by Amos Tutuola
As he was still struggling to find her out from the bottom of the water, Simbi had changed into the water insect, she was swimming about on the surface of the water, and that was the last power she had.
When the Satyr saw this insect as the only living creature in that water, he held it and was suggesting “This insect is called ‘Iromi’. This lady [Simbi] told me the other day that we fought together and conquered me, that she could change into ‘Iro …’ but she did not say on that day that she could change into ‘Iromi’ and this is ‘Iromi’.”
Then he threw it back into the water and it started to swim swiftly about on the surface of the water at the same time.
The Satyr was greatly confused about the name ‘Iro . .’ which Simbi had told him that she could change to. When she was about to mention the full name of the insect “Iromi” to the Satyr at the first time that they had fought together, Rali whispered to her on that day—“Hah, Simbi, don’t you know that a lady must not leak out all she could do to her enemy as this Satyr?”
But Simbi stopped at the same time when she was just mentioned “Iro …” instead of “Iromi” immediately she heard the warning from Rali.
A few minutes later, the Satyr grabbed this insect again. He looked at it for about five minutes. “This is ‘Iromi’ and not ‘Iro …’ as the lady had mentioned into which she could change.” Then he threw it back into the water and all of the rest evil creatures who surrounded the dam were looking at him as how he was suggesting within himself about the “Iromi” which Simbi had abbreviated to “Iro …”.
Having thrown it back into the water, he did not go away but he was keeping watch of the time that Simbi would come out from the water.
After a while, the insect flew out of the water and entered into his nose unexpectedly. And at the same time it was biting his nostril so severely that within five minutes he was unable to bear the pain any longer. Then he was running about, he was crying loudly, he blew the air out from the nostril but the insect did not come out. He jumped up and down, he dashed to the trees and rocks but the insect was still biting him severely. As he was doing all these things the rest evil creatures were following him about and were laughing at him, with the intention that he was simply playing.
But when he fell down and died, they feared greatly and then they ran away.
When he was falling to the ground he shouted so horribly that everything became quiet at the same moment. His voice nearly rooted out all the big trees and the rocks and the mountains were nearly to blow up as well.
After he fell down and died, then the insect flew out of his nostril and then changed back to Simbi at once.
Thus Simbi killed the Satyr of the Dark Jungle, the noxious guard.
Then Simbi left there with gladness. She was wandering about in this Dark Jungle without being feared of any creature because she had killed the most harmful one, the Satyr.
One day, as she was going along as fast as she could, she came to the house of the Satyr which was behind of a rough hill. The surroundings of the house were so fearful that a person who was not brave could not go near there. But being Simbi had become a brave lady by that time, she entered the house.
When she travelled round it, she saw Rali in a cage at the back yard. She ran to the cage, she forced it open and then Rali came out. They embraced each other with gladness.
“Hah, I am glad as you come to safe me because there is no doubt, the Satyr shall kill me in a few days time, because he had told me about that before he went out since four days ago. Of course, he has not returned home since that day!” Rali explained with gladness.
“What about Kadara, Sala, Bako, the cockish lady, and the nameless refugees?” Simbi asked softly.
“The Satyr had killed and eaten all of them, but he ate Bako, the cockish lady, last,” Rali replied.
“Is that so? It is sure then that they were destined to be killed by the Satyr. Oh! which means, they have preceded the Satyr to heaven? Although, the Satyr himself is now in heaven and he is now dining with the inhabitants of heaven,” Simbi said.
“Satyr is in heaven or what do you say now?” Rali wondered greatly.
“Yes, I have killed him about two days ago with the help of my three gods!” “Killed what?” Rali wondered.
“I say I have killed the Satyr, the owner of this house!”
“Did you fight with him before you could kill him?” Rali asked sharply.
“I changed into the water insect, ‘Iromi’ which I mentioned ‘Iro …’ when you told me the other day not to leak out all I could do. The Satyr was confused greatly about it, for he did not understand that it was ‘Iromi’ was shortened to ‘Iro …’. And when I changed into it, I ate his nostril until he fell down and died, thus I killed him.
“Although he had changed both my feet and arms into the rock and I was saved by the gnome otherwise the Satyr and the rest evil creatures, would punish me to death,” Simbi explained.
“What have happened to you after you have taken away by an eagle the other day?” Rali asked.
“Yes, I spent about one or two weeks inside the hole of the tree in which the eagle threw me. But I was saved out by a woodcutter who took me to his town. He married me and I had two issues. But I left him when my two sons were sacrificed to their king’s gods so that they might be saved from the famine.” “How did you manage to get the three gods?” Rali asked patiently.
“I got them from an old woman to whom I pawned myself so that I might get money to buy food and clothes, and I was taken away from her by the Satyr.”
