Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/218

 Then the elder sister said she was going to help her brother in facing the Snails. Her mother objected, "You? Stay!" But she replied, "Let me go!" She girded her body tightly, and then she entered the fight. The Snails surrounded her. They were about to drag her to their rear, when, she, at the side of the path, attempted to spring from them. But they swarmed over her. And she lay a corpse! The mother was crying out, "O! My child!" when the Snails covered her too.

Mbuma-tyĕtyĕ retreated, to rest himself for a short time, and called out, "Ngalo! a helmet!" It appeared. He fitted it to his head. He called again, "Ngalo! a glass of strong drink, and of water too!" It appeared. He asked for tobacco. It appeared. "Matches!" They appeared. He struck a match, and smoked. As he thrust the cigar in his mouth, it stimulated him; it told him things of the future in its clouds of smoke. After he had rested, he stood up, again for the fight.

The Snails tuned their song:

The Snails, in their fierce charge, killed him, and were about to take away the corpse; when, his Ngalo returning him to life, he sprang erect, and cried out, "Ah! my Father Njambu! Dibadi-O!"

And he took up his war-song:—

All that while, the mother and his sisters were lying dead.

The Snails were shouting in their victory, "Tâkâ!"

Mbuma-tyĕtyĕ took a short broad knife in his hands, and shouted, "Dibadi!" He girded his body firmly, and stood erect. He called out in challenge, "I've come!" The Snails answered, "You've reached the end!"

They fought. The man took his sword. The Snails fell down on him, ndwa! But the man stood up, and moved