Reading Notes: Stories From Congo, Part A

Photograph of a river through the Republic of Congo. Source: Link.

How The Wives Restored Their Husband To Life (Link)

• Introduces a man named Nenpetro with three wives (Dreamer, Guide, and Raiser of the Dead) who is a great hunter
• He killed an antelope and a monkey on separate occasions for them to eat, but the wives still complained of hunger, so he went on to hunt an ox
• When he tracked the ox down, he shot it, but while he was reloading another ox charged and killed him
• The wives waiting for him at home cried of hunger since they didn't know what had happened, but that night the Dreamer dreamt that he had been killed and had hunted an ox before his death, so they went to find him with the Guide leading the way, and when they arrived at his dead body, the Raiser of the Dead revived him
• They started fighting about whose hut he would sleep in that night and decided that they would each cook a pot of food and whoever's pot he eats out of will win
• When he wakes, he eats out of the Raiser of the Dead's pot since she was the only one who gave him the ability to eat again after he was revived

How Gazelle Got Married (Link)

• Nenpetro has two wives and each give birth to a daughter and since they were rich, they decided not to take a present from the man who asks to marry each of them, but to give them to whoever can discover their names (Lunga and Lenga)
• Once they reached marriage age, an antelope came to the parents and placed a bundle of cloth/valuables at their feet to ask for the daughters in marriage, but the parents did not accept it since they wanted him to figure out their names
• Nsassi, a prince from the town over, came with his dog to ask for their hands in marriage, but was told the same thing and went home upset, forgetting his dog
• Nenpetro then called for his daughter once the prince was away, which the dog heard and instantly ran to the prince to tell him, but got hungry along the way and decided to find something to eat, but once he did he had forgotten the daughters' names, so he went back to Nenpetro's town and fell asleep
• The next morning, Nenpetro told his daughters to give the dog some food, so they did and the dog relearned the girls' names
• The girls did not give him any water, though, so on his way back he found a stream and drank from it, forgetting the girls' names again, so he returned to Nenpetro's town once more
• The next morning, the girls gave the dog food and water, so the dog set of after relearning their names again and went to the prince who asked for their names, but the dog said he must pay him first
• The prince gave the dog a pig to eat, so he told him their names and they both set out to Nenpetro's town to ask for marriage again, but forgot them along the way after finding a stream to drink from, so the dog returned alone and found their names again then returned to the prince and they went straight to the village
• At the village, the prince called the girls by their names and was given them in marriage

The Vanishing Wife (Link)

• Buite and Swarmi were two brothers from a town where Buite was alone and hated and Swarmi was married with servants
• Swarmi treated Buite poorly, so one day Buite decided to leave town and live alone so he went far away into the bottom of a damp valley with lots of trees
• One night he fell asleep and dreamt that a beautiful girl called to him and he followed her through the jungle to a river where she told him to tap the ground three times so that a canoe appeared before him and she then told him to go fish and bring her food to cook (after cutting the fish heads off), so he did but then he woke up
• The next morning he recalled his dream and went to the river and a canoe appeared before him after tapping the ground, so he went fishing and brought them back to his home headless
• When he returned, he found his home to be gone with a large house in its place and the beautiful girl there to meet him with nine servants
• So he did this every day until one day he got tired of cutting off the fish heads, so he went to return home with the heads still intact, but the servant with him protested, saying she wouldn't like the heads, so he eventually gave in and cut them
• The ninth time this happened, the servant protested and ran home, but when Buite decided to give in and cut the heads, he could not catch up to the servant, so the fish were brought to the girl with heads
• As soon as she saw the fish, the house disappeared along with everything else, so when Buite got back all he saw was his brother there to visit him
• Swarmi hated him even more for "lying" and left while Buite wept

Another Vanishing Wife (Link)

• Introduces two brothers, Luemba (grew up handsome) and Mavungu (puny, miserable-looking, ugly) whose mother always treated Luemba well but not Mavungu
• Mavungu couldn't take the maltreatment anymore, so he decided to run away and eventually came to a river where he found a canoe
• Once he got a large tree preventing him from going down the river any farther, he went to grab the branches and pull himself to shore, but soon heard a voice ask to stop as he was hurting her
• Confused, he kept pulling, breaking leaves off as he did so, until he pulled one off that immediately became beautiful woman
• This frightened him, so he pulled more leaves off and each became a man or woman that filled his canoe, and the first girl told him that she had come to be his wife and comfort him, so he was no longer scared
• The wife saw how deformed Mavungu was and changed him into a handsome one with nice clothes and a large house and town to himself
• When his mother and brother came to visit, they were astonished and received gifts from him, but his wife told him he couldn't reveal how she came to be, so he left everyone wondering
• The people from his original town invited him back, so he went against his wife's wishes, promising not to eat any food given to him
• His mother poisoned his food, but he refused to eat it, so they asked about his wife and he accidentally started to tell his story of how he found her, but then his wife called to him and he ran to her for her to tell him that she wouldn't help him next time he messed up like that
• Again, Mavungu was invited home, so he went and his family again asked about his wife, so he started to tell the story, but kept stopping to ask where his stuff was going, which his mom had an excuse for each time, and he kept telling his story until he actually told how he found his wife
• When he returned home, everything was gone, and people said it served him right for wanting to please his enemies rather than his wife

