Adventure Magazine Cover — page 52: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

44 se Foti (Blood of the Waters) was in the midst of the clan of Alwepu worshipers in Mashonaland on the Limpopo River. The induna was also igira (witch-doctor). In a large hut, better kept than any of the others, some beshe (girls) were sitting around playing tana toz. Two amadoda (men) came out of a hut and walked toward the sango. Three nkwenkwes (boys) fol- lowed them as they wended their way toward the Mlimpo (Limpopo) River. Both men were squat with strong-look- ing shoulders, flat chins and wide, square jaws which showed that they were of Ma- shona or Manica blood. One man gestured all the while as they followed the path to the river. The path- way twisted tortuously this way and that way below the high elephant-grass. The two amadoda stopped suddenly, and then turned around and ran back along the pathway. They collided with three boys who were following them. The men picked themselves up in a fury and informed the boys in shaken accents that zmgwe was com- ing behind them. Men and boys used their elbows very generously in the mad scramble to get away from the invisible ingwe. : There was the sound of many feet plod- ding swiftly when the man in front stopped suddenly, yelling: “Tngonyama! Ingonyama!”’ lion!’’) The whole crowd piled upon him and knocked him down in their mad pace, scrambling up and untangling themselves as fast as they could. They stood up and saw the ingonyama with three others bar- ring the way and eying them in wild won- der. The boys cried: “Walla! Walla! Walla! Bawo,”’ shaking their right hands, with their left in their mouths, tears streaming down their bronze cheeks. The two men kept on repeating: ‘So lo u nyanal’ (‘Son of dogs! Son of dogs!’’) in terrified hysteria. When they had said this a few times in unison, one of them looked at the back trail that they had so swiftly been running along, and with the shout of “‘Jigwe!”’ dived into the long grass, followed by his friend. The boys were bewildered and too much scared to move. They kept up a continual whimpering. It was not until the ingwe came up closely, sniffing at one of their num- (“A lion! A Adventure ber, that the boy yelled and almost shrieked: “Sukal Sukal” \(“Get away! Get away!’’) “Gragral Gragra!’”’ * The ingwe stopped, bared its teeth and with a spitting snort dived into the long grass and was gone. The boys looked at one another and swallowed the swallows of nothing, smiling nervously through their tear-stained faces. They timidly raised their voices, and then with one accord the trio shricked at the top of their lungs: “Sukal Gral Suka! Suka! Suka!” The four ingonyama reared up at the din made by the three, then sheepishly bumped each other’s noses as they meekly turned round and slunk away along the path. The boys dug their fists in their eyes, wiped their noses with Adam’s handker- chief, and swaggered around with chests puffed up, each saying— “Za guyima meena kayle.” away when I shouted.’’) They began to argue as to who had really shouted the loudest. Each one claimed he had. The end of the argument was a free- for-all fight which ended when the boy Mkafula scrambled up and ran away, pelted with stones by his two companions. As to the behavior of the lions and the ingwe for not eating up the boys, it might be explained that a lion ordinarily will not attack a human being unless hungry. In this case it is to be presumed that the band of ingonyama had had their meal—that also may be applied to the ingwe. For if they, either the ingonyama or the ingwe had been hungry, what took place later would never have been written down here. Mkafula ran in and out of the twisting pathway back toward the kraal, his com- panions shouting taunts at him in great delight. By hard running he was able to outdistance them, and floundered into the kraal sango, where the two amadoda were telling the others how they had bravely fought a band of lions, leopards and other savage beasts. The double harangue came to a sudden end with the appearance of the badly blown boy. The parents of the other two boys crowded around him and questioned him about them. The boy informed them in hurt tones that he had saved them from being eaten by the ingonyama, and had - *A term of revulsion. (“They ran GOMIIGooOoO S (C@