by Amos Tutuola
Having seen all these things which were against their thought, the whole of them stood up, they muddled at a little distance from the fire. Then they gazed at the sun just to make sure of the right direction that it (sun) appeared. But still, they discovered that it appeared from the direction of the Path of Death. “Ladies, I don’t feel that the direction to which the breeze is blowing everything now, is the west. Therefore I am not sure that this Path of Death goes to our village!” Simbi exclaimed painfully. “This Path of Death goes along to our village hence everything is blowing along there!” Bako replied.
“We are now confused by the sun and this breeze, because I believe that this Path of Death which these two things (sun and breeze) are pointing out to us now as the right path on which to be travelled to our village, is entirely false,” Bako said softly.
“And I am quite sure, if we follow this Path of Death, the whole of us shall be perished in a few days’ time!” Rali supported Bako.
“That means all of us are going to die here!” Sala said sharply.
“If we refuse to travel on this Path of Death, where are we going to travel then? Hence the bush and forest are so thick, thorny, full up of the imps and with incalculable snakes, all of which had once driven us out to this Path of Death,” Kadara explained.
At this stage, the rest shook up and down their heads heavily, thought over of the point that Kadara had just raised. A few minutes after, Simbi asked “Are we going to vanish or die here, hence we refuse to travel neither in the forest nor on this Path of Death?”
“Surely, one must be for us, either to die or vanish here,” Sala said calmly.
“We have now come to the climax!” Rali said painfully. “Indeed!” the rest confirmed loudly.
BAKO, THE TERRIBLE SIAMESE TWIN
But to their greatest surprise was that immediately they concluded their arguments at about ten o’clock a.m. Bako, the Siamese twin, picked a long, round stone from the ground. She started to beat all of them and she beat Simbi severely more than the rest. For Bako was acting like a mad lady unexpectedly.
When they could no longer bear the beat and it was impossible for them to snatch the stone from her, then they were hurtling along the Path of Death without their wish and she was chasing them along and was still beating them. It was like that this gang of refugees continued to travel on this fearful path.
When Bako chased them till the night-fall she became tired. The rest had already tired before that time, but she did not allow them to stop and rest.
When she stopped and sat down, the rest did so. When they noticed that she became conscious, Rali asked softly from her “By the way, Bako, what had been wrong with you at the time you were beating us with stone?” Having heard this, she implored the gang first before she started to explain to them of what had been wrong with her. “As some of you are quite sure that I am a Siamese twin and you believe also that my second, who is a girl, is a Siamese twin as well, and as both of us were born the same minute, so as I had been treating you it was so my mother or somebody else had been treating her at home. As she had been feeling the pain of the beat, etc., it was so I too had been feeling the same pain here. Anything which may happen to her it must happen to me at the very moment wherever I may be. If she steals something at home thus I too will steal something. Therefore, I apologise for the future whenever I treat you roughly like the first time so that you must bear it without any complaint!” thus Bako, the Siamese twin, explained briefly to her gang.
When the rest heard this terrible explanation they winked to each other and then all sighed with grief at the same moment.
“But, Bako, I beg you that next time when you shall become mad again don’t beat me more severe than the rest,” Simbi warned Bako because she beat her severely more than the rest at the first time.
“Eh, don’t complain about that, Simbi! Were you not telling us the other day when we were in the Sinners’ town, that you left our village just to find out the ‘Poverty’ and ‘Punishment’ and then to experience their difficulties?” Bako asked simply.
“Of course, my wish before I left our village was to seek for the ‘Poverty’ and ‘Punishment’ but I have regretted it since when Dogo had just kidnapped me and sold me,” Simbi explained coldly.
“But before you will regret your wish will be when you return to our village,” Bako replied and then she asked sharply from the rest “or is it not so?” “Yes, it is so!” the rest confirmed loudly.
“Yay! this is another terrible punishment and this kind of the punishment is even more severe than the punishment of this Path of Death,” Simbi mumbled.
It was on this path they slept till morning. But it was Bako’s weeping woke the rest, for she had become a weeper before the dawn. She was weeping so loudly that a person from one mile off could hear her.
When the rest asked of what she was weeping for, she replied that her mother or somebody else was scoffing her Siamese twin sister at home and she (sister) was weeping at that very moment for the scoff.
Having discussed together of what they could eat and they never knew yet, Kadara stood up, she went round. Luckily she discovered plenty of mushrooms. She rooted them out of the ground and brought them to the rest. As they had no fire with which to cook the mushrooms before eating them, they scraped the dirt away from them. But when they were about to start to eat them with greediness, for they were nearly to die of hunger, at that very moment Bako started to knock everyone of them at mouth, face, etc. She gave Simbi an extra heavy knock which made one of her (Simbi) teeth to fall out suddenly.
