whip and beat his sister for the wrong she had done. Aluat's father had become mad from grief and had been chained. He was then released.
In the meantime, Agany had left his home and was on the way. He arrived after the girls had returned. When he was told what had happened, in his unhappiness he said, “This is just why I left my own territory and came here to look for a wife. Now it has followed me into your territory! What a misfortune!”
He was told of what Ayan had done to save Aluat's life.
Then he spoke to Aluat's father and said, “Father, I must go. But I cannot leave Aluat behind again. As for Ayan, I would like you to speak to her father. She should be with Aluat, I will not leave her; I will keep her with Aluat. I will therefore be back, but I must now leave.”
He left with Aluat and built a large home for her. Then he took out fifty cows, drove them to Ayan's father, married Ayan, and brought her home. He continued marrying into that cattle-camp, paying twenty, thirty, or forty cows for each girl until he had an enormous family. Then he said that Aluat and Ayan were not to pound grain, fetch water, or do any menial work; they were to bear him children to make up for his lack of brothers. His cattle were then divided between his wives. Some got only one cow; others got two; lucky ones had four cows. That way he distributed his wealth and maintained his wives. As he had wished, Aluat and Ayan had sons for their first-born children.