Folktale: Why the pig sniff around.

Good day readlanders. How has your day been. I hope it is going well. I would like to spice up your day with another folktale from the animal kingdom. The tortoise is known to be the King of pranks and the mastermind of evils in African folktales. African folktales has painted him to always have a connection with lot of things or characteristics that other animals are known for. One of such animals is the pig. The pig's attitude of digging the earth and sniffing around has been attributed to one of the pranks or tricks of Mr Tortoise. One who sees a pig sniffing and digging around would think with that it is only on it natural search for food but folktales tells us otherwise.

The tortoise and the pig wer e great friends. They invested together in business ventures and would always share their profits. The pig was a single man while the tortoise was a family man with lots of financial issues. One day after they had shared the profit from one of their business ventures, the tortoise realised that his own share of the money would not be enough to feed his family for the day, so he pleaded with the pig to lend him his own share of the money. The pig readily agreed to this after Mr Tortoise had promised to pay back in two market days.

When it was time to repay his debt, tortoise took the money to Mr pig, but was told him to keep the money and use it in providing for his family and solving other financial issues. Mr tortoise was very happy and so went home with the money. He still continued in his business ventures with the tortoise.

After a year had passed, they both had a misunderstanding. That day, the tortoise decided to take the larger share of their profit for the day. He was of the opinion that since he was a family man, he deserved a larger share from their profits. The pig was against the idea and this sparked a long term misunderstanding between them. It was at this moment that the pig told the tortoise to pay back the money that was lent to him over a year ago, but the tortoise refused to pay because the money had been given as a free gift.

The pig began to visit and harass the tortoise in his house everyday over the debt. The tortoise had to report the matter to the king who sided with the pig and asked the tortoise to repay the one year old.

On the day tortoise had agreed to pay back the money, he invited the pig to his house. When it was time for the pig to come collect his money, tortoise decided to step out for a while.

When the pig arrived to collect his money, he did not see tortoise but saw his wife grinding pepper on a grindstone. He decided to question tortoise's wife about the whereabout of her husband, but because she was partially deaf, she couldn't hear him neither did she pay him any attention. Out of anger for being ignored, the pig took the grindstone and threw it away.

Tortoise who was on his way back home saw the whole incident and so decided to teach the pig a lesson. He picked the grindstone and hid it in a secure place. He then approached the pig who was already furious. He looked at both his wife and the pig and said,

"Before I left the house, I tied your money to my wife's grindstone to keep it safe" (this was a lie)

He turned to his wife and asked her to bring out the grindstone. He feigned to be shocked when his wife told him that the pig had flung the grindstone away.

The pig was told that the only way to get back his money was to find the grindstone he had thrown away out of anger. Till today the pig still sniffs the ground in search of that grindstone. He still hasn't collected his money from the tortoise.

Thanks for reading ❤️

Lead image from unsplash