At last when they could no longer bear the knock, they left the mushrooms and started to travel along. Thus Bako did not let them eat the mushrooms.
After some hours she stopped to knock them and then she explained “You see, someone had been knocking my Siamese twin sister at home and when I too felt the pain of the knock here, that was the reason why I had been knocking all of you.”
And then Simbi was weeping bitterly along the path for the pain of the tooth which Bako had knocked out by force from her mouth. It was so Bako was illtreating them along the path until she drove them to a wonderful town.
CHAPTER SIX
The Town of the Multi-Coloured People
Immediately they entered this town without their wish, they entered a big house and met an old womans at with sorrow in one of the rooms that were in that house. She was the owner of the house.
They hardly saluted her when they hurriedly begged her for the cold water with which to quench their thirst that which had nearly killed them, because that day was muggy.
The woman was greatly feared them having seen their horrible attitude and having noticed that they were mono-coloured persons, for she had never seen such the mono-coloured persons as these gang of refugees in her life. Anyhow, as she was a good natured old woman, she showed them the pot of water with her finger. She was se old that it was hardly for her even to stand and walk away from her seat and she was even poorer than a church rat, for she had no any issue or one who could feed her.
It was after they drank the water when they could notice that the whole people of this town and with their domestic animals were multi-coloured, and they were greatly wondered and feared in respect of this multi-colour and thus the old woman was looking at them with wonder and fear in respect of their own mono-colour as well.
Having rested for a few minutes on standing, because the woman did not tell them to sit, they told her to allow them to stay in her house for some days and then to continue their journey. “Where are you coming from and where are you going?” the old woman asked with the weary voice.
“We are just coming from the Sinners’ town, and we are looking about for the right path which goes to our village and to go back,” they explained with respect.
The old woman paused for a while, and then asked “On which path did you travel to this town?” “We travelled on Path of Death.”
“On Path of Death? and you did not meet an
y danger on it before reaching this town?” the old woman nodded and then asked patiently. “Just so,” they replied softly. The woman was greatly wondered to hear this, because there was no a person who could travel on Path of Death for two days without being killed by the noxious creatures.
“I am afraid of your mono-colour, anyhow, I shall have mercy on you to allow you to stay in my house, but I will show you to the king first who will permit me to do your request, because he will be the one who will punish you if you offend me in future,” she explained quietly.
The whole people of the town were rushing out of their houses and were following them to the palace of the king as the old woman was taking them along. And the king was also terrified when he saw them with their mono-colour.
“On which path did you travel to this town?” the king asked this question as well with great wonder. But as Simbi, the leader, had the gift of the gab more than the rest of her gang, she replied very sharply, “We travelled on Path of Death hence there is no any other path after that.”
“Hah!—a!—a! you travelled on Path of Death which belongs only to death, poverty, punishment, illness, cruel, etc., etc.!” the king together with his incalculable people that surrounded him exclaimed unexpectedly immediately they heard this explanation from Simbi.
Then the old woman told the king that they asked her to allow them to be staying in her house and she told him to approve the request of the refugees before she would allow them to stay. When she told the king like that, the whole people exclaimed “Not at all! we shall not allow you (refugees) to stay in our town, hence you are the mono-coloured persons and we are the multi-coloured people.” And the king himself said sharply “We don’t hate yourselves but your mono-colour.” But he agreed when Simbi explained their difficulties which they had met in the past or before they came there. And he told them that everyone of them must find a kind of work a to be doing for her living, he told them that he did not want any thief in his town.
They thanked him greatly and then followed the old woman back to her house.
She gave one room to each of them to be living in, because there were many rooms in that house. She told them that everyone must be feeding herself, and they agreed.
And everyone was earning her living, but Simbi being a lady of strong physique among the rest, she made a big farm at a little distance from the town. She planted many kinds of crops.
THE PUNISHMENT OF SIMBI IN THE TOWN OF THE MULTI-COLOURED PEOPLE
One day, when the crops were ripen, Simbi noticed that some animals were coming to the farm from a long distance and they were eating the crops. Having discovered this, she went round the bush which surrounded this farm and she discovered the path of those animals on which they were travelling to that farm.
But there was no other kind of a trap except to set the rope or to dig a deep pit at the centre of an animal’s path. Therefore, Simbi dug a deep pit at the centre of the path of the animals. Though they were not animals as called but their appearances was just seemed so.
Three days after, Simbi went there. But she was greatly surprised to meet inside the pit three kinds of creatures. They were in the forms of tiger, snake, and a rat who was a hole dwelling animal respectively. And a hunter fell into the pit as well, by a mistake, in the mid-night, when he was travelling on that path just to kill any animal he could find. This hunter was a native of the town of the multi-coloured people.
