by Amos Tutuola
“Today, the eagle took me from the rock and it threw me into this hole!
“Of course, perhaps if Rali could find out the way and go back to our village, she would tell my mother that I have taken away by an eagle!
“And it is this day I believe the old people’s saying—one who has done what one has never done, shall see what one has never seen!”
After Simbi had discussed like that within herself with embarrassment, she felt to eat. “Hah! what can I eat now?” after she asked herself painfully, then she sat up right, she paused for a while. And then she cut a soft part of the tree, she looked at it for a few seconds and then threw it into the mouth. She chewed it for many minutes but at last she vomited it having failed to swallow it. Then more than one gallon of tears rolled down her chicks within that moment.
And she stood up unexpectedly, she walked round the hole. She knocked it heavily and cried loudly, perhaps someone would hear all that noises and come to help her out. But there was nobody who was near, even the sound of the knocks and her shouts did not travel to the outside of the tree.
Then she came back and sat on her mattress. She put one of her fingers in the mouth, she held it with teeth so mercilessly that it nearly to cut and then she uttered with great sorrow “Hah! hah! hah! my mother …”
But before she could utter the whole of what she had wanted to say, about four fruits fell onto her right shoulder by mistake from the eaglets. And she was greatly feared for she thought they were harmful things. But when she took them from the shoulder and discovered them fruits, she started to eat them at once.
When it was five days that she was inside the hole, she became mad for thinking of her great mistake which she had made for leaving her wealthy mother.
Many dead goats, fowls, etc. which were bringing to the eaglets by their mothers were falling from them into the hole by mistake. But she had no fire with which to roast them and eat them. She was simply looking at these dead animals.
One day, a half dead big boa fell into the hole by mistake from those eaglets. And Simbi was shrank up with fear when she saw it.
After some minutes, the boa became completely alive and then it began to glide round her.
Having done that for a few minutes, it raised itself up from the ground. It opened its mouth in such a fearful way and it was gliding slowly towards her just to swallow her.
But at that moment she had lost all her senses and then she started to stagger round the hole just to safe herself and the boa was chasing her about to be swallowed.
Having done that for some time, luckily, it discovered those dead animals. Then it stopped there and swallowed some of them so greedily that it could not move about but lay down helplessly before the rest (dead animals).
This boa was so fearful to Simbi that she started to strike her head heavily to every part of the hole just to kill herself at once. Because she believed that however it might be she would die there. Therefore she did not want to suffer for a long time. Of course, she was feeding from all the fruits which were falling into the hole from the eaglets etc.
“I have now satisfied my hunger with some of these fruits. But what can I do now next? Oh yes, I remember, I have been a good singer in those days that I was in happiness and with my mother! I do better sing a song now! But what kind of a song is suitable for this my melancholy?
“Yes! yes! yes! I remember, I had once gone with my mother to a house in which an old man died, and on that day, I sang the song of mourn with those whom we met there!
“I shall sing that song here now, because I believe in a few days’ time, I shall die!”
Then Simbi sang that song for a few minutes before she fell asleep unnoticed, because she had never slept for a moment since when she was thrown inside the hole.
And she woke in the dawn by the hisses of that boa. It had already coiled round her before she woke. But when she opened her eyes, she met the mouth of that boa wide open and was nearly to touch her own head.
Having seen this again, she was shouting for help. After a while, her throat stuck together for long shouting, and then she was feeling to drink water badly.
But as she was pretending to kill herself at once, she noticed that the hole became entirely dark, and a few seconds after, a heavy rain came. And immediately the rain started, the thunder was roaring from the sky into the hole. It was sounding so heavily inside the hole that it nearly to blow up the hole and that boa was so feared the sounding that it ran to the corner of the hole and hid itself there.
“What has happened again?” Simbi whispered as if she would die if she spoke aloud. After a while, a lightning flashed from the sky into the hole. And at the same moment it started to burn the refuses very slowly. Having seen this, Simbi ran to it, she managed it until it became a big fire.
After she had warmed her body from it, she remembered to roast some of that dead animals and she roasted a fowl and ate some of it, because she was unable to finish the whole of it.
Hardly stopped to eat the roasted fowl when she noticed that a part of the tree had caught the fire. And a few seconds later, the whole of that hole caught the fire. Then she was running to every part of the hole just to escape the fire.
She was so puzzled at that moment that she attempted to fly out of the hole. She flapped both arms perhaps she would be able to fly like a bird, but all her efforts were failed, for she had no wings. “Ho!-o! ha!-a! hu!-u! My mother! my dead father appear here now and take me out! yay! yay!” thus she shouted in vain.
Having turned round the hole for some minutes the hairs of her head and her clothes caught the fire as well. “I shall faint! I shall faint! I shall fain …t.” Then with embarrassment she fell down and fainted.
But as she was doing all this, the fire had turned into a big flame and it had appeared to the sky from the top of the tree. The thick smoke was rushing to such a great height in the sky that it was easily seeing from a long distance.
