“Kasawayo, I will do my best to find you a handsome lover.”
“Vanaka! O serpent-god,” quoth Kasawayo, as she spread her wings that the serpent might see that she was as well-coloured as he was. In another moment she had bravely fluttered down to the forest floor.
“Alow! Woi!” cried the wondering children, as Kasawayo stood beside the hot-eyed serpent.
“Run away, children!” said the artful serpent-god.
In a moment the children had all vanished, were running home to the village to tell their parents all they had seen.
Turning to Kasawayo, the serpent-god said in his gentlest voice:
“Come on!”
And so Kasawayo with a trembling heart went away through the forest, walking by the side of the crawling serpent-god whose heart was bitter indeed to think he was not disguised by the fates as a handsome youth instead of an ugly serpent-thing.
“Sing to me,” said the god, as he glided by Kasawayo’s side.
Kasawayo at once lifted her half-bird, half-human face, and sang.