Only at night, when the crows were asleep, did the children go out to see the world, provided they made no noise. But children grow bigger and bolder, and they came to no longer fear the crows. One day, when their mother was out in the fields, they heard the crows outside upset one of her water jars. So they decided to go and fetch fresh water for their mother. Opening the door, they chased the cheeky crows away, picked up the jar, and went down to the river in the valley.

It so happened that while they were filling the jar, a prince from a neighboring country came to the river with his retinue. He was out searching for a wife. When he saw the beautiful Soyane, the prince (whose name was Masilo) asked her to give him some water. She reached up and gave him her jar, and he—enchanted and intoxicated—looked down from his horse and fell in love with her. Prince Masilo asked her where she lived, and Soyane pointed at her mother’s old hut on the hill. He then asked if her father was the chief of the village, and she said yes. But, at that moment, Sole and Soyane saw their mother returning from the fields and they rushed back to the hut.

Meanwhile, the prince rode up to the chief’s house and, after exchanging greetings, began to discuss marrying the chief’s daughter. Whereupon, the chief sadly answered, “I have neither son nor daughter.”

Somewhat confused, Prince Masilo replied, “Then who are the children who claim to be yours and who live in yonder old hut?”

Deeply surprised, the chief rose and went to his second wife’s hut for the first time in fifteen years.

Here, the African storyteller criticizes old chief Father of Crows without directly doing so. No African husband should neglect his wife, certainly not for such a long time, even if she is childless. A chief has to know everything that happens in his village. He should not spend his time wailing. Going round and talking to people is better than sitting and lamenting one’s fate. It was only because the prince insisted that the old chief was prepared to go to Manyope’s dilapidated hut with its roof covered in bird dung and its entrance no more than a heap of stones.

As the chief stepped up to the hut, he heard people talking inside. Manyope was chatting and laughing with her two children, very happily. He peered inside through the stones that blocked the entrance.