i

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEJJA

TORTOISE TALES

BY

MADU, UCHECHUKWU E. PG/MA/05/40154

A PROJECT

PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF

THE MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

FEBRUARY, 2009.

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CERTIFICATION

I, Madu, Uchechukwu E, a postgraduate student of the Department of

English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka, have satisfactorily

completed the requirement for the award of the degree of Master of Arts (Oral

Literature) in English.

This work is original, and has not been submitted in part or full for any

degree of this or any other University.

---------------------------------- ----------------------------- Professor Damian Ugwutikiri Dr. Samuel M. Onuigbo Supervisor Head of Department.

----------------------- External Examiner.

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DEDICATION

To every member of my family, in a very special way.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am thankful to my amiable supervisor, Professor Damian Opata, who

despite a full schedule of duties, made out time to meticulously go through this

work and saw to its gradual completion.

I am also thankful to every member of my family, whose pieces of advice

and encouragement saw me through the donkey years of the programme. Mrs.

Urama, Evelyn is not left out as her motherly companion and advice throughout

the period were inestimable. To my typist, Mr. Ideke, for the devoted time and a

careful piece of work, I owe my gratitude.

Above every other thing, to the Almighty, whose infinite guidance made it

possible for me to pull through it all, I am most grateful.

This research closely analyzes a collection of Lejja Igbo tortoise tales with

respect to their thematic and structural attributes with a view to portraying their

artistic or literary values.

This work is divided into four chapters. The first (Chapter One) as an introductory

chapter, discusses the tortoise in respect to its denotational and connotational

attributes. Chapter Two on the other hand illustrates the aspects of tortoise as

reflected in different tales. While Chapter Three deals with the narratological

study of the tales; Chapter Four concludes and makes recommendation for further

studies.

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ABSTRACT

So much has been done in the field of oral performance but it is a thing of

surprise that tales do not get an equal representation in the study of Oral Literature

in Nigeria. Though Tortoise tales abound everywhere in the Nigerian societies, not

much has really been done on the study of them apart from the mere mention of the

tortoise as the trickster animal.

This paper therefore offers a critical analysis of Tortoise tales in Lejja as a

bridge to the gap by critically studying Tortoise’s actions as well as the literary

values inherent in the stories.

Lejja is chosen as a study area because of its rich literary resources and

being the researcher’s town, the tales of her town are introduced into the world of

Oral Literature for further comparative purposes.

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APPROACH

This study strictly confines itself to the thematic study and the techniques of

the tales. This approach; therefore, relegates the issue of context for the stories and

the background of the people to the background.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction - - - - - ii

Chapter One: Tortoise in the African Thought - - - 1

Chapter Two: Aspects of the Trickster as Reflected in the Trickster Tales 7

Chapter Three: An Analysis of the Trickster Tales - - 17

Chapter Four: Recommendation and Conclusion - -

Works Cited - - - - - 29

Appendix (The Stories) - - - - 30

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CHAPTER ONE

THE TORTOISE IN THE AFRICAN CULTURAL THOUGHT

1.1 The Tortoise

The tortoise belongs to a class of reptiles called the Chelonia or the turtle. This class of

reptiles differs from the other reptiles in having a body shell which encloses all the organs of the

body and into which the limbs and tail can be more or less retracted. Its origin is not known and

it is always seen in areas that have thick forests and rivers.

To an African, particularly the Igbo and Yoruba of Nigeria, the name Mbe, Mbekwuru, or

Nwaniga and Ajapa (Yoruba) is highly metaphorical and symbolic. It is the trickster symbol. It is

always conceived as a man who is associated with the term agh�gh�. Agh�gh� in this sense

encapsulates such character traits as cunning, wisdom and fast thinking, as one Igbo proverb

always says, ‘�f� m na-ag�r� g� b� ka ezi na �l� g� b�r� nd� nwere uche d� ka Mbekwuru. In this

case, the greatest good wish one can bestow on one’s neighbour is that the family becomes as

wise as the tortoise. It is in line with this that A. W Cardinal also shares the view that, ‘wisdom is

high above the strength of men and swiftness of horses.’ On the other hand, when Aku, in Teresa

Ugwueze’s Blunt Blade (10), is warned by her mother that ‘men are tortoise,’ it signals to Aku

immediately that she must always be on her guard. The advice by Aku’s mother is in recognition

of another view of tortoise, which sees it as a symbol of unreliability. This is captured by Fr.

Onwudufor’s view that, ‘onye aghugho bu onye iru ab��’(one who has two faces). This person,

according to him, cannot be trusted because he can leave someone at any time.

Among the Kalabari tribe of Rivers State, the tortoise has the name Ikaki and just as the

tortoise features frequently in the Igbo tales, so does it in the Kalabari and they know it as the

‘Old man of the forest.’ According to Robin Horton the Ikaki is ‘A character that exhibits his

insatiable appetite for food, money and women. On the other hand, he operates with a vast

deviousness and elaborate cunning.’ He also argues that fortunately for characters in his stories,

he pushes his schemes too far, and so fails to achieve his outrageous aims. Among the Kalabari,

the story image of Ikaki was taken up as the theme of a masquerade.

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Among the Tiv, Hagher Iyorwese tell us that the proverb, ‘Your chest is caved-in like the

tortoise falling on the bridge’ is an abuse, which has a folklore derivation of the tortoise as a

fool-the implication being that the man with the hollow chest is also a fool. We can therefore

observe that the tortoise among the Tiv stands for foolery.

Opata, Damian in Essays on Igbo World View sees the tortoise metaphor in the light of

three different expressions; Ika anya (intelligence), Nka m anya (using one’s intelligence and

cleverness against others), and the aftereffect of cheating someone (‘Onye Kayara anya �

kagbue onwe ya).

A very intelligent man in Lejja community of Enugu State is always described as a

‘tortoise.’ This particular man is sought after in times of conflicts as he seeks peace through his

wisdom, oratory and fast thoughts. This same man earns himself a lot of respect and admiration

from the entire members of the community. On the other hand, a cheat who always looks out for

a way of getting more shares from what he has in common with others is also referred to as

‘tortoise’. ‘Tortoise’ in Lejja also connotes what befalls a man when his ploys work against him.

It will always be said that ‘he has gone just like the tortoise’ (� laa ka mbe). In some other

cases, the tortoise suggests ‘ingratitude’. This is seen in the proverb which says that, ‘When you

invite a tortoise to a meal, it is no use giving him water to wash his paws, because he will not

appreciate it, for the more you give him, the more he will expect. Again, G.E Igwe, in his book

of proverbs tells us that; “Tortoise was thrown into a cesspool and he stayed there for eight days

and on the nineth day, someone came to pick him out and he said, ‘Take me out! The stink

suffocates me!” (He had forgotten that he had spent several days in there). The proverb,

according to Igwe, depicts one who would grumble even while someone is doing him a good

turn.

Just as Mbe represents all of the above in the Igbo utterances, so does it in folktales and

this to an extent could as well explain the ubiquitous nature of the tortoise in the Igbo folktales,

‘Ifo agha mbe’ as Ogbuehi, Cordelia puts it.

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1.2 Types of Tortoise

We have three types of tortoise- the land tortoise, the water tortoise known as the turtle

(though this name sometimes designates the chelonia family) and the terrapins (the edible type).

The turtles may be classified further based on their habitat as fresh water and marine turtles. The

turtles differ from the tortoise by possessing the features that will enable them to adapt well in

water like the web-like limbs for swimming and glossy shells as camouflage in water. The

tortoise has short digits mainly used for walking. The turtle has not made its mark in the African

folklore. The one whose features are mostly encountered in the tales is the tortoise. This is

because it manifests features traceable to it like walking, lives in a house and performs every

other activity done by man who also lives on land.

The distinction between the tortoise and the turtle is not made manifest in the folklore.

The name always remains Mbe even when it swims or walks. This is seen in the proverb,

‘whoever puts the tortoise in water has shown it the shortest route of escape.’ Literarily, this

statement suggests that the tortoise could have a dual habitat because the act was meant to be a

punishment but it turns out to be its way out.

1.3 Characteristics of Tortoise

The tortoise is generally known for its inoffensiveness and sluggishness. It also appears

defenceless and silent. Major Author Glyn Leonard, in his observation of the tortoise, has noted

that;

…the tortoise was regarded by the natives as possessing the human, in other words, divine attributes of truth, justice and wisdom. No wonder then that the animals chose him to be their king and a judge over them.

The tortoise is not physically endowed with such defensive features as claws, teeth, and

poisonous emissions; it only resorts to retracting into its shell in moments of danger. One then

wonders whether it was in sympathy with these impediments that he was picked among all the

other animals. In the folklore, this attitude of the tortoise retracting into its shell manifests itself

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in its use of wits to escape every dangerous situation. The tortoise knowing full well that he is

defenceless or physically weak does not literarily give in to the shortfall. A well known anecdote

among the Igbo has it that;

Once upon a time, Tortoise’s enemies came to abduct him in his house for something bad he did to them. He accepted to follow them but pleaded to them to wait for a while. They all whispered to one another saying, ‘since he cannot run faster than us or fight, let us wait and see what he is up to.’ The tortoise went down on all fours and only made marks on the ground. When he was done, he said, ‘Now you can take me, for anyone who comes will at least see that there was a struggle between two equals before the other was subdued. Translations done by me.(Tagbo Nzeak�(10).

From the above, we can deduce that only those present at the scene will know that there

was actually no struggle but for the tortoise and those who will come later, there was.

The tortoise is sluggish and silent. Ordinarily, these would have been negative attributes

to be shunned but we actually see them being given a different interpretation as far as the tortoise

is concerned. Whenever the tortoise is portrayed as sluggish, it is understood as doggedness and

fixed determination, thus we have the theme ‘the end justifies the means.’ This is seen in the

well-known Igbo mythic story of the origin of death. We see the faster animal, the dog, giving in

to obstacles that come his way but the tortoise is determined and makes it earlier than the dog,

even though the later is much slower than the former.

