Once upon a time there was an old woman; she lived with her daughter; she was a mother-in-law. Her brother-in-law gave her sour milk and told her to eat it; for there was not much food, there was hunger. She rejected sour milk. He gave her a cow, telling her to eat it; she rejected it, she said she couldn't eat her uncle's milk.
While hoeing she was very hungry; she returned at noon, came, opened her son-in-law's house, poured sour milk and ate it. “And when the sun set, her son-in-law said: come back,” speaking to his wife, “go and cook the grain so that we mix it with sour milk, for the pumpkin is full.” Having arrived, she boiled the grain and mixed the gruel;
When the husband arrived, he took the pumpkin, he found the pumpkin empty, there was only whey. They shouted with the children who were hungry, and the son-in-law said: They will die, the children of my children, for the thief has eaten the pumpkin because of this great famine. The old woman did this all the time. But the husband and his wife did not know that the milk had been eaten by their mother.
The husband lay and waited, he caught their mother; but their mother screamed, she said: I only started doing this today. “Her son-in-law said: go, bring me water from where the frog does not scream; Then I won’t tell people about you.
He gave her a pumpkin. She walked, walked, she walked for a long time, crossing many rivers that she did not know; she asked, saying: is there a frog here? - The frog answered: Cool, I’m here. She moved on; she went and came to another place; she saw a pool and went to scoop up water; said the frog: cool, I'm here. She poured it out and went to do the same; there were frogs in all the creeks. “She came to another creek and said: is there a frog here?” — The frog was silent. She sat down and scooped up some water. “When it was filling, for the vessel was large, the frog said: Cool, I’m here.” - Again the old woman poured out the water, screaming, saying: bad luck to me! After all, I only took sour milk for myself, my son-in-law’s food. She moved on.
She came to a very large pool; she saw many paths that led to the creek: she was scared. “The old woman came to the creek, sat down and asked: is there a frog here?” — It was quiet. She asked again. It was quiet. She filled the vessel with water, and the vessel filled up. When it was full, she drank a lot until she finished the vessel: she scooped again until it was full; She drank until she could no longer finish the vessel; her stomach ached, because she could not stop, because it was so pleasant to drink.
But when she wanted to get up and go, she could not get up, she dragged the vessel, went into the shade and sat down there, because she could no longer walk. — At last it was noon; Bila appeared and asked: who sits in the shadow of the ruler? - Answer
she said: I, my father. I was going to go, but I fell ill. “The bila said: you will soon see Gungkukubantuan.” She went, drank from the pool, went and sat in the shade. Punzi also came. - He asked: who sits in the shadow of the ruler? - She answered: I, my father. I was about to go, but I fell ill. - The punzi said: you will soon see Gungkukubantuan. - The leopard came and asked: who is sitting in the shadow of the lord? - She answered: I am my father. I was about to go, but I fell ill. - The leopard said: you will soon see Gungkukubantuan. Everyone came saying the same thing. And finally, towards sunset, a lot and a lot came; all the animals said the same thing.
It happened when the sun was setting, she heard a great noise, she heard: gunkku, gunkku. She was afraid and trembling. Finally, something great appeared, higher than all the animals she had seen. When it appeared, the animals said as one, they said: here is Gungkukubantuana. Appearing, she said, being at a distance, she asked: who is it, who is it sitting in the shadow that belongs to Gungkukubantuana? Then the old woman lost the power to speak; it was as if death had come to her. Gungkukubantuana asked again. - The old woman answered, she said: it’s me, lord. I was about to go, but I fell ill. “She said: you will soon see Gungkukubantuan.”
Gungkukubantuana went to the pool; she came, she knelt down and drank from the pool; although the pool was very large, she drank until mud appeared at the bottom of the pool. She returned and sat down on the ground. In addition, there were ulas53 who were the military leaders of Gungkukubantuan: there were also hyenas there. - Gungku said: let her be eaten. The hyenas agreed. “But ula said: she will be eaten when she is fat, oh lord.” - She said again: let her be eaten. - They said ula: it has gotten dark; it will be eaten in the morning, O lord.
It was dark; they slept, and all the animals slept. But some of the Beasts were slow to sleep, for they wanted the old woman to be eaten. It happened that at midnight everyone was finally asleep. But
The four ulas themselves did not sleep, they got up, took the old woman, and carried her onto themselves; they put it on three of them four. The fourth ula carried the vessel. They fled at night; They went and laid her on the edge of her village outside; they quickly returned, saying that they would come before dawn. And sure enough, they arrived quickly.
One ula said to the other: what are we going to do? Let's figure out a way so that they don't find out that we helped her escape. •Others said: since the animals that love to eat people are the leopard and the lion and other animals and hyenas, another said: let us cover the hyenas with mud, for they are the ones who love to eat people; the lord will agree, he will say that they took it, they went and ate the lord’s game in the distance; for if we smear the leopard, he will feel, for he is a very ferocious thing, he will get up, wake up all the people, the lord will say, we took his game, went and ate it. All the ulas agreed. They came, covered the hyenas' paws with mud, and when the ulas had cleaned themselves, they lay down on the place where they lay.
