BY AN D REW LANG

TH E S E C RE T O F TH E T O TE M . 8 vo ,
1 05 . 6d . n e t.

C U S T O M AN D M Y T H S t di u es of E ar y l
U sag e and B li e e f. W ith I5I t ti
ll u s ra o n s. C ro w n
8 v o , 3 s 6d . .

M YT H R I T U L, A ND RE LI
, A G I ON . 2 vo s l .

C ro w n 8 v c , 7 s .

M O D E R N M Y T H O LO G Y ! a Re p y t ol
Pro fe ss or Ma x Mfi l l e r . 8 vo , 9 5 .

M AG I C AN D RELI G I ON 8 o 1 05 6d . v , . .

T H E M A K I NG O F RE LI G I ON C own . r

8 v o , 55 . ne t .

H O M E R AN D TH E E PIC . C ro w n 8v o ,
95 . ne t.

H O M E R A N D H I S A GE W i th 8 I ll t u s ra
ti
.

8
o ns . 6d vo , 1 25. . n e t.

C O C K LAN E AN D C O MM ON S E N S E .

C ro w n 8 v o , 3 5 6d . .

TH E B OO K O F D RE A M S AN D G H OS TS .

C ro w n 8 v c , 3 s 6d . .

LO N G MA N S, G RE E N A N D co .

LOND ON , NE W Y O RK , BOM BAY , A ND C ALC U TTA

 FO LK ST O RI E S
FROM

S O U T H E RN N I G E RI A
W ES T A FRI C A

ELPH I N ST O N E D A Y RELL, F R G S , F R A I . . . . . . . .

D WT M C I
‘ ’
CO MM W OR I R. W M ” I Gl RI A
‘

AN DREW L A NG

TH F RON TI S PI E CE

L O N G M A N S, G RE E N A N D CO .

39 P A TE RN O STE R R O W, L O N DO N
NE W YORK . BO MB AY AND CALC UT I A
.
’ ‘

1 91 0
 FO L K ST O RI E S
F RO M

S O U T H E RN N I G E RI A
W EST A FR I C A

E LPH I N S T O N E D A Y RE LL,
D I S T RI C T C O MM I S S I ON E R, S OU T H E RN N I G E RI A

W I TH AN I NTROD U C TI ON BY
A N D R E W L A NG

OF THE TH F R ON TI S P I E CE

L O N G M A N S, G REE N A ND CO .

39 P A TE R N O S TE R R OW, L ONDON
N E W Y O RK , BO MBA Y , A ND C A LC U TTA

1 91 0

All igr h ts re se rve d

 C O N TE NTS

F r ori fzkpz ece

'

f r om a D r a w i ng i n C 5]
M ajo r G M . . DE L . D AY R E LL
PA G E !

Intro du cti o n
The T o rt o i se wi th a P retty D au ght e r
II . H o w a H u nter O b ta i n ed M on ey fro m h i s
Friend s the Le o p a rd G o a t B u s h C at and
, , ,

Co ck and h o w he go t o u t of re p ay ing the m

,

III . The W o man w ith two Ski ns

The K i ng s M ag i c D u m
’
r

V . I ue n an d the K ing 8 Wi fe ’

VI . Of t he P re tty S t a n g e r w h o K i ll ed the K i n g
r

VI I . Wh y the Ba t fire s b y Ni ght

VI I I . The D i so be dient D au ghte wh o M a ied a S k u ll r rr

IX . The Ki ng wh o Mar ied the C o ck s D au ghte

r
’
r

X . Co ncerni ng the Wo m a n the Ap e and the Chi ld

, ,

Th e Fi sh a nd Th e Le o p a rd s W i fe ; o W hy the
’
r,

Fi sh l i e s i n the Wate
v r

XI I . Why the Bat i s A sha m e d t o be see n i n the

D ay t i m e
XI I I . Why the W o rm s l i e U nde rne ath the G o u nd
v r

The E l epha nt a nd the To t o i s e ; o r Why the r ,

W o m s a e B l in d a nd the E l e ph a nt ha s S ma ll
r r

Eyes
W h y a H aw k ki ll s Chick en s
XV I . Wh y the S u n a nd the M o o n l i ve I n th e Sk y
XV I I . W hy the F lies B o the r the C o ws
XV I I I . W hy the C at ki ll s Ra t s
XI X . Th e S to ry o f the Li g htning a nd the Th u nde r
Why t he B u sh Co w and the El e phant a re ba d
Friends

209 9 7 4
 Contents
P A GE

XXI . Th e Co ck wh o cau sed a Fi gli t bet ween two

To wn s
XXI I . The Afia i r o f the H i pp o p o ta m u s and the
'

To rt o i se ; o r Wh y the H i pp o p o t am u s
,

l i ves i n the Wa ter

'

XXI I I W hy D ead Pe o p l e a re B u ried

‘

XXI V . Of the Fat Wo m an wh o M el ted Away

XXV . C o nce ning the Leo p ard t he qu i rre l and
r , ,

the To rto i se
XX V I . W h y t he M o o n W axe s a nd
XX V I I . Th e S t o y o f the Leo p a d the T
r ri se and
, ,

the B u sh Ra t .

XXV I I I . The K ing and the Ju Ju Tree

XXIX . H o w the T o rt o i se o ve rca m e t h e E l e pha n t
a n d the H i pp o p o t a m u s

XXX . Of the P etty Gi rl a nd the S even Jea l o u s

r

W o m en
XXXI . H o w the Can ni ba l s d o v e the Pe o p l e fro m
r

Ins o fan M o u ntain t o the C o ss Ri ve r r

( I k o m !
XXXI I . Th e Lu cky Fi she rm an
XXX I I I . The O ph an Bo y a nd the M ag i c St o ne
r

XXXI V . The S l av e Gi rl wh o t ried to K i ll h e r Mi st re ss

XXX V . Th e K i ng a nd the Nsi a t B i rd
’

XXX V I . Co nce ning the Fate o f E ssi do a nd h i s E vi l

r

Co m p a ni o n s
XXXV I I . Co ncerni ng the H awk and the Owl
XXXV I I I . Th e S t o y o f the D ru m m e r a nd the
r

A ll igato rs
XXXIX Th e N sasak B i rd a nd the Odu d u B i d
’
. r

XL . The El ect i o n o f the Ki ng B i d (the black r

and whi te Fi shing Eagl e!

-

vi
 I NTRO DU CTI ON

MANY years ago a book on th e F olk - Tales of th e

E skimo was published and the editor o f The A ca demy
,

D r Appleton ! told one of his minions to send it to

( .

me fo r revision By mischance it was sent to an

.

eminent expert in P olitical E conomy wh o never , ,

suspecting any error took the book for the text of

,

an interes t ing essay o n th e economics O f t he blame

“

less H ype r borean s .

”

Mr D a y r e l l s “
F olk S tories from S ou t h ern Ni
’
.

geria appeal to the anthropologis t withi n m e no

”
,

less th an to the lover of what chil dren and older

people call F airy Tales
“
The stories are full of
.

mentions of s trange institutions as wel l as of rare ,

adventures . I may be permitted to o ffer some

running notes and comments o n this mass of African
curiosities from the crowded lumber room of th e -

A
native mind .

I The Torl ozs e w i th a P r etéy D a ug hter — The story

'

. .
,

like the tales of the dark native t ribes of Australia ,

rises from th at s tate of fancy by which man draws

( at least for p urposes of fiction ! no line b etween
himself and the lower animals Why should not the .

fair heroine Adet daughter of the tortoise be t h e

, , ,

daughter of human parents ? Th e tal e would b e

none the less interesting and a good deal more
,

credi b le to th e mature intelligence But the anci ent .

vii
 I ntr odu ct ion
fashion of animal parentage is presented I t may .

have originated like th e stories of the Australians at

, ,

a time when men were totemists when every perso n ,

had a bestial or vegetable family name and when -

,
”
,

to account for these hereditary n ames sto r ies of ,

descent from a supern atural b estial primeval race , ,

were invented I n the fables of the world speaking

.
,
,

animals human in all but outward aspect are th e

, ,

ch arac t ers The fashio n is universal among savages

.

it descends to the Buddha s ja ta ha or parables to ’

, ,

!E sop and La F o ntaine There could be n o such .

fashion if fables h ad origin ated amo ng civilised

h uman beings .

The polity of the people who tell thi s story seems

to be desp otic The king makes a law that any girl
.

prettier th an the prince s fifty wives shall be pu t to ’

death with her parents Who is to b e th e Paris

, .
,

and give the fatal apple t o th e most fair Obvious l y

the pri nce is t he P aris H e falls in love with Miss .

Tortoise guided to her a s h e is by the bird who i s

,
“
entranced wi t h h er b eaut y In this tribe as in .
,

H omer s time th e l o ver O ffers a bride price to the

’

,
-

father of the girl I n H omer ca tt le are t h e current

.

medium ; in N igeria pieces of cloth and brass rods

are ( or were ! th e currency Observe t h e queen s .
’

interest in an a ffair of true l ove Though she .

knows tha t her son s life i s endangered by his h onour

’ ’

able passion , she adds to t he bride pric e out of h er -

privy purse I t i s a l o ng courting ; four yea r s

“
.
”

pass while pretty Adet is ower young to marry ye t

, .
”

Th e king is very angry when the new s of this breach

of the royal marriage Act first comes to h is ears .

H e summons the whole of his subj ects his throne a , ,

vm
 I I The second s t ory is a very ingenious com
.

m e r c i al parable “ N ever lend money you o nly

, ,

make a dangerous enemy The story also ex .

plains why bush c ats eat poultry .

I I I The Wom a n wi th Two S hi ns is a p eculiar

.

version of the story of th e courteous S i r G awai n

wi t h his bride hideous by day and a pearl of
, ,

loveliness by night Th e ju Ju man answers to th e

.

witch I n our fairy tales and to t h e mother i h la w

‘

- -

of the prince wh o by a magical p otion makes him

, , ,

forget his own true love S h e however is al w ays .

, ,

victorious and the prince

,

P r e p a re s a no th er m a rr i ge,
a

Th e i r h ea r t s so fu ll of lo ve an d g l e e ,
”

and ousts the false bride like Lord Bateman in the ,

ballad when S ophia came home I n this case of

, .

Lord Bateman the scholiast ( Thackeray pro b a b ly !

, ,

suggests that his Lordship secured the consent of

t he C hurch as the king in th e t ortoise story won
th at of the Egbos Our tale then wanders into
.

t he fairy tale of the king who is deceived into

drowning his children i n European folk lore b e ,
-
,

cause h e is informed that t hey are puppies The .

Water ]u ju however saves these black princes

, , ,

an d brings forward th e righ t ful heir very d r a m ati

cally at a wre s tling match i vh e r e th e lad over ,

throws more t han he t hought like Orlando in As ,

Yo u Li k e I t and conquers th e heart of th e j ealous

,

queen as well as his athletic opp one nts .

I n the co nclusion the j ealou s woman is handed

over to the ecclesiastical arm of t he Eg b os she
i s flogged and as in the ca se of je anne d Ar c is
, ,
'

x
 I ntr odu ction
burned alive and her ashes were thr o wn into the
,
“

river .H uman nature is much the same everywher e

”
.

I V The K i ng s Mag i c D r u m The drum i s th e

.
’
.
-

mystic cauldron of ancient Welsh romance which ,

“ always provides plenty of good foo d and dri nk
.

But th e drum has its drawback the fo o d goes “

, (

bad if its owner steps over a stick i n the road or

a fallen t ree a tabu like the g ezs as of ancient I rish
'

legends Th e t ortoise i n t his t ale has the g ei s as

.
, ,

power ; he can make the king give him anything

h e ch ooses to ask
.
This very queer co nstrain t .

occu r s constan t ly in the C uchullain cycle of I rish

romances and in The Bl a ck Thi ef ( You can buy
, .

it for a penny in D ublin or read it in Thackeray s ,

’

Li ttl e Tou r i n I r el a nd ! The K ing is cons t rained to .

part with th e d r um bu t does not t ell the tortoise ,

abou t t h e tabu and th e d r awback Th e tortoise .

,

t hough disappointed at lea s t pays h i s sco r e o ff in ,

public and t hen the tale wanders into the H op 0

,
’

my Thu m b formula and th e trail of ashes F inally

, .

t he s t ory like most stories explains th e origin of

, ,

an animal peculiarity w h y tortoises live under ,

prickly tie ti e palms Tha t explanation w as clearly

-
.

in t he au t hor s mind from th e first but to reach

’

his p oint h e adopted the formula of the mystic

obj ec t drum or cauldron which pr o vides endless
, ,

supplies and has a counteracting charm attached

,

t o it a tabu
, .

V I ta cu a nd the K i ng s I/s e S om e of the s e tales

.
’
.
—

have th i s p e cu l i a r i ty t hat the charac t ers possess

/
,

names as I tu e n Offio ng and Atte m They are thus

, , , .

what people c all s ag a s not m ere Ma r chen All the , .

pseudo historic legend s of the G reek states of The b es

-
, ,

xi
 I ntr odu ction
Ath ens Mycen ae P ylos and so o n are folk tales
, , , ,
-

converted into saga and adapted and accepted as ,

historical S ome of these N igerian fairy tales are in

.
-

th e same cas t The story of Ath am as of Io l c o s and

.

the sacrifice of any of his descendants who went in t o

the town hall exactly corresponds to th e fate of the
,

family of I tu e n (p Th e whole Athamas story

.
,

i n Greece is a ti s su e O f pop ular tales found in every

,

part of th e world This I tu e n s t ory as usual ex.

, ,

plains the h abits O i animals vultures and dogs and , , ,

i llustrates the a wful cruelties of Egb o law .

VI The P r etty S tr a ng er is a native variant of

.

j u di th a nd H ol of e r nes .

V I I A just 8 0 S tory a my t h to explain the

.
“
,

ways o f animals The cauldro n of Medea which .

,

destroyed the wrong old person and did not r e ,

j uvenate him is introduced “

,
All the s tories have .

been t old all the world over

,
”
.

V I I I The D i s obedi ent D a ug hter who Ma r r i ed a S ha l l

. .

—This is most original though all our ballads a n d

;
tales a bout the pretty girl who is carried to th e l and ‘

of the d ead by her lover s ghost ( B trr ge r s Leno re ! ’ ’ ’

have t h e same fundamental idea Then comes in

”

the common moral the Reward of Courtesy as i n , ,

P e r ra u l t s Les Fees
’
But t he m achinery of th e
’

Nigerian romance leads up to the Return of Pros e r

pine from t he D ead in a truly fanciful way .

I X The K i ng w ho Ma r r i ed the Coo/ 3 s D a ug hte r is

’
.

ZE so p s man who married th e woman that had b een

’

a cat As Adi a unen pecks at the corn the oth er

.
,

lady caugh t and ate a mouse .

1
S e e th e Pl a t i di
on c a o , i
l gu e M no s 3 1 5 6, ,
-
a nd Ath m a as i n Ro sch e r
’
s

xii
 I ntr odu ction
X . Woma n, the r i pe, a nd the Chi ld — This tale
The
illustrates Eg bo ju r i di catu r e very powerfully , and is
told to account fo r Nigerian marriage law .

X I The Fis h a nd the Leopa rdfs P sa — Another

.

“
j us t 8 0 S tory .

X I I The B at
.
— Anoth er explana t ion of the noc
t u r n a l habi t s of th e bat Th e t ortoise appears as the .

wises t of things lik e th e hare in Nor t h America Br e r

, ,

Rabbit th e Bushman Mantis insect and s o on

‘

.
, ,

X ML X IV X V , All of these are explanatory

.
, .

s t S o S tories
”

j u .

X VI Why the S un a nd Moon l i ve i n the S ta — S u n n

and Moon in savage myth lived on earth at first but

, , ,

t he N igerian explanation of th eir retreat to the sky is ,

as far as I know without parallel elsewhere , .

X V I I X VI I I .
,
“
ju s t 8 0 S tories .
, .
”

X I X ! uite an original myth of Thunder a nd

.

Ligh t ning ! much belo w the divine dignity of such

my t h s elsewhere Thunder is not the Voice O f Z eus .

or of Ba i am e the Fa t her ( Australian ! but of a n old ,

sheep ! Th e gods have not made th e N igerians poetical .

XX A nother just S o S tory

.
“ .

XX I The Coch w ho ca u sed a F ig ht illustra t es private

.

Wa r and j ustice among t he natives and shows th e ,

Egbos refusing to admit th e principle of a fine i n

atonement for an o ffence .

XX I I The Afi a i r of the H ippopota mu s a nd of the

.

Tor to i s e — A very curi o us variant of th e Whuppi ti e

.

S toor i e or Tom Tit Tot s t ory depending on the power

,
- -
,

con ferred b y learning the secret name of an O pponen t .

Th ese secret names are conferred a t Aus t rali an cere

monies Any amount o i t h e learning a b out s ecret
.

n a mes is easily accessi b le .

xiii
 I ntr odu ction
XX I I I . Why D ea d P eopl e a r e B u r i ed — H ere
we meet
the Cre ator s o common in the religious beliefs of
Africans as of most barbarou s and savage peoples .

Th e C reator was a big chief Th e Euahlayi .

”

Baiame is rendered Big Ma n by Mr s Langloh

“ ”
.

P arker ( see The E u a hl ay i Tr i be! Th e myth is one .

of world w ide di ffusion explaining The Origin of

-
,

D eath usually by the fable of a message forgotten

, ,

and mi s ren dered from th e Creator , .

XX IV The Fa t Wo ma n w ho Melted A way The

. .
—

revival of t his beautiful creature from all that w a s lef t ,

of her t he toe is an incident very common in fo l k tales

, ,
-
,

i e the S cot t ish R a s hi n Co a ti e The word “

d wry ”
. .
( o .

is used throughou t where bride price would bet t er -

express the insti t ution Th e H omeric é a is mean t ! .

’
v .

XX V The Leopard the S qu i r rel a nd the Tortoi se

.
, , .

A “
just S o S tory .
”

XX VI Why the Moon Waxes a nd Wa nes A lunar

. .
-

myth not a poetical though a kindly explanation of

the habits of th e moon .

XX VI I The S tory of the Leopa rd the Tortoi s e a nd the

.
, ,

ust O S tory
”
B u s h Ra t A j S — .

XX VI I I The K i ng a nd the]u ]u Tr ee — This is a fin e

J

. .

example of ju ju beliefs and of an extraordina r y ,

sacrific e t o a ju ju power loca t ed in a tree G oa t s .

,

chickens and white men are common O ff erings bu t

, ,

“ seven baskets of flies m ight propi t iate Beelzebub .

The spirit man who can succeed when sacrifice

“ -

fails cho oses the king s daughter as h i s reward as is

,
'
,

usual in Marchen Compare Melampus and P e r o in

.

G reece The skull i n spirit land here plays a friendly

.
-

par t in advising the pr i ncess like P roserpine not to

, , ,

e a t among the dead This caution is found every .

xi v
wh ere i n the Gr e e k v e r s i o n of Orph eus and Eury
—

dice in th e K a l ewa l a and in S cot t s Wandering

,
“
,
’

Willie s Tale in Redg a u ntl et

’

,
Like Orpheus the .
,

girl is not to look back w hil e l eav i ng spirit t land .

H er successful escape by obeying th e inj unctions of ,

the skull is unusual , .

XX I X H ow the Tortoi se overca me the E l epha nt a nd

.

the H ippopota mu s A jus t S O S tory with the tortoise

“ ”
—
,

as cunning as Brer Rabbi t .

XXX . Of the P r etty Gi r l

‘

a nd the S even j ea l ou s Wom en .

— H ere th e good little bird play s the part of th e

popinj ay who up and spake with good e ffect in
“

t h e first ballads The u sef u l ju ju man divines by

.

casting lot s a common method among the Z ulus

, .

The revenge of the pretty girl s fat her is certainly ’

adequate .

XX X I H ow the Ca nni ba l s dr ove the P eopl e f r om

.

I n s of a n M ou n ta i n to th e C r os s R i ve r ( I ho m ! — This .

professes to b e his t orical and concerns h uman sacri ,

fice s ,
“
to cool the new ya rns and canni b alism ,
”
.

XX X I I is unimportan t
. .

I n XXX I I I we fi nd the o rdeal poiso n which

.
,

dest r oys fifty witches .

XXX IV The S l a ve Gi r l who tr i ed to K i l l her Mi str es s

.

is a form of our common tale of the waiting maid -

wh o usurps the p lace of her mistress the B r ide , .

The resurrection of the Bride from the water at the ,

cry of her l ittle Sister occurs in a remote quarter , ,

among the S amoyeds in C as tr e n s S a m oy edi s che ’

Mctr chen b ut there the O p ening is in th e style of

‘

A s ter i nas a nd P u li a ( P hr ixu s a nd H ell e ! i n Van Hahn s

'

Gri echi sche Mar chen Th e False Bride s t ory i s in an

.
,

a ncient F r e nch cha nson de t part of the legend of

g es e ,

xv
 I ntr odu ction
t he mother of Charlemagne Th e story also occurs
.

in Callaway s coll ection of Z ulu fairy t ale s I n the

’
.

N ige r ian version the manners customs and cruelties , ,

are all t horoughly Wes t African .

XXX V The k i ng a nd the Ns i a t Bi r d accounts a s

.
'
,

usu al fo r the habits of the bird and also illustrates

,

t he widespre ad cus t om of killing twins .

X XX VI reflects t h e well known practices of po ison

.
-

and t he ordeal by poison .

XXX V I I is ano t her just S o S tory

“
. .

XX XVI I I The Dr u mm er a nd the A l l iga tors — I n this

.

grim tale O f one of the abomina b le secre t societies

t h e human alliga t ors appear to be regarded as being
capabl e of t aking bestial form like werewolves or the ,

leopa r ds o f another African secret society .

XXX I X and X L are both pic t uresque just 8 0

. .
“
S tories so common in the folk lore of all countries
”
-
.
,

The most striking point in the tales is th e com

bination of good humour and good feeling wi t h
h o r rible cruelties an d the r eign of t error of the
.
,

Egbos and lesser societies European influences .

can scarcely do much harm apart from whisky in , ,

N igeria As t o religion we do not learn t hat th e

.
,

C rea t or receives any sacrifice ! in savage and bar

baric coun t ries H e usually gets non e Only ju ju s .
,

w h ether gh osts or fiends in general are propitiated .

Th e Other is too high and too far

“ .

I have briefly indicated t he s t ories which have

v ari ants in ancient my t h and European Mar chen or

fairy tales .

AN D REW LAN G . .
 Fol h Stor ier flom Sou thern Mger i a
son happened to b e hunting near their house and ,

s a w a bird perched on t he top of the fence round

the h O US e The bird was watching the lit t le girl

.
,

and was so entranced wi t h her beauty tha t he did

not no t i c e the prince coming The prince shot .

the bird with his bow and arrow and it drop p ed ,

inside th e fence s o t he prince sent his s ervant to ,

gather it While the servant was l o oking for the

.

bird he came across the little girl and was S O ,

struck w i t h h e r f o rm that h e immediately returned ,

to his master and told him what he had seen The .

prince then broke down the fence and f o und th e

child and fell in love with h er at once H e stayed
, .

and t alked with her for a long time u ntil at la s t She ,

agreed to become his wife H e then went home .

,
,

but concealed from his father th e fact that he had

fallen in love with the b e autiful daughter of the
tortoise .

But the next m orning h e sent for the treasurer ,

and got six t y pieces of c l o th and three hundred

il

rod s and sent them to t h e tor t oise Then i n the

,
2
;

early afternoon he went down t o th e tor t oise s ’

house and t o ld him that he wi sh ed to marry his

,

daughter The t or t oise s a w at o nc e that wha t he

.

had dr eaded had come t o pass and that his life ,

was i ii da nger s o he t old the prince that if the king

, ,

knew he would kill not only h imself ( the tortoi s e !

, ,

but also his w ife and daughter The prince replied .

that h e would be killed himself before he allowed

1
A p i f l th i g l l y b t 8 y d l g by y d b d
e ce o c o s e ne ra a ou ar s on 1 ar ro a a nd

is l d 5
va u e at 5
,

A d i m d fb th 3d I i i h h p
.

3
ro s d i a e o ra ss , an s wor t s n t e s a e of a

q th p b t 6i h l g d6 i h A
.

n a r ro w cro ue oo a ou 1 nc es on an nc e s a cr o ss ro d
ti y h C R
.
,

is na v e cu rre nc on t e ro ss i ve r .

2
 The Tor toise w ith a
’

Pr etty Da ughter
the tortoise and his wife and d aughter to be killed .

Eventually after much argument the tortoise con

, ,

se nted an d agreed t o hand his daugh t er to th e

,

prince as his wife when she arrived at th e proper

age Then the prince went hom e and told his
.

mother what h e h ad don e S h e was in great .

distress at th e t hought t hat sh e would l ose her s o n ,

of whom s h e was very proud as S h e knew that ,

when the king h eard of his Son s disobedience h e ’

would kill him H owever the queen although sh e .

, ,

knew how angry her husband would be wan t ed her ,

s o n to marry t h e girl he had fallen in love wi t h s o ,

s h e went t o the tortoise and gave him some money ,

clothes yam s and pal m o i l as fur t her d o w r y on

, ,
-

her son s behalf in order th at the tortoi s e Should

’

not give his daughter to another man F o r the -

.

next five years the prince was constantly with t he

tortoi s e s daughter whose name was Ade t and wh en
’

, ,

Sh e was a bout to be put in the fatting house the

1
,

prince told h i s fa t h er th at h e was g o ing to take

Adet a s his wife On hearing this th e king was very .

angry and s ent word all round his kingd o m that a l l

,

p eople should come on a certain day t o th e market

place to hear t he palave r When t h e appointed day .

arr i ved the marke t place w a s qui t e full of p e o ple -

,

a n d th e stone s belonging to the king and queen

‘

were pl aced in the middle o f th e marke t place -

.

