The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories

by Amos Tutuola

  Then, after all of the ingredients, including one big beetle, had been put inside a large beautiful calabash, and it had been covered with its lid, the king and his counsellors began to puzzle about the right person to carry the sacrifice to the camp and put it in the circle of the soldiers or enemies.

  After a while, it came to their minds to consult their gods once more to find out the right person to carry the sacrifice. In reply, their gods told them that only the most beautiful lady who had not yet ‘known man’ should carry the sacrifice.

  But the gods warned them, ‘The carrier of the sacrifice should walk with the sacrifice on her head into the circle of soldiers and put it in their circle! If the carrier of the sacrifice,’ the gods emphasized, ‘does not carry it to the camp, but instead throws it into the forest half-way with the intention of returning from there and deceiving the king and his counsellors that she has taken it to the camp, then she will suddenly turn into a big beetle, and from there the changeling will crawl into the forest.’

  Now, when the king and his counsellors, among whom was Yanribo’s father, Adio, had heard the order of their gods, all became sluggish at once. The matter of ‘who will bell the cat?’ arose. The king looked into the eyes of the counsellors, except those of Yanribo’s father, Adio, and the counsellors looked at the floor rather than speak out.

  But Adio grew pale; his eyes were red as fire this time. For he knew that his daughter, Yanribo, was the most beautiful in the land, and that she was the lady whom the gods had chosen to carry the sacrifice. And neither the king nor the counsellors could talk this time, but all were shaking their heads momentarily with sadness.

  ‘Perhaps, as the king has many slaves, our gods may choose one of them to carry the sacrifice,’ suddenly one of the counsellors suggested.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ they all shouted, ‘you have a good memory to remember the king’s slaves. Right now, let us go back to our gods and ask them is it proper and if a slave has the right to carry the sacrifice!’ They then rushed impatiently into the shrine of the gods. They asked if a slave could be substituted in place of Yanribo. But the gods said ‘No! Only the daughter of the soil, and the most beautiful one!’

  Then, in confusion, all returned to the sacrifice. They stood in front of it uncertainly, and after a while, and without saying goodbye to one another, they dispersed. Everyone went to his house quietly, and Adio, Yanribo’s father, went back to his house as well.

  But as this matter was still burning the minds of the king and the other counsellors, in the mid-night and without inviting Adio, Yanribo’s father, they went to the king secretly. They and the king discussed how they could persuade Adio to surrender his daughter to carry the sacrifice.

  The king, fearful, said, ‘I am afraid, and I am not bold enough to tell Adio to surrender his daughter to carry the sacrifice.’

  ‘I am bold enough to tell him so, if the king will support me,’ one senior counsellor boasted.

  ‘Indeed, I shall support you if you can bring the matter before him,’ the king promised, impatiently.

  Then the king sent one of his bearers to go and call Yanribo’s father, Adio, to him. Within a few minutes the bearer returned with Adio to the palace.

  Adio greeted the king and the counsellor, and then he sat down. ‘Yes, I am here now. But what did the king call me for?’ He turned to the king and the other counsellors with sulky eyes.

  The senior counsellor began, ‘You know. We still find it difficult to get the most beautiful lady, like Yanribo, in this our land who is to carry the sacrifice. But, as you know, your – your – your daugh-ter, Yan-Yan-Yanri-bo, is the most be-be-be-beautiful in-in – the land. We – we – shall be – be – be grateful if you – you – you will sur-sur-surrender her to – to – to carry the sacrifice.’ The counsellor stammered with fear as he scowled at the floor.

  ‘Who has sent you here to tell me that?’ Adio frowned at the senior counsellor and roared horribly.

  ‘The – the – the ki-ing, the king has – has – has told me to – to – to tell you so!’ Now both the senior counsellor and the king scowled at the floor.

  Then the king spoke with pretended anger, ‘In my presence, are you telling lies about me, you a senior counsellor like you?’

  ‘But you have instructed me to tell him so!’ The senior counsellor frowned at the king.

