Nzambi had a beautiful daughter of marriageable age, but the Great Mother, not wanting to part with her beloved daughter, came up with the following task for the suitors: to obtain heavenly fire from the thunderer Nzambi Mpungu, who lives in a hut under a blue roof. And her daughter was so beautiful that everyone around sighed:
- Oh, what a disaster! So that no one gets such a treasure! But who can fulfill Nzambi’s wishes?
And then the spider said:
- I would undertake to make fire, I need help.
In response they shouted to him:
“We will be happy to help you if you reward us for it.”
And so the spider began to weave a web, climbed along it to the blue sky roof, secured the tip of a barely visible thread there and went back down. Rising and falling many times, he wove a strong silver ladder from earth to heaven. Then he called the turtle, the woodpecker, the rat and the sand fly, and together they climbed the ladder to the heavenly roof. Then a woodpecker made a large hole in the roof, through which everyone entered Nzambi Mpungu’s hut.
The Thunderer greeted the guests warmly and asked what they needed here. They said:
- Oh, Great Father Nzambi Mpungu, who lives in a hut with a blue roof! Do not abandon us with your grace, give us some of your fire for Nzambi, who rules the earth.
Nzambi Mpungu replied:
“Well, wait, I’ll now order my servants to bring you some fire.”
And he left the hut, not noticing that a sand fly flew out after him to eavesdrop on his conversation with the servants.
Returning, Nzambi Mpungu said:
- My friends, how can I be sure that the Great Mother sent you? What if you are all impostors?
The spider and his comrades exclaimed at once:
“Test us, Great Father, who dwells in the blue-roofed hut!” Try it and you will be convinced that we did not lie!
“Okay, I’ll test you,” said Nzambi Mpungu. “Let the turtle come down to earth and bring me a bunch of bamboo so that I can build a hut.”
The turtle went down the silver ladder and soon returned with the bamboo. And Nzambi Mpungu built a small hut, ordered the rat to climb inside and said:
“Now I’ll set it on fire, and if you can get out of there, I’ll believe that you were sent by Nzambi, who rules the land.”
He set the hut on fire, the dry bamboo caught fire, but when everything burned to the ground, the rat emerged from the ashes unharmed. Then the Thunderer said:
- Apparently, you really are Nzambi’s envoys. I’ll go and consult with my people again.
And again a sand fly flew after him to look out where the terrible fire was kept. And having learned this, she returned and told her friends. So when Nzambi Mpungu said that he would give them fire if they guessed where it was kept, the spider immediately replied:
- Yes, here it is, the chest where you, Great Father, hide the heavenly fire!
- You answered correctly, spider! Nzambi told Mpungu. “Take some fire and take it to Nzambi.”
The spider took the fire, and everyone descended from heaven to earth along a silver ladder. But then the friends quarreled.
Woodpecker said:
- The woman must be mine! After all, it was I who continued to hollow out the blue roof. You would never have entered Nzambi Mpungu's hut without me!
And the turtle said:
- Yes, that's true. But wasn't I the one who brought the bamboo? The beauty will rightfully go to me.
And the rat said:
“Who, if not me, got out of the burning hut at the risk of her life?” The beauty will be mine!
And the sand fly said:
- No, it’s me who will marry Nzambi’s daughter, because it was I who spied where the fire was kept!
And the spider said:
- But I wove a ladder from the earth to the sky!
Then everyone went to Nzambi and asked them to judge. And this is what Nzambi replied:
“The spider promised to bring me fire and did so.” But others also did a great job. I cannot give preference to anyone without offending others, and even more so I cannot give my daughter as a wife to everyone at once. That's why I'd rather pay a ransom for her.
The Great Mother did just that: she generously distributed everything equally, and each received fifty cubits of cloth and a box of gin. And the beautiful daughter remained to live with Nzambi, who rules the land.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru