The Story of the Glutton

The Story of the Glutton

the tale of Sebgugugu the greedy man enforcing the homely old moral of the goose who laid the golden eggs through a quite extraordinary case of stupid and obstinate selfishness. sebgugugu was apoor man whose sole wealth was a white cow with her calf . one day while his wife was away hoeing her garden plot in the jungle and he was siting in the sun outside his hut a bird came and perched on the gate post . it began to sing and as he listened he seemed to hear these words " sebgugugu kill the white one ; kill the white one and get a hundred " When his wife came home the bird was still " Look here, wife ! Do you hear what

this bird says?" She answered, "Nonsense! It's only a bird singing." Again it sang the same words,andSebgugugu said,"Don't you understand? lmana is telling me that if i kill whitey i shall get a hundred cows. Isn't it so ? " " What do you mean ? I have to feed our children on her milk, and if you kill her they will die. do you mean to say you are going to believe what a bird tells you? but he would not listen; he took his axe and went and killed the cow. The family had beef for dinner, and lived for some time on the rest of the meat, but no cows appeared in place of the White One Then the bird came again, and this time advised him to kill the calf which he did, in spite of his wife's opposition. When the meat was finished and no cows were forthcoming they all began to be very hungry. Sebgugugu said to his wife, " Now the children are starving" She answered, "Did I not tell you what would happen when you would kill Whitey? " Then, in despair they decided to tramp in search of food.

He tied up some of the children in mats, and put the rest into a basket which his wife carried on her head; he took up the bundl s, and so they started. They went on till they were quite tired out, and sat down by the wayside, and Sebgugugu cried out in his despair , " What shall I do with my children?" Then lmana, who is the creator, came along and said, " Sebgugugu,what is your troble?". The:,man told him,and lmana pointed to a distant hill,saying," see, yonder is a cattle-kraal. Go there and drink the milk of the cows. They are being herded for me by a crow You must always give him some of the milk, and be sure never to strike him or use bad words to him." So they went to the kraal. There was no one there, but they found vessels full of milk . When Sebgugugu had drunk as much as he wanted he gave his wife some, and she fed the children. Then they all satdown and waited to see what would happen.

When the sun was low they saw the cattle coming home ; there was no man or boy with them, but a great hite-necked crow kept flying to and fro above them calling them and keeping them together. When they arrived sebgugugu lit a fire at the kraal gate to drive away the mosqmtoes, fetched a pail and milked the cows, doing as he had been told and giving a bowl full of milk to the crow herdsman, before they all had their supper.

In this way all went well for some time, and then Sebgugugu began to be discontented. It is not clear what he had to complain of; but evidently he was " that sort of man." He said to his wife, " Now the children are old enough to herd the cattle for me i dont see what we want with that crow. I shall kill him. The wife protested in vain,and Sebgugugu, taking his bow and arrows, lay in wait for the return of the cattle when evening fell. when the crow came near enough he shot an arrow at him, missed, shot again the crow flew away, and when he looked round there were no cattle to be seen not so much as a stray calf ! the family were once more reduced to destitution. sebgugugu said " what shall i do?" his wife of course could give him no comfort so they picked up the children and set out on their travels. worn out as they sat by the wayside resting he cried once more to imana and the long suffering imana directed him to a wonderful melon vine growing in the bush from he could gather not only melons and gourds but a variety of oyher fruits. only he must not attempt to cultivate or prune the vine or do any thing but gather daily supplies from it . he found the vine gatherd gourds and his wife cooked them so again for a time all went well till the man took it into his head that the vine woud be more productive if it into his head that the vine would be more productive if its branches were cut and it immediately withered away like jonah gourd. again he was in despair but imana gave him one more channce .going into the bush to cut firewood he came across a rock with several small clefts from which oozed foryh guinea corn milk beans and other kind of food .he gathered up what he could carrry and returned to his wife. next day he went back to the rock taking with him a basket and a jar but he grew impatient because the corn and so on trickled out slowly and he took a long time in filling his basket. he complained of this to his wife but preserved for some days and then told her that he was going to widen the cracks in the rock so that he was going to widen the cracks in the rock so that they could get more abundant supplies. she tried to dissuade him with usaual result he went and cut some stout poles and hardened them in the fire .he went to the rock and tried to enlarge the clefts using his poles as levers but with a crash like thunder they closed up and no more corn or milk came forth. he went back to the camping place and found no one there his wife and children had disappeard without leaving a trace and he was alone in the forest. we are left to suppose that this was the end of him.