Great Riches Do Not Fill the Heart (from Ibonia: Conception and Birth, part 1) - Anonymous

The Prince of the East, they say,

     was stirred to pay a visit to Skyfather.

He took his children with him:

Gray-Eyed Man, Young-Man-Worth-Six, Princess Like-a-Man,

     and his subjects, Many Cares and Many Close Ones.

He took ten bulls and ten cows with their young,

     from the Kingdom of Many and the Valley of Many Trees.

The Prince of the North too was stirred,

     and he took with him To-Be-Powerful and Powerful's Father.

And their grandfather Skyfather said, "I am pleased

     for neither swine nor curs will inherit my land."

The Prince of the West too was stirred,

     and he took Smith-of-Silver-Gods and To-Be-Powerful

     and his eight daughters.¹

They wanted to visit Skyfather. They were his grandchildren.

Their grandfather Skyfather, to welcome them,

     picked from his herds

          oxen named Big-One-No-Turning-Aside and Big Wader.

Reunited with his grandsons, grandfather Skyfather said,

"I am pleased,

     for neither swine nor curs will inherit my land."

Skyfather was happy, he was glad.

He fired a cannon and a gun;

     then he fed them.²

Then came the Prince of the Center, the Great-King-Maker,

     and Beautiful-Rich, his wife.

Even the sky was stirred,

           and the earth was overturned where they passed

     with their subjects, the Clan of a Thousand Warriors

           And the Clan Gathering a Hundred Warriors.

The grass dried up, the herb stalks intertangled,

     and the earth rumbled

          at the passing of the Clan-Too-Many-to-Call.

The Prince of the Center, eldest of his grandchildren, too wanted to

     visit Skyfather,

When the Prince of the Center arrived at his land,

Skyfather said, "I am pleased, dear boy.

Here is what I will do for you.

For the four who came before you

I had the guns and cannons fire buckshot.

The welcome meal I gave them was of fertile things,

                     because they have many children.

But you I will treat differently.

The guns and cannons I will order fired,

I will have them loaded with a single stone,

and I will have them fired at the earth."

Then he sent for cattle as the welcoming gift, and said:

"Take Glutton, take High-Voiced Cuckoo, 

     take Worth-a-Hundred-Untied, take Worth-a-Hundred-Not-in-the-Forest,

     take Restless, take Major, take Lazy-Can't-Lift,

     take Needs-No-Help-Eating, take Handsome-Silent,

     take Faraway Noise, take No-Follower-of-the-Just,

     take Shakes-Like-an-Eel, take Oozes-Bran-Water,

     take Rattling-Throat, take Voice-is-Wealth,

     take Birds-Nest-in-his-Horns, take Manure-on-Head,³

          and a hundred oxen and a hundred bulls.

Also, take a hundred rams and a hundred ewes,

     a hundred fattened fowl and a hundred capons."

Then all these animals were gathered before him.

Skyfather now had begot Heaven-Watcher.⁴

     who had begot those five brothers --

          Prince of the East,

          Prince of the West,

          Prince of the North,

          Prince of the South,

          and Prince of the Center.

Then Skyfather said, "Bring Heaven-Watcher,"

                    (who was not there before)

     "and I will offer the welcome meal for my children

          Prince of the Center and Beautiful-Rich."

When Heaven-Watcher came, he called his five sons.

     They approached him.

Skyfather then went out and mounted his golden throne.

He made a speech:

"Now I have completed the welcome meal for the four men,

     but not the one for Prince of the Center.

We will arrange two groups facing each other.

     That means a hundred bulls, a hundred oxen and the rest.

I have had the guns and cannons fired with a single charge,

     and the discharge was lost in the earth,

               because there is no child to cry."

---

Anonymous (pre 17th century) Madagascar

Translated by Lee Haring, Ronda Grogan and Frank Diller

Source: Ibonia: an epioc of Madagascar

1. These princes may be understood to personify royal families disputing supremacy. Proper names in all Malagasy narrative are significant and are therefore translated. The eldest son, Prince of the Center, is exalted at the expense of the others by the anxiety over his wife's barrenness and his son's miraculous birth and marriage.
2. Buckshot fired into the air symbolize Skyfather's numerous progeny scattered over the four corners of the world. 
3. Names of bulls.
4.  In the cosmogony of this first section, Heaven-Watcher is an indistinct demigod midway between sky and earth. He begets humanity, represented by the princes of the second generation.