by Amos Tutuola
Now the Red-people removed all the hair of my head and painted the half part of it with a kind of red paint and the other part with white native paint, after that, the whole of them gathered together and put me on their front with their drummers and singers. They told me to dance as the drummers were beating their drums around the town. My wife was also following us, but she did not show that she would lose me soon at all. But when it was 5 o’clock early in the morning that the two red creatures would come out, I took my gun, ammunitions and cutlass which the Faithful-Mother gave me before we left her, then I loaded the gun with the most powerful ammunitions and put it on my shoulder and sharpened the cutlass and held it firmly with my right hand. When it was 7 o’clock of that morning, the Red-king and all the Red-people took me to the place where the hole was, and put me there for the red creatures, then the whole of them went back to the town. The place was not more than half a mile from the town.
They left me there alone and ran back to the town, because if the two red creatures should see more than one person whom they give them as sacrifice, they would kill them as well. But my wife did not return to the town with them, she hid herself near the place I was but I did not know at all. When it was half an hour that I stood before the hole, I began to hear that something was making a noise as if it was a thousand persons in that hole, every part of that place was shaking, by that time I took only my gun from my shoulder and held it firmly, then I sighted the hole. But when these two red creatures were coming out from the hole, they did not walk side by side but following each other and when the one at the front appeared and was coming towards me, it was red fish in form. As a matter of fact, when I saw this red fish, I was greatly terrified and I was soon faint, but I remembered that we had sold our ‘death’ and I could not die again, so I did not care about it again, but I feared it greatly because we did not sell our ‘fear’. At the same time that the red fish appeared out, its head was just like a tortoise’s head, but it was as big as an elephant’s head and it had over 30 horns and large eyes which surrounded the head. All these horns were spread out as an umbrella. It could not walk but was only gliding on the ground like a snake and its body was just like a bat’s body and covered with long red hair like strings. It could only fly to a short distance, and if it shouted a person who was four miles away would hear.
All the eyes which surrounded its head were closing and opening at the same time as if a man was pressing a switch on and off.
At the same time that this red-fish saw me stood before their hole, it was laughing and coming towards me like a human-being, but I said within myself that this was a really human-being. Then I got ready as it was coming laughing towards me, but when it still had about twenty feet to reach where I stood, then I fired at it on the centre of its head and before the smoke of the gun scattered away, I had loaded again and shot it once more, so it died at that same spot. But when my wife saw the red fish when coming out from the hole, from the place where she hid herself, she ran back to the town. As the red fish was coming out from the hole, I knew that I should kill it, but I had no juju any more, all had become powerless from long using.
After that I loaded the gun for the second red creature (red-bird) and within 5 minutes it appeared out again, then I got ready for it. I saw that it was a red-bird, but its head could weigh one ton or more and it had six long teeth of about half a foot long and very thick, which appeared out with its beak. Its head was almost covered with all kinds of insects so that I could hardly describe it here fully. So immediately this bird saw me, it opened its mouth and was coming to swallow me, but I had got ready then, and when it had nearly reached the place that I stood, it stopped and swallowed the red-bird which I had killed already the first time. After that it was coming directly and I fired at it, then I loaded the gun for the second time and shot it to death.
When I saw that I had killed these two red creatures, then I remembered what my wife had said immediately we met the Red-lady who took us to the Red-king. My wife said thus: – It would be a ‘fear’ of heart, but it would not be dangerous to the heart’.
Now I went to the Red-king of the Red-town and told him that I had killed both red creatures, and as soon as he heard so from me, he got up from his chair and followed me to the place where I killed the two red creatures. But when the Red-king saw the two red creatures already dead, he said – “Here is another fearful and harmful creature who could ruin my town in future.” (He called me a fearful and harmful creature.) At the same time that he said this, he left me there and went back to the town, then he called all the people of his town together and told them what he had seen. As these Red-people could change themselves to anything that they liked, before I could reach the town, the whole of them had changed into a great fire which burnt their houses and all their properties. By the time that the houses were burning, I could not enter the town, because of the thick smoke of the fire, but after a little time the fire and smoke disappeared and I thought that the whole of them together with my wife had burnt into ashes. But as I stood in one place looking at the empty town, there I saw that two red trees appeared again at the centre of the town. One of the trees was shorter than the second and also slender and it was at the front of the bigger one. That bigger one which was at the back had many leaves and branches. When I saw that these two red trees appeared in the centre of the town I was going to them, but both were moving towards the west of the town before I reached there, and all the leaves on these trees were singing as human-beings as they were moving on and within five minutes, I could not see them any more, and all the while I did not know that it was the whole Red-people who had changed themselves into that two red trees. As my wife had disappeared with these Red-people, I began to seek her about both night and day, but one day, I heard information that she was among the Red-people who had changed themselves into two red trees before they left the Red-town. Then I started to the place where I heard that they had settled down, but the new town that they had just settled down in was about eighty miles away from the Red-town which they left ruined. After I had travelled for two days, then I reached there, but they had left there when they heard information that I was coming there too, and I did not know that these Red-people were thinking while running away from me that I should kill them as I had killed the two red creatures. So they left that place again and were looking for a suitable place to settle down, but they never got to such a place before I met them, although I was thinking that I would meet them in the form of persons, but they were the two red trees.