When th e king and q u een arrived all the people

s t o od up and greeted them and they then s a t down ,

o n t heir stones The king then told h i s attendants .

1
Th e fa tti g h
n o u se is a ro o m w h e re g i l i k pt f m w k p
a r s e o r so e ee s re
v i o ns t o h e r m ig a rr a e. Sh e i s gi ven p l ty f f d d m d
en o f oo an a e as at as
p ibl f t kd g t b ty by h Efik p pl
,

o ss e , as i
a n e ss s l oo e u p on as a r ea e au t e eo e.
 Fo/
h Stor i es f rom Sou t her n Mger i a

to bring the gi rl Adet before h i m When She arrived .

the king was quite astoni s hed at h er beau t y H e .

then t old the people that he had sent for them to

tell them that h e was angry with his son for dis
o beying him and taking Adet as his wife wi t hou t his
'

knowledge but t hat n o w h e had seen her him s elf

,

he had t o acknowl edge that sh e was very beautiful ,

and that his son had made a good choice He .

would therefo r e forgive his so n .

When the people s a w th e girl they agreed that Sh e

was very fine and quite wor t hy of being the prince s .
’

wife and begged t he king to cancel the law h e had

,

made altoge t her and t h e king agreed ; and as the ,

law had been made under th e Egbo law he sent ,

for eight Egbos and told them that the order was
1
,

cancelled t hrough o u t h is kingdom and that for the ,

future no one w ould be killed who h ad a daugh t er

more beau t iful than the prince s wives and gave th e ’

Egbos p alm wine and money to rem o ve th e law and ,

1
Th e E g i ty m y b h xt d i g f m C l b p h
b o So c e h as an ra n c es, e en n ro a a ar u t e
C i
ro s s R v e r m Cm F m ly th i
a s fa r a s th e G e r i ty an a e ro o n s or er s so c e

d l y b l km il t i x t d ll t d bt f p pl
.

u se to ev ac a to a ce r a n e te n an co ec e s or eo e
f ti h m i y i d i g i d d f q tly
.

Th h d I j
e ea n f
u h or e s an , o e ac so c e t s s u se an re ue n

hid m k Th i b ll ti d d h i i t h gi b
, ,

w e a rs a e ou s as e re s a e e ro u n s wa s an n e

hi d l d by f th thi b ll m k i h
.
,

n d an c o n ce a e ea h e rs s e a e s a n o se a s e ru n s en
m ll d t i d th i h
.

th E gb i
e o s o u t no wo d e n a re a ow e ou s e e r o u se s , a n ev e n at

th p e t tim h m p t d b y f ight d Th E gb
re se n e t e wo en re e n to e ver r e ne e o
y f i hi p i d d hit bli d ly
.

ve r o t e n c a rr e s a hi h w y h n s an an s out n a t an one e

co m H
e s a cr o ss . d h t f ll d by y g m f hi
e ru ns r o u n t e
,

ow n, o ow e oun en o s
i ty b ti g d m d fi i g ff g Th i g lly m h d i k
so c e ea n ru s an r n o u ns . e re s e n e ra uc r n

i g g i g
n o n h h E gb i p l y g
on w Th
en i
t e E gb H i m t o s a in e re s an o o u se n os

t d p t f hi h i
.

h
o w ns , t e en d ff f h E gb
ar o h g iw c s s cre e n e o or t e o to c an e n
I id h h g h m k ll d h k ll f b ff l
.

ns e t e h o u se a r e un b h u an s u s an t e s u s o u a o, or us

co w , th y as ll d l h d f h i
e a re ca tl p
e d il
; a so ea s o t e va r o u s an e o e s , cro co e s,

a p d th
e s, a n im l hi h h b kill d by h m mb Th
o er an a s w c ave e en e t e e e rs e
k ll f d g t kill d b y h i ty l h g p A fi i
.

s u s o co w s a n oa s e t e so c e a re a s o un u re s
l y k pt i h E gb H ; d i h m i g d l t ft
.

a wa s e n t e o o u se an n t e o rn n an a e a e rn o o n ,

t h m mbe e f h i ty f q tl y m t th
e rs o t e so c e d i k gi d p lm re uen ee e re to r n n an a

W i ne .

4
 The Tor toise w ith Pr etty Da ughter
a

sent them away . Then he declared t ha t th e tortoise s ’

daughter Adet Should marry his s o n and h e made

, , ,

them marry th e same day A grea t feas t was t hen .

given which lasted for fifty days and the king killed ,

five cows and gave all t he people plenty of foo foo -

1

and palm oil chop an d placed a large number of p o ts

-
,

o f p alm win e in the streets for th e p eople to drink as

they liked The w o men brought a big play to th e

.

king s compound and there was singing and dancing

’

kept up day and night during the whole t ime Th e .

prince and h i s companions also played in th e market

square .When the feast w a s over the king gave
h alf of his kingdom t o the t o rt o ise to rule over ,

and three hundred slaves to work o n his farm .

Th e prince als o gave his father i n law two hundred - -

women and one hundred girls to wo r k fo r him s o ,

the t o rtoise became o ne of t he richest men in th e

kingdom The prince and his wife lived together
.

fo r a g o o d many years until the king died wh en ,

the prince ruled in h is place And all this shows .

th at the tortoise I S th e wisest of all men and

animals .

MO RA L — Always have pretty daughters , as no

matt er how p o or th ey may be there is always th e ,

ch ance t hat t he king s s o n may fall in love with

’

them and they may thus become m embers of the

,

r o yal house and obtai n much wealth .

1
Fo o -fo o = y a m s b il d
o e a nd m ash e d u p.
H ow a Hu nter ohta ined M oney f r om hi s Fr iend;
the Le op a r d Goa t B u sh C a t
,
a nd Coch
, , ,

a nd how he ot ou t f r ep aying them

g q
MAN Y years ago there was a Calabar hunter called
E fflo n g, who lived in the bush killed plenty of animals
, ,

and made much money Ever y one in the coun t ry

.

knew him and one of his be s t friends was a man

,

called Okun who lived near him But E ffio ng was

, .
,

very ex t ravagant and spent much mo ney in eating

, ,

and drinking with every o ne u ntil at last h e becam e,

quite poor So he had t o go out hun t ing aga i n but

,

now his go od luck seeme d t o have deser t ed him fo r ,

;

alth ough h e worked hard and hunted day and night

, ,

h e c o uld no t succeed i n k i l l i n g any t hing One day

’

.
,

as he w a s very hungry h e went to his f r iend Okun

,
.

and borrowed two hundred rod s from him and told ,

him to come to his house on a certai n day to get his

m o ney and h e t o ld him to bring his gun l o aded
, , ,

wi t h him .

Now some time b efore this E ffio ng had made

,
'

friends with a leopard and a bush cat whom h e had ,

me t in the forest whilst o n one of his hun t ing expedi

ti o ns ; and he had also made friends wi t h a goa t and
a cock at a farm where he had s t ayed for th e nigh t .

But though E ffio ng had borrowed th e money from

6
H ow a Hu nter obta ined M oney f r om hi s Fr iends
Okun he could not think h ow h e was to repay it on
,

th e day he had promi s ed At last however h e .

, ,

thought of a plan and on the n ext day h e went to

,

his friend the l eopard and asked him to lend him ,

t wo hundred r o ds promising to return the amoun t

,

to him on the same day a s he !had promised to pay

Okun and he also told the leopard that if he were ,

absen t when h e came for his m o ney he could kill ,

anything he s aw in the house and eat it Th e .

leopard was then to wait until th e hunter arrived ,

when h e would pay him th e money ; and to this

the leopard agreed Th e hunter then went to h i s
.

friend the g o at a nd borrowed two hundred rods

,

from him in the same way E ffi ong also went .

to h i s friends th e bush cat and the cock and b o r ,

rowed two hundred rods from each of them on the

s ame condi t ions and told each one of t hem t hat if
,

h e were absent when they arrived t hey could kill ,

and eat anything they f o und abou t th e place .

Wh en the appointed day arrived t he hun t er spread

some corn on th e ground and then went away and ,

left th e hou s e deserted Very early in t he morning .

,

s o on after he had begun to crow the c o ck r e m e m ,

e

bered what t he hunter had told him and walked over ,

to the hunte r s house bu t found no one there On

’

,
.

looking round howeve r h e saw some c o rn o n t he

, ,

ground and being hu ngry he commenced to eat

, , , .

About this time the bush cat also arrived and not ,

finding the hunter at h Om e h e to o l o o ked about and , , , ,

very soon h e espied the cock who was busy picking ,

up the grains o f corn S o t he bush cat wen t up very

.

softl y behind and pounced on th e cock and killed

him at once and b egan to eat him By this time the
.

, .
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger i a
goat had come fo r his money ; but n o t finding his
friend he walked ab o ut un t il h e came upon th e bush
,

cat who w as so intent upon his meal o ff th e cock

, ,

that he did not notice the goat approaching ; and

’

the goat being in rather a bad temper at not getting

,

his mo ney at once ch a r ged a h t he bush cat and

,

knocked him over b u t t ing him with his horn s This

,
.

t he b u sh cat did not like at all so as he was not b ig , ,

enough to fight the goat he picked u p th e remains ,

of th e c o ck and ran Off with it to the bush and s o ,

lost h is m o ney a s h e did not await th e arrival of the

,

hunter The goa t w a s thus lef t master of the situa

.

tion and started bleating and this noise attracted the ,

attention of the leopard who was o n his way to ,

receive payment from the hunter As h e got nearer .

t he smell of goat became very strong and being ,

hungry for h e h ad not eaten anything for s om e

,

time he approached t he goa t very carefully N ot

, .

seeing any one abou t h e stalked t h e goat and got

nearer and nearer until he was within springing ,

distance The go at in t h e meantime was grazing

.
, ,

quietly quite u nsu s p I CI o u S of any danger a s he was

, ,

in his friend th e hun t e r s c o mpound Now and then ’

.

he would s ay Ba l l Bu t most O f t he t ime he was

busy eating th e young grass and picking up the ,

leaves which h ad fallen f r om a tree of which he was

very fond S uddenly t he leopard s prang at the
.

goat and wi t h o n e crunch at t he neck brought him

,

down Th e goat was dead almost at once and the

.
,

leopard star t ed on h i s meal

It was now about eigh t o clock in the morning,and ’

Okun the hu nter s friend having had his early morn

,
’
,

ing meal went out with his gun to receive payment

,

8
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
go and that h e would bury th e body of his friend
”
‘

the leopard .

D irectly Okun h ad gone instead of burying the ,

body E ffio ng dragged it inside the house and Skinned

it very carefully Th e Skin he put out to dry in
.

the s u n and covered it with wood a sh and t he b ody

, ,

h e a t e When the skin was well cured the hu n t er

.

took it to a dis tant market where he sold it for ,

much money And now whenever a bush cat sees

.
,

a cock h e always kills it and doe s s o by right as

, ,

he takes the c o ck in part payment of t he two

hundred rods which the hunter never paid him .

MO RA L — N ever lend money to people , b ecause if

they cannot pay they will try to kill you or get rid
of y o u in some way either by poison or by setting
,

bad ju ju s for you

’
.

IO
 The Woma n w ith Tw o Shins
E YAMB A I of Cala b ar was a very powe r ful king
. .

H e fought and conquered all the surround i ng cou n

tries killing all the O l d men and women but the
, ,

abl e bodied men and gi r ls h e caught and brought

-

back as slaves and they worked o n the farms until

,

they died .

This king had two hundred wives but none of ,

them had borne a s o n to him H is subj ects seeing .

,

t hat he was b e coming an old man begged him to ,

marry one of the spider s daughters a s t hey always

’

had plenty of ch ildren But when the king s a w the

.

spider s daughter h e did not like h er a s s h e was

’
,

ugly and the peopl e said it w a s becau s e her mother

,

had had so many children at th e same time H o w .

ev er in order to please his p eople he married t he

,

ugly girl and placed her among his other wives but
, ,

they all complained because sh e was s o ugly and ,

sai d s h e could not live wi t h t hem The king there .

,

fore buil t her a separate h o use for herself wh e re

, ,

sh e was given food and drink th e same as t he other

wive s Every one j eered at her o n accoun t of her

.

ugliness but s h e was not really ugly but beautiful , ,

as s h e was born with two skins and at h er bir t h her ,

mother was made to promise that sh e shoul d n ever

I I
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
remove th e ugly skin u nti l a certain tim e a r rived
save only during t he night and that s h e must put ,

it on again before dawn N ow the king s head wife .

’

knew this and was very fearful lest the king should
,

find it out and fall in love wi t h the spider s daughter ; ’

s o s h e went to a u man and o ffered him two

j j
u

hundred rods to make a potio n tha t would make the

king forget altogether that th e spider s daughter w as ’

his wife This the ju ju man finally consented to

.

do after much haggling over the price for three

, ,

hundred and fifty rods ; and he made up some

“
medicine which t he head wife mixed with t h e
,
”

king s food Fo r some month s this had the e ffect

’
.

of making the king fo r get t he spider s daughter and ’

he used to pass quite close to her without r e co gn i s

ing her in any way When four month s had elapse d
.

and the king had not once sent for Adiaha ( for t hat
was the name of t he spider s daughter ! She began ’

to get t ired and went back to her parents H er

,
.

father th e spider then t ook her to an o th er ju ju

, ,

man w h o by making spells and casting l o t s very

, , ,

soon discovered t ha t i t was the king s h ead wife who ’

had made the ju ju and had enchanted the king so

that h e w oul d n o t l o o k at Adiaha H e therefore .

told the spider that Adiah a should give the king s ome
medicine which h e w o uld prepare which would ,

make th e king remember her H e prepared th e .

medicine for which t he spider had to p ay a large

,

su m of money ; and tha t very day Adiah a made

a smal l dish of food int o which Sh e h ad placed the ,

medicine and presented i t to th e king D irectly he

,
.

had eate n the dish his ey e s were O pened and h e

recognised his wife and told h er to come to him ,

12
 The Woma n w i th Tw o Shins
that very evening S O in the af t ernoon being very
.
,

j oyful s h e went down to th e river and washed and

, ,

when sh e returned sh e put on her best cloth and

went to the kin g s palace ’
.

D irectly it was dark and all th e lights were out

she pulled O ff h er ugly skin and t he king s a w ho w ,

bea u tiful She w a s and was very pleased wi t h her ;

,

but when the cock cr o wed Adiaha pulled on her ugly

skin again and went back to her own house
, .

This s h e did for fou r nights r unning always taking ,

th e ugly skin o ff in the da r k and leaving bef o re day

,

light i n the morning I n course of t im e to t he great

.
,

surprise of all t he people and particularly of t he,

king s two hu ndred wives sh e gave birth to a s o n

’
,

but wha t su r prised them most of all was that only

one s o n was born wh ereas her mother had always
,

had a grea t m any children a t a time generally about ,

fifty.

The king s head wife became more j ealous than

’

ever when Adiaha had a s o n ; s o She went again

to the ju ju man and by giving him a large present
,

induced him to give her some medicine which would

make the king sick and forge t his s o n And the .

medicine would then make the king go to the ju ju

man who would tell him t hat i t w a s h i s s o n who
,

had made him sick a s he wanted to reign inste ad

,

of his father Th e ju ju man would also tell the

.

king that if h e wanted t o recover h e must throw

his Son away in t o the water .

And the king when he had taken th e medicine

, ,

went to th e ju ju man w h o t o ld him everything

,

as had been arranged w ith th e head wife But a t .

first the king did n o t want to de s t r oy his s o n Then .

I S
 F St or ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
his chief subj ects begged him to throw his son away ,

and said that perhaps in a year s time he might get ’

another s o n S o the king at last agreed and threw

.
,

his s o n into th e river at wh ich the mother grieved

,

and cried bitterly

- .

Then the h ead wife we nt again to the ju ju man

and go t more m edicine wh ich m ade th e king forget ,

Adiaha for t hree ye ars during which time s h e was ,

in mourning for her so n S h e t h en returned to her .

father a nd h e got some more medicine from his

,

j j
u u man which Adiaha
, gave to t he king And .

th e king knew her and called h e r to him again and ,

s h e lived with him as before ; N ow t he ju Ju who

had h elped Ad i ah a s fath er the s pider was a Water
’

, ,

j j
u u and,
h e was ready when the king thre w his
son into the water and s a ve d h i s life and took him
,
'

home and kept him alive And t he boy grew u p .

very str ong .

After a time Adiah a gave birth to a daughter and ,

her the j ealous wife also persuaded t he king to t hro w

away I t to o k a longer time to persu ade him bu t
.
,

at last h e agreed and threw his daughter in t o t h e

,

water too and forgot Adiaha again But the W ater

,
.

u was ready again and when he had saved th e

j j
u ,

little girl h e t hough t the time had arrived to p u nish

,

the action of th e j ea lous wife ; s o he went about

amongst the head young men and pe r s uaded them ‘

to hold a wrestling match in the ma r ket place every -

week This w a s done and the Water ju ju t o ld th e

.
,

king s s o n who had become very s t r o ng and w a s

’

, ,

very like t o his father in appearance th a t he should ,

g o and wrestl e and tha t no

,
one would be able t o

stand up before him It was t hen arranged th at

.

I
4
 The Woma n w ith Tw o Shins
t here should be a grand wrestling match to which ,

all the strongest men in the country wer e invited

,
,

and the king promised to a t tend with his head

wife.

On th e day of the match the Water ju ju told the

king s So n tha t he need not be in t he l e ast afraid
’

and that h i s ju ju was so powerful that even the ,

strongest and best wrestlers in th e country would

no t be able to s t and up against him for even a few
minutes All the pe o pl e of the country came to s e e
.

the great contes t to th e winner of which the king

,

had promised t o present prizes of cl o th and money ,

and all t he stronges t men came When they sa w .

the king s s o n whom nobody knew they laughed

’

, ,

and said , Who is this small boy ? H e can have no

“

chance against u s But when th ey came to wr estle

.
”
,

t hey very soon f o und that they were no match for

h im The boy was very s trong indeed beau t ifully
.
,

made a nd good to look upon and all the peopl e , .

w ere surprised to s e e how like h e was to th e king .

After wrestling for t he greater part of the day t he

k i ng s s o n was declared t he winner having thrown
’

every o n e who had stood up agains t him ; in fact ,

som e of his o pponen t s had b een badly hurt and had ,

heir arms rib s broken o wing to t he tremendous

t o r

strength o f t h e boy Af t er th e m atch was over t he

.

king presented him with cl oth and m o ney and i n ,

v i te d him to dine with h im in the evening The b o y .

gladly accepted his fa ther s invi t ation ; and after h e

’

had had a go o d wash i n t he river put on his cl o t h ,

and went up to t h e palace where he f o und the head

,
.

chiefs of t he country and some of the king s most ’

favoured wive s They then s at down to their meal

.
,

1 5
 Fol h St or ies f r om Sou t her n Mger i a
and the king h a d h is own s o n wh om he did not ,

know Sitting ne xt to him On the other s ide of the

, .
“

boy sat th e j ealous wife who had b een the cause of

,

all the trouble All through the dinner this woman

.

did her best to make friends with the boy with ,

whom s h e had fallen violently in love on account of

his beautiful appearance h is strength and his being
, ,

the best wrestler in th e cou ntry The woman thought .

to herself I will have this boy as my husband as

“
, ,

my husband is now an old man and will surely soon

die. The boy h owever who was as wise as he w as
, ,

str o ng was quite aware o f everything the j ealous

,

woman had don e and although h e pretended to be

,

very flattere d at the advances of the ki ng s head ’

wife h e did not respond very readily and went

, ,

h ome as s o on as he could .

When h e returned to the Water ju ju s h o use he ’

told him everything that had happened and the ,

Water ju ju said 4 —

“ As o u are n o w in high f avour with th e king

y ,

you must go to h i m to morrow and beg a favour -

from him The fa vour you will a sk is th a t all th e

.

country shall be c alled together and that a certain ,

case sh all be tried and that when t h e case is finish ed

, ,

th e m an or wom an who is fou nd to be in th e wrong

shal l be killed by the Egb o s before all the people .
”

S O the f o llo w ing mo r ning t h e boy went t o th e

king w h o readily granted his request and at once
, ,

sen t al l round t h e coun t ry app o in t ing a day for all

t he people to come in and hear the case t r ied Then .

the boy wen t back to the Water ju ju who t o ld him ,

to go to h i s m o t her and t ell h er who he was and ,

that when the day of th e trial arrived s h e w a s to ,

'

1 6
 Fol h Stor ies fi om Sout her n Mger i a
middle l eading h er by the hand S h e was a beauti
, .

fu l girl and well made When every one had l ooked

.

at her h e said IS not my sister worthy to be any

,

chief s daugh t er ? And th e people repli ed that s h e

’

was wor t hy of being any one s daugh t er eve n th e ’

king s Then h e called his mother Adiaha and s h e

’
.
,

cam e ou t looking very beautiful with her best cloth

,

and beads on and all t he people cheered as they had

, ,

n ever s een a finer woman The boy th en a s ked them

.
,

Is this woman worthy O f being th e king s wife ’

And a shout went up fro m every one p re s ent that she

w o uld be a proper wife for th e king and looked as if ,

s h e would be t he mother of plenty of fine heal t hy

Sons.

Th en the boy pointed out the j ealous woman who

was sitting next to the king and told th e people his ,

story how that h l S mother who had two s kins was

, , ,

the Spider s daughter ; how sh e had married the king

’

and how the h ead wife was j ealous and had made a
bad ju ju for the king which made him forget his
,

wife ho w sh e had persuaded the king to th r ow him

self and his sister into t h e river whi c h as t hey all , ,

knew had been done but the Water ju ju had saved

, ,
”

both of them and had brought them up

, .

Then the boy said I l eave the king and all of

you p e o ple to j udge my case I f I h ave don e wrong .
,

let m e be kil led o n t he s t one by the Egb o s ; if on ,

the other hand the woman has done evil t hen let the
, ,

Egbos deal with her as y o u may decide .

”

When the king knew that th e wrestler was his s o n

h e was very glad and told the Egbos to take t he
,

j ealous w o man away and punish her in acc o rdance

,

with t heir laws The Egb o s decided that the woman

.

1 8
 The Woma n w thi Tw o Shins
was a witch s o they took her into the forest and tied
her up to a stake and g ave h er two hundred lashes
,

with a whip made from hippopotamus hide and then ,

burnt her alive s o that sh e should not m a k e any

,
e

more trouble and her ashes were thr o wn into the

,

river The king then embraced his wife and daughter

.
,

an d told all the people that sh e Adi aha w a s his , ,

proper wife a nd would be the queen for the future

, .

When th e palaver was over Adiaha was dre s sed in ,

fine cloth es and beads and carri ed back in state to

,

the palace by t he king s Servants ’

.

That night the king gave a big feast to al l his

subj ects and told them how glad he was to get back
,

his beautiful wife whom he had n ever known p r operly

befor e also his s o n who was stro nger t han all men
, ,

and his fine daughter Th e feast continued for a

.

hundred and sixty six days ; and the ki ng made a

-

law that if any woman was found out get t ing medicine
against her husband s h e shoul d be killed at once
, .

Then th e king built t hree new compounds and placed ,

many slave s in them both men and women One

,
.

compound he gave to his wife another to h i s s o n , ,

and the third he gave to his daughter Th ey all .

lived toge t her quite happily fo r s o m e years until t h e

ki ng died when his s o n came to th e throne and ruled
,

in his stead .

I 9
 The King ’
s M agic Dr um
E FRI AM D U K E was an ancient king of C alabar H e .

w as a peacefu l man and did not like war H e h ad

, .

a wonderful drum th e property of which ; when it,

was beaten was always to provide p l e nty o f good

, l

food and drink 8 0 whenever any coun t ry decla r e d

.

war against him he used to call all his enemies to

’

gether and beat his d r um ; then to the s urprise Of

every one ins t ead of fighting the people found tables
,

spread with all sorts of dishes fis h foo foo palm oil , ,

-
,
-

chop soup cooked yams an d ocros and plenty of

, , ,

palm wine for everyb o dy I n this way he kept all .

t he country quie t and s ent h i s enemies away with

,

ful l stomachs and in a h appy and co nten t ed frame

,

of mind Th ere was o nly one drawback to possess

.

ing t h e drum and that was if the owner O f the drum

, ,

walked over any stick on the road or stept over a

fallen tree all the food would imm ediately go bad
, ,

and three hundred Egbo men w ould appear with

sticks and whips and beat t h e o wner of t he drum
an d all the invited guests ve r y severely .

E fr i a m D u ke w as a rich man H e had many .

farms and hundreds of slaves a la r ge store of kernels ,

o n the beach and many puncheons of palm—oil H e

,
.

also had fifty wives and many children The wives .

20
 The King
’
s M agic Dr u m
were all fine women and healthy they were also good
mo thers and all of them had plenty of children
, ,

which was good for the king s h ouse ’

.

Every few months t he king us e d to issue invita

tions t o all his subj ec t s to come to a big feast even ,

th e wild animals w ere invited ; the elephants hipp o ,

potami leopards bush cows and an t el o pes used to

, , ,

come fo r in those days there was no trouble as th ey

, ,

were friendly w ith man and when t hey were at th e ,

feas t they did not kill one another All th e people .

and the animals as well were envious of th e king s ’

dr u m and wanted to possess it but the king would ,

not part with it .

On e m o rning I k w o r Edem one of the king s wives ,

’

took her little daugh t er down to the spring to wash

her as sh e was covered with yaws which are bad
, ,

sores all over the body The t o r t oise happened to .

be up a palm tree j ust OVCI the spring cut t ing nuts

,
‘

fo r his midday meal and while he was cutting on e ,

of th e nuts fell to th e ground j ust in fron t o f th e ,

child The little girl seeing the good food cried

.
, ,

for it and the mother not knowing any bet t er

, , ,

picked u p t he palm nut and gave it to her daughter .

