Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria

Chief Kekong was a very rich Okuni chief. He lived many years ago at the time when the Okuni people never eat the cat-fish, as they thought it was a part of the water ju-ju, having such a smooth skin.

Chief Kekong had a wife named Nyam, who was a fine woman, and they had a daughter called ’Ndere, who was much sought after by the Okuni chiefs and other rich men in marriage, partly on account of her beauty, and partly for her father’s wealth. ’Ndere was very vain of her personal appearance, and although her parents frequently tried to get her to marry, she always refused.

About this time a python lived at Okuni. He was a very fine fellow, and wanted to marry ’Ndere so that he might inherit her father’s property, but having no hands and feet he knew he would stand no chance of winning a girl who had refused so many offers. He therefore consulted another python, who advised him to go into a far country and try to borrow from different men a head, feet and hands, white teeth, and a fine face and nose, but that he should keep his own eyes. The friendly python told him that if he did this and returned to Okuni and asked ’Ndere to marry him, it was very likely that she would do so.

The next day the python set off to a distant country, where he was unknown, and went to a chief called Kaku. The python said that, although he was a stranger, he hoped the chief would help him as far as he could. Then Chief Kaku asked the python what he wanted and how he could assist him. So the python said, “I want to marry ’Ndere, the daughter of Chief Kekong of Okuni, but, as I have no hands or feet, she will not look at me. I therefore want you to lend me a face, teeth, arms and legs, so that I would appear to her as a stranger, and she would then marry me.”

Now the python was not aware that Chief Kaku had already asked ’Ndere to marry him, and that she had refused to do so, as if the python had known this he would have gone to somebody else. The python promised the chief that if he would lend him the different parts of the body which he required he would return them all to him after he had married ’Ndere. Chief Kaku thought the matter over, and as he was very anxious to obtain ’Ndere as a wife for himself, he decided to do as the python asked, having determined that when the python returned the borrowed limbs he would have him killed and take ’Ndere as his wife, whether she liked it or not. The more Chief Kaku thought of the plan, the easier it seemed; so he sent for all his young men, and took a head from one, arms from another, legs from a third, and fine white teeth from a fourth, and so on, until at last the python was complete.

Chief Kaku gave the python one young boy to accompany him back to Okuni, and the following day the python set off on his journey, wearing all his borrowed limbs. When he arrived at Okuni he looked nicer than any of the other Okuni young men; his long neck and small eyes, white teeth and the fine colour of his body appealed to ’Ndere when she saw him, and she at once took a great fancy to him.

Very soon after his arrival the python asked Chief Kekong to allow him to marry his daughter ’Ndere, and when the chief asked him who he was and where he came from, the python replied, “I am the son of Chief Kaku, who lives over there,” pointing to where the sun rose at the back of the house. Then Chief Kekong, who knew Chief Kaku, as he had tried to marry ’Ndere but failed, called for some palm wine, which was brought and given to the python. Chief Kekong said he would think over what the python had said, but warned him that ’Ndere had already refused his father. He said, however, that if his daughter agreed to marry him, he would allow her to do so. The python was then given food to eat and a room to sleep in during the night.

That night, when everyone had gone to sleep, Chief Kekong woke his wife up and called ’Ndere to come. He then told her that the python wanted to marry her, and asked ’Ndere what her wishes were. Although ’Ndere intended to marry the python, she did not wish her parents to know what her thoughts were, as she was an obstinate and disobedient girl. ’Ndere then said to her mother, “Tell me what you think I should do.” ’Nyam replied, “I do not wish you to marry this man, and would prefer that you should marry an Okuni man, because if anything happened to you we should be near, and in the case of sickness we would try to help you, whereas if you marry this stranger you will go far away, and we shall not be able to do anything for you.” ’Ndere said, “Yes, my mother, I hear what you say. Now what does my father say?” Chief Kekong replied, “If you love this young man, whom you have never before seen, and go away with him as his wife, you may be sold as a slave, as you are such a fine girl, or you might possibly be killed; and although I am Chief of Okuni, I have no power in Chief Kaku’s town, and should not be able to help you. As you are my only child, I do not want you to marry this stranger, but I want you to remain at Okuni with me.”

’Ndere then answered her parents as follows:—“I have always refused, up to the present, to marry all the men you have asked me to marry, but I am going to marry this man. You must therefore hand me to Kaku’s son as his wife, and I will go off with him to his country. If you refuse to do this, I will go outside into the bush and hang myself.”

Her parents tried their best to persuade ’Ndere to change her mind, but she was obstinate, and continued to threaten to hang herself if they refused to do what she wanted; they therefore left her until the next morning.

