Not Far from the Hills of the Matopos There Lived a Family Whose Children Were Made Out

Not far from the hills of the Matopos there lived a family whose children were made out of wax. The mother and father () were exactly the same as everyone else , but for some reason their children () turned out to be made of wax. At first this caused them great sorrow () but later they became accustomed to this state of affairs and grew to love their children dearly.

It was easy for the parents to love the wax children () because the wax children, unlike other children, were always dutiful and never fought with one another. ()

The only real problem () with the wax children was that people had to avoid making fires too close to them and () they also had to work only at night. If they worked during the day () wax children would melt.

To keep them out of the sun, their father made the wax children () a dark hut with no windows, so that the sun could not penetrate it. () When the sun had gone down, the children would come out of their dark hut and begin their work tending the crops and watching over the cattle.

There was one wax child, Ngwabi, who used to talke about what it was like during the day. () Ngwabi's brothers and sisters knew they could never go outside and accepted it. They were content and did not yearn to see the daylight world, but poor Ngwabi wanted to see the daylight world very much indeed.

In his dreams, Ngwabi saw the hills in the distance and watched the clouds that brought rain. He saw paths () leading through the bush () and longed to follow them . () As he grew older, this desire of Ngwabi's to see what the daylight world was () like () grew stronger and stronger. At last he was unable to contain it any more and he ran out of the hut one day when the sun was riding high in the sky (). The other children screamed and () tried to grab him () but they failed to stop () him and Ngwabi was gone.

Of course he could not last long in such heat. The sun burned down on him () and before he had taken more than a few steps Ngwabi () felt all the strength drain from his limbs. Crying out to his brothers and sisters, he fell to the ground (), nothing more than a pool of wax in the dust.

() Afraid to leave the darkness of the hut, the wax children wept for their melted brother.

When night came, the children left their hut and went to the spot where Ngwabi had fallen. Picking up the wax () Ngwabi's eldest sister () shaped it into a bird () with great wings. () For feathers () his brothers and sisters used leaves to protect the wax from the sun, () so the bird would not melt in the daytime. () Then the wax children told their mother and father what had happened. The parents cried and kissed the wax bird, setting it high upon a rock in front of the children's hut.

The wax children did not work that night. At dawn they () peered through a small crack () in the wall of the hut. As the light came up over the hills, it made the wax bird () pink with fire.

Then, () the great bird () they had made suddenly moved it's wings and launched () into the air. Soon it was high above the ground () and a few minutes later it was gone. () The children knew that their brother was happy at last.