From the folklore of Usambara
Some little boys, playing in the gardens outside their village, noticed a very large gourd, and said, “Just see how big that gourd is getting!” Then the gourd spoke and said, “If you pluck me I’ll pluck you!” They went home and told what they had heard, and their mother refused to believe them, saying, “Children, you lie!” But their sisters asked to be shown the place where the boys had seen the talking gourd. It was pointed out to them, and they at once went there by themselves, and said, as their brothers had done, “Just see how big that gourd is getting!” But nothing happened. They went home, and, of course, said that the boys had been making fun of them. Then the boys went again and heard the gourd speak as before. But when the girls went it was silent.
The gourd continued to grow: it became as big as a house, and began swallowing all the people in the village. Only one woman escaped. Having swallowed every one within reach, the gourd made its way into a lake and stayed there.
In a short time the woman bore a boy, and, they lived on together on the site of the ruined village. When the boy had grown older he asked his mother one day where his father was. She said, “He was swallowed up by a gourd which has gone into the lake.” So he went forth, and when he came to the lake he called out, “Gourd, come out! Gourd, come out!” There was no answer, and he went on to another lake and repeated his command. He saw one ear of the gourd come out of the water, and climbed a tree, where he kept on shouting, “Gourd, come out!” At last the gourd came out and set off in pursuit of him; but he ran home and asked his mother for his bow and quiver. He hastened back, and when he came in sight of the monster loosed an arrow and hit it. He shot again and again, till, wounded by the tenth arrow, it died, roaring so that it could be heard from here to Vuga. The boy then called to his mother to bring a knife, and thus dispatched the monster.
Source:
Chapter 14, Myths and Legends of the Bantu, Alice Werner, 1933
Kotharian Lightning 