  ‘No! Not I!’ The king beat his breast and shouted with fear.

  Yanribo’s father, Adio, stood up and shouted wildly at them, ‘Eh! Stop all your arguments! Whether it was the king who has told you or not, I shall agree to surrender my daughter, Yanribo, provided that every one of the counsellors and the king will surrender one of his daughters. If they fail to do so, then I shall never agree to surrender my own daughter, Yanribo!’

  ‘Hmm!’ The king and the other counsellors murmured all at one time, and then everyone shook his head disapprovingly.

  Having seen that the king and the other counsellors were not pleased to surrender their own daughters, Adio stood up wildly and with great anger shouted horribly, ‘All of you are seducers! Villains! And treacherous men!’ Then he went out.

  ‘Hmm!’ The king and the other counsellors dropped their heads heavily upon their chests and murmured confusedly with fear as soon as Adio had walked out angrily.

  The king at last raised his head up and asked quietly from the counsellors, ‘But what is the next step that we can take now, now that Yanribo’s father has refused to surrender Yanribo?’

  Then all of the counsellors raised their heads up. Now the senior one suggested, ‘There is nothing else we can do to change Adio’s mind, to surrender his daughter. But I suggest that this midnight the king’s bearers should go and kidnap Yanribo from her father’s house. If the deed is successful, then before daybreak we shall force her to carry the sacrifice to the camp of your enemies.’

  ‘Oh, yes, your suggestion is worth more than a million pounds!’ The king and the other counsellors were happy now.

  Without hesitation, the king sent some of his hefty bearers to go and kidnap Yanribo from her father’s house. And, within a few minutes, the bearers carried Yanribo, her mouth bound with rags, to the palace.

  Then the king and the counsellors hastily dressed Yanribo with the finest clothes, and put the finest coral beads on her neck and wrists. Now, Yanribo looked even more beautiful than before.

  Before daybreak, they put the beautiful large calabash of the sacrifice on to her head. Then they started to draw her gently to the edge of the city. When they drew her to the road leading to the camp of their enemies, they led her a little distance until they were sure she could not trace her way back to the city. Then they removed the rags with which they had bound her mouth to prevent her from shouting. Having told her to carry the sacrifice along that road, they returned to the palace still before daybreak.

  But as soon as Yanribo had seen that the king and his counsellors had returned to the palace, she stopped half-way, and, with the intention of returning from there to her parents, she threw the sacrifice into the forest.

  Unfortunately for her, the sacrifice had hardly touched the ground, when Yanribo turned suddenly into a big beetle. And without hesitation, she, as the beetle, crawled into the forest. So it was that since that midnight Yanribo became the Beetle-lady.

  But in the morning, when Yanribo’s father, mother and all those who loved her knew that the king and his counsellors had forced Yanribo to carry the sacrifice, and that she had turned into the Beetle-lady, they started to burn the houses of the counsellors, and they also burnt the king together with his palace in protest. After a few days, this revolt became a serious civil war which, at the end, ruined the whole city. Though Yanribo had turned into the Beetle-lady, her beauty had at the end ruined the city for ever.

  Ajao and the Active Bone

  A long time ago, there lived a man in a small town. His name was Ajao. He was an expert trickster and deceiver and, because of his profession, everyone in the town took him to be t
he most useless man in the town.

  One year, there was a great famine. Within a few months after the famine had started, there was nothing for the people to eat.

  One day, as Ajao was wandering about on the outskirts of the town, looking for food to eat, he came upon the shrine of a god. He eagerly entered it with the hope that, at least, there would be a sacrifice and he could satisfy his hunger with it. But to his disappointment there was nothing like a sacrifice, except one old bone which was half stuck into the sand before the god who was the occupant of the shrine.

  The bone was not an ordinary one, but a small god.

  Unknowing, Ajao ran to the bone and picked it up immediately. As he was about to leave the shrine he heard a horrible caution from one corner of the shrine: ‘Eh! Don’t take that bone away! It is not an ordinary bone as you suppose it to be! Come and put it back in the very spot you have taken it from!’