D irec t ly the to r toise s a w this h e climbed do w n th e

tree an d asked the w om an w here his palm nut was
, .

S h e replied tha t s h e had given it to h e r child to eat

Then the tor t oise who ve r y much wanted th e king s
.

,
I
drum thought h e would m a ke pl e nty palaver over
,

this and force the king to give him t h e drum s o he ,

s aid t o the mo t her of t h e child

“
I am a poor man and I climbed the tree to get
,

food for my s elf and my family Then you took my .

palm nut and gave it to yo u r child I sh all tell the .

21
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger i a
whole matter to the king and se e what he has to sa y ,

when he hears that one of his wives has stolen my

food for this as every one knows is a very serious
,
”
, ,

crime according to na t ive cus t om .

I k w o r Edem then said to the tort o ise

“
I s a w your palm nut lying on the ground and ,

thinking it had fallen fr o m t he t ree I gave it to my ,

little girl to eat but I did not steal it My husband

, .

the king is a rich m an and if you have any com ,

plaint to make against m e or my chil d I will take ,

you before him .

S o when s h e had finished washi ng her daughter

at the spring s h e took th e tortoise to h e f husband “

and told him what h a d t aken place The king then .

asked the tortoise what he would accept as c o m p e n

sation for th e l o ss of his palm nut and o ffered h i m ,

money clo t h kernels or palm O i l al l o f which things

, ,
-
,

th e tortoise refused one after the other .

The king t hen said to the tortoise What will you ,

take ? You may have anything you like .

And the tortoi se immediately p o inted to the king s

'
’

drum and said that it was the only thi ng he wanted

, .

I n order to get rid of t he t o rtoise t h e king said ,

“ Very well take th e drum

,
but he never told th e ,
”

tortoise about the bad t hings that would happen to

him if he stept over a fallen tree o r walked over a ,

stick on t h e road .

The tort o ise was very glad at t his and carried the ,

drum home in t r iumph to his wife a nd said I am “

, ,

now a rich m an and shall do no more wo r k ,

.

Whenever I wan t food al l I have to do I s to beat

,

this d r um and food will immedia t ely be brought to

,

me and plenty to drink

,
.

22
 The King s M agic
’
Dr u m
H is wif e and children were very pleased when
they h eard this a nd asked t he tortoise to get food
,

at O nce as they were all hungry This the tortoise

, .

was only to o pleased to do a s he wished to Show ,

o ff his n ewly acquired w e alth and was also rather ,

hung r y himself s o he beat th e drum in the sam e

,

way as h e had seen the king do when he wanted

s omething to eat and immediately plenty of fo o d
,

appeared s o t h ey all sat d o wn and made a great

,

feast The tortoise did thi s for thre e days and

.
,

everything went well ; al l his children got fat and ,

had as much as they c o uld possibl y eat H e was .

therefore very proud of h is drum and in order to ,

display his riches he sent invitations to the king

and all th e peopl e and ani m als to come to a feast .

When the people received their invitations th ey

la ughed as they knew the tortoise was very poor S O
, ,
‘

ve ry few attended the feast but the king knowing ,

about th e drum c ame and wh e n the tortoise beat

, ,

the drum th e foo d was brought as usual in great

,

p rofusio n an d all the people sat down and enj oyed

,

their m eal very much They were much astonished .

th at the poor tortoise should be able to entertain s o

many peopl e and told all their friend s wha t fine
,

dishes had been placed be fore them and that they

,

had never had a better dinner The people who

, .

had n o t gone were very sorry when they hea r d this ,

as a g o od feast at somebody else s expense is no t

,
’

pr o vided every day After th e feast all th e p eople

.

looked upon the t ortoise as one of th e richest men

in the kingdom and he was very much respected
,

in c o nsequence N o one except the king could

.
, ,

understand how the poor tortoise c o uld suddenly

23
 Fol h Stor ies fi om Sou the r n Niger i a
entertain s o lavishly but they all made up the ir
,

minds that if the tortoise ever gave another feast ,

they would not refuse again ;

When the tortois e had been i n possession of th e
drum fo r a few weeks he becam e lazy and did no
work but wen t about the country boasting of his
,

rich es and t ook to drinking t oo much One day

, .

after h e h ad been drinking a lo t of palm wine at a

distant farm h e s t arted home carrying his drum ;
,

but having had too much to drink he did n ot no t ice ,

a stick in the path H e walked o ver the stick and

.
,

of course th e ju ju was broken at once But h e .

did not know this as nothing h appened at th e time

, ,

and eventually h e arrived at his house very tired ,

and still not very well from having drunk too much .

H e threw t h e drum into a corner and went to sleep .

Wh en he woke up in th e morning the tor t oise began

to feel hung r y and a s h i s wife and children were
,

calling out for food h e beat th e drum ; but instead

,

of food being brough t t he house was filled with,

Egbo men who beat the t ortoise his wife and

, ,

children badly , At this the to r to rse was very

.

angry and said to hi mself

,

I asked every one to a feast but o nly a few came , ,

and they had plenty t o eat and drink N ow when

,
.
,

I want food for m yself and m y family the Egbos ,

come and beat me W e ll I will let th e other people

.
,

share t he same fate as I do not see why I and my

,

family should be b eaten when I have given a feast

to all people .

H e t herefore at once sent out invitations to all

the men and animals to come to a big din ner th e
n e xt day at three o clock in the aftern oon
’
.

2
4
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
th e drum and h e was quite willing to accept a certain
,

number of slaves or a few farms or their equivalent

, ,

i n cl o th o r rods .

The king however refused to do this ; but as he

, ,

was rather sorry for th e tortoise he said he would ,

present him with a magic foo foo tree which w o udd -

,

provide the tortoise and his family with f ood pro ,

v i de d he kept a certain condition This th e tortoise .

gladly consented to do Now this foo foo tree only .

-

bore fruit o nce a year but every d ay i t dropped fo o

,

foo and s oup on the ground And th e condi t ion .

w a s that th e owner should gather su fficien t fo o d for

,

th e day o nce an d not return again for m o re The

, , .

tor t oise when he had thanked the king for his

,

genero sity went home to h is wife and told her to

,

bring h er calabashes to th e tree S h e did s o and

‘

.
,

they ga t hered plenty of foo foo and soup quite s u ffi -

cient for the whole family for that day and went ,

b ack to their house very happy .

That night they all feas t ed and en joyed them

selves But one of th e s o ns wh o was very greedy
.
'

, ,

thought to hims e lf
“
I wonder where my father gets all thi s good food
from I must ask him .

S o in the m o rning h e said to his father

“ Tell me where do you get all this foo foo and -

soup from
But his father refuse d to tell him as his wife who , ,

w a s a cunning woman said ,

If we let our children kno wthe secret of t he fo o

foo t ree some day wh en they are hu ngry aft er we
, ,

have go t our daily supply one of th em may go to ,

the tree and gather more which will break the Ju ju , .

”

26
 The King s M ag ic Dr u m
’

But the envious son bein g determined to get plenty

,

of food for himself decided to track his father to the

,

p lace where he O btained the food This w a s ra t h er .

di fficult to do as the tortoise always went ou t alone

, ,

and took the greatest care to prevent any one follow

ing him The boy however s oo n though t of a plan
.
, , ,

and got a c alabash w i t h a long neck and a hole in

t he end H e filled th e calabash with wood ashes
.
‘

, ,

which h e o btained from the fire and then got a ba g ,

which his father always carried on his back whe n he

wen t out to get food I n th e bottom of the bag the
.

boy then made a small hole and inserted t h e calabash ,

wi t h the neck do w nwards s o t hat when his father ,

walked to the foo foo t ree h e would leave a smal l

-

trail o f woo d ash es behind him Then wh en his .

fathe r havi ng slung his bag o ver his back a s usual

, ,

set out to get th e daily supply of food his greedy ,

!

s o n followed t he trail of th e wood ash es t aking grea t ,

care to hide himself an d no t to let h i s father perceive

t hat he was being followed At last the tortoise
~
.

arrived at the tr ee and placed his calabashes on the

,

gr o u nd and collected t he f ood fo r the day the boy ,

w atching him from a distance W h en h i s father had .

finished and w ent home the boy also returned and ,

having had a good m eal said nothing to his parents , ,

but went to bed The ne xt morning h e got some of

.

his brothers and after his fa t her had finished getting

,
.

th e daily supply they went to the tree and collected

,

much foo foo and s o up and s o broke the ju ju

-
, .

At daylight t h e to r to i s e w e n t to the t ree as usual

'

but he coul d not find i t as during t h e night the ,

whole bush h ad gro wn up and the foo foo tree was ,

-

hidden f r om sigh t There was nothing t o be seen

.

2
7
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Niger ia
but a dense mass of prickly tie ti e palm Then th e
-
.

tortoise at once knew that some one had b roken the

j j
u u
,
and had ga t h ered foo foo from the
-
tree twice
in th e same day ; so h e returned very sadly to his
house and told h i s wife H e then call ed all his
, .

family together and told them what h ad happened ,

and asked them who had done this evil thing They .

all denied having had any t hing t o do wi t h t he tree ,

s o the tortoise in despair br o ught all his family to

the place where the fo o foo t r ee had been but which

-
,

was n o w all prickly tie tie palm and said

-
,

My dear wife and children I have done all that

,

I can for you but y o u have broken my ju ju ; you

,

must therefore for the future live o n the tie tie -

palm .

S o they made their ho me underneath th e prickly

tree and from that day you will a l w ay s fin d tor
,

toises li v ing under th e prickly tie tie palm as they -

,

have nowh ere else to go to for foo d .

28
 V

d the King
W9? ’
I ta cu an s

ITU E N was a young m an of C ala b ar H e was the .

only child o f his parents and they were extremely

,

fond o f him as he was o f fine prop orti o ns and very

,

good t o look upon They were poor people and

.
,

when I tu e n grew up and became a man he had v e ry ,

li tt le money indeed in fact h e had so little food that

, ,

eve r y day it was h i s cus t om to go to the market

carrying an empty bag into w hich h e used to put
,

anything eatable h e could find after the market was

over.

At this tim e O ffio ng was king H e was an old .

man but he had plenty of wives On e of these

,
.

women named Atte m was quite young and very

, ,

good looking S h e did n ot like her old husband but

- .
,

wish ed for a young and handsome husband S h e .

therefore t o ld her servant t o go round th e town and

the market to try and find such a man and to bring
him at night by the Side door to her house and s h e ,

h erself would let him in and would take care that

,

her husband did not discover him .

Tha t day t he servan t went all round the town but ,

failed to find any young man good looking eno u gh -

.

S h e was j us t returning to report h er ill success wh en -

,

on passing through the market place s h e sa w I tu e n

-
,

29
 Fo/
h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger i a
picking up the remains of corn and other things
which had b een left o n the ground S h e was .

immediately struck with his fine appearance and ‘

strength and s a w that h e was j ust th e man to make

,

a proper lover for h er m istress so sh e went up t o ,

him and said th at the queen had sent for him as

, ,

s h e was so taken with his good looks At first I tu e n .

was frighten e d and refused to go as h e knew that ,

if t he king discovered him h e would be killed .

H o wever after much persuasion h e consented and

, ,

agreed to go to the queen s side door when it w a s ’

dark .

When the night came h e went with great fear and

trem b ling , and k nocked v e ry sof t ly at the queen s ’

door The do o r w as O pened at once by the queen

.

herself who was dress e d i n all her best clothes and

, ,

had many necklaces beads and anklets on D irectly

, , .

s h e s aw I tu e n s h e f e l l in love wi t h him at once and ,

’

p r a i s e d h i s good lo o ks a nd his shapely limbs S h e .

then told h er servant to bring water and clo t he s ,

and after h e had had a g o od wash and put o n a

clean cl oth he rej oined the queen S h e h id him in
, .

her h ouse all the night .

I n th e morning when he wished to go she would

not let him but although i t was very dangerous , s h e
, ,

hid him in t he house and secretly conveyed food and

,

cl o thes t o h i m I tu e n stay ed there for two weeks

.
,

and t hen he said that it was time for him to go and

s e e his m o ther ; but the queen persuaded him to stay

another week much against h is will

,
.

Wh en th e time came for him to depart the queen

got together fifty ca r riers with presents for I tu e n s ’

mother who sh e knew w a s a poor wom an Ten

, , ,
.

0
3
 d the King s Wh?
’
I ta cu an

slaves carried three hu ndred rods ; the other forty

carried yams pepper salt tobacco and cloth When
, , , , .

all the presents arrived I tu e n s mother was very ’

pleased and em b raced her s o n and noticed wit h ,

pleasure that h e was looking well and w as dressed ,

in much finer cl othes tha n usual but when she heard

that he had attracted the queen s attention s h e was ’

frightene d as s h e knew the p enalty imposed on any

,

one who attracted the attention of one of th e k in g s ’

wives .

Itu e n stayed for a month in his parents house and

’

worked on the farm ; bu t the queen could not be

without her lover any longer so she sent for him to ,

go t o her at once I tu e n went again and as before

.
, , ,

arrived at nigh t when t he queen was delighted to s e e

,

him again .

I n th e middle of th e night some of th e kin g s ’

se r vants who had been told the story b y the Slaves

,

who had carried the presents to Itu e n s moth er came ’

i nto the queen s room and surprised her there with

’

I tu e n
. Th ey hastened to the king and t o ld him ,

wha t they had seen I tu e n w a s th en made a prisoner

.
,

and t he king sent out to all his people to attend at

the palaver house to h ear the case tried H e also .

o rder ed eight Egbos to attend armed with ma t ch ets .

When th e case was t r ied I tu e n was found guilty and ,

the king told the eight Egbo men to take him int o th e
bush and deal with him acco rding to n ative custom .

Th e Egbos then took I tu e n into the bush and tied

him u p to a tree th en wi t h a sharp knife t hey cut
o ff his lower j aw and carried it to the king
, .

,
When th e queen h ea r d th e fate of her lover S h e
was very s a d and cr i ed for three days This made
,
.

3 1 .
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger hz
the king angry so he told the Egbos to deal with his
,

wife and h er serva nt according to their law They .

took th e queen and th e servant into th e bush where ,

I tu e n was still tied up to the tr ee dying and in great

pain Then as the queen had nothing to say in her
.
,

defence th ey tied her and th e girl up to di ff erent

,

trees and cut the queen s lower j aw O ff in the sam e

,
’

way as they had her lover s Th e Egbos then put

’
.

ou t both the eyes of the servant and left all three to

,

die of starvation The king then made an Egbo law

.

t hat for the future n o one bel onging to Itu e n s family ’

w a s to go into the m arket on market day and t hat ,

no one was to pick up the rubbish in the market .

The king made an exceptio n to t he law in favour of

the vulture and the dog who were not considered
,

very fine people and would not be likely to run o ff

,

wi t h one of t he kin g s wives and that is why you

’
,

s t i l l find vultures and dogs d o ing scavenger the

marke t places even at the presen t time
-
.
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger m
her beauty and said that she was as beautiful as the
,

setting sun when all the s k y was red Word was .

quickly brought to K ing Mbotu w h o i t was well , ,

known was fond of pre t ty girl s and h e sent for

, ,

h er at once all the people agreeing that s h e was

,

quite worthy of being th e king s wife When s h e ’

.

ap peared bef o re h im he fancied her so much that he ,

told her he would marry her that very day O y a ik a n .

was very p lea s ed at this as sh e had n ever expected ,

to get her opportunity s o quickly S h e t herefore .

prepared a dainty meal for the king into which s h e ,

placed a strong medicine to make t he king Sleep and ,

then went down to the river to wash .

When s h e had finish ed it was getting dark s o s h e ,

went to t he king s compound carrying h er dish on

’
,

h er head and was at once shown in to the king who

, ,

embraced h er a ffectionately S h e then o ffered h i m .

the food which she said quite tr u ly sh e had prepared

, ,
, ,

with her own hand s The king a t e the whole dish

.
,

and immediately began to feel very Sleepy as th e ,

medicin e was s t rong and t o o k e ffect quickly .

Th ey reti r ed to the king s chamber and th e king ’

went to sleep at O n ce About midnight when all .

,

th e town was quiet O y a i k a n drew h er knife from h er

,

bosom and cut th e king s head o ff Sh e pu t th e ’

.

h e a d in a bag and went o u t very softly Shutting and ,

barring the door behind her Th en She walked .

through th e town with o u t any one observing her and ,

went straight to Itu where she placed K ing Mb o tu s

,
’

h ead before her own king .

When the peopl e heard that th e witch had been

successful and that their enemy was dead there was ,

great rej oicing and th e king of Itu at once made up

,

34
 Of the P r etty Str a nger w ho Killed the King
his mind to attack Old Town C alabar H e therefore , .

got his fighting men together and took them in canoes

by the creek s to Old Town taking care that no one ,

carried word to Calabar t ha t h e w a s coming .

The morning following t he murder of Mb otu his

people were rather surpri s ed that h e did not appear
at his usual tim e so his h ead wife knocked at his
,

door . N ot receiving any answer sh e called th e

h ouse hold toge t her and they broke open th e door
, .

When th ey entered the ro o m t hey fo u nd the king

lying dead on his bed cove r ed in blood but his head ,

was missing At this a g r eat shout went up and the

.
,

whol e town mourned Although they missed th e .

pretty s t ranger th ey never connected her in their

,

minds wi t h the death of their king and were quite ,

u nsuspicious O f any dange r and were unprepared ,

for fighting I n the middle of the mourning while

.
,

they were all dancing crying and drinking palm wine

, , ,

the king of I t u with all his s o ldiers attacked Old

Town taking t hem qui t e by surprise and as their
, ,

leader was dead the Calabar pe o ple were very soon

,

defea t ed and many killed and taken prisoners

, .

MO RA L — N ever m arry a stranger , no matter how

pret t y sh e may be .

35
 Why the Ba t fl ies by Mght
A B U S H rat called O y o t was a great friend of
E m i o n g th e bat ; t h ey always fed togethe r but
, ,

the bat was j ealous of t he bush ra t When the .

bat C ooked th e food i t w a s always very g o od a nd ,

th e bush rat said H ow is it that when you make

,

the soup it is so tasty ? ”

Th e bat replied “
I always boil myself in the
,

water and my flesh is so swee t t hat the soup i s ,

good .

H e then t old th e b u sh rat that h e would Show him

h ow i t was done ; s o he got a p o t of warm w ater ,

which he t o ld t he bush ra t w a s boiling w a t er and ,

j umped in t o i t and very Shor t ly af t e r wards came

,

ou t again When t he soup was b r o u ght it w a s as

.

s t rong and good as usual as t he bat had prepared ,

it beforeh and .

Th e bu s h rat then wen t h ome and told his wife

tha t h e was going to make good soup like t he bat s ’
.

H e therefore told her to boil some wate r which She ,

did Th en when his wife was no t looking he j umped

.
, ,

in t o the pot an d was very s o on dead

,
.

When his wife looked i nto t h e pot and saw the

dead body of her husband boiling s h e was ve r y
angry and r ep o r t ed th e matter to t he king w h o
, ,

3 6
 Why the Ba t flies by IVig ht
gave orders tha t t he bat Should be made a pri s oner.

Every o n e turned out to catch t h e bat but as h e

,

ex pected trouble he fl ew away into t he bush and hid

hi m self All day long t he people tried to catch him
.
,

s o h e had t o change his h abi t s and o nly came out

,

t o feed when it was dark and that is why you never

,

s e e a b at in th e daytim e
.

37
The Disobedient Da ughter w ho M a r r ied a Shu ll
E FF I ON G Edem was a native of C obham T o wn H e .

had a very fine daughter who s e name was A h ong

.

, .

All the young men in t he c o untry w anted to marry

her on account o f her bea u t y ; but she r e q e d all
o ff ers of mar r iage in spite o f repeated entreaties from
h er paren t s a s sh e was very vain and said sh e would
, ,

only marry th e best looking m a n i n the c o untry who

-
,

would have t o be young and strong and capable ,

of loving h e r prope r ly Mo s t o f t h e men her parents

.

wanted her to marry altho u gh they were rich were

, ,

old men and ugly s o the girl continued to di s obey

,

her parents at which th ey were very much g r ieved

, .

Th e skull who li v ed in the spirit land heard of th e

beau t y of this Calabar virgin and th o ught he would ,

l ike to pos s e s s her ; s o h e went ab o u t am o ngst his

friends and borr o wed different parts of the b o dy
from them all of the best From one he go t a good
,
.

h ead another lent him a b o dy a t hird gave him

, ,

strong arms and a fourth lent him a fine pair of

,

legs At last h e was comple t e and was a very

.
,

perfect specimen of manh o od .

H e t hen left th e spirit land and we nt t o C obham

market where h e saw Afio n g and admired h er very
, ,

much .

3 8
The Disobedient Da ughter w ho M a r r ied a Shu ll
About this time Afio ng hea r d that a very fine man
had been seen in th e marke t who was better l o o king ,
-

than any of th e natives S h e theref o re w en t t o t h e

.

ma r ke t at once and direc t ly s h e s a w the S kull in h is

,
r’

bo r rowed beauty s h e fell in love with him and

, ,

invited him to h er house The S kull was deligh t ed .

,

and w ent home with her and on his arriva l was ,

introduced by t he girl to her pa r en t s and immedia t ely ,

asked their consen t to marry th eir da u gh t er At first .

they refused a s t hey did n o t wish h er to marry a

,

s t ranger bu t a t last t hey agreed

, .

H e lived with A h o ng for two days in h er parents ’

house and then said h e w ished to t ake his wife back

,

to his coun t r y which was far off

,
To thi s th e girl .

readily ag r eed as he w a s such a fine man but h er

, ,

paren t s tried t o per s uade her not to go H o wever .

,

being very headstrong She made up h er mind t o go

, ,

and they s tarted O ff togethe r After they had been .

gone a few days t he father consulted his ju ju man ,

w h o by cas t ing l o ts very soon di s covered th a t his

daughter s h u sband belonged to th e spirit land and
’
,

tha t sh e would s u rely be killed Th ey therefore all .

mourned her as dead .

Afte r w alking for several day s Afio n g and th e ,

S kull crossed the border bet w een th e spiri t land and

the human coun t ry D irectly t hey s e t fo o t in t he
.

spi r it land fi r s t of all one man came to the S kull

,

and demanded his legs t hen an o t her his head and, ,

t he next his bo dy and s o on until in a few minutes

, ,

the Skul l w a s lef t by i t self i n all its natural ugliness .

A t t his t he girl w a s very frightened and wan t ed to ,

return home bu t the sk u ll would no t allow this and

, ,

ordered her to go with him When they arrived at .

39
 Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ta
Fol h
th e skull s house th ey found his m t her who was
’
o ,

a very o l d woman quite incapable of doing any work ,

who could only creep about Afio n g t ried her best .

to help her and cooked her food and brough t water

, ,

and firewood fo r th e old woman Th e old creature .

was very grateful for these attentions and so o n ,

b ecame quite fond of Afio ng .

One day th e o l d woman told Afio ng t hat s h e was

very s orry for her but all the people I n the spirit
,

lan d were cannibals and when t hey heard there was

,

a h uman being in their country t hey would come ,

down and kill her and eat her The skull s mother .
’

then hid Afio ng and as s h e had looked af t er her so

,

wel l she promi s ed she w ould send her back to her

‘

coun t ry as soon as possible providing t h at sh e pro

,

m i s e d for the f u ture to obey h er parents This .

A h ong readily consented to do Then the old .

woman sent for the spider wh o was a very clever ,

hairdresser and m ade him dre s s Afio n g s h air i n

,
’

the lates t fa s hi o n S h e also presented her with

.

anklets and other things on acco u n t o f her kind

.

ness S h e t hen made a ju ju and called the winds

.

to come and convey Afi o n g t o h er home At first .

a violent tornado came w ith t hu nder lightning and

, ,

rain but th e skull s mo t her sent him away a s n u

,
’

sui t able The next w ind to come was a gen t le

.

breeze s o sh e told the breeze to carry Afio n g to her

,

m o ther s house and s aid g o od bye to her Very

’

,
-
.

so o n af t erwards the breeze deposited Afi o ng outside

h er h o me and lef t her there
,
.

Wh en the p arents s a w t heir daughter they were

very glad as t hey had fo r some months given her
,

up as lost The fath er Spread soft animal s skin s

.
’

40
 The King M a r r ied Da ughter
’
w ho the Coch s

KI NG of D uke To w n Calaba r was very fond

E FFI OM , ,

of pretty maidens and whenever h e hea r d of a girl

,

w h o was un u s u ally good l o oking h e always sent for

-
,

her and if s h e t ook h i s fancy h e made h er o n e of h is

, ,

wives This h e could a fford to do as he was a rich

.
,

man and could pay any dowry w hich t he parents

,

asked most of his money having been made by buying

,

and selling slaves .

E ffi o m had two hundred and fifty wives bu t he ,

was never con t ent and wanted to h ave all t he finest

,

women in the land S o me of t he king s friends w h o

.
’

were always o n th e l o ok ou t for pretty girls t old

-
,

E ffi o m tha t t he Cock s daughter was a lovely vi r gin

’

and far superior to any of t h e king s w ives D irec t ly ’

.

the king heard this he sent for t h e Cock and said ,

h e intended to h ave his da u ghter a s one of h i s w ive s .

The Cock being a poo r man could n o t re s i s t t he

, ,

order of t he king s o he b r ough t his daughter wh o

, ,

was very good l o oking and plea s ed t he king i m

-

m e n se l y When th e king had paid the C o ck a

.

dowry of s i x p u ncheon s o f palm oil the Cock told -

,

E ffio m t hat if he married his daughter h e must not

forget t hat she had the natural ins t incts of a hen ,

4 2
 The King w ho M a r r ied the C och s
’
Da ughter
and that he Should not blame Adia unen (his
daugh t er ! if sh e picked up c o rn whenever s h e s a w
it Th e king replied that he did not mind w hat
.

she a t e s o l o ng as h e possessed h er .

