The nyamatsanes paid no attention to her , and began to open all the cupboards , and peep under all the beds , crying out all the while , ' A man is here ! a man is here ! ' but they could find nobody , and at length , tired out with their long day 's hunting , they curled themselves up and fell asleep . Next morning they woke up quite refreshed , and made ready to start on another expedition ; but as they did not feel happy about their grandmother they said to her , ` Grandmother , wo n't you come to-day and feed with us ? ' And they led their grandmother outside , and all of them began hungrily to eat pebbles . Our friend pretended to do the same , but in reality he slipped the stones into his pouch , and swallowed the crusts of bread instead . However , as the nyamatsanes did not see this they had no idea that he was not really their grandmother . When they had eaten a great many pebbles they thought they had done enough for that day , and all went home together and curled themselves up to sleep . Next morning when they woke they said , ` Let us go and amuse ourselves by jumping over the ditch , ' and every time they cleared it with a bound . Then they begged their grandmother to jump over it too , end with a tremendous effort she managed to spring right over to the other side . After this they had no doubt at all of its being their true grandmother , and went off to their hunting , leaving our friend at home in the hut . As soon as they had gone out of sight our hero made haste to take the liver from the place where he had hid it , threw off the skin of the old nyamatsane , and ran away as hard as he could , only stopping to pick up a very brilliant and polished little stone , which he put in his bag by the side of the liver . Towards evening the nyamatsanes came back to the hut full of anxiety to know how their grandmother had got on during their absence . The first thing they saw on entering the door was her skin lying on the floor , and then they knew that they had been deceived , and they said to each other , ` So we were right , after all , and it was human flesh we smelt . ' Then they stooped down to find traces of the man 's footsteps , and when they had got them instantly set out in hot pursuit . Meanwhile our friend had journeyed many miles , and was beginning to feel quite safe and comfortable , when , happening to look round , he saw in the distance a thick cloud of dust moving rapidly . His heart stood still within him , and he said to himself , ' I am lost . It is the nyamatsanes , and they will tear me in pieces , ' and indeed the cloud of dust was drawing near with amazing quickness , and the nyamatsanes almost felt as if they were already devouring him . Then as a last hope the man took the little stone that he had picked up out of his bag and flung it on the ground . The moment it touched the soil it became a huge rock , whose steep sides were smooth as glass , and on the top of it our hero hastily seated himself .
It was in vain that the nyamatsanes tried to climb up and reach him ; they slid down again much faster than they had gone up ; and by sunset they were quite worn out , and fell asleep XXXXX the foot of the rock .
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