by Amos Tutuola
“Bring me my long smoking pipe!” the king ordered another man while the bellringer was still prostrated in his front.
When the pipe was brought, the man loaded it with newly withered tobacco and then plenty of hot-red coals (fire) were taken from the nearby heath and put them into the pipe.
It was this kind of a long pipe the king used to smoke in the day that a serious thing happened to him, or the day when an offender was to be beheaded before him or the day he had to sacrifice human to his gods, etc. But as he was too perplexed by the loss of his properties, so that he was unable to blow out the smoke from the pipe. “Please help me to blow out with your mouth the first smoke!” he ordered one of his chiefs. But about four chiefs grabbed the pipe from his mouth at a time, of course the rest left it for one of them at last.
He put it in the mouth and blew out the first thick smoke. After that he replaced it to the king’s mouth. Then four of them (chiefs) held the rest part of the pipe while he was enjoying the smoking. Because this pipe was too heavy for the smoker to hold it for himself. Then the rest chiefs or those who stood round were blowing the air onto him with the woven large fans while the bellringer was still prostrated.
“Yes, my chiefs, which is the right message to send the bellringer that which he is to deliver to the people of the town?” the king asked. “He is to announce with the bell for the people about your majesty’s stolen properties,” the chiefs explained. “Thank god, I think I am called to be sacrificed to the god but it is only to ring the bell,” the bellringer gladly remarked having gone out of the palace.
Then he rang the bell to every part of the town. He announced to the people that any one who might know whereabouts the stolen properties should report to the king.
But because the hunter who was among those animals (as called), who had been fallen into the pit and had been saved out together with the animals the other day by Simbi, the owner of the pit, had heard when rat, the hole dwelling animal, was promising Simbi on that day that he (rat) would bring all the king’s properties through the under ground hole to her room, and because this hunter had since then kept in mind the promise made by rat, therefore, immediately he heard the bellringer announce the stolen properties, he went to the king as a liar. He explained to him that all his properties were in Simbi’s room. And without hesitation, the king sent a large number of guardsmen to her room.
Then they arrested her and took the properties and herself to the king. Without asking her how the properties came to her room, he ordered his guardsmen to tie her with a rope to the big tree which was at the front of the palace, ready to be killed to the gods in three days’ time, at the presence of all the town’s people.
There were many gods under this tree and several thousands thieves, wrong doers or offenders or those who had no even an offence had been sacrificed to those gods.
Having seen Simbi tied to the tree, both adults and children of the town came there. They were stoning at her, flogging and slapping her. Within one hour every part of her body was bleeding, she begged them with sorrowful voice, but they did not listen to her, and it was after she fainted of pains before they went back to their houses. Thus Simbi remained unconscious till the third night that she would be sacrificed to the gods.
When it was twelve o’clock of the third night, the pains were so much that she started to blame herself. “Hah! if I had obeyed my mother’s warnings not to try to know the poverty and the punishment, all these should have not happened to me.”
Luckily as she was still blaming herself like that, she perceived a snake at a long distance. Within that moment this snake changed to the gnome and he came to her. She did not know that the snake which she had saved out of the pit the other day was a gnome and not a snake.
At the same time, the gnome reminded her “This is a critical night for you and I come to fulfil my promise this night. And that was the reason I did promise you indirect the other day, because of that hunter who has put you now in this trouble. Do you remember that you have saved him from the pit the other day?” “Yes I remember,” Simbi said calmly. “But he is going to cause your death now.” “Anyhow, take this juju-powder, it can wake a dead person.” “At all costs when it is one o’clock this mid night, the princess of the king will die unexpectedly. Whenever you hear the king and his family that they are weeping, tell anyone of them who comes out at that time, that you can wake the princess from dead, if the king can manage to get the head of a hunter who is also a liar.
“When the king brings it, then you will mix this juju-powder with the blood of that head. After that you will put the mixture into both eyes of the dead princess. Doubtless, she will wake up from dead at once. By so safe her, her father, the king, will not kill you for the offence, but set you free.
“And as that hunter is the only a hunter and a liar in this town, and as the head of a hunter who is also a liar must be brought to you before you can wake the princess, I believe that the hunter must be the right man in this town whose head will be available. Therefore the king will behead him, and bring his head to you to be used.”
After the gnome had explained like that to Simbi, he gave her the juju-powder, after that he caressed her head and then he disappeared. Simbi was even healthier than ever immediately the gnome caressed her head, all the pains and bruises were vanished at once.
As a matter of fact, when it was one o’clock mid night, Simbi heard the king and his family were weeping bitterly. When she asked for the cause from a man who was passing near the tree to which she was tied, the man replied that the princess had just stopped the last breath.
“Has she been ill for a long time?” “Not at all!” the man replied painfully. “But if the king can get the head of a hunter, who is a liar as well, I will wake up the princess from the dead, because I have such a power.” “Is that so?” the man wondered. “Yes, indeed!”
