Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/494

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

458 Collectanea.

am going to my town." So he crossed the stream, she also crossed the stream, the stream was between them, neither saw the other (there was not the "see-er" of the other). Then she pulled off the waist-cloths and threw them down, she pulled off the head- cloth and threw it down, then she rolled (on the ground) and changed into a Buffalo, (then) she got up and came and stood in front of him. Then he said, — " Oh, here is a Buffalo, (and) I have not brought any (weapon)." Then she rushed at him to gore him with her horns, but he changed into an ant-hill. Then she went to rush the ant hill, but he rose up and became a stump. Then she arose to gore the stump, but he arose and became a ring. Then she came and took up (the ring), and said, — "Now he said 'Zop,' (but) his father stopped him. But Zop is not Zobe" (ring). So she threw him away in the grass. Then she said, — " Now, amongst all the trees there is none (which) owns the name of Zop (there is no owner of the name of Zop) except the ring." She said, — " It is the ring. Let me go and find him and kill him." So she came and (began) searching and searching in the grass, (but) did not find him. So she said, — " His father saved him. If it had not been for that I should have killed him." So she went off. Then the boy returned home, and told his father. And the father said, — " Now, you, you have no sense. Even though you are very fond * of a woman you must (do) not reveal to her your inmost thoughts." ^ That is the end of this one.

47. The J^^aii who married a Gazelle. (M.) This is about - certain man who had a wife. Then another woman also came and married him ; as for her she was a Gazelle, but she came and changed into a fine woman, she became the rival wife. When she had married him, they remained (there). He had a farm of (used to farm) okroes.*^ So it happened that one day she, not she who was the Gazelle, was told to go and collect the okroes. So she went and filled a calabashful. Then the Gazelle was sent, so she went and got (some). Then she called her fellows, and when she had called them they ate up the okroes. Then she returned home, and said she had not seen any-

  • Lit. " Though you fill her love." ^ Lit. " inside."

^ A common slimy vegetable, said to be an aphrodisiac.