The chief and his men
stopped.
"It is witchcraft," said Bakulu. "See the little banana plant with palm
leaves, nuts and a coconut shell close by!"
"Don't go past it," said one of the other men. "It is bad medicine. You
will get sick and die."
"It is the people in the last village we passed through. They did it. Let
us punish them," said Chief Njiri.
"Yes, let's punish them," shouted the men. Mary had been following the men
to make sure they would go home.
She heard the shouting. Now the men started running past her. She tried to
stop them, but they slipped away. Mary took a short cut through the
jungle. She reached the road to the village before the men did.
"God, our Father in Heaven," prayed Mary, "help me for Jesus' sake to stop
these men, so there will not be a bloody battle."
"Stop," she cried as the first men came in sight. "Stop, I want to talk to
you."
The men stopped. The others soon came running up. They had to stop, too.
"You men are planning to do something bad. You do not know that the people
of this village did bad things to you. You only think they did. You have
drunk too much beer. You do not know what you are doing. Go home."
"But Ma," said Njiri, "they have made bad medicine against us. They made
witchcraft. They must be punished before we are hurt."
Njiri and his men argued with Mary, but finally they listened to her.
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