After Simbi had explained all she had experienced to Rali, they went round the Satyr’s house again. Simbi took one of the Satyr’s cudgels of bone, and after, they went out. They did not travel so far from the Satyr’s house when they came to the fruit trees. They plucked as many as they could. They ate them to their satisfaction.
Having satisfied their hunger, they came back to the Satyr’s house. When it was at night, they first attempted to sleep in that house. But when the house was too fearful for them, they took two leather bags which the Satyr had been using when he was alive. Each of the bags was big and long that it could contain two persons.
They came to the front of the house. Simbi entered inside one with her three gods and the cudgel of bone, after that she wrapped herself with it. Rali entered inside the second one as well and she wrapped herself with it, because the night was too cold.
When it was about one or two hours that both were enjoying the sleep, two tigers came there and thus they were coming every night to eat bones and rotten meat when the Satyr was alive.
When they discovered the two bags, they sniffed the smell and when the smell proved that persons were inside the bags, then they started to find the way just to go inside and then to eat what were there. But they did not see the way until they had twisted the bags to each other and then both seemed as one bag.
As they were trying to leave there having failed to get to the inside, their paws hooked some parts of the two bags. After they had struggled for some hours to take their paws away from them but were unable, then they were dragging them along in this Dark Jungle. Thus they were dragging them on and on and on until they had travelled near to the town of the multi-coloured people when it was about three o’clock in the morning. For the fear of the people, they struggled harder and the bags came out by accident from their paws and then they ran away for their lives.
It was like that Simbi and Rali came out from the Dark Jungle, of course the rest of them were perished there.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Simbi and Rali returned to their village safely
Simbi and Rali were still in danger. Because they must not appear in persons to the multi-coloured people and the people of the Sinners’ town, otherwise the multi-coloured people would kill them as a revenge of the old woman’s hen which Bako had stolen. And the people of the Sinners’ town would kill them as a revenge of their king and chiefs that Simbi had been beheaded in the shrin
e the other day.
And they were going to travel on the Path of Death back to their village, because there was no another path from this Dark Jungle nearest to their village on which they could travel.
When the two tigers who brought the two bags near to the town of the multi-coloured people, left both there and then ran away for their lives, Simbi hesitated inside her own bag for a few minutes, she listened attentively just to make sure whether the two tigers were hid near there and then to eat them whenever they come out from the bags.
But when there was no sign which showed that the two tigers were near there, then she came out from the bag in which she was. She told Rali to come out from the second one in which she was.
Then both sat near the two bags, they were thinking of how they could travel in the town of the multi-coloured people and in the Sinners’ town without being suspected them as their victims.
After a while, Simbi remembered her gods which she hung on the left shoulder, and that time was about five o’clock in the morning.
She took them out of the satchel which was their home. She put them in a single line before her. After that, she asked from the god of famine the kind of a help that it could render so that the multi-coloured people might not be able to suspect them when they were travelling along in their town.
Having asked for such a help, within ten minutes, incalculable locusts rushed out from the heaven. They covered the town of the multi-coloured people so that it became so dark even more than the Dark Jungle.
Having seen this, Simbi packed the gods back into the satchel and at the same time they took the two big bags in which they slept before the two tigers dragged them to that place. Then they were travelling along in that town without being suspected them until they passed the town behind and then they started to travel on the Path of Death. The people of the town were unable to distinguish them from the natives because of the darkness that the locusts brought there.
A few days after, they travelled near to the Sinners’ town, they stopped and thought of what to do again so that the people of that town might not be able to suspect them. But Rali told Simbi to ask for a help from one of her gods. Without hesitation she asked from everyone of them (gods) but there was no reply, because time had passed long ago since she should had sacrificed a goat or ram to them, as the old woman who had given them to her had told her to be doing for them every time. But Simbi had neither goat nor ram to offer to them and they were hungry for the animal.
Having disappointed by the gods, she remembered to play a trick to any traveller who might travel to them at that moment. After a while, two men travelled to where they sat, but the two men were not the natives of the Sinners’ town, they were wayfarers.
She stopped them, and they stopped at once because of her beauty which attracted them.
“Gentlemen, both of us have travelled until we are now unable to travel further. But with great respect I ask if both of you will be kind enough to carry both of us with these two bags, to the nearest of our village!” Simbi asked sharply with her attractive voice.
“We do agree to your request, but that will be when each of you have agreed to marry each of us!” The two men winked at each other that which showed they had lost all their senses in respect of the beauty of the two ladies.
“We do agree to marry you!” Simbi and Rali said loudly, but it was a lie.
After each of them had entered inside each of the two big bags, then each of the two men carried each bag.
