Long ago, the owl decided to employ a servant to help care for her chicks. “Mbwa the dog will make a good servant,” she decided, and she took the dog into her service.
The dog was a good servant, and when the dog’s puppies grew up, they also became servants of the owls.
Then one day the owl told the dog, “Go to the people’s village and bring back fire.”
The dog went to the village. The people fed and petted the dog; he decided to stay there.
The owl keeps calling, Mbwa! Mbwa! Mbwa! but the dog has never returned.
[a Bangala story from the Congo]
Inspired by: "The Dog and the Bird" in George Grenfell and the Congo, volume 2 by Harry Hamilton Johnston, 1910.
Notes: You can read the original story online. The author was not able to identify the bird that calls "Mbwa!" although he said it is some kind of night bird, perhaps an owl. This is another Bangala story.
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