At this time the men were saying to each other: “Who will carry the meat to our huts?”
Hlakanyana answered: “I will do it.”
They said: “How can such a thing as you are carry meat?”
Hlakanyana replied: “I am stronger than [[93]]you; just see if you can lift this piece of meat.”
The men tried, but could not lift it. Then Hlakanyana took the piece of meat and carried it out of the kraal. The men said: “That will do now, carry our meat for us.”
Hlakanyana took the meat and carried it to the house of his mother. He took blood and put it on the eating mats at the houses of the men. The men went to their houses, and said: “Where is our meat?” They called Hlakanyana, and asked him what he had done with the meat.
He replied: “Surely I put it here where the blood is. It must have been taken by the dogs. Surely the dogs have eaten it.”
Then those men beat the women and children because they did not watch that the dogs did not take the meat. As for Hlakanyana, he only delighted in this trick of his. He was more cunning than any of the old men.
Hlakanyana said to his mother, that she must put the meat in the pot to cook, but that it must not be eaten before the next morning. It was done. In the night this cunning little fellow rose and went to the pot. His mother [[94]]heard something at the pot, and struck with a stick. Hlakanyana cried like a dog. His mother said: “Surely a dog is eating the meat.” Hlakanyana returned afterwards, and left nothing but bones in the pot. In the morning he asked his mother for meat. His mother went to the pot, and found nothing but bones. The cunning little fellow pretended to be astonished.
He said: “Where is the meat, mother?”