In the beginning Nyambe, creator of the world, lived on earth with Nasileli. There was only land surrounded by water, and Nasileli grew lonely. She asked Nyambe to fill the earth with beautiful things so that her heart would not remain sad.
Nyambe loved her deeply, so he created trees, animals, birds, fish, and reptiles. Nasileli praised the work, but still asked for companions like themselves. Nyambe hesitated. He feared that human beings would bring worry, but Nasileli's tears moved him. He shaped a man named Kamunu.
Kamunu was clever, almost too clever. Whatever Nyambe did, Kamunu copied. If Nyambe carved a spoon, Kamunu carved one. If Nyambe built a hut, Kamunu built one. Then Kamunu learned to hunt and killed creatures that Nyambe regarded as children of the same parents. Nyambe sent him away, but Kamunu returned, helpless without the skills he had learned by watching the creator.
For Nasileli's sake, Nyambe forgave him and let him make a garden. When an eland ruined the crop, Kamunu killed it, and this time Nyambe excused him. Yet Kamunu kept bringing trouble. He wanted medicine to raise his dead dog, then help to mend a broken pot, then help after his hut fell. Nyambe saw that Kamunu would never stop demanding.
Nyambe fled to an island and warned all creatures to guard themselves against Kamunu's cleverness. Still Kamunu came. Nyambe tested him by asking him to remove a boiling pot from the fire. Kamunu used wet grass and passed the test, so Nyambe made him chief of the people. But that only increased Nyambe's unease.
At midnight a spider offered help. Nyambe told it to spin a web from earth to sky. The spider obeyed. Nyambe and Nasileli climbed the shining thread beyond the clouds and remained there. Since then, people have looked upward for the creator who once walked among them.