The king t hen took Adia unen as h i s wife and ,

like d her s o much t hat he neglected all his other

,

wive s and lived entirely with Adia unen as She

, ,

suited him exac t ly and plea s ed him more than any

of his other wives S h e also amu s ed the king and
.
,

played with him and enticed him i n so many dif

fe r e n t w ay s that he could not live w ithout her and ,

alway s had her with him to t he exclusion of his

former favourites whom he w o uld no t even speak
,

t o o r notice in any way when h e met them .

This s o enraged the neglected w ives that th ey met

together and al t hough t hey all hated one another
, ,

they agreed s o far t ha t they ha t ed the Cock s ’

daughter more than any one as now t ha t s h e had ,

come to the king none of them ever had a chance

with him F ormerly t he king al t hough he always
.
,

had h i s favouri t es u s ed to favour di ff erent girls

,

with hi s a tt entions when t h ey pleased him par

ti c u l a r l y Tha t was very di ff erent in t heir opini o n
.

to being excluded from his presence and all his

a ffec t i o ns being concen t rated o n one gi r l who r e ,

c e i v e d all his l ove and emb r aces I n consequence .

of t his they were ve r y angry and de t ermined if ,

po s sible to disgrace Adia u nen After much dis .

c u ss i o n one of t h e wives who was the la s t favourite

, , ,

and wh om the arrival of th e C o ck s daughter had ’

displaced said ! This girl whom we all hate is after

, , , ,

all only a Cock s daughter and we can easily d i s

,
’

grace her i n th e king s eyes as I heard her father

’

43
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou t her n Mger i a
tell the king that She could not resist corn no ,

matter how it was thrown about .

V ery Sh o rtly af t er the kin s wives h ad deter

g
’

mined to try and disgrace Adia u nen all the pe o ple ‘

of the country cam e t o pay homage t o the ki ng .

Th is was done three times a year the people bring ,

ing yams fowl s goats and new corn as presents

, , , ,

and t he king e ntertained th em with a feast of to o

foo palm o i l chop and tombo
,
1
-
A big dance was , .

als o held which wa s u sually kept up for several days

,

and nights Early i n th e morning the king s head

.
’

wife t o ld her servant to wash one head of corn and ,

when all th e people were present s h e was to bring

it in a calabash and t hrow i t on t he ground and
th en walk away Th e corn was to be thrown in .
‘

front of Aida unen s o that all th e people and chiefs ,

could see .

About ten o clock when all the chiefs and p eople ’

had as s embled and the king had t aken his seat o n ,

.

his big wo o den chair t h e servant girl cam e and ,

threw th e corn o n th e gr o und as She had be en

ordered D irectly sh e had d o ne this Adia unen
.

started towards t he corn picked it up and began ,

.

to eat At this all t h e people laughed and the king

.
,

was very angry and a s hamed The king s w i v e s a n d .

’

many people said th at t hey t hough t th e king s finest ’

wife would have learnt bet t er manners t han to pick

up c o rn which had been thrown away as ref u se .

O t hers said ! W h afé ca n you expec t from a C ock s

“ ’

daugh t er ? S h e should not be blamed for obeying

1
mb i
To i t xi ti g d i k m d f m h j i hi h i
o s an n o ca n r n a e ro t e u ce w c s ex

t t d f m h t m b p lm d hi h f m t y q i kly I
ra c e ro t e o o a an w c er en s ve r u c t is
d f m h t tw i d y i h m i g y l y d g i
.
,

ra w n ro t e re e ce a a — h t e o rn n ver ea r an a a n in
ft
,

th e a e rno o n .

44
 The King w ho M a r r ied t he Oach s
’
Da ughter
her natural instincts But the king was so vexed
.
”
,

th a t he told one of his servants to pack up Adia

u n e n s t hing s and take t hem to her father s house
’ ’
.

And this was done and Aida unen returned to her ,

parents .

Th a t night t h e king s third wife who was a friend ’

of Adia u n e n s talked t h e wh ole ma t ter over with th e

’

king a nd explained t o him tha t it w a s en t irely o w ing

,

to t h e j ealousy of his head wife t hat Adi a unen had

been disgraced S h e also told him tha t t he wh o le
.

thing had been arranged befo r ehand in order t hat

th e king s h o u ld ge t rid of Adia unen of whom all ,

th e o ther wives were j ealous When t he king heard .

t his he w a s v ery angry and made up his mind to ,

send the j eal o u s woman back to her paren t s empty

handed wi t ho u t her cl o thes and prese nts Wh en
,
.

sh e arrived a t h e r fa t he r s house t h e p aren t s r e ’

f u sed to ta k e her in as She h ad been given as a ,

wife to t he king and w h eneve r t he parents w anted

,

anything t hey co u l d always get it a t t he palace I t

, .

was therefore a g r eat l o ss to them S h e was t hu s .

turn ed in t o t he streets and walked about very ,

m iserable and after a time died very po o r and

, ,

s ta r ving .

The king g r ieved s o much at having been c o m

p e l l e d to send h i s fav o u r i t e wife Adia une n a w ay ,

t hat h e died the f o llo w ing year And w hen the .

p e o ple sa w that thei r king had died of a broken

h e a r t th e y passed a law t hat for th e fu t ure no one
,
.

should marry any b ird o r animal .

45
 The Woma n ,
the A pe , an d the Child
O K U N A RC H I B ON G was one of K ing Archibong s ’

slaves and lived on a farm near Calabar H e w a s

, .

a hun t er and used to kill bush buck and o ther kinds

,

of antelopes and many monkeys Th e skins he used .

to dry i n t h e s u n and wh en they were properly

,

cu r ed h e used to sell t h em in t h e marke t t he

,

m o nkey Skins were used for making drum s and ,

the an t elope skin s were used for si t ting m ats The .

flesh af t e r it had been well s moked over a w ood fire

, ,

h e also sold but h e did not make much money

, .

Okun Archib o ng married a Slave w o man of D uke s ’

house named Nk o y o H e paid a s mall dowry to the

.

D ukes took his wife home to his fa r m and in the

, ,

dry season time s h e had a s o n About f o ur mon t h s .

after t h e bir t h of the child Nk o y o t o ok him to th e

farm while her husband was absent hun t ing S h e .

placed t h e lit t le boy u nder a s hady t ree and w ent

abou t her w ork which w a s clearing t he gro u nd for
,

th e yams which would b e planted abou t two months

before the rains Every day whil e t h e mo t her was
.

working a big ape used to come from the fore s t and

play with t he little boy he used to h o ld him in his
a r ms and carry him up a tree and when Nk o y o had ,

finished her work he used to bring the baby back t o

,

her There was a hun t er named Edem E ffio ng w h o

.

46
 The Woma n ,
the Ape , an d t he Child
h ad for a long tim e been in love with Nk o y o and had ,

made advances to her but sh e would have no t hing

,

to do wi t h him as s h e w a s very fond of her husband

, .

When she had her lit t le child E ffio n g Edem was

very j ealous and meeting he r one day on the farm
,

wi t hout her baby he said ! Where i s your baby ?

“
,
”

And sh e replied that a big ape had taken it up a tree

and was looking after it for her When E ffi o n g .

Edem s aw that the ape w a s a big on e h e made up ,

his mind to tell Nk o y o s husband The very next ’

.

day h e told Okun A r chibong that h e had seen his

wife in the f o rest with a big ape A t first Okun .

would not believe this but the hunter to l d him to

,

come with h im and h e co u ld s e e it with his own

eyes Okun Archibong therefor e made up h i s mind
.

to kill t he ape The nex t day h e went with the

.

o t her hunte r to th e farm and s a w t h e ape up a tree

playing wi t h his s o n s o h e took very caref u l aim

,

and shot the ape but i t w a s no t quite killed I t was

,
.

s o angry and i t s streng t h was s o g r eat that it tore

, ,

th e child limb from limb and threw it to t he ground .

This s o enraged Okun A r chibong that s eeing h i s w ife

standing near he Sh o t her also H e then ran home .

and told K ing Archibong what had taken pl ace This .

king was very brave and f o nd of fighting s o as he ,

knew that K ing D uke would b e cer t ain to make war

up o n him he immediately called in all his fighting
,

men . When h e was quite prepared h e sent a

messenger to tell K ing D uke what had h appened .

D u ke w a s very ang r y and sen t the messenger back

,

to K ing Archibong to say that he must send the

hunter to h im s o that he could kill him in any way
,

h e pleased This Archibong refused to do and said

.
,

47
 Fo/
h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger i a
h e would rather fight D uke th en got his men
.

together and both s ides met and fo u ght in the

,

market square Thirty men were killed of D uke s

.
’

men and twenty were killed on Archibong s side ;

,
’

there were also many wounded On t he who l e .

K ing Archibong had th e best of th e fighting and ,

drove K i ng D uke back When the fig hting was at

.

its hottest the other chiefs s ent out all the Egbo m en
with d r ums and st o pped t he figh t and the next day ,

th e palaver was tried in Egbo house K ing Archi .

bong w a s fo u nd guilty and was ordered t o pay s i x

,

thousand rod s to K ing D uke H e refused to pay th is .

amount to D uke and said he w o uld ra t her go on

,

fighting but he d i d not mind p aying t h e s ix t h ousand

,

r o ds to the t o w n a s t he Egb o s had d e ci de d th e case

’

, .

They were abou t to commence figh t ing again when

the w hole country rose up and said they w o u ld not
have any more figh t ing a s Archibong said to D u k e
,

that the w oman s death was no t really th e faul t O f

’

h is slave Oku n Archib o ng but of E ffio n g Edem wh o

, ,

made the false r ep o rt Wh en D uke heard t hi s h e

.

agreed to leave the whole mat t e r to t h e chiefs to

decide and E ffio n g Edem was called to t ake his
,

p lace on t h e s t o ne H e was tried and found guilty

.
,

and two Egbos came o u t armed wi t h cu t ting w hips

a nd gave him tw o h undred lashes on his bare back ,

and then cu t O ff h is h ead and sen t it to D uke wh o ,

placed it before h i s ju ju F rom that t ime to t he.

present all apes and monkeys have b een frigh t ened

o f human being s ; and even of little children The .

Egbos also passed a law that a chief should not allow

one of his men Slaves to marry a woman slave of
a no t her house as it would pr o bably lead to fighting
,
.

4 8
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou t her n Mger i a
is a very bad case as the fish h as been the leopard s
,
’

friend and has been trusted by him but th e fish

, ,

has taken advantage O f his friend s absence and

’

has betrayed him .The king t herefore made an

”
, ,

order t hat for the future th e fish should live in t he

water and tha t if h e ever came o n the land he
,

sho u ld die ; h e also said t hat all men and animals

should kill and eat t he fis h whenever t hey could
catch him as a pu nishment for h i s behaviour with
,

his friend s wife

’
.
 Why the Ba t i s A sha med to be seen in the

T H E RE was o nce an old mother sh eep who had

seven lambs and one day th e bat wh o was ab o ut to
, ,

make a visi t to his fathe r i n law who lived a long - -

day s march a w ay wen t t o th e old Sheep and asked

’
,

h er to lend him one of her young lambs to carry

his load for him A t first th e mo t her sheep refused
.
,

but as the young lamb was anxi o us to travel and

se e something of t he w orld and begged to be allowed,
J
to go a t last s h e reluc t antly consented
,
S o in th e .

morning a t daylight t he bat and the lamb set o ff

toge t her th e lamb carrying the bat s drinking horn
,
’
-
.

When they reached half way the bat told th e -

,

lamb to leave the horn un dernea t h a bamboo tr e é .

D irec t ly h e arrived at the house h e sen t the lamb ,

back to get the horn Wh en the lamb had gone

.

the bat s father i n law brough t him food and the

’
- -
,

bat ate it all leaving nothing fo r the lamb When

, .

the lamb returned th e bat said to him ,

“
H u llo l ,

you have arrived at last I see but you are to o late ,

for foo d ; it is all finished H e then sent the lamb

.

back to the t ree wi t h the horn and when t h e lamb ,

r et u rned again i t was late and he went supperle s s ,

to bed Th e next day j ust before it was t ime for

.
,

S I
 Fo/
h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger i a
food th e bat sent the lamb o ff again for the drinking
,

horn and when the food arrived the bat who was
, ,

very greedy ate it all up a second tim e This mean

, .

beh aviour on t he part of the bat went o n fo r four

days un t il at l ast the lamb becam e quite t hin an d
,

weak The bat decided to r eturn h ome the n ext

.

d a y and it was all t he lamb could d o to carry his

,

l oad W hen he got home to his mother the lamb

.

complained bit t erly of t he treatment he h ad received

from t h e bat and was baa ing all night complaining
,
-
,

of pains in his i nside Th e O l d mo t her sheep who

.
,

was v e ry fond O f her children de termined to be t e ,

venged o n th e bat for the c r uel way h e had s t arved

her lamb ; she th erefore decided to consul t th e
tortoise who al t h o ugh very p o or was considere d
, , ,

by all people t o be the wisest of all animals When .

the old sheep had told the whole story to the

t ortoise h e considered fo r some t ime and t hen told
, ,

t he sheep t hat s h e might leave t he matter en t irely

t o him and he would t ake ample revenge on the ba t
,

fo r his cruel t r eatment of h er s o n .

Very soon af t er this th e bat t hought h e would

again go an d se e his fath er i n l a w s o he wen t to - -
,

the mo t her sheep agai n and asked her for one of h e r

sons to carry h i s load as before Th e t or t oi s e who .
,

happened to be presen t t o ld th e ba t that he was,

going i n that direc t ion and wou l d cheerfully carry

,

his load for him They s e t out on t heir j o urn ey the

.

fol lowing day and when th ey arrived a t t he half way

,
-

halting p l ac e the bat pursued the sa me tac t ics t ha t h e

’

had on t he p r eviou s occasion H e told th e t or t oi s e .

t o hide h i s drinking horn under the same t ree as

-

th e lamb had hidden i t before this the t o rtoise did ,

5 2
W/
y
z t/
z e Bel t is A ir/
ta med to ée see n in Me Daytime
b u t w hen t he ba t was no t looking h e picked up the
drinking h o rn again and hid it in his bag . When
-

t hey arrived at the house th e torto ise hung the horn

u
p ou t of sight in the back yard and t hen sa t down ,

in the house ju s t before it w a s ti me for food th e

.

bat sent th e t ortoise t o get the drinking horn and -

,

the t o r toise went outside int o the yard and waited ,

un t il he heard t hat t he bea t ing of t h e boiled yams

in t o foo fo o had finished ; h e th en went into the
-

hou s e and gave th e drinking horn to the bat who -

,

was s o surp r ised and angry th a t w h e n th e food w a s

,
’

passed h e refused t o eat any o f it so the tortoise ,

a t e i t all ; this went On for four day s until at la s t ,

t he bat became as thin as t he poor li tt le lamb had

been on t h e previ o u s occasion At last the bat could .

s t and the pain s of his inside no longer and secre t ly ,

told his mo ther i n law to bring him food when the

- -

t or toise w a s not looking H e said I am n o w going

“
.
,

t o s leep f or a littl e b u t you can wake me up when

the food i s ready The tor t oise w h o had been
.
,

listening all the time being hidden in a corner ou t

,

o f sigh t , waite d until the ba t was fas t asleep and ,

t hen carr i ed him very gently into t h e nex t ro o m

and placed him on his o wn bed h e t h en very s of t ly
and quie t ly t ook off t he bat s cloth and covered him ’

self i n it and lay d o wn where th e bat had been ;

‘

ver y s o on the bat s mo t her i h law brought th e food

’
- -

and placed it next t o where th e h at was supposed

to be s leeping and havi n g pulled his cloth to wake
,

him wen t away The t ortoise then go t up and ate

, .

all t he food ; when he h ad finished he carried th e

bat back again and took s o m e of th e palm o i l
,
-

and foo foo and placed i t inside t h e bat s lips while

-
’

53
 Fol /é Stor i es f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
h e was asleep ; then the tortoise went to sleep
himself . I n t he morning when he woke up th e
b at was m o re hung r y t han ever and in a very bad ,

temper so he s o ught out his mother i n l a w and

,
- -

started scolding her and asked her why she had not
,

br o ught his fo o d as he h ad t o ld h er to do S h e replied .

s h e had brought his food and that he had eaten it

,

but this the ba t denied and accused the tor to ise

,

of having eaten th e food The woman t hen s aid .

s h e would call the people in and t hey sh ould decide

the mat t er but the t ortoise slipped out fir s t and told

the p eople t hat th e best way to find out who had
eaten the food was to make both the bat and himself
rinse their m outh s out with clean water into a basin .

This they decided to do so the t ortoi s e got his tooth

,

stick which h e always used and having cleaned his ,

teeth prope r ly washed his mouth o u t and returned

, ,

to the house .

When all th e people had arrived the woman

told them how the ba t h ad abused her and as he ,

still maintai ned stoutly that h e had h ad no food

for five days the people said that both h e and
,

the tortoise should wa s h their mou t hs out with

clean w a t er in t o two clean calabashe s ; thi s was
done and at once it could clearly be seen t ha t
,

the bat had been ea t ing as there were distinct traces

,

of the palm oil and foo foo which the t o rtoise had
- -

put insid e his lips floa t ing on th e water When .

the peopl e s a w this they decided again s t th e bat ,

and he was s o ashamed t hat he ran away t hen and

there and has ever since always hidden himself in
,

the bush during th e daytime so that no one could ,

s e e him and only comes out at night to get h i s food

, .

54
W/
y
z t/
ze Ba t i; d /
r z a mea
’
to oe seen in Me Daytime
Th e next day th e tor t oise returned to the mother
sheep and told her what he had d o ne and that ,

the bat was for ever disg r aced The old sheep .

praised him very much and t old al l her friends

, ,

i n c o nsequ ence of which the reputation of th e

tortoise for wisdom was greatly increased throughout
the whole country .

55
 X III
Why the Wor mr li ve ‘
Under nea th the Gr oa na
’

W H E N Eyo I I I was ruling over all men and anim al s,

.

h e had a ve r y big palaver h o use to w hich he u s ed to

i nvite his subj ects at i ntervals to feast Af t er the .

feas t had been held an d plenty of t ombo h ad been

!

d r u nk it was t he custom o f t he people to make

,

Speeches One day after t he feast the head driver ant

.

got up and said h e and h i s people were stronger than

any one and that no one not even the elephant could
, , ,

stand before him which was quite true H e was , .

particularly o ffe nsive in his allusions to the worms

( whom h e di s liked very much
! and said th ey were ,

poor wriggling things .

The worms were very angry and complained so the ,

king said that the best way to decide t he question who

was t h e stronger was for both s ides to meet on the
road and figh t the matter out be t ween t hemselves to
a finish H e appoin t ed the third day from th e feast
.

for t h e contest and all th e people turned o ut to

,

wi t ness the battle .

The driver an t s left their nest in the early morning

in thousands and milli o ns and a s i s t heir custom , , ,

marched in a line abou t o n e inch b r oad den sely

packed s o that it was like a dark brown band moving
,
-

over the country I n front of t he advancing column

.

56
The E lep ha nt an d the Tor t oise ; or , Why t he
Wor mr a re Blind a nd w hy the E lep ha nt
ha r Sma ll Ey es

W H EN Ambo w a s king of Cal abar the elephant w a s ,

not o nly a very big animal but he had eyes i n p r o ,

p o rtion to his immense bulk I n those days men .

and animals were friend s and all mix ed t oge t her ,

quite freely At regular intervals K ing Amb o used

.

t o give a feast and t he elephant used to eat more

,

than a n y one although the hipp o po t amu s used to do

,

h i s best however not being as big as th e elephant

, ,

altho u g h he w a s very fat he was left a long way ,

behin d .

As the elephant ate s o much at th ese feasts the ,

tor t oise who was small bu t very cunning made up

, ,

his mind to put a st 0 p to th e elephant ea t ing more

than a fair s hare of t he food provided H e t here .

f o re placed some d r y kern els and shrimps o f which ,

the elephant w a s very f o nd in his bag an d went to , ,

the elephant s house to make an afternoon call

’
.

Wh en the tortoise arrived the eleph an t t o ld him to

s i t down s o he made himself comfor t able and hav
, , ,

ing shu t o n e eye took one palm kernel and a shrimp

,

out of h i s bag and commenced to eat them wi t h

,

much reli s h .

5 8
 The E lep ha nt an d the Tor toise
When the elephant s a w the tortoise eating he said , ,

a s he was alway s hungry himself You seem to have ,

s ome good food there wha t a r e you e a t ing ?

The t o r t oise replied that t he food was swee t too
much but was rather painful to him as he was
, ,

eating one of h is o w n eyeballs and h e lifted up his

head showing one eye closed
, .

Th e elephant t h en said I f th e food is s o good

“
, ,

take out on e of my eye s and give me t he s ame food .

”

The tor t oi s e w h o w a s wai t ing for t his kno w ing

, ,

how greedy t he elephant was had brough t a sharp ,

knife wi t h him for that very purpose and said to the ,

elephant I canno t reach your eye as you are so

“
, ,

big.
”

Th e elephant t hen took the tortoise up in his

trunk and lif t ed him up As s o on as he came near .

th e elephan t s eye with one quick scoop of t he sharp

’
,

knife h e had t h e e l ephant s right eye out The ’

.

elephant trumpe t ed with p ain ; but th e tortoise gave

him some of the dried kernels and sh rimps and they ,

s o pleased the elephant s palate t h at he soon forgot

’

t he pain .

Very soon t h e elephant said “ That food is s o ,

sweet I must have some more

,
but the t ortoise
told him tha t bef o re he could h ave any the other
eye must come out To this the elephan t agreed ;
.

so the tor t oise quickly got his knife to work and ,

very soon the elephan t s left eye was on the ground ’

thus leaving the elephant quite blind The tortoise .

then slid d o wn t he elephan t s trunk on to the ground ’

and hid himself Th e elephant then began to make

.

a great noise and started pulling trees down and

,

doing much damage calling out for the tortoise ; ,

59
 Folk Stor ier f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
but of c o u rse h e never answered , and the elephant
c o uld not find hi m .

Th e next morning when the elephant heard th e ,

p eople pa s sing he asked them wh at the time was

, ,

and the bush buck who was nearest shouted o ut , , ,

“ Th e s u
n i s now up and I am going to ma r ke t to ,

get s o me yam s and f r esh leaves for my food .

”

Then the elephant pe r ceived that the tortoi s e had

deceived him and began to ask all t he pas s er s b y to
,
-

lend him a pair of eyes as h e could no t s e e but , ,

every on e refused as th ey wan t ed t heir eyes them

,

selve s At las t the worm grovelled past and see i ng

.
,

t he big elephant greeted him i n his humble way

, .

H e was much surprised when the king of the forest

returned his s alu t ation and very much fla t tered ,

also.

Th e elephant said “
Look here wor m I have , ,
/
,

mislaid m y eyes Will you lend me yo u rs for a few

.

days ? I will return t hem next market day -

.
”

The worm was s o flattered at being noticed by t he

elephant that he gladly consented and t o ok h i s eyes ,

out— which as every one knows w ere very small

, ,

and gave them to the elephan t When the elephant .

had put th e worm s eyes into his own large eye ’

sockets the fle s h immediately closed round t hem so

,

tightly that wh en the market day ar r ived it w a s i m -

possible for th e elephant to ge t t hem o u t again to

return to th e worm ; a nd al t hough the worm r e
p e a te d l
y made applica t i ons to th e elephant t o return
h i s eyes th e elephant al w ays p r etended not t o hear
, ,

and sometimes used t o say in a very loud voice If ,

there are any worms a bout they h ad bette r get out ,

of my way as th ey are s o small I cannot s e e th em

, ,

60
 The E lep ha nt an d the Tor t oi se
and if I t read o n them they will be squash ed i nto a
nasty mess .
”

Ever since t h e n th e worms have been blind and ,

for the s ame reason elephants have such small eyes ,

quite out of proportion t o the size of their huge,

bodies.

or
 Why a H a w h hills Chi ehenr

IN the olden days there was a very fine young hen

who lived with h er parent s in th e bush .

One day a hawk was hovering round about eleven ,

o clock in th e m orning as was his cu s tom m aking

’

, ,

large circles in the air and scarcely mo ving his wings .

H is keen eye s were wide O pen taking in everything ,

( for n othing moving ever escapes the eye s of a hawk ,

no matter how small it may be or how high up in

t he air the h awk may be circling! This h awk saw .

th e pretty h en picking up some corn n ear her fa t her s ’

h o use H e therefore closed his wings sligh t ly and

.
,

in a second of time was close to th e ground t hen

spreading his wings ou t t o check h is flight h e ,

alighted close to th e h en and perched himself on

the fence as a hawk does not like to walk o n th e
,

ground if he can help it .

H e then g r eeted the young hen with his most

enticing whistle a nd o ffered to marry h er
, She .

agreed so the hawk s poke t o the paren t s and paid

, ,

t h e agreed amount of dowry which consis t ed m o stly

,

of corn and the next day took the young h en o ff to

,

h i s home .

S hor t ly after this a young cock who lived near the

hen s f o rmer home found out where she was living
’
,

62
 Why a H a w h hills Chi ehens
and having been in l o ve wi t h h er for some months
in fact e v er s ince his spurs had gr o wn — determined
,

to try and make her return to her own country .

H e theref o re wen t at da w n and having flapped his , ,

wing s once or twice crowed in h i s b e st v o ice to t he

,
~

young hen When sh e heard t h e sweet voice of the

.

cock she coul d no t resis t h i s invi t a t i o n so s h e went ,

o u t to him and t hey w alked o ff toge t her to h er

,

parent s house th e young cock strutting in front

’

crowing at in t ervals .

