The Flame Tree and Other Folk-Lore Stories from Uganda

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THE FLAME TREE

AND OTHER FOLK-LORE STORIES FROM UGANDA

BY MRS. GEORGE BASKERVILLE

The Flame Tree

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in the village of Si. Her parents had no other children, and as she grew older they saw with joy that she was more beautiful every day. People who passed through the village saw her and spoke of her beauty until every one in Kyagwe knew that the most lovely girl in the country lived in the village of Si—and every one in the province called her "the Maiden." The Maiden was a gentle, sweet child, and she loved all the animals and birds and butterflies and flowers, and played with them and knew their language. Her parents were very proud of her, and often talked of the time when she should be grown up and marry a great chief with many cows and gardens and people, and bring great wealth to her tribe. When the time came to arrange her marriage, all the Chiefs came and offered many gifts, as the custom of the Baganda is; but the Maiden said, "I will marry none of these rich Chiefs, I will marry Tutu the peasant boy, who has nothing, because I love him." Her parents were very grieved when they heard this, and would have tried to persuade her, but just then a messenger arrived from the Sekibobo to say that the King of Uganda was going to war with Mbubi the chief of the Buvuma Islands, and all the chiefs went away to collect their people for the King’s army. Then the Chief of Si, who is called Kibevu, called all his men together, and Tutu the peasant boy went with them. The army marched down to the Lake shore to fight the Islanders who came across the blue waters in a fleet of war canoes, painted and decorated with horns and feathers and cowry shells and beads. The Maiden was very sad when she said good-bye to Tutu. “Be very brave and win glory,” she said, “then my father will let me marry you, for I will never marry any one else.” But when the men had marched away and only the women and children were left in the village with the old people, the Maiden forgot her brave words and only thought how she could bring Tutu safely back.

She called to her friend the hawk. “Come and help me, Double-Eye; fly quickly to the Lake shore and see my peasant boy—tell him I think of him day and night. I cannot be happy till he returns.” The hawk knew Tutu well, for often on the hillside he had played with the children. The Baganda called him “Double-Eye,” for they say, that, with one eye he watches the Earth and with the other he sees where he is going.

The Baganda reached the Lake, and there was a great battle, and Tutu the peasant boy was killed by a stone from an Islander’s sling; but the Baganda rallied, and drove the enemy back to their canoes, and Mbubi beat the retreat drum, and his men returned to Buvuma. The hawk flies very quickly, and while he was still a long way off he saw Tutu lying where he had fallen on the Lake shore. The soldiers were

burying the dead, and the hawk watched to see where they would bury the peasant boy of Si, that he might show the maiden his grave.

The Maiden waited on the hillside for the hawk's return and the moments seemed like hours. She called to a bumble bee who was her friend. "Go quickly to the Lake side and greet my peasant boy, tell him I wait here on the hillside for his return."

The bumble bee flew away quickly, and when he reached the Lake shore he asked the hawk for news. "The Islanders have fled in their canoes, but Tutu the peasant boy is dead, a stone from a sling killed him. I wait to see his grave that I may show it to the Maiden." The bumble bee was afraid to go back with the news, so he stayed near the hawk and watched. Meanwhile the Maiden waited in a fever of impatience, ever gazing at the distant Lake and pacing up and down. She saw a flight of white butterflies playing hide-and-seek round a mimosa bush and called to them.

"Oh, white butterflies, how can you play when my heart is breaking? Go to the Lake shore and see if my peasant boy is well."

So the white butterflies flew away over the green hills to the Lake and arrived on the battlefield just as the soldiers were digging Tutu's grave, and they settled sadly down on a tuft of grass, their wings drooping with sorrow, for they loved the Maiden who had often played with them in the sunshine. Far away on the Si hills the Maiden watched in vain for their return. Filled with fear she cried to the Sun, "Oh, Chief of the Cloud Land, help me! take me on one of your beams to the Lake shore that I may see my peasant boy and tell him of my love." The Sun looked down on her with great pity, for he had seen the battle and knew that Tutu the peasant boy was dead. He stretched out one of his long beams and she caught it in her hands, and he swung her gently round until she rested on the Lake shore. When she saw the soldiers lifting Tutu's body to lay it in the grave she cried to the Sun:

"Oh, Chief of the Cloud Land, do not leave me, burn me with your fire, for how can I live, now that my Love is dead?" Then the Sun was filled with pity and struck her with a hot flame, and the soldiers were very sorry for her too, and they dug a grave for her next to Tutu's.

