MAGIC WORDS In Literature: • "He raised his arms, holding them out to her. 'Kum [kunka] yali, kum buba tambe,' and more magic words, said so quickly, they sounded like whispers and sighs. The young woman lifted one foot on the air. Then the other. She flew clumsily at first, with the child now held tightly in her arms. Then she felt the magic, the African mystery. Say she rose as free as a bird. As light as a feather." -- Virginia Hamilton, The People Could Fly (1985)