by Amos Tutuola
After he said so, he threw the leaf down at the same spot, then he jumped away. So after he had jumped very far away, (luckily, I was there when he was doing all these things, and I saw the place that he threw both leaves separately,) then I changed myself to a man as before, I went to the place that he threw both leaves, then I picked them up and I went home at once.
But at the same time that I reached home, I cooked both leaves separately and gave her to eat; to my surprise the lady began to talk at once. After that, I gave her the compound leaf to eat for the second time and immediately she ate that too, the cowrie which was tied on her neck by the Skull, loosened away by itself, but it disappeared at the same time. So when the father and mother saw the wonderful work which I had done for them, they brought fifty kegs of palm-wine for me, they gave me the lady as wife and two rooms in that house in which to live with them. So, I saved the lady from the complete gentleman in the market who afterwards reduced to a ‘Skull’ and the lady became my wife since that day. This was how I got a wife.
Now as I took the lady as my wife and after I had spent the period of six months with the parents of my wife, then I remembered my palm-wine tapster who had died in my town long ago, then I asked the father of my wife to fulfil his promise or to tell me where my tapster was, but he told me to wait for some time. Because he knew that if he told me the place by that time, I would leave his town and take his daughter away from him and he did not like to part with his daughter.
I spent three years with him in that town, but during that time, I was tapping palm-wine for myself, of course I could not tap it to the quantity that I required to drink; my wife was also helping me to carry it from the farm to the town. When I completed three and a half years in that town, I noticed that the left hand thumb of my wife was swelling out as if it was a buoy, but it did not pain her. One day, she followed me to the farm in which I was tapping the palm-wine, and to my surprise when the thumb that swelled out touched a palm-tree thorn, the thumb bust out suddenly and there we saw a male child came out of it and at the same time that the child came out from the thumb, he began to talk to us as if he was ten years of age.
Within the hour that he came down from the thumb he grew up to the height of about three feet and some inches and his voice by that time was as plain as if somebody strikes an anvil with a steel hammer. Then the first thing that he did, he asked his mother: – “Do you know my name?” His mother said no, then he turned his face to me and asked me the same question and I said no; so, he said that his name was ‘ZURRJIR’ which means a son who would change himself into another thing very soon. But when he told us his name, I was greatly terrified, because of his terrible name, and all the while that he was talking to us, he was drinking the palm-wine which I had tapped already; before five minutes he had drunk up to three kegs out of four kegs. As I was thinking in my mind how we could leave the child in the farm and run to the town, because everybody had seen that the left hand thumb of my wife had only swelled out, but she did not conceive in the right part of her body as other women do. But immediately that I was thinking so, this child took the last keg of palm-wine which he drank through the left of his head and he was going to the town directly, but nobody showed him the road that led to the town. We stood in one place looking at him as he was going, then after a little time, we followed him, but we did not see him on the road before we reached the town. To our surprise the child entered the right house that we were living in. When he entered the house, he saluted everybody that he met at home as if he had known them before, at the same time, he asked for food and they gave him the food, he ate it; after, he entered the kitchen and ate all the food that he met there as well.
But when a man saw him eating the rest of the food in the kitchen which had been prepared for night, he told him to leave the kitchen; he did not leave but started to fight the man instead of that; this wonderful child flogged the man so that he could not see well before he left the kitchen and ran away, but the child was still in the kitchen.
When all the people in the house saw what the child had done to that man, then all of them started to fight him. As he was fighting with them he was smashing everything on the ground to pieces, even he smashed all the domestic animals to death, still all the people could not conquer him. After a little we came from the farm to the house, but at the same, time that he saw us, he left all the people with whom he was fighting and met us, so when we entered the house, he showed us to everybody in the house saying that these were his father and mother. But as he had eaten all the food which had been prepared against the night, then we began to cook other food, but when it was the time to put the food down from the fire, he put it down for himself and at the same time, he began to eat that again as it was very hot, before we could stop him, he had eaten all the food and we tried all our best to take it from him, but we could not do it at all.
This was a wonderful child, because if a hundred men were to fight with him, he would flog them until they would run away. When he sat on a chair, we could not push him away. He was as strong as iron, if he stood on a place nobody could push him off. Now he became our ruler in the house, because sometimes he would say that, we should not eat till night and sometimes he would drive us away from the house at mid-night and sometimes he would tell us to lie down before him for more than two hours.
As this child was stronger than everybody in that town, he went around the town and he began to burn the houses of the heads of that town to ashes, but when the people in the town saw his havocs and bad character, they called me (his father) to discuss how we could exile him away from the town, then I told the people that I knew how I would exile him away from the town. So one night, when it was one o’clock in the mid-night, when I noticed that he slept inside the room I put oil around the house and roof, but as it was thatched with leaves and also it was in the dry season, I lighted the house with fire and closed the rest of the windows and doors which he did not close before he slept. Before he woke up, there was a great fire around the house and roof, smoke did not allow him to help himself, so he burnt together with the house to ashes.
