Duang and His Wild Wife.
(Sudan, Dinka)

  • Maxson J. McDowell
Narcissism narcissistic personality disorder narcissistic behavior narcissistic men narcissistic women narcissitic mothers

AMOU was so beautiful. She was betrothed to a man from the tribe. But she was not yet given to her betrothed. She still lived with her family.

There was a man called Duang in a neighbouring village. Duang's father said to him, 'My son, Duang, it is high time you married.'

'Father,' replied Duang, 'I cannot marry; I have not yet found the girl of my heart.'

'But my son,' argued his father, 'I want you to marry while I am alive. I may not live long enough to attend your marriage.'

'I will look, Father,' said Duang, 'but I will marry only when I find the girl of my heart.'

'Very well, my son,' said his father with understanding.

They lived together until the father died. Duang did not marry. Then his mother died. He did not marry.

These deaths made him abandon himself in mourning; so he no longer took care of his appearance. His mourning hair grew long and wild. He never shaved or groomed his hair. He was a very rich man. His cattle-byres were full of cattle, sheep and goats.

One day he left for a trip to a nearby tribe. On the way he heard the drums beating loud. He followed the sounds of the drums and found people dancing. So he stood and watched the dance. In the dance was the girl called Amou. When she saw him standing, she left the dance and went near him. She greeted him. They stood talking. When the relatives of the man who was betrothed to Amou saw her, they became disturbed. 'Why should Amou leave the dance to greet a man who was merely watching? And then she dared to stand and talk with him! Who is the man, anyway?'

They called her and asked her. She answered, 'I don't see anything wrong! I saw the man looking as though he were a stranger who needed help. So I went to greet him in case he wanted something. There is nothing more to it.'

They dismissed the matter, although they were not convinced.

Amou did not go back to the dance. She went and talked to the man again. She invited him to her family's home. So they left the dance and went. She seated him and gave him water. She cooked for him and served him.

The man spent two days in her house and then left and returned home. He went and called his relatives and told them that he had found the girl of his heart. They took cattle and returned to Amou's village.

The man who had betrothed Amou had paid thirty cows.

Amou's relatives sent them back and accepted Duang's cattle. The marriage was completed, and Amou was given to her husband.

She went with him and gave birth to a daughter, called Kiliingdit. Then she had a son. She and her husband lived alone with their children. Then she conceived her third child. While she was pregnant, her husband was in the cattle camp. But when she gave birth, he came home to visit her and stay with them for the first few days after her delivery.

After she delivered, she felt a very strong craving for meat. She was still newly delivered. She said to her husband, 'I am dying of craving for meat. I cannot even eat.'

Her husband said to her, 'If it is my cattle you have your eyes on, I will not slaughter an animal merely because of your craving! What sort of a craving is this which requires the killing of livestock? I will not slaughter anything.'

That ended the discussion. But she still suffered and could not eat or work. She would just sit there. Her husband became impatient and embittered by her craving. He slaughtered a lamb openly so that she and the others could see it. Then he went and killed a puppy dog secretly. He roasted both the lamb and the puppy in smouldering smudge.

When they were ready he took the dog meat to his wife in her women's quarters. He grabbed his children by the hands and took them away with him to the male quarters. His wife protested, 'Why are you taking the children away? Aren't they cating with me?'

He said, 'I thought you said you were dying of craving. I think it would be better for you and the children if you ate separately. They will share with me.'

He seated them next to him, and they ate together. She never doubted what he said, even though she felt insulted. That he would poison her was out of the question. So she ate her meat.

As soon as she ate her fill, her mouth started to drip with saliva. In a short while, she became rabid. Then she ran away, leaving her little baby behind.

Her husband took the boy to the cattle camp and left only the girl at home. She suffered very much taking care of her baby brother. Fearing that her mother might return rabid, she took the remainder of her mother's dog meat, dried it, and stored it. She would cook a portion of it and place it on a platform outside the hut together with some other food she had prepared.

For a while, her mother did not come. Then one night, she came. She stood outside the fence of the house and sang: 'Kiliingdit, Kiliingdit, Where has your father gone?'

Kiliingdit answered: 'My father has gone to Juachnyiel, Mother, your meat is on the platform, Your food is on the platform, The things with which you were poisoned. Mother, shall we join you in the forest? What sort of home is this without you?'

Her mother would take the food and share it with the lions. This went on for some time.

In the mean time, the woman's brothers had not heard of her giving birth. One of them, called Bol because he was born after twins, said to the others, 'Brothers, I think we should visit our sister. Maybe she has given birth and is now in some difficulties taking care of herself and the house.'

The little girl continued to labour hard looking after the baby and preparing food for the mother and themselves. She also had to protect herself and the baby so their mother would not find them and, having become a lioness, eat them.

