This theme of nurturing is expressed at Nkang'a in a number of supplementary symbol indicative of the act of feeding and of foodstuff. In the third place, the women describe the milk tree as "the tree of a mother and her child". Here the reference has shifted from description of the biological act, breast feeding, to a social tie of profound significance both in domestic relations and in the structure of the widest Ndembu community. This latter meaning is brought out most clearly in a text I recorded from a male ritual specialist. I translate literally.