How now? “You, my mates,” said a girl, “let us go and have a look at the village yonder, where lives the man Kasere.”
There is no delay. They already perceive the man there at a distance, and near him heaps of meat. “Yes, and no mistake,” they say, “that is a husband worth having.”
They come near: “You girls,” says the man, “why don’t you get married?”
“Well now,” they answer, “is a woman going to ask a man to marry her?”
“All nght,” says the man, “just now we shall go and loak for a wife.”
And so he did. But as soon as he appeared in sight, the girls disappeared.
Their mother, too, would you believe it? said: “No, you may come back another day.”
The refusal was evident.
Another day he came again in the same direction, but a tree of the kind What-is-it-good-for [the Tonga version of this story says “a euphorbia, karundu-ngoma,” probably because the milky sap of the euphorbia associates itself in the Tonga mind with the milk of a lactating woman] standing on the road caught his fancy. He set to work cutting it and stripping it of its branches, then began hewing it. He carved, carved, carved, and put it upright against a tree there in the forest. Then he went to buy a cowry, and came back to put it on the head of his block of wood. What do you think? He finds it turned all of a sudden into a maiden: “Enough! mother!” he said, “I have found the wife they refused to give me.”
On the following day he went to look for honey and brought some to his wife. When they had finished eating, they went to bed.
Next morning early, the man went out once more in search of honey. While he was away, people came and found the girl seated alone outside: “Give us fire and water,” they said. She brought fire and handed it to them, she brought water and gave it to them. There they smoked and smoked again (admiring her silently), then went back to their kraal.
As they reached the place, they said: “Is she not a beauty, the girl we have seen over there?”
The following day the king, having heard that, said: “Go and bring her here to me.”
That day the man bethought himself of going once more in search of honey. The girl then said to him: “Some people were here yesterday, who asked for fire and water, and I gave both to them.”
“Today,” said the man, “lock thyself in the hut.” He went off.
When those people came they found her seated outside. They took her away.
There she goes crying: “Mawe! Mother! Mawe! They are taking me away.”
The husband came home... “Ugh! What! “ he said, “they kept refusing me a wife, and now to-day they have taken this one! One whom I carved!”
He has soon made up his mind. Drums, that is the thing. He goes to cut them and adjust them.
He loses no time: “Let us go,” he says.
He goes beating the drums and singing on the way:
My wife made by carving!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
Stop that.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My husband, who gave them meat!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife, who gave them fire and water!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
They were denying me a wife in the land.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
The block that I carved!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
He came to a village occupied by common people. At once the principal woman of the place, good gracious, said: “Those who can accompany dances, come and see a dancer.”
Good heavens! They heard the song falling down:
My wife made by carving!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
Stop that.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My husband, who gave them meat!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife, who gave them fire and water!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
They were denying me a wife in the land.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
The block that I carved!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
“Come on,” says the woman, “throw presents to the man.”
They are showered upon him. They make him quite red.
He then asks: “Have you not seen people passing this way and carrying away a woman?”
“They have passed,” is the answer. “They have gone further.”
“What is she like? “ he asks.
“Beautiful,” they say, “beautiful. She has a cowry on her head.”
He then goes further, singing on the way:
My wife made by carving!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
Stop that.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My husband, who gave them meat!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife, who gave them fire and water!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
They were denying me a wife in the land.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
The block that I carved!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
He reaches another kraal... “Come and see a man who beats the drum...”
Then: “Come on, you who accompany the dance, throw presents to the man.”
At last he stops for a little rest.
A little man then said to him: “Come near, I will tell you... That kraal over there, that is where your wife is, in the big hut.”
There goes the man, beating the drums once more:
My wife made by carving!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
Stop that.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My husband, who gave them meat!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife, who gave them fire and water!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
They were denying me a wife in the land.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
The block that I carved!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
Good Heavens! He is in view of the place ... “Come and see a man who is on the road beating a drum.”
As he comes near, he goes towards the king’s house, as if to go and pay homage. Then he starts again:
My wife made by carving!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
Stop that.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My husband, who gave them meat!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife, who gave them fire and water!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
They were denying me a wife in the land.
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
The block that I carved!
Chorus: What do you mean, block of wood?
“Good gracious!” says the king himself, “come and throw presents to the man.”
But he does not stop to receive any. He just goes on round the courtyard (beating the drum all the time).
A servant then says: “Shall we bring thy wife? ...”
He is already near the hut. Good Heavens! This is what he hears from within: “This is his wife, who has been carried away.”
The drums then roll with full sound:
My wife, a gift for them!
What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife made by carving!
What do you mean, block of wood?
“Come,” say the people to the woman, “you too come and give presents to the man. All your mates have already thrown some to him.”
“All right,” says the woman, “go and throw him presents yourselves. I shall do nothing of the kind.”
The drums are at last at the door:
My husband, the carver!
What do you mean, block of wood?
My wife, a gift for them!
What do you mean, block of wood?
Great Lord! “Let us just peep,” says the woman.
“Carry her out,” say some people.
In fact, their hands are already on her.
Then they see the little man going on dancing like a fly all round the king himself, and singing:
The tree which I carved!
What do you mean, block of wood?
They refused me a wife in the land.
What do you mean, block of wood?
“Let us look outside,” she says at last. And she stands just at the door.
Heaven help me! Drum and song now sound and resound.
My husband, to give me to them?
What do you mean, block of wood?
She now just lets her head appear with the cowry on it. By a rapid movement of the hand the husband takes this off... Great Heavens! She is already transformed into a simple block of wood, no, she has become but a bush standing at the door... Then the little husband comes hone humming his own tune, while the king and those who had seized the woman remain there with their shame.
I am Mumba.