Another special characteristic of the tortoise that marks it out from so many other

backboned animals is its longevity. Some have been proven to have lived over a hundred years.

This long life span can in a way explain its position in the Igbo world view as a sage, as this

usually comes with age. This is always portrayed when Mbe mediates between two aggrieved

persons, as seen in the story of the Lion and the Monkey. In this story, the Monkey helps the

Lion out of a pit, which it has fallen into. But when the Lion comes out, he insists on eating the

monkey. The tortoise comes along and after listening to each of them, tells the Lion to show

him how he fell in. The Lion desperately does this and falls back into the pit.

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So far, it is obvious that the tortoise is a weak, sluggish and harmless animal as its

characteristics show. Thus one doubts its survival in the ‘Darwinian life’ in the jungle. Yet the

tortoise faces no threat of extinction as it lives and hibernates in seclusion. Even if the tortoise

goes extinct physically, it has been immortalized in the Igbo trickster tales and oral discourse

where the tortoise is able to outwit, outsmart and get the better of other animals despite its weak

nature. The reason for this special consideration accorded to the tortoise has deluded us even at

this point in time and it needs to be given more thought.

1.4 Social Uses of the Tortoise

In Igbo traditional society, Lejja, a town in Enugu state to be precise, the tortoise is a

sacred animal. It is accorded a great respect because, that is what the land accepts whenever it is

desecrated. This is better known as ar� among the people.On the question of the choice of the

tortoise by ‘the land’ as its favourite food, Mr. Ignatius Nwotobo, an elderly traditionalist from

Umuakpo Lejja, argues that it could be as a result of its sacred nature. Tortoise, according to

him, is among the animals that cannot just be found anywhere. Just as the earthworm and ada,

the-dung beetle cannot be found in every land so is the tortoise. This special land is known as

Egbam and as such, we have Egbam idide (earthworm land) or Egbam Ada (the dung-beetle

land) and so on as the case may be.

Nso ala is a particular crime that the land prohibits its faithfuls from doing in order to

enjoy a fruitful relationship with it. For any woman who defiles the land- the land in this case

refers to her husband’s land and house- by sleeping with another man outside marriage and

admits the guilt, the tortoise is an indispensable material in the pacification ritual to the land.

This ritual is done in order to liberate the family and its entire generation from any impending

wrath from the Ala deity and, most importantly, to purify the sinner and make her acceptable to

the person’s immediate community. The impending punishment from the deity ranges from

poor yield of crops to enhance hunger, infertility in a family, madness, to series of deaths in a

family.

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For such crimes as this, the people therefore offer the deity what they believe it eats in

order to placate it. This is known as Ala iwa mmadu mbe (the land demands tortoise from

someone). The purification and reconciliation process demand a cow (which represents the

man), a she-goat (which represents the woman), a hen and tortoise (which represent the land).

The goat is killed at the �n� ala (the land’s or the spirit’s land) located somewhere in the man’s

compound. Both the goat’s and the cow’s blood are allowed to drip down into a hole dug there.

While the tortoise is buried alive in that same hole, the cow’s and the goat’s meat are used for a

ritual meal which terminates any malice between the sinner and the people. After the ritual

meal, everyone goes home happy.

Because of the fact that tortoise is used for the above-mentioned sacrifice, its meat is

regarded as one of the an�k�r�mpumas- an� ana as� ns� (animals that are accorded respect by

the people) of Lejja, there is no serious punishment attached to whoever eats them. Tortoise,

most especially, is not eaten just to accord the land a great respect for being more powerful than

any other being. The people do not find it reasonable enough sharing Ala’s favourite meat with

it, though it is made clear that the tortoise is not worshipped among them.

It was also observed that tortoise among the people of Lejja is a messenger to the dibias

(medicine men). It conveys the �gw� (medicine) to the people whom they are meant for. The

dibias tie their ekp�r�/ekp� �gw� (pellets of medicine) to the tortoise and then send if off on an

errand to people. The ekp�r� �gw�, in most cases, comprises some personal belongings of the

deemed enemy. These belongings range from the person’s hair, piece of cloth to earrings, etc.

The people also believe that dogs are sometimes sent to collect those materials needed by

finding a way of stealing them off people. The piece of cloth is used in tying all the other

materials to the body of the tortoise before sending it off.

When a tortoise like this is sighted in someone’s compound, I t is covered with a basket

supported with a big stone to ensure that it does not slip away. The dibia is then sought for to

neutralize the effect of the medicine. Nobody else can touch it except the medicine man, who

has already protected himself well with charms before he could perform such a task. Should an

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ordinary individual touch it, the person takes up the effects with him/her whether it was meant

for the person or not. Once the medicine man comes, he takes the tortoise to the al�s�’s mouth

whereby the effect is made to go back to whoever that sent it.

Tortoise is so invaluable to the medicine men that even its shell serves as a box for their

incantation tools. The people of Isiakp� in Nsukka Local Government of Enugu state see the

tortoise shell as a source of wisdom to the medicine men. But ironically also, they think that

some of the medicine men seem just as mischievous as the animal shell, whose shell they carry.

A story was narrated by them about a woman who lent her neighbour a wrapper for a village

dance. The neighbour, when done with it, spread it outside to dry. The woman, on the other

hand, came to collect something else from the neighbour’s house and saw nobody around.

While she was leaving, a thought came to her and she took the wrapper thinking that she could

save the neighbour the stress of returning it to her. When the neighbour found out that the cloth

was missing, she did not know how to explain it to her lender. She instead, sought the help of a

medicine man to help her find out who the thief was. The medicine man, after incantations, told

her that the thief was within her family. This generated a serious upheaval among the family

members to the extent that the owner of the wrapper heard it. The woman, in utter surprise, told

them that she had collected her wrapper a long time ago but forgot to come and inform the

neighbour about it. Okonkwo Ogbonna, the narrator, made it clear that that particular medicine

man usually used the tortoise shell to carry his incantation tools.

Tortoise is also used among the medical practitioners who recommend its blood as

supplement for blood. Any patient who runs short of blood is advised to kill a tortoise, collect

the blood (this should be done as quickly as possible before the blood clots), mix it with Malt

drink and take. Sometimes, the blood is taken just like that without mixing it with anything. All

these uses, which the tortoise are put to, ensure steady and valuable income to those who trade

on it.

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CHAPTER TWO

ASPECTS OF THE TRICKSTER IN FOLKTALES

2.1 Tortoise and Wisdom

Socrates, in Baldry H. C., sees true wisdom as the right use of reason, which according to

him is the ‘hallmark of quality among human beings’. His arguments also center on the fact that

what distinguishes the wise from ‘the rest’, is their ‘natural aptitude for reasoned thought’.

We are able to decipher from the above that wisdom is a natural gift and not just open to

everyone as M. I. Okwueze’s definition suggests. Okwueze holds it that wisdom is ‘that virtue

that results from man’s exposure to reality on various levels.’ ‘Experience’, he maintains is the

necessary aspect of wisdom that cannot be overstressed. His position therefore proposes that

wisdom is that wealth of knowledge or intelligence that accrues from one’s long exposure to a

particular situation for a very long time.

The aspect of ‘natural aptitude for reasoned thought’ is totally ignored by Okwueze, who

seems to have forgotten that one has to have that natural gift before experience can count. He

also failed to put into consideration that a wide experience means nothing to a naturally dull

person and that it is only the intellectually gifted individual that understands, sifts and learns

from the ‘reality’ which one is exposed to. Among the Lejja people (a little town in Nsukka

Local Government of Enugu State), there is a saying which states that, A n’am�y� ak� am�y�

n’an�g� ezi ak� ezi, and this means that “wisdom is naturally acquired and not taught”. This

saying has gone a long way to supplement Socrates’ position since the Lejja people also

acknowledge the fact that experience can only be meaningful when someone has already got the

gift of intelligence which no human has a hand in. Tortoise has been able to portray wisdom, not

only as a man of experience (according to Okwueze), but also a man of natural intellect

(according to Socrates) in virtually all the stories in which it features. These characters of his are

made manifest in his show of good reasoning and fast thinking whenever the need for them

arises.

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In the two stories, ‘Tortoise and the Goat’ and ‘Tortoise and the Elephant’, Tortoise

portrays his wisdom by quickly figuring a way out of the critical situations he finds himself in.

In both stories, we see him facing the option of death if he does not do anything urgent to save

himself.

In the goat’s story, Tortoise first tells Goat his secrets, which is where he gets his food

from, amidst the famine threatening their lives then. Not only does Tortoise reveal the secret but

also the rules of the game – how not to get caught. The warning says that one should know when

one has had enough so that there will be no difficulty passing through a particular hole in the

fence in times of danger.

The day they were caught, Tortoise notices the imminent danger and immediately sneaks

through the hole but meets the king’s wife, who is looking out for the thieves, on his way out of

the farm. Tortoise is caught by the king’s wife and she wants to kill him. Tortoise immediately

thinks out something and says ‘I didn’t eat any garden egg, the animals in the forest ate it…’

This statement simply signals to the king’s wife that the thief, whom tortoise is referring to could

still be there in the farm. She goes and finds the culprit, the goat, whom she later kills.

Tortoise’s actions may be seen as a betrayal of trust on the part of his friend, Goat, who

has every evidence written all over him – he is stuck up in the hole. On the other hand, tortoise’s

actions may portray him as a liar because he exonerated himself from the crime. But when

observed critically, we do notice that his actions are more of portrayals of his wisdom. This is

because he wants to live and there must be a way out. Among the Nsukka Igbo, there is a saying

that goes thus, “A ya d m Onwo m e kiri onye?, which means, that one does not leave oneself to

admire others. This concept is always applied whenever a similar situation to this arises. Self

interest is often placed high above the interest of others and anything short of this (in this

particular situation) is regarded as utter stupidity. So, based on the above concept, we see that

Tortoise had to get himself out first before considering his friend, Goat. He simply shifts the

woman’s attention off himself by saying that he did not eat the garden eggs, as he is a poor

cripple, that it was the animals in the forest who ate them. Tortoise does not tell the king’s wife

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that it was the goat that ate them, that he is even stuck up there at the moment in the hole. The

woman, through an instinct, goes there to see the goat tightly fixed in the hole because he over

ate and did not care to occasionally check the possibility of his passing through the hole.

