THE LEGEND OF THE MERMAID

THE LEGEND OF THE MERMAID

“Wake up, Oh Great Eland, I have come to you.”

“You find me asleep – I watched through the full moon, and when the morning came I saw the dust of your trail many walks away, and then, satisfied that help was coming, I closed my eyes for a while.”

“Can you still see so far?”

“Oh yes, it is not my eyes that have deceived me, it is these wounds, I cannot even lift my body from the dust even though I urgently need medicinal herbs.”

“Let me look, I will not hurt you. Yes, I see what you need, I will go and pick the herbs for you and you will be better in no time.”

“No, do not leave me, perhaps something will happen to you so that you cannot not return.”

“Are you not the great Eland, are you afraid now? Where is your brave heart, have you lost it? Think well while I am gone, for I want to hear the truth from the depth of your heart when I return.”

“I am back, and was it so terrible that you wanted to collapse further, or did you use the time to think upon the reason for this sissy way of yours, hmm?”

“Now please, do not take advantage of my unfortunate circumstances now, I know you are a woman with a heart of gold.”

“So I am, else I would not have come to help you, I could have left you to the jackals and the leopards. Tell me, from the bottom of your heart. Everything.”

“It was my friend from the farm who deceived me, and it was the witchdoctor who lied to me, and it was the mermaid who caused it all.”

“Mermaid! The only mermaids I know of were written on the rocks in the caves by our forefathers in the Langeberg many, many lives ago.”

“No, no – Oudtshoorn has a mermaid. She used to live in the pool beneath the waterfall here in Meiringspoort. Lots of people have seen her, and the children are not allowed to go near the pool lest she grab them and take them under the water with her, for she has no children of her own, and would love to have one or two.”

“True, I have heard that story, but it is merely a legend to keep the children safe, for the pool is deep and extremely dangerous.”

“You have worked far too long in the farmer’s kitchen, you are drifting away from our forefathers and from our traditions. You can say nothing, for, with a full moon a time ago, I as waiting for visitors to bring me a present, as is our tradition.”

“Did anyone come to you?”

“Yes, and I was hoping that my present would be a woman, for everyone knows that I am living alone.”

“And?”

“Nothing. They just told me about the mermaid. She is no longer here. With the last big rains, when the Olifants River came down in an enormous flood, the waters swept her away to the sea. She sits there upon a rock with her arms outstretched, beckoning me to come to her. That was my present. I could go to her and bring her back, they said.”

“Agh no! How can you possibly go so far at your age?”

“Listen further, or must I stop telling you what happened?”

“Go on …”

“When the visitors were gone I fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. I saw the mermaid where she sat on the rocks at the sea. The hair on her lovely little round head was parted into a hundred pieces, each twisted and fastened with a chip of ostrich shell, just like yours. I say, you are quite beautiful!”

“Tch, tch! You are an old man, what are you talking now, about me, about a mermaid!”

“Sorry. But she was beckoning me to come to her, and with a swish of her beautiful pearly tail she swam deep down to the floor of the ocean to her paradise of pearls. I went to my friend who works on the farm to ask if he could help me get to the sea.”

“Could he?”

“No, but he took me to his witchdoctor on the other side of the dry river.”

“… and you talk about me leaving our traditions, a witchdoctor indeed! What do they do, have they a lot of bones that they throw about, and according to where they fall, they tell you what your destiny is?”

“Something like that. He went into a trance and he was shouting that he saw little dots. Then the dots started forming a pattern. And then he saw her.”

“Who?”

“The mermaid. He said that the hair on her lovely little round head was curled with the red clay from a faraway river, each curl ending with sparkling yellow and red and blue and green beads, all held together on the top with the spotted feather of a guinea fowl.”

“How very strange!”

“Yes, and I could see the lust in his eyes!”

“You should have run away. Did you?”

“Just about. But he brought me good news. He would bring the mermaid back here with his magic potion which was bubbling in a pot with three legs on a fire in his hut.

Through the smoke I think saw various animal skins with heads on them – a leopard, a wild red cat, an owl. He said that the mermaid would be in the river above the waterfall, and when the next big rains came, she would be washed down into the pool where she would be waiting to welcome me.”

“Come on, do not hesitate, this is getting interesting.”

“I waited and waited and waited for the rains to come. And then, at last, after more than two years, I saw a storm coming our way from afar, and I put in an effort to make my old legs come all the way here to the waterfall. And this is how I ended up, lying in the dust.”

“What on earth happened?”

“The storm broke out, viciously. The thunder hit against the ravines, the overwhelming sound hitting back and forth from side to side against the krantzes, the electric fire dancing about and the downpour smashing my body and my face, nearly blinding me. But through it all I saw her near the pool, beckoning me, beckoning me …”

“It is alright, Great Eland, you are safe now … take a sip of this, and let me hear the rest.”

“When … when I was nearly in her arms, she turned into a wild red cat with enormous fangs, and she wildly clawed at me … it is these wounds that have left me down on the ground.”

“But what happed, how did you survive this terrible attack?”

“Our forefathers looked down upon me in mercy, and I was saved. The lightning struck right next to me, but it struck him.”

"Him? Wait here, I see you are confused. I am going to fetch help, for I alone am not strong enough to help you back to your hut.”

“Quiet woman! I am not confused, just listen further.”

“Sorry.”

“He gave an unearthly scream when he was struck, he fell sideways and rolled down toward the river. The waters took him. Do you see that tree, the one that was washed down with the storm water but got stuck between those rocks?

“Yes.”

“Go and see what was caught in its branches, and then you will understand.”

“Brr! The head and skin of the wild red cat! His camouflage!”

“Yes dear.”

“No wonder your heart has deceived you, it is too terrible a thing that happened to you. I am doing my best to dress your wounds very nicely with these weeds, tomorrow you will be better, and I will help you to go home, even if it takes a week or even a month.”

“You are very, very kind. I think if I finish telling you what happed, I will be able to put it all behind me and get on with my life without nightmares. Will you listen further?”

“My poor heart! What now?”

“Keep steady. Before I tell any further I want to know how it came to be that you came to me here. Were you on your way somewhere, did our forefathers once more look mercifully down upon me, and you came to see me lying here on the ground?”

“You said I have been working too long at the farm. But I have not lost my intuition. I had to leave the farm and follow the tip of the moon towards the two bright stars, until I came here. And I find a feeble old man! Tell further.”

“Give me your hand. It’s so soft. It was my friend who worked on the farm. He was watching everything happen from behind some bushes. Everything turned out well for him.”

“How come?”

“He told me so. When he saw me lying helplessly and in need, he laughed at me. He told me his whole story.”

“His story?"

“Yes. He has a story too. He and the witchdoctor conspired against me. He paid the witchdoctor his only cow to kill me, so that he could have the mermaid.”

“I cannot bear to hear this.”

“What happened is that he heard that the witchdoctor planned to kill me, and then immediately leave to find the mermaid for himself, before my friend could find out."

“No! What am I hearing today!”

“My friend was so furious when he heard that he was now minus his only cow for nothing at all, that he decided to kill the witchdoctor after the witchdoctor had killed me. Then things turned out well for him – the lightning and the river took the witchdoctor, and I was lying helpless on the ground. The mermaid is still waiting on the rocks at the sea, she was never brought here, and he has gone after her. He can have her, I am over her now. You are here with me now."

"I love it when you stroke my hand."