And when the people of Si visited the graves the next year they found a wonderful thing, for a beautiful tree had grown out of them with large flame-coloured blossoms which ever turned upwards to the sun, and they took the seeds and planted them in their gardens. And now the country is full of these beautiful trees which are called Flame Trees, but the old people call them Kifabakazi, because the stem is as soft as a woman's heart and a woman can cut it down.

The Buffalo Maiden

There was once a little girl who lived with her uncle and aunt. Her uncle loved her, but the aunt was always unkind to her. Now, this aunt was really a witch, but no one knew it. One day she said to her husband: "You must send that little girl away, I cannot stand her any more, she is so naughty, but go first to the forest to the old wizard who lives there and he will tell you what to do."

So the man went to the forest, but he did not know that his wife had told the wizard what to say. The wizard said: "Take the little girl to the forest and leave her there."

Then he was sorry for the man, and added: "If you do this, good fortune will come to the child, but many years must pass. Very sadly the man returned home. He took a gourd of milk and some Indian corn and told his little niece to follow him into the forest. When they had walked a long way they sat down to rest, and the child was so tired that she fell asleep at once. Then the uncle put down the gourd of milk and the Indian corn and went sorrowfully home. When the child woke it was very dark in the forest, and she was terrified at the sounds round her and feared the wild animals might come and eat her; but she heard a chirping voice in the tree above her, and saw a large cricket sitting on a branch just over her head: "Climb up into this tree," said the cricket, "and you will find a nice bed to sleep in."

So the child climbed up into the fork of the tree, and there was a lovely place full of dry leaves, where she cuddled down and was soon fast asleep again. The next morning she saw that several buffaloes were resting under her tree, and as she was very hungry she thought: "I will go and ask the cow buffalo to give me some milk."

The buffaloes were very sorry for the child left all alone in the Forest, and they said:

"You will soon die of hunger here—come and live in our kraal in the jungle, and you shall have milk every day and a little hut all of your own."

So the little girl climbed on the old cow buffalo's back, who was the Granny in the herd, and went with her to the kraal which was hidden away in the thick jungle. At first she was sad and unhappy and homesick. She wanted her uncle, and her friends in the village at home, and the old granny buffalo could do nothing to comfort her.

Then the great bull buffalo who ruled the herd called a council of animals together and said: "How can we make this child happy who has come to live with us in the Forest?"

The animals were much distressed; for they all wanted to be kind. But the child sat and sobbed, for she was lonely and homesick. Just then an old tortoise who had been asleep for many years, woke up, and came shuffling into the Council. "The child will be quite happy if you take away her heart," he said. "For it is the heart of a woman that brings all the trouble into the world, if she cannot love she will give no trouble, if she has no heart she will be quite happy." So they cut out the little girl's heart and tied it up in wild plantain leaves and hung it up in a cedar tree, and they built her a hut under the cedar tree, and she settled down happily and cried no more, and her heart hung far above out of reach where no one could touch it.

From that moment the child changed, at first the buffalo granny was pleased because she stopped crying and was quiet, but soon she grew puzzled for the little girl was so strange. Every day she did unkind things and laughed when she hurt the animals. She pushed the little cubs into the Forest pools when they came to drink, and she climbed up into the trees and threw little birds that couldn't fly out of their nests, and when the mothers cried she laughed at them, and clapped her hands. There was one animal who had not been at the great bull buffalo's council. The little hare was away at the time, on a long journey, but when he returned, and the other animals told him about it, he looked very grave. The little Hare knows more about people than any other animal, for he often goes to the villages and he understands men's language. He watched the little girl, and every day he grew sadder. Years passed by, and the child grew up into a beautiful woman: but she had no friends in the Forest, all the animals were afraid of her, none of them loved her. If they growled she stared at them, and they slunk off, for her eyes frightened them.

