When the people saw the girl they agreed that she was very f

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[Illustration: JU-JU MASK FROM IBO COUNTRY, SOUTHERN NIGERIA]

FOLK STORIES

FROM

SOUTHERN NIGERIA

WEST AFRICA

BY

ELPHINSTONE DAYRELL, F.R.G.S., F.R.A.I.

DISTRICT COMMISSIONER, SOUTHERN NIGERIA

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

ANDREW LANG

_WITH FRONTISPIECE_

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1910

* * * * *

CONTENTS

_Frontispiece from a Drawing in Colour by_ Major G. M. DE L. DAYRELL

PAGE

Introduction vii

I. The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter 1

II. How a Hunter obtained Money from his

Friends the Leopard, Goat, Bush Cat, and

Cock, and how he got out of repaying them 6

III. The Woman with two Skins 11

IV. The King's Magic Drum 20

V. Ituen and the King's Wife 29

VI. Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King 33

VII. Why the Bat flies by Night 36

VIII. The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull 38

IX. The King who Married the Cock's Daughter 42

X. Concerning the Woman, the Ape, and the Child 46

XI. The Fish and The Leopard's Wife; or, Why the

Fish lives in the Water 49

XII. Why the Bat is Ashamed to be seen in the

Daytime 51

XIII. Why the Worms live Underneath the Ground 56

XIV. The Elephant and the Tortoise; or, Why the

Worms are Blind and the Elephant has Small

Eyes 58

XV. Why a Hawk kills Chickens 62

XVI. Why the Sun and the Moon live in the Sky 64

XVII. Why the Flies Bother the Cows 66

XVIII. Why the Cat kills Rats 68

XIX. The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder 70

XX. Why the Bush Cow and the Elephant are bad

Friends 72

XXI. The Cock who caused a Fight between two

Towns 76

XXII. The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the

Tortoise; or, Why the Hippopotamus

lives in the Water 79

XXIII. Why Dead People are Buried 81

XXIV. Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away 83

XXV. Concerning the Leopard, the Squirrel, and

the Tortoise 86

XXVI. Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes 91

XXVII. The Story of the Leopard, the Tortoise, and

the Bush Rat 93

XXVIII. The King and the Ju Ju Tree 98

XXIX. How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant

and the Hippopotamus 104

XXX. Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous

Women 107

XXXI. How the Cannibals drove the People from

Insofan Mountain to the Cross River

(Ikom) 115

XXXII. The Lucky Fisherman 119

XXXIII. The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone 121

XXXIV. The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress 126

XXXV. The King and the 'Nsiat Bird 133

XXXVI. Concerning the Fate of Essido and his Evil

Companions 135

XXXVII. Concerning the Hawk and the Owl 142

XXXVIII. The Story of the Drummer and the

Alligators 145

XXXIX. The 'Nsasak Bird and the Odudu Bird 153

XL. The Election of the King Bird (the black-and-white

Fishing Eagle) 156

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION

Many years ago a book on the Folk-Tales of the Eskimo was published,

and the editor of _The Academy_ (Dr. Appleton) told one of his minions

to send it to me for revision. By mischance it was sent to an eminent

expert in Political Economy, who, never suspecting any error, took the

book for the text of an interesting essay on the economics of "the

blameless Hyperboreans."

Mr. Dayrell's "Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria" appeal to the

anthropologist within me, no less than to the lover of what children

and older people call "Fairy Tales." The stories are full of mentions

of strange institutions, as well as of rare adventures. I may be

permitted to offer some running notes and comments on this mass of

African curiosities from the crowded lumber-room of the native mind.

I. _The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter._--The story, like the tales

of the dark native tribes of Australia, rises from that state of fancy

by which man draws (at least for purposes of fiction) no line between

himself and the lower animals. Why should not the fair heroine, Adet,

daughter of the tortoise, be the daughter of human parents? The tale

would be none the less interesting, and a good deal more credible to

the mature intelligence. But the ancient fashion of animal parentage

is presented. It may have originated, like the stories of the

Australians, at a time when men were totemists, when every person had

a bestial or vegetable "family-name," and when, to account for these

hereditary names, stories of descent from a supernatural, bestial,

primeval race were invented. In the fables of the world, speaking

animals, human in all but outward aspect, are the characters. The

fashion is universal among savages; it descends to the Buddha's

_jataka_, or parables, to AEsop and La Fontaine. There could be no such

fashion if fables had originated among civilised human beings.

The polity of the people who tell this story seems to be despotic. The

king makes a law that any girl prettier than the prince's fifty wives

shall be put to death, with her parents. Who is to be the Paris, and

give the fatal apple to the most fair? Obviously the prince is the

Paris. He falls in love with Miss Tortoise, guided to her as he is by

the bird who is "entranced with her beauty." In this tribe, as in

Homer's time, the lover offers a bride-price to the father of the

girl. In Homer cattle are the current medium; in Nigeria pieces of

cloth and brass rods are (or were) the currency. Observe the queen's

interest in an affair of true love. Though she knows that her son's

life is endangered by his honourable passion, she adds to the

bride-price out of her privy purse. It is "a long courting"; four

years pass, while pretty Adet is "ower young to marry yet." The king

is very angry when the news of this breach of the royal marriage Act

first comes to his ears. He summons the whole of his subjects, his

throne, a stone, is set out in the market-place, and Adet is brought

before him. He sees and is conquered.

