The Omanhene is the chief of a village. A certain Omanhene had three
sons, who were very anxious to see the world. They went to their father
and asked permission to travel. This permission he readily gave.
It was the turn of the eldest to go first. He was provided with a
servant and with all he could possibly require for the journey.
After travelling for some time he came to a town where lived an
Omanhene who loved riddles. Being a stranger the traveller was,
according to custom, brought by the people before the chief.
The latter explained to him that they had certain laws in their
village. One law was that every stranger must beat the Omanhene in
answering riddles or he would be beheaded. He must be prepared to begin
the contest the following morning.
Next day he came to the Assembly Place, and found the Omanhene there
with all his attendants. The Omanhene asked many riddles. As the young
man was unable to answer any of them, he was judged to have failed and
was beheaded.
After some time the second son of the Omanhene started on his travels.
By a strange chance he arrived at the same town where his brother had
died. He also was asked many riddles, and failed to answer them.
Accordingly he too was put to death.
By and by the third brother announced his intention of travelling. His
mother did all in her power to persuade him to stay at home. It was
quite in vain.
She was sure that if he also reached the town where his brothers had
died, the same thing would happen to him. Rather than allow this, she
thought she would prefer him to die on the way.
She prepared for him a food called cankey—which she filled with poison.
Having packed it away in his bag, he set off. Very soon he began to
feel hungry. Knowing, however, that his mother had not wished him to
leave home, and therefore might have put some poison in the food, he
thought he would test it before eating it himself. Seeing a vulture
near by, he threw it half the cake.
The bird ate the cankey, and immediately fell dead by the roadside.
Three panthers came along and began to eat the vulture. They also fell
dead.
The young man cut off some of the flesh of the panthers and roasted it.
He then packed it carefully away in his bundle.
A little farther on he was attacked by seven highway robbers. They
wanted to kill him at once. He told them that he had some good roast
meat in his bundle and invited them to eat with him first. They agreed
and divided up the food into eight parts.
While they were eating the young man carefully hid his portion. Soon
all the seven robbers fell ill and died. The young man then went on his
way.
At last he reached the town where his brothers had died. Like them, he
was summoned to the Assembly Place to answer the riddles of the
Omanhene. For two days the contest proved equal. At the end of that
time, the young man said, “I have only one riddle left. If you are able
to answer that, you may put me to death.” He then gave this riddle to
the Omanhene:
Half kills one—
One kills three—
Three kills seven.
The ruler failed to answer it that evening, so it was postponed till
the next day.
During the night the Omanhene disguised himself and went to the house
where the stranger was staying. There he found the young man asleep in
the hall.
Imagining that the man before him was the stranger’s servant, and never
dreaming that it was the stranger himself, he roused the sleeper and
promised him a large reward if he would give him the solution to the
riddle.
The young man replied that he would tell the answer if the Omanhene
would bring him the costume which he always wore at the Assembly.
The ruler was only too pleased to go and fetch it for him. When the
young man had the garments quite safely, he explained the riddle fully
to the crafty Omanhene. He said that as they were leaving home, the
mother of his master made him cankey. In order to find out if the
cankey were good, they gave half to a vulture. The latter died. Three
panthers which tasted the vulture also died. A little of the panthers’
roasted flesh killed seven robbers.
The Omanhene was delighted to have found out the answer. He warned the
supposed servant not to tell his master what had happened.
In the morning all the villagers assembled together again. The Omanhene
proudly gave the answer to the riddle as if he himself had found it
out. But the young man asked him to produce his ceremonial dress, which
he ought to be wearing in Assembly. This, of course, he was unable to
do, as the young man had hidden it carefully away.
The stranger then told what had happened in the night, and how the
ruler had got the answer to the riddle by cheating.
The Assembly declared that the Omanhene had failed to find out the
riddle and must die. Accordingly he was beheaded—and the young man was
appointed Omanhene in his place.