Ku Tchetche

Ku Tchetche is the idle, beautiful girl of a distinct Mundang origin tale who becomes the sole ancestress of the chiefdom. Having never worked in her life, she is visited each day, while her parents are away at the farm, by the being Pi Bwo, who conjures food for her by singing a teasing song about her beauty and idleness. When a watchful grandmother reveals the visits and the family traps and boils Pi Bwo to death in a covered pot, the creature returns to devour the whole people; only Ku Tchetche, hidden under an overturned canari (water jar) at the being's own instruction, survives. A chameleon then strays into her hiding place, and 'they become two on earth': from the pair the Mundang and their chiefdom descend, its offices divided between a Right that rules and a Left that counsels.

Domains

• origins
• ancestrality

Powers

• survives the devouring being
• repeoples the earth

Epithets

• Ku Tchetche, la belle — Ku Tchetche the beautiful'Myth of the Origin of the Mundang Chiefdom', Our Mythical Childhood Survey (omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl, item 439) — the being's song: 'Ku Tchetche the beautiful girl, beautiful, beautiful' (primary)

Relations

• companion: The ChameleonThe chameleon enters her hiding place and 'they become two on earth', co-founders of the people.'Myth of the Origin of the Mundang Chiefdom', Our Mythical Childhood Survey (omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl, item 439) (primary)
• enemy: Pi BwoPi Bwo devours all her kin; she alone survives its onslaught.'Myth of the Origin of the Mundang Chiefdom', Our Mythical Childhood Survey (omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl, item 439) (primary)

Sources

• Ku Tchetche is the idle, beautiful girl of a Mundang origin tale who, hidden from the devouring being Pi Bwo, becomes the sole survivor and, with a chameleon, the ancestress of the first Mundang chiefdom.: 'Myth of the Origin of the Mundang Chiefdom', Our Mythical Childhood Survey (omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl, item 439), recorded by Samuel Fah Lee (primary)