"It is no wonder," said the king,

"This tortoise-girl might be a queen."

Though a despot, his Majesty, before cancelling his law, has to

consult the eight Egbos, or heads of secret societies, whose magical

powers give the sacred sanction to legislation. The Egbo (see p. 4,

note) is a mumbo-jumbo man. He answers to the bogey who presides over

the rites of initiation in the Australian tribes.

When the Egbo is about, women must hide and keep out of the way. The

king proclaims the cancelling of the law. The Egbos might resist, for

they have all the knives and poisons of the secret societies behind

them. But the king, a master of the human heart, acts like Sir Robert

Walpole. He buys the Egbo votes "with palm-wine and money," and gives

a feast to the women at the marriage dances. But why does the king

give half his kingdom to the tortoise? When an adventurer in fairy

tales wins the hand of the king's heiress, he usually gets half the

kingdom. The tortoise is said to have been "the wisest of all men and

animals." Why? He merely did not kill his daughter. But there is no

temptation to kill daughters in a country where they are valuable

assets, and command high bride-prices. In the Australian tribes, the

bride-price is simply another girl. A man swops his sister to another

man for the other man's sister, or for any girl of whose hand the

other man has the disposal.

II. The second story is a very ingenious commercial parable, "Never

lend money, you only make a dangerous enemy." The story also explains

why bush cats eat poultry.

III. _The Woman with Two Skins_ is a peculiar version of the story of

the courteous Sir Gawain with his bride, hideous by day, and a pearl

of loveliness by night. The Ju Ju man answers to the witch in our

fairy tales and to the mother-in-law of the prince, who, by a magical

potion, makes him forget his own true love. She, however, is always

victorious, and the prince

"Prepares another marriage,

Their hearts so full of love and glee,"

and ousts the false bride, like Lord Bateman in the ballad, when

Sophia came home. In this case of Lord Bateman, the scholiast

(Thackeray, probably) suggests that his Lordship secured the consent

of the Church as the king in the tortoise story won that of the Egbos.

Our tale then wanders into the fairy tale of the king who is deceived

into drowning his children, in European folk-lore, because he is

informed that they are puppies. The Water Ju Ju, however, saves these

black princes, and brings forward the rightful heir very dramatically

at a wrestling match, where the lad overthrows more than he thought,

like Orlando in _As You Like It_, and conquers the heart of the

jealous queen as well as his athletic opponents.

In the conclusion the jealous woman is handed over to the

ecclesiastical arm of the Egbos; she is flogged, and, as in the case

of Jeanne d'Arc, is burned alive, "and her ashes were thrown into the

river." Human nature is much the same everywhere.

IV. _The King's Magic Drum._--The drum is the mystic cauldron of

ancient Welsh romance, which "always provides plenty of good food and

drink." But the drum has its drawback, the food "goes bad" if its

owner steps over a stick in the road or a fallen tree, a tabu like the

_geisas_ of ancient Irish legends. The tortoise, in this tale, has the

_geisas_ power; he can make the king give him anything he chooses to

ask. This very queer constraint occurs constantly in the Cuchullain

cycle of Irish romances, and in _The Black Thief_. (You can buy it for

a penny in Dublin, or read it in Thackeray's _Little Tour in

Ireland_.) The King is constrained to part with the drum, but does not

tell the tortoise about the tabu and the drawback. The tortoise,

though disappointed, at least pays his score off in public, and then

the tale wanders into the _Hop o' my Thumb_ formula, and the trail of

ashes. Finally the story, like most stories, explains the origin of an

animal peculiarity, why tortoises live under prickly tie-tie palms.

That explanation was clearly in the author's mind from the first, but

to reach his point he adopted the formula of the mystic object, drum

or cauldron, which provides endless supplies, and has a counteracting

charm attached to it, a tabu.

V. _Ituen and the King's Wife._--Some of these tales have this

peculiarity, that the characters possess names, as Ituen, Offiong, and

Attem. They are thus what people call _sagas_, not mere _Maerchen_. All

the pseudo-historic legends of the Greek states, of Thebes, Athens,

Mycenae, Pylos, and so on, are folk-tales converted into saga, and

adapted and accepted as historical. Some of these Nigerian fairy-tales

are in the same cast. The story of Athamas of Iolcos and the sacrifice

of any of his descendants who went into the town hall, exactly

corresponds to the fate of the family of Ituen (p. 32).[1] The whole

Athamas story, in Greece, is a tissue of popular tales found in every

part of the world. This Ituen story, as usual, explains the habits of

animals, vultures, and dogs, and illustrates the awful cruelties of

Egbo law.

VI. _The Pretty Stranger_ is a native variant of _Judith and

Holofernes_.

VII. A "Just So Story," a myth to explain the ways of animals. The

cauldron of Medea, which destroyed the wrong old person, and did not

rejuvenate him, is introduced. "All the stories have been told," all

the world over.

