Songhata's First Battle: Part I

A woven scroll passed down among the Children of Echoes, telling the legend of the hero Songhata five hundred years ago in his youth.

Oh my brothers, my children, listen well,

Hear my name: Jeli Mamudao of the Children of Echoes.

I am the singer of the Children of Echoes, the preacher of epic.

My bloodline comes from the first epic-singer Bilali.

Proud offspring of Kaydian Coyati and Bintu Coyati.

Bilali once followed a wandering sage to learn ancient verse;

the Coyati couple wove old scripts into tapestries and felt tents.

My mind knows the dragon-lords and barbarian kings of the age of ignorance;

my tongue can contend with the noisiest phantom-scribes;

stories clarify many truths; speech purifies more falsehood;

when stories wash away falsehood they become history, clear as crystal mirrors.

Crystal mirrors hold old rainbow light—dark yet brilliant,

like the unfathomable eyes of the dead that phosphoresce.

History educates the victors who survive, but stories root in the dead…

For the treasure of the future always grows from the ore-veins of the past.

Come, hear me chant, hear me chant this hero-song,

hear me chant the requiem of the bull's son, the giant rhino's son.

I will tell you Maham Songhata's deeds and fate,

I will tell you Mali Gyata's ambition and passion,

I will praise Sogoren Gyata's illustrious name,

and Nare Maham Gyata's end fighting the great foe…

Oh, what other hero ever held so many names?

Black witchcraft and evil spirits could not harm him a whit!

My brothers, my children, proud Children of Echoes,

hear me tell of the forgotten hundred and thousand old kings and barbarian chiefs—

how they were conquered by the hero Songhata,

and after conquest how they fought beside him,

how foes became dear friends, savagery turned to goodwill…

Hear me tell of the black host that came like mountain ranges,

how the hero Songhata dissolved them,

of unrecorded feats and misunderstood sacrifices…