One day the Sekibobo's men were hunting buffaloes, and one of them followed a wounded animal through the jungle when, to his surprise, he saw a lovely girl come down the Forest path. When she saw the wounded buffalo she laughed and went back, and the man was so frightened that he went back the way he had come, and told the other hunters, and they told the Chief. Then the Chief sent a party of men to the Forest and they followed the hunter's trail and came to the buffaloes' kraal and there they saw a beautiful girl milking a buffalo and singing:

I am the Buffalo Maiden, The Buffalo Kraal is my home; The Jungle Land is my Kingdom, Wherever I will I roam. I hate the golden sunbeams That fill the glades with light, I hate the silver moonbeams That chill my hut at night. The birds are dumb when they see me, The animals are my foes; For I am the Buffalo Maiden, As all the Jungle knows.

They were afraid to speak, and they went quietly back.

Then the Sekibobo went to the Capital and told the Chiefs in the King's Council, and the King and all the Princes heard that a beautiful

girl lived all alone in the depths of the Forest, in a buffalo kraal. There was one Prince braver and kinder than the others and he was sorry for the girl, so he took one man with him and went to the Forest to find her. When he found her he loved her very much, but the girl only laughed at him and threw stones at him. Some of the stones hit him, and hurt very much, and every day he grew more and more miserable. One day while he was walking in the forest he found a doe with a sharp thorn in its foot. He took the thorn out and carried the poor tired creature to its home. The doe was very grateful and said:

"Tell me what I can do to thank you."

And the Prince answered, "Tell me how I can make the girl I love love me."

The doe was very sorrowful. "You will never make her love you, she is unkind and cruel to every one, but I will ask the other animals, and perhaps they can give me advice. So when the doe's foot was healed she went to the big grey elephant and asked his advice. "Tell your Prince," said the big grey elephant, "that the girl is cruel and unkind, he had better seek a wife in the Capital." So the doe went to the lion.

"If the Prince has been kind to you, he is much too good for the girl," he said; "she is hard and cruel and never sheds tears as the women in the villages do." All the animals said the same thing, and at last the doe met the little hare and told him her trouble.

"It isn't her fault," said the hare, "they took her heart away from her when she was a little girl: how can she be kind without a heart? Let the Prince steal her heart that hangs in the cedar tree and then she will love him."

So the doe went and told the Prince, "You must steal her heart which hangs in the cedar tree above her hut, but you must go alone at night."

So the Prince went alone through the dark Forest at night and came to the buffaloes' kraal. The moonlight was shimmering through the grey shadows as he picked his way between the sleeping buffaloes up to the maiden's hut, and there above him in the cedar tree hung the heart. He climbed the tree and clasped the heart in his arms, and as he did so the girl asleep in the hut below felt a great fear. "Some one has touched my heart," she cried.

Softly and tremulously she opened the door and saw the Prince, and fell at his feet, sobbing "Oh, my Lord, you have my heart in your arms, take me too!" So the Prince took her away to the Capital and they lived happily together for many years.

The big grey elephant called a Forest Council together, and they passed sentence on the old tortoise and killed him, because his advice had been bad, for this is the law of the Mabira Forest—if any animal gives bad advice to the Council, he is killed. And the Forest Council sent a messenger to the Prince and told him what they had done. And he was glad; for though the heart of a woman causes all the trouble in the world it also brings all the joy, and her tears are like the spring rains and make the Earth beautiful.

The Mpa Bana Bikd

The African cuckoo does not sing Cuckoo, Cuckoo; it sings Cuckookoo, Cuckookoo, and it can sing this song for a whole hour, until every one in the neighbourhood is tired of hearing it, then it flies to another tree, clears its throat and begins again. The mother cuckoo is too lazy to build a nest of her own, and to hatch her own eggs. If she finds a nice comfortable-looking nest she lays an egg in it and flies away hoping the owner will hatch it for her; but she forgets so soon, that she never returns to see what has happened to her egg. One day a mother cuckoo found a lovely nest in the forest and laid an egg among the four little eggs which were in it already. Then she flew away and forgot all about it. When the owner of the nest returned, she was too tenderhearted to throw the egg out, so she hatched it with her own. But the young cuckoo was so large and hungry that he soon filled up the nest, and one day when the mother bird was away looking for food he pushed the four little fledglings out of the nest. A wild cat was passing among the bushes down below and gobbled them up as they fell. When the mother bird returned she found only the cuckoo in her nest, and she searched everywhere for her children crying as she went, "Mpa bana, mpa bana," which means, "Give me children, give me children." She searched under the bushes and all round her nest and then went all through the forest crying all the time, "Mpa bana, mpa bana," till all the other birds and animals knew of her sorrow. When the next nesting season came, she laid four more eggs, and never left the young birds after they were hatched, but she had got into the habit of singing this song:

I left them safe in the nest, Mpa bana, mpa bana; Seeking the food that was best, Mpa bana, mpa bana; How did the cruel thief come, Mpa bana, mpa bana; Wrecking my joy and my home, Mpa bana, mpa bana.

