DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0277
THE WAYAO OF NYASALAND
261
The m’michila then gets off on the left side, his assistant on the right and they stand in the
shallow depressions. The m’michila starts asking riddles; he says, “ Ndawi (riddle)! ” and
is answered by his assistant “ Jiiche (let it come)! ” Here is one:
1 ‘ Kanyere, kapite pasi! ’ ’
“The little mouse it has defecated, it has gone into the ground!”
Answer: “Michiga! (roots)! ”
He then goes round the crowd for the answer — if they cannot guess, they say, “AU
asyene,” “it is yourself (to answer).” There are hundreds of such riddles.
The m’michila points to the tusks depicted in the chinyago and tells the people, “ Long
ago this used to be an elephant; look at the tusks.” The hump at its back he tells them is
the same as ching’undang’unda which they will find farther along.
They pass next to mbunda, the zebra; a pair, male and female, is always figured.
“ Ajiji ngati mbunda ja mbuje Achilemala! Yosepe yekoto!”
“This one is it not the zebra of Mister Mlemala! everything (is) beautiful!”
wakolele ukana!
ulamba,
cleverness,
Yosepe
all
kumlole
come and see
yekoto!”
(is) beautiful!
A moral is pointed: the disgrace to a woman who gets drunk, lies on the ground, and ex-
poses her person. As the m’michila makes these remarks, the figures breathe stertorously
as a drunken woman would. He conducts the wali and all the other people past many of
the other images such as chisui, ng aka, ndomondo, mbale, etc., and only stays at those he
considers his own special inyago. The seven specially dealt with by Mlemala were as above
together with m&cdapf, the sable antelope:
yerere! eja! akugona
he sleeps
At mwesi, the moon:
“Amwesi
“You moon
amwali,
the women, drunk with beer!”
yerere! eja, amao!”
!”
Next, they come to wakolele ukana, the people drunk with beer. Two men lie on the
ground, feet to feet with nothing on; the pudenda are covered with bark-cloth and the
whole of their bodies painted with earth and flour to look like two female figures in earth.
The song is:
“Wakolele ukana:
“Drunk with beer:
mungulugulu mesi!”
at the side of the water!
At the crocodile, ngwena, he sings:
“Chengwena ulamba,
“Mr Crocodile cleverness,
Sometimes a story is told to show that the zebra used to go to the sea to drink but see-
ing the whale, he ran away and came to the country of the python.
Then to sato, the python; he sings:
“Anasato kwajanji! yerere, eja!
“You python come and answer!
261
The m’michila then gets off on the left side, his assistant on the right and they stand in the
shallow depressions. The m’michila starts asking riddles; he says, “ Ndawi (riddle)! ” and
is answered by his assistant “ Jiiche (let it come)! ” Here is one:
1 ‘ Kanyere, kapite pasi! ’ ’
“The little mouse it has defecated, it has gone into the ground!”
Answer: “Michiga! (roots)! ”
He then goes round the crowd for the answer — if they cannot guess, they say, “AU
asyene,” “it is yourself (to answer).” There are hundreds of such riddles.
The m’michila points to the tusks depicted in the chinyago and tells the people, “ Long
ago this used to be an elephant; look at the tusks.” The hump at its back he tells them is
the same as ching’undang’unda which they will find farther along.
They pass next to mbunda, the zebra; a pair, male and female, is always figured.
“ Ajiji ngati mbunda ja mbuje Achilemala! Yosepe yekoto!”
“This one is it not the zebra of Mister Mlemala! everything (is) beautiful!”
wakolele ukana!
ulamba,
cleverness,
Yosepe
all
kumlole
come and see
yekoto!”
(is) beautiful!
A moral is pointed: the disgrace to a woman who gets drunk, lies on the ground, and ex-
poses her person. As the m’michila makes these remarks, the figures breathe stertorously
as a drunken woman would. He conducts the wali and all the other people past many of
the other images such as chisui, ng aka, ndomondo, mbale, etc., and only stays at those he
considers his own special inyago. The seven specially dealt with by Mlemala were as above
together with m&cdapf, the sable antelope:
yerere! eja! akugona
he sleeps
At mwesi, the moon:
“Amwesi
“You moon
amwali,
the women, drunk with beer!”
yerere! eja, amao!”
!”
Next, they come to wakolele ukana, the people drunk with beer. Two men lie on the
ground, feet to feet with nothing on; the pudenda are covered with bark-cloth and the
whole of their bodies painted with earth and flour to look like two female figures in earth.
The song is:
“Wakolele ukana:
“Drunk with beer:
mungulugulu mesi!”
at the side of the water!
At the crocodile, ngwena, he sings:
“Chengwena ulamba,
“Mr Crocodile cleverness,
Sometimes a story is told to show that the zebra used to go to the sea to drink but see-
ing the whale, he ran away and came to the country of the python.
Then to sato, the python; he sings:
“Anasato kwajanji! yerere, eja!
“You python come and answer!