The following morning the direction the hunters took led them toward
high land. The air was gray and a little misty. Out of the mist Nomusa
heard a voice calling out to her. It was Damasi’s. His teeth flashed
white as he smiled at Nomusa. They walked along side by side, saying
little; the long climb made them both rather short of breath.
“It is a long way to the elephant country,” Nomusa said at last.
“Yes,” Damasi replied. “Some say five sleeps away, some say more.”
By noonday they were high up in the hills. Below them they saw the
rolling, grassy plains. The hot rays of the sun were beginning to make
the air before Nomusa’s eyes appear in crooked, glassy waves.
When the hunting party reached a waterfall that cascaded over boulders
to the rocks and plains below, Zitu ordered a halt. Nomusa hoped it was
so that they might eat. She was not used to going without food for such
long periods. At home, when the children were hungry, they ate. There
was always enough.
While Nomusa and Damasi and the other boys set to work finding dry twigs
and branches with which to start a fire, the older hunters cooled their
perspiring bodies under the waterfall. They laughed and enjoyed
themselves immensely, shouting and splashing each other.
However, when they saw the fire well under way, the men quickly came out
from under the waterfall. Taking their weapons they went to look for
game.
Nomusa and Damasi and Zabala took their turn under the splashing water.
Emerging cool and refreshed, they stood in the sun to dry their dripping
bodies.
Nomusa was looking at the plain below when something caught her eye. It
looked like a black ball and a brown ball moving horizontally across the
skyline at great speed, apparently without touching the earth. They
became bigger, blacker, and browner as they moved closer.
“Look, Damasi!” she cried. “What can that be?”
Damasi looked in the direction Nomusa pointed to, puzzled for a moment.
Then he said: “I know! Ostriches! A male and a female. They must have
been frightened by something. They are galloping so fast we cannot see
their legs.” Damasi looked at Nomusa, laughing. “We might wish we could
run as fast if some wild animal were chasing us.”
[Illustration: [Children]]
The barking of dogs heralded the return of the hunters. They had had
good luck, and now everyone fell to cleaning and preparing the birds and
animals for cooking. After the meal they slept. It seemed to Nomusa that
she had barely lain down when there came urgent calls to get up and
march on.
There was no time for an extra stretch or another wink. When her father
said, “We go!” he meant it. The hunters had already extinguished the
fire.
Toward evening they found themselves on a scrubby plain dotted with old
thorn trees. Nomusa admired the reddened sky, flushed by the quick and
beautiful sunset. The sunsets never failed to leave her astonished by
the vivid coloring that faded swiftly into gray, then almost black. It
was a marvel how quickly the sunset was over. Down went the sun into the
mysterious horizon like a stone dropped in a pool.
The shadows became heavier and blacker. The hunters grew more watchful.
This was the kind of country lions liked to roam.
Nomusa hoped her father would not decide to spend the night on this
unpleasant-looking plain. She could not help feeling it was dangerous.
But how much farther could they walk in the darkness? The dogs whined
uneasily and drew close to their masters.
All at once the hunters who led the way stopped. There was a sudden
hush, and the men held their weapons ready.
What was it that had stopped them? Nomusa looked up at her father
questioningly, but he was too concerned with something under a large
thorn tree to notice her. Zabala and Damasi, now boldly in front, were
pointing at something very long and thick lying on the ground. It bulged
in the middle, with two high knobs jutting under its flesh.
[Illustration: [Children]]
The object did not move. Whatever it was, it seemed to be dead. Now the
hunters moved closer, step by step, holding back the excited dogs.
As they drew nearer, Nomusa saw that the object was a huge snake that
had swallowed some small animal.
“The snake is dead,” announced her father. “Let us cut him open and see
what he has swallowed.”
The snake was carefully cut open right around the part that bulged.
There lay a young spotted deer, completely intact, that had apparently
been swallowed not very long before. The two knobs under the snake’s
skin were the deer’s budding horns.
Damasi came running over to Nomusa. “Do you see what has happened?” he
asked excitedly. “The snake must have swallowed the young deer and then
lain quietly down to digest it. When he fell asleep the horns of the
deer ripped through his flesh and killed him. What a feast we shall have
tonight!”
And what a fine story this is going to make for Themba, thought Nomusa.
“I have not tasted deer meat for a long time,” said Damasi, smacking his
lips.
“It is a pity that I am not as hungry now as I was at noonday,” Nomusa
sighed.
Zitu ordered an extra large fire to be made. Not far from the dead snake
the hunters roasted the deer, pleased over their good luck in finding
such a magnificent supper with so little effort. They gorged themselves
with food as if they had not eaten for days, and even Nomusa could not
resist the delicious smells of the roasting deer meat.
Sentinels were now appointed to watch over them while they slept, and a
large crackling fire was kept burning to ward off any wild animals and
to warm the hunters when the night grew cold. Nomusa did not enjoy
having to sleep on this plain, especially as the dead snake was near
enough to attract jackals or hyenas to their neighborhood.
She stared into the leaping flames, determined not to fall asleep. She
would be a self-appointed sentinel tonight. Two would not be too many.
But the warmth of the fire and her overburdened stomach conquered her
determination to stay awake. Nomusa slept peacefully until sunrise the
next morning.
[Illustration: [Huts]]