The smoke and the flame drove away all the eagles, parrots, hawks, etc. who were living on top of the tree. They scattered in the sky and were flying round the top of the tree and were trying to take their young ones away from the smoke, but they were unable to do it.
After a while a woodcutter saw this smoke and the flame from a long distance.
“Look at the smoke and flame coming out from a tree!” the woodcutter told his son who was about twelve years of age.
“Yes, I see it, but I am afraid, something must have happened in that area!” the son raised his head up and explained. “Perhaps a bush is burning near there!” the father (woodcutter) suggested. “If it is so or not let us go there perhaps we shall be able to kill some of the birds,” advised the son.
Then the woodcutter and his son were coming there with their cutting instruments as hastily as their feet could lift them up.
After a few minutes they came to the tree and they were greatly wondered when they saw the numerous birds which were flying round the top of the tree.
“It is better to cut down this tree at once, because I believe there must be something strange inside its hole,” the father told his son. But the son was unable to answer, because the noises of the birds and the hisses of the flame were downed his voice.
“Bring! bring the instruments here and let us cut it down at once!” he waved hands to his son.
When the instruments were brought, the father started to cut one part and the son was cutting it at the other part with axes. A few minutes later, they cut the tree to its hole. “Let us cut it wider so that we may see every part of the hole,” he told his son. But immediately they cut it to the hole and when the fresh air rushed in Simbi had become half conscious, before they had cut it to such a large size that they wanted it to be.
Having cut it to the size that they wanted it to be, he and his son peeped through the wide space with the intention to kill the animals which probably might be inside that hole.
“Hah! what is this?” both feared and exclaimed the same words at a tim
e and with great fear they jerked their heads back at once.
“Is that a human or a nymph?” the son wondered. “Of course, I cannot say the real creature it is, at this moment!” the father was surprised so much that he did not know what to say at that moment.
“All right, let us peep into the hole again just to make sure of the right kind of the creature it is.” Then he and his son peeped in again. But yet they could not hesitate and look well for what they had seen for the first time. And only Simbi’s head they could see in the darkness.
“Hah! this is the human’s head!” both jerked their heads back and stood up right on the alert. They looked at each other’s eyes with astonishment and fear and then paused for a while.
“It is possible for a human to be in this hole?” the son asked his father. But the father was so much embarrassed that he was unable to reply. But when they stoned at the head, then Simbi said with a very weak voice “I am a human being and not a nymph. I am thrown inside the hole by an eagle. Please safe me out.” And then their fear dispelled immediately Simbi explained herself to them.
Then they advised her to stretch out her arms through the space which they had cut. And she crept near to the space and then stretched her arms to them.
In the first instance they thought that it was an easy job to pull Simbi out. Then the father pulled her, he thought he alone could do it. But he failed entirely having tried all his power.
“All right, let both of us join hands together and pull her right out,” he told his son. Then with both hands he held Simbi’s right hand and his son held her left hand with both hands, and then pulled her. But still they were not strong enough to pull her out.
“Let us try more,” the son said after they had rested for a few minutes. And they pulled her with all their power, but yet they were unable to pull her out.
Not knowing that as they were trying to pull her out by force, it was so that boa which was inside the hole, was swallowing Simbi’s legs and then it was pulling her back to the hole, of course Simbi did not feel that the boa was swallowing her legs because both (legs) had already cramped.
After the father and his son had rested for the second time, they held her hands as usual and then the father commanded “One! two! three ee!” Willing or not, they pulled Simbi out together with the boa by force. Although they threw her hands down and run to a short distance just to safe their lives from the boa immediately they saw it that it had already swallowed half of her body.
After some minutes they came back. With great care they killed that boa and then pulled Simbi out of its mouth.
But before they had finished all of that, Simbi had fainted again for rough pulling.
“Hah! this lady is too fine and beautiful than to leave her in this place until she shall be suffered to death. It is better to take her to the town for the treatment!” the father or woodcutter exclaimed immediately they dragged Simbi to the outside of the hole.
“Yes, that is better,” the son replied.
“But with what can we take her to the town because I am afraid, she is now delicate to handle for her appearance is scraggy?” the son feared, because he was too young to understand as how to handle such a weary and helpless person as this one.
“Thank you my son. It is very simple to take her to the town, and I will show you today the right way a helpless person as this one is taking to the town or to a safe place.”
Having explained like that to his son, he cut some slender sticks and some strong ropes. He cut all the sticks a little above the height of Simbi. With the ropes and the sticks he formed them into a frame work and that was a stretcher.
After that he cut plenty of leaves, he spread them on the stretcher in such a way that the sticks would not hurt Simbi. Having done that, he and his son put her on it very gently. And then they covered her feet to the neck with broad leaves, because all her clothes had burnt away by the fire when she was inside the hole.
After, he tied a strong long rope to the head of that boa which they had already killed. He gave the second end of the rope to his son to hold it. Then he hung all their cutting instruments on his shoulder. After that he and his son put the stretcher on heads. The father carried it at the front while the son carried it at back. And they were carrying her to the town and the son was towing the boa with the rope towards his back, they were going to eat it.
