as heard the call of the honey-bird, the brisk little chirp
of "Chiken, chiken, chik, churr, churr," and she is away to the wood
to follow his call, and bring home the honey.
She runs beneath the tall trees, looking up for the small brown bird;
then she stops and listens to hear him again, when close beside her
comes the call, "Chiken, chiken, chik, churr, churr," and there sits
the brown bird above a hole in the tree, where the bees are flying in
and out, their legs yellow with honey-dust. It is too high for Manenko
to reach, but she marks the place and says to herself: "I will tell
Ra when he comes home." Who is Ra? Why, that is her name for "father."
She turns to go home, but stops to listen to the wild shouts and songs
of the women who have left the huts and are coming down towards the
river to welcome their chief with lulliloo, praising him by such
strange names as "Great lion," "Great buffalo."
The chief comes from a long journey with the young men up the river
in canoes, to hunt the elephant, and bring home the ivory tusks,
from which we have many beautiful things made. The canoes are full of
tusks, and, while the men unload them, the women are shouting: "Sleep,
my lord, my great chief." Manenko listens while she stands under the
trees,--listens for only a minute, and then runs to join her mother
and add her little voice to the general noise.
The chief is very proud and happy to bring home such a load; before
sunset it will all be carried up to the huts, the men will dress in
their very best, and walk in a gay procession. Indeed, they can't
dress much; no coats or hats or nicely polished boots have they to put
on, but some will have the white ends of oxen's tails in their hair,
some a plume of black ostrich feathers, and the chief himself has a
very grand cap made from the yellow mane of an old lion. The drum will
beat, the women will shout, while the men gather round a fire, and
roast and eat great slices of ox-meat, and tell the story of their
famous elephant-hunt. How they came to the bushes with fine, silvery
leaves and sweet bark, which the elephant eats, and there hiding,
watched and waited many hours, until the ground shook, with the heavy
tread of a great mother-elephant and her two calves, coming up from
the river, where they had been to drink. Their trunks were full
of water, and they tossed them up, spouting the water like a fine
shower-bath over their hot heads and backs, and now, cooled and
ref
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