342 THE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE I'.ANTU. 



allowed to do all the talking: Allow me to beat you on the 

 mouth, they say (Allow me to niterrui)t you). 



Secrecy is all-important. Ndifuna nkitkiiluma indlebe, I 

 want to bite you on the ear (a word in your ear). They are skin- 

 ning a mouse, or: They are skinning a flea, is said of men in 

 closes confab, or doing something on the quiet (One cannot very 

 well skin an ox on the quiet). Silence is golden: Umiitit asinf 

 isityand' igila, man isn't a thing that cuts his own windpipe (A 

 man doesn't vent bis own secrets, he doesn't incriminate himself). 



The Bantu are as eager for news as ever were the Athenians ; 

 Isindaba aziucitsJi-iva, kazimabcle, one doesn't stint news, they 

 say: it isn't corn, hjida Icndlcbc aligcwale, let the ear-calabash 

 be filled (Tell us the whole story). Zinquuyivc amakaiida, 

 siyekwc, their heads are cut ofif and they are left, may be the 

 reply (I have told you the main facts, no need to go into details), 



On Truth and Falsehood. 



A cow is not milked on the ground where there is a pail 

 ("Good wine needs no bush; the truth needs no armour"). 

 But the truth is often not believed : iDibiici ingacal' inkoma 

 nomlungu atung' isicoco, the goat will bring forth an ox a)id 

 the white man wear a head-ring (before I believe that). Tina 

 sibamb' clenfulo, we hold by the lizard's story, [i.e.. by what we 

 were told first. At the creation of man, u-Nkulunkulu despatched 

 the chameleon to tell men that they were to live for ever, and 

 later on he sent the lizard to tell them that they were to die. 

 The chameleon wasted his time eating the little red kxvebazana 

 berries on the way, so the lizard arrived first and told his story, 

 and when the chameleon arrived nobody would believe him, and 

 so men are mortal). The truth is often denied, and denied with 

 a strong asseveration and gesticulation : Ukanyele Zi'alala ngom- 

 hlaiM, he denied it till he lay on his back; ukaiiyclc iikiima ngo- 

 bontsi, he denied it standing- on tiptoe ; upikc zvabuqusa ngesilevu 

 pantsi, he contradicted the statement till his beard swept the 

 ground. The truth is often exaggerated: BabiJi' ibiba, babik' 

 ibtizi they report a field-mouse, then they report a rat (so fhe 

 story grows in the telling). Didn't you say that it (the pig) 

 was as big as a bull ? Wens' escnyoka, he makes a snake story 

 of it. The tongue gets to the place where they count how many 

 skins went to the making of the kaross (or, as we say, where the 

 angler told how many fish he had caught). Your words over- 

 lap (You contradict yourself). 



On Fidelity and Treachery. 



Inja ayilum' umniniyo, a dog does not bite his master. 

 Angiyi kubuyela onuva, anginjengomgqigqo, 1 am not like the 

 reversing' waltz, there will be no going back with me. Yandifaka 

 ekwapini^ he put me in his armpit (He took me under his pro- 

 tection). In the brave man's house there is weeping, in tlie 

 coward's there is none (They are afraid even to weep for their 

 dead). 