At the same time the man ran to the palace he repeated of what Simbi had told him to the king. And the king himself ran out of the palace. He hurriedly asked her of what she had told the man and she repeated it. Then he loosened the rope away from her body and without hesitation he held her left hand in a lovely way, he took her to the room in which the dead body of the princess was laid and ready for burial.
At the same time he gave the order to his statesmen to print a notice “THE HEAD OF A HUNTER WANTED! and they did so and pasted them to every wall and tree.
Within one hour that the notice had been pasted a man having read it came to the king. He reminded him about the hunter, who had told the king that his properties were in Simbi’s room.
Immediately he heard this from that man, he sent four of his guardsmen to go and bring the head of the hunter. When the head was brought, Simbi mixed its blood with the juju-powder which the gnome gave her. Then she put the mixture into both eyes of the dead princess. And to the king’s and his family’s greatest surprise, the princess woke from the dead at once.
For the great admiration the king had on her marvellous work, he set her free. After that she came back to her room with happiness.
The hunter wanted the king to kill Simbi, but he died instead.
BAKO, THE SIAMESE TWIN, BECAME A COCK
Then Simbi and her gang were enjoying their lives and they had forgotten all their punishments of the past.
But Bako, the Siamese twin, was always stealing goats, rams, cocks, etc. from the town. If the rest cautioned her she would not agree. She would tell them that it was so her Siamese twin sister was stealing goats, etc. at home. The people of the town suspected that their animals were missing in great number every day, but they did not understand how they were missing.
As the old woman who was the owner of the house in which they were living, had one hen that which had six chickens at that time, and as Bako had seen this hen, she did nothing more than to be keeping watch of its movement, just to steal it.
A few days later, when Simbi had just freed from her trouble, one evening, when Bako noticed that the
old woman, their landlady, had gone to somewhere, she went to the corner where their landlady’s hen and its six chickens were scratching the ground for their food. She looked thereabout perhaps somebody might be near. When she was quite sure that there was nobody near, then she threw some corn on the ground from the hen to her room. When she saw the hen started to eat the corn with greed towards her room, then she hid herself at the back of the door of that room.
When the hen and its six chickens were swallowing the corn until they entered her room un-noticed, she shut the door while the hen and its chickens were inside the room. Without hesitation she caught them and killed them. After that she roasted them and kept them inside the cupboard ready for the mid night when she would eat them. Of course, the rest did not see her as she was playing this trick.
Within two hours from when she had roasted them the old woman came back from where she had gone to. But when she noticed that her hen and its chickens did not return home and they had never kept very long like that from outside, having struggled before she could stand up from the seat, she went round that area, she was calling them, but she did not see them at all. Then she was announcing loudly and sorrowfully “If my hen with its six chickens entered your house by a mistake, please tell me and I will come and take them back to my house!” But there was nobody answer, because all the people of that area and the rest refugees did not know anything about the hen, except Bako who stole them. She sat at the outside of the house by that time and she was looking at the old woman as how she was hurriedly going from house to house. Even she was sympathising with this old woman as if she was not the one who stole them and she was also cursing: “A very bad revenge and woe shall come unto one who has seen you as old and weary as this and then stole your hen on whose only chickens you are living.”
At last when the poor old woman believed that the hen and its chickens could not be found and that somebody had stolen them, she cursed loudly, “Anyone who has stolen my hen shall become like that of the very hen before tomorrow morning. Everybody will see him or her in the plumage that my hen possessed and its six chickens will be following him or her about. And if there is god almighty, this my curse shall come to effect!”
Having cursed like that with sorrowful voice, she went back to her house. She was mourning the stolen hen as if it was a dead person, for she had nothing more than this hen in her life and she had no one who could be feeding her.
And as she had cursed like that, truly speaking! before five o’clock early in the morning, Bako’s head had already changed into the cock’s head and with a very big comb on this head and with a very big and long beak. Everyone of these changes was bigger than those every cock could possess. Every part of Bako’s body was full of soft and strong feathers and it wondered everyone greatly as how all the feathers which she had pulled away from the dead body of the hen managed to grow again on her body.
The very brass ring that which the old woman had put in the left leg of the hen, which was the mark of distinction from other hens, was in the left ankle of Bako as well. Both her shoulders and arms were full of strong wings and all were belonged to that hen which she had killed and roasted.
Even Simbi and the rest refugees remarked in that morning “Hah! this is too wonderful and too terrible to be seen for both adults and children!” Because as the old woman had cursed in the evening, it was not yet five o’clock in the morning when Bako was crowing repeatedly with the voice that which was louder and more huge that an ordinary cock’s voice should be. Her crow was hearing continuously from the dark corner of the room in which she hid for her fearful appearance. Of course, there was nobody noticed in the first instance that it was from her room the crow of cock was hearing.
