Dressed as a bride, she was led to the pond, where the dragon Bida lived.  But Mamadi was also there, accompanied by his good horse and his good sword.  What else does a man need?

The priest addressed Bida, the goddess of gold, to please accept this beautiful bride.  Slowly the serpent raised its head out of the water, higher and higher on its long neck.  Suddenly Mamadi stepped forward and swung his silent sword.  It sliced neatly through the monstrous neck.  The head came off, but it did not fall.  It flew up into the air and disappeared out of sight, falling down in a far-away country to the south, which we now call Ghana.  Once it was called the Gold Coast because so much gold was found there.  No more golden rain fell on Wagadu after that day.

Mamadi quickly took his sweetheart Sia, put her on his horse, jumped in the saddle in front of her, and galloped off at great speed.  Mamadi rode to his mother’s town, Sama.  There he lived in his mother’s house with the beautiful Sia.

But Sia soon tired of him.  In Sama there was no gold as there had been in Wagadu: And beautiful women love gold, in great quantities.  The gold-raining serpent was dead.  One morning Sia pretended to have a headache.  “If you give me your little toe, that will cure it,” she said to her lover.  Mamadi loved her so much that he cut off his little toe and gave it to her, to make medicine with.  A few days later she complained of headaches again: “If you give me your little finger as well, then I can be cured wholly.”  Mamadi loved Sia so much that he cut off his little finger for her to cook medicine from.

Not long afterward Sia told him: “Actually, I do not want a man with only nine fingers and nine toes.  I need a complete man with nothing missing.  I don’t want to see you again.”

But Sia forgot one thing: Sama was the city of Mamadi’s mother.  Mamadi went to his mother and told her everything.  She said: “Leave it to me,” and went out to find an old friend, a wise woman and told her: “My son has sacrificed a finger and a toe for this woman, Sia Yatta-Bari.  For her he killed the golden serpent Bida.  For her he made Wagadu a city of poverty, Wagadu, where it used to rain gold every year! For her he left Wagadu where he owned houses and land and became an exile.  Now she says that a man with only nine fingers and toes is not good enough!”

The old woman said, “Leave it to me, my friend.  We shall soon bring that woman down from the throne of her pride.”