The hawk who w a s hover ing high up i n the sk y

, ,

quite o u t of s ight of any ordinary eye s a w wh a t had ,

happened and w a s very angry H e made up his

,
.

mind at once t hat h e wo u ld o btain j ustice from t h e

king and flew o ff t o Calaba r where he told the
, ,

wh o le story and asked for immediate redre s s S o

, .

the king s ent for t he parents of the hen and t o ld ,

t hem they mu s t repay to t he hawk the amount of

d o wry t hey h ad received from him on t he marr iage
of their daughter acco rding t o t he native custom ;
,

bu t t he hen s p aren t s said that they were so p o or

’

that t hey could not po s sibly a fford to pay S o the .

king t old the h awk t hat h e could kill and e at any of

th e c o ck s children whenever and wherever he f o und
’

th em as paymen t o f h i s dowr y and if the c o ck , ,

m ade any complaint the king would no t li s ten to

,

him .

F r om that tim e until n ow whenever a hawk see s ,

a chicken he s w o op s down and carries i t o ff in part

payment of his dowry .
 Why the Su n an d the M oon li ve i n the Shy

MANY years ago th e and water were great

su n

friends an d both l ived on th e earth together The

, .

s u n ve r y often use d to vi s it th e wa t er but th e water ,

never returned h i s visits At last t h e s u n asked the

.

water why it was tha t h e never c ame to see hi m in

his h ouse the water replied t hat th e sun s h ouse
,
’

was not big enough and t hat if he came with h is

,

people h e would drive th e s u n out .

H e t hen said I f you wish me to visit you you

“
, ,

must build a ve r y large compound but I warn you

t hat it will have to be a tremendous p l ace as my ,

people are very numerous and take up a lot of ,

room .
”

Th e s u n promised to b uild a very big compound ,

and soon afterwards he returned home to his wife ,

the moon who greeted him wi t h a broad s mile when

,

h e opened t he door The s u n t ol d t h e mo o n what

.

h e h ad promised the water and t h e next day com ,

m e n c e d building a huge compound in which to

en t ertain his friend .

Wh en it was c o mpleted he asked the water to ,

come and vi sit him t he next day .

When the wate r arrived he called out to the s u n

, ,

and a s ked him whether i t wou l d be safe fo r him

64
 XV II
Why the Fl ies B other the Cow s
W H E N Adiaha U mo was ! ueen of C alabar b eing ,

very rich and hospitable s h e used to give big feasts

,

to all the domestic animals but never invited t h e ,

wild beasts as she was afraid of them

, .

At one feast she gave there were three large

tables and she told th e cow to s i t at the head of
,

the table as she was the biggest animal presen t

, ,

and share out the food Th e c o w w a s quite ready

'

t o do this and th e first course was passed which

, ,

the cow shared out amongst the people but for ,

got the fly b ecau se h e was so small

, .

Wh en the fly s aw this he called out to the cow ,

to give him his share but the cow said ! Be quiet

, ,

my friend you must have patience

, .

When th e second course arrived the fly a gain ,

called out to th e c o w but the cow merely pointed

,

to her eye and told the fly to look there and he

, ,

would get food la t er .

At last all the dishes were finish ed and the fly , ,

having been given no food by the cow went ,

supperless t o bed .

The next day the fly complained to the queen ,

who d ecided that a s the cow had presided at the

,

feast and had not given the fly his s h are bu t had

, ,

66
 Why the Flies B ot her the Cow s
pointed to her eye for the future the fly could
,

always get his food from t h e cow s eyes wherever

! ’

s h e went ; an d even at the present time wherever

,

th e cows are th e flies can always be seen feeding

,
!

o ff their eyes in accordance W 1th the queen s ’

orders.
 X V III
Why the Ca t hills Ra ts

A N S A was K ing of C alabar for fifty years H e had .

a very faithful cat as a housekeep er and a rat was ,

his house boy -

Th e king was an obstinate head
.
,

s t r o ng man but was very fond of th e cat who had

, ,

been in his store for many years .

The rat who was very poor fell i n love with

, ,

one of t h e king s servant girls but w a s unable to

’

give her any presents as h e had n o money , .

At last he thought of the king s s tore so in the ’

night t ime being quite small he had little di ffi culty

-
, , ,

having made a hole in t he roof in ge t ting into the ,

store H e then stole corn and native pears and

.
,

presen t ed them to his sweetheart .

At th e end of the month when th e cat had to ,

render her account of th e things in the store to th e

'

king it was found that a lot of corn and n ative

,

p ears were missing The king was very angry

.

at this and asked th e ca t for an explanation But

, .

the c a t co u l d not account for the loss until one of

'
,

her friends told h er that the rat had been s te aling

th e corn and giving it to the girl .

When the cat t o ld the king he called the girl ,

before him and had her flogged Th e rat he h anded .

68
 Why the Ca t hills Ra ts
over to the cat to deal with and dismissed them
,

bo t h from his service Th e cat was s o angry at

.

this that she killed and ate th e rat and e ver since
,

that tim e whenever a cat sees a rat she kills and

eats it
.

r ue
o r
 XIX
The Story of t he L ightning an d the Thu nder
I N the olden days the thunder and lightning lived o n
the ear t h amongst all th e othe r peop le bu t t he king ,

made th em live at th e far end of th e t own as far as ,

possible f r om other peop le s houses ’

.

The t hunder was an old mother sheep and th e ,

lightning was her s o n a ram Whenever th e ram

,
.

got angry he u sed to go ab out and b urn houses and

knock down trees ; he even di d damage on the
farms and sometimes killed people Whenever the
,
.

lightning did these thing s his m other used t o call

,

out to him in a very loud voice to stop and not to

do any more damage but the lightning did not care
in the least for what his mother said and when h e ,

was in a bad temper used to do a very large amount

of damage A t last the p eople could not stand i t
.

any l o nger and complained to the king

, .

S o the king made a s pecial order that the sheep

( Thunder ! and her s o n th e ram
(,
Lightning ! should ,

leave th e town and l i ve i n th e far bush This did .

not do much g o od as when the r a m got angry h e

,

still burnt the forest and the flames sometimes spread

,

to th e farms and consumed t hem .

S o th e people complained again a nd t h e king , i ,

b anished b oth the lightning and th e thunder from

7 0
 The Story of the L ightning a nd the Thu nder
t he ear t h and made them live i n th e where
sk y ,

they could not cause s o much de s truction . Ever

since when the lightning is angry he commi t s
, ,

damage a s before but you can h ear his mother the

, ,

thunder rebuking him and telling him to s top

, .

S ometimes however when the mother has gone away

, ,

some di s tance from her n augh t y s o n you can still

,

see that he is angry and is doing damage but his

,

mother s voice cannot be heard

’
.
 Why the B u sh Cow an d the E lep ha nt are

ha d Fr iends
T HE b ush cow and the elephant were always b ad
friends and as they could not settle their disputes
,

b etween themselves they agreed to let the head

,

chief decide .

The cause of their u nfriendliness was that the

elephant was always b oasting a b out his strength to
al l his friends which made th e bush cow ashamed
,

of himself as h e was al ways a good figh t er and

,

feared no man or an i mal When the matter was .

referred to t h e head chief he decided that the best

,

way to settle the dispute was for the elephant and

bush cow to meet and fight one another in a large
open space H e decided that the fight should
.

take place in the market place on th e n ext market

-

day when all t he country p eople could witness the

,

ba tt l e .

Wh en the market day arrived the b ush cow went

-
,

ou t in th e early morning and took up his position

some distance from the town on the main road to
th e market and started bellowing and tearing up the
,

ground As the p eople passed h e asked them

.

whether they had seen anything of the Big Big

“
,

one which was th e name of the elephant

,
”
.

7 2
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
much clatter with its wings When it settled it i m .
,

mediately assumed its usual prayerful a t titud e .

The monkey after a careful stalk seized th e

, ,

m antis and having deliberately pulled the legs o ff

,

one after th e o the r he ate the body a nd sat d o wn

, ,

wi t h his head on o ne side lo oking very wise but in , ,

reality thinking of nothing .

j ust then the ch ief caught sight of him while he

was scratching himself an d sh outed out in a loud ,

voice,
H a monkey is that you ? What do you
, ,

want here
At th e chief s voice the mo nkey gave a j ump and
’

st arted chattering like anything After a time h e .

replied very nervously ! Oh yes of cou rse ! Yes , ,

I came to se e you Th en he said to himself I

.
” “
,

wonder what o n e arth it was I came to tell the ”

chief ? but it was no use everything had gone out

”
,

of his head .

Then the chief told the monkey h e might take o ne

of th e ripe plantains h a nging up in th e verandah .

The monkey did not wan t telling twice as h e was ,

very fo nd of plantains H e soo n tore o ff th e skin

.
,

and holding th e plantain in both hands took bite ‘

af t er bite from th e end of it looking at it carefully ,

after each bite .

Then th e chief remarked that the elephant and th e

bush cow ought to have arrived by th a t time as they ,

were going to have a g r eat fight D irec t ly the monkey .

h eard t his h e remembered what it w as he wan t ed to

’
tell the chief so having swallo wed t h e piece of
,

plantain he had placed i n the s ide of his cheek h e ,

said ! Ah ! that reminds me and then after much

“
,
”
,

chat t ering and making al l sorts of funny grimaces ,

74
 The Bu sh Cow an d the E lep ha nt
fin ally made the chief unders tand that the elephant
and bush cow instead of fighting whe r e t hey had
,

been told were having it out in the bush on t he main

,

road leading t o th e market and had thus stopped

,

most of the people coming in .

When the chief h eard this h e was much incensed ,

and called for his bow and poisoned arrows and ,

went to the scene of th e combat H e then shot both .

the elephant and t h e bush cow and thr o wing his bow
,

and arrows away ran and hid himself i n t he bush

, .

Abou t s i x hours afterwards b o t h the elephant and

bush co w died in great pain .

Ever since wh en wild animals want to fight

,

between themselv es they always fight in th e big

,

bush and not on the p ublic r oads ; but as th e fight

was never definitely decided be t ween the elephant
and t he bush cow wh enever they meet one another
,

in the forest eve n to the pr e sent time they always

, ,

figh t
 XX I
The C ooh w ho ca u s e d a Fight hetw een
tw o Tow ns
E K PO and Etim were half b rothers that is to say
-
,

they had th e same mother but di fferent fathers , .

Their m ether first of all had married a chief of D uke

Town when Ekpo wa s born ; but after a time sh e
,

got tired of him and went to Old Town where sh e ,

married E ju q u a and gave birth to Etim .

Both of the boys grew up and became very rich .

Ekpo had a cock of which h e was very fond and

, ,

eve r y day when Ekpo sat down to meals the cock

used to fly o n to th e table and feed also Ama .

Ukw a a native of Old Town w h o was rather poor

, , ,

was j ealous of the two brothers and made up his ,

mind if possible to bring ab o ut a quarrel between

them although he pretended to b e friends with
,
‘

both .

On e day Ekpo th e elder brother gave a big

, ,

dinner to which Etim and many o t her people were

,

invited Ama Ukwa was also present A very good

. .

dinner was laid for t he guests and plenty of palm ,

wine was provided When they had commenced to

.

feed t he pet cock flew on to t he table and began

,

to feed o ff E ti m s plate Etim then told one of his

’
.

servants to seize the cock and tie him up in the

7 6
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n M ger ia
and there was a big bat t le many men being killed
,

on both sides The fighting went o n all day until

.
, ,

at last towards evening th e other chiefs of Calabar

, ,

met and determi ned to stop it ; s o th ey ca ll e d th e

’

Egbo men together and sent t hem out with th e ir

drums and eventually the fight stopped
, .

Three days later a big palaver was h eld wh en ,

each of the bro t hers was told to state his case .

When they had d o ne so it was found that Ama

,

Ukwa had caused the quarrel and the chiefs orde r ed

,

th at h e should b e kill ed H is father who was a

.
,

rich man o ffer e d to give the Egbos five th o usand

,

rods five cows and seven slaves to redeem his son

, , ,

but t hey decided to refuse his o ffer .

Th e next day af t er be ing seve r ely flogged h e was

, ,

left fo r t wen t y f o ur ho u r s tied up t o a t ree and t h e

-
,

following day his h ead w a s cut o ff .

Ekpo was t hen ordered to kill his p et cock s o that ,

it should not cause any further trouble bet w een him s elf
and h i s brother and a law w a s passed that for the
,

future n o one should keep a pet co ok or any other

tame animal .
 XX II
The A fi ir of theHipp op ot a mus a nd the
Tor t oise ; or , Why t he Hipp op ota mu s lives
i n t he Wa ter

MANY years ago th e hippopotamus whose nam e ,

was I s a n ti m was one of the biggest kings on the

,

land ; he was second only to th e elephant Th e .

hippo h ad seven l arge fat wives of who m h e was ,

ve r y fond N ow and then he used to give a big

.

fea s t to th e people but a curious thing was tha t

, ,

although every one knew th e hippo no o ne except , ,

his seven wives knew his name

, .

At one of the feasts j ust as the people were ,

about to s i t down th e hipp o said You have come

,
“
,

t o feed at my table but none of you know my

,

name I f you cann o t tell my name you shall all

.
,
t

of y o u go away without you r dinner .

”

As they could not guess his name they had to ,

go away and l eave all the g o od f o od and tombo

behind t hem But before they left th e tortoise
.
,

stood up and asked the hippopotamus what h e

would do if h e told him his name at th e next
feast ? S o the hippo replied that h e w o uld be so
ashamed of himself that he and his wh o le family
,

w ould leave the land and for the future would ,

d well in the water .

79
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
Now it was the custom for th e h i p p o and his
seven wives to go down every morning and evening
to the river to wash and have a drink Of this .

custom th e tortoise was aware The hippo used .

to walk first and the seven wives fo l lowed One

, . ,

day when t hey had gone do wn to the river to

bathe the tortoise made a small hole in the middle
,

of the path and then waited When the hippo a nd

, .

his wives returned two of th e wives were some,

distance behind so the tortoise came out from

,

where he had been hiding and half buried himself ,

in th e hole h e had dug leaving th e greater part ,

of his shell expo s ed When the two hippo wives .

came along the first one knocked her foot against

,

the t or t oise s shell and immediately called out to

’

h er husband “
Oh ! Is a nti m my husband I have
, , ,

hurt my foot At this th e tortoise was very glad

.
,

and went j oyfully h o me as h e had found o u t t he ,

hippo s name
’
.

When t h e next feast was given by th e hippo he ,

m ade the same conditio n about h i s name ; s o the

tortoise got up and said “
You promise you will ,

not kill me if I tell you your name ? and th e ”

hipp o pr o mi s ed Th e tort o ise then shouted as loud

.

as he was able Your name is Is a n ti m at which

“
, ,

a chee r wen t up from all th e people and then t hey ,

sat down to t heir dinner .

When the feas t was over the hippo with his , ,

, seven wives i n accordance w ith his promise went

, ,
v
down to th e river and they have always lived in
,

the water from t ha t day till now ; and although

t hey come on sho r e t o feed at night you never ,

find a hippo on the land in t h e daytime .

80
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Niger ia
ever he remembered that h e had a message to
,

deliver b ut forgot what it was exactly ; s o as he

,

went about among th e p eople h e tol d them th at

the message t he C reator had given him to tell t he
p eople was that wh enever a ny one died they should
,

b e buried underneath the ground .

A little time afterwards th e dog reme mb ered his

message so he ran i nto t he town and told the
,

people that they were to place wood ashes on the

dead b o dies and leave th em in the compound and ,

that they would come to life agai n after twenty four -

hours But the p eople would not believe him and

.
,

said,
“ We have already received the word f rom
the C reator by the sheep tha t all dead bodies
,

should be buried I n consequenc e o f this the

.

dead bodie s are n o w always buried and th e dog ,

is much disliked and not tru s ted as a messenger ,

as if h e had not fou nd the bone in t h e old woman s ’

house and forgotten his m es s age th e dead people

,

might still be alive .

82
 XX I V
Of the Fa t Woma n w ho Melted A w ay

T H ERE was once a very fat woman who was made

of o i l S h e was very beautiful and many young
.
,

men applied t o the parents for permissio n to marry

their daughter and o ffered dowry but th e mother
, ,

always refused as s h e said it w a s impossi ble for h er

,

daughter to work on a farm a s s h e w o uld melt in

,

the s u n At l ast a s tranger came from a far distant

.
-

coun t ry and fell i n love with t he fat woman and ,

he pr o mised i f h er mother would hand her t o him

tha t h e would keep h er i n t h e s hade At l ast t he .

mother agreed and h e t ook h i s wife a way

,
.

When he arrived a t his house h i s other wife ,

immediately became very j ealou s becau s e wh en ,

there was w ork t o be done firewood to be collected

, ,

or wa ter t o be carried t he fat woman stayed at

,

home and never helped as sh e was frightened of

,

t he heat .

One day when th e husband was ab s ent th e ,

j ealo u s wife abused the fat wo m an s o m uch that

sh e finally agreed to go an d work on the farm ,

a l t h o u gh her little sister Whom s h e had brough t

,

from h o me with her implored her n o t to g o r e

, ,

minding her t hat their m o t her h ad al w ay s told t hem

ever since they were born t hat s h e would melt away
83
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Souther n Niger i a
if sh e went into the sun All the way to the farm .

the fat woman managed to keep in the shade and ,

when they arrived at the farm th e sun was very

hot s o the fat woman remained in th e shade of a
,

big tree When t he j ealous wife saw this s h e again

.

began abusing h e r and asked her why s h e did not

,

do h er share of the work At l ast she could stand .

th e nagging no longer and although h er little sister ,

tried very hard to prevent her the fat woman went ,

out in t o the sun to work and immediately began to ,

melt away There was very soon nothing left of

.

her but one big to e which had bee n covered by a

,

leaf This her li t tle sister observe d and with tears

.
,

in her eyes s h e picked up th e toe which was a ll that ,

remained of th e fat woman and having covered it ,

carefully wi t h leaves placed it i n the bo t tom of her

,

basket .When sh e arrived at the house the little

sister placed th e toe in a n earthen pot filled it with ,

water and covered the top up with clay

, .

When the husband returned h e said Where is“

, ,

my fat wife ? and t h e little sister crying bitterly , ,

told him that the j ealous woman had made her go

out into th e sun and that s h e had me l ted away
, .

S h e then showed him the pot with the remains of

h er sister and told hi m that her sister would come
,

to life again in three months time quite c o mplete ’

but he must send away the j ealous wife so that ,

there should be n o more trouble ; if h e refused to

do thi s the little girl said she would take the pot
,

back to their mother and when her sister became ,

comple t e again th ey would remain at home .

The husband then took the j ealous wife back to

her parents who sold her as a slave and paid th e
,

84
 X XV

Concer ning the Leopa r d t he ,

Squ ir r el, an d
the Tor toise

MANY years ago there was a great famine through

out the land and all t he p eople were sta rving The
, .

yam crop had failed en t i rely the plan t ains did not ,

bear any fruit the ground nuts were all shrivelled

,
-

up and the corn never came to a head ; even the

,
—

palm oil nuts did not ripen and th e peppers an d

-
,

ocros also gave out .

The leopard h ow ever , who lived entirely on

,
“ beef did not care for any of these things and
”

al t hough some of the animals who lived on corn

and the growing crops began to get ra ther skinny ,

he did no t mind very much I n order to save .

himself trouble as everyb o dy was complaining of

,

the famine he called a mee t ing of all th e animals

,

and t old t hem that as they all k new h e was very

, ,

p owerful an d must have food that th e famine did ,

not a ff ect him as he only lived on flesh and as

, ,

there were plenty of a nimals about h e did not

intend to sta rve H e then told all t he animals
.

present at the mee ting that if they did not wish

to be killed themselves they must bring their grand
mothers to him for fo o d and when they were finished
,

he would feed o ff their m o thers The animals might .

86
 The Leopa r d ,
the Squ ir r e l ,
an d the Tor toise
bring their grandmothers in succession and h e would ,

take them in their turn so that as there were many ,

di fferent animals it would probably be som e time

,

b efore their mothers were eaten by which time it ,

was possible that the famine would be over But .

in any c ase he warned them that he was determined

,

to have su ffi cient fo o d for himself and that if t he ,

g randmo t hers or mother s were n o t forth coming h e

would turn upon the young people themselves and
kill and eat them .

This of c o u rs e th e young generation who had

, ,
'

attended the meeting did not appreciate and in , ,

order to save t heir own skins agreed to su pply the ,

le o p ard wi t h his daily meal .

The first to appear with h i s aged grandmother

was t he squirrel The grandmother was a poor
.

de crepit old thing with a mangy tail and the , ,

leopard swallowed her at one gulp and then looked ,

round for more I n an angry voice h e growled out

.

This i s not th e proper foo d for me ; I must have

more at once .

Then a b u sh c at pushed his old grandmother in

front o f the leopard but he snarle d at her and said
, ,
“
Take th e nasty old t hing away ; I want some sweet
fo o d fi
’

I t was then the turn of a bush buck and after a ,

great deal of hesitation a wretchedly poo r and thin

o l d doe tottered and fell in front of the leopard ,

who immedia t ely despatched her and although the ,

meal was very unsatisfactory declared that his ,

appetite was a ppeased for that day .

Th e next day a few more animals brought their

old grandmothers u ntil at last it be came th e tor
,

87
 Fal h Stor i es f r om Sou ther n Niger za
toise s turn ; b ut b eing very cu nning he produced
’
,

witnesses to prove th at his grandmother was dead ,

s o th e l e o p a r d excused him .

After a few days all the animals grandmoth ers ’

were exhausted and it became the turn of the

, ,

mothers to supply food for the ravenous leopard .

N ow although most of the young animals did not

mind get t ing rid of their grandmothers whom they ,

h ad scarcely even known many of them had very

,

strong obj ections to providing their mothers of ,

whom th ey were very fond as food for the leopard

, .

Among st the s t rongest obj ectors were the squirrel and

the tor t oise Th e tortoise who had thought the whol e
.
,

thing out was aware th at as every one knew that

, ,

his mother was alive ( she being ra t her an amiable old

person and fri e n dl y w i th all comers ! the same excuse
a
-
,

would not avail him a second time H e therefore .

told his mother to climb up a palm tree and that h e ,

would provide her wi t h food until the famine w a s

over H e instructed her to let down a basket e very
.

day and said that he would place food in it for her

, .

The tortoise made th e basket for his mother and ,

attached it to a long string of tie tie Th e string -

.

was s o strong that she cou l d haul her s o n up when

ever he wished to visit her .

All went well for some days as the t o rtoise used

,

to go at daylight to th e bottom o f th e tree where h is

mo t her lived and place h er food in the basket t hen
the old lady would pull the baske t up and have her
food and the tortoise would depart on his daily
,

round in his usual leisurely manner .

I n the meantime th e leopard had to h ave his daily

food and the squirrel s t urn came fi rst after the
’
’

88
“
 Falh Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
mother lets down a b a sket ; so if you go i n the
morning early s h e will pu l l you up and y o u can
, ,

then kill her .

To t his the l eopard agreed and the next m o rning

,

the squirrel came at cockcrow and led the leopard t o

th e t ree where th e tortoise s moth er was hidden
’
.

The old lady had already let down th e basket for h er

daily supply o f f o o d and the leopard got into it and
,

gave the line a pull ; but except a few small j erks

nothing happened as the old mother t o rtoise was
,

not str o ng enough t o pull a heavy leopard o ff th e

ground When t he l e o p a r d s a w that he was n o t
\

going to be pulled up being an exper t climber he

, ,

scrambled up t h e tree and when h e got to the top

,

h e fou nd t he poor ol d tortoise whose shell Wa s so ,

tough t hat he thought s h e w as not wor t h eating so

,

h e threw her d own o n to the ground in a violent

temper and th en came down himself and went
,

h ome .

S hortly after this th e tortoise a r r l v e d at the tree ,

and finding the b asket o n the ground gave h i s usual

'

t ug at it bu t there was no answer H e th en looked

, .

about and after a little time came up on the broken

,

shell of his p o or o ld mo t h er w h o by this time was

,

quite dead Th e tor t oise knew at once that th e

.

le o pard had killed his mother and made up his ,

mind that for t he future he would live alone and

h ave nothing to do with t he other animals .

0
9
 XXV I
Why the M oon Wa xes a nd Wa nes
T H E RE was once an old woman who was very p oor ,

and lived in a small mud hut thatched with ma t s

made f r om th e leaves of t he tombo pal m in the
bush S h e w a s of t en very hungry as there was no
.
,

one to look after h er .

I n the olden days the moon used often to come

down t o t h e e arth although s h e lived most o f th e
,

time in t he s k y The moo n was a fat woman wi t h

.

a skin of hide and s h e was full of fat meat S h e

, .

was quite round and in the night used to give plenty

,

of light The moo n was sorry for the poor starvi n g

.

old woman s o s h e came to her and said You may

,
“
,

cut some of my meat away for your food This .

”

th e o l d woman did every evening and the moon got ,

smal ler and smaller u ntil you c o uld scarcely s e e

her at all Of course this made her give very li t tl e
.
‘

light and all the peopl e began to grumble in con

,

sequ ence and to ask why it was t hat the moon was
,

get t ing s o thin .

At last the people went to the ol d woman s house ’

where t h ere happened to be a little girl sleeping .

S h e had been there for some little time and had ,

seen the m oon come down every evening and the ,

old woman go out with her knife and carve her

9 1
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Souther n Mger i a
daily supply of meat out of the moon As s h e was
.

very frightened she told the people all about it so

, ,

they determined to set a watch on the movements of

the old woman .

That very night the moon cam e down as usual ,

and t he old woman went out wi t h h e r knife and

baske t to get her food ; b ut before s h e could carve
any meat all th e people rushed out shou t ing and ,

th e moon was so frightened that s h e went back

again into the s k y and never cam e down again to
,

the earth Th e old woman was left to starve in th e

.

bush .

