pebbles in a flood; now Makoma would break away, and summoning up his
strength, strike the giant with Nu-endo his iron hammer, and Sakatirina
would pluck up the mountains and hurl them upon the hero, but neither
one could slay the other. At last, upon the second day, they grappled
so strongly that they could not break away; but their strength was
failing, and, just as the sun was sinking, they fell together to the
ground, insensible.

In the morning when they awoke, Mulimo the Great Spirit was standing by
them; and he said: 'O Makoma and Sakatirina! Ye are heroes so great
that no man may come against you. Therefore ye will leave the world
and take up your home with me in the clouds.' And as he spake the
heroes became invisible to the people of the Earth, and were no more
seen among them.

[Native Rhodesian Tale.]



The Magic Mirror From the Senna



A long, long while ago, before ever the White Men were seen in Senna,
there lived a man called Gopani-Kufa.

One day, as he was out hunting, he came upon a strange sight. An
enormous python had caught an antelope and coiled itself around it; the
antelope, striking out in despair with its horns, had pinned the
python's neck to a tree, and so deeply had its horns sunk in the soft