But as they were carrying them along in the Sinners’ town, a number of robbers saw the bags on their heads and they were following them just to steal the bags from them because they thought the contents were precious.
Thus the two men carried them away from the Sinners’ town without suspecting them as their victims who had beheaded their King and some of the chiefs.
At last when the two men became tired they carried the bags to a town, in which they could get food to buy and to eat it, and then to rest as well till the morning—for it was in the night they came there.
Although this town was under the Sinners’ town.
When they put the bags down, closely to themselves, those robbers came and sat with them. Sometimes they would be pressing the bags with hands just to make sure of the kind of the contents of the bags. And sometimes they would be joking with the two men. Of course, these two men did not understand all their tricks that they were just trying to persuade them to get chance and steal the bags from them.
Although, as the two men had almost tired before they came to that town, therefore immediately they had finished with food, which they bought, they fell asleep unnoticed. Then those robbers went away with the two bags, while Simbi and Rali were inside them. And they had carried both to their cave that which was in a very far jungle, before the dawn.
Having put them in their cave, they started to betray themselves, because everyone of them wanted himself alone to take them and for this reason they did not loose them.
After a while, when they were hungry and thirsty, their champion sent the rest for the two things. Having gone for the two things, he removed the bags to another far cave. And then he went out just to find the food and water, because he was quite sure then that the two bags were for him alone.
Immediately he left there, a man who had seen him with the bags when he was entering that cave, came and entered the cave. He took the bags away, for he thought as well that the bags contained precious things and he did not loose them.
As he was carrying them along, it was so he was looking here and there with fear of not being caught by the champion of the thieves, until he came to a high hill in the heart of a forest.
Having climbed it to the summit, luckily there was a very tall, mighty tree on the summit of the hill. Then he climbed the tree to the top, and he tied both bags onto one of the strong branches of that tree. After that he came down and went away with the intention to come back at night and then carry the bags to his town.
Having left, Simbi and Rali were struggling to come out from the bags but it was in vain, because the bags were very strong to cut.
But when it was about four hours that that man had left there, many monkeys climbed the tree to the top, just to eat its fruits. And as they were jumping from one branch and then to another they discovered the bags. But as the bags were very strange to them, because they had never seen or met such bags on tops of trees, then they started to cut a part of the bag in which Simbi was, with their teeth until she was visible to them.
As she was trying to come out through that space, they saw her and then they ran away with fear.
After she came out from her own, she loosened the second one in which Rali was and then she came out as well.
After that they plucked some of the fruits from that tree with the help of the cudgel of bone which she had taken with her from the Satyr’s house. And then with great care of not being fall they went down from the tree and the hill.
Without hesitation, they started to travel along, and two days later they came to the Path of Death again. And when they travelled from the night till the day-break, they came to the end of the Path of Death and then they began to travel along on the path of their village.
When it remained one mile to reach their village, the first person that they met on the path was Dogo who had kidnapped and sold them long ago.
He had kidnapped three girls from their village and he was taking them to another town.
“Stop there, Dogo!” Simbi said loudly immediately she saw Dogo at a short distance from them. But he did not stop at all. When they came closely to each other, he looked at Simbi’s face and Simbi asked sharply “Or don’t you remember that you had been kidnapped me from my village long ago?” “Well, how many of you can I remember that I had kidnapped? I had kidnapped uncountable girls before you were born and uncountable when you were born and uncountable after I had kidnapped and sold you!” Dogo replied.
“All right, where are you taking these
three girls to now?” Simbi asked impatiently.
“I am taking them to where I had taken you to, and they are going to travel on the Path of Death as you have done!” Dogo replied.
Then Simbi paused and she called onto her memory all the punishments and poverty, all of which she had experienced and she was very sorry for the three girls.
“You will not take them away on my presence, and I am going to revenge from you now all what you are doing to the girls of my village. It is this day you will stop to come there!”
But when Dogo wanted to take away the three girls, Simbi started to beat him with the cudgel of bone, and thus Dogo was beating her, but at last she overpowered him. She beat him until he fell down and then made a promise that he would not come to her village and would not kidnap anybody from there as from that day.
Having promised like that, Simbi, Rali and the three girls went to the village.
Nearly the whole people of the village followed Simbi to her mother’s house. And her mother never believed her eyes when Simbi entered the house. But when she spoke to her then she believed that she was her daughter.
A few minutes after, those three girls whom Simbi took back from Dogo went to their houses, and Rali went to her mother’s house as well.
The following day, Simbi’s mother killed all kinds of domestic animals for the merriments which were performed in respect of Simbi’s return, because her mother had lost hope that she would return.
Although she had nearly spent all her money for buying goats, sheep, fowls, etc. which she was sacrificing to all kinds of gods so that they might help her to call Simbi back home.