The woman came and said: “I smell something nice; what is it, my son?”
Magoda said there was nothing.
She replied: “Surely I smell fat children.”
But as she did not go in, they remained concealed that night.
The next morning Nomagoda (so called because she was the mother of Magoda) went out to hunt, but she did not go far, so the children could not get away. They went into her house, where they saw a person with only one arm, one side, and one leg.
The person said to them: “See, the cannibal has eaten the rest of me; take care of yourselves.”
When it was nearly dark, Nomagoda came home again, bringing some animals which she had killed. She smelt that children had been in the house, so she went to her son’s house and looked in.
She said to Magoda: “Why do you not give me some? Do I not catch animals for you?”
Then she saw the children, and was very glad. She took them to her house, and told them to sleep. They lay down, but were too frightened to close their eyes. They heard [[125]]their aunt say, “Axe, be sharp; axe, be sharp;” and to let her know that they were awake, they spoke of vermin biting them.
After a while the cannibal went to sleep, when they crept out, first putting two blocks of wood in their places, and ran away as fast as they could. When Nomagoda awoke, she took the axe and went to kill them, but the axe fell on the blocks of wood.