What was it that had stopped them? Nomusa looked up at her father questioningly, but he was too concerned with something under a large thorn tree to notice her. Zabala and Damasi, now boldly in front, were pointing at something very long and thick lying on the ground. It bulged in the middle, with two high knobs jutting under its flesh.
The object did not move. Whatever it was, it seemed to be dead. Now the hunters moved closer, step by step, holding back the excited dogs.
As they drew nearer, Nomusa saw that the object was a huge snake that had swallowed some small animal.
“The snake is dead,” announced her father. “Let us cut him open and see what he has swallowed.”
The snake was carefully cut open right around the part that bulged. There lay a young spotted deer, completely intact, that had apparently been swallowed not very long before. The two knobs under the snake’s skin were the deer’s budding horns.
Damasi came running over to Nomusa. “Do you see what has happened?” he asked excitedly. “The snake must have swallowed the young deer and then lain quietly down to digest it. When he fell asleep the horns of the deer ripped through his flesh and killed him. What a feast we shall have tonight!”
And what a fine story this is going to make for Themba, thought Nomusa.
“I have not tasted deer meat for a long time,” said Damasi, smacking his lips.
“It is a pity that I am not as hungry now as I was at noonday,” Nomusa sighed.