When we saw that the child had burnt into ashes all the town’s people were very glad and the town was in peace. When I saw that I had seen the end of the child, then I pressed my wife’s father to tell me where my palm-wine tapster was and he told me.
∨ The Palm-wine Drinkard ∧
12
On the way to an unknown place
The same day that the father of my wife told me the place that my tapster was, I told my wife to pack all our belongings and she did so, then we woke up early in the morning and started to travel to an unknown place, but when we had travelled about two miles away to that town which we left, my wife said that she forgot her gold trinket inside the house which I had burnt into ashes, she said that she had forgotten to take it away before the house was burnt into ashes. She said that she would go back and take it, but I told her that it would burn into ashes together with the house. She said that it was a metal and it could not burn into ashes and she said that she was going back to take it, and I begged her not to go back, but she refused totally, so when I saw her going back to take it, then I followed her. When we reached there, she picked a stick and began to scratch the ashes with it, and there I saw that the middle of the ashes rose up suddenly and at the same time there appeared a half-bodied baby, he was talking with a lower voice like a telephone.
At the same time that we saw the ashes rise up and change into half-bodied baby, and he was also talking with a lower voice, then we started to go. Then he was telling my wife to take him along with is, to wait and take him, but as we did not stop and take him with us, he then commanded that our eyes should be blinded and we became blinded at the same moment as he said it; still we did not come back and take him, but we were going on, when he saw that we did not come back and take him, he commanded again that we should stop breathing, truly speaking we could not breathe. When we could not breathe in or out, we came ba
ck and took him along with us. As we were going on the road, he told my wife to carry him by head, and as he was on my wife’s head, he was whistling as if he was forty persons. When we reached a village we stopped and bought food from a food-seller to eat as we were very hungry before reaching there, but when we were about to eat the food, the half-bodied baby did not allow us to eat it, instead of that he took the food and swallowed it as a man swallows a pill, so when the food-seller saw him do so, she ran away and left her food there, but when our half-bodied baby saw that the food-seller had left her food, he crept to the food and swallowed it as well.
So this half-bodied baby did not allow us to eat the food, and we did not taste it at all. When the people of that village saw the half-bodied baby with us, they drove us away from the village. Then we started our journey again and when we had travelled about seven miles away from that village, there we reached another town; we stopped there also, and we bought other food there, but this half-bodied baby did not allow us to eat that again. But by that time we were annoyed and we wanted to eat it by force, but he commanded as before and at the same time we became as he commanded, then we left him to swallow it.
When the people of that town saw him there with us again, they drove us away with juju and they said that we were carrying a spirit about and they said that they did not want a spirit in their town. So if we entered any town or village to eat or sleep, they would drive us away at once and our news had been carried to all towns and villages. Now we could not travel the roads unless from bush to bush, because everybody had heard the information that a man and a woman were carrying a half-bodied baby or spirit about and they were looking for a place to put him and run away.
So by this time we were very hungry and then when we were travelling inside the bush, we tried all our efforts to put him down somewhere and run away, but he did not allow us to do that. After we had failed to put him down, we thought that he would sleep at night, but he did not sleep at night at all, and the worst part of it, he did not let my wife put him down once since she had put him on her head; we were longing to sleep heavily, but he did not allow us to do anything except carry him along. All the time that he was on my wife’s head, his belly swelled out like a very large tube, because he had eaten too much food and yet he did not satisfy at any time for he could eat the whole food in this world without satisfaction. As we were travelling about in the bush on that night, my wife was feeling overloading of this baby and if we put him on a scale by that time, he would weigh at least 28lbs; when I saw that my wife had tired of carrying him and she could not carry him any longer, then I took over to carry him along, but before I could carry him to a distance of about one quarter of a mile. I was unable to move again and I was sweating as if I bath in water for overloading, yet this half-bodied baby did not allow us to put him down and rest.
Ah! how could we escape from this half-bodied baby? But God is so good and as we were canying him to and fro in the bush on that night, we heard as if they were playing music somewhere in that bush and he told us to carry him to the place that we were hearing the music. Before an hour had passed we reached there.
∨ The Palm-wine Drinkard ∧
13
Three good creatures took over our trouble – they were: – drum, song and dance
When we carried him to the place, there we saw the creatures that we called ‘Drum, Song and Dance’ personally and these three creatures were living creatures as ours. At the same time that we reached there the half-bodied baby came down from my head, then we thanked God. But as he came down from my head he joined the three creatures at once. When ‘Drum’ started to beat himself it was just as if he was beaten by fifty men, when ‘Song’ started to sing, it was just as if a hundred people were singing together and when ‘Dance’ started to dance the half-bodied baby started too, my wife, myself and spirits etc., were dancing with ‘Dance’ and nobody who heard or saw these three fellows would not follow them to wherever they were going. Then the whole of us were following the three fellows and dancing along with them. So we followed the three fellows and were dancing for a good five days without eating or stopping once, before we reached a place which was built in the form of a premises by these creatures with mud.
There were two soldiers stood at the front of the premises, but when we reached there with these three fellows, my wife and myself etc., stopped at the entrance of the premises, only the three fellows and our half-bodied baby entered the premises, after that, we, saw them no more. N.B. We did not want to follow them up to that place, but we could not control ourselves as we were dancing along with them.
