Some villagers were holding a three-day festival for beer-drinking and dancing.
A man came to the festival, looked at a woman standing apart by a fence, saw that she was beautiful, and said to her, “Do we sleep together tonight?”
“Yes sir,” replied the woman, promising to sleep with him.
The man gave her his umbrella to hold for him, and later in the evening he returned to her and took her with him to the house where he was sleeping. Here they lay together talking, and the man said to her, “Perhaps it is possible that you will agree to marry me?” The woman quickly agreed to this.
Later the woman told him that they must postpone the marriage ceremony for some time, since there was not time for her to go home to her village now. It was already planting time and her village was so far away that she must stay and cultivate a field in this village during planting time. After that, she could go home to her village for marriage ceremonies. And so they planted a field there.
One day the man noticed that termites had eaten part of the broom in their house. He said, “Mba! These termites! I shall burn up these termites.”
The woman heard this and said to him, “Never dare to say that you will burn up white ants.”
Another day the woman had cooked a pot of relish. After the relish had cooked, she set the pot aside to cool. Later, a spider spun a web across the top of the pot. The man saw this and said, “This miserable spider here! I shall throw it in the fire, for it has become a nuisance.”
The woman heard him say this and again she spoke to him, saying, “Never, at any time, are you to say, ‘I shall throw a spider into the fire.’”
On another day the woman took corn to the pounding rock to pound it into meal. When she had pounded the meal, she spread it out to dry on the rock. She sat down to rest, while she kept watch over the meal. She looked up and saw a whirlwind approaching. She watched it, hoping that it would pass either to one side or to the other, but she saw that the whirlwind was heading straight for her meal. When it came to the rock the whirlwind sucked up the meal and carried it away.
When she came back to the village, the man asked, “Where did the meal go?”
She replied and said, “The meal went with the whirlwind.”
When the man heard this, he was very angry and said, “I am going to go and punish that whirlwind.”
The woman admonished him: “Never dare to be angry at a whirlwind. It is the nature of things that they do some inconvenient thing to us at some time. On another occasion things will do something to please you.”
At another time they had planted a field. The shoots came up after seven days. Three days later, when the plants were well started, an ant-bear came in the night searching for termites and destroyed the whole field of corn. The man was angry when he discovered this and said, “As for this ant-bear, I shall dig it out and kill it.”
Once more the woman spoke to him and said, “Dear, do not do that, but love it. Some day you will see what an ant-bear can do for you.”
Another day there were many flies about, and they were alighting on the man’s food. This also irritated him. He said, “I shall kill these flies.”
The woman quickly advised him, “Never try to kill flies, for some day you will see what flies will do for you, and then you will be glad to have them.” The man followed the advice which the woman so frequently gave him. Finally there came a day when the woman announced, “I am going to our village right away.”
The man replied, “What about me? When you have gone away, how shall I know whether you have gone to stay or will come back? How am I to follow you, in case you do not come back?”
She answered him, “I shall not stay. I plan to stop there only two days. If you see that three days have gone by and I have not returned, then come for me. Just go along the path asking for the village of Goodhearted Ngeve, Kindhearted Chilombo. The people along the way will give you directions, so you will not get lost, but will come to it.” The man agreed to do this.
When he had waited the three days and the woman had not returned, he set out to follow her. After he had traveled far without receiving any satisfactory answer when he asked directions, he became tired and sat down upon a log lying beside the path. As he sat resting, he noticed a white ant running about on the log. The white ant asked him a question: “You, sitting there, where are you going?”
The man replied to the question of the white ant: “I am going to the stem of the giant mushroom where Goodhearted Ngeve, Kindhearted Chilombo lives.”
The white ant replied, “Behold, you have come there already. Just climb onto my back.” The man mounted the termite’s back, and the termite went under the ground. When they came into the underground, the man saw a large and extensive village. The termite had him dismount. After he had waited there for some time, he saw a boy coming his way. The man asked the boy, “Is this Ketaholua Kelanga Landambi, where Goodhearted Ngeve, Kindhearted Chilombo lives?”
The boy answered, “Yes indeed. This is the place. But what brings you here?”
To this question the man replied, “I come here because Goodhearted Ngeve, Kindhearted Chilombo is my wife, and I have come looking for her.” The boy ran to the men’s clubhouse and told the elders that a man waited outside. The elders said, “Fetch him in.”
When the man came inside, the elders asked him, “Where do you wish to go?”
The man said to them, “I am going to Ketaholua Kelanga Landambi where Goodhearted Ngeve, Kindhearted Chilombo lives.”
The elders said, “You have arrived. Indeed this is the place, and you are our guest.” They took his small bundle and lodged him in a storehouse.
Then the head of the village summoned his servants and told them to go and kill one of the fowls reserved for guests [it is the custom to serve chickens and other fowls to guests, but kings and wealthy men might have an ox or a hog killed for a person they wish to honor, and call the ox or hog “a fowl”]. As the servants had been told, they went and killed the ox which had been indicated by the king. Now this fowl was a large and very fat bullock. They cooked the whole ox, even the hide and horns. The mess filled four very large pots. They built a big hot fire about the pots so that the meat would cook quickly and be ready by afternoon. Just before sunset they stirred up corn meal, to make mush to go with the meat. They filled three large basins such as are used for bathtubs with this mush. Assuming that the guest would be very hungry by this time, the king said to the servants, “Go and take this little food to the guest.”
When the servants presented this food to the guest, he gave hearty thanks for it. But he was disturbed to see such a heap of mush and the flesh of a whole ox. He could think of no way to eat all this food. While he puzzled over this, an ant-bear came into the hut and dug a great burrow in the ground under the hut. Then the ant-bear said to the man, “Do not be discouraged. Just dump all the food into this burrow. Save a little of the mush and some of the liver to eat, and dump the rest down the hole. Then I shall fill up the hole and tamp down the earth. When you wash your hands, let the water fall on the spot and then pat it down well.” After the man had done all this, he sat down and waited.
