all your wealth and power,
and even your very head, in addition.”
Hammadi then began to dance with joy.
The old man went on.
“You ask who I am.
It is time you knew, for you are worthy.
I am the one who hid himself in the dust 166
when you met the chameleon.
I was standing on the stone when you were talking
to the bat, close up to you, Hammadi!
I lurked in the white, white sand
when the scorpion appeared to you.
I looked over the laterite cliff
when you tried vainly to drink the pond-water.
I crossed the valley when you drank
from the inexhaustible antelope track.
I kneaded the mud when you were chasing
the bustard that had you walking and walking.
I counted the piles of stones
when you took your rest between the two facing trees.
I searched in the black sand
and found myself in gold's bedrock 167
when the rooster turned into the bull
that turned into fire.
I swam in the two filled fountains
that symbolized heavy-handed egotism.
I am the one who went to fetch the gold.
Oh Hammadi! The old man by the tree was myself!
I am the town that is inaccessible to the guest.
I am the cyclone, and the lightning bolts.
The she-lion, of course, was also myself!
I am the river that swallowed, and the dugout, too.

Notes (Lilyan Kesteloot)
166. This is not a useless repetition of the inventory of symbols from the previous page; the old man enumerates the layers of elements that must be crossed in order to reach gold: dust, stone, white sands, laterite, gravel, clay, quartz, black sand, bedrock or nara in Fulfulde. It must not be forgotten that Kaidara is also the god of the earth and has followed a parallel path through the elements, while the men have been passing through the symbols. The old man plots out the symbols of the wood-gatherer; this is a trip laid out by the master for the student, who will not even notice it.
167. More precisely this refers to bedrock, a gold-washer's word designating the layer that must be removed in order to get at the gold.