---
title: The Runaway Children. — Kaffir folk-lore · full text with trees
description: The Runaway Children., «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: There are three or four versions of this story, but all agree in the main points.
---

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# The Runaway Children.

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The Runaway Children. of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal: the whole text, 9 sentences and 190 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself.

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There are three or four versions of this story, but all agree in the main points.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") In one, it is the grandmother of the children who is the cannibal, in another, it is their mother, and in a third it is the husband of their aunt.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") One version makes Magoda escape with the children, and introduces a great deal of obscenity.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") The parts referring to the bird and the manner of the children’s delivery are the same in all.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") So also is the episode of the broken pot, but the conversation between the two girls differs in some respects.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics")

When a Kaffir woman is married, her husband’s parents give her a new name, by which she is known to his family ever after.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") Upon the birth of her first child, whether son or daughter, she is frequently called by every one else after the name given to the child, “the mother of so-and-so.”[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics")

The ntengu is rather larger than a swallow, and is of a bright bluish-black colour.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") It may often be seen on the backs of cattle, seeking for insects on which it feeds.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics")

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