Later he sensed that the servants of the king were coming. They came to the house and said, “The king sent us, saying, ‘Go fetch the dishes, so thet you may wash them, for the sun has set already.’”
The man said to them, “That is good.” Then he gave them the containers. The servants looked around to see if he had put any food on the floor, or if there was any mess. They could see no food or mess.
When they returned to the king, he asked them, “Did you find nothing in the containers?”
They answered the king, “We could find nothing in the containers. We looked about the house, but saw nothing. We did not find even a bone there.”
Later in the evening, the men of the village plotted against the guest. They said, “Tomorrow let the stranger be asked to fell that big tree of ours. Everyone knows that it is the despair of all. No one has ever touched it with an ax, for even to look at it is frightening.”
Shortly after this a fly came to the guest and said to him, “I come to give you information. I was in the men’s clubhouse when they made a plot against you, saying, ‘Tomorrow morning when it is light, we shall test our guest.’ This is what they will ask you to do: You will be asked to fell a real ox of a tree, a tree so large that the people think it can never be cut down. The ax that they will give you for this is a small ceremonial ax that is not even sharp. When they summon you to this tree-felling test, they will look upon you as a person who has already struck his last blow. When you come to the tree, first look for a spot where the tree borer has dropped its droppings. Aim the blow of your little ax at that spot. You will see that the tree will fall down. When you are felling this tree you must strike only once, for they have sworn to kill you if you hit the tree twice before it falls down.”
When it was light in the morning, the king ordered a royal proclamation: “All persons, hear ye well! All persons will remain in the village today, to accompany the stranger when he goes to our famous tree to see if he can cut it down. We have always thought that no one could cut it down.”
To this all the people answered: “Indeed that is the truth. If he fails we shall kill him.”
When the guest left the village all the people of the village followed him. When they had come outside the village, the people pointed out the tree of the test. The girth of this tree was equal to that of a really large baobab tree. They gave the guest the ceremonial ax to be used, and told him to hit the tree only once, for if he hit the tree a second time his fate would be decided. The man took the ceremonial ax and went around the tree looking for the place where the tree-borer had dropped its droppings. When he found this place, he took the handle of the little ax in both hands and struck the tree at that place. When he struck it, the tree fell down. All the people shouted, “Hoooo-oo!” Then they all went back to the village together. The man rejoiced. He said, “Today I escaped death.”
Later, when they talked the matter over in the men’s clubhouse, the men of the village said, “What are we going to do next?” They deliberated and finally said, “Let us have him named to go and put a bridge across the river for us, a bridge across the river which we have never been able to bridge.” This river was as large as the Katombela River.
That evening the fly came to him once more and said, “They plan to say to you tomorrow morning, ‘The guest must go and build a bridge across the river. We shall cross the river at the ford, and at the time for returning we expect to have the bridge completed. If we do not find the bridge ready, we shall kill the guest.’”
As soon as it was light in the morning, the king made a formal announcement: “Today let all the people go down to the river and cross it at the ford. At the time for the return we shall expect to find a bridge built by the guest.”
Then all the people shouted and said, “This is the thing to do! This is the right thing for the guest to do!”
When the guest came to the river, he found Spider, who said to him, “Do not be excited over nothing. Set two strong posts in the ground at this side of the river, the right distance apart for supporting a large bridge. Then take me on your back and carry me across to the other side of the river, and there set up two other strong posts in the same way. Just leave the rest to me.” The man immediately did as Spider directed. Then Spider went to work spinning, coming and going. When the time came for the people to return from the fields, the bridge vas completed.
When the men gathered in the clubhouse that evening, they prepared another plot to test the guest. They announced: “Tomorrow the guest may rest, but first he must sweep the whole village for us. Sweep it so clean that we cannot find any trash at all inside the stockade.” Soon a whirlwind came from the east and swept the whole village, taking away the trash. The whole village was swept clean, just as the villagers had demanded.
That same afternoon the men of the village took counsel together, and this time they said, “Tomorrow we shall have the guest point out the house in which his wife, Goodhearted Ngeve, Kinthearted Chilombo is.”
When this had been announced, the fly came to him again, and told him, “They have plotted this against you: You must point out the house in which your wife is. Do not be concerned about this, for tomorrow I shall go and roll in the ashes at the clubhouse. When you go out for this test, I shall sit on your nose. When I leave your nose, and go and alight on a house, then and only then, point to that house.”
In the morning when it was light, the men of the village came to the guest and said, “Today you are to go and point out for us the house in which your woman is.” The village was very large, as broad as from Elende to Chinjenje [about eighteen miles, certainly a fantasied width for a village]. The villagers and their guest went out and began to walk among the houses. As they walked, the man noticed that the fly left his nose, went to a certain house, and alighted on it. The man pointed to that house and said, “Goodhearted Ngeve, Kindhearted Chilombo, come out!”
The woman came out. Then they all went to the clubhouse where the men presented the man with a shovel, a hoe and an ax, telling him: “Take your wife. Here she is. But if she should die, do not bury her.”
After this ceremony, the two, the man and his wife, left the place. When they came to their home country [this is a virilocal culture], they found that the people had deserted the village and built in another place. When the two of them came to the abandoned village, they went to their house to sleep for the night.
In the morning the man tried to awaken his wife, but found that she was dead. Then he took the hoe, spade and ax, dug a grave, and buried her. After the burial, he decided to return to his house.
When he came back to the house, he found that the corpse of his wife was already there before him. Then he went and buried her once more. After he had repeated this three times, he mounted his ox and fled away to rejoin his own people.