Ever since that time the moon has h idden h erself

most of the day as s h e was s o frightened and s h e
, ,

still gets very thin o nce a month but later on s h e

,

gets fat again and wh en she is qui t e fat s h e gives

,

p lenty of light all th e night ; bu t this does not last

very long and she begins t o get thinner and thinner
, ,

in th e same way as s h e did when the old w oman was

carv ing her meat from her .
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Souther n Niger ia
which appeared to be very heavy Then the leopard .

sprang ou t an d sai d to th e t o r to i se
,
“
What have you got in that bask et
The tortoise as h e did not want to lose his break
,

fast replied that h e was carrying fir e w o o d back to his

,
‘ '

home .U nfortunately for the tortoise the leopard

had a very acute sense of smell and knew at once ,

that th ere w a s fish in th e basket s o h e said ,

“
1 know there is fi sh in there and I am going ,
“

to eat it .
”

The t ortoise not being in a position to r efuse as

, ,

h e was such a poor creature sai d ,

“ Very well Let us s i t down under this shady
.

tree and if you will m ake a fire I will go to my

‘

h ouse a n d get pepper oil and salt and then we , , ,

will feed togeth er .

To this the leo pard agreed and began to search ,

about for dry wood and sta r ted the fire I n the , .

meantime th e tortoi s e waddled o ff to h i s house ,

and very soon returned w ith the p epper salt , ,

and oil ; he also b rought a long piece of cane

tie tie which is very st r ong This h e pu t on the
-
, .

ground and began boi ling the fish Then he said

,
.

t o the leopard
“
While we are waiting for th e fish to c o o k let ,

us play a t tying o ne another up to a t ree You .

may t ie me u p fir s t and wh en I say Tighten y o u

,
‘
,
’

must loos e the rope and when I s a y Loo s en you,

‘
,
’

must tigh t en the rope .

”

Th e leopard who w a s very hungry though t t hat

, ,

this game would m ake the time pass more quickly

u ntil the fish was cooked so he said h e would play , .

The tortoise then stoo d with h i s back to the tree

 The Leopa r d ,
the Tor toise ,
an d the B ush Ra t
and said Loosen the rope and the leopard in
,
“
, ,

accordance wi th the rules of the game began to tie ,

up the tortoise Very soon th e tortoise shouted out

.
,
“
Tighten ! and the leopard at once u nfastened the -

tie tie and the tortoise was free The tortoise then
-
, .

said N ow le o pard it is your turn

, ,
s o th e leopard
,

st ood up against th e tree an d called out to the

tortoise to loosen th e r o pe and th e tortoise at once ,

very quickly passed the rope several t imes round

t h e leopard and got him fast to the tree Then the .

leopard said Tighten the rope ; but instead o f

“
,
”

playing the game in accordance with t he rules h e

had laid down the tortoise ran faster and faster
,

with t he rope ro und the leopard taking grea t c are , ,

however to keep out of reac h o f the le o pard s claws

,
’

and very soon had the le o pard s o securely fastened

that it was quite impossible for him to free him s elf .

All t his time th e leopard was calling out to th e

tor t oise to let him go as h e was tired of th e game ,

but the tor t oise only laughed and s a t down at the ,

fireside and commenced his meal When he had .

finished h e packed up the remainder of the fis h for

his family and prepared to go but before he started
, ,

he said to t h e leopard
“
You killed my mother and now you want to
take my fis h I t is not likely t hat I am going to the
.

lake to get fis h for you s o I s h a l l leave y o u he r e to

,

s t arve .
”

H e then threw t h e remains of th e pepper and salt

into th e leopard s eyes and quietly went on his way
’

leaving the leopard roaring wi t h pain .

All that day and throughou t the nigh t the le o pard

was calling ou t for some one to release him and ,

95
 Fal h Stor ies fi om Sou ther n Niger ia
vowing all sorts of vengeance on the tortoise but n o
one came as the people and animals of the forest do
,

not like to hear the leopard s voice ’

.

I n the morning when t he animals began to go

,

a b out to get their food th e leopard called out to ,

every one h e saw to come and untie him but they ,

all refused as they knew that if they did s o the

,

l eopard would most likely kill th em at once and e at

them At last a bush rat came near and s a w t he
.

leopard tied up to the tree and asked him what was

t h e matter s o the leopard t o ld h im that he h ad been
,

playing a game of tigh t and loose with th e

“ “ ”

tortoise and that h e had tied him up and left him

,

th ere to starve The leopard then implored the bush

.

rat to cut th e ropes w ith his sharp teeth Th e bush .

rat was very sorry for th e leopa r d but at the same

time he knew t hat if he let the leopard go he would
, ,

m o st likely be killed and eaten so h e hesitated and , ,

said t hat h e did not quite s e e his way to cutting the

ropes But t hi s bush rat being rather kind hear t ed
.
,
-
,

and h aving had some experience of traps himself ,

could s ympathise with the leopard in his uncomfort

able p o s i t ion H e therefore thought for a time and
.
,

then hit upon a plan H e first started to dig a hole .

under t h e tree quite regardless of the leopard s cries

,
’
.

When he h ad finished t he hole he came o u t and cut

o n e of the ropes and immediately ran into his hole
, ,

and waited there to s e e what would happen ; but

although the leopard s t ruggled frantically he could ,

not get loose as t he t ortoise had t ied him up s o fast

, .

After a t ime w hen h e s a w that there w a s no danger

, ,

th e bu s h r a t crep t out again and very carefully bit

through another rope and t hen retired to his hole as ,

9 6
 XXV III
The King an d the j u
7 a Tr ee
U DO U BO K U DO M was a famous king who lived
at I tam which is an inland town and does not
, ,

po ssess a river The king and his wife therefore

.

used to wash at th e spring j ust behind their house .

K ing Udo had a daughter of whom he was very ,

fond and looked after her most carefully and she

, ,

grew up into a beautiful woman .

Fo r some time the king had been absent from

his house and had not been to the spring for two
,

years Wh en h e went to his old place to wash

.
,

h e fou nd that the I dem ]u ]u t ree had grown up

all round the place and it was impossible for him ,

to u s e the spring as he had done formerly H e .

therefore called fifty of his young men to bring

their matchets and cut down the t r ee
1
Th ey .

started cutti ng th e tree but it had no e ffect as , , ,

directly they made a cut in th e tree it closed up ,

again ; so after working all day they found they

, ,

had made no impression on it .

When they returned at night they told the king ,

that th ey had been unable to destroy the tree H e .

Am th t
1
a c e 1s a lon g sh ar p k if m g
n e e ne ra l u se th gh t hro u ou t e co u n rty
d b t w t i i h l g
.

I h
t as a w o o e n ha n dl e ; it i
s a ou t o fe e s x nc e s on a nd tw o
i h wi d
nc e s e .

9 8
 The King an d the
7 u
ff u Tr ee
was very angry wh en h e heard this and went to ,

the spring the following morning taking his own ,

matchet with him .

Wh en the ju ju tree s aw that th e king had come

himself and was starting to try to cut his branches h e ,

caused a small s plinter of wood to go into t he king s ’

eye This gave the king great pain s o h e threw

.
,

d own his matchet and went back to his house .

The p ain however got worse and he could not

, , ,

eat or sleep for three days .

H e therefore sent for his witch m en and told ,

them to cast lots to find out why h e was in su ch

pain When they had cast lots they decided that
.
,

t he reason w as that the ]u ju tree was angry with

the king because h e wanted to wash at the spring ,

and had tried to destroy th e tree .

They then told the king that he mus t take seven

baske t s of flies a white goat a whi t e chicken and
, , ,

a piece of white cloth and make a sacrifice of them ,

i n order to satisfy th e Ju ju .

The king did t his and the witch men tried their
,

lotions o n the king s eye but it got worse and’

worse .

H e then dismissed these witches and got anoth er

lot. When they arrived t hey told t he king that ,

al t hough they could do nothing themselves to relieve

his pain they knew one man who lived in the spiri t
,

land w h o could cure him ; so t he king t o ld them to

send for him at once and he arr ived th e next day
, .

Then the spirit man said Before I do anything

“
,

to you r eye wha t will you give me ? S o K ing U d o

,
”

said I will give y o u half my town with the pe o ple

,

in it also seven cows and some m o ney

, B u t t he .

99
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger i a
spiri t man refused to accept th e king s o ffer As ’
.

t he king was in such pain h e said N ame your

“
, ,

own price and I will pay you

, S o the spirit .
”

man said the only thing h e w a s w illing to accept

as payment was the king s daughter At this th e ’
.

king cried very much and told the man to go ,

away as h e would rather die than let him have

,

his daugh t er .

That night th e pain was worse than ever and ,

some of h i s subj ects pleaded with the king to send

for the spiri t man again and give him his daughter ,

and told him tha t when he got well he could no

doubt have another da u ghter but that if h e died
now he would lose every t hing .

Th e king then sent for t he s pirit man again ,

wh o came very quickly and in great grief th e king

, ,

handed h i s daugh t er to th e spirit .

The spirit man th en w ent out into the bush ,

and collected some leaves which he s o aked in water ,

and beat u p The j uice he poured in t o t he king’s

.

eye and told him that when he washed his face

,

in the morning he would be a b le to see what was

tr o ubling him in the eye .

The king tried to persuade him to stay the night ,

b u t the s piri t man refused and departed that same ,

night for t h e spirit land taking t h e king s daughter

,
’

wi th him .

Before it was light th e king rose up and wa s hed

h i s face and found tha t t he small splinter from the
,

u tree which h a d been troubling him s o much

] ]
u , ,

dropped out of his eye the pain disappeared and , ,

he was quite wel l again .

When he came to his proper senses h e realised

I OO
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
of th e town s h e would then find the r o ad I f s h e .

met people on the road she was to p a s s th e m in /

silence as if sh e saluted them they would know that

,

she was a stranger in th e spirit l and and might kill ,

her S h e was also not to turn round if any o ne

.

called to her b ut was t o go straight on till sh e

,

reached her father s h ouse ’

.

H aving thanked the skull for his kind advice the ,

king s daughter star t ed o ff and when sh e reached

’

th e end of the town and found the road sh e ran for ,

three hours and at last arrived at the branch roads

, .

Th ere sh e dropped t he medicine as sh e had been ,

instru cted and t he two roads immediately became

,

one ; s o she went straight on and never saluted any

one o r turned back al t hough several people called ,

to her .

About this tim e the spirit man had returned from

the wood and went to th e house only to find th e
, ,

king s daughter was absent H e asked the skull

’
.

where sh e was and he replied that s h e had gone

,

out by the back do or but h e did not know where ,

she had gone t o Being a spirit however h e very

.
, ,

soon guessed th a t sh e had gone home so h e followed

as quickly as possible shouting out all t he time , .

When the girl heard his voice s h e ran as fast as

she could and at last arrived at her fa t her s h ouse
,
’
,

and to ld him to take a t once a cow a pig a sheep , , ,

a g o at a dog a chicken and seven eggs and cut

, , , ,

them into seven parts as a sacrifice and leave t hem ,

o n th e road s o that when t h e spirit man saw these

,

thing s h e would stop and not en t er th e town This .

the king did immedi ately and made the sacrifice as ,

his daughter h ad told him .

1 02
 The King and the 7 u
7 u Tr ee
When th e spirit man s aw th e sacrifice on the road ,

he s at down and at once began to eat .

When h e had satisfied h i s appetite he packed up

,

the remainder and returned to the spi r i t land n ot ,

troubling a ny more about the king s daughter’

.

When th e king s a w that the danger was over h e ,

beat his drum and d e cl a re d th at for th e future

, .
,

when peopl e died and went to the spirit land they ,

should not come to earth again as spirits to cure

sick people.

1 0 3
 XX I X
H ow th e Tor toise ov er ca me t he E lep ha nt
d
an the Hipp op ota mu s
TH E elephant and the hipp opotamus always used to
feed together and were good friends
, .

One day when they were both dining together ,

the tortoise appeared and said that al t hough they

were both big and strong , nei t her of t hem could
pull him o u t o f th e water wi t h a st r o ng piece of
tie tie and he o ffered the elephant ten thousand rods
-
,

if h e could draw him out o f th e river the next day

’

Th e elephant seeing that th e tort o ise was very small

, ,

said I f I cannot draw you out of the water I will

,
“
,

give you twenty thousand rods S o on th e follow .

”

ing morning th e t ortoise got s o me very st r ong tie ti e -

and made it fast to his leg and went d o wn to the ,

river When he got there as h e kne w the place

.
,

well h e made the tie tie fast round a big rock and
,
-
,

l eft the other end o n t he shore for th e elephant to

pull by then went down to the bottom of the river
,

and hid himself The elephant then came do wn

.

and started pulling and after a time he smashed

,

the rope .

D irectly this happened the tortoise undid th e

,

rope from the rock and came to the land showing ,

all peopl e that the rop e was still fast to his leg b ut ,

1 04
 Falh Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger uz
both of th em but that as h e could not be in two
, ,

places at the same t ime he said that he would

,

leave his s o n to live with the elephant on th e land ,

and that he himself would live with th e hippo

ta m u s i n th e water
p o .

This explains why t here are both t o rtoises on the

land and tortoises who live in th e water The water
.

t ortoise i s always much the bigger of the two a s,

there is plenty of fish for him to ea t in the river ,

whereas the land tortoise often very short of

food.

1 0 6
 XXX

Of t he T r etty Gir l an d the Se ven y ea /

ou r

Women
T H E RE was once a very beautiful girl called Akim .

S h e was a native of I bibio and the name was given ,

to her on account of her good looks as she was born ,

i n the spring time S h e was an only daughter and

-
.
,

her p arents were extremely f o nd of her The people .

of the town and more particularly th e young girls

, ,

were so j ealous of Akim s good looks and beautiful ’

form — for sh e was p erfectly made very strong and , ,

her carriage bearing and manners were most grace

, ,

ful— that h er parents would not allow her to j oin the

young girls society in th e town as is customary for
’

all young p eople to do both boys and girls belong

,

ing to a company according to their age a company

consisting as a rule of all the b o ys or girls born in
, ,

th e same year .

Akim s p arents were rather poor but sh e was a

’

go o d daughter and gave them no trouble s o they

, ,

had a happy home One day as Akim was on her

.

way to draw water fro m the spring she met the

company of seven girls to which in an ordinary way
,

she would have belonged if her parents had not for ,

bidden her These girls told her that t hey were

.

going to hold a play in the town in three days time ’

1 0
7
 Falh Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
and asked her to j oin them S h e said s h e was very .

sorry but tha t her parents were poor and only had
, ,

herself to work for them she therefore had no time ,

to spare for dancing and plays S h e then left them .

and went hom e .

I n the evening the seven girl s met togeth er and as ,

they were very envi o us of Akim they discussed ho w ,

they should be revenged up o n her for refusing to

j oin their company and they t alked for a long t ime
,

as to how they could get A k im into danger or punish

her i n some way .

At las t one of t h e girls suggested that th ey s hould

all go to Akim s house ever y day and help her with
’

h er work s o that w hen they had made friends with

,

h e r t hey w o uld be able to en t ice her away and take

t heir reve n ge upon her for being more bea u tiful than
themselve s Although th ey went eve ry day an d
.

helped Akim and h e r parents with their work the ,

parents kn ew that t h ey were j ealo u s of their daughter ,

and repeatedly warned her n o t o n a n y account to go

with them as th ey were not to be trusted
,
.

At th e end of th e year t here was going to be a big

l
p y a
,
‘

c a l l e d the new yam play t o which Akim s parents ,

’

had been invited The play w a s g o ing to be held at

.

a town about two hours march from where they ’

liv e d Akim was very anxiou s to go and take par t

.
K

i n th e dance b u t her parent s gave her plen t y of work

,

to do before they started thinking that this would ,

surely prevent her going as s h e was a very obedien t

,

daughter and al w ays did h er w ork pr o perly

,
.

On t he morning of th e play th e j ealous seven came

!

to Akim and asked her to go with t hem but s h e ,

pointed to all the water pots sh e had to fill an d -

,

1 08
 Fal h Stor ies fi om Sou ther n Niger ia
When the work was finished th ey all started o ff
together and crossed the river wi t hout any trouble
, .

When th ey had gon e a small distance on the other

side they s a w a small bird perched on a high tree
, ,

who admired Akim very much a nd sang in praise of ,

her beauty much to the annoyance of the seven

,

girls ; but they walked on without saying anything ,

and eventually arrived a t the town where the play

was being h eld Akim had not taken the trouble to
.

change her clothes but when she arrived at the town

, ,

al t hough her companions had on all their best beads

and thei r finest clothes the young men and people
,

admired Akim far more than the other girls and sh e ,

w a s declared to be the finest and most beautiful

woman at t he dance They gave her plenty of palm
.

wine foo foo and everything she wan t ed s o that the

,
-
, ,

seven girls became more angry and j ealou s than b e

fore Th e people d anced and sang all that night but
.
,

Akim managed to keep out of th e sight of her parents

until the f o llo wing morning when they asked h er ,

how i t w as that sh e had disobeyed them and neglected

h er w o rk s o Akim told them that the work had all
been done by h er friends and they had enticed her to
,

come to the play w ith them H er mo t her t hen told

h er to return home at once and that she was not to ,

remain in the t o wn any longer .

When Akim told h er friends this they said Very “

,

well we are j ust going to have some smal l meal and

, ,

th en we wil l return w ith you They all then s at.

d o wn t o gether and had their food but each of the ,

seven j ealous girls hid a small quantity of foo foo and -

fish in h e r clothes for th e Wa t er ju Ju H owever Akim .

,

who kne w nothing about this as her parents had ,

1 1 0
The P r etty Gir l a nd the Se ven ffea l ou s Women
forgo t ten to tell her a b out th e ] j never thinking u u,

for one moment th at their daughter would cross the

river did not take any food as a sacrifice to the ju ju
,

with her .

Wh en they arrived at th e river Akim s a w the girls

making their small sacrifices and begged them to ,
.

give her a small share so that sh e could do th e same ,

b ut they refused and all walked across the river

,

safely Then when it was Akim s turn to cro ss

.
’

when s h e arrived in the middle of the river t he ,

Water ju ju caught hold of her and dragged her

underneath th e water so that sh e immediately dis
,

appeared from sight Th e seven girls had been

.

watching for this and when they saw that she had
,

gon e they went on th eir way very pleased at the ,

success o f their sch eme and s aid to one another

, ,

“
No w Akim is gone for ever and we shall h ear ,

no more about her being better looking than we -

are.
”

As there was no on e to b e seen at t h e time when

Akim disappeared they naturally thought that their
cruel acti o n had escaped detection s o th ey went ,

home rej oicing but they never noticed the little bird
high up in the tree w h o had sung of Akim s beauty ’

when they were on t heir way to th e play The li t tle .

bi r d was very sorry for Akim and made up his mind

,

t hat when the proper time came he wo u ld t ell her

, ,

parents what h e had seen s o tha t perhaps they would

,

be able to save her The bird had heard Akim a sking

.

for a s mall portion of th e food to make a sacrifice

with and had heard all the girls refusing to give her
,

any .

Th e following morning when Akim s parents r e

’

1 1 1
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
turned home they were much surprised to find that
,

the door was fastened and that there was no sign o f ,

thei r d aughter anyw here about the place s o t hey ,

inquired of their neighb o urs but no one w asa ble to ,

give t hem any information about her They then .

went to the seven girls and a s ked them what h ad ,

become o f Akim They replied that th ey did not .

know what had bec o me o f her but that s h e had -

reach ed t heir town safely with t hem and then said ,

she was going home The father then went to his .

u m a n w h o by cas t ing lot s discovered wh at had

]]u
§ , , ,

happened and t old him t hat o n her way back from

,

t h e play Akim had crossed the river without making '

the c ustomary sacrifice t o the Water ju ju and t hat !

, ,

as t he ju ju was angry he h a d seized Akim and , !

taken h er to his home H e therefore told Akim s .

’

father t o t ake one goat one ba s ketful of eggs and , ,

one piece of white clo t h to t h e river in the morning ,

and to o ffer t hem as a sacrifice to t he Water ju ju

then Akim would be t hrown o u t o f th e water seven
times but t hat if her father failed to catch her on the
,

seven t h time sh e would disappear for ever

, .

Akim s fath er then returned home and when h e

’
, ,

arrived there the little bird who had seen Akim

,

taken by the Wa t er ju ju told him everything that ,

h ad happ ened confirming the In ju s wo r ds H e

,
’
.

also said that it was entirely the fault of t he s even

girls who h ad refused to give Akim any food to
,

make t he sacrifice with .

Early the following morning the parents went to

the river and made the sacrifice as advised by the
,

j j
u u I
. mmediately they had done so the Water ,

u t hrew Akim up from the middle of t he river

j j
u .

1 1 2
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Niger ia
When the people heard the cries and saw the
smoke they all ran b ack to the town
, .

The next day the parents of the dead girl s went

to the head chief and complained that Akim s father
,
’

had killed their daughters so the chief called him ,

b efore him and asked him for an explanation

, .

Akim s father went at once to the chief taking

’

the ju ju man whom everybody relied upon and

, ,

the small bird as his witnesses

,
.

When the chief had heard the whole case h e ,

told Akim s fath er tha t he should only have killed

’

one girl to avenge his daugh t er and not seven , .

S o he told the father to bring Akim before h im

When s h e arrived the head chief see i ng how
, ,

beautiful sh e was said that her father w a s j ustified

,

i n killing all th e seven girls on her behalf s o he ,

dismissed the case and told the parents of the dead

,

girls to go away and m o urn for their daughters ,

who had been wicked and j ealous women and had ,

been prop erly punished for th eir cruel behaviour to

Akim .

MO RAL N ever kill a ma n or a woman because

—

you are envious of their beauty as if you do you , ,

will surely be punished .

1 1 4
 XXX I
H ow t he Ca nni ha l s dr ov e the People f r om I nsof a n
M ou nta in to the Cr oss !Riv er (I hom!
V E RY many years ago before the oldest man alive at
,

the present time can remember th e towns of Ikom , ,

Okuni Ab i jo n I nsofan Obokum and all th e oth er

, , , ,

I n jo r t o wns were situated rou nd and near th e I nso

fan Mountain and the h ead chief of the whole
,

country was called Agbor Ab r agb a and E n fit0 p .

also lived there and were also under K ing

,

Agbor The I nsofan Mountain is about two

days march inland from the C ross River and as
’

’
,

none of th e p e o p l e there c o uld swim and knew ,

nothing about canoes th ey n ever went anywhere

,

outside their own country and were afraid to go ,

do wn to th e big river The whole country was .

taken up with yam farms and was divided amongst ,

th e various towns each town having its own bush

, .

At t h e end of each year when it was time to dig th e,

yams t here was a big play held which was called th e

, ,

Ne w Ya rn feast At this festival there w a s always

.

a big human sacrifice fifty slaves being killed in one

,

day These slaves were tied up to t rees in a row

.
,

and many drums were beaten ; then a strong man ,

armed with a s harp m atch et went from one slave to ,

another and cut their heads o ff This was done to .

1 1 5
 Falh St or ies f r om Souther n N iger ia
cool the new yams s o that they would not hurt the
,

stomachs of the p eople U ntil th i s sacrifice was

.

made no one i n th e country would eat a new yam ,

as they knew if t hey did so they would su ff er great

, ,

pain in th eir insides .

When the feast was held all th e towns brought ,

one hundred yams each as a present to K ing Agbor .

When the slaves were all killed fires were lit and th e ,

dead bodies were placed ove r the fires to burn the

hair o ff A numbe r of plantain leaves were then
.

gathered and placed on the ground and the bodies , ,

having been cut into pieces were pl aced on the ,

plantai n leave s .

Wh en the yams were skinned th ey were put ,

into large pots with water oil pepper and salt

, , , , .

The cut u p bodies were then put in o n top and the

-
,

pots covered up with other clay pots and left to boil

for an hour .

Th e king having called all th e p eople t o gether

, ,

then declared the N ew Yam feast had commenced ,

and singing and dancing were kep t up for three da ys

and nights duri ng which time much palm wine was
,

c onsumed and all the bodies and yams which h ad

, ,

been provided for them were ea t en by t h e people

, .

Th e heads were given to th e king for his share ,

and when h e had finished eating them th e s kulls

, ,

were placed before the ju ju wi t h s o me n ew ya rns ,

so that there should b e a good c r o p the following

season .

But al though these natives ate the dead bodies of

th e slaves at the N ew Yam feas t they did not eat ,
/

human flesh during th e rest of the year .

This went on for many years until at last the ,

1 1 6
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
All th e towns then departed and wh en th ey had
,

found good sites they b uilt their towns there

,
.

When they had all gone a f t er a time Agbor began

,

to feel very lonely s o he left t h e site of his old town

,

and also went to the C ross River to live so that h e ,

could s e e his friends .

Aft er that the New Yam fe ast was held i n each

town and the people still cont i nued to kill and eat a
,

few slaves at the fea s t bu t the bodies of their rela

,

tions and friends were kept for a long time a b ove

ground until they had become rotten s o that the ,

greedy people should not dig them up and eat

them .

This is why even at the present time the p eople

, ,

do not l ike to bury their dead relations unt i l the y

have become putrid .

1 1 8
 XXX II
The L u chy Fisher ma n
I N the olden days there were no hooks or casting
nets s o that when th e natives wanted to c atch fish
,

they made baskets and s e t traps at the river side .