The Jealous Wife (Link)

• Two wives were busy making native bread for their husband who went to a bush for six months to trade, telling his wives who were about to give birth to take good care of the children while he was gone
• When it was almost time for the husband to return, the wives wanted to fish so that he would have good food, but one had to stay home to watch the children
• While the younger wife was gone fishing and the elder wife was home watching the children, she became jealous that the other wife's child was more intelligent than her's, so she decided to kill it that night which scared the other child and he ran to their neighbors home
• The next morning, the wife went to clean up and found that she had actually killed her own child, so she wrapped it up and ran into the woods
• When the husband returned, he asked what had happened, but only heard from the child that she had killed her child and ran away, so the husband took his bushmen to look for her
• One day a man came upon a woman "nursing" a child asking why it wouldn't wake up, so he went to tell the husband who returned to her and saw that the story was true, so they killed her as well

Ngomba's Balloon (Link)

• Four girls were out fishing, but one, Ngombda, was covered in sores so the other three told her to go back home, but she protested and the others beat her until she had no choice to return home
• On her way back, she came to a large lake and started fishing alone and singing a song about her situation, when a murderer came to her to ask what she was doing
• The girl begged not to be killed, so the murderer just watched her fish and sing her song, and once she was done, the murderer told her to come with him or else he would kill her, so she did and sang a song along the way about her situation
• She then tells the murderer that if he can cure her, she would serve him, so he takes her home and does so, then they marry
• The murderer loved dancing and the girl danced well, so the murderer made her mistress over prisoners and goods
• He goes on a walk and tells the girl that he'll tie a string around his waist so that the girl can know when he is going and away and coming back all while the girl wanted to go home and made a plan with her people to escape
• She called on her people to set mateva-palm leaves in the sun to dry so that she can make a basket
• She then made all of her people put on clean clothes and flatter her husband when he returned, which he did and was happy by the compliments then commented on the smell of mateva
• She said that if he accused her of smelling of mateva again she would kill herself because it made her sad, so he felt bad, kissed her, and danced with her to make her feel better
• The next day the girl tried her ntenda (balloon?) and it floated great, which the murderer saw from a tree he was in so he got excited and wanted to dance
• That night, the girl smelled of mateva again, and he was worried that he might leave her, so he determined to kill her by drugging her and stabbing her
• When he was about to do it, when her little sister (who turned herself into a cricket) came out from under the girl's bed and started singing, which influenced him to start dancing so he didn't kill her over and over throughout the night until he called all of his people to come and dance and then suddenly it was daylight
• When the murderer left the next day, the girl decided that was the day she would escape, so she got her ntenda and floated over the tree-tops towards her mothers town
• The murderer saw it again and got excited, but then saw his people and wife were floating in it, so he chased after it until he saw it land in the girl's town
• The girl revealed herself to her mother when suddenly the murderer entered the town and claimed the girl as his wife, so her family agreed and decided he should be thanked for curing her
• Her family said that they deserved a place to be seated among them, so they set up a large fire, boiled water, and dug a deep hole which they covered with sticks and a mat
• As they brought the couple to the area, the girl sat next to her husband, but the husband sat where the hole was and fell down so that they could pour the boiling water on him until he died

The Wicked Husband (Link)

• A husband is upset with his wife for asking him to cut so many palm-nuts, but she explains that his family always comes and asks for them and she can't say no, so he tells her if she wants them, she can go with him to where the palm-nuts grow
• She refused at first because she had just placed mandioca in water, so the husband dragged her behind him into the woods
• When they were well into the woods, he placed her on a table an cut off her arms and legs while she cried that she should've never got married
• The husband then left her and returned to town, telling everyone that she went to visit family
• A hunter heard the woman's cries and returned home to tell his wife what he saw, but that she shouldn't tell anyone
• The prince ended up hearing about her, so he rang a bell and told all his people to find the wife and bring her to him, but she died on the way back
• They accused the husband of the crime and burnt him to death

How Kengi Lost Her Child (Link)

