Suriname folk-lore

134.

Wąn mama bɛn habi wąn pikin. Ma nō, di na pikin mu' go dopu, dan Dɛdɛ ɑksi fō tą' na pikin pɛpɛ. Ma di Dɛdɛ trǫ' ɛ̨ŋ pɛpɛ kaba, a tai̯g' 'ɛm taki, ‘Mi dɛ go gi yu wąn drɛsi. Yu mu' waka ala prei̯si drɛsi suma. Ma tɛ yu si mi dɛ na wąn suma hɛdɛsei̯, yu no mu gi hɛm drɛsi, bika' a no dɛ go libi.’ So na boi̯ bɛn waka, a wroko furu mɔni. Ma di a bɛn kɩsi mɔni kaba, dąn tɛ a go luku wąn sɩki, ɛfu ɛ̨ŋ pɛpɛ dɛ na hɛdesei̯, dąn a dɛ kɛnk' ɛ̨ŋ pɔti na futusei̯. Dąn a dɛ gi drɛsi meki na suma kɔm bǫ'.

Dąn wan dei̯ na pɛpɛ kɔm na hɛm, taki, meki a kɔm go nō nąŋga hɛm. Dąn, di den go, dąn den krįn wąn ląŋga trapu, dąn den si so mɛni lampu nąŋga oli dɛ lit. Sɔmwąn fō den no habi oli beina. Dąn ɛ̨ŋ pɛpɛ tai̯g' hɛm taki, ‘So, yu no sabi taki mi na Dɛdɛ, ɛn yu bɛn du mi hɔgri di yu bɛn kɛ̨ŋki mi na den suma hɛdɛsei̯, bɩkasi mi no dɛ teki yɔ̨ŋgu wąn libi oru wąn; są' mu kɔm a mu kɔm.’ Ɛn a sori hɛm wąn lampu, taki, ‘Luku, dɩsi na lampu fō yu, ma mi sɑ puru na oli fō yu pɔti gi dem tra lampu fō dem suma dɩsi, dem lampu no bɛn habi oli mɔro.’

Ɛn so a puru ala na oli da na lampu. Da boi̯ kɔm dɛdɛ, bika' na oli bɛn dɛ oli hɛm libi.

134. Cheating Death.³

A mother had a child. But now when the child had to go to be baptized, Death asked to be the child's godfather. But when Death had already become its godfather, he said to him, said, ‘I am going to give you a medicine. You must travel everywhere healing people. But when you see me at a person's head you must not give him medicine, because he is not going to live.’ So the boy traveled and he earned much money. But when he had [accumulated] money, then when he went to see a sick person, if his godfather was at the head of the bed, then he changed him [the patient] about to the foot [of the bed]. Then he gave the medicine to make the man recover.

Then one day the godfather came to him, and said, let him come with him. Then, when they went, then they climbed a tall ladder, and they saw many oil lamps lit. Some of them had almost no oil. Then his godfather said to him, ‘So, you did not know that I was Death, and you did me harm when you changed me about away from people's heads, because I did not take young ones and leave old ones; [and] what must come must come.’ And he showed him a lamp, and said, ‘Look, this is your lamp, but I will take out your oil and put it into the other lamps belonging to those people whose lamps had no more oil.’

And so he took out all the oil from the lamp. The boy died, because the oil was the oil of his life.

3 Told by 1. For comparative data, see Bolte u. Polívka, i, 375-388, No. 42 and No. 44.