When the morning came, the python went to Chief Kekong and asked him for his decision with regard to his daughter. The chief called ’Ndere to him and asked her what her wishes were on the subject. ’Ndere said, “I am willing to marry this young man, and will go with him to his country.”

The python then sent the small boy who had come with him to Chief Kaku, asking him to send the dowry, and after a few days the boy returned, bringing with him rods, cloth, camwood, and palm-oil. The chief then handed his daughter to the python, and after she had been rubbed all over with camwood and oil she was taken to the python’s room. She was then circumcised and kept in a room for three days; after that she was able to walk, so ’Ndere told the python that she was then willing to go with him to his country, and the following morning they set off from the town, walking very slowly.

It was not until after they had walked for two days that they reached Chief Kaku’s town, and when he saw them he was so glad that he at once had a goat killed in front of ’Ndere and sprinkled the blood over her feet. The chief then had a plentiful supply of food brought, which was given to the python and his wife, and a room was appointed for their use.

When the evening came, all the men and women were called together to dance and sing, the chief giving them plenty of palm wine to drink and doing everything he could think of to show ’Ndere that the python was his son. As soon as the play had commenced, Chief Kaku told the python to come to his house, so that ’Ndere was left in the house which had been set apart for the use of her husband and herself. The chief then asked the python to return all the different limbs and other parts of the body which he had borrowed from the different young men of the town as he had promised to do. But the python begged to be allowed until midnight before he returned the things he had borrowed, saying, “My wife and I have only just arrived, and it would be a shameful thing if I have to join her crawling on my belly.” The chief agreed to allow the python until midnight, and the python then went off to join his wife in their house.

When midnight came the python got up and went to the chief’s house and returned the different portions of the young men’s bodies which he had borrowed. He then returned to ’Ndere in his natural form of a python, but when she saw him she denied that he was her husband. During the remainder of the night the python tried to convince ’Ndere that he was the man she had married, but she sat up the whole night and refused to have anything to do with him.

As soon as it was light ’Ndere went with the python to the chief’s house, and asked him whether the python was his son whom she had married. The chief answered her that the python was his son, and that she was his wife. He also said that his son was going to return to Okuni the following day, and that she would have to accompany her husband. ’Ndere was not at all pleased to see her husband going about on his stomach, and refused to sit near him all the day. When night came she went into a separate house and would not let the python in.

That night Chief Kaka gave orders to four of his young men to arm themselves with sharp matchets, and to lie in wait on the road to Okuni. He told them to kill the python and to bring ’Ndere back to him. This the young men promised to do, and set off before it was light, telling no one where they were going.

After the python and his wife had had their early morning food, they started off for Okuni, but when they arrived at the first water outside the town where the road branched off to the farm, the python, remembering that ’Ndere had refused to marry Chief Kaku, thought it very probable that the chief would cause him to be waylaid and his wife taken away from him. He therefore determined to follow the farm road, which, although much longer, he thought would probably be safer; he thus missed the four men who were lying in wait for him.

Towards the evening the four young men returned to the town and reported to the chief that ’Ndere and her husband had not passed along the road which they were guarding. Chief Kaku then guessed that they must have taken the farm road, and had probably arrived safely at Okuni. Although the python had escaped the trap which the chief had set for him, he had no intention of letting him go, and now that he had seen ’Ndere again he was more determined than ever to possess her for himself, and at once began to plan how he should kill the python and induce ’Ndere to marry him. As he could not send his young men to Okuni to kill the python and take ’Ndere away by force, as that would mean war between the two countries, for which he was not prepared, seeing that the Okuni people were very powerful, he determined to wait and lay another trap for the python. The chief knew that ’Ndere was very dissatisfied at having a snake as a husband, and would probably be glad to marry him, although he was rather old, rather than continue to live with the python, providing the python could be got rid of. He therefore decided to wait until the dry season came round, when the python would go to his farm, and might be killed without causing any trouble. But the first thing he had to do was to get ’Ndere to agree to come to him, so he sent off two of his young men to watch the python’s house, and told them to pretend they came from a distant country. He sent messages by these men to ’Ndere, telling her to do everything her husband told her to do, and that when the time arrived for making the new farms he would have the python killed, and she could then come and marry him.

The young men went to Okuni as they were ordered, and, after watching for some time, at last met ’Ndere alone at the spring, where she was getting water, and gave her the messages from the chief. ’Ndere, who hated the python, agreed to help, and said she would be glad to marry anyone who would get rid of the python; so the young men returned and told the chief what she had said.

