Ta’ Njambu! milole mi we.
Milole mi we. Ta’ Njambu!”
All that while, the mother and his sisters were lying dead.
The Snails were shouting in their victory, “Tâkâ!”
Mbuma-tyĕtyĕ took a short broad knife in his hands, and shouted, “Dibadi!” He girded his body firmly, and stood erect. He called out in challenge, “I’ve come!” The Snails answered, “You’ve reached the end!”
They fought. The man took his sword. The Snails fell down on him, ndwa! But the man stood up, and moved forward. He laid hold of a small tree. He cut it, and whirled it about at the Snails. And the Snails fell down on the ground, po! But they rose up again flinging themselves upon the man, ndwa! The man jumped aside crying out, “Ah! My father Njambu! Dibadi-O!”
He took fire, thrust it among the tribe of Snails, and every one fell down on the ground, mbwâ!
Then he shaped a leaf into a funnel, and dropped a medicine into the noses of his mother and sisters. They slowly rose and tried to sit up. He poured the ashes of the Snails over them, po! They breathed it into their stomachs, kii! and they came fully to life.
Then they said, “You are safe! Now! for our return home!” He said, “Good!” And they returned.
Mbuma-tyĕtyĕ continued his own journey, on, on, on, until at a cross-roads, he found a giant Tooth, as large as a man. Tooth asked, “Where are you going?” Said he, “I’m going to seek a marriage at a town of Njambu-ya-Mekuku.” Then, with his axe in hand, he turned aside from the path; chopped firewood, chop, chop, chop, chop, mbwâ! Then he kindly carried a lot of it, and presented it to Tooth. He also opened his bag, and taking out an ukima roll, laid it down at the feet of Tooth; also a bundle of gourd-seeds, and laid it down; and then he said, “I’m going.” But the giant Tooth, pleased with him, said to him, “Just wait!”