  Ajao was greatly afraid and confused when he heard this warning. He glanced at every corner of the shrine, but nobody was there except the huge god. Nevertheless, as Ajao had not eaten anything for the past few days, he did not pay heed to the horrible warning. Instead, he stubbornly ran with the bone to his house.

  Ajao entered his room and shut the door; then he began to chew the bone greedily. To his surprise, as he was still enjoying it, it fell from his hand. And as he was just stretching his hand to pick it up, the bone became active suddenly. It immediately began to throw itself along the ground.

  Ajao began to chase it along, trying to pick it up in order to continue to chew it.

  Thus the bone was throwing itself along and along until it left the town and came to a big river which was at a little distance from the town. Instead of stopping on the bank of the river, this wonderful bone flung itself into the river and, without hesitation, it sank.

  Ajao jumped in the river as well. He dived, and he continued to chase the bone along the bottom of the river.

  After a while, the bone disappeared, and Ajao was carried to the deepest part of the river by the current. To his surprise, within a few seconds, he found himself unexpectedly inside a massive building. The massive building was under the river, and it belonged to the Nymph or Water Spirit who governed the river.

  ‘Who are you?’ the Nymph asked, astonished.

  ‘I am the son of man,’ Ajao replied with a trembling voice.

  ‘What do you want here, the son of man?’ the Nymph shouted.

  Ajao fearfully explained. ‘Thank you, Nymph. You see, there is a great famine in my town now. So as I was chewing the only bone which I found in a shrine, it mistakenly fell down from my hand. Then it began to throw itself till it flung itself into the river, and I followed it. I simply found myself in this your massive building unexpectedly.’

  ‘Is that so?’ the Nymph wondered greatly to see that Ajao was so hungry for food that he chased a bone to her house which was under the river.

  ‘It is so,’ Ajao replied painfully.

  ‘All right, take this wooden spoon. When you return to your house, ask it to do your work for you. But never come back to me for anything as from today!’ The Nymph gave a wonderful wooden spoon to Ajao which would supply him with every kind of delicious food and drink.

  Ajao thanked the Nymph when she gave the wooden spoon to him. Then she told him to sit on a chair, and he had hardly done so when he found himself on the bank of the river. From there he went to his house with the spoon.

  As soon as he entered his room, he asked the spoon: ‘Do your work now, wooden spoon!’ And he had hardly asked thus when the room was full of all kinds of delicious food and drink. Then greedily he and his family ate and drank to their entire satisfaction.

  In the following morning, instead of keeping the secret of the wonderful wooden spoon within himself, Ajao went to the king. He told him to invite all the people of the town to his palace.

  ‘For what reason, Ajao, shall I invite all the people to my palace?’ The king was suspicious because he knew Ajao as an expert trickster and deceiver.

  ‘I wish to feed them with delicious food and drink!’ Ajao replied with pride.

  ‘You, Ajao, want to feed the people of the town with food and drink in this time of great famine? Or you cannot remember what you came to me for?’ The king was still mistrustful.

  ‘I say I have enough food and drink to give to all the people!’ Ajao confirmed loudly.

  The king still doubted. ‘But I am afraid, Ajao. Even I as king of this town have not eaten now for over four days. How much stranger it is for a poor person like you to get sufficient food and drink to give to all the people!’

  ‘Your majesty, just do what I am asking you to do,’ Ajao said, compelling the king with his sweet voice.

  So in the evening the king’s bell-ringer announced to the people of the town that they should gather on the assembly ground which was in front of the palace. And immediately all the people gathered on the assembly ground while the king sat in the middle of the crowd of people. All were waiting for Ajao to come.

  After a while, Ajao came with the wooden spoon, and in the presence of the people and the king and his chiefs, he commanded the spoon loudly: ‘My wooden spoon, do your work now for these people!’

  And Ajao had hardly commanded like that when everyone saw the delicious food and drink in front of him or her. Then greedily the people, the king and the chiefs ate and drank as much as they could.