VIII. _The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull._--This is most

original; though all our ballads and tales about the pretty girl who

is carried to the land of the dead by her lover's ghost (Buerger's

_Lenore_) have the same fundamental idea. Then comes in the common

moral, the Reward of Courtesy, as in Perrault's _Les Fees_. But the

machinery of the Nigerian romance leads up to the Return of Proserpine

from the Dead in a truly fanciful way.

IX. _The King who Married the Cock's Daughter_ is AEsop's man who

married the woman that had been a cat. As Adia unen pecks at the corn,

the other lady caught and ate a mouse.

[Footnote 1: See the Platonic dialogue, Minos, 315-6, and Athamas in

Roscher's _Lexikon_.]

X. _The Woman, the Ape, and the Child._--This tale illustrates Egbo

juridicature very powerfully, and is told to account for Nigerian

marriage law.

XI. _The Fish and the Leopard's Wife._--Another "Just So Story."

XII. _The Bat._--Another explanation of the nocturnal habits of the

bat. The tortoise appears as the wisest of things, like the hare in

North America, Brer Rabbit, the Bushman Mantis insect, and so on.

XIII., XIV., XV. All of these are explanatory "Just So Stories."

XVI. _Why the Sun and Moon live in the Sky._--Sun and Moon, in savage

myth, lived on earth at first, but the Nigerian explanation of their

retreat to the sky is, as far as I know, without parallel elsewhere.

XVII., XVIII. "Just So Stories."

XIX. Quite an original myth of Thunder and Lightning: much below the

divine dignity of such myths elsewhere. Thunder is not the Voice of

Zeus or of Baiame the Father (Australian), but of an old sheep! The

gods have not made the Nigerians poetical.

XX. Another "Just So Story."

XXI. _The Cock who caused a Fight_ illustrates private war and justice

among the natives, and shows the Egbos refusing to admit the principle

of a fine in atonement for an offence.

XXII. _The Affair of the Hippopotamus and of the Tortoise._--A very

curious variant of the _Whuppitie Stoorie_, or Tom-Tit-Tot story,

depending on the power conferred by learning the secret name of an

opponent. These secret names are conferred at Australian ceremonies.

Any amount of the learning about secret names is easily accessible.

XXIII. _Why Dead People are Buried._--Here we meet the Creator so

common in the religious beliefs of Africans as of most barbarous and

savage peoples. "The Creator was a big chief." The Euahlayi Baiame is

rendered "Big Man" by Mrs. Langloh Parker (see The _Euahlayi Tribe_).

The myth is one of world-wide diffusion, explaining The Origin of

Death, usually by the fable of a message, forgotten and misrendered,

from the Creator.

XXIV. _The Fat Woman who Melted Away._--The revival of this beautiful

creature, from all that was left of her, the toe, is an incident very

common in folk-tales, i.e. the Scottish _Rashin Coatie_. (The word

"dowry" is used throughout where "bride-price" would better express

the institution. The Homeric [Greek: ena] is meant.)

XXV. _The Leopard, the Squirrel, and the Tortoise._--A "Just So

Story."

XXVI. _Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes._--A lunar myth; not a poetical

though a kindly explanation of the habits of the moon.

XXVII. _The Story of the Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Bush Rat._--A

"Just So Story."

XXVIII. _The King and the JuJu Tree._--This is a fine example of Ju Ju

beliefs, and of an extraordinary sacrifice to a Ju Ju power located in

a tree. Goats, chickens, and white men are common offerings, but

"seven baskets of flies" might propitiate Beelzebub. The "spirit-man"

who can succeed when sacrifice fails, chooses the king's daughter as

his reward, as is usual in _Maerchen_. Compare Melampus and Pero in

Greece. The skull in spirit-land here plays a friendly part, in

advising the princess, like Proserpine, not to eat among the dead.

This caution is found everywhere--in the Greek version of Orpheus and

Eurydice, in the _Kalewala_, and in Scott's "Wandering Willie's Tale,"

in _Redgauntlet_. Like Orpheus, the girl is not to look back while

leaving spirit-land. Her successful escape, by obeying the injunctions

of the skull, is unusual.

XXIX. _How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the

Hippopotamus._--A "Just So Story," with the tortoise as cunning as

Brer Rabbit.

XXX. _Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous Women._--Here the good

little bird plays the part of the popinjay who "up and spake" with

good effect in the first ballads. The useful Ju Ju man divines by

casting lots, a common method among the Zulus. The revenge of the

pretty girl's father is certainly adequate.

XXXI. _How the Cannibals drove the People from Insofan Mountain to the

Cross River (Ikom)._--This professes to be historical, and concerns

human sacrifices, "to cool the new yams," and cannibalism.

XXXII. is unimportant.

In XXXIII. we find the ordeal poison, which destroys fifty witches.

XXXIV. _The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress_ is a form of

our common tale of the waiting-maid who usurps the place of her

mistress, the Bride. The resurrection of the Bride from the water, at

the cry of her little sister, occurs in a remote quarter, among the

Samoyeds in Castren's _Samoyedische Maerchen_, but there the opening is

in the style of _Asterinos and Pulja (Phrixus and Helle)_ in Van

Hahn's _Griechische Maerchen_. The False Bride story is, in an ancient

French _chanson de geste_, part of the legend of the mother of

Charlemagne. The story also occurs in Callaway's collection of Zulu

fairy tales. In the Nigerian version the manners, customs, and

cruelties are all thoroughly West African.

