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Swazi folklore is rich with tales and myths - but are they really mythical? - let's consider the tale of the tail.
Stories are part of the oral tradition of the Swazis. In a rural Swazi homestead, in the early evening, just before supper, the young ones gather around granny.
"Tell us another one, granny!"
Granny is the mainstay of the homestead, and the one who has the stories to tell.
"Tell us another one!"
Thus one more tale is passed down through the generations. This one is:
"imbila yeswela umsila ngekulayetela"
Most of these stories have a message for the children.
A long time ago, when tails were being distributed, the rock rabbit's friends, the hares, said to him "Let's go and get our tails!" The rock rabbit was a lazy animal and said "Ahh, I can't be bothered to go, please bring me one."
So, the rock rabbit's friends all went off to get their tails. When they returned, the rock rabbit said "Where's my tail?". His friends replied "They ran out of tails, there were no more tails left!"
So the rock rabbit never got his tail, and had noone to blame but himself, hence the proverb:
"imbila yeswela umsila ngekulayetela"
which loosely translates to "if you don't do things for yourself, you might get nothing!"
What is a rock rabbit?
The rock rabbit, also known as rock dassie or hyrax, is not a rabbit at all! They are in fact more closely related to the elephant than to the rabbits.
Rock rabbits are small, tail-less, compact animals, about 50 cm (about 20") in length. The rock rabbits live in large groups in rock outcrops, and are often seen sunning themselves on top of boulders. Their padded feet allow for movement even on smooth surfaces and they are very agile in leaping from rock to rock, in negotiating steep rock faces, or clambering about on branches of trees.
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