Black Tales for White Children

by C. H. Stigand; Nancy Yulee Stigand

And the Sultan's wife stayed in the upper storey, and there she gave birth to a son, and she called him Mohammed.

And Mohammed grew up, till one day he said to his mother, "How is it that we two sit alone and there are no other people here?"

And his mother said to him, "Go and open the window and look out." And he opened the window and looked out.

And she said to him, "What do you see?" And he said, "I see many houses."

Then she said to him, "All those houses were once full of people, but the Nunda has killed and eaten them all, even your father and brothers he has eaten."

So Mohammed said, "Did my father have any weapons?" And his mother said, "He used to go to war, and guns and spears and bows and arrows and shields were the weapons he had."

Mohammed said to her, "Bows and arrows are the weapons I want."

So he took a bow and three hundred arrows and set forth, and travelled through the bush, on and on, till one day he met a rhino.

He said to himself, "This must be the Nunda," so he shot his arrows and shot and shot till he had used all his three hundred arrows and the rhino fell dead.

Then he cut off a leg and set out for home, carrying it with him. When he got near the house he sung, "This is Nunda, this is Nunda who kills people."