XXXV. _The King and the 'Nsiat Bird_ accounts, as usual, for the

habits of the bird; and also illustrates the widespread custom of

killing twins.

XXXVI. reflects the well-known practices of poison and the ordeal by

poison.

XXXVII. is another "Just So Story."

XXXVIII. _The Drummer and the Alligators._--In this grim tale of one

of the abominable secret societies the human alligators appear to be

regarded as being capable of taking bestial form, like werewolves or

the leopards of another African secret society.

XXXIX. and XL. are both picturesque "Just So Stories," so common in

the folk-lore of all countries.

The most striking point in the tales is the combination of good humour

and good feeling with horrible cruelties, and the reign of terror of

the Egbos and lesser societies. European influences can scarcely do

much harm, apart from whisky, in Nigeria. As to religion, we do not

learn that the Creator receives any sacrifice: in savage and barbaric

countries He usually gets none. Only Ju Jus, whether ghosts or fiends

in general, are propitiated. The Other is "too high and too far."

I have briefly indicated the stories which have variants in ancient

myth and European _Maerchen_ or fairy tales.

ANDREW LANG.

FOLK STORIES

FROM SOUTHERN NIGERIA

I

_The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter_

There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence

over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as

the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon,

to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not

like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that

if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and

who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father

and mother should be killed.

Now about this time the tortoise and his wife had a daughter who was

very beautiful. The mother thought it was not safe to keep such a fine

child, as the prince might fall in love with her, so she told her

husband that her daughter ought to be killed and thrown away into the

bush. The tortoise, however, was unwilling, and hid her until she was

three years old. One day, when both the tortoise and his wife were

away on their farm, the king's son happened to be hunting near their

house, and saw a bird perched on the top of the fence round the house.

The bird was watching the little girl, and was so entranced with her

beauty that he did not notice the prince coming. The prince shot the

bird with his bow and arrow, and it dropped inside the fence, so the

prince sent his servant to gather it. While the servant was looking

for the bird he came across the little girl, and was so struck with

her form, that he immediately returned to his master and told him what

he had seen. The prince then broke down the fence and found the child,

and fell in love with her at once. He stayed and talked with her for a

long time, until at last she agreed to become his wife. He then went

home, but concealed from his father the fact that he had fallen in

love with the beautiful daughter of the tortoise.

But the next morning he sent for the treasurer, and got sixty pieces

of cloth[2] and three hundred rods,[3] and sent them to the tortoise.

Then in the early afternoon he went down to the tortoise's house, and

told him that he wished to marry his daughter. The tortoise saw at

once that what he had dreaded had come to pass, and that his life was

in danger, so he told the prince that if the king knew, he would kill

not only himself (the tortoise), but also his wife and daughter. The

prince replied that he would be killed himself before he allowed the

tortoise and his wife and daughter to be killed. Eventually, after

much argument, the tortoise consented, and agreed to hand his daughter

to the prince as his wife when she arrived at the proper age. Then the

prince went home and told his mother what he had done. She was in

great distress at the thought that she would lose her son, of whom she

was very proud, as she knew that when the king heard of his son's

disobedience he would kill him. However, the queen, although she knew

how angry her husband would be, wanted her son to marry the girl he

had fallen in love with, so she went to the tortoise and gave him some

money, clothes, yams, and palm-oil as further dowry on her son's

behalf in order that the tortoise should not give his daughter to

another man. For the next five years the prince was constantly with

the tortoise's daughter, whose name was Adet, and when she was about

to be put in the fatting house,[4] the prince told his father that he

was going to take Adet as his wife. On hearing this the king was very

angry, and sent word all round his kingdom that all people should come

on a certain day to the market-place to hear the palaver. When the

appointed day arrived the market-place was quite full of people, and

the stones belonging to the king and queen were placed in the middle

of the market-place.

[Footnote 2: A piece of cloth is generally about 8 yards long by 1

yard broad, and is valued at 5s.]

[Footnote 3: A rod is made of brass, and is worth 3d. It is in the

shape of a narrow croquet hoop, about 16 inches long and 6 inches

across. A rod is native currency on the Cross River.]

[Footnote 4: The fatting house is a room where a girl is kept for some

weeks previous to her marriage. She is given plenty of food, and made

as fat as possible, as fatness is looked upon as a great beauty by the

Efik people.]

When the king and queen arrived all the people stood up and greeted

them, and they then sat down on their stones. The king then told his

attendants to bring the girl Adet before him. When she arrived the

king was quite astonished at her beauty. He then told the people that

he had sent for them to tell them that he was angry with his son for

disobeying him and taking Adet as his wife without his knowledge, but

that now he had seen her himself he had to acknowledge that she was

very beautiful, and that his son had made a good choice. He would

therefore forgive his son.

