"Pemba Muhori, Pemba Muhori, are you in there?
My wife has sent for your skin to wear."
Then there was a noise like thunder, and great waves went foaming away
to the shores, and Pemba Muhori appeared with his seven heads and said,
"Who is making use of my name?"
[Illustration: Pemba Muhori with his seven heads]
So he answered, "It is I, Hapendeki," and took his sword and smote off
one head, and picking it up he put it on one side. Then the snake came
and said, "Who are you that are not worth eating at a mouthful?"
Hapendeki took his sword and cut off another head and the snake
disappeared in the water again, and he took the head and laid it on one
side.
And so the snake came at him again till he had cut off the third, fourth
and fifth head and put them on one side.
Then the snake said, "What sort of witchcraft is this, that you who are
so small think you can kill me?" and he rushed at him again, and
Hapendeki cut off his sixth head and put it on one side. Then the snake
rose up and came at him, and Hapendeki cut off his seventh head and ran
away.
Then the snake's body writhed and twisted, and he lashed so with his
tail that the mountains fell into the lake and the waves tore up the
hillsides.
When all was still again, Hapendeki returned and picked up the heads,
which were a heavy load, and as he picked up the sixth he staggered, but
he said to himself, "I must take them all home to show my wife." So he
made an effort and picked up the seventh head, and when he had them all,
he suddenly looked round and behold, he found that his journey home was
finished and that he was already in his house.
His wife was astonished to see him and said, "My husband, how did you
return?" and he answered, "By the grace of God."
Then she cooked food for him and said, "Now eat." And he said to her,
"Last time I ate here you told me that I was a fool for not getting you
the clothes you wanted, now look first in the parcel I have brought and
see if they are indeed the clothes you want before I eat."
So his wife looked at the load and was astonished, and the neighbours
came and looked and were astonished, for there were the seven heads of
Pemba Muhori.
Then that youth thought to himself, "I must now teach my wife a lesson,
as she has put me to a lot of trouble and worry;" so he told her to
prepare a large feast for the next day, and he invited all his friends
to come.
Next day his friends came and they all ate till they were full, and he
then said to his wife, "My wife, bring me water that I may drink."
His wife brought him water, and he looked at it and said to her, "Do you
call this water, do you think that this is fit for your husband to
drink?"
So she went away and brought him milk, and he said to her, "What is this
you have brought me? Am I a baby that you think that I can drink this?"
So she went and brought him honey-wine, and he said to her, "Am I a
drunkard that when I ask for water you bring me wine?"
So she said to him, "My husband, what kind of water do you want? tell
me, that I may get it for you."
So he said, "That water you brought me smelt of frogs. I want water from
a lake in which there are no frogs."
So she took a water jar, and putting it on her head went forth, and he,
taking his sword and putting it over his shoulder, went after her, and
followed at a distance to see what she would do.
And she travelled on and on till she came to a big lake and said to
herself, "Perhaps this water will do." So she sang--
"My husband has sent me out to draw
Water no frog has touched with his claw."