"The Family Swallowed by the Elephant"
A woman left her children while she went to look for firewood. An elephant came by and swallowed her two children. The mother took maize, milk, and a knife. She went on her way, asking all the animals she met where she could find an elephant with one tusk, which had eaten her children. They told her to go on till she came to a place where there were white stones on the ground under some high trees. She found the elephant in the place indicated, and it swallowed her. Inside it "she saw large forests and great rivers and many high lands; on one side there were many rocks; and there were many people who had built their villages there, and many dogs and many cattle; all were there inside the elephant; she saw, too, her own children sitting there."
The mother gave her children some milk, and, finding that they had eaten nothing since they had been parted from her. She asked her children why nobody had eaten the elephant yet. The answer was simply that nobody had thought of it.
She made a great fire. She then took her knife and cut pieces off the elephant's liver, which she roasted and gave to the children. The other people soon followed her example. The elephant told the other beasts, saying, 'From the time I swallowed the woman I have been ill; there has been pain in my stomach.'" The animals could do nothing to help him, merely suggesting that the pain might be caused by his having so many people inside him, and he soon afterwards died. The woman then began to cut her way out. The goats, a dog, and the people that were trapped inside, thanked the woman. "They made the woman presents: some gave her cattle, some goats, and some sheep," and she set out for home with her children, rich for life.
This was told in Bantu, which originated in Northern Congo.
The mother gave her children some milk, and, finding that they had eaten nothing since they had been parted from her. She asked her children why nobody had eaten the elephant yet. The answer was simply that nobody had thought of it.
She made a great fire. She then took her knife and cut pieces off the elephant's liver, which she roasted and gave to the children. The other people soon followed her example. The elephant told the other beasts, saying, 'From the time I swallowed the woman I have been ill; there has been pain in my stomach.'" The animals could do nothing to help him, merely suggesting that the pain might be caused by his having so many people inside him, and he soon afterwards died. The woman then began to cut her way out. The goats, a dog, and the people that were trapped inside, thanked the woman. "They made the woman presents: some gave her cattle, some goats, and some sheep," and she set out for home with her children, rich for life.
This was told in Bantu, which originated in Northern Congo.