When the people saw the girl they agreed that she was very fine and

quite worthy of being the prince's wife, and begged the king to cancel

the law he had made altogether, and the king agreed; and as the law

had been made under the "Egbo" law, he sent for eight Egbos,[5] and

told them that the order was cancelled throughout his kingdom, and

that for the future no one would be killed who had a daughter more

beautiful than the prince's wives, and gave the Egbos palm wine and

money to remove the law, and sent them away. Then he declared that

the tortoise's daughter, Adet, should marry his son, and he made them

marry the same day. A great feast was then given which lasted for

fifty days, and the king killed five cows and gave all the people

plenty of foo-foo[6] and palm-oil chop, and placed a large number of

pots of palm wine in the streets for the people to drink as they

liked. The women brought a big play to the king's compound, and there

was singing and dancing kept up day and night during the whole time.

The prince and his companions also played in the market square. When

the feast was over the king gave half of his kingdom to the tortoise

to rule over, and three hundred slaves to work on his farm. The prince

also gave his father-in-law two hundred women and one hundred girls to

work for him, so the tortoise became one of the richest men in the

kingdom. The prince and his wife lived together for a good many years

until the king died, when the prince ruled in his place. And all this

shows that the tortoise is the wisest of all men and animals.

[Footnote 5: The Egbo Society has many branches, extending from

Calabar up the Cross River as far as the German Cameroons. Formerly

this society used to levy blackmail to a certain extent and collect

debts for people. The head Ju Ju, or fetish man, of each society is

disguised, and frequently wears a hideous mask. There is a bell tied

round his waist, hanging behind and concealed by feathers; this bell

makes a noise as he runs. When the Egbo is out no women are allowed

outside their houses, and even at the present time the women pretend

to be very frightened. The Egbo very often carries a whip in his hand,

and hits out blindly at any one he comes across. He runs round the

town, followed by young men of his society beating drums and firing

off guns. There is generally much drinking going on when the Egbo is

playing. There is an Egbo House in most towns, the end part of which

is screened off for the Egbo to change in. Inside the house are hung

human skulls and the skulls of buffalo, or bush cow, as they are

called; also heads of the various antelopes, crocodiles, apes, and

other animals which have been killed by the members. The skulls of

cows and goats killed by the society are also hung up. A fire is

always kept in the Egbo House; and in the morning and late afternoon,

the members of the society frequently meet there to drink gin and palm

wine.]

[Footnote 6: Foo-foo=yams boiled and mashed up.]

MORAL.--Always have pretty daughters, as no matter how poor they may

be, there is always the chance that the king's son may fall in love

with them, and they may thus become members of the royal house and

obtain much wealth.

II

_How a Hunter obtained Money from his Friends the Leopard, Goat, Bush

Cat, and Cock, and how he got out of repaying them_

Many years ago there was a Calabar hunter called Effiong, who lived in

the bush, killed plenty of animals, and made much money. Every one in

the country knew him, and one of his best friends was a man called

Okun, who lived near him. But Effiong was very extravagant, and spent

much money in eating and drinking with every one, until at last he

became quite poor, so he had to go out hunting again; but now his good

luck seemed to have deserted him, for although he worked hard, and

hunted day and night, he could not succeed in killing anything. One

day, as he was very hungry, he went to his friend Okun and borrowed

two hundred rods from him, and told him to come to his house on a

certain day to get his money, and he told him to bring his gun,

loaded, with him.

Now, some time before this Effiong had made friends with a leopard and

a bush cat, whom he had met in the forest whilst on one of his hunting

expeditions; and he had also made friends with a goat and a cock at a

farm where he had stayed for the night. But though Effiong had

borrowed the money from Okun, he could not think how he was to repay

it on the day he had promised. At last, however, he thought of a plan,

and on the next day he went to his friend the leopard, and asked him

to lend him two hundred rods, promising to return the amount to him on

the same day as he had promised to pay Okun; and he also told the

leopard, that if he were absent when he came for his money, he could

kill anything he saw in the house and eat it. The leopard was then to

wait until the hunter arrived, when he would pay him the money; and to

this the leopard agreed. The hunter then went to his friend the goat,

and borrowed two hundred rods from him in the same way. Effiong also

went to his friends the bush cat and the cock, and borrowed two

hundred rods from each of them on the same conditions, and told each

one of them that if he were absent when they arrived, they could kill

and eat anything they found about the place.

When the appointed day arrived the hunter spread some corn on the

ground, and then went away and left the house deserted. Very early in

the morning, soon after he had begun to crow, the cock remembered what

the hunter had told him, and walked over to the hunter's house, but

found no one there. On looking round, however, he saw some corn on the

ground, and, being hungry, he commenced to eat. About this time the

bush cat also arrived, and not finding the hunter at home, he, too,

looked about, and very soon he espied the cock, who was busy picking

up the grains of corn. So the bush cat went up very softly behind and

pounced on the cock and killed him at once, and began to eat him. By

this time the goat had come for his money; but not finding his

friend, he walked about until he came upon the bush cat, who was so

intent upon his meal off the cock, that he did not notice the goat

approaching; and the goat, being in rather a bad temper at not getting

his money, at once charged at the bush cat and knocked him over,

butting him with his horns. This the bush cat did not like at all, so,

as he was not big enough to fight the goat, he picked up the remains

of the cock and ran off with it to the bush, and so lost his money, as

he did not await the arrival of the hunter. The goat was thus left

master of the situation and started bleating, and this noise attracted

the attention of the leopard, who was on his way to receive payment

from the hunter. As he got nearer the smell of goat became very

strong, and being hungry, for he had not eaten anything for some time,

he approached the goat very carefully. Not seeing any one about he

stalked the goat and got nearer and nearer, until he was within

springing distance. The goat, in the meantime, was grazing quietly,

quite unsuspicious of any danger, as he was in his friend the hunter's

compound. Now and then he would say Ba!! But most of the time he was

busy eating the young grass, and picking up the leaves which had

fallen from a tree of which he was very fond. Suddenly the leopard

sprang at the goat, and with one crunch at the neck brought him down.

