Koome Njue and the Crossing from Mbwaa

No riddle could beat Koome Njue. Then the masters asked for the impossible: a spear that touches the sky.

The Meru tell of Mbwaa, an island by the sea, their ancestors' home.

Then strangers came by sea, wrapped in red cloth, and made the people serve them.

The masters mocked the elders with impossible tasks. But the elders had Koome Njue, the wise man.

Bring up a fruit from a deep hole. Koome poured in water, and the fruit floated up.

Then the last task: the spear, îtumo, that touches the sky. This time, even Koome had no answer.

So the elders played for time. Each day they brought a longer rope, proof the spear was growing.

They warned of a forge glowing that night, then set their own homes alight.

In the night, ûtukû, while the island blazed, the people slipped away by moonlight.

At the shore, the tide was in. The great water, îria, stood in their way.

A young warrior, Aita, stepped forward and gave himself for his people.

The Meru tell that he came back whole, struck the water, and it opened.

He waited until the last child had crossed. Then the people walked inland to the shining mountain.

Historian Jeffrey Fadiman placed the flight from Mbwaa around 1700. Others read it as a story older than any date.