On e man named Akon Obo who was very po o r , ,

b egan to m ake baskets and t raps out of bamboo

palm and then when th e river went down he used
,

to take his traps to a pool and s e t them baited with

p alm nuts I n the night the big fish used to smell
-
.

the palm nuts an d go i nto the trap when at once

-
,

the door would fall down and in the morning Akon,

Obo would go and take th e fish out H e was very .

successful in his fishing and used to sell the fish in

,

the market for plenty of money When h e co u ld .

a fford to pay th e dowry h e married a woman named

E yong a native of Okuni and h ad t hree children
, ,

by her but h e still con t inued his fishing The

, .

eldest s o n was called Odey th e second Yambi and , ,

the third Atuk Th ese three boys wh en t hey grew

.
,

up helped their fa t her with his fishing and he gra

, ,

dually became wealthy and bought plenty of slaves .

At last he j oined the Egbo society and became one ,

of the chiefs of t he town Even after he became .

a chief he and his sons still continued to fish

, .

One day when he was crossing the river in a small

,

dug out canoe a tornado came on very suddenly

-
, ,

1 1 9
 Fal h Stor ies f r om Souther n Niger ia
and th e canoe capsized drowning th e chief Whe n , .

his sons h eard of the dea t h of their father they ,

wanted to go and dro wn the m selves also but they ,

were persuaded not to by the p eople After search .

ing for two days they foun d t he dead body some ,

distance down the river and brought it back to the ,

town They then called th eir company t ogether

.

to play dance and sing for twelve days in accord

, , ,

ance with t heir na t ive custom and much palm wine ,

was drunk .

When th e play was finished they took their father s ,

’

body to a h oll o wed out cavern and placed two live -

,

slaves with it o ne h olding a native lamp o f palm ,

oil and th e other holding a m atchet They were

,
'

both tied up so that th ey could not escape and , ,

were l eft there to keep watch over the dead chief

‘

u ntil th ey d i ed of starvation .

When th e cave was covered in th e sons called ,

th e chiefs together and they played Egbo for 1

,

seven days which used up a lot of th eir late father s

,
’

money When th e play was over the chiefs were

.
,

surprised at th e amount of money which the sons

had been able to spend on th e funeral of their father ,

as th ey knew how p o or h e had been as a young man .

They therefore called him t h e lucky fisherman .

1 i ty w l d m t t g th d l d b p id d
The E g bo soc e ou ee o e er an wou e ro v e
p lm i
a d f dw ne m h th y ld an ood d i k hi h f
as uc as e co u e at a n r n w c tc

q tly
u en l f m y D i g d i gi g ld l b k pt
co s t a ot o
,

o ne a nc n an s n n w ou a so
,

e e

b d ld pl y i ti g f d m m d f h ll d
.

u
p d an a -
an w ou a co ns s n o ru s a e o o ow e -
ou t
k f t b t with w p i ft d ti m d b ll
,

t ru n s o r e e s, f ea e n t o e ce s o so woo na ve a e e s
an d tl mad f b k t w k ith t i i d h b tt m i i g
ra t es e o as e or w s o ne s ns e, t
,

e o o co ns s t n
f h d d i d ki d ll ith l g t m f fi b ,

o ar d r e s n, an co v e re a ove r w on s re a e rs o re .

O th d m er l p l y d by h d th
ru s are a so md f h ll w w d
a e an e se a r e a e out o o o oo
d
c o v e re d w ith d i d ki
a t on e e n h th d b i g l ft p Th r e s n, t e o er en e n e o e n.
,

e
d mmru lly it e r u su af th d m hi h h s di ff t t
s on tw o o e se ru s, w c av e a e re n no e ,
o ne b i g d p d d h th li ghtl y high
e n a ee so u n , an t e o er s e r.

1 20
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
was too young to kill any large animals and only ,

had his small bow and arrows with which h e killed ,

a few squirrels bush rats and small b irds and so

, , ,

managed to live .

N ow once at night when h e was sleeping in the ,

hollow of a tree he h ad a dream in which his father

,

appeared and told him where there was plenty of

,

treasure buried in the earth but being a smal l boy , , ,

he was frightened and did not go to th e place , .

One day some time after the dream having walked

, ,

far and being very thirsty h e went to a lake , and ,

was j ust going to drink when he h eard a hissing ,

sound and heard a voice tell him not to drink N ot

, .

seeing any on e h e was afraid and ran away without

, ,

drinking .

Early next morning when h e was out with his ,

b ow trying to shoot some small animal he met an ,

old woman with quite long h air S h e was so ugly .

that he thought s h e must be a witch s o he tried to ,

run but s h e told him not to fear as s h e wan ted to

, ,

help him a nd assist him to rule over his late father s ’

house S h e also told him that it was she wh o h ad

.

called out to him at the lake not to drink as there ,

was a bad ju ju in the water which would h ave

killed him The old woman t hen took Ayo ng to a
.

stream som e little distance from the lake and bend ,

ing down took out a small shining stone from the

,

water which s h e gave to him at the same time tel l

, ,

ing him to go t o the place which his father had

advised him to visit in his dream S h e th e n sa i d .
,
“
When you get there you must dig and you will ,

find plenty of money ; you must then go and buy

two strong slaves and when you have got them you
, ,

1 22
 The Orp ha n Boy an d the M agic Stone
must take them into the forest away from th e town , ,

and get them to build you a hou s e with several

rooms in it You must then place th e stone i n on e
.

of the rooms and whenever you want anything all

, ,

you have to do is to go into the room a nd tell th e

stone what you want and your wishes will be at ,

once gratified .
”

Ayong did a s th e old woman told him and after ,

much di fficu lty and danger bought the two slaves

and built a house in the forest taking great care of ,

the precious stone which h e placed i n an inside,

room Then for some time whenever h e wanted

.
,

anything he used to go into th e room and a s k for

,

a su fficient number of rods to buy what he wanted ,

and they were always brought at once .

This went on for many years and Ayong grew up ,

to be a man and becam e very rich and bought

, ,

many slaves having made friends with th e Aro men

, ,

who in those days used to do a big tra ffic in slaves .

After ten yea r s h ad passed Ayong had quite a large

town and many slaves but one night the old woman ,

appea r ed to him in a dream and told him that s h e

th ought that he was su fficiently wealthy an d that it ,

was t ime for him to return t he magic stone to th e

small s t ream from whence it came But Ayong .
,

although h e was rich wanted to rule his fa t her s ,

’

house and be a head chief for all the I nde country

, ,

s o he sent for all the u men in th e country and

j j
u

two witc h m en and marched with all h i s slaves to

,

his fa t her s town Before h e started he h eld a big

’
.

p alaver and told them to poin t out any slave who

,

had a bad h eart and who might kill him when h e

,

came to rule the country Then th e ju ju men .

1 23
 Fol h Stor ies f rom Sou ther n N iger ia
consulted together and pointed out fifty of the ,

slaves who they sa i d were witches and would try to

, , ,

kill Ayong H e at once ha d t hem made prisoners

.
,

and tried them by the ordeal of Esere bean to s e e 1

whether t hey were witches or not As none of .

them could vomit the beans they all died and wer e ,

declared to be wit ches H e then had them buried .

at o nce When th e remainder of his s laves saw

.

what had happened they all came to him and ,

begged his pardon and promised to serv e him faith ,

fully Although th e fifty men were b u ried they

.

could not rest and troubled Ayong very much and , ,

afte r a tim e h e became very sick himself s o he sent ,

again for t he ]u ju men who told him that it was ,

the witch men who althou gh they were dead and ,

buried had power to come out at night and used

,

to suck Ay o ng s blood which was the cause of his ’

,
,

sickness They then said

.
“
We are only three ,

u m en ; you must get seven mor e of us making

j j
u ,

th e m agic number of ten When they came they .

”

dug up the bodies of th e fifty witches and found ,

they were quite fresh Then Ayong had big fires .

m ade and burned them one af t er the other and

, ,

gave the ju ju men a big presen t H e soo n .

after becam e quite wel l again and took possession ,

of his father s property and ruled over all the ’

country .

1
C l ba b i t g p i
Th e E se re or dw f m ly m h
a a r e an s a s ro n o so n , a n as or er uc
d by
u se ti
th e n a Th b g d pi
ve s t m t d e se e a ns a re ro u n u n a s o ne o r ar , a n

th w l l w d by th dp di h i id d
.

a re en s a o e If h m e a ccu s e e rso n . t e an es e s co n s e re
g ilty b i f h li h i p p d t h p d hi i
u ut e ve s, f e s su o se o ave ! ro v e s nn o ce n ce o
wh t b w h i h w b ght g i t hi m D th
,

h
a e ver h g m yh
t e c ar e a av e een c ! as ro u a a ns ea
lly ft h p i dmi i t d I f h
.

ge n e ra b t w h
e n su e s a iou t o o u rs a er t e o so n s a n s e re t e
dtk ffi i t m t f th g d p b t m k hi m
.

a ccu s e a es a su c en a ou n o e ro u n -
u e a ns o a e
vomit it wil l p b b l y hi lif th wi h wil l di i g t p i
ro a s av e s e, o er se e e n re a a n.

1 24
 XXX I V
The Sla v e Gir l w ho tr ied t o Kil l her M istr ess
A MAN c alled Akpan who w a s a native of Oku a
.
, ,

town i n the I bibio country admired a girl called ,

Emme very much who lived at I bibio and wished to

, ,

marry her as s h e was the finest girl in h er company

, .

I t was th e custom in those d ays for the parents to

demand such a large amount for their daughters as
dowry that if after they were married they failed to
,

get o n with their husbands as th ey could not redeem

,

themselves they were sold as sl a ves Akpan paid a

,
.

very large sum as dowry for E mme and sh e was put ,

in t he fatting house until the proper time arrived for

-

h er to marry .

Akp an told the parents th at when th eir daughter

was ready th ey must send her over to him This .

they promised to do Emme s father was a rich

.
’

man and after seven years had elapsed and it b e

, ,

came time for her to go to her husband he saw a ,

very fine girl wh o h ad als o j ust come out of the

,

f atting house and whom the parents wi s hed to sell

-
,

as a slave E mm e s father t herefore bought her

.
’
,

and gave her to his daughter as her handmaiden .

Th e next day Emme s little sister being very

’

anxious to go with her obtained the consent of her

,

mo th er and they started o ff together the slave girl

, ,

1 26
The Sla v e Gi r l w ho tr ed t o
i Kill her M istr ess
carrying a large bundle containing cloth es and
presents from Emme s father Ak pa n s house was ’
.
’

a long day s march fro m where they lived When

’
.

they arrived j ust outside the town they came to a

spring where the people used to get their drinking
,

water from but n o on e was allowed to bathe there

, .

Emme h owever knew nothing about this

, , Th ey .

t oo k o ff their c l othes to wash close to the spring and ,

where there was a deep hole which led to the Water

s house The slave girl knew of this
’

j j
u u .
j j
u u ,

and though t if sh e could get her mistress to bath e ,

s h e would be taken by the and she would

J j
u u ,

t hen be abl e to take h er place and marry Akpan .

S o they went down to bathe and wh en they were ,

close to th e water the slave girl pushed her mistress

i n and she at once disappeared Th e little girl then
,
.

began to cry b ut the slave girl s aid I f you cry any

,
“
,

more I will kill you at once and throw your body ,

into the hol e after your sister And s h e told the .

”

child t hat sh e must never men t ion what had happened

to any one and particularly not to Akpan as sh e wa s
, ,

going to represent her sister and marry him and that ,

if s h e ever told any one what s h e had seen s h e would ,

be killed at once S h e then made th e little girl carry

.

her load to Ak p a n s house ’

.

When they arrived Akpan was very much dis ,

appointed at the slave girl s app earance as she was ’

not nearly as pretty and fine as h e had expected her

to be ; bu t as he had not seen Emme for seven
years th e had no suspici o n that the girl was not
,

really Emme for whom h e had paid such a large

,

dowry H e then called all his company together to

.

play and feast and wh en they arrived they were

,

1 2 7
 Falh Stor ies fi om Sou ther n N iger ia
much astonished and said I s this th e fine woman
, ,

for whom you paid so much d o wry and whom yo u ,

told us s o much abou t ? And Akpa n could not

”

answer them .

The slave girl was then for some ti me very cruel

to Emme s li t tle sister and wanted h er to die , s o
’

that her position would b e more secure with h er

husband S h e beat th e little girl every day and
.
,

al wa ys made her carry t he largest water pot to the -

spring ; she also made the child place her finger in

the fire to use as firewood When th e tim e came for
.

food the slave girl went to the fire and got a b urning
,

piece of woo d and burned the child all over the body
wi t h it Wh en Akpan asked her why sh e treated the
.

child s o badly s h e replied that sh e was a slave that

,

her father had bought for h er Whe n the little girl .

took the h ea v y water p ot t o th e river to fill it t here

-

was n o one to lif t it up for h er s o that s h e could not ,

get it on to her head ; she therefore had to rema in a

long t ime at th e spring and at last began c a lling fOf
,

h er sis t er Emme t o come and help her —

.

When Emme h eard h er little s i s te r cr y i ng for h er ,

sh e begged the Wa t er ]u ]u t o allow h er t o go and

help her so he told her sh e might go but that s h e
, ,

must return to him again immediately When t he .

little gi r l sa w her sister s h e did not want to leave

her and asked to be allowed to go into the hole
,

wi t h h er S h e t h en told Emme how very badly s h e

.

had been treated by the slave girl a n d her elder ,

s ister told her to have pati e nce and wait th at a day ,

of vengeance would arri ve sooner or later The .

little gi r l went back to Ak p a n s hou s e with a glad heart

’

a s sh e had s een her si s ter but when she got to the

,

1 2 8
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n l Vig er ia
of th e Water ju ju H e w a s advised by some of h i s
.
.

friends to go to an Ol d w o man who frequen t ly made ,

sacrifices to th e Water ju ju and consult he r as to ,

what was th e best thing to d o .

When he went to h er she told him to b ri ng h er ,

one white slave one white goat one piece o f w hite

, ,

cloth fone white chicken and a basket of eggs

, , .

Then when the great ju ju day arrived sh e would

, ,

take th em to th e Water ju Ju and make a sacrifice ,

of th em on his b ehalf Th e d ay after the sacrifice

.

was mad e the Water ju ]u w o uld retur n the girl

,

to her and s h e would bring h e r to Akpan

, .

Akpan t hen bought the slave and t ook all the ,

oth er things to t h e old Woman and when t h e day , ,

of t he sacrifice arrived h e Went wi t h his frien d ,

th e hunter and witne s sed t h e old woman make the

sacrifice Th e slave was bound up and led to the
.
-

h o l e t hen the old woman called to the Wa t er ju ju

,

and cu t the s lave s t hroat with a sharp knife and

’

pushed h im into the hole S h e t hen did t he s ame .

to the g o at and chicken an d also t hrew the eggs ,

an d cloth in on t op of th e m .

After this had bee n don e t h ey all returned to ,

their ho m es Th e nex t m o rning at daw n the old

.

woman went to the hole a n d found E mme standing ,

at the side of th e spring so s h e t o ld h er t ha t s h e ,

was her friend and w a s going to t ake her t o h er

,

husband S h e then took Emme back to h er own

.

home and hid her in her room and s en t word

, ,

to Akpan to come to her house a nd to take great ,

care tha t the slave woman knew nothing about th e

m atter .

8 0 Akpan left th e house secretly by the back door ,

1 3 0
The Sla v e Gir l w ho tr ed to i Kill her M i str ess
and arrive d at the old woman s h ous e withou t m eeting ’

anybody .

When Emme s aw Akpan s h e asked for her li t tle ,

sister s o he sent his friend the hunter for her

, , ,

to the spring and h e met her carrying h er wa t er

,

p ot to ge t t h e morning supply of water for the

hou se and brought her to the old woman s house
,
’

with him .

When E mme had embrace d her sister she tol d ,

her to re t u rn to t he h o use and do s o mething to

ann oy t he s lave w o man and t hen s h e was to ru n ,

a s fast as s h e could back to the old woman s house

’

wh e re n o d o u b t t he slave gi r l would f o llow h e r

, , ,

and w o uld meet them all in s id e the house an d s e e ,

Emme w h o s h e believed sh e had killed

, .

Th e li tt le girl did as s h e was told and directly

!
, ,

sh e got int o the house s h e called ou t to th e slave ,

woman ! D o you kn o w that you are a w icked

“

w o man and have trea t ed m e very badly ? I know

,

you are only my sister s slave and you will be

“
’

properly p u ni s h ed S h e then r a n a s hard a s she

.

could t o t h e old woman s house D irec t ly t he slave ’

.

woman h eard what the li ttle girl said s h e w a s q u ite ,

mad with rage and seized a burning stick f r om t h e

,

fire and r a n after the child but t h e li tt le on e go t to

,

the house first and ran inside th e slave woman fol

, ,

lowing c l o se upon her heel s with the burning s tick

in h er hand .

Then Emme came ou t and confronted the slave

woman and she a t on c e rec o gni s ed her mistress
, , ,

whom s h e t hought s h e had killed s o sh e stood quite ,

still .

Th en t hey all went back to Ak pa n s hou s e and ’

1 3 1
 Fol h Stor i es f r om Sou the r n N iger ia
when they arrived there Akpan asked th e slave
,

woma n w h at she meant by pretending t hat she was

Emme and why sh e had t ried to kill h er But
, .
,

seeing sh e was found out the slave woman had

,

no t hing to s a y .

Many peo ple were then called to a play to cele

brate the recovery of Ak pa n s wife and when they
’

h ad all come he told th em what the slave woman

,

had done .

After this Emme treated the slave girl in th e

,

same way as she had treated h er little sister S h e .

made h er put her fingers in the fire and bu r nt her ,

with sticks Sh e also made h er beat foo foo with

.
-

her head in a h oll o wed out tree and after a time

-

she was tied up to a t ree and starved t o death .

Ever since that tim e wh en a man marries a girl

, ,

h e is always present when sh e comes out o i the

fatting house and t akes her home himself s o that
-
,

su ch evil things as happen ed to Emme and her

sister may not occu r again .
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n l Vig er ia
king immedia t ely b came very fon d of t he two
e

babie s but acc o r di n g to the native custom which

, ,

was too strong fo r any o n e to resist he had to give ,

t he m up to be killed When th e Ns i a t bird heard

,
’

this he went to t he king and reminded him t ha t h e

,

had warned the king befo r e h e m a r ried wha t would

,

happ en if h e married Adit and rather than that th e

,

twin s sh ould be killed ; h e a nd t he wh o le of his

family w o uld leave t h e ea r t h and dwell in the air ,

taking the twin s wi t h them As t h e king was s o

.

fond of Adi t an d the t w o children and did n ot want

,

them to be killed h e gladly consented and th e

, ,

Ns i a t bird to o k t he whole of h i s family as well as

’

Adit a nd h er two children away and left the ear t h

, ,

t o li v e and make their home in t h e tree s ; but as

they h ad formerly lived in the town wi t h all th e

pe o ple they did no t like to g o int o th e forest s o
,
‘

they made t heir n e s t s in the t r ee s which grew in the

town and t hat i s why you al w ays se e the Nsi a t birds
,
’

l ivi ng a n d making t heir nest s only in p laces wh ere

human bei ngs are The black bi r d s are the cock s
.
,

and t he golden coloured o ne s are t he h en s I t was

- .

t he beau t iful c o l our of Adit which first at t racted t he

attenti o n of Nd a r ak e and caused him to marry her
’
.

I 34
 XXXV I
Concer ning the Fa te of E ssi do a nd hi s
E v il Comp a nions

CH I E F O BO RRI lived at a town called Adi ago r which ,

i s on t he righ t bank of the Calabar Ri ver

/

H e was .

a weal t h y chief and belonged to the Egbo S ociety

, .

He had many l arge canoes and plenty of slaves t o

'

paddle th em These canoes h e u s ed t o fill up with

“

new yams — each canoe being under one head slave

and containing eight paddles ; the canoe s were
capable of holding three puncheons o f p alm oil -
,

and cost eight h u ndred rod s each When they were .

full abo u t ten o f them used to s ta rt o ff toge the r and

,

p addle t o R i o del Rey Th ey wen t.through creeks

all the way which run through mangrove swamps
, ,

wi t h palm oil trees here and t here S om etimes in

-
.

the tornado seas o n it w a s very dangerou s cros s ing

the creeks as the canoes were s o heavily la d en
, ,

h aving o nly a fe winch es above th e wa t er that quite ,

a small wave would fill the canoe and cause i t to

sink to th e bottom
i A l t hough most of the boys
.

cou ld s w i m it of t en happened that some of th em

,

were lost as th ere are many large alligators in these

,

waters After four days h ard paddling they would

.
’

arrive at Ri o del Re y wh ere they had v e ry l ittle

,

I 3S
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger ia
di fficulty in exchanging their new yarns for bags
of dried shrimps and sti cks with smoked fish on
them 1
.

C hief Ob o r r i had two sons name d Eyo I and , .

E ss i do Their mo t h er having died wh e n they were

.

babies the children were brought up by th eir fa t h er

, .

As they grew up they developed entirely diff erent ,

charac t ers The eldest was very h ard working and

.
-

led a solitary life bu t the younger s o n was fond of

gaiety and was very l azy in fact h e spent most of , ,

his t ime in t h e neighbouring towns pl aying and

danci ng When the two boys arrived at th e r e
.

s p e cti v e ages of eighteen and twenty th ei r fa th er

died and they were left to look after themselves
, .

According to native custom the elder son E y o I , ,

‘

.
,

w a s entit l ed to the whole of his fath er s estate ; but

’

being very fond of h i s younger brother he gave him ,

a large number of rods and some land wi t h a house .

I mmediately E ss i d o b ecame possessed of the money

h e became wilder than ever gave big feasts to his ,

comp anions and al w ays had his house full of women

, ,

upon whom h e spent large sums Although the .

amoun t h is brother had given him on his father s ’

death was very large in the course of a few years ,

1 A ti k f fi h i t d f w ti k with bi g fi h i h middl f
s c o s co ns s e o t o s c s a s n t e e o
eac h d m ll fi h
an s h d th
a b i g i ght fi h
s a t e ach ti k m ki g en e re e n e s o n e ac s c a n
s ixt i ll Th ti k w th ti d t g th
e en n a e se d m k d
s c s
,

e re en e o e e r, an s o
,

e ov e r
dfi til th y q it d i d O ti k f fi h l d ll
.

woo re s u n e w e re u e r e ne s c o s w ou se at

C l b i h dy tim f f m 3 6d 5 ti k d ti k
.

a a ar n t e r s e a so n e or ro 5 to 5 a s c an a s c
ld b g f fi l g y m h i h Ch i f O b i ly
.
. .
,

w ou e ot or ve ar e a s w c co s t e o rr on Is so a

l g p fit md l d h yi g b t
.
,

ar e ro h w as a e o n ea c ca n o e oa — t e ca n o e s carr n a ou a

th d y
o u sa n h A b g f h im p l d b b t d f t ty fi
a rn s e a c a o s r s w ou e a r e re or w en - ve

l g y h im p ld b l d f b i g p fit f
.

ar e d h a rn s , a n t e s r s w ou e so or e n a ro o 1 05
tim h m i d b g f h im p
.

o n e ach b g A h p a h
t t e r e se n t e, o w e v e r, t e sa e s ze a o s r s,

l d ll C l b f £ 3
.

i
n t h e wet s e as o n , w ou di h d y se at a a ar or 1 0s an n t e r sea so n
f b tw
, ,

or e £ e end £ 1 , 1 05 . an 2 .

1 3 6
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger i a
b eing o well kn wn Wh en t hey i d t Akpa
s o . a rr ve
x

bry o s town they f o und many b eautiful women and

graceful dancers They then s ta r ted t he same life
.

again until af t e r a few weeks most o t he money

,

had gone Th ey t hen met an d co nsulted together

.

h o w to get mo r e money and advised E s si d o to ,

return to his rich bro t he r pre t ending that h e was ,

going to work and give up his old l ife ; he should

‘

t hen get poison f r om a man they kn ew of and place ,

it in h is b ro t her s food s o th a t he would die and

’

, ,

then E ssi d o would b ecome p ossessed of all his

b rother s wealth and they would be able to live
’

in the same way as t hey had formerly Essi d o wh o .

,

h ad sunk very l o w agreed to t his plan and th ey

, ,

left Ak p ab r yo s town t h e ne xt morning Af t er .

march ing fo r two days t hey arrived at a sm a ll ,

bu t in t he bush where a man w h o was an expert

poi s oner lived called O k po n e s i p H e was the hea d
, .

u man of t he c oun t ry an d wh en t hey had bribed

j j
u ,

him with eight h u ndred rods he swore the m to

sec r ecy and gave E ss i do a small parcel co ntaining
,

a deadly poi s on which he said w o uld kill his brother

in t hree months All he had to do was to p lace
.

the poison in his broth er s food ; ’

Wh en E s s i d o re t urned to his br o t her s h ouse h e ’

pretended t o be very s o rry for his f o rmer m o de

o f living and said t h a t for the future h e was going
,

t o work E y o I w a s very glad when he heard t his

. .
,

and at once a s ked his bro t her i n and gave him new
“

,
‘

clo t he s and pl e n ty to eat

'

I n the evening w hen supper was b eing pr epared

, ,

E s s i d o went into t h e kitchen p r e t ending h e w a n te d ,

’

to get a light from the fire for his pipe Th e cook ;

1 3 8
 The Fa te of E ssi do a nd his E v il Compa nions
being absent and no one about h e put the poison ,

in th e s oup and then re t urned to the living room ,

-
.

H e t h en asked for s o me tombo which was brough t , ,

and when he had finished it he said h e did not ,

w a nt any supper and went to sleep H is brother , .

,

Eyo I had s upper by him self and consumed all

.
,

the soup I n a week s time he began to feel very ill

.
’

an d a s th e days passed h e became worse s o h e sent ,

for his ju ju man .