  But after a while, when they were intoxicated by the drinks, they started to play so roughly that they did not know when they smashed the wonderful spoon and it split. So the people and Ajao did not think about the spoon. When they became tired, everyone walked sluggishly back to his or her house, with the hope of coming back in the following morning to eat and drink as before.

  On the following morning, all the people, the king and the chiefs gathered again on the assembly ground. They were waiting for their breakfast when Ajao arrived. When he came, because he was late, he hastily commanded the wooden spoon to do its usual work. But unfortunately it failed to supply food and drink. He tried all his best, but the spoon could not supply anything because it had split when the people trampled on it the night before.

  The people and the king exclaimed angrily, ‘You are an expert deceiver, Ajao, as we already know. We believe you have commanded the spoon not to supply food and drink for us!’

  ‘I think it is powerless to supply food and drink as it was split yesternight,’ Ajao suggested to the people with fear.

  ‘If it is so, you had better go back to the same Nymph and tell her to give you another spoon,’ the people roared impatiently.

  ‘I am sorry, but the Nymph has already warned me not to come back to her for anything again!’ Ajao explained.

  ‘Don’t deceive or trick us, Ajao!’ the king warned Ajao. ‘Go back to her and, I believe, she will give you another spoon if you show her the split one. But if you refuse to go back to her, it means you disobey my order. So for that you will be beheaded!’ Thus the king forced Ajao to go back.

  ‘Oh, my head!’ Ajao exclaimed, beginning to blame himself as he started to return to the Nymph reluctantly. ‘If I had known, I should not have told the king anything about the wooden spoon. Instead, I should have been using it secretly for my family and myself.’

  When he got to the Nymph, he showed her the split spoon and he explained to her how the people had split it carelessly.

  ‘Oh, is that how you are, the son of man? All right, I will teach all of you sense today. Take this long whip, and it will serve you satisfactorily even better than the wooden spoon!’ With great annoyance, the Nymph gave the whip to Ajao.

  ‘But this is a whip,’ Ajao said with a doubtful mind. ‘And as far as I understand, the only work of a whip is flogging people.’

  ‘No, this whip is not meant so in this case,’ the Nymph explained indirectly. ‘It can also produce a lovely music to which all of you will dance merrily, and none of you will say goodbye to one another when leaving your ass
embly ground. Goodbye, son of man.’

  Then Ajao thanked her and left in confusion. But he went to his own house first, instead of going to the king and the people. He gathered his family hastily in the room, as they felt all near to dying from hunger. He commanded the whip: ‘Do your work now, whip.’

  Ajao had hardly commanded the whip when it began to flog him and his family. When it had flogged them severely for nearly one hour, then it stopped flogging them.

  ‘Yes,’ Ajao said with grief within himself, ‘as the people, the king and his chiefs enjoyed the delicious food and drinks which the wooden spoon supplied yesterday, so they will share the punishment which this whip supplies instead of food and drink!’

  Then immediately Ajao took the whip from the floor and went to the assembly ground. The hungry people, the king, and the chiefs were very happy when he returned to them as early as they wanted him to.

  Ajao gave the whip to the king. He told him to ask it to do its work, and after that he hastily bolted away.

  The king had hardly asked the whip to do its work when it began to flog him and his chiefs and the people. The whip flogged them so severely that not one of them could remember how he or she managed to leave there, and, as the king was running away for his life, his crown fell off his head – but he was unable to wait and take it back.

  Thus the whip taught all of the town not to be careless next time.

  A few days later, after the king saw that the people had rested their minds, he invited Ajao to his palace. Angrily, he asked Ajao, ‘Why did you bring the cruel whip instead of the kindly wooden spoon?’

  ‘Well, you see, that was the right thing that the Nymph gave to me instead of the wooden spoon, and that meant she taught us a lesson: that we must take good care of whatever might be given to us,’ Ajao explained calmly.

  ‘Yes, of course, if we were not careless, the wooden spoon would still be serving us – especially at this time when the great famine continues to besiege our town,’ the king remarked quietly, when he realized their mistake.