Thus gradually and noiselessly they removed the hut and all its contents. Then they took bunches of grass, put them over the Lion, and lighting them, said, “If thou art favourably inclined to me, O fire, thou must flare up, ‘boo boo,’ before thou comest to the heart.”
So the fire flared up when it came towards the heart, and the heart of the Woman jumped upon the ground. The Mother (of the kraal) picked it up, and put it into a calabash.
The Lion, from his place in the fire, said to the Mother (of the kraal), “How nicely I have eaten your daughter.” The Woman answered, “You have also now a comfortable place!” * * *
Now the Woman took the first milk of as many cows as calved, and put it into the calabash where her daughter’s heart was; the calabash increased in size, and in proportion to this the girl grew again inside it. [[88]]
One day, when the Mother (of the kraal) went out to fetch wood, she said to the Hare, “By the time that I come back you must have everything nice and clean.” But during her Mother’s absence, the girl crept out of the calabash, and put the hut in good order, as she had been used to do in former days, and said to the Hare, “When mother comes back and asks, ‘Who has done these things?’ you must say, ‘I, the Hare, did them.’ ” After she had done all, she hid herself on the stage.[4]
When the Mother (of the kraal) came home, she said, “Hare, who has done these things? They look just as they used when my daughter did them.” The Hare said, “I did the things.” But the Mother would not believe it, and looked at the calabash. Seeing it was empty, she searched the stage and found her daughter. Then she embraced and kissed her, and from that day the girl stayed with her mother, and did everything as she was wont in former times; but she now remained unmarried. [[89]]
25. A WOMAN TRANSFORMED INTO A LION.
[A Tale.]
(From Sir James E. Alexander’s “Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa,” vol. ii. pp. 197, 198.)