The goat was dead almost at once, and the leopard started on his meal.

It was now about eight o'clock in the morning, and Okun, the hunter's

friend, having had his early morning meal, went out with his gun to

receive payment of the two hundred rods he had lent to the hunter.

When he got close to the house he heard a crunching sound, and, being

a hunter himself, he approached very cautiously, and looking over the

fence saw the leopard only a few yards off busily engaged eating the

goat. He took careful aim at the leopard and fired, whereupon the

leopard rolled over dead. The death of the leopard meant that four of

the hunter's creditors were now disposed of, as the bush cat had

killed the cock, the goat had driven the bush cat away (who thus

forfeited his claim), and in his turn the goat had been killed by the

leopard, who had just been slain by Okun. This meant a saving of eight

hundred rods to Effiong; but he was not content with this, and

directly he heard the report of the gun he ran out from where he had

been hiding all the time, and found the leopard lying dead with Okun

standing over it. Then in very strong language Effiong began to

upbraid his friend, and asked him why he had killed his old friend the

leopard, that nothing would satisfy him but that he should report the

whole matter to the king, who would no doubt deal with him as he

thought fit. When Effiong said this Okun was frightened, and begged

him not to say anything more about the matter, as the king would be

angry; but the hunter was obdurate, and refused to listen to him; and

at last Okun said, "If you will allow the whole thing to drop and will

say no more about it, I will make you a present of the two hundred

rods you borrowed from me." This was just what Effiong wanted, but

still he did not give in at once; eventually, however, he agreed, and

told Okun he might go, and that he would bury the body of his friend

the leopard.

Directly Okun had gone, instead of burying the body Effiong dragged it

inside the house and skinned it very carefully. The skin he put out to

dry in the sun, and covered it with wood ash, and the body he ate.

When the skin was well cured the hunter took it to a distant market,

where he sold it for much money. And now, whenever a bush cat sees a

cock he always kills it, and does so by right, as he takes the cock in

part payment of the two hundred rods which the hunter never paid him.

MORAL.--Never lend money to people, because if they cannot pay they

will try to kill you or get rid of you in some way, either by poison

or by setting bad Ju Ju's for you.

III

_The Woman with Two Skins_

Eyamba I. of Calabar was a very powerful king. He fought and conquered

all the surrounding countries, killing all the old men and women, but

the able-bodied men and girls he caught and brought back as slaves,

and they worked on the farms until they died.

This king had two hundred wives, but none of them had borne a son to

him. His subjects, seeing that he was becoming an old man, begged him

to marry one of the spider's daughters, as they always had plenty of

children. But when the king saw the spider's daughter he did not like

her, as she was ugly, and the people said it was because her mother

had had so many children at the same time. However, in order to please

his people he married the ugly girl, and placed her among his other

wives, but they all complained because she was so ugly, and said she

could not live with them. The king, therefore, built her a separate

house for herself, where she was given food and drink the same as the

other wives. Every one jeered at her on account of her ugliness; but

she was not really ugly, but beautiful, as she was born with two

skins, and at her birth her mother was made to promise that she should

never remove the ugly skin until a certain time arrived save only

during the night, and that she must put it on again before dawn. Now

the king's head wife knew this, and was very fearful lest the king

should find it out and fall in love with the spider's daughter; so she

went to a Ju Ju man and offered him two hundred rods to make a potion

that would make the king forget altogether that the spider's daughter

was his wife. This the Ju Ju man finally consented to do, after much

haggling over the price, for three hundred and fifty rods; and he made

up some "medicine," which the head wife mixed with the king's food.

For some months this had the effect of making the king forget the

spider's daughter, and he used to pass quite close to her without

recognising her in any way. When four months had elapsed and the king

had not once sent for Adiaha (for that was the name of the spider's

daughter), she began to get tired, and went back to her parents. Her

father, the spider, then took her to another Ju Ju man, who, by making

spells and casting lots, very soon discovered that it was the king's

head wife who had made the Ju Ju and had enchanted the king so that he

would not look at Adiaha. He therefore told the spider that Adiaha

should give the king some medicine which he would prepare, which would

make the king remember her. He prepared the medicine, for which the

spider had to pay a large sum of money; and that very day Adiaha made

a small dish of food, into which she had placed the medicine, and

presented it to the king. Directly he had eaten the dish his eyes were

opened and he recognised his wife, and told her to come to him that

very evening. So in the afternoon, being very joyful, she went down to

the river and washed, and when she returned she put on her best cloth

and went to the king's palace.

Directly it was dark and all the lights were out she pulled off her

ugly skin, and the king saw how beautiful she was, and was very

pleased with her; but when the cock crowed Adiaha pulled on her ugly

skin again, and went back to her own house.

