African Tales

28. Nandi (Kenya) The Hyenas and the Sage

153 28 The Hyenas and the Sage 103 Nandi (Kenya)104 The hyenas once all met together, and they decided to appoint a sage who would be able to advise them in all matters concerning the welfare of their country and who would divine future events and interpret omens and dreams. There was some discussion as to who should be invited to take up these important duties, and the choice eventually fell on the groundhornbill .105 A deputation was sent to him, and when he was informed what was required of him, he accepted. He thought it would be well to prophesy something at once, so he told the hyenas that there would be no more day and that if they required light other than that afforded by the moon, they would obtain it from his red gills. The hyenas rejoiced at this good news and immediately set off to raid their enemy, man, who possessed a number of donkeys not far off. They attacked the kraal in the middle of the night and killed several donkeys, which they proceeded to eat. Before they had satisfied their hunger, however, they were horrified to find that the sun was rising, just as it used to do before their sage told them there would be no more day. They at once saw that there was nothing left for them to do but to abandon their feast and make off as fast as they could. But there was one old hyena with them who had difficulty walking, so they buried him under a mound of donkeys’ dung and then fled to the woods. They had scarcely left before the owner of the donkeys appeared on the scene, and when he saw what had happened, he called together his friends and decided to avenge himself on the raiders. Just as he was leaving, he put his spear into the mound of donkeys’ dung and stabbed the old hyena. He knew by this that it was the hyenas that had killed his donkeys during the night, so he followed their tracks to their lair in the woods, where he killed a large number of them. Those that escaped met together that same evening and decided to depose their chief sage and to elect someone else in his place. The choice this time fell on the francolin, who was duly elected and who has ruled so wisely ever since that he has remained in power to the present day. If you listen in the fields in the evening, you will hear him calling to the hyenas to come out and feed, and again in the morning, long before the other birds are up, he is there warning them that it is time to go home. The ground-hornbill, however, has never been forgiven, and whenever a hyena sees him he gives chase and drives him away. The Hyenas and the Sage 154 A Swati storyteller, 1975 ...