But when it was eight o’clock and when the rest refugees noticed that she had not come out from her room, except the cock’s crow that was hearing from there, then Simbi forced open the door of her room. She entered inside it. But she ran back to the verandah with great horror immediately she entered and saw her in this fearful appearance. And when Simbi was so much surprised that she did not know what to do, she ran to the outside of the house and then she cried loudly to the whole multi-coloured people of that area.
Within two seconds, that place had full of people. When some of the brave men entered the room and met Bako in the form of a cock they were nearly frightened to death. But anyhow they dragged her to the outside. And the rest people were greatly shocked with fear when they saw her terrible form, and all were exclaiming at the same time “Hah! this is first of its kind! We have never seen this in our lives!”
Within a few seconds that those people and the rest refugees were still exclaiming like that the news had reached everywhere in the town and to the king as well, as such a terrible news as this was travelling even quicker than the air to everywhere without being published. And within two or three minutes, two of the king’s guardsmen arrived. They said that the king sent them to come and bring this cockish lady (Bako) to the palace.
To everyone’s horror, as she was escorting along to the palace, all the six chickens which she had already killed and roasted together with their mother, were following her and crying continuously as if she was their mother, although she had already changed to their mother. Immediately she was escorted to the centre of the town the whole people saw her and they were hurthing here and there just to see her. And to their fear, whenever this cockish lady saw a hen, she was doing to that hen exactly as a cock was doing whenever it saw a hen.
Having taken her to the palace, she stood before the king and his councillors, and Simbi with the rest refugees stood behind her, they were expecting what the king would say, for they could not leave her and escape.
“How did you manage to change into this fearful form of a cock?” the king asked with astonishment. “Kokoroko-o! Koko-roko-o! Kokoroko-o-o!” Instead of explain herself to the king, she was simply crowing loudly and continuously like the cock of three years of age.
Having failed to explain herself and because she was too terrible to be seen for the king and his councillors and to the common people of the town, then the king told his councillors “If a man keeps too long in looking at this cockish lady, probably that man will change into the same form of a cock!”
Having announced like that, without hesitation he and his councillors were preparing to leave the town. But when the king together with his councillors, all of whom were responsible for the town, were leaving the town in respect of Bako, the cockish lady, what more for the common people of the town? But the right thing for the common people to do was to leave the town as well with their king, etc.
Then the whole people were following the king, etc. the rest refugees and the cockish lady also were following them, whereas they were leaving the town for her and then to hide themselves in another town. And to their disappointment, was that as they were reaching every town just to take a shelter from there, if the inhabitants of that town saw them together with Bako in the form of the cock, they were not allowing them to stay in their town. Thus they were driving them away from all the towns and villages that they reached.
At last they rushed to a bush, they hid themselves there, but at all costs Bako traced them out.
After a few days that they were in that bush, one of the king’s advisers prostrated before the king and his councillors. He advised the king to make enquiries from the common people, if the cockish lady had offended one of them who had cursed her to become like that of a cock. The king with his councillors thanked this adviser greatly for the helpful advice which he had brought.
Then the king announced to the common people whether the cockish lady offended one of them. Luckily as many of these common people who were living near to the old woman’s house, the owner of the hen, were among them and they had overheard when the old woman had been cursing one who had stolen her hen therefore, they explained that they heard when the old woman had cursed one who had stolen her hen to become like that of her hen. They explained further that
they could not definitely say whether Bako was the right lady who had stolen the hen. Although she changed into the cock instead of a hen as the woman had cursed, thus the people explained.
Without hesitation, the king sent two men to go and carry the old woman to him. They carried her by head to the king, because she was too old and weary to walk for herself.
Then he asked whether she was the right old woman who had cursed Bako to become like that of a cock. She replied at once that she did not curse anybody direct, but she cursed one who might had been stolen her hen with its six chickens.
The whole people were very sorry for this old woman having seen as she was very old, weary and helpless and they were greatly surprised also to see a young lady like Bako steal her hen or to see anyone who could steal anything which might belong to this old woman, who was extremely reched. At the same time, many of the people contributed a large amount of money, they gave it to the old woman. “By the way, why did you steal the hen?” the king asked painfully.
“It is not my fault at all to do so. I shall be grateful if His Majesty the king will listen to my explanations. I am a Siamese twin and my second is now in my village. So whenever she steals anything in my village, I will feel it at the same moment she steals the thing wherever I may be, and at the same time I will steal the same kind of the thing that which she steals. And this is the reason why I stole the old woman’s hen and that means my Siamese twin sister stole a hen in my village!” Bako explained loudly to the king, etc. “Terrible!” the king and others exclaimed. “As the spirit of your Siamese twin sister had forced you to steal another person’s property, it is so it will force you to die!”
“Escort her and the rest refugees into my shrine and I shall sacrifice them to my gods when it is mid-night, because I believe all of them are thieves!” the king gave order to his guardsmen. But he hardly explained like that when the rest refugees took to their heels, they entered into another bush, and Bako followed them in that form of a cock. The guardsmen chased them to catch, but when they could not overtake them, they shot many of the nameless refugees to death before they came back to their king.