Odyssey From Africa 11g 12a

Chapter 11g Han and Kwona and their children  Made their courteous introductions Then were guided to their quarters Where they soundly slept till sunrise    Chapter 12a The Fireflower    In the morning light they wakened Now they saw with daytime clearness The luxurious appointment  Of the broad and spacious dwelling    This was more sophisticated  Than their modest fisher homesteads Floors and walls of wood-carved panels Works of art at every corner   Kwona had to warn the children  To be careful with these treasures  Now their hosts called them to breakfast  Round a slab of polished timber   They were seated. Alongside them Sat the master of the household  Tor, a craftsman and shipbuilder With his wife and seven children    Now were brought exotic dishes  Such that they had never tasted Seafood mixed with fruits and salad Unfamiliar seeds and pulses   But the favourite of the children  Were the satay-sticks of goats meat With a paste of sweet ground peanuts  Artefacts of agriculture     In the kingdom they had mastered Growing crops for cultivation   And had bred wild goats for farming  From a stock that had been carried From the mainland to the island  Several centuries beforehand  Han and Kwona and their children  All their lives had never tasted    Such delicious varied flavours Soon the whole assembled party Had their fill of hearty breakfast  Turning then to conversation   Kwona spoke with animation  With the mother of the household  Of the splendid seafood dishes  And the way of preparation    Of the salad and it's making  Of the goats and of their rearing Han conversed with Tor the shipwright  In a technical discussion    Of the ships that they had sailed in Their design and their construction  How they shaped and cured the wood beams How their many ropes were woven   But the children were the loudest In their cries and exclamations  As departing from the table They engaged in sport and laughter   It was their adopted animals  That attracted most attention  Lisa let them play with Rosy Matto showed his own pet batling    How the children loved Ipiki! Round the black-winged bat they crowded Felt his soft fur and his wing-film As the small ones heard him squeaking    Moving outside onto grassland  Now they spread to form a circle  And Ipiki took to flying  In between the happy youngsters    Thus the children gained acquaintance  Learned each other’s names and ages From the youngest, just a toddler  To the oldest now teenagers