So they returned with great sadness to the maloka.
Long, long after this Komuine reappeared in the Ha-a, the great house of the tribe, and sang a solo, as is the custom among the people when making a complaint. And this is the complaint Komuine sang:
The Chief’s daughter was lost in the forest,
And no one came to find the spoor;
The branches were broken, the gwahake-ane, the leaves, were turned,
And no one came to find the spoor.
And where were my brothers, and the sons of the chief’s brothers,[395]
That no one came to find the spoor?
And while Komuine was dancing, it was noticed, to the disgust of the tribe, that her bird rump was covered with nikwako, hair, so the old women came and rubbed milk[396] upon her to remove the unsightliness. But as they pulled and the unsightliness was removed, more unsightliness came, and the hairier she grew. When she was covered with leaves,[397] she told her story:
“O my brothers! When I was in the forest picking peppers a komuine came to me, and taking me by force he deflowered me. He took me with him into the bush to become his gwame, his woman, and I gave birth to twins, and the second one was buried, for even komuine have but one ehemene, one child. And the child was hairy like a komuine, but had the face of a man. And when I gave him milk the unsightliness came, and I ran from the beasts and came to my own people.”