The researcher believes that Tortoise has played his own good part of I kp�r�t�, I nye

nwanne g� ka � kp�r�t�, (sip and give to your neighbour to sip), by being kind enough to reveal

everything to his friend. This action, among the Nsukka Igbo, is the most important show of love

that one could grant to a neighbour. Though the action may be argued against by many but

should actually be understood when we consider that Tortoise bares his soul to his friend. It is

then left for the friend to weigh things out and choose whichever option that seems best to him.

Since Tortoise uses his wits to set himself free, the onus is also on the goat to be able to

find a way of convincing the woman to prove his innocence and be set free. His failure to do this

has actually proved Mary Midley right in her opinion that, ‘it takes one character’s folly for the

wisdom of the other to be fully made manifest’.

The above is also what obtains in ‘Tortoise and the Elephant’. Tortoise, on the spur of

the moment, thinks out the best way for him to test the deadly mushroom. Tortoise gets a

mushroom from the farm, which warns him to desist from eating it but Tortoise being very

greedy and hungry as well cannot resist from eating it despite the constant warnings from both

the mushroom itself and the entire members of his relatives. Once Tortoise sees the elephant

approaching his house, he immediately decides to have the mushroom tested out on him

(Elephant) first. Tortoise leaves the food in the kitchen and hides. Elephant, who has come for

something else – to collect embers for fire making – sees the food, steals a little from it and falls

dead immediately.

The fact that elephant fails to recognize this as a trap into which he woefully falls, should

be noted as idiocy and foolishness on his part, or better still, a due punishment for not being able

to control his ‘long throat’.

The big question this particular story leaves us with is this: Why does the mushroom not

sing its song of warning to Elephant? The mushroom started warning Tortoise from the point he

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picked it in the farm, throughout the process of its preparation to be eaten, to the extent that the

relatives all gather together to join hands in begging Tortoise not to eat the mushroom, for eating

it means a total wipe out of his entire household. Perhaps, if Elephant was warned, just like the

tortoise, he would not have eaten it too and would not have died to give Tortoise a lead over him

with his wisdom. Perhaps wisdom springs from information but, this is left for other researchers

to take up.

Another story in which the wisdom of tortoise is vividly played out is ‘Tortoise and the

Princess’, which is similar to another story, ‘Tortoise and Earthworm’ in the sense that Tortoise

uses his intelligence to cause certain items to metamorphose into what he wants.

In ‘Tortoise and the Princess’, a grain of corn ‘grows’ into a wife while in the second

story, a piece of yam gets him a highly-prized brown bead necklace among the traditional Igbo,

known as Aka (Lejja’s word for it). How Tortoise conceives the idea of getting these tasks done

is what beats our imagination.

In the first story, Tortoise sets out on a journey with just a grain and tells himself that it is

all that he needs to get himself a wife – not just a wife, but a princess. He goes to the first man,

ensures that the man’s chicken eats the corn and then asks for a replacement, which is the

chicken itself. In another house, he kills the chicken himself and again asks for a replacement,

which earns him a goat. It continues like this up until a wife is got. Tortoise always has his way

with his victims by ensuring that he instills guilt and sympathy in their hearts, and at the same

time making them pay for any of his lost items by reminding them that he is a poor orphan, who

has lost all his possessions in the lost item.

Tortoise’s actions as villainous as they may be may not really count here because even

the Nsukka people have a room for his actions in one of their saying which says, E tere �gba, E

tere az�… (Whether prepared with castor oil or fish, all we need is soup). This particular

thought lays more emphasis on the result rather than the means and it is generally applied during

a critical situation before it gets out of hand. Tortoise needs a wife and has no money, so

whichever means he uses to get this task done does not matter to him (Tortoise). The fact that he

18

accomplishes the task, which to onlookers may seem impossible, through his wits is highly

commendable.

Another question which cannot be glossed over in this story is; what is the reason behind

giving Tortoise something, whose value is much bigger than what he has lost? The first man

gives him a chicken in place of a corn, the second, a goat in place of the chicken, the third, a

child in place of a goat and to the extent of the princess. Wouldn’t they have borrowed the exact

things from neighbours? Perhaps Mary Midley was right here-that it actually takes one

character’s folly for wisdom to be made manifest.

Apparently, in order not to violate the Igbo dictum, � biara be m, a biagbule m (my

visitor should not kill me) phenomenon, which proposes that a host can go to any length to see

that a guest is satisfied and bears no grudges against anyone, these men fell to the whims and

caprices of the tortoise, hence the situations they found themselves in.

In ‘Tortoise and Lion,’ Tortoise’s wit is made manifest in his ability to see beyond the

level of others. He does not take every situation for granted. His kin, sharp and critical brain is

noticed in his quick observation of the event going on –that while some hooves went in, none

came out. But when viewed critically, we notice that Tortoise’s position as the last person in the

tale to go into Lion’s hut suggests that he has a little advantage over all the other ones. Antelope

who goes into the hut first is not quite opportuned to observe well because no animal had gone

before him not to talk of coming out. Perhaps if Tortoise were to swap places with Antelope, he

would have faced the same ordeal that met him (Antelope).

Again in ‘Tortoise and Pig,’ Tortoise immediately thinks out a way to wriggle out of

what seemed a problem to him in the tale and that is to write off Pig’s debt in a way that he

would not be found guilty. Once Tortoise tells his wife to disguise him to look like her grinding

stone, it immediately signals to us that he has immediately worked up a plan of escape from the

debt. Pig is dull and could not survey the situation critically just like Tortoise did in the previous

tale where he stopped short and observed. The fact that he is not fast enough to observe what he

throws away is used by Tortoise against him, when he told him to go and search for the ‘stone’.

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Tortoise goes Scot’s free at the end of the tale because we see Pig searching endlessly for what

Tortoise knows that he would never find. The tale not attaching any punishment to Tortoise’s

villainous action proves the ‘survival of the fittest’ claim.

The instinctive decision of Tortoise which compelled all the animals to agree to have a

bath in the stream in his encounter with the Nwatinga makes Tortoise’s wisdom stand out among

all the other animals. When Tortoise sees himself with a long nose, he knows immediately that it

is not meant for him, it should rather go to another unfortunate victim. This victim should then

be saddled with the burden of getting rid of it. After the bath, Elephant became the unlucky one

to be left with the nose because his fat body required extra scrubbing. What made Elephant settle

for the nose when it was possible that he could have seen it on Tortoise while he was gathering

them together for the bath is still mystery to us.

The wisdom of Tortoise is consequently made manifest in ‘The Coronation of Tortoise,’

where he is able to ‘perform a hectic task’ which none of the animals could do. Tortoise,

amongst all the animals, is able to eat a hot peppery dish without feeling it as well as making a

show of painlessness during a bee attack. Tortoise actually felt the pains just like the other

animals but instead of crying out in pain, he devises a deceptive means of making the animals

oblivious of his pains. For this they all think him a super human, therefore, he deserves the

crown unrivalled.

Having observed Tortoise’s wisdom in the tales, we have been able to decipher that

though some of the tortoise tales suggest his wisdom, others seem to have been made to suggest

that through certain advantages he is made to enjoy in the tales by the story’s structure. This we

did see in Tortoise’s encounter with Elephant, where the mushroom did not warn him as he

earlier did to Tortoise; thereby structurally giving Tortoise and edge over Elephant. Again in

‘Tortoise and the Princess,’ the victims pay Tortoise with something with much higher value

than what he lost in their houses. Likewise in that of ‘Tortoise and Lion,’ he is structurally put

behind the entire animals to give him the advantage of full view of the animals’ footprints. Could

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our observations; therefore suggest that there are different generations of tortoise tales in Lejja,

whereby the ones Tortoise portrayed his personal intelligence came earlier than that of the other?

However, Tortoise’s wisdom, in the stories, has tended towards self gratification and

cannot be well appreciated because his is playing against innocent victims. Tortoise’s wisdom

can only be valued if this same measure of wisdom is directed positively, which could be against

an enemy or towards the progress of his society.

2.2 Tortoise as a Liar.

Mike W. Martin states that a ‘lie is an act of stating something believed to be false with

the intention of deceiving.’ He argues further that a lie is different from deceiving in the sense

that while the former is merely an attempt to lie, the latter applies to the success of misleading.

Tortoise, in our tales, portrays that aspect of lie that is seriously criticized against by the great

ethicist, Immanuel Kant. He states in one his principles of moral laws thus; ‘act so that you

treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as

a means only.’ By this he therefore warns against using lie to achieve self seeking desires.

In almost all the stories, lie is Tortoise’s main weapon against his victims. His lies are

so carefully woven that none of his victims has the least inkling that he does not tell the truth.

He supplements this art of his by assuming an innocent countenance whenever he is at it. In

‘Tortoise and the Princess,’ he strangles his victims’ possessions and lie to them that those

animals and a child all died in their houses. In the Cricket’s story, as the villagers come

together to settle the dispute between Tortoise and Cricket, Tortoise denies that he knows him.

In Apia’s story, Tortoise lies to Apia that his son instead of fetching the fire he sends him for

goes out to play the day away with his mates. Similarly in the Pig’s story, he makes up a story

about the cost of the ‘precious stone.’ Again in the Fishes’ story, he lies to them that he can

make them taller than they are. Going by Martin’s argument we can then say that since Tortoise

actually succeeds in misleading each of the characters mentioned into taking him for what he is

not, his actions can then be termed deceptive ones.

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2.3 Tortoise: As both Cheat and Greed Symbols

Richard W. Wills, a psychologist, proposes that there is always a particular tactics used

by a cheat to effect a positive reaction from people. This particular action endears the cheat to

the people and makes them oblivious of the fact that they are being cheated at the moment.

These character traits, according to Will, can range from one’s power of oratory, ability to treat

others well, ability to praise others to ability to develop and display physical attractiveness.

