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Sacred Pythons
Sacred Pythons
One day, a very long time ago, some Naayire people went hunting. They
walked and walked in the bush but found nothing. When night came, they
were very far from home.
"We must sleep in the bush," the chief said, "we must find a good place to
sleep."
The hunters were not afraid to sleep in the bush, but they knew:
elephants, lions, and other animals sometimes killed sleeping hunters.
And there were some bad people, too, in the bush.
The hunters came to a place with big trees round it. They decided to rest
and sleep on the grass. They did not make a fire and ate only some nuts
which they carried in their bags; that was their supper. Then they went to
sleep. All of them were tired. They slept soundly and did not hear
anything. They did not hear that their enemies were coming nearer and
nearer to them.
But in one of the trees above the sleeping men something moved and fell
down on the head of a young hunter. He jumped up and cried; a big
python was on his head!
The Naayire hunters got up quickly and saw the enemies round them. A
fight began. Soon the enemies ran away and that was the end of the fight.
The Naayire hunters came up to their chief to talk about the fight.
"What made you jump up?" the chief asked the young hunter.
"It was a python," he said. "It fell on my head, but it did not kill me."
The the chief said, "From this day on our people will never kill a python.
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