This she did for four nights running, always taking the ugly skin off

in the dark, and leaving before daylight in the morning. In course of

time, to the great surprise of all the people, and particularly of the

king's two hundred wives, she gave birth to a son; but what surprised

them most of all was that only one son was born, whereas her mother

had always had a great many children at a time, generally about fifty.

The king's head wife became more jealous than ever when Adiaha had a

son; so she went again to the Ju Ju man, and by giving him a large

present induced him to give her some medicine which would make the

king sick and forget his son. And the medicine would then make the

king go to the Ju Ju man, who would tell him that it was his son who

had made him sick, as he wanted to reign instead of his father. The Ju

Ju man would also tell the king that if he wanted to recover he must

throw his son away into the water.

And the king, when he had taken the medicine, went to the Ju Ju man,

who told him everything as had been arranged with the head wife. But

at first the king did not want to destroy his son. Then his chief

subjects begged him to throw his son away, and said that perhaps in a

year's time he might get another son. So the king at last agreed, and

threw his son into the river, at which the mother grieved and cried

bitterly.

Then the head wife went again to the Ju Ju man and got more medicine,

which made the king forget Adiaha for three years, during which time

she was in mourning for her son. She then returned to her father, and

he got some more medicine from his Ju Ju man, which Adiaha gave to the

king. And the king knew her and called her to him again, and she lived

with him as before. Now the Ju Ju who had helped Adiaha's father, the

spider, was a Water Ju Ju, and he was ready when the king threw his

son into the water, and saved his life and took him home and kept him

alive. And the boy grew up very strong.

After a time Adiaha gave birth to a daughter, and her the jealous wife

also persuaded the king to throw away. It took a longer time to

persuade him, but at last he agreed, and threw his daughter into the

water too, and forgot Adiaha again. But the Water Ju Ju was ready

again, and when he had saved the little girl, he thought the time had

arrived to punish the action of the jealous wife; so he went about

amongst the head young men and persuaded them to hold a wrestling

match in the market-place every week. This was done, and the Water Ju

Ju told the king's son, who had become very strong, and was very like

to his father in appearance, that he should go and wrestle, and that

no one would be able to stand up before him. It was then arranged

that there should be a grand wrestling match, to which all the

strongest men in the country were invited, and the king promised to

attend with his head wife.

On the day of the match the Water Ju Ju told the king's son that he

need not be in the least afraid, and that his Ju Ju was so powerful,

that even the strongest and best wrestlers in the country would not be

able to stand up against him for even a few minutes. All the people of

the country came to see the great contest, to the winner of which the

king had promised to present prizes of cloth and money, and all the

strongest men came. When they saw the king's son, whom nobody knew,

they laughed and said, "Who is this small boy? He can have no chance

against us." But when they came to wrestle, they very soon found that

they were no match for him. The boy was very strong indeed,

beautifully made and good to look upon, and all the people were

surprised to see how like he was to the king.

After wrestling for the greater part of the day the king's son was

declared the winner, having thrown every one who had stood up against

him; in fact, some of his opponents had been badly hurt, and had their

arms or ribs broken owing to the tremendous strength of the boy. After

the match was over the king presented him with cloth and money, and

invited him to dine with him in the evening. The boy gladly accepted

his father's invitation; and after he had had a good wash in the

river, put on his cloth and went up to the palace, where he found the

head chiefs of the country and some of the king's most favoured wives.

They then sat down to their meal, and the king had his own son, whom

he did not know, sitting next to him. On the other side of the boy sat

the jealous wife, who had been the cause of all the trouble. All

through the dinner this woman did her best to make friends with the

boy, with whom she had fallen violently in love on account of his

beautiful appearance, his strength, and his being the best wrestler in

the country. The woman thought to herself, "I will have this boy as my

husband, as my husband is now an old man and will surely soon die."

The boy, however, who was as wise as he was strong, was quite aware of

everything the jealous woman had done, and although he pretended to be

very flattered at the advances of the king's head wife, he did not

respond very readily, and went home as soon as he could.

When he returned to the Water Ju Ju's house he told him everything

that had happened, and the Water Ju Ju said--

"As you are now in high favour with the king, you must go to him

to-morrow and beg a favour from him. The favour you will ask is that

all the country shall be called together, and that a certain case

shall be tried, and that when the case is finished, the man or woman

who is found to be in the wrong shall be killed by the Egbos before

all the people."

So the following morning the boy went to the king, who readily granted

his request, and at once sent all round the country appointing a day

for all the people to come in and hear the case tried. Then the boy

went back to the Water Ju Ju, who told him to go to his mother and

tell her who he was, and that when the day of the trial arrived, she

was to take off her ugly skin and appear in all her beauty, for the

time had come when she need no longer wear it. This the son did.

When the day of trial arrived, Adiaha sat in a corner of the square,

and nobody recognised the beautiful stranger as the spider's daughter.

Her son then sat down next to her, and brought his sister with him.

Immediately his mother saw her she said--

"This must be my daughter, whom I have long mourned as dead," and

embraced her most affectionately.