In our story, ‘Tortoise and the Nkwube Woman’, we see the Tortoise display an action

which is deceitful and sounds convincing enough to be thought genuine. By doing that, Tortoise

succeeds in instilling fear into the unsuspecting and gullible woman.

Tortoise goes to the woman’s house to collect embers for fire making and sees a pot of

food (ech�cha) in the kitchen. He takes a little and the food proves too delicious to be resisted

further. He goes home and comes back for more but the woman had left with it to her parent’s

house. He finally succeeds in catching up with the woman through the information he got from

the farmers he met working, probably by displaying an innocent intention in his sincere song of

enquiry of the Nkwube woman’s whereabouts. Tortoise finally catches up with the woman and

visibly sounds with alarm to the woman saying, ‘Woman, your house is on fire, oh! Everything

in your house is being burnt up!’ She only realizes her gullibility when she gets to the house and

sees no fire.

Tortoise must have perfected his actions in getting the woman out of the way, once he

catches up with her by shocking life out of her with his false alarm. Had he faltered in his steps,

or shown any visible sign to raise some doubts in the woman, probably the woman would not

have swallowed his actions hook, line and sinker.

Likewise, in the story of ‘Tortoise and the Cricket’, Tortoise uses praise to effect some

positive changes from Cricket. Tortoise wants to attend a burial ceremony but cannot cry. He

therefore sends for the animals to come and do a crying competition for him. Though the the

reason behind this is not made known to them as they all were willing to take turns to out-do one

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another in their cries. Tortoise keeps sending them out till it got to Cricket’s turn, whose cries

supersedes those of others. Tortoise, in order to get Cricket to attend the burial with him,

exaggerates cricket’s praise with his sweet tongue, and in the end, does not need any persuasion

to talk cricket into doing what he wants. Cricket, on the other hand, feels bloated with pride and

seems more than willing to display his talent anywhere. Tortoise carries cricket along, in his

bag, to the burial from where he sings out for Tortoise. The crowd there was taken in by

Tortoise’s pretence of opening and closing his mouth in rhythm with the cricket’s song and they

take him for the actual singer and crown him king for being exceptional in the art.

Consequently, innocent and piteous countenances come to play as Tortoise’s

manipulative tools against Ap�a in the story, ‘Tortoise and Ap�a’, likewise in almost all the

stories collected. Tortoise believes so much in the magical effects of his words on people that

he only craves for just an opportunity to talk with Ap�a to get him to reveal his secrets of where

he gets his food. He then devices a means of snuffing out the embers each time his son comes

back from Ap�a’s house. The fourth time, he goes by himself, and in order to win over Ap�a’s

heart first, he starts condemning his son’s attitude of playing the day out with his friends each

time he comes for the embers and as a result allows the embers to die out before he could get

home. Ap�a, of course, is taken in by this lie and takes Tortoise for an innocent man and tells

him what he wants to hear – the secret behind his good looks when others are dying of hunger.

The secret being the palm nuts located in a very far forest. Ap�a not only tells him this secret but

also agrees to take him along when next he goes to pick the palm nuts.

Tortoise’s piteous countenance has contributed in giving tortoise a manipulative edge

over his victims. Tortoise, just as we have observed in the Princess’s and the Earthworm’s

stories, applies the said countenance in order to extort valuable belongings from their owners, by

drumming into them his poor state in life as an orphan. Orphans always elicit pity from people

and it is always assumed as sheer wickedness to be bad to one in anyway.

Tortoise as a symbol of greed is depicted in a greater number of the tales collected.

Greed, among the Lejja people is referred to as enya ukwu- one who has ‘big eyes.’ This does not

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literarily refer to the size of someone’s eyes; it however refers to the greater share which attracts

the person’s interest. Among the Igbo, greed is gradually built in one if one is not properly

disciplined from childhood and every aspect of greed, ranging from its early-stage-acquisition to

its gradual maturity in the trickster, is vividly played out. The stories also go a long way to

portray in bad light all the other evils that accompany greed like lying, cheating and so on. First,

it is observed that the whole sequence of greed starts with the inability to control one’s lust over

something, and then this gives rise to in satiation, which is then followed by greed itself.

This initial inability to control one’s lust in its early stage is simply known as �sa among

the Nsukka Igbo. �sa is a term used to cajole and chide a child whenever he eats in a

neighbour’s house or accepts edible gifts from an individual without the permission of an adult.

Any child who is caught in this act is made to feel the shame and guilt either by his peers or

older relatives. This is because this childish act, if uncurbed, gradually grows into greed.

The different stages of greed are perfectly represented by Tortoise in his encounter with

the Nkwube woman’s echicha. He, first of all, finds the aroma emanating from the food so

irresistible that he finds it difficult to control himself from having a taste. He takes a little of it

and sets the ground for insatiability, greed and other vices to take their full courses.

As he tastes the food, he wants more, and finding it difficult to control himself, he

devices vicious means of getting the whole food to himself. A lie that the woman’s house is

burning sees him through his plans and in order to cover his tracks, he perpetrates more evil by

filling the bowl with his excreta and using the little food he left over to spread over the faeces to

make the woman think the content was still the same. That this woman was unable to distinguish

the difference between the aroma of her food and the horrible stench of the excreta is mind

boggling.

Tortoise’s actions also portray clearly that greed continuously grows in one if it does not

meet any obstacle on its way. Tortoise succeeds in his first adventure but because he is not

caught, he opts for another one in that same woman’s house. He again sees food in the woman’s

kitchen and, again, wants to have some. His ‘long throat’ does not allow him to decipher the

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difference – that the food, this time, is a trap. This action of his is captured by an Igbo proverb,

which has it that, Ihe onye na-eri ka e ji egbu ya (One can only be killed through what one eats).

Tortoise actually walks into the trap by going forward to steal it. A child’s voice warns him

against the act but he feigns annoyance at the deemed insult from the child and charges towards

the child to fight him. He ends up having his whole body glued to the child-like figure, which is

sticky.

Another aspect of greed depicted by Tortoise in the stories is his attitude to eat up the

whole of everything he is meant to share with others. In the story, ‘Tortoise, Bat and Sheep’,

tortoise finds an excuse of eating everything presented to them. He tells the sheep to go back

and bring the items he (Tortoise) had told him to drop on their way to the ceremony. The sheep

obeys but before he could come back, everything had been eaten up. Just as Tortoise eats up

Ap�a’s palm nuts which are meant for both of them, while they were on the tree, so does he eat

up the food presented to him as a result of cricket’s song, but instead of giving him some, he

finishes everything up. Tortoise also seems not satisfied with his own share of the money in the

Pig’s story; he instead goes to the sheep to lend him his share, which he refuses to pay for.

Likewise in his story with the King’s uvuru, he picks the entire fruit meant for the survival of the

entire animal kingdom.

What then seems very clear in all the stages and aspects of greed portrayed is that there is

always a punishment attached to them save that of he and Pig. This could as a result of Ropo

Sekoni’s opinion of punishment as ‘the necessary condition for upholding order in any society.’

Tortoise does not go scot-free with his greedy actions whenever he involves himself in them. In

most cases, he receives an indelible scar on his body that ought to remind him of his evil deeds.

In the first story discussed, he receives several strokes of the cane from the Nkwube woman,

apart from the humiliation he suffers by being stuck to the child-like figure. The woman’s cane,

according to the story, is responsible for the cracks on tortoise’s shell and the strokes were deep

enough to be able to give such a mark.

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In the second story, Cricket, with the help of a medicine man, glues Tortoise’s buttocks to

the ground after he had finished their food. Likewise, in the Ap�a story, Tortoise earns himself

stings from the bees for going back for another drum, in the land of the spirits, after he had been

given one. Not only does he go back for another drum, but also for the biggest among the drums,

thinking that the bigger the drum, the more food will come out of it. In ‘Tortoise and the king’s

uvuru, Tortoise dies when he swears falsely that he was not the thief. But in the Pig’s story,

Tortoise goes absolutely free which could prove the survival of the fittest thought.

2.4 Tortoise: A Symbol of Folly and Pride

Tortoise, despite his possession of great amount of wisdom sometimes makes an ass of

himself in tales. His foolishness as has been observed, always comes as a result of pride and the

general after-effect is that he is out-witted and made to appear foolish in the end.

In the story, ‘The Tortoise, Bat and Sheep’, it starts with Tortoise calling all the animals

together and telling them that, none of them can outdo him in the game of cunning. What seems

to have necessitated this statement could have been the successes he has recorded in many other

tales where he out-rightly outwits both the small and the mighty animals and as a result, in most

cases, he is always crowned king (as seen in the story of Tortoise and Ap�a, where he feeds the

animals drum, which came as a result of his wisdom.)

This proud action of his in a way reflects a proverb Achebe uses, that the little bird, Nza,

after being overfed, challenges its chi (god) to a wrestling match. The Igbo will again have it as

Ngara buru �z�, �d�da esobe ya, which means that ‘a fall follows every action of pride’.

The sheep comes out to challenge Tortoise in this game of wits but falls prey to

Tortoise’s wisdom. Tortoise invites the sheep to accompany him to a particular ceremony and

asks him to come along with spoons, knives, plates and cups. On their way, Tortoise tells the

unsuspecting sheep to drop the plates, at another point, he tells him to drop the spoons and so on

till they get there. Once they are served food, Tortoise tells Sheep to go back for the plates, later,

cups and then spoons and knives. The sheep obediently accepts to go on these errands for

Tortoise, oblivious of the fact that they are being used against him.

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Though Tortoise is wise quite all right, the effort he puts in to see himself as the best and

the most respected among all the animals brings out the pride in him. This quest for pride takes

Tortoise to yet another escapade; otherwise, he ought to have been done with the first adventure

with the sheep. He brags about the sheep’s fall and calls upon any other animal who deems it fit

to throw up a challenge to him to come forward.