When E ss i d o s a w him coming h e quietly left ,

t h e house bu t t h e ju ju man by casting lots very ,

.

so o n discovered t ha t i t was E s s i d o w h o had given

p o ison to h i s br o t her W hen h e t old Eyo I thi s . .
,

h e wo u ld no t b e l i e v e i t and sen t him away H ow , .

ever when E s s i do retu r ned h i s elder b r othe r t old

, ,

him what t h e Ju ju m a n had s aid b u t that he did ,

not believe him for one momen t and h ad sen t him ,

a way E ssi d o was much relieved when h e h ea r d

.

this bu t a s he was a n xiou s t ha t no suspicion of the

,

crime should be attached t o him h e went to the ,

H ousehold ju ju and having firs t sworn t hat h e

l
,

h ad never adminis t ered poison to his br o ther h e ,

d r ank o u t of t he p o t .

Three mon t hs af t er he had t aken the p o ison

E 1
y mp d hve r m ll J J i th t w hi h g lly
co oun as a s a u u n e c e n re , c e ne ra
co n si t f f w
s s i ly h p d t
o a d e m ll t w h i h th
cu r o u s s a e s one s a n a s a re e o n c e
’
N i t bi d f q
s a tly b l d Th i m tim
r re u en i f t uit s e re s so e es a s e c es o ca c u s a
p
pp d ti k g t t
.

th f t h w i h d
‘

e oo p t
a n e a rt t en t a re o s su or e on s c s a a i ns e re e , a n

ti d w ith ti ti ti p I thi p t th lw y y
,

e on e e, or na ve ro e n s o e re I S a a s a ve r
f l m lli liq i d w ith f q tly m tt gg fl ti g i i
. .

s n uen en n n t
g
ou e u re so e ro e s oa

S m ll m d t th J I f h i k & d th i
.
,
’
a sa cn ce s a re a e o e se u u s o c c e ns , c an s

q tly pp l d t Th liq i d i m tim t k

.
,

J J u i f u s re u en a ea e o. e u s so e es a en as a
sp ifi g t i k
ec c a pi a i nsI th d y s cth th h
ne s s or o so n n e r s e a so n e au or as

o ft b d l g pid w i th th i w b l l
en o se rve th J j b t
ar e s e rs e r e s a ove r e se u
’
u s, u

th y e a re ne v e r t o u che d Th e r e l
15 a s o fr eq u e nt y a ro u g h l
ca rv e ly1 a e d mg
m tim m h m b k
.

of w o o d, a nd s o e es an ol d a tc e t a nd s o e ro e n e a r th e nw a re o n

th e g ro u n d ih b
, w t a ra ss ro d o r m ill
an a . I t 15 e ne ra a ve r g lly r y d i ty
s po t .

I 39
 Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Niger i a
Fol h
Eyo I died much t o the grief of every one who
.
,

knew him as he was much respec ted not only

, ,

on account of his great weal t h but because h e ,

was also an upright and honest man who never ,

did harm t o any one .

E s s i d o kept his brother s funeral according to

’

the usual cus t om and t here was much playing and

,

dancing which was kept up for a long time Then

, .

E s s i d o paid o ff his old creditors in order to make

himse l f popular and kept open hou s e entertaining
, ,

most lavishly and spending h i s money in many

, ,

foolish ways All the bad women about coll ected

.
~!

at his house and his old evil comp anions went on

,

as they h ad done before .

Things got s o bad that none of the respecta b le

p eople would have a nything to do with him and ,

at last the chiefs of the country s eeing the way ,

E s s i d o w a s squandering his late brother s estate

’

assembled toge t her and eventu ally came to th e

,

conclusion that he was a witch man an d had ,

poisoned his brother in order to acquire his position .

The chiefs who were all friends of t he late Eyo

, ,

and who were very sorry at t h e death as they ,

knew th at if h e had lived he woul d have become

a great and powerful chief made up t h eir mi nds ,

to give E s s i do th e E k p aw o r ju ju which is a ,

very strong medicine and gets in t o men s heads ,

’

so that when th ey h ave drunk it they are compelled

to speak the truth and if t hey have done wrong
,

they die very shortly E s s i d o was then told to .

dress himself and attend the meeting at th e palaver

house and when he arrived the chiefs charged him
,

with having killed his broth er by witchcraf t E ss i do .

 XXXV I I
Concer ning the Hawh d
an the Ow l

I N the olden d ays whe n E ffio n g was king of C ala b ar ,

it was customary at that time for rulers to give big

feasts to wh ich a l l the subj ects and all the birds of
,

the air and animals of the forest also th e fish a nd ,

o t h er things th at lived in the wa t er Were invi t ed , .

All t he pe o ple b irds animals a nd fish were under

, , , ,

the king and had to obey him

, H i s favouri t e .

messenge r was the hawk as h e coul d travel so ,

quickly .

The h awk served the king faithfully for several

years and when he wanted t o retire h e ask e d what
, ,

the king prop o sed to do for him as very soon he ,

would be too old t o w o rk any more S o t he king .

t old t h e hawk to bring any living c reature bird or ,

animal to him an d he would a ll o w th e h a w k for

, ,

the future to live o n t hat par t ic u lar species without

any trouble The hawk t hen flew over a lot of
.

cou ntry a nd went from fores t to fo r e s t u ntil at last

, ,
\

he found a young owl which had tumbl ed out of

its nest This t he h awk brought t o the king who
.
,

told him that for the fu t ure h e might eat owls .

The hawk then carried the o wlet away and told his ,

friends what the k i ng had said .

One of th e wi est of them said Tell me wh e n

s “
,

1 4 2
 Concer ning the Ha w h a nd the Ow l

y o u seized th e young o wlet what did t h e parents ,

s ay ? And the h awk replied that the father and

”

m o ther owls kept quite quiet and never said a n y ,

thing The hawk s fr iend then ad v i s ed him to

’
‘

re t urn th e owlet to his paren t s as he could never ,

tel l what the owls wo u ld do to him in th e night

time and as t hey had made no noise they were no
, ,

doub t plotting in their minds so me deep and cruel

revenge .

Th e n ext day the hawk carried the owlet back to

his parents and left him near th e nest H e t hen .

flew ab o u t trying t o fin d some othe r bird which

,

would do as his f o o d ; bu t as all t he birds had heard

that the hawk had seized t he o wlet t hey hid t hem ,

selves and would no t come ou t wh en the h awk was

,
.

near H e theref ore c o uld no t ca t ch any bi r d s

. .

As h e was flying home he s a w a lot of fo w ls near

a h o use basking i n the s u n and scra t ching in t he
,

dus t There were also several small chickens

.

run ning about and chasing insect s or picking up ,

anything t hey could find t o eat w i t h th e old hen ,

following t hem and c l ucking and calling to them

from tim e t o time When t h e ha w k s a w th e
.

chickens he made up his mind that h e w o uld t ake

,
'

o n e s o he s w ooped down and ca u ght t he s mallest

,

in his strong claws Immediately h e had seized the

,

ch icken t he cock s began to make a grea t noise ,

and th e hen ran af t er him and tried to make him

drop her child calling loudly with her fea t hers
, ,

flu ffe d out and making dashes at him But he .

ca rried it o ff and all the fowls and chickens at o n ce

,

ran screa ming in t o th e h ouses some t aking shelter ,

under bushes and others trying to hide themselves

1 43
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n N iger ia
in th e l o ng gras s H e then c arried th e chicke n to
.

th e king telling him that he had returned the o wlet

,

to his parents as h e did not want him fo r foo d ; so

,

the king told t he h a w k that for the future h e could

always feed on chickens .

The hawk t hen took the chicken h ome and his ,

f r iend who dropped in to s e e him a sked him what ,

the paren t s of th e chicken h ad done when they s a w

their child taken away so th e hawk said
“ They all made a lot of no 1se and t he old hen
,

chased m e but although there was a great dis

,

t u r b a n c e amongst the fowls no t hing happ ened

, .

H is friend then said a s th e fowl s had made much

palaver he was quite safe to kill and eat t h e
,

chickens as t h e peopl e who made p lenty of noi se in

,

th e day time would go to sleep a t night and not

-

disturb him o r do him any inj u r y ; t he on ly people

,

to be afraid of were those who when they were

inj ured kept qui t e silent ; you might be certain then
,

that they w ere plotting mischief and would do harm

,

in th e night time -
.

1 44
 Fol h Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Niger i a
I n those days all the rich chiefs of th e country
b elonged to t he Alligator Company and used to ,

m eet i n t h e w ater Th e r eason t hey belonged t o

.

the company w a s firs t of all t o pro t ec t t h eir cano es

, ,

when t hey w ent t rading and s econdly to de s t r o y , ,

th e can o es and property of the people w h o did not

belo ng to their company and t o t ake t heir money ,

and kill their s lave s .

Chief Etim E k e ng was a kind man and would not ,

j oin this socie t y al t hough h e was repeatedly urged

,

to do s o Af t er a t ime a son was b o r n t o the chief

.
,

l and he called him E det E t im Th e chief then called

!

t he Egbo socie t y together and all t he d o ors of the ,

h ouses in the t o wn were shu t t he marke t s were ,

stopped and the wom en were n o t allowed to go

,

o utside their houses while th e Egb o wa s playi ng .

This was kept up for se veral d ay s and cost t h e c hief ,

a l o t of money Th en he made up h i s mi nd t hat h e

.

would divide h is property and give h i s s o n h alf whe n ,

h e became old enough U n fo r tlm a te l y af t er t hree .

months the chief died leaving his sorr owing wife to ,

look after their littl e child .

Th e wife t hen went int o mourning for seven years

for her husband and after that time s h e becam e
,

entitled to all h i s property as t he la t e chief had no ,

brother s S h e lo o ked after t he li tt le b o y ve r y ca r e

.

fully until h e grew u p when he becam e a very fine

, ,

heal t hy young man and w a s much admired by all

,

the pret t y girl s of t he to w n ; bu t his mo t h er warned

him strongly n o t to g o with them because t hey would ,

make him become a b a d man Whenever the girls .

had a play they used to invi t e Edet E t im and a t last ,

he went to the play and t hey m ade hi m beat the

,

1 4 6
 The Story of the Dr u mmer a nd the d l l ig a tor s
drum f t hem to da nce t
or Af ter m ch prac t ice o . u

h e became the bes t dr mmer in t h e t own and when u ,

ever t he girls had play they alway called him to

a s

dr m f r them P len t y f t he yo ng gi ls left their

u o . o u r

hu bands and went to Ede t and asked him to marry

s ,

t hem This m ade all t h e young men of th t wn

. e o

very j ealou and when they me t t ogether at nigh t

s,

they considered wha t w uld be t h e best w y to kill o a

him At las t they decided that when Ede t wen t to

.

ba t he they w ould induce t he alligators t o take him .

So night when h e was w a s hing one alligator

o ne , ,

seized him by the fo o t and other s came and seized ,

him round t he w aist H e f o ught ver y hard bu t a t.

,

last t h e y dragged him int o the deep wa t er and took ,

him to t heir home .

When h i s mother h eard thi s sh e determined to do ,

her best to r ec o ver h er s o n s o s h e kept qui t e quiet ,

u ntil the m o rn ing .

When t he young men saw that E d e t s mother ’

remained quie t and did n o t cry t hey t hought of the

, ,

st o ry o f t h e hawk and the o w l and dete r mined t o ,

keep Edet alive for a fe w mon t h s .

At cockc r ow the m o ther rai s ed a c r y and wen t to ,

t h e grave of her dead husband i n o r der to consul t his

'

s piri t a s t o w hat sh e had bet t er d o t o recover h e r l o s t

son .Af t er a time s h e went down to t he beach with

small young green branches in h er hands with which ,

she beat the water a nd called u pon all the ju ju s of

‘

t h e C alabar Rive r to help her to r ecover her s o n S h e .

t hen went h o me and got a l o ad o f r o d s and took t hem ,

t o a ju ju man in t h e farm H i s name was In i n e n .

Ok o n he w a s s o called b e c ause he was very artful ,

and had plenty of strong ju ju s .

1 47
 Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Mger za
'

Fal h
When t he young boys heard th at E d e t s mother ’

h ad gone to I n i n e n Okon they all trembled with ,

fear and wanted to return Edet but th ey c o uld not

, ,

do so as it was against the rules of t heir society

, .

The Ju Ju man ha v ing discovered that Edet w as

still alive and was being detained in the alligator s
,
’

house told the mother to be pa t ient After three

, .

d ays I n i n e n himself j oined another alligator s society ’

and went t o inspect th e young alligators house ’

.

H e found a young man whom he knew left on ,

guard when all the alligators had gone to feed a t

the ebb of t he t ide and came back and told the
,

mother to wait as he would m ake a Ju Ju which

,

would cause them all to depart i n seven d ays and ,

leave no one in the house H e made his Ju In and

.
,

the young alligator s said that as n o one had come ,

for Ede t t hey would all go at t h e eb b tide to feed

, ,

and leave no one in charge of the h ouse When they .

returned they foun d Edet still there and everything ,

as th ey had left it as I n i n e n h ad not gone that day

, .

j Three days afterwards they all went away again ,

and t his time went a long way o ff and did n o t re t urn ,

quickly When I n i n e n saw tha t th e tide w as going

.

down he changed himself into an alligator and ,

swam to th e young alligators home where he f o und ’

Edet chained to a po s t H e t hen found an axe .

and cut the post releasing the boy But Edet

, .
,

having been in the water so long was deaf and ,

dumb H e then found several loin cloth s which

.

had been left behind by the young alligators so he ,

gathered them toge t her and took them away t o show

to the king and I n i n e n left the place taking Edet
, ,

with him .

1 4 8
 Fo/
h Stor i es f r om Sou ther n Niger ia
When th e chiefs and all the people were seated ,

Affi o n g s t ood up and addressed t hem saying ,

Chiefs and young men of my town eigh t years ,

ago my husba nd was a fine young man H e married .

me and we lived together for many years wi t hout

,
“

having any children A t last I h ad a s o n bu t my

.
,

husband died a few mo n t hs af t erwards I b r o u gh t .

my b o y up carefully bu t a s h e was a good drummer

,

and dancer t he young men were j ealous a n d had ,

him caught by the alliga t ors I s th ere an y one .

presen t w h o can t ell me what my s o n would have

become if h e had li v ed ? S h e then asked the m
”

what they thought of the alligator society which ,

h ad killed s o many y o ung men .

The chiefs wh o had lost a lot o f s laves t o ld her

, ,

that if s h e c o uld produce evidence against any

members of th e society t hey would destr o y it at
once S h e then c alled upon I n i n e n to appear with
.
‘

her s o n Edet H e cam e out from the r oom leading

.

Edet by th e ha nd and placed th e bundle of loin

,

cloths b efore t he chiefs .

Th e y oung men were very much surprised when

t h ey s aw Edet and wan t ed to leave th e pal aver
,

house ; but when they s t o od up to go t he chiefs

told the mto s i t down at once or t hey would receive ,

t hree hundred lash es They t hen s a t down and

.
,

th e ]u ]u man explained how h e had gone t o the

alliga t ors home and had brought Edet back to his
’
,

m o ther H e also s aid t h at h e h a d found the se ven

.
‘

l o in cloths in t he ho u se but h e did n o t wish to s ay

,

anything about t hem as the own e rs o f some of the

,

cloths w e re s ons of th e chiefs .

The chiefs who were anxious t o stop the bad

,

1 5 0
 The Story of the Dr ummer am ! the A lliga t or !
society told him however to speak at once a nd
, , ,

te l l them every t hing Then he undid t he bundle

.

and t ook the cloths ou t one by one at the sam e ,

t ime calling upon the owners to come and t ake

the m When th ey cam e to take thei r cloths t hey
.
,

were told t o remain where t hey were ; and they

were then t old to name their c o mpany The seven .

young men then gave the names of all t he members

of their society t hirty tw o in all Th ese men w ere
,
-
.

all placed in a line and th e chiefs t h en passed ,

sentence which was that they sh ould all be killed

,

the next mornin g o n t he beach 8 0 th ey were .

then all tied t o ge t her t o posts and seven men were ,

placed as a guard over t hem They made fi r es and .

b eat dr ums all the nigh t .

Early in t he m o rning at about 4 A M , the big , . .

wooden drum was placed on the roof of the

pal aver ho u se and beaten to celebrate th e death
,

of the evildoers which was the custom in those

,

days .

The b oys were then u nfastened from th e posts ,

a nd h ad their hands tied behi nd their backs and ,

were marched down to th e beach When t hey .

arrived th ere the head c hief stood up and addressed

,

the p e o ple “ This is a s mall town of which I am

.
,

chief and I am determined to stop t his bad custom

, ,

as s o many men h ave been killed H e t hen t o ld .

a man w h o had a sharp match et to cut o ff on e

man s head H e then t o l d another man who had
’
.

a sharp knife t o skin ano t he r young man alive A .

third man w h o h ad a hea v y stick was ordered to

beat another to dea t h and s o th e ch ief wen t o n ,

and killed all the thirty two young men in the most -

1 5 1
 Fo/ Sou ther n Mger zo
'

h Stor i es f r om

horrible ways h e could think of S ome of t hem .

were tied to posts in the river and left there u ntil

,

the t ide came up and dro wned them Others w ere .

flogged to death .

After they had a ll b een killed for many years no

,

one w a s killed by alligators but som e little time

,

afterwards o n the road between the b each and t he

town the land fell in making a very large and deep
,

hole which was said to be t h e home of the alligators

, ,

and th e people have ever since t ried to fill it up but ,

have never yet been able to do so .

 Fo/
Stor ies f r om Sou ther n Niger ia
h

t hem fastened up a n d t h e on e w h cou ld remain the

,
o

longest w i t hou t ea t ing w ul d be made th e chief o .

They both t hen buil t t heir houses but t he Nsasak ,

’

bird who was very cun ning though t t hat he could

, ,

not possibly live for e en days Wi t hout eating any

s v

thing H e therefor e m ade a tiny h ole in the wall

.

( being ve ry small hi m s elf

! which he covered up s o ,

tha t t he king would no t n o t ice it o n his inspection !

Th e king t hen came and lo oked carefully over both
house s but failed to detect the little hole in the
,
’
N s asak bird s house as i t h ad been hidden so ca r e
’

fully H e t herefore declared that both ho u s e s were

.

s afe
, and then o r de r ed t he tw o b i rds to go inside
t heir re s pec t ive houses and the doors we r e car efully
,

fas t ened on the out si de .

Every morning at d aw nth e Nsasak bird used to ’

es cape t hrough th e s m all opening he had left high up

i n t he wall and fly aw ay a l o ng distance and enj oy
,

himself all d ay taking care h owever t hat none of

, , ,

the peop l e on t h e farms should see him Then when .

the s u n went d own h e wo u ld fly back to his litt le

h o use and cree p through the hole in the wall ,

clo sing it carefully af t er him When h e wa s safely .

inside h e w ould call o u t to his friend the Od u du and

a s k him if he felt hungry and told him t hat he mu st ,

bear it well if h e wanted to w i n as h e t he Nsasak , ,

’

bi r d w a s very fit and could go on for a long time

, ,
.

F o r several days this w e nt on the voice of the ,

O d u d u bird gr o wing weaker and weaker e very n igh t ,

until at la st he could n o longer reply Then th e .

li tt l e bird kn ew tha t h i s friend mus t b e d e ad H e w a s .

'

very s o rry but could n o t report the matter as he w as

, ,

supposed to b e c o n fine d inside his house

‘

.
 The Nru ra h B ir d d Odu du Bir d
’
an the

When th e seven days had expired the king came

and had both the doors of t he houses O pened The .

’
Nsasak bird a t o nce flew ou t and pe r ching on a , ,

branch of a tree which grew near sang mo s t merrily ; ,

but t he O du du bird w a s found to be qui t e dead and ,

t here w a s very li tt le left o f him as t he ants had eaten

,

most of h i s body leaving only t he feathers and bo nes

,

o n the floor .

The ki ng t herefore a t once app o inted th e Nsasak ’

bird to be t he h ead chief of all t he small birds and ,

in t he I bibi o co untry e v en to th e present tim e th e

small boy s who h ave bo w s and arrow s are p r e s en ted
w i t h a prize w hich s ometime s takes th e shape of a
,

female goa t if t hey m anage t o shoo t a Nsasak bird

,
’

a s the N s asak bird is the king of th e small birds and

’

mos t di ffic u lt to sho o t on a c co u n t of his wiliness and

his small size .

I SS
 The E lection f
o t he King Bir d (
the hl u eh
an d w hite-
Fishing E ng/
e
!
O LD Town Calabar onc e had a king called E s si y a
, , ,

who like most of th e Calabar kings in the olden days

, ,

was rich and powerful ; but although h e was so

weal t hy h e did no t possess many slaves H e there
, .

fore u s ed t o call upo n the animals and bird s to help

his peopl e wi t h their w o rk I n o r der to get t he .

work done quickly and well h e determined to appoint ,

head chiefs of all t he di fferen t specie s The elephan t .

he appointed king of the beasts of the fores t and ,

th e hippopo t amus king o f t he water animals until ,

at last it came to th e turn of the bi rd s t o have their

king elected .

E s s i y a thought for some time which wo u ld be t he

best way to make a good choice but could no t make ,

up his mind as t he r e were s o many di fferen t birds

,

w h o all considered t hey had claims There was t he .

haw k w ith his s w if t fligh t and of hawks t here ,

were s everal species There were the herons t o .

be considered and t he big s pur winged gee s e

,
-
,

the ho r nbill or toucan t ribe and the gam e birds , ,

such as guinea fowl t he pa r t r idge and the bus

-
, ,

t ar ds . Then again of c o urse there were all the

, ,

big crane tribe who walked about th e sandbank s

,

1 5 6
 Fol h Stor i es f r om S ou ther n JViger i u
A t las t the fishing eagle said
Wh en you have quite finished wi t h this foolish
ness please tell m e a n d if any of you fancy ,
.

yourse l ve s a t all c o me to me and I will settle

, ,

your chan ces o f being elec t ed head chief o nce and

for all ; but when the y s a w h i s terrible beak
!

a nd cruel claw s kn o wing his great strength and

,

ferocity th ey st o pp ed figh t ing be t ween the mselves

,
’

and acknowledged t h e fishing eagle to be their

master .

E ss i y a then declared that I tu e n which was the ,

name of the fishing eagl e was th e head chief of all ,

t he birds and should thenceforward be known as

,

the king bird 1

.

F rom t hat time to th e present day whenever the ,

young men of th e c o untry g o to fight they always

wear three of t he long black and white feathers o f - -

the king bird in their hair one on each side and one ,

1 ki g bi d
A s th e n r y y di fi t
i s al wa s v e r t it f cu l to sh o o w h a bo w a nd
g
a rro w , o wi n p k gt y g t y t
to h i s sh a r a n d e e n si h , th e o u n m e n , w h e n h e w a n
t t b it d i t i t by
h i s fe a he rs , se t ra ps fo r h i m a e w th ra s, w h ch ca ch h i m th e
i t m x pt
fo o t i n a n o o se w h e n h e s e z e s h e t y E ce ti g w h e n h e a re n e s n th e
ki g bi t y ig t m tim m y t ty t i ty
.

n r ds r o o s o n v e r h h r e e s, s o e es as an as w e n or h r
o n ne ig b i g t
h ou r n y m y il
re e s Th e fly m an t y t i
m e s fr o w h e re h e g e t h e r
i i ti g pl tb t l ig
.

d
fo o , a n d a rr v e a t th e r r o os n
‘
-
a c e ju s e fo re t h e su n s e s, e av n
th e n e xt m i g do rn n at t i it
a w n fo r t y y
h e r fa v o u r e h a u n s Th e are v e r
gl t i bit t m y ig t m
.

r e u ar i n he r ha s , an d o u c a n se e h e e ver n h a t the s a e
y
tim mi g m
e co n fro m di i
th e s a e yi g m t
re ct o n a n d fl n o ve r t he s a e r e e s,

g lly i ly g
e n e ra fa r h i h u p i n th e a i r t g b li m g t m y
Th e re i s a s r o n e ef a on s an

i C i t t ki g bi d p i ig
.

n a t v e s o n th e r o ss R v e r h a th e n r h a s t h e o w e r o f nflu e n c n
l k
th e u c x mpl
o r t h e re ve rs e o f a ca n o e t d
Fo r e a ig e, when a ra e r h a v n

b gt gig m k ki g bi d i
.
.

o u h a n e w ca no e , i s o n to a r e t a nd a n r cr o sse s t he r v e r

from ig t l t t
r l ky
h to e f , he n i f h e i s u n u c m k t t a t t he ar e t ha d a y , w h e ne v e r
th e ki g bi d g i
n r t t p ti l
a a n c ro s s e s h a m ig t l ill
a r cu a r ca n o e fro r h to e ft h e w
l ky l k ill i k
b e u n u c , a n d th e b a d u c w st c t o t h e ca no e I f o n t he o ther
d bi d fi ttim m l t ig t t
.
,

h a n , th e r fo r th e rs e cro s se s fr o e f to r h t , an d h e i s fo r u n a e
d li g t t m k t
i n h i s e a n s h a da y a t th e l y l ky t t
a r e t, he n h e w i l l a w a s b e u c i n ha
ki g bi d yi g
ca n o e t h e d a y h e s e e s a n r i m l t
fl n a cro ss th e r v e r fr o t h e e f t o th e
rig t d id
h -han s e .

1 5 8
 The E le ction o
f the King B ir d
in the middle as t hey a r e belie v ed to impart much
,

c o urage and skill to th e wearer ; and if a young man

i s not po s sessed of any o f the s e fea t hers w h en h e
goe s ou t to fight h e is lo o ked upon a s a v ery small
,

boy indeed .

O F T Hf .

TH E E ND

P r i n t e d b y BA LLA N T Y N E , H A N S O N 674 C o .

E di nb u rg h 674 Lo nd o n
 Re new a l s; m a y b e m
a d e 4 d ay s p r i o r t o d a t e d u e
Re ne w e d b o o k s are su b ject to i m m e d i a t e re ca l l
.

J UN21 7989

AUTO018 0 MAR2 2 1939