Southern Africa: the difference betwen kraals and purses

A rich person was one who had more cattle than you. "A pen of cattle in this place is like a purse of money in that other place," the universe said to itself, trying to form connections between different ideas so as to keep life simple. "Pen, purse, pen, purse, pen, purse."

Instead of making life simple it only confused itself. Unexpected things began to happen.

A woman opened her purse in the supermarket to find out if she had enough money and a young bullock fell among the tomatoes.

A man approached his kraal and saw that it was as small as his hand and at the same time as large as always. The walls were made of leather and the cattle were made of metal and paper. They were stamped flat on the air, and at the same time fully rounded.

"This is too strange," he said. He called to his friend, "Come and look at this!" The friend looked. He was right: it was too strange.

"Your cattle must be cursed," he said. "This must be witchcraft." Then there was nothing to do except burn the cattle to get rid of the witchcraft. They melted into a puddle of gold and flew into the air as scraps of ash; at the same time they were barbeque.