A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Dinianga dia Ngombe watches a deer eating mudia-mbambi, builds a tree-seat and returns at the animal’s usual feeding hour. He shoots it, climbs down, takes it by a leg and finishes the killing with a hatchet. The text explicitly says it is dead. He then skins the body. When he pulls away the hide, the deer stands up and runs, leaving the skin in his hands. Its return to movement follows both the stated death and complete flaying, rather than an account of a merely wounded animal getting away.

The deer stops at a distance, and the astonished hunter tries to shame it by imagining its parents asking why it has come home naked. It replies that the hunter faces equal shame when he tells his own household how a killed and skinned deer escaped. Dinianga has no further answer. He returns with his gun and tells his wife and companions exactly what occurred; they laugh at him. The final sentence awards the encounter to Deer. It does not describe regrowth of the hide, explain a concealed second body or name a divinity as the cause of its return.

Shot and killedCompletely skinnedReturns to movementSpeaks after escapeDefeats hunter in shame argument
01

Origins & earliest records

Jelemía dia Sabatelu contributed this hunter narrative to Chatelain. The collection identifies the narrative dialect as Mbaka; the collector’s comparative character judgments are kept separate from the actual episode.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale XX, Dinianga dia Ngombe and Deer, bilingual pp. 158–161; English pp. 159, 161. Contributor and hunter-story notes XX p. 292.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Folk-Tales of Angola

    Héli Chatelain, collector, editor and literal English translator; named contributor in origin · 1894

    Complete tale XX, Dinianga dia Ngombe and Deer, bilingual pp. 158–161; English pp. 159, 161. Contributor and hunter-story notes XX p. 292.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Collected Ki-mbundu text with facing English translation and contributor notesChatelain 1894 — Skinless Returning Deer of Dinianga dia NgombeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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