reat as I, therefore I am all alone. Guard thyself!' and bending
suddenly he seized the hero in his hands and dashed him upon the ground.
And lo! instead of death, Makoma had found life, for he sprang to his
feet mightier in strength and stature than before, and rushing in he
gripped the giant by the waist and wrestled with him.

Hour by hour they fought, and mountains rolled beneath their feet like
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.

The Magic Mirror

[Native Rhodesian Tale.]

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
wood that neither creature could get away.

'Help!' cried the antelope, 'for I was doing no harm, yet I have been
caught, and would have been eaten, had I not defended myself.'

'Help me,' said the python, 'for I am Insato, King of all the Reptiles,
and will reward you well!'

Gopani-Kufa considered for a moment, then stabbing the antelope with his
assegai, he set the python free.

'I thank you,' said the python; 'come back here with the new moon, when
I shall have eaten the antelope, and I will reward you as I promised.'

'Yes,' said the dying antelope, 'he will reward you, and lo! your reward
shall be your own undoing!'

Gopani-Kufa went back to his kraal, and with the new moon he returned
again to the spot where he had saved the python.

Insato was lying upon the ground, still s