` No , no , ' said the bride ; ' I can look after him as well as you . Get him ready , for the sun is sinking and it is time we set forth . ' So she went away and put together a small pot filled with healing herms , a horn that she used in tending sick people , a little knife , and a calabash containing deer fat ; and , hiding these about her , she took leave of her father and mother and started across the mountains by the side of her husband . But the young man did not see the buffalo that followed them , which had left his home to be the servant of his wife . No one ever knew how the news spread to the kraal that the young man was coming back , bringing a wife with him ; but , somehow or other , when the two entered the village , every man and woman was standing in the road uttering shouts of welcome . ` Ah , you are not dead after all , ' cried they ; ` and have found a wife to your liking , though you would have none of our girls . Well , well , you have chosen your own path ; and if ill comes of it beware lest you grumble . ' Next day the husband took his wife to the fields and showed her which were his , and which belonged to his mother . The girl listened carefully to all he told her , and walked with him back to the hut ; but close to the door she stopped , and said : ' I have dropped my necklace of beads in the field , and I must go and look for it . ' But in truth she had done nothing of the sort , and it was only an excuse to go and seek the buffalo . The beast was crouching under a tree when she came up , and snorted with pleasure at the sight of her . ` You can roam about this field , and this , and this , ' she said , ` for they belong to my husband ; and that is his wood , where you may hide yourself . But the other fields are his mother 's , so beware lest you touch them . ' ' I will beware , ' answered the buffalo ; and , patting his head , the girl left him . Oh , how much better a servant he was than any of the little girls the bride had refused to bring with her ! If she wanted water , she had only to cross the patch of maize behind the hut and seek out the place where the buffalo lay hidden , and put down her pail beside him . Then she would sit at her ease while he went to the lake and brought the bucket back brimming over . If she wanted wood , he would break the branches off the trees and lay them at her feet . And the villagers watched her return laden , and said to each other : ` Surely the girls of her country are stronger than our girls , for none of them could cut so quickly or carry so much ! ' But then , nobody knew that she had a buffalo for a servant .
Only , all this time she never gave the poor buffalo anything XXXXX eat , because she had just one dish , out of which she and her husband ate ; while in her old home there was a dish put aside expressly for the Rover of the Plain .
So about across as if off than though to while