Ubabuze
It happened that there was a king, whose name was Ubabuze; and he was wishing to visit a damsel. His father and mother objected; the father said, “Do not go…
From: Unknown To: 1868 C.E.
From Nursery tales, traditions, and histories of the Zulu by Henry Callaway, 1868.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
Ubabuze obtains his father's permission to visit a maiden.
It happened that there was a king, whose name was Ubabuze; and he was wishing to visit a damsel. His father and mother objected; the father said, “Do not go to see that damsel, for no one goes there and comes back again.” But the king Ubabuze said, “I wish to go there.” Then the father assented, and gave him many cattle, and bid him good bye. He gave him also men to accompany him.
Ubabuze sets out with his people: he goes by the wrong road.
So he set out; he assembled his men, and set out. His father told him, saying, “My child, do not go by that road which goes up the mountain; but go by the road which runs round it.” So he set out. But it came to pass that, at the separation of the two roads, Ubabuze left the road by which his father had told him to go; and went by that road by which his father told him not to go.
Ubabuze gets into trouble, and loses all his cattle and men.
It came to pass that, on going forward, he fell in with many wild beasts; they saw him as soon as he appeared, and shouted to him when he was still at a distance, and said, “Ubabuze, Ubabuze, son of the king!”
Ubabuze said, “My father told me not to go by this road; he said it was a bad road, and infested by hyenas.”
At the saying of the hyenas he gave them many cattle. They said again, “Ubabuze, son of the king!” He again gave some more cattle in addition to the first, the food for the hyenas. At length the cattle were all gone. The hyenas again asked, and said, “Ubabuze, son of the king!” Now he gave them men. Again they said, “Ubabuze, son of the king!” He now gave them all his people. The hyenas again asked. He did not know what to do, for the men were all gone. He went on his journey alone now.
Ubabuze is helped by a mouse.
The hyenas again asked, saying, “Ubabuze, son of the king!” He ran, and fell in with a striped mouse in front. The mouse said, “Skin me, and carry my skin in your hand.” He skinned it immediately, for there were the hyenas coming to eat him, they being now near at hand. So he took the skin, and it now bore him aloft when the hyenas came, wishing to eat him; it lifted him on high to the clouds; the hyenas went on the ground. The hyenas turned back again.
Ubabuze is conveyed through the air to his destination.
The skin bore him in the clouds, and put him down at the side of the kraal where was the damsel which he loved. He went into the house, he now walking on the ground. He took with him the skin, having bound it to his rods. They celebrated a festival at the kraal with great joy, saying, “A husband has come for the princess.”
Ubabuze remains there a year, and then sets out with the wedding party.
They killed cattle for him, and he staid there. At the end of the year in which he went, he was still staying there. The damsel’s father, when the year was ended, assembled a large marriage party, that it might go to the wedding of his daughter. Very many people of that place went.
Ubabuze takes many cattle with him.
Ubabuze said, “Give me also many cattle, for there are hyenas in the way; for I, when I was coming with many men, which my father gave me, the hyenas ate the whole of them in the way.” So he gave him many cattle. And he set out with the damsel, and the cattle, and the people.
Ubabuze restores to the mouse its skin, and kills an ox for it.
He came to the place where the hyenas left him; he found the flesh of the striped mouse, and put its skin on it; and then killed an ox for it, and left the whole of its flesh, and the mouse ate it.
Ubabuze’s party exterminate the hyenas.
He came to the hyenas; they begged again, saying, “Ubabuze, child of the king!” He did not give them anything. The brother of the damsel killed one of the hyenas, which was their chief; and all the hyenas died.
Ubabuze reaches home with his bride, and there is great rejoicing.
And so they now travelled prosperously. They came to their home. They made a funeral lamentation when they saw the king return, for they thought he would die. So he came to his home; and many oxen were killed; they killed for the marriage party, and for the king, their child. They were married, and she became the queen. Her brothers never went home again. The whole marriage party lived there.
Callaway, Henry. Nursery tales, traditions, and histories of the Zulus, in their own words with a translation into English, and notes. John A. Blair, 1868.
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