Having travelled for two hours, they reached their town. And immediately they put her in the room. The woodcutter and his son started to beat the broken pot and calabash near her head, so that the soundings might call her spirit back to her from heaven’s road. Having beaten the broken pot, etc. for a few minutes, her spirit returned to her, she started to feel as a person might feel. At that time she could swallow all the medicines which were giving to her, and all the necroses of the boa bites were treated with another kind of a medicine.
Thus Simbi was saved out of the hole by the woodcutter.
“Rali! Rali! Rali!” that was the first word which Simbi exclaimed since when she had brought from the hole to the town. She thought that she was still with Rali who was still wandering about in the Dark Jungle.
She never knew where she was and never knew who had saved her. All was just a dream to her.
“Who is Rali?” the woodcutter asked softly. “I think I am with Rali now. Rali is a lady with whom I had been travelling before I had been taken away by the eagle. Please can you know whereabouts she is at present?” Simbi explained and asked after she had become conscious. “I don’t know who is Rali and I don’t know whereabouts she is.”
Within a few weeks Simbi’s condition was so improved that it seemed as if she had not met any difficulty since when she was born.
“Many thanks, the woodcutter. But I am sorry that I have no money to pay for you for the treatments you have given me before I recovered and for the wonderful work you have done before you saved me out of the hole. But, be sure that God will pay another thing for you which will be even better than my ‘thanks’.
“And this is to tell you that I am continuing my journey tomorrow morning, and I shall be grateful if you will be good enough to show me a safe path from this town to my village.”
“Where is your village?” the woodcutter wondered. “My village is far away from here,” Then the woodcutter explained that there was no another path after the Path of Death. “Is that so?” Simbi asked calmly. “It is so, Simbi. But I wonder, what had forced you to leave your village?” he asked when he thought over of all the punishments, etc. which she had met before he had saved her and he thought as well of uncountable punishments, etc. which she was still going to meet ahead, probably before she would die.
“You see, Mr. Woodcutter, it was after I had been kidnapped from my village by a man called Dogo, I found out that I had made a mistake to tell my wealthy mother that I liked to know the punishment and the poverty. She warned me not to attempt to do that, but I disobeyed her. And since from when Dogo had kidnapped me and sold me from hand to hand, I was struggling hardly to go back to my mother but all were in vain.”
“Will you let me marry you? If you do agree, I promise, that a few months after the marriage, I shall take you back to your village,” the woodcutter deceived her in respect of her beauty. Because she was so beautiful at that time that a crowd of people used to come to the woodcutter’s house just to enjoy her beauty for a few minutes. And whenever she was going to somewhere in that town, several people would be rushing here and there just to look at her beauty.
“I am afraid, Mr. Woodcutter, you are trying now just to obstruct my leaving. But all your activities before you saved me implied that whatever a promise you give to a person you will fulfil it.
“And in respect of that, I do agree to your request. But I bring it to your notice now that in the future, if you fail to take me back to my village, the ‘day will be changed into the night’ for you.”
Now Simbi had turned to the wife of the woodcutter.
Unfortunately, after some
months Simbi delivered of a male baby. And within a few months the baby developed to such a state that Simbi could not depart from it for a moment. And she was in happiness every day in respect of her baby. Although when several people used to die in one day in this town, and as this had never happened or it was an unusual bad omen for the king, the king asked from his god the kind of the sacrifice which was to be made to expel the unusual death from the town.
The god explained that before the death could be expelled a living baby would be put in a wooden mortar and plenty of soap would be put as well. After that the mother of that baby would pound the baby together with the soap thoroughly. After that the soap would be distributed among the people of the town. And having washed their bodies with that juju-soap for three times, the death would not be able to approach anybody to be killed having smelt the smell of the juju-soap from that person’s body, the god said.
But as there was none of the natives of this town who could volunteer her baby, therefore Simbi’s baby was taken from her by force, being she was not a native, and they forced her to pound the baby with the soap.
She wept bitterly when she was pounding her baby, but all was in vain. Having seen this bad habit, she was feeling to go away from this town, until she delivered another baby. But it was at that time the people of this town heard the information that the locusts were coming to their farms. And Simbi’s baby was among the sacrifices which they prepared and put at the junction of paths just to drive the locusts to another place, and it was so when they did it.
Now, Simbi was in a great sadness. She told the woodcutter, her husband, to take her to her village, but he was telling her to wait for some weeks. But when she discovered that it was a lie and he did not know where her village was, then she repeated her curse and at the same moment, the woodcutter’s day changed into the night. He could not see anything and it was in the darkness he was when Simbi continued her journey from that town. But after a few days that she had left him, his day changed to as usual, he could see. For he had done good to Simbi, otherwise he would remain in the darkness throughout his life time. Then he chased her to bring her back to his house and be his wife as usual. But all his efforts were failed. Simbi had gone far away.