The young birds heard it all day long and learnt to sing it; and now it has become their tribal song, and they sing it for hours together, and are quite as tiresome as the cuckoo who just sings cuckookoo, cuckookoo, without grumbling about it.

The Absent-minded Bridegroom

Once upon a time there was a man called Nagamba, who was very absent-minded. Everybody laughed at him, but he did not mind. He had many friends and was quite a good fellow. At last the time came for his marriage, and he paid the dowry and arranged the feast, and married his sweetheart, and they started on the journey to his house. But as they walked along they came to a place called Nakuse, and Nagamba remembered that a friend of his lived there; so he said to his bride:

"Sit here and rest in the shade for a little while, and I will fetch you a cooling drink."

When he got to his friend's house he found a feast going on and many people he knew were there, and he sat down with them and forgot the poor little bride sitting in the shade waiting for a cooling drink. And the sun went down, and night fell, and still he sat on and talked and joked and sang, and the dawn broke in the east and suddenly the cocks crowed. Nagamba sprang to his feet:

"My friends," he cried, "I am married, and my bride sits in the shade waiting for a cooling drink."

They all went to find her; but the girl had become tired of waiting and had returned to her father's house, and refused to go back to Nagamba, and as no one else would marry him he remained a bachelor all his life. And now in Uganda this has become a proverb; if a man is absent-minded and forgetful, his friends say: "You will never get a wife; you will have the fate of Nagamba, the absent-minded bridegroom.

The Singer

"Nyimba oluimba, oluimba lwange."

We march over hills and valleys, Hundreds of warriors strong, And I take my harp from my shoulder And sing them a marching song.

I sing of a distant garden That looks t'wards the setting sun, In the cool green shade of the plantains The shadows are soft and long.

I sing of a beautiful maiden, Slim and tall, like a forest tree, With eyes as dark as the forest pools, And a heart that is true to me.

And when the war is over And the warriors return to rest, I will marry my beautiful maiden In the garden that looks t'wards the west.

And each man marches in silence, For each is a traveller lone, And no man asks what his neighbour thinks, For the heart of man is his own.

The Famine

A long time ago a terrible drought visited the countries round the Great Lake. The spring rains failed, every day the sun rose like a copper ball and made his burning way across a cloudless sky. No flowers bloomed that spring, and the grass dried upon the hillsides. The banana trees in the shady gardens looked desolate and sad, their leaves hung down limp and brown and no heavy bunches of golden fruit filled the air with sweetness. The potato patches had been baked hard and dry, and no Indian corn had been able to struggle through the hard ground. At last the people began to dig up the banana roots, and to eat the great coarse bulbs to keep themselves from starving. The lake sank lower and lower till the tall papyrus stood high above the water, and the marshy ground was seen for miles among the shallows round the shore. Great rocks stood out round the falls at Jinja, and the water trickled in small rivulets over them where every spring the waters of the Great Lake rush and tumble and roar into the river Nile. Famine and want spread over the land, but the part of the country that suffered most was Busoga. There was a large herd of elephants which lived in Zibondo's country, and they wandered from place to place seeking fresh grass and leaves and roots and finding nothing. At last the chief of the herd spoke.

"When I was a calf in the herd, ninety years ago, I remember a famine like this, and I remember that the Nile was so low that we found a ford and crossed into the Mabira Forest and found food there; let us go now, and seek this ford, for the waters of the river are low.

So the herd moved off towards the Nile, and as they went they passed through deserted villages and wasted country and saw the thin starving animals dragging themselves to the river. The chief of the herd led them straight to the spot he remembered, and there they saw rocky ground gleaming through shallow water and knew they had found a ford. There was one cow elephant who was walking with her calf and cheering him on.

