My Dark Companions and Their Strange Stories

The preface says the nightly custom of gathering around the camp fire and entertaining one another with stories began in 1875, after Sabadu, a page of King Mtesa, had astonished his hearers with the legend of the "Blameless Priest." The preface also says that many of the stories related were naturally of little value, having neither novelty nor originality. In one story, Bateta calls on the Moon, saying that his wife lies languishing and has a taste strange to him which he cannot satisfy.

Day after day, a character named Leopardess sallies out from her den and returns with kids, goats, sheep, antelopes, zebra, and often a young giraffe. A character named Jackal says he does not care very greatly for bones, and hopes his friend and mate, Dog, will remember what the mistress says. The elephant king tells those who came to him that with the morning's dawn guides shall take them to Bungandu with such gifts as shall make them welcome to their folk.