In the morning all the animals got up and said: where is the leader’s game? The leader will kill the ula, they did not want her to be eaten. - The Ula immediately stood up, saying: the leader will look at the feet of all the people. If they haven't walked, they will be clean. But if they walked, the dirt on their feet and paws will be visible. “The leader agreed, he ordered the ula: hurry up, immediately examine the paws with dirt, let them be captured, let them be brought to me.” All the animals stood up and examined each other; dirt was found on the hyenas.—The ula said: it was the hyenas who took it, they went, they ate it, for they are creatures that love to eat. The hyenas were taken and brought to the leader. The leader came, he grabbed them and ate three hyenas.
The old woman sat on the edge of her village until she saw one of her people; he told her son-in-law; he went and took her with the vessel. The son-in-law sat and drank the water that came with his mother-in-law.
On the days when the water ran out, the old woman said: since I went, I got water, and you go and get some liver. - Was
Many cakes were prepared for him, so that as he walked, he would eat them on the way, for it was very far away. In the morning, carrying cakes, he went and slept on the way; Finally he came under the new moon, he met a lot of gogos, they were jumping on the river bank, they were frolicking. He approached himself, frolicking, walking on his hands and feet. “The elders said: here is our gogo.” - The younger ones said: what kind of gogo is this, grown up like a man? with eyes like a person's; with ears like a person? - The elders said: gogo, like gogo, gogo like gogo. And the younger ones fell silent. “But when they were left alone, they laughed and said: this is not gogo, we see for ourselves.” Finally they turned and went home.
He came and saw that the grandmother was there, growing old. - In the morning they said gogo: let's go, buddy; we're going hunting. “He said: I’m tired; I won't go today. - And all the elders went; the younger ones said: we won’t go anywhere. “The elders said: when we arrive, let you collect firewood for cooking.” “The younger ones said: we don’t want to leave grandma alone with the man who came.” - And they set off, went hunting; when they returned, they found the younger ones sitting; The elders got angry and said: we have already come from hunting, and you have not collected firewood. The younger ones were silent. The game was cooked. They ate and lay down.
In the morning they said: let's go, we're going hunting. He went with them. They hunted and returned in the afternoon; They also found the younger ones coming from collecting firewood. They came and cooked their spoils. The newly arrived gogo said when the game was cooked: put my leg aside, because my stomach hurts. I can't eat meat now. - And they agreed, they put his leg aside. They lay down.
In the morning they called and asked: how is your stomach, does it still hurt? - He answered: it hurts. “They said: let’s go ourselves, let’s go hunting.” - And they went; he stayed with the younger ones. - When the elders went, he said: go, fetch me water from the river so that I can drink. They took the vessel and went with it. But the vessel was leaking. It had a hole at the bottom. They came to the river, they took in water, and the vessel began to flow.
They walked back from the river very quietly until midday. But as soon as they left, he got up, took a spear, and pierced the grandmother of those who were not there. He cut his chest and stomach, a liver appeared, he pulled it out, looked around, looked up, saw a flint, took it off and ran.
When the sun set, the younger gogos returned and when they were at the bottom of the village, they saw a lot of blood running along the path, which had dried up because he had pierced the grandmother in the morning. They ran home, came and entered the house, but the house was very long and there was no light inside. They came and saw their grandmother dead. They came out and ran quickly, they screamed, they looked in the direction where they had gone to hunt. They saw the older gogos: - the younger ones said, they talked, talked, talked, they asked: what kind of gogo is this with eyes like a person? — The elders asked: what happened? — The younger ones answered: he killed his ancestor. They ran, they threw their prey, they held spears and asked: did you see where the man whom we took for Gogo had gone? The younger ones answered: we didn’t see him; we went to draw water; We found the grandmother dead, but we didn’t see him.
They followed the blood, going where the blood dripped. They ran when it got dark, they slept outside. In the morning they got up and ran very quickly. At noon, the man who was carrying the liver looked and saw a lot of dust behind him. He ran quickly. But the Gogo themselves were faster than him, for he himself was a man, and they were beasts. At noon they saw him. How they saw him on the fly. He saw that they would soon overtake him. He climbed a very long slope; when he was at the top of the mountain, they came to the bottom of the slope, he went down and collected a lot of grass; he took the flint, sat down on the ground and began to turn it, 55 he burned the fire, lit the old grass and it surrounded that steep mountain; they fled, for they were afraid of the fire. They returned from the mountain the same way; the man ran straight ahead until it got dark, not seeing them.
He was sleeping. In the morning he got up and ran; he went and slept in another village on a hill. In the morning he woke up and ran. At noon he looked back and saw the Gogos running. Those who remained behind, tired, when they saw him, quickly ran again, as if their fatigue had ended. He saw again that they would grab him. He began to turn the flint, lit the fire and lit the grass; they saw that the fire was lit and stopped. He ran until he saw them; he slept twice on the way without seeing them. On the third day, when he was supposed to reach his people, at noon he saw the Gogos, they were pursuing him; he hurried, approached the village and then they turned back.
They came home. They came, took their grandmother and boiled her in a large pot. She lay stewing on the hearth. During the day they kept the fire going, and in the morning they kept the fire going until noon. In the afternoon they took her out and laid her on a mat; She lay there while she cooled down. “The elders said to the younger ones: let’s eat the ancestor, then we won’t die.” And they ate her, they finished her off,
The old woman's son-in-law reached home; he came and gave her liver. She said: you have fulfilled my child.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru