Long ago the spider and the grasshopper were good friends.
Unfortunately the spider was intensely greedy, and this led to much
unpleasantness.
Now the spider wanted to go some distance from his house to marry a
wife in a strange country, so he called upon his friend the grasshopper
to accompany him. They started off together in the morning before the
sun was hot, and when they had gone some little way, the spider said
to his friend, “While we are away together, I want you to call me
‘Stranger,’ and I will call you ‘Dabi.’ We must not call one another
by our proper names, as I do not want the people to know who we really
are.” To this the grasshopper readily consented, little knowing what he
was letting himself in for.
Shortly afterwards they arrived at the first town, and were welcomed by
the chief. The grasshopper said he was called Dabi, and introduced his
friend as “Stranger.”
The chief then ordered food to be placed before them, but the spider,
whilst thanking the chief for his kindness, said: “Surely the custom
of the country is, when a stranger arrives in a town, to first of all
offer him ‘the peace dish,’ consisting of dried meat and kola nuts, to
show that he is welcome, and that there is peace between them.”
The chief replied, “Yes, there is certainly that custom here, but as
I thought you were hungry after your long walk, I ordered the food
to be brought at once.” He then told one of his slaves to bring the
dried meat and kola, and when it was brought, the spider eat all the
meat and kola except two nuts, one of which he returned to the chief,
and the other he gave to the grasshopper, saying, “You must wait, my
friend Dabi, for your food, as this meat and kola was brought for the
stranger, and your name was not mentioned.”
Later on the general supply of food was passed round, a certain amount
being set on one side for the strangers. This the spider also eat,
saying, “I am sorry, Dabi, but there is no food for you, as this was
brought for the stranger, and that is my name.”
The next day they resumed their journey, and when they arrived at the
town where the girl lived whom the spider was about to marry, he went
to his future father-in-law’s house, whose name was Tawn, and said,
“Tawn, I have come to marry your daughter.”
Now Tawn had a wife called Osegi, who was a very good-natured woman,
which was lucky for the grasshopper as things turned out.
When Tawn had embraced his future son-in-law, he ordered a cow to be
killed to welcome him. And when the people brought the food, they said,
“Here is the stranger’s portion.” Immediately the spider said to his
friend, “Did you hear that, Dabi? Your name was not mentioned, so you
have no right to this food, which is all for me, ‘the stranger.’” But
the grasshopper kept quiet and never said a word to anyone, although he
was very hungry.
The marriage between the spider and Chief Tawn’s daughter was
celebrated the following day. All the people were called together to
dance and play, guns were fired off in the town, and Chief Tawn killed
four more cows for the strangers who had come from a distance.
The grasshopper longed to eat the food, but did not see how he could
manage it, as he was known as Dabi, and his name was never called. The
spider therefore ate his own share and the grasshopper’s as well, while
the poor grasshopper sat down by himself, feeling very sad, and not
speaking to anyone.
When he had finished the food the spider went out to dance and play
with his new wife, but the grasshopper did not go, as he was very
hungry and weak, and not feeling at all up to singing and dancing.
After he had been alone for a little while, the Chief’s wife Osegi came
in, and seeing the grasshopper looking so miserable, went up to him and
said, “Why are you so silent and sad at my daughter’s wedding, when all
the other people are feasting and dancing?”
At this the grasshopper could contain himself no longer, and burst into
tears saying, “Three days ago, when we left our home, the spider asked
me to call him ‘Stranger’ and said he would call me ‘Dabi.’ During all
this time I have been starving, and I am very hungry indeed, as all
the food has been brought for ‘the Stranger,’ and the spider has eaten
it because my name is Dabi, and I was never mentioned.” Then Osegi said
she would tell the people what their proper names were so that when
the food was brought the grasshopper would have his share. Osegi then
went out and gave the necessary orders, and told her slaves to be most
particular to call the grasshopper’s name the next time there was food
so that he should be able to eat. In the afternoon this was done, but
when the spider heard his friend’s name called out, he was so angry
that he would not eat.
The second day the servants did the same, and the spider again refused
the food when it was brought. Early in the morning of the third day the
spider told his father-in-law that he was going home, and that he would
leave his wife for a time, and come back for her later.
Tawu then said he would make another feast to celebrate their
departure, and that he should like to see his son-in-law dance once
more before he returned home; so the people were called to another
play, and the chief milked one more cow for their food. When the food
was ready the spider said to his friend, “Come on, Dabi, let us go and
dance.” But the grasshopper refused and said, “No, you go and dance,
and I will join you later.” So the spider went by himself, leaving the
grasshopper in the room where the food was. Seeing there was no one
about, he took his outside skin off very quickly and hung it up on a
peg on the wall, making it look just like a living grasshopper; he then
went out and joined the dancers.