All the three animals and the hunter were unable to come out of the pit. Having seen all of them there Simbi wanted to pull the hunter alone out as he was a person like herself, though he was multi-coloured person, and after that to kill those evil spirits who were changing to that of bush animals whenever they were going to the farm.
But as she was trying to pull him out, those animals explained as if they were persons, “Because this hunter is a person like yourself, therefore you are trying now to safe him alone among us. Perhaps he may be one who will cause your death in future.”
“So the more you safe him out, the more you will safe us out as well, though we are bush animals,” they persuaded Simbi just to think that they were animals. “Please don’t mind them, they are bush animals, just take me out and after that I will shoot them to death for you,” the hunter said hurriedly, because he too thought they were bush animals.
But Simbi was afraid indeed to take out only that hunter, when the animals insisted that unless if she would take them out as well. She paused for a few minutes with fear, and she was thinking of what to do next to safe the hunter alone.
A few minutes after, she remembered to ask the hunter of what he would do for her if she helped him out of the pit. For she thought as those animals were not human, they would not be able to make any promise, and for that reason, she would free from their blame if she took out only the hunter.
“Listen to me, my dear hunter, what kind of a help you will render to me if I take you out now?” Simbi asked from the hunter.
“You see, Simbi, the promise that I can give you now is that as from this day, I shall be keeping watch of your farm just to safe the crops from the animals which are eating them.”
“Yes, tiger, what is your own promise?” she asked boldly. “As from this day, I shall be killing one bush animal every night and bringing it to the farm. Therefore, try to be going to the farm every morning to take the animal,” tiger promised loudly.
“Yes, rat, what is your own promise?” “You see, I am a hole dwelling animal who can dig a parallel hole under the ground to a distance of twenty miles. Therefore I promise now that in a few days’ time I shall dig such a hole from your room to the property room of the King of the multi-coloured people’s town. I will pass all the king’s properties, as gold, jewels, clothes, etc. from that property room through the hole to your room,” the rat promised.
“Yes, snake, what is your own promise?” “I cannot tell you now the kind of my own promise. The reason is that some of the persons are kittle cattle and perhaps this hunter who is only a human among us inside this pit, may be one of the kittle cattle persons and he may be in future laid you heart bared.
“But in the indirect way, I heartly promise now that any day it is difficult for you, believe me, wherever you may be, I will come there just to fulfil my promise or to render my help to you,” snake promised calmly.
After everyone of these victims had promised Simbi and everyone heard each other’s promise except snake’s promise which was indirect and the rest did not understand it.
Then Simbi took them out of the pit and everyone went to his own way. But when Simbi went to her farm in the following morning, she was greatly surprised to meet there one animal, which had been killed and had brought there by tiger, as he had promised. And the hunter fulfilled his own promise as well for he was keeping watch of the farm so that the animals might not eat the crops.
A few weeks later, the rat, as called, who was the hole dwelling animal, dug a parallel hole under the ground from Simbi’s room to the inside room in which all the properties of the king were kept. Then he packed all the properties therein and brought them through the hole to her room.
But it remained only snake, as called, to fulfil his own indirect promise which Simbi never understand.
A few months later from when the properties of the king had brought to her room by the hole dwelling animal, rat, as called, one day, when the king wanted to go somewhere, he opened the door of his property room just to take some of the gold, etc., that which he wanted to wear to the place that he wanted to go.
In the first instance, he could not believe his eyes when he found none of his properties inside the room. His family rushed to the room when they heard him horribly exclaimed “Where are my properties! Who had done this?” he asked painfully from his family. “It should be a number of burglaries who had carried away the properties,” his people were puzzled.
“I wonder, the windows or the door were not broken and there is no any sign which can show that the properties were carrie
d away by the thieves,” the king doubted. “Let us look at the partitions perhaps there may be a sign which will show that the properties were packed out through there,” one of the king’s family advised.
The king hardly heard this advice to the end when he drew a three legged powerless stool near the window and off he climbed from the stool onto the partition. And hardly reached the partition when he fell headlong onto the floor and then he fainted. “Eh! the king falls and faints!” his family exclaimed until he became conscious. Then with pain he staggered back to his throne.
“But it is very disgraceful to a king like you to climb the partition for yourself in looking for something! If you don’t respect yourself you must respect your office!” his prince who just heard and came in warned him painfully.
“The best thing which your majesty should have done, instead of climbing the partition for yourself, is to give the order to one of your bellringers, to announce what has happened with bell to everywhere in the town, perhaps some one may know one who has stolen the properties and then to bring the news to you,” a young lady advised the king.
“Oh yes! you are right, lady, and it is today I believe that one person can never have the whole senses of this world. Thank you, lady! All right, call me one of my bellringers!” the king ordered. “Here I am, your majesty,” the bellringer prostrated with face turned to the floor and was expecting what order the king would give. Neither to behead him or to send him to somewhere, he never knew which was which.