One day a Hottentot was travelling in the company of a Bush woman who carried a small child on her back. The way was long and weary and the travellers had run out of food. Presently the Hottentot saw some horses grazing in the distance, and looking sideways at the Bush woman he said: 'I could do with a nice bite of horsemeat, I am very hungry. I have heard tales about you, that you can turn yourself into a lion. Pray do so, so that we can eat!' He spoke almost in jest, but the woman looked at him strangely.

'If I did so, you would be afraid,' she said.

'All I am afraid of at this moment is dying of hunger,' he answered. But even as he spoke he saw the hairs growing out of her neck. Her nails became long and sharp, her face changed and grew furry and her eyes wild and golden. She dropped the child and threw off her skin petticoat. Meanwhile the man had scrambled up a tree in terror. With a roar and a twist of its tail, the lion bounded away after the horses and soon slew one with a dreadful blow of its paw. Growling and lashing its tail, the vicious animal, now bloodstained and terrifying, returned and stood beneath the tree staring up at the man with its wild eyes.

'Enough, enough!' he blubbered. 'Don't hurt me only change back again!' The lion just growled and lashed its tail all the more. 'If you do not change back, I will stay here until I die,' the man sobbed. Growing tired of teasing him, the woman allowed her form to materialize through that of the lion. There she stood, an ordinary Bush woman, putting on her petticoat and wrapping her crying baby up in its kaross once more. You may be sure that that man never travelled in her company again!