is connected
with her as by a cord, she must be the child whom the parrot carried to
my mother with a banana stalk and two pieces of sugar-cane."

"Yes, yes, thou must be my own mother," cried the princess; and when the
grass-cloth was laid even to the inside of the house, she ran forward,
and folded her arms around her.

When Gumbi saw them together he said, "Truly, equals always come
together. I see now by many things that the princess must be right.
But she will not long remain with me, I fear, for a king's daughter
cannot remain many moons without suitors."

Now though Gumbi considered it a trifle to destroy children whom he had
never seen, it never entered into his mind to hurt Miami or the
princess. On the contrary, he was filled with a gladness which he was
never tired of talking about. He was even prouder of his daughter,
whose lovely shape and limpid eyes so charmed him, than of all his tall
sons. He proved this by the feasts he caused to be provided for all the
people. Goats were roasted and stewed, the fishermen brought fish
without number, the peasants came loaded with weighty bunches of
bananas, and baskets of yams, and manioc, and pots full of beans, and
vetches, and millet and corn, and honey and palm-oil, and as for the
fowls--who could count them? The people also had plenty to drink of the
juice of the palm, and thus they were made to rejoice with the king in
the return of the princess.

It was soon spread throughout Manyema that no woman was like unto
Gumbi's daughter for beauty. Some said that she was of the colour of a
ripe banana, others that she was like fossil gum, others like a reddish
oil-nut, and others again that her face was more like the colour of the
moon than anything else. The effect of this reputation was to bring
nearly all the young chiefs in the land as suitors for her hand. Many
of them would have been pleasing to the king, but the princess was
averse to them, and she caused it to be made known that she would marry
none save the young chief who could produce matako (brass rods) by
polishing his teeth. The king was very much amused at this, but the
chiefs stared in surprise as they heard it.

The king mustered the choicest young men of the land, and he told them
it was useless for any one to hope to be married to the princess unless
he could drop brass rods by rubbing his teeth. Though they held it to
be impossible that any one could do such a thing, yet every one of