The bat agrees to this challenge and Tortoise used exactly the same tricks he used on the

sheep. When sent to get the cutleries, the bat does not argue it out with the Tortoise to prove

himself wiser. He could have told Tortoise that he already knew his plans when he was told to

drop those items, instead, he humbly obeys every errand he is sent on but understands that, that

should be his weapon for success. He also must have silently spent sometime improving on his

speed as he also counts on it. Once Tortoise sends him for any of the cutleries, the bat, in the

twinkling of the eye, returns with it. The bat’s swiftness weakens Tortoise but he seems too

proud to accept his failure. He, instead, cajoles the bat for his excessive desire for the food,

which made him run all the way and tells him (bat) to finish the food if he so desires. Tortoise,

knowing full well that his game was up, would have laughed it off and enjoyed the meal together

with the bat, but, out of pride, decides to go hungry. The bat finishes the whole food and

humiliates Tortoise just as he did to the sheep. Though Lion wins Tortoise as a result of strength

in ‘Tortoise, the Fishes and Lion,’ by forcefully wrenching the pack from him and peeping into

it, what remains clear is that Tortoise is always conquered when he thinks himself invincible.

In this game of wits, one thing that is glaring is the role of folly in the story. While it

takes the sheep’s folly to adjudge Tortoise wise in the first part of the story, it also takes a

pretentious show of folly on the part of the bat to expose Tortoise’s foolishness in return.

Tortoise is bent on showing the bat that he is wiser but the bat continues dancing to his tune and

never gives Tortoise any slightest inkling that he has got something up his sleeve. His silence

suggests that he had already equipped himself properly for the game and previously planned it all

out as a result of Tortoise’s boastings. Perhaps, the bat would not have won over Tortoise if he

had not bragged about being wise in the first place.

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Some questions that arise from the story, which need to be given more thought are as

follows:

a) Why does the tortoise (the king of wits) not think of another game challenge with

the bat, knowing full well that he had previously used it against the sheep?

b) Why didn’t Tortoise, the king of wits, immediately think out a way out, or quickly

develop a counter game to win the bat over, when he had seen that the first one had

fallen through?

In ‘Tortoise and the Snake’, we again see Tortoise being made to look foolish because of

his significant show of pride. Just like in our first story, he again calls on the animals to come

forth and challenge his wisdom.

In this case, the snake takes Tortoise unawares and does not allow him any chance of

trying to show his (Tortoise’s) wisdom first. Snake simply tells Tortoise to go back home and

wait for him immediately he had agreed to Tortoise’s challenge. Snake again goes to the extent

of seeking the sun’s assistance to ensure his victory.

When they get to tortoise’s house, he is not around and Snake leans on the door post and

tells the sun to shine at him with all his might. As the sun shines on the snake’s borrowed sky-

coloured clothes, its reflection on the clothes makes everywhere shine and assume a difficult

colour. Tortoise does not understand this from afar while he is approaching his house and this

makes him run foolishly. Snake finds it difficult to hide his surprise at how fast tortoise fell

despite his boastings.

Just as tortoise cunningly instilled fear in the Nkwube woman to give in to his mischief,

so is fear used by the snake to win over him in this game of wits. In as much as tortoise appears

invincible in almost all the tales, it takes just a little thing for him to be out-witted and humiliated

even more than he does to others.

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2.5 Tortoise and Agility

Tortoise, as we have observed in the tales, does not wait for any problem to solve itself.

He does not wait for situations to automatically turn out good for him or sort themselves out;

instead, he always believes in himself and immediately seeks solution to any situation he finds

unsuitable. In Ap�a’s story, Tortoise could no longer take the sight of seeing his entire household

go hungry while some other person is looking fresh and robust. He immediately sets out to solve

this problem of hunger and he does this by seeking a way to get close to Ap�a and to find out his

secrets. In the end, he comes back with a drum that is capable of feeding the whole of the animal

kingdom.

Again, in the Princess’s story, he sees that he has no money for a wife and immediately

takes action. He does not arouse anyone’s sympathy by sitting down and waiting for friends or

relatives to contribute money to him for this task. He actually believes in seeing himself out of

his problem. This same attitude is also depicted in the ‘Earthworm’s story’ where he, being an

orphan, goes out in search of solutions to better his present situation. Though this story portrays

him as a weakling, who goes about cheating people while everyone is at work, he on his own

part, portrays himself as one who lives by his wits, cheating out the proceeds from hard workers.

Having gone through the different portrayals of Tortoise, the trickster, in the different

folk tales, we cannot fail to come up with the following questions:

a) Why does tortoise seem to represent many things (that are not related) at the same

time? At a point he represents the good, at another, the bad, why does this seem to

be so?

b) Why do all the representations seem to center on one aspect of morality or the

other?

c) What role has morality to play in shaping the tales to take a particular form (greedy,

tricky, show of pride etc) and for picking Tortoise as its character?

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CHAPTER THREE

AN ANALYSIS OF THE TRICKSTER TALES

This chapter analyses the trickster tales in respect to their narrative qualities, their

portrayal of the narratological elements and the overall effect of the elements in making the

stories successful as narratives as well as literary objects.

3.1 Identification of the Trickster Tales as Narratives

David Hayman and Eric S. Rabskin posit that, for a narrative to emerge there must be a

teller – which refers to both the verbal storyteller and the textual storyteller – and a story. They

again argue that the teller who is technically referred to as ‘the narrator’ should rank above the

‘story’ in the order of necessity. This opinion of theirs is in recognition of the invaluable

contribution of the narrator to the being of a narrative. Ginette, in agreement with this

proposition presents an elaborate role of the narrator in his description of the narrator in Jahn’s

essay as:

… the speaker or the voice of the narrative discourse. He/she is the agent who establishes communicative contact with an addressee (the narratee), who manages the exposition, who detects what is to be told, how it is to be told (especially from what point-of-view, and in what sequence), and what is to be left out. If necessary, the narrator will defend the tellability and comment on its lesson, purpose or message.

A story, according to Hayman and Rabskin, is described as a sequence of events/action

units or a sequence of episodes, which involves characters, in a chronological order (stories, as a

matter of style, can appear in a non-chronological order, i.e. anachronies, which come in the

form of flash backs, flash forwards and in media res). Stories, according to them, are also

expected to have a point, teach a lesson or present an interesting experience, ‘a high degree of

experientiality,’ according to Fludernik in Jahn.

Jahn Manfreid, on the other hand, sees ‘narrative’ as ‘a form of communication which

presents a sequence of events caused and experienced by characters’ (1). Stephen Cohan and

Linda M. Shires, in their own view place more emphasis on the manner of presentation as the

main distinguishing factor between the narrative and other genres. According to them, while ‘a

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play presents an action, a narrative does so indirectly, through the use of words which recount or

describe action.’

Branigan in Jahn sees the ‘narrative’ as a ‘perpetual activity that organizes data into a

special pattern which represents and explains experience.’ Hayman and Rabskin push this idea

further to accommodate the fact that:

Narratives attempt to recount imaginative events and action with as effective colouring as much care as possible for impact on the reader; they attempt to create a fictive truth independent of the details of verifiable history.

Ginette in Jahn stands out from the whole lot of opinions with his argument that

‘narratives’ should be restricted to ‘verbally narrated texts’ only. This opinion of his does not go

down well with other narratologists, like Barthes, Chatmanel and Bal, who strongly hold it that,

‘anything that tells a story, in whatever genre, constitutes a narrative.’

Consequently, since the stories collected meet all the precepts laid down by the critics

(Ginette not left out), we are then in the right position to adjudge them ‘narratives’. Our next

mission then, is to examine how far the stories have portrayed the basic narratological elements,

‘the most obvious elements of the object of study’, as Hayman and Rabskin would refer them.

3.2 The Portrayal of the Basic Narratological Elements/Concepts in the Tales

3.2.1 Narrator’s Relationship to His/Her Story

Jahn Manfreid tells us that the above expression is used by Ginette to portray what is

widely known to others as the ‘point of view of a story’. Ginette argues that the way a narrator

relates to a story, i.e. whether the narrator is present or absent in his/her story manifests itself in

two ways: homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narrators.

3.2.1.1 Homodiegetic Narrators

Homodiegetic narrators, from the prefix ‘homo’, signal that they are of the same nature as

the characters in the text on the level of action. ‘Diegetic’, on the other hand, pertains to the act

of ‘narrating’. The homodiegetic narrator, therefore, refers to what other narratologists know as

the ‘First Person Narrator’.

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The homodiegetic narrator/First Person Narrators manifest themselves in a text, in the use

of the personal pronoun ‘I’. Thus, we have in a text, expressions such as, ‘I did this’, ‘this was

what happened to me’, ‘we did this,’ ‘this is ours’ and ‘it happened to us’. The narrator

participates in the story s (he) tells and that is why we refer to the ‘I’ person as the ‘experiencing

I’. This narrator is limited in his/her view in the sense that his/her death cannot be recounted, not

only that but also events that occurred in his/her absence.

3.2.1.2 Heterodiegetic Narrators

From the prefix, ‘hetero’, we are presented with narrators whose world are of different

nature as compared to the world of action in the text. The heterodiegetic narrator is totally

absent from the story itself. S(he) tells the story and comments extensively on the actors and

actions. This narrator’s view is omniscient as s (he) knows everything ‘about the story’s world

and its characters, including their conscious thoughts and unconscious motives’ – Hayman and

Rabskin (35). Jahn sees this narrator as godlike, and his/her views, as godlike in the sense that

there is no limitation to his/her views. The narrator also gives a wide range of information

because his/her position is high above that of the characters whose reports he/she gives.

Heterodiegetic narrators are signaled in a text by the presence of the third person pronouns and

third person characters. Thus we have, ‘he came’, ‘there was a man who came here’, ‘and she

did that’, etc.

The term ‘heterodiegetic narrator’, has been noticed to be Ginette’s term for the third

person narrator (as widely known by others), as they both share the same qualities. Ginette’s

argument that these types of narrators could mislead is seriously countered by Jahn who thinks

that both the homodiegetic and the heterodiegetic narrators have the possibility of misleading

(being ironical, satiric, etc.). Jahn therefore proposes that the task of detecting a misleading

narrator should be on the reader or the audience. This activity, according to him, makes the text

thought-provoking.

