The girl answered: “There are no boys in the village.”
He went to the father of the girl and said: “You must give me your daughter to be my concubine, and I will herd the goats.”
The father of the girl agreed to that. Then Hlakanyana went with the goats, and every [[108]]day he killed one and ate it till all were done. He scratched his body with thorns.
The father of the girl said: “Where are all the goats?”
Hlakanyana replied: “Can you not see how I have been fighting with the wild dogs? The wild dogs have eaten the goats. As for me, I will stay here no longer.”
So he went on his way.
As he was going on, he saw a trap for catching birds. There were some birds in it. Hlakanyana took the birds out and ate them. The owners of the trap were cannibals. They saw the footprints of Hlakanyana, and said: “This is a little boy that is stealing our birds.” They watched for him. Hlakanyana came again to the trap and saw a bird caught in it. He was just going to take the bird out when the cannibals caught him. They made a big fire and put a pot on for the purpose of cooking him. Hlakanyana saw two oxen. One was white, the other was red.
He said to the cannibals: “You can take which one of these oxen you like instead of me.”
The cannibals said: “We will take the white one, because it is white inside also.” [[109]]
Then Hlakanyana went away with the red ox. The cannibals ate the white ox, and then pursued after Hlakanyana. They came up to him by a big stone. He jumped on the stone, and sang this song:—