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"We shall be ready in a minute," said Odu, and ran out, followed by all except Luva. Lilith was now awake, and listening with a sad smile. "But her rivers are running so fast!" said Luva, who stood by her side and seemed unable to take her eyes from her face. "Her robe is all I don't know what. Clumsies won't like it!" "They won't mind it," answered Mara.
"He was all black through between us, and we could not see one another; and then he was inside us." "How did you know he was inside you?" "He did me quite different. I felt like bad. I was not Odu any more not the Odu I knew. I wanted to tear Sozo to pieces not really, but like!" He turned and hugged Sozo. "It wasn't me, Sozo," he sobbed. "Really, deep down, it was Odu, loving you always!
"Is it rivers?" asked Odu, gazing at the little streams that flowed adown her hollow cheeks. "Yes," answered Mara, " the most wonderful of all rivers." "I thought rivers was bigger, and rushed, like a lot of Little Ones, making loud noises!" he returned, looking at me, from whom alone he had heard of rivers. "Look at the rivers of the sky!" said Mara.
Those next me caught sight of the princess, and stared trembling. Odu was the first to speak. "I have seen that woman before!" he whispered to his next neighbour. "It was she who fought the white leopardess, the night they woke us with their yelling!" "Silly!" returned his companion. "That was a wild beast, with spots!" "Look at her eyes!" insisted Odu.
"It was a man that came down the hill from the palace," said a third. "How did he frighten you?" "I don't know." "He wasn't a man," said Odu; "he was a shadow; he had no thick to him!" "Tell me more about him." "He came down the hill very black, walking like a bad giant, but spread flat. He was nothing but blackness.
We stopped to see the result; when suddenly a small boy, called Odu, remarkable for his speed and courage, who had heard me speak of the goodness of the white leopardess, leaped from the back of his bear, which went shambling after him, and ran to meet her.
"Indeed it is the princess!" I interposed. "Wickedness has made her ugly!" She heard, and what a look was hers! "It was very wrong of me to run away!" said Odu thoughtfully. "What made you run away?" I asked. "I expected to find you where I left you!" He did not reply at once. "I don't know what made me run," answered another. "I was frightened!"
"See how they come down to wake up the waters under the earth! Soon will the rivers be flowing everywhere, merry and loud, like thousands and thousands of happy children. Oh, how glad they will make you, Little Ones! You have never seen any, and do not know how lovely is the water!" "That will be the glad of the ground that the princess is grown good," said Odu. "See the glad of the sky!"
There is One who will be with her, but she will not be with Him." "Will the shadow that came down the hill be with her?" "The great Shadow will be in her, I fear, but he cannot be WITH her, or with any one. She will know I am beside her, but that will not comfort her." "Will you scratch her very deep?" asked Odu, going near, and putting his hand in hers. "Please, don't make the red juice come!"
Odu, catching sight of the leopardess on the feet of the princess, bounded to her next, and throwing an arm over the great sleeping head, fondled and kissed it. "Wake up, wake up, darling!" he cried; "it is time to wake!" The leopardess did not move. "She has slept herself cold!" he said to Mara, with an upcast look of appealing consternation.
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