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Our stories (collected), as we have observed, portray the heterodiegetic narration in the

sense that they contain both the third person pronouns and the third person characters. Such

features are portrayed in some of our tales thus:

Example 1: ‘Tortoise and the Goat’

Once upon a time, there was a famine and the king had a big garden egg farm at the farm site. The tortoise made a hole on the fence from where he stole the garden eggs.

Example 2: ‘How Tortoise Got a Wife’

One day, Tortoise wanted to get married and thought out a plan. He set out on a journey with three grains of corn. As it was getting dark, he entered a man’s house and said to him, ‘Please Sir, could you allow me to pass the night in your house?’…

Example 3: ‘Tortoise and the Mushroom’

One day, Tortoise was working in his farm and he saw a Mushroom. He was so delighted that he wanted to pick it. The Mushroom warned him not to pick it because it was not edible.

We, therefore, notice the third person pronouns, as well as the characters, conspicuously spread

(as italicized) in the incipit of the stories above.

Since all our stories appear in the form mentioned above, we thereby refer to them as

heterodiegetic narratives; and being heterodiegetic, they also possess the omniscient quality

(privilege of unlimited knowledge). In our tales, this power of unlimited knowledge is primarily

focused towards highlighting the protagonist’s deceptive actions, which other characters are

usually oblivious of. This is elaborately addressed in some of the tales below.

In ‘How Tortoise Got a Wife’, the fact that the chicken, the goat and the child were all

strangled by Tortoise, is revealed through the narrator’s comment. It is also observed that the

revelation highlights the extra effort put in by Tortoise to ensure that his plans work out. The evil

nature of Tortoise is then brought out in the process him. Tortoise’s hidden actions, therefore,

lead to the complexity of the stories as trickster tales.

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Again in ‘Tortoise and the Cricket’, through the narrator’s comment, Tortoise’s deceptive

action of rubbing saliva on his eyes to make for tears is portrayed. Not only does he do this, he

also ‘opened and closed his mouth in the same rhythm as cricket’s song.’ Though the narrator is

aware of this action, he does not let it out to the other characters; he just allows the story to go

on.

Similarly, in ‘Tortoise and Apia,’ another of Tortoise’s mischief is revealed by the

narrator. Tortoise sends his son to get charcoal from Apia’s house for fire making. It happens that

each time he goes there, Apia gives him a well-roasted palm nut. In order for him to get more of

the palm nuts, Tortoise crushes out the charcoal and sends his son back for more. That he

‘crushes out the charcoal’ is captured by the narrator’s omniscience.

This power of omniscience is taken to the greatest heights in ‘Tortoise and the Nkwube

women,’ where three actions are portrayed simultaneously. Just as Tortoise deceives the woman

to run back home and retrieve her belongings from fire, he at the same time is recounted to be

eating the woman’s food. The woman is in her house to discover that there is no fire after all

while Tortoise is eating her food. Not only does he eat the food but goes to a nearby bush to fill

the bowl with his excreta. This ability to recount different actions, which occur simultaneously,

according to Ginette, makes the heterodiegetic narrator rank higher than the homodiegetic

narrator, for he has the ability of being at different places at a time.

Having come this far, we cannot fail to observe the general effect of the heterodiegetic

narrator on trickster tales, which is to ensure the successful motif of attaining a trickster quality.

This is seen in the attempt of the narrator to bridge the gap between separate actions, which the

audience ordinarily would not have understand or known how they came about (as already

discussed above). As seen in ‘How tortoise got a wife,’ where the characters/victims to

Tortoise’s trickery just wake up to find Tortoise’s companions dead (the chickens, goat and the

child).

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3.2.2 Covertness and Overtness of Narrators:

In as much as we have verbal narrators who tell the stories, nothing in the stories seems

to suggest anything about their personal qualities such as, age, sex, personal philosophy, etc. For

example, nothing in the story of ‘Tortoise and the Nkwube’ woman signals to us that the story

could be coming from the perspective of a male narrator, who makes jest of the feminine gender

for being less reasonable. For these reasons, Ginette characterizes such narrators as ours, as

possessing the Covert narrative voice. Narrators, however, have Overt narrative voice when

certain elements in the narrative act as pointers to the character’s personal characters.

Our narrators, appearing covert, are best suited for trickster tales as the style makes the

stories tell themselves. By limiting their functions in the tales to just comments on characters and

their actions, the narrators have succeeded in giving the audience unbiased narratives to work on.

And by having unbiased narratives to work on, there is the tendency that many interpretations

will be generated from readers, thereby giving the text a lasting significance.

3.2.3 Dialogism

M. Bahktin in Jahn Manfreid tells us that this concept applies to a text that contains ‘a

diversity of authorial, narratorial and characterial voices.’ Stephen Cohan and Linda M. Shires

see a text as manifesting dialogism ‘when a quoted monologue appears with a narrative tag

which, sets it apart as a quotation.’ They also opine that when a narrative is devoid of the

mentioned dialogic qualities, the text can then be said to be portraying the stream of

consciousness or an interior monologue. Dialogism, according to Bakhtin, creates significant

contrasts and tensions in a text since the text appears more lively and conversational in this form.

Dialogism, as a style, is against the monologism style where all the voices in a text sound more

or less the same. While the former presents a polyphonic text, the later presents a monologic text.

The tales, as again observed, manifest in themselves the dialogic style. In the story, ‘The

Tortoise, the Bat and the sheep,’ we observe that the following expressions are rendered in the

characters’ own voices apart from that of the narrator.

35

Tortoise (said to the sheep): ‘Could you please run back and collect the plates?’ Sheep: ‘All right.’

Also, when Tortoise dares all the animals to challenge him in a game of wits, bat in a

conversational manner replies thus, ‘I will go with you.’

Likewise in ‘Tortoise and the Earthworm,’ the following conversation ensues between

Tortoise and all the characters in this manner,

Tortoise: ‘Woman, why is it that you don’t have anything roasting in the fire?’ The woman: ‘My dear, I don’t have anything to put in the fire. If I had, I would have done so.’

This constant infusion of dialogism in all the tales has the all over effect of adding the

artistic value of aesthetics to the text and then paves the way for the willing suspension of

disbelief on the part of the audience.

3.2.4 Focalization:

Narratologists like Ginette and Stanzel in Jahn see ‘focalization’ as a type of textual

presentation whereby a ‘text is anchored in a character’s view point.’ Here, events are presented

from the point of view of a story internal character, which is known as internal focalization. In

this type of presentation, there is a character in the text through whose eyes the narrator sees.

This internal character is known to many narratologists as the internal focalizer, a reflector, or a

figural character (exclusively to Stanzel). The internal focalizer is not made manifest in any of

the stories because Jahn stresses that it is a situation whereby the events are presented from a

character’s point of view (emphasis done by me).

When a narrative text is devoid of the internal focalizer, what we then have is the narrator

presenting the text him/herself as the ‘external focalizer’ (Bal and Rimman-Kenan in Jahn). The

narrator, as the external focalizer, is what then applies to the tales as the style of internal

focalization has been observed to be more applicable to novels and short stories as noted in the

following examples;

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Example 1. ‘Tortoise and Mushroom.’(Appendix, Story 3)

One day Tortoise was working in his farm and he saw a

mushroom. He was so delighted that he wanted to pick it.

The mushroom warned him not to pick it because it was

not edible. Tortoise said to it, ‘Oh I can see that you do

not want me to eat you but I must eat you today…’

Example 2. ‘Tortoise and Snake.’(Appendix, Story 8).

The tortoise boasted that none of the animals could outwit

him. Then the snake came and challenged him. Later, the

snake went to Tortoise’s house and told him to go and wait

for him. Then the snake went to the sun and asked him to

accompany him on an errand. He told the sun what he

would do for him and both of them went home…

In the incipit of the stories above, it is noticed that the external focalizer is vividly

portrayed. It is through the narrator’s point of view that audience sees Tortoise’s actions. The

presence of the narrator is also strongly felt unlike in the internal focalization situation where the

narrator is more or less dead; therefore paving the way for actions to emanate from the

perceptions and thoughts of the figural character.

The fact that folk tales appear in this (external focalization) form makes us conclude

that it is a distinguishing quality of the genre.

3.2.5 Narrative Modes:

While some of the tales obviously manifest the ‘telling’ mode of narration, others portray

a showing method. Stephen Cohan and Linda M. Shires see the ‘telling mode’ as ‘the narrative

style whereby the narrator either describes or comments on a character, the setting of a story or

the development of actions and the circumstances of the act of narrating.’ A showing mode of

presentation of episodes, on the other hand presents little or no narratorial mediation, overtness

or presence. Here the reader is basically cast in the role of a witness to the events. These modes

are seen in the examples below.

37

An example of a showing of presentation in ‘Tortoise and Apia’

…Tortoise came back and proudly brought out the drum to feed the animals once again to ensure their loyalty, but to his utmost surprise, nothing came out! He felt bad when he heard what happened and could not contain the fact that he was no longer king. He quickly took his bag and went into the forest for another drum.

When he got there, he took a palm nut and pushed it into the hole. He kept forcing it to move with his foot up until they came to the land of spirits… This time, Tortoise went for the biggest drum, and of course, it will bring more food than the other. Hardly had he come out of the hole when he beat the drum to have a taste of the food…

In the above excerpt, we notice comments made by the narrator in describing the actions

taking place in the story. Tortoise is proud in the first sentence because he is a king and because

he does not want to lose the respect and loyalty accorded to kings, he goes back for another

drum. This information is given to us by the narrator as he describes the reason behind every

character’s action. This is unlike the showing method where we have a scenic presentation of

events as seen in the excerpt below:

‘Tortoise and Snake.’ The tortoise boasted that none of the animals could outwit him. Then, the snake came and challenged him. Later, the snake went to the sun and asked him to accompany him on an errand.