When the time arrived for making the farms, the python took all his people out into the bush, but as they had no matchets or arms to use them with, all they could do was to roll themselves about in the grass and then burn it. Every morning when the python and the rest of his people went to the farm, ’Ndere followed later, bringing the foo-foo and soup in calabashes. The python would not allow her to go so far as the farm, as he told her she was such a fine girl that if the other pythons saw her they would certainly be so envious of him that they might kill him in order to get her for themselves. He therefore showed her a place where she was to bring the food; here he had made a string of snail shells hung on sticks, and told ’Ndere to rattle them when she brought his food, and that he would come to her. The first day the pythons went to work on the farm ’Ndere brought the food and rattled the snail shells as she had been directed to do, and very soon afterwards the python came and took the calabashes away to the place where they were working, telling ’Ndere to wait until he had finished eating. When he had eaten all the food he returned to the place where he had left his wife, and found her waiting for him. He then said, “My good woman, you have done well, you hear my voice properly,” and having given her the empty calabashes, ’Ndere returned to her home.

This was done for two days, and on the third day ’Ndere said she would like to go to the farm to see the people working, but the python would not let her, so she sent a word to Chief Kaku that the python went to the farm every day. The chief then sent four of his young men, who hid themselves at the place where ’Ndere brought the food for her husband. When she had shaken the string of snail shells, the python soon appeared, and the men who were ready sprang up, whereupon ’Ndere ran away, in order to deceive her husband. The four men then attacked the python with sticks, and soon killed him; they then cut off his head and his tail, and carried them back to Chief Kaku, leaving the food on the ground where ’Ndere had placed it. The other pythons who were working on the farm, missing their companion very soon, went to see what had become of him, and found his dead body with the head and tail missing, near the food. As they could not discover who had killed the python, they met together and decided that for the future they would not make any more farms or live in the towns, as the men were jealous of them on account of the python having married ’Ndere. They therefore now live in the bush and hide themselves.

When ’Ndere appeared before Chief Kaku, he received her quite calmly, without any feasting or dancing, as he did not wish his people to suspect that he had murdered her husband. But after a few days had passed, Chief Kaku sent privately to Chief Kekong and told him that he had caused the python to be killed, and intended to marry ’Ndere. He also sent a large amount of dowry to the chief. Now in Chief Kaku’s country there was a stream full of cat-fish (Akpambi), but no one ever caught them, and when the people went to the stream to get water the fish would look at them without any fear. ’Ndere, hearing of this, went to the stream with a basket, and the fish seeing her, came close, so she began to sing softly to them, when more fish came. Then ’Ndere caught two of the fish with her basket, and took them home and cooked them for food, but none of the girls in the house would eat them, as they all said that if they did so they would die. ’Ndere, however, was not afraid, and eat the fish, which she found to be good food, and the soup was very sweet. She also took some to Chief Kaku, and said, “If you love me, you will eat my fish; but if you refuse, then I shall know that you do not care for me, and I shall not marry you, but will return at once to my father at Okuni.” But the chief said, “No one ever eats that fish, as it has a smooth skin and is part of the water ju-ju. If anyone eats that fish, he will surely die.” Then ’Ndere said, “Yes, my parents also will not eat this fish, but there is always one man who starts back first from the farm, and then the other people follow. I have eaten the fish and found it good, and have not died. If you eat it with me you will not die, and if we live to see the next sunrise to-morrow, all the people will follow our example and will eat the fish.” The chief then agreed, and said, “I will eat the fish with you, and if we die we shall be treated as husband and wife in the spirit.” They then sat down together and eat the cat-fish.

When the chief had finished his share he prepared himself for death, and having called his people together, told them what should be done in case he should die. ’Ndere and the chief then retired for the night, and the chief slept quietly, without any trouble, until the morning. When he woke up and found that he was quite well, he sent ’Ndere out again with her basket to catch more of the fish, as the soup was so sweet. So ’Ndere went down to the stream once more and caught a lot of fish, which she brought back to the house and cooked as before. Then the chief called his friends together, and told them about the cat-fish and what good food it was. When the people heard that the chief had eaten the cat-fish and had not died, they thought they would like to try some for themselves, so they all had some of the fish which ’Ndere had cooked. When they had eaten it they found it so good that when they returned home they at once sent their wives out with baskets to catch some of the fish. And thus it became the custom for the women to go out in the dry season with their fishing-baskets to catch the cat-fish. This custom was started by ’Ndere.

Told by Ennenni, an Okuni woman.—[E.D., 5.1.11.]