Mouya's story is as follows:
"The Rabbit took wild fruits (mpinjimpinji) and put them into his bag; and he came to [a man who was] eating earth; and he said, 'Do not eat earth—eat my mpinjimpmji.' [And he gave him some. And when the man had eaten them, he said], 'Give me other things [in exchange].' And he gave him a weaving-stick (panga). [And he went on and] found a man weaving cloth and beating it on the ground,[1] and he gave him a weaving-stick. He said, 'Give me something else, [since] you have taken my weaving-stick.' And he gave him hoes (makasu). [And he went on and] found [people digging with pointed sticks (nchokoti). He said, 'Hoe with these hoes'; and his companions hoed. He said, 'You have hoed with my hoe, [give me something instead of it].' And they gave him arrows (mibvi). [And he went on and] found people shooting with small arrows (nsewe),[2] and he said, 'Shoot with these [proper] arrows,' [And they did so, and] he said, 'You have taken my arrows,' [give me something instead]? And they gave him mapira (millet). [And he went on and] came to some guinea-fowl eating sand, and he said] 'Eat mapira.' And the guinea-fowl left off eating sand [and ate the mapira, and he said,] 'You have eaten my mapira.' And they gave him some red clay (chikule).[3] [And he went on] and found some frogs anointing themselves with mud. He said, 'Anoint yourselves with this red clay.' The frogs anointed themselves. He said, 'Give me my red clay.' The frogs said . . [4] . . The rabbit just went away. The frogs went into the water."
In Dr. Elmslie's story it is a man who is the hero. He starts similarly, by finding wild fruit (this time figs) in the bush. He gives them to a man eating grass and gets in return (after having vainly demanded back his figs) a fishing-net. The remaining steps in the series are as follows:
- ↑ The original is not quite clear here, but I think this must be the meaning. The panga is a stick used for pushing up the threads of the weft after they have been passed between those of the warp.
- ↑ Nsewe are small arrows, used by children in play, made from stalks of grass.
- ↑ Chikule (or kundwi) is a kind of red ochre, which is mixed with oil and smeared on the hair by Lake Nyasa women. A similar mixture is used among other tribes for anointing the body.
- ↑ Here I fail to make sense of the text.
