One day Bemba’s poisoned arrow hit Faruk of Fasa, an Arab merchant, in the arm.  Faruk was on his way out of the city and he traveled on until the pain became so unbearable that he decided to lie down in the bush and die there.  It so happened that Juma was collecting firewood in the same shrubs where the Arab sat down to say his last prayers.  When she learned of his plight she invited him to come and stay in her husband’s village. “We are poor and simple hunters, but honest people, not like those in the city.”

The great sword, Dama Ngile, rises to the hand of its rightful owner in the armory of King Sunjata.

She helped him to walk to their hamlet and put him up in a spare hut.  Then she cooked some meat of the kaniambare which her husband had shot that morning.  It is a big bird whose flesh is the best cure against arrow-poison, but nobody knew that.  Feeling better after his meal, the Arab went to sleep and did not wake until after Dama Ngile had come home.  He had shot another kaniambare and invited Faruk to share their supper.  After that meal the Arab felt completely cured.  He spoke: “In gratitude for your reception, you shall become king and queen of Jerra.  Leave it to me.”  Without further words he left and went back to the city.

Faruk was a scholar as well as a merchant.  He wrote nine talismen in a secret writing known only to God and scholars.  He placed these at midnight under the nine gates of the city of Jerra.  As a result, quarrels broke out in the palace.  Father killed son and brother killed brother.  Civil war divided the citizens.  All the princes and the two kings died in the battle.  Then the citizens called upon the only honest nobleman they could find to be their king.  Thus Dama Ngile became Jerra’s king.

The fate of cities is in the hands of God who will show signs to those who have eyes to see. If evil men destroy the peace by their own pride, God may use a man to put things right.  It is quite common in West Africa for merchants to be scholars, and for scholars to possess the ability to work magic by means of talismans.  Talismans are scrolls, sheets of paper rolled or folded up, on which the scholar has written the characters of the secret books of magic.  Some say that these books were dictated by King Solomon, others that the angels dictated them to Solomon, others again that only God’s own words are powerful enough to have magic effect.

Thus God destroyed the royal family by means of their own pride.  Since all the wicked men had been killed, there remained only an honest man to rule the country.