When the appointed day reached, the snake went and bought a sky-coloured material with which he clothed himself. Together he went with the sun to the tortoise’s house only to behold his absence. The snake went and leaned on the doorpost and told him to shine on him.

In the above excerpt, it is observed that the narrator is only interested in ‘showing’ the

actions to the audience. No narratorial comment is noticed and the events are not described

either.

These styles manifest themselves in the stories not as a result of choice by the narrator,

but because the stories were handed down in that form, then the narrator has no other choice than

to tell them that way.

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3.2.6 Characterization:

Characterization, according to Jahn, is manifested in a text in two ways: the implicit and

the explicit characterization.

We have the implicit characterization when non-verbal attributes are given to characters.

In this type of characterization, a character’s behaviour or appearance is always indicative of a

characteristic trait. Here also, a character is known by what he does and says. On the other hand,

the explicit characterization refers to a particular style where the narrator tells his audience what

and who a character is.

In the tales, we can say that the protagonist, Tortoise, is implicitly characterized. The

narrator never for once in any of the tales tells us that Tortoise is a trickster. It is from what

Tortoise does in the tales and what he says; that a reader can implicitly say that he is this or that.

Tortoise already takes up his personality outside the tales as a trickster or a wise man. What we

see in the tales is a mere application of the people’s convention on Tortoise’s personality as

already seen in chapter one of this work.

3.3 The Contributions of the Narratological Elements in the Successful Development of the Stories as Trickster Tales.

The heteriodegetic narrator is best suited for trickster tales in the sense that it presents an

impersonal account of the protagonist in view. Through the omniscient privilege, which the

narrator enjoys, he/she can see through the mind of Tortoise, present his dubious character so

that his true nature could be deciphered despite his always- innocent- appearance.

The covertness of the narrator enables the different shades of Tortoise’s trait to be

portrayed in the tales. In one tale, Tortoise is portrayed as wise, in another he is portrayed as

greedy; in yet another; he is portrayed as proud, etc. The narrator, therefore, does not portray

him/herself as a moralist in the tales; otherwise Tortoise’s escapades would not have been

portrayed in such a light and lively manner. He only tells his tales, if there is anything to learn

from the tales, it is left for his/ her audience to decipher.

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The theme of trickery that runs through the trickster tales can be well manageable in an

external focalizer narrative situation. This is in recognition of the fact that the tales are verbally

told and the figural/reflector narrative situation would have appeared too cumbersome a style for

the tales. The tales have to come in a simple child-like style to be easily enjoyed by all and

sundry. This figural/reflector style is, therefore, more applicable to novels and short stories,

where it could easily be captured by the reader.

The implicit presentation of characters in the narratives paves the way for the different

sides of Tortoise’s trait to be observed. Tortoise being a cheat, intelligent or greedy is variously

portrayed in the tales. This element, therefore, brings out the greatest artistic value of the tales as

a result of their thought-provoking nature.

All these elements of narratology have contributed immensely in the literary evaluation

of the trickster tales. As a result the trickster tales have been given a lift from their already

dormant status as just entertainment and moralist tales.

3.4 The Narrative Act and the Definition of Characters’ Identity

The narrative act, according to Henry McDonald, is defined as ‘what constructs’ or

‘makes’. He equally proposes that the narrative act is the ‘process of constituting or making a

story.’ He again posits that the act is a separate entity from the story itself because, according to

him, it is the real performance of the story. To McDonald, therefore, the artistic value of

narrative text actually lies in the telling (narrative act) and not in the story. At the same time, he

also argues that meaning also accrues from the ‘telling’ and not from the ‘author’ as it was

previously in practice during the era of traditional criticism. Just as McDonald attaches every

aspect of artistic value of a text to the narrative act, so do we attach the quality of the ‘the

definition of the characters’ identity to it.

The character’s identity can be referred to as ‘who a character is’ and what this character

stands for or designates in a narrative. The narrative act and character’s identity can be

discussed as follows;

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3.4.1 Source of identity

The question of character identity and its definition casts our mind back to Chapter One,

where we actually discussed the tortoise with regards to its concept in African. We therefore

cannot be making an empty claim if we actually posit that the narrative act identifies and sources

its characters from its immediate cultural environment. The fact that the tortoise is identified

with cheating, greed, intelligence, etc., in the stories’ structure, accrues from the Igbo culture and

some other cultures that share the same experience with it in Africa. The identity of the tortoise

in tales, as we have observed, emphasizes his perception by the people.

Tortoise’s victims (Goat, Sheep, and Cricket etc) are also selected to portray the identity

that they already have in the cultural thought. The fact that the goat and sheep appear stupid and

foolish in the two stories ‘Tortoise and Goat’ and ‘Tortoise and Sheep’ respectively, is in line

with their general perception among the Igbo. In the Lejja Igbo, likewise all other parts of

Igboland, when someone is addressed as a goat (ewu) or a sheep (aturu), it metaphorically

depicts the person addressed as being ‘foolish’ or ‘stupid’. Thus we have the following

sentences; I bu ewu or I bu aturu. It is in this metaphorical sense that the animals come to play in

the stories. In the stories, the goat foolishly over-feeds himself to the extent that the stomach is

too big for the hole. The sheep on the other hand is not sharp witted enough to realize that he is

being cheated when tortoise sends him back and forth for the same cutleries he told him to drop

at different places. These are not strange experiences to the Igbo.

The cricket being a good singer in one of the tales accrues from the sharp and clear sound

it makes at night. The cow’s and the goat’s sounds cannot in anyway appear as sonorous as that

of the cricket and that is why the narrative act takes up the latter to identify with good songs. In

support of the above claim, Nkem Okoh posits that;

There are norms of behaviour expected of the sheep, the dog, the elephant and so on in stories. The stereotypes are, therefore, formed through observation of the habits of various animals, their appearance and the kind of response they usually make in particular situations. (32)

41

Consequently, we have been able to establish the fact that the narrative act identifies its

characters with their immediate cultural environment and this accounts for the variation in

characters when compared with that of other cultures. For instance, we have the spider as the

trickster animal from the Akan (Ghana) culture as Ananse and the same animal plays as ‘Gizo’ in

Hausa (Nigeria) culture (Ruth Finnegan). Finnegan (344) also tells us that the North Americans

have the fox as their trickster animal while some parts of the Europe have theirs as the wolf.

We can therefore deduce from the above that the identification of a particular

character/animal with a particular trait is culture bound or based on the semic code and

conventions of the people according to Roland Barthes in Stephen Cohan and Linda M. Shirus.

3.4.2 The Definition of Characters’ Identity in the Tales by the Narrative Act

In the stories, the narrative act has been observed to do the duty of character

identification in two ways:

a) by assigning particular traits to characters in the making of the story

b) by highlighting these traits through an in-depth comments on a character’s action or

speech.

It is observable from our stories that once a character is assigned a particular role, it is so well

defined that it will be difficult for a character to transcend this position already given to it during

the construction of the story. McDonald describes this as the ability of characters to maintain

‘fixed identities or ‘fixed roles..’

In ‘Tortoise and Cricket’, for instance, Cricket is slated for folly while Tortoise is

ascribed with cheating as a result of his wisdom. Cricket exhausts every physical and mental

energy in him in order to cross over this fixed position assigned to it to no avail. When he

realizes that he has been cheated out of his art and food by Tortoise, he goes to the medicine man

to get even with tortoise by ensuring that he gets stuck to the place when he finishes the meal.

This action of his, as observed, marks the cricket’s struggle to relieve himself of his folly and

attain the same character slot as Tortoise, which is wisdom. But what we see is that the more he

struggles, the more the narrative propels him toward that position which has been assigned to

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him in the story – to end up a loser in the conflict. Though the medicine man had pity on him

and assisted him by granting his request, it was difficult for the villagers to take his words

against that of Tortoise in their judgment between the two characters.

In the same story, Tortoise takes a defined and fixed position of a cheat and every though

and action of his portrayed this.

Tortoise’s dubious nature is first highlighted by the narrator in the following comments:

As cricket cried, the tortoise rubbed some saliva on his eyes and opened and closed his mouth in the same rhythm as the song.

Tortoise’s action here foregrounds his intents as a cheat and a very clever one at that. In

the first instance, he cheats cricket out of his glory as a good singer as no friendly agreement was

reached before they embarked on the journey. As if that was not enough,Tortoise again cheats

his friend out of food by keeping him well hidden in the bag and humiliating him the more by

throwing in bones to him. Instead of paying Tortoise back for his vice, the narrative tilts

everything in favour of Tortoise – his coronation and the passing of the verdict in his favour to

the extent that cricket, the innocent one, is killed ‘for lying against their king’.

The narrative act therefore does not give room for any level ground between two

opposing character traits. One character has to be both the protagonist and the conqueror despite

whatever he does; and the other, his victim whatever he too does, and so it is in the story.

Again, in ‘Tortoise and Ap�a,’ Tortoise is limited to take the status of a greedy man. In

order to portray this, the narrative act comes in full swing by highlighting every bit of his actions

that express that. Tortoise, in order to get more roasted palm nuts from Ap�a, crushes out the

charcoal using his leg and tells his son to go back for more (this information is provided by the

narrative comments). Again, it is through such comments that we get to know that Tortoise

hides himself in Ap�a’s bag. Tortoise’s intention is to get more of the palm nuts when they get

there.

The difference between Tortoise’s first and second journey to the land of the spirit is

vividly created by the narrative act. In the first, the motive is not intentional, but in the second,

43

he pushes the palm nut with his foot to make it move. When he gets there, the narrator again

reveals tortoise’s greedy internal monologue-that the bigger the drum, the bigger the food that

will come out of it.

All these comments on Tortoise are geared towards portraying the Tortoise as greedy and

the fact that he sometimes appears nice to this people by feeding them (Tortoise and Apia) does

not in any way pervert his greedy mission. He becomes greedy till the end of the story.

In conclusion, it can be said that the narrative act assigns roles to the characters in a story

and in most cases, it does this duty by taking up characters together with their connotational

qualities from their immediate environment. Also, once assigned their different roles in the

stories, the characters have no other choice than to act the roles out.