• Nenpetro had two wives named Kengi and Gunga who he gave a piece of land split in half to where each wife planted maize, beans, and cassava
• One day Gunga took some beans from Kengi's plantation, which made her mad, so Gunga explained that she thought it'd be fine since they're married to the same man and therefore eat together
• They came to the agreement that each plantation only belonged to its owner and nobody else could take from it
• Some days later, Kengi went to Gunga's plantation to ask for tobacco since she was in pain and wanted to smoke, but soon had a baby while waiting on Gunga
• Since Kengi had the baby on Gunga's plantation, Gunga decided that the baby would be her's and refused to give it to Kengi
• Kengi then sent a special ambassador to Gunga demanding she give her child back, but she refused and said they must go to a judge to settle it
• After the trial was over, the prince and his old men returned from drinking water and heard that since Gunga was acting within her right, the child would belong to her

The Twin Brothers (Link)

• Mother gave birth to twin boys who were nearly full-grown and with a valuable charm, one named Luemba and the other Mavungu
• After being born, Mavungu wanted to start traveling 
• At the same time, Nzambi's daughter was ready for marriage
• A tiger went to ask to marry her, but Nzambi told him he must talk to her himself because he was letting her choose, so she rejected the tiger
• All other animals did the same, and they were all rejected
• Mavungu heard of the girl and set out to marry her until he got so hungry he thought he would starve
• He asked his charm for help, so it placed a feast in front of him for him to eat
• He continued traveling until he became tired, so the charm prepared a place for him to sleep
• After many days of traveling, he arrived at Nzambi's town and the daughter immediately fell in love with him so he asked her to marry him and she agree, so they were led to a shimbec where they slept while the town-people danced and sang in celebration
• The next morning, the couple woke up and Mavungu noticed that the shimbec was crowded with covered mirrors
• He asked his wife to uncover them so he could see himself, but when she uncovered each one, it revealed many towns that he knew of until they got to a final one that she refused to show him since no man that wanders through the town ever returns
• She eventually caved, and Mavungu claimed that he must go to the town and that she shouldn't fear because his charm would protect him
• After traveling a ways into the town, he met an old woman and asked for fire to light his pipe, so she told him to tie up his horse and fetch it
• When he did so, he went to get the fire, but the woman killed him
• Luemba wondered where his brother had gone since he'd been gone so long so he went looking for him with a horse, knife, gun, etc. and eventually got to his town
• Nzambi mistook him for Mavungu and went to embrace him, which Luemba tried to explain, but the wife wouldn't listen to him and they held a feast upon his supposed return from the town
• The next morning, Luemba noticed the covered mirrors and asked the wife to see them, so she did except for the one town, and Luemba knew his brother was there
• The people were sad that he wanted to return, but figured he'd be fine since he "went and returned once already"
• He ran into the same old woman for fire, but only tied up his horse lightly, so it fell on the woman and killed her
• Luemba then went to find his brother's and brother's horse's bones, which he brought back to life with his charm
• Together, the brothers brought everyone back to life that had been killed in the town, so they all went back to Nzambi's town together
• When they got back, the brothers fought over who should keep the followers until Mavungu fell on Luemba and killed him while his horse stood nearby and went back to Nzambi's town
• Luemba's horse took his charm and brought him back to life, so Luemba mounted his horse and went to his brother to kill him, which the town-people said was the right thing to do

The Younger Brother Who Knew More Than The Elder (Link)

• Two brothers were constantly arguing since the younger one always claimed to know more than his older brother
• The younger brother got sick of fighting and left town with his wife until they came to a river in the woods where they drank and rested
• They suddenly heard voices and went towards them, but the wife was hesitant, so the husband said he would not go back and took them to the voices
• They saw two or three huts there where a man and his wife lived because they were treated poorly, so when they entered, the man asked who they were
• The husband explained the situation and the man said they can stay, but asked if he was a bad man first, so the husband said that he definitely wasn't
• The couple did nothing for four days in their hut, then on the fifth day both couples went to dig a trap to catch wild animals that walk there and each couple agreed on if they would take the male or female catches
• Over the next few days, they caught many animals that were all males, so the husband and his wife kept them until they had too much food and still, they did not share any
• The wife went to get wood for a fire for their food and was gone longer than expected, so the husband went to the man who told him he'd help him look the next morning since it was already night
• The man wanted to check the trap first because he dreamt that they finally caught a female, so when they looked they found the wife
• The man said that per their agreement, he got to keep the wife for himself, which the husband of course objected to, so they argued all day
• The older brother at the same time was out hunting and came close to the trap, hearing the couples' voices, so he soon saw that it was his brother and they ran to each other, the younger one excited and the older one upset
• After learning who the stranger was, the man explained the situation to him and asked for his thought, and the older brother said that the wife should be his and that he should kill her
• The man then jumped in the trap to kill the wife, so the older brother explained that now the husband can claim the man as his and possibly get his wife back in return for letting him live
• This situation played out and the two brothers and the youngest one's wife returned to their town