The Man with Seven Dogs

There once lived a man called Manma who was a hunter and also a magician.

Manma had seven dogs. Their names were Tabantagi, Guye, Tako, Tifi, Etsuegu, Tazata, and Eyeshisoko. The dogs were well trained and were useful for Manma’s hunting. Manma also had seven large black earthenware pots which he kept in his room. The pots helped him in his magic; they helped protect him from his enemies.

As well as the seven dogs and the seven pots, Manma had a wife. Manma and his wife very much wanted to have a child, but to their sorrow they had no children. The only help which Manma could obtain from his magic pots was their advice to ask someone else what he should do, so Manma went to a friend of his who was also a magician, and asked for his advice.

“Unless you have a lion’s skin spread in front of your wife,” the friend said, “not only will your wife have no child but she will also die.”

Manma wasted no time. Taking his gun, he went into the forest, where he soon found a small lion, a cub, which had been left unprotected. Manma blessed his good fortune in finding a lion so quickly. He shot the lion and took the skin to his wife’s room. Manma spread the skin in front of his wife and it was not long before she bore a child.

“We have been lucky,” Manma said to his wife. “The magic pots directed me to the right man for advice.”

Manma went to his seven black pots and told them that they had been successful.

Meanwhile, the lioness in the forest had discovered that her cub was missing. She heard from some monkeys in a tree that Manma had shot it and taken its skin, and she became very angry. The lioness changed herself into a beautiful princess and dressed herself in rich clothes fit for a princess. She then followed the footsteps of Manma which led her to Manma’s village.

When the lioness came near the village she met an old woman selling baskets.

“I wish to buy a basket,” the lioness said.

“Sixpence,” said the old woman.

“I will give you fourpence,” the lioness replied. The old woman agreed and the lioness bought the basket.

When she reached the village she went to the market-place where there were many people, and amongst them she saw Manma. Many people greeted the lioness, she having changed herself into the form of a beautiful princess. Many asked her to come and be a guest in their compounds.

“I shall stay,” she replied, “in the compound of the man who can throw a stone into my basket.”

Many people threw stones, but all missed. Manma was watching, and his companions urged him to try to throw a stone into the basket. Manma threw a stone, and in that first try it fell right into the middle of the basket.

“I shall be your guest,” said the lioness who looked like a princess, and she followed him to his compound. The first thing which she saw in his house was the skin of her lion cub.

Manma’s wife fed the lioness, and when night came and it was dark the lioness was given a room in which to sleep. In the middle of the night she got up in order to go and kill Manma, but Tabantagi, one of Manma’s seven dogs, stopped her.

“We have been warned,” Tabantagi said to the lioness, for the seven black pots had spoken to the seven dogs. “If you kill our master, we will eat you.”

The lioness went back into her room. After she had waited for a long time, she got up again, in order to go and kill Manma. Guye, however, another of Manma’s seven dogs, stopped her.

“If you kill our master we will eat you,” Guye said to the lioness.

Again the lioness went back in to her room. Again, after waiting for a long time, she tried to go out to kill Manma. Again, one of the seven dogs stopped her. She tried seven times and seven times she was stopped by the dogs. By that time the night had passed and it was morning.

The lioness saw no way of killing Manma on that visit.

Remaining in the appearance of a princess, the lioness thanked Manma for having her in his house as a guest, and she told him that she would be going away.

“I will escort you out of the village,” said Manma, and he took up a gun.

“Are you going to shoot me?” the lioness asked.

Manma put down the gun and took up his bow and arrows.

“Are you going to kill me?” the lioness asked.

Manma put down his bow and arrows and took up a whistle.

“Let us go,” he said, and the lioness agreed that they should go.

After Manma had escorted her for over five miles through fields and high grasses, they reached a river. Manma and the lioness said good-bye to each other and Manma began to walk back to his village. After Manma had walked for some distance, he found a locust-bean tree growing beside the path. He managed to climb up the tree just before the lioness, who had changed herself from the shape of a princess into her true shape, sprang at him in order to kill him. She had been following him.

Manma blew very loudly on his whistle. Immediately Manma’s seven dogs appeared from the bush grass, first Tabantagi, then Guye, then Tako, followed by Tifi, Etsuegu, Tazata, and Eyeshisoko.

Before the lioness was able to run away, the dogs jumped on her and killed her. The dogs kept the meat and Manma took the skin.

“My wife,” said Manma when he reached his house, “we had one child for our one lion skin. Now here is another skin.”