She came again another night and sang. Kiliingdit replied as usual. Her mother ate and left. In the mean time, Bol took his gourds full of milk and left for his sister's home. He arrived in the daytime. When he saw the village so quiet, he feared that something might have gone wrong. 'Is our sister really at home?' he said to himself. 'Perhaps what I was afraid of in my heart has occurred. Perhaps our sister died in childbirth and her husband with the children have gone away and abandoned the house!'

Another part of him said, 'Don't be foolish! What has killed her? She is a newly delivered mother and is confined inside the hut.'

'I see the little girl,' he said to himself, 'but I do not see her mother.' As soon as the little girl saw him, she raced towards him, crying. 'Where is your mother, Kiliingdit?' he asked her in haste.

She told him the story of how her mother turned wild, beginning with her mother's craving for meat and her father's poisoning her with dog meat.

'When she comes in the evening,' she explained, 'her companions are the wives of lions.'

'Will she come tonight?' asked her uncle.

'She comes every night,' answered Kiliingdit.

'But, Uncle, when she comes, please do not reveal yourself to her. She is no longer your sister. She is a lioness. If you reveal yourself to her, she will kill you and the loss will be ours. We shall then remain without anyone to take care of us.'

'Very well,' he said.

That night, she came again. She sang her usual song. Kiliingdit sang her response.

As she approached the platform to pick up her food, she said, 'Kiliingdit, my daughter, why does the house smell like this? Has a human being come? Has your father returned?'

'Mother, my father has not returned. What would bring him hack? Only my little brother and I are here. And were we not human beings when you left us? If you want to eat us, then do so. You will save me from all the troubles I am going through. I have suffered beyond endurance.'

'My darling Kiliingdit,' she said, 'how can I possibly eat you? I know I have become a beast of a mother, but I have not lost my heart for you, my daughter. Is not the fact that you cook for me evidence of our continuing bond? I cannot eat you!'

When Bol heard his sister's voice, he insisted on going out to meet her, but his niece pleaded with him, saying, 'Don't be deceived by her voice. She is a beast and not your sister. She will eat you!'

So he stayed; she ate and left to join the wives of the lions.

The next morning, Bol returned to the cattle camp to tell his brothers that their sister had become a lioness. Bewildered by the news, they took their spears and came to their sister's home. They took a bull with them. They walked and walked and then arrived.

They went and sat down. The little girl went ahead and prepared the food for her mother in the usual way. Then they all went to sleep. The little girl went into the hut with her baby brother, as usual, but the men slept outside, hiding in wait for their sister.

She came at night and sang as usual. Kiliingdit responded. She picked up her food and ate with the wives of the lions. Then she brought the dishes back. As she put them back, she said, 'Kiliingdit!'

'Yes, Mother,' answered Kiliingdit.

'My dear daughter,' she continued, 'why does the house feel so heavy? Has your father returned?'

'Mother,' said Kiliingdit, 'my father has not returned. When he abandoned me with this little baby, was it bis intention to return to us?'

'Kiliingdit,' argued the mother, 'if your father has returned, why do you hide it from me, dear daughter? Are you such a small child that you cannot understand my suffering?'

'Mother,' Kiliingdit said again, 'I mean what I say, my father has not come. It is I alone with the little baby. If you want to eat us, then eat us.'

As the mother turned to go, her brothers jumped on her and caught her. She struggled in their hands for quite a long time, but could not break away. They tied her to a tree. The next morning, they slaughtered the bull they had brought. Then they beat her and beat her. They would tease her with raw meat by bringing it close to her mouth and pulling it away from her. Then they would continue to beat her. As she was teased with meat, saliva fell from her mouth and formed little puppies. They continued to tease her and beat her until three puppies had emerged from her saliva. Then she refused raw meat. She was given roast meat from the bull and she ate it. The brothers beat her some more until she shed all the hairs that had grown on her body.

Then she opened her eyes, looked at them closely, sat down and said, 'Please hand me my little baby.' The baby was brought. He could no longer suck his mother's breasts.

When the mother had fully recovered, her brothers said, 'We shall take you to our cattle camp. You will not go to the cattle camp of such a man again!'

But she insisted on going to her husband's cattle camp, saying, 'I must go back to him. I cannot abandon him.'

Her brothers could not understand her. They wanted to attack her husband and kill him, but she argued against that. When she saw that they did not understand her, she told them that she wanted to take care of him in her own way. She was not going back to him out of love but to take revenge. So they left her and she went to her husband.

When she got to the cattle camp, he was very pleased to have her back. She did not show any grievance at all. She stayed with him, and he was very happy with her.

One day she filled a gourd with sour milk. She pounded grain and made porridge. Then she served him, saying, 'This is my first feast since I left you. I hope you give me the pleasure of finding it your heartiest meal.'

First he drank the milk. Then came the porridge with ghee and sour milk mixed into it. He ate. Then she offered him some more milk to drink on top of the porridge. When he tried to refuse, she pleaded with him. The man ate and ate and ate, until he burst and died.