706 BANTU NEGROES 



A Sportsman. 



Mpobe was a sportsman. As he sat in his hut he saw a man approaching with 

 whom he had agreed to go ratting. Mpobe called his dog, tied a bell to his neck, 

 and led him with a sling to where the rats were supposed to be. Some beaters went 

 on ahead and set up nets, but no rats were found. The beaters then asked Mpobe 

 to let his dog run loose in the grass, and he immediately put up a rat, and it ran 

 straight for the nets, but the mesh was too large and the rat got through and away. 

 The beaters then went home, but Mpobe decided to go on still farther, as he did not 

 wish to return empty-handed. Soon after he started a rat, and it ran into a cave. 

 The clog followed it, and Mpobe followed the dog. They went a long way, and 

 ultimately Mpobe came to an open space, where there were many people, and houses 

 and gardens, and he said to them : "My friends, did you see a dog following any 

 rats about here 1 " 



"Yes, we have," they replied, "but they have passed on lower down." 

 " In what direction 1 " 

 " Towards Mangao." 



Mpobe followed on, and came to a seat where a Big Man sat, with rats on one 

 side and Mpobe's dog on the other. 



" Where do you come from ? " asked the Big Man. 



" From my garden just above. I have simply followed my clog. I heard his bell, 

 and came on here." 



" Do you know where you are now 1 " 

 " No, not in the least." 



" Lucky for you. Now go back to your home, and remember that you must 

 tell no one where you have been or what you have seen. Not even your father, or 

 mother, or brother. If you tell, then I will come along and kill you. Here are 

 your rats, and here is your dog." 



" Webale," said Mpobe (i.e., "Thank you"), and he went home. 

 Directly Mpobe arrived his wife got him food and said how glad she was that 

 he had returned. She asked a great many questions, all of which he answered, and 

 she waited thinking he would volunteer a statement as to where he had been. 

 " Where have you been these two clays 1 " at last asked the wife. 

 "Oh, I have just been ratting in the forest," 



"And 1" queried the wife. 



"That's all," replied the sportsman. 



The wife knew there was something else untold, so she invited Mpobe's father 

 to the house. The father cross- questioned Mpobe as to where he had been, and 

 what he had eaten and whom he had seen, and what he did during every hour of 

 the two days he was absent ; but still Mpobe kept his secret. 



The wife next invited Mpobe's mother to the house, and the mother began 

 another series of questions, and so involved Mpobe that he had to own up. 



" I can't tell you it all, or the Big Man will come and kill me, and you would 

 go and tell some one else." 



"You don't know me, my son. I never tell anything. Just tell me the whole 

 affair," and he told it. She merely thought it right to tell his wife, and the wife 

 told her mother, and the mother told her husband, and so on until evening, when 

 Mpobe went to bed, and just as he was falling asleep a stern, gruff voice called: 

 "Mpobe, Mpobe!" 



" Kabaka," replied Mpobe. (When a man is called by his name, he always replies 

 " Kabaka," or "king." If a Muhammadan were walking along, and he knocked his toe 