When the spider saw the grasshopper had arrived and was busily engaged
dancing, being very hungry he stole off by himself to the room where
the food was and put his hand into the pot. But, just as he was going
to take out a piece of meat, he happened to look up and saw the skin
of the grasshopper, which was so lifelike that it deceived him into
thinking that it really was his friend on the wall, so he pulled his
hand out of the pot and said, trying to laugh, “It is all right, Dabi,
my friend, I was not going to eat anything, I just came in to see what
the food was like.” He then went out again to where the people were
dancing, and to his great surprise he saw the grasshopper, where he had
left him, dancing and enjoying himself with some pretty young girls.
The spider could not understand how it was that the grasshopper had
managed to get back to the play so quickly, but, as he saw him there,
he was too hungry to trouble much about that, and went back again to
get the food he was so much in need of. Everything was quiet when
he returned, so he lifted the lid again, and took out a large piece
of yam, and had only taken one bite, when his eye was caught by the
grasshopper’s skin in the same place where he had seen it before. The
spider was amazed at this, and thought there must be some ju-ju in it,
so he put the yam down and ran out of the house, shouting as he went,
“All right, Dabi, I only thought I would like to taste the food to see
that it was good.”
But when he got to the dance he again saw, to his intense astonishment,
that the grasshopper was dancing away as merrily as before.
The spider then went up to his father-in-law and asked him to stop the
dance, as he wished to go home at once. This was done, and they all
went back to the chief’s house together.
Chief Tawu then gave both the spider and the grasshopper a dog each
as a present, and shortly afterwards they started off together on
their-return journey.
After walking a short distance outside the town, the spider was so
hungry that he stopped and killed the dog his father-in-law had given,
and very soon had eaten the whole of it.
He then tried to get the grasshopper to kill his dog, but he refused,
saying, “The dog was given to me by the chief as a present and not for
food. I shall take it home with me.”
When the spider had finished eating his dog, he put the skull of the
dog in his bag, and asked the grasshopper to go in front of him.
Shortly after this, the dog, scenting some game, dived into the bush,
and very soon returned to the path with a small bush buck in his mouth.
As the grasshopper had gone on in front and had not waited for his dog,
the spider took the buck, and, having cut its head off and put it in
his bag next to the dog’s skull, he sat down and eat the body.
When he rejoined the grasshopper later in the day, he produced his
bag, and took out the buck’s head, and told the grasshopper that his
dog’s skull was very clever, and had killed the buck. Although the
grasshopper knew quite well what had happened, he did not say anything,
but walked on again in front with his dog as he had done before.
That night they slept in the bush, and the next day, when they got near
the first town they had passed through when leaving home, the dog again
dashed off into the forest, and chased a bush cow which he bit very
badly in the leg.
When they reached the town, the spider told the people that the
grasshopper’s dog had chased one of the chief’s cows and bitten it
very badly. This made the people angry, and they all turned out with
sticks to beat the grasshopper, but when he saw them coming, he called
out to them and soon convinced them that his dog had not bitten the
chief’s cow, but had chased a bush cow and had wounded it badly. He
then offered to show the hunters where the place was, and they gladly
accepted his offer. The hunters then got their bows and arrows, and
having been shown the tracks of the bush cow by the grasshopper, they
had little difficulty in tracking it by its blood, and eventually
killed it.
The people then carried the meat back to the town and placed the horns
in front of their ju-ju. Half the meat was given to the grasshopper,
and the remainder divided amongst the people, the spider getting
nothing.
When the spider saw this he was vexed, and told the grasshopper that he
did not want him for his friend again. He then set himself to make a
net of web in order to revenge himself on the grasshopper, and has ever
since lived on insects.
N.B.--This story was given to me at Akparabong by a native, but there
would appear to be some doubt as to whether it is a local story or not.
A native from Cavally on the Kroo Coast affirms that he first told this
story which was afterwards related to me, and this boy certainly gave
me afterwards the main features of the story, but with a different
local colouring.
VIII.--HOW EWA ABAGI, AN INKUM WOMAN, WAS DROWNED IN THE CROSS RIVER,
AND HOW SHE WAS RESCUED BY THE YOUNG MEN OF INSOFAN.
In the olden days, Ewa Abagi lived at Inkum. She was very rich and was
considered to be a most beautiful woman. She made most of her money
by trading in palm kernels and camwood, but, as she was so popular
wherever she went with the young men of the country, she also made a
lot of money out of them, as, if they did not pay her well in advance,
she would have nothing to do with them.
She received many offers of marriage, but refused them all, until one
day a chief of Insofan named Awor sent a message to her that he wished
to make her his wife, as he had heard what a fine woman she was.
Ewa Abagi then sent word back to the chief that she could not marry him
just then as she was expecting to bear a son, but that, some time after
the child was born, she would go up the river to Insofan and marry him
as she had heard that he was rich and was a good man.
The child turned out to be a girl, and shortly after her birth, Ewa
Abagi bought a young slave woman called Mossim to look after her baby,
while she herself went to the different markets trading.
When the girl baby had become six years old, Ewa Abagi dressed herself
and her daughter up in their best clothes, and crossed over the river
to Okuni with the slave woman Mossim carrying her load. They then
proceeded to walk overland to Insofan.
