Every December, when school has been closed for the year, we look forward to traveling to the east for the Christmas holiday. It's a season for a reunion and no one likes to miss such moments. One of the reasons for us as kids was the moment when grandpa would have us seated outside the moonlight and tell us tales. Those moments, I cherished. My grandpa was a hunter of high repute. Some of the tales he told us were perceived to be real-life experiences. Some of others sounded superstitious.
Once upon a time! A widow who had two sons had to work harder than when she had a husband. Most of the days, she spent outside the home taking up menial jobs in neighboring villages and at other times, faraway lands just to be able to make means for her boys.
On one of her outings, there was no food at home except a tuber of yam and a big snail. She called her sons, Kene and Ekene to roast the yam first then the snail later so the spit from the snail does not quench the fire. In those days, matches or fire were scarce, so villagers have to result to tending their fireplaces.
As mother left after telling the boys how to go about preparing the yam and snail, Ekene being the eldest brother wanted to eat snail as quickly as possible. So, he put the snail on fire (to roast a snail, the complete body and shell goes into the fire), Kene tried preventing him but was overpowered.
Just like mother predicted, the spit from the snail quench the fire and for both boys not to starve they embarked on a search for fire. They walked and walked but could not find any place to get hot charcoal. The two boys then decided to walk eastward.
The journey made them cross seven rivers. As they crossed the last river, they saw a hut with smoke, with this they beamed a sigh of relief. As they approached the hut, they saw a woman by the fire, adorned in a long black attire. As kids, they were unable to find anything strange with her. Their instinct never showed them anything.
Good afternoon ma
the boys greeted.
As she turned to respond to the greeting, a flash of light shown on her face. Her dentition is burnt like she had been eating rotten kola nuts.
Her welcome wasn't warm but there was nothing the two boys could do. They were so famished and needed to eat before they collapse.
The old woman has only one surviving son. She had seven sons but they were disappearing one after the other until this last one. Perhaps she is a witch.
The old woman served them a plate of fufu and bitter leaf soup. Ekene munched it with the last strength he could while Kene just devised a means of throwing the morsels away.
Unknown to the boys, the witch had added sedatives to the food. Kene was wise enough to resist the temptation to eat.
Hence, the old had gone to sign other witches to come for the kill. Kene felt something was wrong, he decides to run away holding his elder brother by the hand.
When the old witch came back in the company of other witches, she could not find the two boys. They had eloped.
Now, the pursuit began. Since the boys were already ahead in the race for life, the witches pursued them vigorously.
Elena was drag-feeting, resulting from the effect of the sedative in the food they were served.
The boys had crossed the last river and were staggering into their hut when the old witch who was in heavy pursuit clamped on Ekene, and with her long fingernails, she drew a long line across his back.
Since then, human beings have been having straight line on their backs as back bone.
Morals
• We shouldn't be disobedient to our parents.
• We should always consider scale of preference when attempting a task.
• We should be watchful especially when we are in a strange place
• All that glitter is not gold.
You're obviously Igbo.
We all were blessed with those didactic folklore that shaped us to become who we are today.
It's sad that the parents of our generation have replaced that experience with The Johnsons and Big Brother Naija.