Alas the wretched ones! They could get nowhere near.
Only six elbow-lengths away, snakes nestled,
governing, surrounding the pond.
Father Boa, Mother Viper,
Uncle Cobra, were all there.
Those among their cousins which were said to be less poisonous,
were more poisonous than poison itself.
All the travelers' efforts were in vain.
Dembourou and his companions walked back.
They went to rest under a giant tree.
Worry and despair were with them.
“What is this mystery-pond,” wailed Hammadi,
“Surpassing all the world in poisonous snakes
that defend their untouchable waters with force?”
He sang, “Oh, thou, pond of despair!
Woe be unto those wretched ones who approach you.
Our freak misery is nonetheless real: and thirst!
Slowly we ebb from pain and intense heat.
If I must sing so that these fury-serpents
take pity, then lend an ear to the melopoeia 36 of my nation.
I am a descendant of a chosen race, a race from the East.
My ancestors followed their cattle,
from the East to the West where they settled at last
with their cows, slow to move 37 bearing their fat on their back,
their protruding majesty in the fleshiness of their humps.
Both the cow and my mother gave me milk to drink.
With her calf, I grew up in the grass.
When strangers come to stay with us
they get milk to drink.
Their grains are prepared in butter.

Notes (Lilyan Kesteloot)
36. This melopoeia of Hammadi's is a reminder of the essential traits of the Fulɓe nation: eastern origin, shepherds of hump-backed cattle; hospitality towards the stranger; milk and butter as staples, alliance to the cow; and also the mention of the “noble race” Hammadi belongs to.
37. Metaphor for designating cows.