The women signaled to each other and burst into laughter. Suddenly they changed into two butterflies, fluttering away. Quite perplexed, the man turned and slowly walked back to his campsite.

“Son,” he said trembling slightly. “I have seen things too terrible to talk about—over by the Lwange River.” That evening, they sat quietly by the fire before going to bed.

The next morning, the father sent his son to hunt by himself over by the river. “Go,” he said, “and come back and tell me everything you saw.”

The son also met the women, who offered to marry him after he killed his father. Eagerly, the young man looked at them—their beautiful skin, their colorful head scarves, and the food they were carrying. He barely paused before he hurried away. Once out of their sight, he raced back to the campsite.

In the meantime the father, who had stayed at the camp, thought to himself, “I know that child. When he sees those women, he won’t stop to think.” Again the father remembered the proverb, “A man of wisdom, not a man of stature.” And so, he pulled up large bunches of grass, rolled his sleeping mat around them, and placed the decoy in the hut. Then he hid in the bush.

The son came panting and looked into the hut. “Good,” he sighed with relief. “My father is sleeping.” Quickly, he swung his ax into the dried grass. The ax stuck in the ground.

As he struggled to pull it out, the father jumped out from his hiding place, grabbed his son from behind, and pinned his arms. “My son,” he urged, “listen to what I’ll tell you.” But the son struggled to free himself. “Stop,” the father insisted, “and I’ll tell you what you saw.”

Reluctantly, the son listened as his father explained all that had happened yesterday. He ended by telling his son to strike the ax into the mukulu tree and to hurry to the women, then to come back and describe everything he saw.

The women watched him coming with his “bloody” axe “I killed my father,” the son shouted. “Really!” they laughed. “You fool!” Signaling to each other, they turned into butterflies and fluttered away.