Editing Chewa language (section)

==Oral literature==
In 1907, [[Robert Sutherland Rattray]], who learned the Chinyanja language with the help of [[Alexander Hetherwick]] (author of [https://archive.org/details/practicalmanualo00heth ''A Practical Manual of the Nyanja language'']), published [https://archive.org/details/somefolklorestor00ratt_0/ ''Some Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja''], a collection of texts in the Chinyanja language,<ref>Rattray, R. S.  (1907). ''[https://archive.org/details/somefolklorestor00ratt_0/page/16/mode/2up?view=theater Some Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja.]'' The Chinyanja texts begin on p. 17.</ref> accompanied by English translations, reflecting the language heard in what was then Central Angoniland in the [[British Central Africa Protectorate]], now [[Malawi]]. 
The texts include cultural and historical narratives, along with folktales, including several stories about ''Kamba'', the trickster tortoise, and ''Kalulu'', the trickster rabbit (hare). These are some of the riddles:<ref>[https://archive.org/details/somefolklorestor00ratt_0/page/71/mode/1up?view=theater Rattray 1907], pp. 71-73 (English, pp. 153-156).</ref>
*"''Kantu kosanyamulika 'i? Chitunzilunzi.''" "A little thing, yet that cannot be lifted. A shadow." (#7)
*"''Ndamanga nyumba ndi mzati umodzi, n'chiani? Boa.''" "I built a hut with only one post to prop up the roof. What is that? A mushroom." (#11)
*"''Nyumba yopanda komo. Dzira.''" "A hut without a doorway. An egg." (#19)
*"''Mtengo adula lero, m'mawa mwache yuamba kupuka. Tsitsi.''" "A tree which you cut down today, and the next it begins to sprout. Hair." (#23)
*"''Kungatarikitsa, lero lomwe ukafika, n'chiani? Mtima.''" "However far away it be, this very day this thing reaches there. Memories." (#24)
*"''Pita uku, nanenso, ndipite uko, tikomane. Mkuzi.''" "You go in this direction, I go in that, and we must meet. Belt." (#25)
At the end of the riddle section, Rattray includes a version of the conundrum about the man who must cross a river with a goat, a leopard, and some maize, a traditional African form of the [[river-crossing puzzle]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/somefolklorestor00ratt_0/page/73/mode/1up?view=theater Rattray 1907], p. 73 (English p. 156).</ref>