As I met them in the midway, my wife had seen me and was calling me, but I did not see her at all, and as I was still following these two red trees to wherever they could get a suitable place to settle down for a week. Then they got a suitable place and they stopped, but I was very far away by that time. And when I came up with them I saw that every part was full of houses, people and their domestic animals etc., exactly as when they were in the town which they had burnt into ashes before they left there. But when I entered the new town, I went directly to the Red-king of this new town (the same king) and told him that I wanted my wife, but when he heard so, he called her for me at once and she saw me, she repeated her words again which she had said before – “This would be a brief loss of woman and a shorter separation from lover,” and she said that this was the meaning of the words. Then I believed her. But when the Red-people had settled down in a new town, they were no longer red, because I bad killed the two red creatures which had changed them like that.
My wife had said of the woman we met: “She was not a human-being and she was not a spirit, but what was she?” She was the Red-smaller-tree who was at the front of the bigger Red-tree, and the bigger Red-tree was the Red-king of the Red-people of Red-town and the Red-bush and also the Red-leaves on the bigger Red-tree were the Red-people of the Red-town in the Red-bush ‘.
Now my wife and I became friends with these people and we were living with them in that new town. After some days, the lady who brought u
s to the former town (Red-town) gave us a big house in which we were living comfortably. “She was not a human-being and she was not a spirit but what was she?” She was also the ‘Dance’ (the lady that brought us to the Red-town) and you will remember when I mentioned the tree fellows, namely: – “DRUM, SONG AND DANCE.” So when this lady (Dance) saw that I helped them greatly and they were also in a comfortable place and were no longer red, she sent for the other two fellows (Drum and Song) to come to their new town for a special occasion. But how could we enjoy these three fellows? Because nobody could beat drum as ‘Drum’ could beat himself, nobody could sing as ‘Song’ could sing himself, and nobody could dance as ‘Dance’ could dance herself in this world. Who would challenge them? Nobody at all. But when the day that they appointed for this special occasion was reached, these fellows came and when ‘Drum’ started to beat himself, all the people who had been dead for hundreds of years, rose up and came to witness ‘ Drum’ when beating; and when ‘Song’ began to sing all domestic animals of that new town, bush animals with snakes etc, came out to see ‘Song’ personally, but when ‘Dance’ (that lady) started to dance the whole bush creatures, spirits, mountain creatures and also all the river creatures came to the town to see who was dancing. When these three fellows started at the same time, the whole people of the new town, the whole people that rose up from the grave, animals, snakes, spirits and other nameless creatures, were dancing together with these three fellows and it was that day that I saw that snakes were dancing more than human-beings or other creatures. When the whole people of that town and bush creatures started dancing together none of them could stop for two days. But at last ‘Drum’ was beating himself till he reached heaven before he knew that he was out of the world and since that day he could not come to the world again. Then ‘Song’ sang until he entered into a large river unexpectedly and we could not see him any more and ‘ Dance’ was dancing till she became a mountain and did not appear to anybody since that day, so all the deads rose up from the grave returned to the grave and since that day they could not rise up again, then all the rest of the creatures went back to the bush etc. but since that day they could not come to the town and dance with anybody or with human-beings.
So when these three fellows (Drum, Song and Dance) disappeared, the people of the new town went back to their houses. Since that day nobody could see the three fellows personally, but we are only hearing their names about in the world and nobody could do in these days what they did. After I had spent a year with my wife in this new town, I became a rich man. Then I hired many labourers to clear bush for me and it was cleared up to three miles square by these farm-labourers, then I planted the seeds and grains which were given me in the ‘Wraith-Island’ by a certain animal (as he was called) the owner of the land on which I planted my crops, before he gave me the seeds and grains which germinated the same day as I planted them. As the seeds and grains grew up and yielded fruits the same day, so it made me richer than the rest of the people in that town.
∨ The Palm-wine Drinkard ∧
22
The invisible-pawn
One night, at about ten o’clock, I saw a certain man who came to my house. He told me that he was always hearing the word – “POOR,” but he did not know it and he wanted to know it. He said that he wanted to borrow some amount and he would be working for me in return as a ‘pawn’ or as permanent hired labourer.
