Koumen: Eighth Clearing — Third Sun

Eighth Clearing — Third Sun
—Table of Contents—

Funeral criers, stop your weeping gesticulations. The fresh and nourishing grass quivers underfoot. The reptiles are deadened. Here is the green ray of the third sun. Its colour unites those of the second and fifth suns. Its ray is green. Trees and plants owe it their colour. It lends the countryside its brightness. It spreads vitality and good health. Under its smiling face, the cow suckles its young and the cowherd admires his thousand new-born. The bull who leads the way in this space is a humpback. Its narrow tail measures three cubits. Its strong long horns menace the demons of pleuropneumonia.

Goats grazing in the Fodder trees (source unknown)

O spirits of lactic secretion dwelling in the fodder trees! Silé has come to ask you the secret which will allow him to develop from the semen of his beasts, breeds resistant to disease with beautiful thick coats. O you, brown cow of a dwarf variety, go wake up the cow without horns and let the two of you lead us onwards to… [the ninth clearing].[1]

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[1] The cow without horns and the dwarf-bull (ndaama) are not highly esteemed by their owner and so expendable. To make them walk ahead towards the next clearing may amount to sacrificing them, for they are heading into the unknown.

A. Hampâté Bâ & G. Dieterlen (1961)

Text in French: http://www.webpulaaku.net/defte/ahb/kumen/

Amadou Hampâté Bâ

Introduction

English Translation:

First Clearing 

Second Clearing

Third Clearing 

Fourth Clearing 

Fifth Clearing 

Sixth Clearing 

Seventh Clearing 

Eighth Clearing

Ninth Clearing

Tenth Clearing

Eleventh Clearing

Twelfth Clearing

       The Unriddling of the Knots

       The Final Battle

Conclusion