Reading Notes: Congo Unit, Part A

How Nsassi (gazelle) Got Married

Nenpetro had two wives who each had a beautiful daughter.  They named them Lunga and Lenga.  Instead of having a man give presents in exchange for their hands in marriage, he would have to guess their names.  First the antelope tries to marry them but he cannot guess their names.

Then Nsassi comes with his dog to visit them.  He leaves after being told the conditions of marriage to the daughters, frustrated with how he could ever find out their names.  He forgot his dog at Nenpetro's place, and the dog stays for a while.  He overhears Nenpetro call for his two daughters and thus learns their names.  After some trails where they all keep forgetting the names of the girls, the dog eventually is able to tell Nsassi.  Nsassi is able to marry the two girls as he calls them each by their name.

It all seemed to me like the dog and Nsassi were tricksters.  It felt like the Rumpelstiltskin story to me, where they simply happen to find out the name of the trickster on happenstance instead of trying to figure it out.  I would have liked it more if there was some sort of puzzle that Nsassi had to figure out instead in order to figure out what their names were.  I think that would be a fun and different idea, giving the story something new.

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Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

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