So nobody in this world could beat drum as Drum himself could beat, nobody could dance as Dance himself could dance and nobody could sing as Song himself could sing. We left these three wonderful creatures by two o’clock in the mid-night. Then after we had left these creatures and our half-bodied baby, we started a fresh journey, but we travelled for two days before we reached a town and stopped there and rested for two days. But we were penniless before reaching there, then I thought within myself how could we get money for our food etc. After a while I remembered my name which was ‘Father of gods who could do anything in this world’. As there was a large river which crossed the main road to that town, then I told my wife to follow me to the river; when reaching there, I cut a tree and carved it into a paddle, then I gave it to my wife and I told her to enter the river with me; when we entered the river, I commanded one juju which was given me by a kind spirit who was a friend of mine and at once the juju changed me to a big canoe. Then my wife went inside the canoe with the paddle and paddling it, she used the canoe as ‘ferry’ to carry passengers across the river, the fare for adults was 3d (three pence) and half fare for children. In the evening time, then I changed to a man as before and when we checked the money that my wife had collected for that day, it was £7:5:3d. After that we went back to the town, we bought all our needs.
Next morning we went there by 4 o’clock as well before the people of that town woke up, so that they might not know the secret and when we reached there, I did as I did yesterday and my wife continued her work as usual, on that day we came back to home by 7 o’clock in the evening. So we stayed in that town for one month and doing the same work throughout that month, when we checked the money that we collected for that month, it was £56:11:9d.
Then we left that town with gladness, we started our journey again, but after we had travelled about eighty miles away to that town, then we began to meet gangs of the ‘highway-men’ on the road, and they were troubling us too much. But when I thought over that the danger of the road might result to the loss of our money or both money and our lives, then we entered into bush, but to travel in this bush was very dangerous too, because of the wild animals, and the boa constrictors were uncountable as sand.
∨ The Palm-wine Drinkard ∧
14
To travel by air
Then I told my wife to jump on my back with our loads, at the same time, I commanded my juju which was given me by ‘Water Spirit woman’ in the ‘Bush of the Ghosts’ (the full story of the ‘Spirit woman’ appeared in the story book of the Wild Hunter in the Bush of the Ghosts). So I became a big bird like an aeroplane and flew away with my wife, I flew for 5 hours before I came down, after I had left the dangerous area, although it was 4 o’clock before I came down, then we began to trek the remaining journey by land or foot. By 8 o’clock p.m. of that day, then we reached the town in which the father of my wife told me that my palm-wine tapster was.
When reaching there, I asked from that town’s people about my tapster who had died long ago in my town. But they told me that my tapster had left there over two years. Then I begged them if they could to tell me the town that he was at at present, and I was told that he was now at ‘Deads’ town’ and they told me that he was living with deads at the ‘Deads’ town’, they told me that the town was very far away and only deads were living there.
Now we could not return where we w
ere coming from (my wife’s father’s town) we must go to the Deads’ town. Then we left that town after the 3rd day that we arrived there; from that town to the Deads’ town there was no road or path which to travel, because nobody was going there from that town at all.
∨ The Palm-wine Drinkard ∧
15
No road – ought to travel from bush to bush to the deads’ town
The very day that we left that town, we travelled up to forty miles inside the bush, and when it was 6.50 p.m. in the evening, we reached a very thick bush; this bush was very thick so that a snake could not pass through it without hurt.
So we stopped there, because we could not see well again, it was dark. We slept in that bush, but when it was about two o’clock in the night, there we saw a creature, either he was a spirit or other harmful creature, we could not say, he was coming towards us, he was white as if painted with white paint, he was white from foot to the topmost of his body, but he had no head or feet and hands like human-beings and he got one large eye on his topmost. He was long about ¼ of a mile and his diameter was about six feet, he resembled a white pillar. At the same time that I saw him coming towards us, I thought what I could do to stop him, then I remembered a charm which was given me by my father before he died. The use of the charm was this: – If I meet a spirit or other harmful creature at night and if I used it, it would turn me into a great fire and smoke, so that the harmful creatures would be unable to reach the fire. Then I used the charm and it burnt the white creature, but before he could burn into ashes there we saw about ninety of the same kind as this long white creature, all of them were coming to us (fire) and when they reached the fire (us) the whole of them surrounded it and bent or curved towards the fire; after that the whole of them were crying: – “cold! cold! cold” etc., but as they surrounded the fire, they did not want to leave there, although they could not do anything to that fire (us). They were only warming themselves from the fire and they were exceedingly satisfied with the fire and to stay with it as long as it could remain there for them. Of course I thought that as we had turned into the fire, we would be safe, but not at all. When I thought over that how we would leave these white creatures, I remembered that if we began to move, perhaps these white creatures would go away, because since 1 o’clock a.m., of that night till 10 o’clock a.m. they were still warming themselves from the fire and did not attempt to go where they came from or to go and eat. Of course I could not say definitely whether they were eating creatures or not.