The king and his head wife then arrived and sat on their stones in the

middle of the square, all the people saluting them with the usual

greetings. The king then addressed the people, and said that he had

called them together to hear a strong palaver at the request of the

young man who had been the victor of the wrestling, and who had

promised that if the case went against him he would offer up his life

to the Egbo. The king also said that if, on the other hand, the case

was decided in the boy's favour, then the other party would be killed,

even though it were himself or one of his wives; whoever it was would

have to take his or her place on the killing-stone and have their

heads cut off by the Egbos. To this all the people agreed, and said

they would like to hear what the young man had to say. The young man

then walked round the square, and bowed to the king and the people,

and asked the question, "Am I not worthy to be the son of any chief in

the country?" And all the people answered "Yes!"

The boy then brought his sister out into the middle, leading her by

the hand. She was a beautiful girl and well made. When every one had

looked at her he said, "Is not my sister worthy to be any chief's

daughter?" And the people replied that she was worthy of being any

one's daughter, even the king's. Then he called his mother Adiaha, and

she came out, looking very beautiful with her best cloth and beads on,

and all the people cheered, as they had never seen a finer woman. The

boy then asked them, "Is this woman worthy of being the king's wife?"

And a shout went up from every one present that she would be a proper

wife for the king, and looked as if she would be the mother of plenty

of fine healthy sons.

Then the boy pointed out the jealous woman who was sitting next to the

king, and told the people his story, how that his mother, who had two

skins, was the spider's daughter; how she had married the king, and

how the head wife was jealous and had made a bad Ju Ju for the king,

which made him forget his wife; how she had persuaded the king to

throw himself and his sister into the river, which, as they all knew,

had been done, but the Water Ju Ju had saved both of them, and had

brought them up.

Then the boy said: "I leave the king and all of you people to judge my

case. If I have done wrong, let me be killed on the stone by the

Egbos; if, on the other hand, the woman has done evil, then let the

Egbos deal with her as you may decide."

When the king knew that the wrestler was his son he was very glad, and

told the Egbos to take the jealous woman away, and punish her in

accordance with their laws. The Egbos decided that the woman was a

witch; so they took her into the forest and tied her up to a stake,

and gave her two hundred lashes with a whip made from hippopotamus

hide, and then burnt her alive, so that she should not make any more

trouble, and her ashes were thrown into the river. The king then

embraced his wife and daughter, and told all the people that she,

Adiaha, was his proper wife, and would be the queen for the future.

When the palaver was over, Adiaha was dressed in fine clothes and

beads, and carried back in state to the palace by the king's servants.

That night the king gave a big feast to all his subjects, and told

them how glad he was to get back his beautiful wife whom he had never

known properly before, also his son who was stronger than all men, and

his fine daughter. The feast continued for a hundred and sixty-six

days; and the king made a law that if any woman was found out getting

medicine against her husband, she should be killed at once. Then the

king built three new compounds, and placed many slaves in them, both

men and women. One compound he gave to his wife, another to his son,

and the third he gave to his daughter. They all lived together quite

happily for some years until the king died, when his son came to the

throne and ruled in his stead.

IV

_The King's Magic Drum_

Efriam Duke was an ancient king of Calabar. He was a peaceful man, and

did not like war. He had a wonderful drum, the property of which, when

it was beaten, was always to provide plenty of good food and drink. So

whenever any country declared war against him, he used to call all his

enemies together and beat his drum; then to the surprise of every one,

instead of fighting the people found tables spread with all sorts of

dishes, fish, foo-foo, palm-oil chop, soup, cooked yams and ocros, and

plenty of palm wine for everybody. In this way he kept all the country

quiet, and sent his enemies away with full stomachs, and in a happy

and contented frame of mind. There was only one drawback to possessing

the drum, and that was, if the owner of the drum walked over any stick

on the road or stept over a fallen tree, all the food would

immediately go bad, and three hundred Egbo men would appear with

sticks and whips and beat the owner of the drum and all the invited

guests very severely.

Efriam Duke was a rich man. He had many farms and hundreds of slaves,

a large store of kernels on the beach, and many puncheons of palm-oil.

He also had fifty wives and many children. The wives were all fine

women and healthy; they were also good mothers, and all of them had

plenty of children, which was good for the king's house.

Every few months the king used to issue invitations to all his

subjects to come to a big feast, even the wild animals were invited;

the elephants, hippopotami, leopards, bush cows, and antelopes used to

come, for in those days there was no trouble, as they were friendly

with man, and when they were at the feast they did not kill one

another. All the people and the animals as well were envious of the

king's drum and wanted to possess it, but the king would not part with

it.

One morning Ikwor Edem, one of the king's wives, took her little

daughter down to the spring to wash her, as she was covered with yaws,

which are bad sores all over the body. The tortoise happened to be up

a palm tree, just over the spring, cutting nuts for his midday meal;

and while he was cutting, one of the nuts fell to the ground, just in

front of the child. The little girl, seeing the good food, cried for

it, and the mother, not knowing any better, picked up the palm nut and

gave it to her daughter. Directly the tortoise saw this he climbed

down the tree, and asked the woman where his palm nut was. She replied

that she had given it to her child to eat. Then the tortoise, who very

much wanted the king's drum, thought he would make plenty palaver over

this and force the king to give him the drum, so he said to the mother

of the child--