The king's hunters found a nest containing a thousand eggs.
"I want to buy one of those eggs," said the king.
But the bird refused. "God appointed me to guard the eggs," she said, "not sell them."
The king's soldiers then robbed the nest.
When the bird found the empty nest, she came to the palace. "Now I will fight you," she told the king.
The bird defeated the king and all his soldiers.
God then flooded that land, turning it into a river. A tree arose from the water where the bird nested; she guards the eggs even now.
Inspired by: "The Bird and the King" in Kiungani, or, Story and History From Central Africa by A. C. Madan, 1887.
Notes: You can read the original story online. The author says this is a story from the Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) region, but without additional information. The story does not say anything about the species of bird; below is a grey-crowned crane which lives in Malawi.
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