Then they ran after the boy. When he came near his own house, he cried out: “Hide yourselves, you that are at home.”
His father said: “My son is saying we must gather wood that will make coals.”
His mother said: “No, he is saying we must hide ourselves.”
The boy cried again: “Hide yourselves.”
Then his mother hid herself in a bush; an old woman that was there covered herself with ashes, and Kenkebe climbed up into a tree, with the breast of the eland in his hand. The boy slipped into a hole that was by the side of the path.
The cannibals came to the place. First they ate the eland. Then one of them said: “Search under the ashes.”
There they found the old woman, and they ate her. Then they said: “Search in the tree.”
There they found Kenkebe. He cried very much, but they would not spare him. They ate him and the breast of the eland. Then the wise one said: “Look in the bush.”
They looked there and found the wife of [[166]]Kenkebe. They said: “We will eat her another time,” and so they took her home with them. They did not look for the boy.
The woman made a plan to escape. She made beer for the cannibals, and they all came to drink. They sat together in a big house, and drank very much beer. Then she said: “Can I go out?”