Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/235

 Then he gave the Etungi a shirt and a cloth and a hat, as proofs of his reality.

The Etungi returned to his town. And he reported to the people in the town, "Bokeli is not dead; I met him at the bellows, working." They thought he was lying, and they said, "Let him be beaten!" But the Etungi replied, "True! see ye this shirt, and the cloth, and this hat!" He added, "He that doubts must first go and see."

Then went Kombe. When he arrived, he found Bokeli at the bellows. When Bokeli saw him coming, he arose at once, and went to his mother in the house; he seized a machete, and cut down a plantain bunch, yo! And he said to his mother, "Make haste to cook it!"

Kombe had by that time entered the Reception-House. Bokeli welcomed him, sa-a! and said, "Sit down!" Kombe sat down. Food had been cooked; and he ate. Kombe then says, "I'm going back!" Bokeli at once put down at his feet the dowry for Jâmbâ, cloths, shirts, hats, etc, etc. Kombe carried away the things. And having arrived at his town, he says, "It is true!"

Their father Njambe directed, "Come ye! over there with a present as a propitiation!" Then he gathered goats, fowls, ducks, plantains, dried meats, fishes, all sorts and kinds. He ordered, "Make ye a bier, and carry the corpse. I am going, even if I die!" (He still had a doubt about the real Bokeli.) They did so. They carried the presents, and they went, going on the journey.

When those in front had arrived at the half-way of the road, the father said to his children, "You must now remain here. I shall first go to the town. If you hear a sound of guns, you will know that I am killed; then ye must go back." The father Njambe took Jâmbâ to accompany him, and his wives with him.

When Bokeli saw them coming, at once the cannon were loaded, and were fired in a salute of welcome, and all the guns and musical instruments sounded, and people saying, "The bride is come!"

The children of Njambe who were left on the way, when they heard the sounds of the cannons and guns, said to themselves that their father was killed, and they scattered and hid themselves. But he hastily started and went back to