On reaching the Abum River which is quite close to Insofan, Ewa Abagi
went to bathe, and took her little daughter with her, putting down her
cloth and beads on the ground. As the river was very shallow, it being
the dry season, they walked and waded down to the Cross River.
When she got there, she washed her daughter and then called upon Mossim
to scrub her back. The slave woman then came up behind her mistress,
and pushed her into the Cross River, where she at once disappeared.
When the little girl, whose name was Essere, saw that her mother had
gone, she began to cry, but Mossim said, “Do not cry. You must call me
your mother, and I will treat you well. When we get to the town, you
must not tell anyone that I am not your mother, or I will punish you
severely.”
She then dressed the child and put on the cloth and beads of Ewa Abagi
herself, having just tied up her own clothes into a bundle with some
stones and thrown them into the Cross River.
Mossim and the child then walked on to Insofan, and, when they got
there, the slave woman went to Chief Awor’s house and said, “I am Ewa
Abagi whom you wanted to marry, and this (turning to the little girl)
is my daughter Essere.” The chief welcomed her, but was not very
pleased, as he had expected to see a much finer woman from all the
reports he had heard of her beauty.
When the people of Insofan heard that the chief’s new wife had arrived,
many of them went to see her, as she was so well known by name. When
they saw Mossim, they were not greatly impressed by her looks, and said
so quite freely in very plain terms.
Now, one of the young men of the town, who had been down the river
trading, knew Ewa Abagi very well indeed, and, when he saw the slave
woman, he recognized her as the servant, so he told Chief Awor. The
chief said, “Very well, I hear what you say, and will not marry the
woman at present. We will wait for a time, and I will make enquiries.”
In the morning Mossim told the girl to go and get water from the
spring, and the little girl went off with the water pot on her head.
Essere, however, did not go to the spring as she had been told, but
went to the place where she had seen the slave woman push her mother
into the water. She then sat down and began to cry for her mother.
When Ewa Abagi heard her daughter crying, she came out of the river
and talked to her. She then painted her daughter with _okukum_,[1] and
having helped the child with the water pot, she returned to the river,
and Essere went home.
When she arrived at the house, Mossim asked her who had painted her
with okokum and why she had been so long getting the water from the
spring. The child did not answer, so the slave woman said to her,
“Don’t you be so long another time, or you will get into trouble.”
The next day Essere went to get the water at the same place. She
called for a long time, but her mother did not come out, as she saw a
man making tombo in a tree near at hand. At last, however, as she did
not like to hear her little daughter crying, Ewa Abagi came out very
quickly, helped Essere with the water pot on to her head, and went back
again into the river.
The man, who had been watching, saw Ewa Abagi and recognized her. He
therefore came down from the tree and went at once to the chief and
told him what he had seen.
The chief then told all the young men of the town to go early the next
morning to the place where Ewa Abagi had been seen and to try and get
her out of the river. He promised them that, if they succeeded in
bringing the woman to him, he would hold a big play and “dash” them
plenty of tombo and food.
The chief told Essere that, when she went in the morning to get the
water, if she wanted to get her mother back, directly she had got the
water out of the river she must take the pot back some little distance
into the bush.
When the morning came, the little girl went off with her pot, as
before, and having filled it with water, carried it back into the bush
some little way from the river, and then sat down, and called for her
mother to come and help her.
The young men, who had gone to the place before it was light, and who
had lined both banks of the Abum river, by the chief’s orders, were all
hidden out of sight, and, when Ewa Abagi came out of the water, they
immediately surrounded her and caught her before she could get back to
the river. They then carried her back to the chief.
The slave woman was then seized, and tied up to a tree, and, when the
morning came, the chief charged her with trying to kill her mistress.
She was found guilty, and was ordered to be killed as a sacrifice to
the water ju-ju.
Mossim was then handed over to the young men who had rescued Ewa Abagi,
and they took her to the place where she had pushed her mistress into
the river, and, having cut her head off, threw the head and body into
the river. This is one of the reasons why slaves are always killed and
put into the grave of their master or mistress when they die, as a
warning to other slaves not to try to kill their owners.
_Author’s note._
There is a firm belief amongst all the natives in the Ikom district
that the slaves who are killed and buried with their master will meet
him again in the Spirit Land, where the conditions of life will be the
same as they were on earth. The master will recognise his slaves and
they will work for him. They also believe that, when a chief arrives in
the Spirit Land, accompanied by these slaves, carrying the gin cloth,
rods, etc., which were placed in the grave, the people of the Spirit
Land-will say, “This is a chief coming. Look at his slaves, etc.”
Some years ago a road was being made through an old compound which had
tumbled down and disappeared, leaving no trace of any human habitation.
The road passed through an old grave of a chief who had been buried in
the house, and many things, including rods, bottles of gin and plates,
had been put in the grave. The natives who were working on the road
were afraid to touch anything in the grave, but a native foreman, who
came from another country where they held different beliefs, opened a
bottle of gin and drank some of it. When the natives saw that nothing
happened to him, they all rushed in and there was a regular scramble
for everything.