Note 1 — V THE RABBIT PRINCE A SHANGANI TALE
Reading edition
When the Prince returned unhurt and cheerful his enemies were dumbfounded and more enraged than ever. But they still persevered. They held a big indaba1 under a shady tree, attended by their chief men and all their magicians. A royal hunt was arranged to last for many days. During their absence from the kraal the Prince was to be killed by an assegai, as it were by an accident, for none wanted the Princess to think her husband had been murdered. This time they thought they could not fail, for they would be sure to have numberless opportunities in the heat of the chase. But the Woodpecker sat unseen in the boughs of the tree and heard everything. She was a wise bird and a great magician, and the instant she understood she flew to the empty hut of the first wizard of cloudland and there made a charm. She took the fat of the mamba, the most deadly of all snakes, the fat of the python, who is the biggest of snakes, and the skin round the lungs of the tiger. These she mixed together and placed in three little bags of python-skin, such as could easily be hidden. Then she flew straight to the Rabbit Prince with the bags in her mouth.