But when he said this, I asked how much did he want to borrow? He said that he wanted to borrow two thousand cowries (COWRIES), which was equivalent to six-pence (6d) in British money. Then I asked from my wife whether I should lend him the amount, but my wife said that the man would be a – “WONDERFUL HARD WORKER, BUT HE WOULD BE A WONDERFUL ROBBER IN FUTURE.” – Of course, I did not understand what my wife meant by that, but I simply gave the man the six-pence that he demanded. When he wanted to go, I asked for his name, then he told me that his name was ‘GIVE AND TAKE’, after that I asked him where he was living, and he replied that he was inside a bush which nobody could trace. When he said so, I asked him again, how could the other labourers reach him whenever they were going to the farm, then he replied that if the rest of the labourers were going to the farm very early in the morning, they should call his name out as they reached a junction of roads on the way to the farm. Then he went away. But when my labourers were going to the farm early in the morning, when they reached the junction and called his name out as he said (with loud voice), he answered with song. After that he asked them what kind of work they were going to do that day. Then they told him that it was only to till the ground, after that, he told them to go and till their own ground, but he would go and till his own at night, because small children must not see him and it was forbidden for adults to look at him. Then the rest of the labourers went to the farm and tilled their portion. When it was early on the following morning, the rest of the labourers went to the farm as usual, but they saw the whole farm and bushes around there cleared as from a mile to fifty by this Invisible-Pawn and he had cleared all the farms which belonged to my neighbours too. So when the other labourers were going to the farm early in the morning as usual, I told them that they should tell ‘ Invisible-Pawn’ that today’s work was to cut fire wood from the farm to my house. When the rest of the labourers reached there they called him and told him that today’s work was to cut fire wood from the farm to the house. Then he told them to go and cut their own, and he would cut and bring his own to the house at night. As the rest of the labourers were calling him at the junction, he was not visible to them at all. But to my surprise, when everybody woke up early in the morning, we could not come out from our houses, because this man (Invisible-Pawn) had brought both fire wood and logs of wood together with palm-trees and other trees to the town, and all the town was almost covered with this wood, so that nobody could move about in the town and we did not know the time he brought them. Then all of the town’s people began to clear the woods with axes etc., but it took a week before we could clear away the wood from the town. As I wanted to see him (Invisible-Pawn or Give and Take) and how he was working I told the rest farm labourers to tell ‘Give and Take’ that today’s work was to be barber for my children at home, but he told his colleagues that they should go and barb their own, he would come and barb his own at night, so the rest of the labourers went away. When it was night, I told the rest of the labourers to keep watch on him and see how he would barb heads for my children, but to my surprise, it was not yet 8 o’clock in the night before everybody slept in that town, even no domestic animal was awake. After that the ‘Invisible-Pawn’ came and barbed for all of the people in that town, adults or females with domestic animals, he took everybody to the outside before he shaved their heads, then he painted the heads with white paint, then he went back to his bush and nobody woke up till he had completed that evil work. When it was early in the morning, everybody met himself or herself outside, and when we touched our heads, they were shaven and painted with white paint. But at the same time that this new town’s people woke up and saw that all the hair on the heads of their domestic animals had been cleared as well, then they rose up in alarm that they had fallen into another terrible creature’s hand again. But I checked them and explained how the matter went, so by that time, they wanted me to leave their town, but I thought that I should do something to please these people, so that they would not drive me away from the town. One day, when the labourers were going to the farm, I told them to tell ‘Invisible-Pawn’ that today’s work was to go and kill bush animals and bring them to my house. When he heard so, he told them as usual. But when the day broke, the town was full of bush animals, so that all the people in the town were now pleased and did not want me to leave there again.
After that, one day, I sat down and I began to think over how this man was working like this and he did not ask for food etc., so when the corn was ripe then I told the labourers to tell him that if he went to the farm, he should take some yams, corn etc. So they told him this
when they reached the usual junction.
I did not know that this ‘Invisible-Pawn’ or ‘Give and Take’ was the head of all the Bush-creatures and he was the most powerful in the world of the Bush-creatures, all of these Bush-creatures were under him and working for him every night. So after he had finished that night’s work in my farm together with his followers, then the whole of them took all the yams and corn etc. of my farm and took the all the yams and corn etc. from my neighbour’s also. I did not know that he had followers at all who were working for him and instead of him alone taking some yams and corn, so all of them took the whole lot away at night.
Then I remembered what my wife foresaid that – “This man would be a wonderful hard worker, but he would be a wonderful robber in future.” So the following morning when the labourers had told him to take some yams and corn from the farm, everybody went to his farm, but unfortunately they found their farms without crops that they had planted there, for all the farms had been cleared by these bush-creatures as flat as a football field.
But when all the farmers or my neighbours saw what ‘Give and Take’ had done, they grew annoyed with me, because they could not plant other crops throughout that year again and had nothing for themselves and their children to eat at all and all of my own crops were taken away too, but I could not tell my neighbours. When these people saw what ‘Invisible-Pawn’ or Give and Take’ with his followers had done for them, then they united together to raise up an Army against me, so that I might leave their town and also to revenge for the great loss which ‘Give and Take’ had given them through me. Then these people gathered together and formed a great army. Then I asked my wife what should be the end of us in this town? But my wife said that it would be the loss of lives of the natives, but it would save the two non-natives. By that time, I was hiding my wife and myself in that town, because all the natives of the town were hunting for us up and down, of course they did not want to fire guns inside their town, because of their children and wives and we (my wife and I) did not leave their town because they could not fire their guns inside the town. But as I was thinking how my wife and myself could be safe from, these people, so my wife remembered me to call for the help of the ‘Invisible-Pawn’ (Give and Take), perhaps he might render his help. When my wife advised me like that, then I sent for one of my labourers to go and tell the ‘Invisible-Pawn’ that the people of new town would raise up an Army against me in two days to come, so that I begged him to come and help me early in the morning of that day.