Odyssey From Africa 10b

CHAPTER 10b, Hiatus, continued Till a pebble thrown by Matto Struck the creature on its forehead And it hissed in indignation Slinking off into the darkness When the morning sun resurfaced In a spectral ocean sunrise All the family rose from sleeping Bathed and freshened in the sea surf Kwona then approached the stone pile Where the octopus was buried Snatched aside the still warm pebbles And with Han's stone bladed hatchet Cut a tentacle in slices As a powerful aroma Rose out of the stone-lined oven Redolent of well baked mollusc As the family now assembled Each received a goodly measure Of baked octopus for breakfast Laid on plates of palm frond segments Though each one ate all they wanted Ate till they could eat no longer They had eaten but a single Tentacle of that great creature For this reason Han decided They would stay for one day longer To rest up and make good use of Their great store of roasted sea-flesh So they lingered on the seashore Idly swimming in the shallows And on octopus they feasted Even tiring of its flavour Han continued with his carving Of the boomerang replacement Lisa ran and played with Rosy, Matto resting with Ipiki Then at dusk they made a campfire Piled it high with fronds and branches Watched it fiercely blaze in silence Watched it settle to bright embers Eyes reflecting flickering firelight As a peaceful night descended And a million stars above them Beckoned them to rise to heaven And to run on paths of starlight Each in their imagination But the freedom of the night sky Turned their hearts at last to sadness They remembered their own kinsfolk From their birth the friends and family Who so savagely betrayed them Made them flee for no wrongdoing Quietly they started singing Folksongs of the seaside people Gentle harmonies and rhythms Drifted out upon the night air Then they slept around the embers In the music of the nighttime Once again an hour past midnight The hyena came inquiring This time it was more determined To sniff out the roasted carcass Not deterred by several pebbles Han threw at the prowling creature Finally he seized the boomerang That he had almost finished And he flung it fast and level At the circling hyena And again with angry screeching The hyena made its protest Then ran off into the darkness Leaving blood drops on the shore stones