“Yes,” replied Nomusa unhappily. “He said that if I were a boy he might have taken me along. If only I were! He will certainly take my brother, Mdingi. Well, at least I shall have the fun of taking the cattle to pasture while he is away, for Kangata is too young to watch them all by himself.”
Nomusa began to grow excited at the prospect of taking the cattle to pasture and for a moment even thought it would make up for not being allowed to go on the elephant hunt.
“Oh, Nomusa, why must you always be so eager to do what boys do? You should be content with being a girl. Girls are worth much more than boys. No Zulu girl can be had for a wife unless she is paid for in cattle. We are valuable.”
But Nomusa’s mind was no longer on what Sisiwe was saying. Her eyes were searching the ground to right and left, seeking the stones with which to make the paint. Halfway to the stream, Nomusa and Sisiwe placed their empty jars under a mimosa tree and left the path to look for colored stones that were soft enough to grind.
“Here’s a white one,” called Nomusa to her sister. “And here’s another. If we find two more white ones, we’ll have enough for white paint.”
When they had gathered all the stones they would need, Sisiwe said: “We’ll leave them here in a pile until we come back from the stream.”
“The water is much lower than it was this morning,” Nomusa remarked. “How thirsty the sun must be to drink so much every day. Well, anyway, there’s still enough for a good dip; and here I go!” In she dived, the pink soles of her feet gleaming. Sisiwe laughed and plunged in after her.
The two girls began to splash and pull each other under the water with so much shouting and merriment that birds nearby grew frightened and flew away. The monkeys hiding in the boughs lifted their heads and stared in wonder as the girls played in the water.
After a while, Nomusa and Sisiwe filled their jars with water and covered them with leaves from the bushes. They placed a cushion of rushes on top of their heads before balancing the jars on their heads. Then they rose carefully, first one knee, then the other, without spilling a single drop.
