At midday when the sun was high up, the witches came and started to pick up the mangoes, but they left the cripple underneath the tree.
When they had finished, they told him they were going to the stream to get water and would return to him later.
Nara was very frightened when she saw the witches, and kept quite quiet, but when she saw them go down to the stream she thought they had all gone, so she moved about in the branches and looked all round.
This movement soon attracted the attention of the cripple, who was lying on his back, and he looked up and saw Nara sitting on the branch.
Shortly afterwards the seven bad men returned with the water, and after he had taken a drink he told the others what he had seen in the tree. They looked up and saw Nara, so one of the witches climbed up the tree and threw her down. She was killed at once, and they cut the body up and divided it and took it home to eat. The cripple claimed the head for his share. As he was unable to walk, he crawled along the path on his hands and knees, rolling the head in front of him.
When Ogbaja returned to the mango tree after his hunting to take his mother home, he could not find her, but on looking about on the ground he saw the bloodstains where his mother’s body had been cut up, and at once knew that she must have been killed by the witches. He never gathered any fruit, but returned home empty-handed.
Ogbaja was far too frightened to go to the place where the bad men lived to look for his mother, so he went home, feeling very sad.
When he returned, Chief ’Njum asked him what had become of his mother, but Ogbaja’s heart was so full of grief that he could not answer. Then his friends Bojor and Osobia came and asked him why he grieved so much. So he told them what had happened, sobbing all the time.
His father, in the meantime, had sent to call another chief called Agborleku, who was a very wise man, to consult with him as to what was the best thing to be done.
When Agborleku arrived, Chief ’Njum told him what had happened to his wife. Then Chief Agborleku sat for a long time without speaking, considering what was the best way to get rid of these wicked men.