V WHY WOMEN HAVE LONG HAIR

Sacred-Texts African   

TWO women quarrelled, and one of them went out secretly at night and dug a deep pit in the middle of the path leading from her enemy’s house to the village well.

 Early next morning, when all were going to the well for water with jars balanced on their heads, this woman fell into the pit and cried loudly for help.

 Her friends ran to her and, seizing her by the hair, began to pull her out of the pit. To their surprise, her hair stretched as they pulled, and by the time she was safely on the path, her hair was as long as a man’s arm.

 This made her very much ashamed, and she ran away and hid herself.

 But after a while she realized that her long hair was beautiful, and then she felt p. 7 very proud and scorned all the short-haired women, jeering at them. When they saw this, they were consumed with jealousy, and began to be ashamed of their short hair. “We have men’s hair,” they said to one another. “How beautiful it would be to have long hair!”

 So one by one they jumped into the pit, and their friends pulled them out by the hair.

 And in this way they, and all women after them, had long hair.