Hlakanyana answered: “It must be the old man who is sleeping there.”
They looked, and saw the bone by the side of the old man, and the fat on his mouth. Then they said: “This is the thief.” They were intending to kill the old man because he had stolen the meat of the chief.
When the children saw that the old man was to be killed, they said that he did not eat the meat of the chief.
The men said: “We saw fat on his mouth and a bone beside him.”
The children replied: “He did not do it.”
The men said: “Tell us who did it.”
The children answered: “Hlakanyana ate the meat and put dung in the pot. We were concealed, and we saw him do it.”
Hlakanyana denied. He said: “Let me go and ask the women; perhaps they saw who ate the meat of the chief.”
The men sent a young man with him to the women; but when they were a short distance away, Hlakanyana escaped. [[98]]
The chief sent an army after him. The army pursued, and saw Hlakanyana sitting by a bush. They ran to catch him. When they came to the bush, only an old woman was sitting there.