However, the father does not abandon his son, but rather prepares both the boy and himself for this difficult experience. Quite directly, the father hints at trouble by saying that he saw “things too terrible to talk about” and that the son will likely see the same. Having set up the lesson, he further instructs the son to be alert and ready to describe all he experiences. Next, after the young man hurries off, the father retreats to their hut and cautiously prepares for his son’s impulsive passion. He stuffs a dummy with dried grass, places it in the bed, and covers it with a blanket. Finally, he hides in the bush, ready to grab his son from behind to protect not only himself but also his son from his own violence.

The youth initially succumbs to the women’s trick—for he does hack the straw dummy to pieces and he does struggle against his father’s firm grip. As a lusting young man, he responds impulsively and, thus, cannot sense the perverse quality of these female apparitions. He only can reverse the women’s fool-making ruse with his father’s help and reluctantly follows his trick of offering the sap-smeared ax.

Though the son finally grasps the experiential lesson as the butterflies flit away, the father sends him home: He is not yet mature enough to face the bush. The youth’s unrestrained impulsiveness blurs his vision. So easily blinded by desire, he is a dangerous companion in the bush. For the lesson tests more than his insight into women: The experience calls for that inner strength of wisdom which sees beyond initial impressions and holds other people as more valuable than immediate personal gratification.

To a young, passionate man, two seductive women on a forsaken path are almost irresistible. Were he able to see beyond that appeal and his own drives, he would be strong and wise enough to resist any other tempting apparition. For in the wilderness, where sorcerers trick to kill and many beings change shape, such discernment counts more than any other ability.

Because extraordinary beings can take any guise and often shift between dimensions of reality, the initial apprenticeship in the bush strains at a Chokwe boy’s limits. No doubt, this eager young man was on his first hunting trip with his father. As a child playing at the village edge or near his mother in the fields, he was not so endangered by the illimitable beings.

Now old enough but not yet wise, he starts to enter the bush as a man but fails his father’s readiness test. So easily confounded by the ever-shifting shapes and figures, by the nuanced dimensions slipping in and out of each other, he would be a likely sorcerer’s victim.