"Courage, my child," she said, "we are nearly there. Think of the cool green glades we shall find in the Mabira Forest, for this pitiless sun can never strike through the thick creepers on the trees, and the water pools are deep and dark."

As she said this her small eyes fell on a pitiful sight. A mother monkey had carried her baby down to the river to drink, but she was too weak to lift it. The cow elephant lifted them both with her trunk and carried them across the ford into the Mabira Forest.

The King of the Cloud Land had seen the distress on the Earth, and as he looked down on Uganda he saw what the cow elephant did. And his heart was filled with pity for the starving people and animals, and he called all his clouds together, a great army, and they poured rain on the sunbaked Earth. And where there had only been hard ground, gardens and fields sprang up, the hillsides became green with grass and brilliant with flowers, and the Great Lake rose and poured its waters over the falls, and where the shallows had been round the lake shore, the water was so deep that it reached to the feathery heads of the papyrus, and the ford across the river was lost under the tumbling rushing waters.

From that time the monkeys have always been the friends of the elephants, for though they are small they can help them. From their homes in the tree-tops they can see the hunters coming and they warn the herd. They see the hunters setting traps and they tell the elephants where they are. And this is why men prefer to hunt elephants on the plains and hillsides and fear to hunt them in the forests, for they never know whether the monkeys have seen their plans and have told the herd their secrets.

The Quits of Gomba

There was a battle going on round the village of Gomba.

In the village there was a lame man who had never walked. Every morning he was carried out into the sunny courtyard and every evening he was carried back to his house; but the battle was raging, and no one remembered the lame man. As he lay in his house he saw a blind man passing by, and a sudden thought struck him. He called to the blind man:

"Come here, my friend, I have something important to tell you." The blind man groped his way with his long stick till he stood before the lame man, who said:

"Listen, my friend, no one has remembered us during the battle, and assuredly we shall die, you who are blind, and I who am lame; but I have a plan. Take me on your back, and we will escape from the village. I will be eyes to you, and you shall be feet to me."

The blind man agreed to the plan and hoisted the lame man on his back, and they escaped from Gomba. When they reached safety the blind man said: "Give me a reward, for I have saved your life."

But the lame man said, "Not so, it was I who saved yours." They spoke hot and angry words to each other, and at last they decided to take the case to the Chief's Council. But

when the Chief heard it, he said: There is no case; the lame man was eyes to the blind, and the blind man was feet to the lame, both have saved their lives, which in itself is a great reward. The words are finished."

And now this has become a proverb in Uganda. When two men quarrel and both of them are in the right (or in the wrong) the people say, "It is a case of the Quits of Gomba."

The Dog and the Leopard

Once upon a time a leopard who had several cubs hired a dog to be nurse to them, but she was very unkind to the dog, who was miserable. The dog was always thin and hungry, she only ate what was left over when the leopard and her cubs had finished a meal, and that was never much. One day when the leopard was out visiting, and the dog was left at home with the cubs, she found some bones in a corner and fell upon them ravenously. One of the cubs crept up to look, and a bone hit him in the eye and put the eye out. When the dog saw what she had done she was very frightened and ran away into the forest. She ran on until she came to the house of the old wizard, and then she thought, "I will go and have my fortune told."

So she went into the house and told the wizard what had happened. Now, the old wizard told fortunes by cards, and his cards were bits of buffalo hide, sewn over with cowry shells and beads. He got them out of his goatskin bag and was just going to tell the dog's fortune when he saw the leopard coming down the forest path, and he whispered to the dog:

"There is the leopard coming here, climb up into that basket which hangs from the roof and lie very still."

So the dog climbed up into the basket in which the wizard kept the bananas he was ripening for beer, and lay quietly down. In a few minutes the leopard arrived, and poured out her story to the wizard. "Tell my fortune," she said, "that I may know if I shall catch my enemy." The wizard took out his cards and spoke. "You will catch your enemy in the spring rains, if she goes out in the rain you will catch her. In the sunshine she will be safe, the rain will be her downfall. I speak to those that are above, I speak to those that are below, let her who has ears hear, let her who hears understand." The leopard thanked the wizard and gave him a beautiful white hen as a present, and went away home to her cubs. When the dog came down from the basket the wizard asked:

"Did you understand my warning?" And the dog said, "I understood, sir; I will never go out in the rain."