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CHAPTER FOUR

RCOMMENDATION ANDCONCLUSION

In my analysis of the tales, I was able to observe that while Tortoise is apparently witty in

some of the tales, in others, the structure of the story is such that Tortoise enjoys some

advantages over other animals. This observation could therefore suggest different eras of the

Tortoise tales in Lejja whereby the former came first while the latter followed. This could

therefore see to more research in the area to ascertain whether such grouping is possible and

possibly suggest further classifications of them based on the periods they existed.

Secondly, Tortoise as a narrative character assumes his roles in the tales as a result of his

cultural connotations, and this explains why he plays the trickster role in this part of the country.

Furthermore, the fact that Tortoise, a trickster hero, is sometimes out tricked suggests that

Tortoise as a character is a mere pencil in the hands of morality, whose role it is to determine

which side (good or evil) to place him in every tale he appears.

Consequently, we have seen that Lejja tales have proved themselves literary material that

can draw literary attention. Tortoise, as a character in the tales, has more to offer to our literary

study because through the study of his actions, we have been able to open up new arrears for

more researchers to take up.

45

WORKS CITED

Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. London: Heinemann, 1964. Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin. Ed. Michael

Holquist. Austin: U of Texas, 1981, qtd. In Jahn Manfreid. ‘Narrative: A Guide to the Theory of Narrative.’ http//www.uni-koeln.de/ame02/ppp.htm

Baldry, H. C. The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought. Great Britain: Cambridge University

Press, 1965. Cardinal, A. W. Tales Told in Togoland. London: Oxford University Press, 1931. Cohan, Stephen & Linda M. Shires. Telling Stories: A Theoretical Analysis of Narrative Fiction.

London: Routledge Firm, 1988. Finnegan, Ruth. Oral Literature in Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. Hayman, David & Eric S. Rabskin. An Introduction to Analysis of Narrative Prose. New York:

St. Martins, 1974. Horton, Robin. ‘Itaki’, the Tortoise Masquerade’ in Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, ed. Yemi

Ogunbiyi, Nigeria: Nigerian Magazine, 1978. Iyorwese, Hager. ‘Performance in Tiv Oral Poetry’ in Oral Poetry in Nigeria, eds.

Ughemegbulam N. Abalogu, etc. Nigeria: Nigerian Magazine, 1981. Leonard, Major Arthur Glyn. The Lower Niger and Its Tribes. London: Frank Cass and Co.

Limited, 1968. Manfreid, Jahn. ‘Narratology: A Guide to the Theory of Narrative’. http//www.uni-

koeln.de/ame02/ppp.htm McDonald, Henry. ‘The Narrative Act: Wittgenstein and Narratology’

http//www.umontreal.ca/revues/surface. Midley, Mary. Wisdom and Wonder. London: 1989 Nzeako, Tagbo. Nkoli. Nigeria: Longman. Ogbuehi, Cordelia. ‘Chinua Achebe and Children’s Fiction’ in The Eagle in Ascendance. Ed.

Damian U. Opata. Nigeria: Heinemann Educational Books, Plc, 2005. Okoh, Nkem. Preface to Oral Literature. Nigeria: Africana First Publishers, 2008. Okwueze, Malachy I. Ethics, Religion and Society: Biblical, Traditional and Contemporary

Perspectives. Nigeria: Prize Publishers, 2003. Opata, Damian U. Essays on Igbo World View. AP Express and Auto Publishing Company

Limited, 1988. Sekoni, Ropo. ‘The Narrator, Narrative-Pattern and Audience Experience of Narrative

Performance’ in The Oral Performance in Africa. ed. Isidore Okpewho. Nigeria: Spectrum Books Limited, 2003

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Wills, Richard W. Human Instincts, Everyday Life and the Brain: A Paradigm for

Understanding Behaviour. Vol. 2. Canada: The Book European, 1998.

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APPENDIX – The Stories

1. The Tortoise and the Goat.

One day, there was a famine and the king had a big garden egg farm at the farm site. The

tortoise made a hole on the fence from where he stole the garden eggs.

The goat, having observed how well-fed he looked, asked him one day, ‘my friend why

are you looking so robust while some of us here are dying of hunger?’ The tortoise was kind

enough to tell him his secrets but warned him that he could get stuck. The goat assured him that

there would be no problem and the set off. When they got there, the goat jumped and continued

eating up until his stomach became big and round.

The king became so annoyed with the act that he sent one of his wives to go and find out

who the thief was. As she was approaching the farm, she met the tortoise coming from the farm.

‘I have caught the thief o!’ She shouted and covered him with a basket. The tortoise started

singing piteously:

I was not the one who ate your garden eggs…………..Kpashigala. The animals in the forest ate the garden eggs………….Kpashigala. I am only a poor cripple………………………………..Kpashigala.

On hearing this, the king’s wife rushed to the farm and saw the goat where he was stuck

up in the whole with its protruding tummy. She called out to her husband that she had seen the

real thief that tortoise was innocent. The king brought out the goat and killed it while the tortoise

escaped.

2. How Tortoise Got A Wife.

Once upon a time, the tortoise wanted to get married and thought out a plan. He set out

on a journey with three grains of corn. As it was getting dark, he entered a man’s house and said

to him, ‘please Sir, could you allow me to pass the night in your house? I still have a very long

way to go and it is already dark.’ The man accepted him and offered him a room.

During the night, he threw the grains of corn on the floor and the rat ate them up. He

began to cry and told the man to pay for his corn. The man begged the tortoise to forgive him but

48

he remained adamant. He said to the man, ‘if you do not have corn in the house, then give me

something else in place of it.’ The man saw that he was not getting anywhere with his pleas and

gave him a chicken. The tortoise thanked him, took his chicken and continued with his journey.

Again the night came and he went to another man’s house and told him, ‘Please Sir,

could you allow me to pass the night in your house? I still have a very long way to go and it is

already dark.’ The man accepted him and gave him a room. At night he strangled the chicken

and waited for day break. When the man woke up, he went him and started crying; ‘The only

thing I have in this world has died in your house and I am now left with nothing.’ The man

begged to be forgiven but it fell on deaf ears. The Tortoise kept demanding something in place of

his chicken. The man later gave him a goat. He thanked him and continued with his journey.

Darkness came again and he came yet into another man’s house with his goat. Again, he

was offered a room but when everyone was asleep, he strangled the goat and waited for day

break. Hardly had the man came out of his hut, than the tortoise started crying that the only thing

he had had died in the man’s house and he thereby asked for the man’s child for a replacement.

The man later reluctantly gave out his child to tortoise. He thanked him, took ‘his child’ and

continued with his journey.

Then he came to the king’s palace seeking shelter for the night. The king offered him

one but during the night, he strangled the child and laid him among his daughters.’ When

morning came, he cried, ‘Oh! My only child, my only belonging! You must pay for my loss

with one of your daughters! The king looked upwards to the sky and downwards, not knowing

what else to do, gave out one of his daughters to tortoise. He happily took his wife home,

laughing at the way he had fooled all of them.

3. Tortoise and the Mushroom.

One day, tortoise was working in his farm and he saw a mushroom. He was so delighted

that he wanted to pick it. The mushroom warned him not to pick it because it was not edible.

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Tortoise said to it, ‘Oh I can see that you do not want me to eat you but I must eat you today.’

When the mushroom heard this he started crying;

Please do not pick me (twice) ---------------- kparanuma If you continue with your deed -------------- kparanuma Every relation will be on tears --------------- kparanuma.

Tortoise did not heed his warning and took it home. When he started preparing it for

cooking, the mushroom sang his song again but the tortoise continued to laugh at him. The

relatives, who were around and heard the song, warned the tortoise against eating it but he did

not listen any of them.

He went on to cook the mushroom but as he was cooking it, it kept singing its song.

After cooking it, he was about to eat it when he heard the ‘zom zom’ footfalls of the elephant,

who has come to fetch charcoal. The tortoise thought, ‘let me test it on the elephant to know

whether what they are saying is true.’ He later hid himself somewhere. Then the elephant came,

darted its eyes this way and that, so no one and tiptoed to where the food was and took a little of

it. Hardly had he finished the food when he fell, ‘gbadagam!’ on the ground and died. The

tortoise came out, saw him and was happy and said, ‘So, I would have been dead just like the

elephant. Well, that serves him right for his long throat.’

4. Tortoise and the Nkwube Woman

Once upon a time, one Nkwube woman wanted to take food to her parents. She prepared

a very delicious meal of Echicha and the aroma was all over her house. She went into the house

to collect more salt and the tortoise, who came to fetch charcoal for fire, smelt it and thought,

‘Waoh! What a nice food this woman has prepared.’ He took a little and that was too much for

him to resist. He quickly rushed home to drop the fire and come back for more. When he came,

the woman had left but he saw some passersby and sang to them;

Please did you see meet any Nkwube woman on her way to Amankwo? --------------------------- kwurube nkwube

Carrying Echicha ---------------kwurube nkwube

It has the right proportion

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Of salt-----------------------------kwurube nkwube It has the right proportion of pepper--------------------------kwurube nkwube It is very delicious----------------kwurube nkwube.

They told him that they saw her, that she was just ahead of him and if he walked faster,

he could catch up with her fast. The tortoise quickly ran after her but she was nowhere to be

found. He again saw some men farming and sang to them;

Did you meet any Nkwube woman on her way to Amankw�? ---------------------------------------kwurube nkwube Carrying Echicha------------------kwurube nkwube It has the right proportion Of salt--------------------------------kwurube nkwube It has the right proportion

Of salt-------------------------------kwurube nkwube It is very delicious -----------------kwurube nkwube

The men said to him, ‘she just passed by us now, walk faster so that you can easily

catch up with her.’

Then he caught up with the woman and shouted, ‘Woman, your house is on fire oh!

Everything in your house is being burnt up!’

The woman, on hearing that, set down her food from her head and rushed back to her

house. The tortoise began helping himself with the food as fast as he could. When he was

through he left just a little. He went into the bush and filled the bowl with his excreta. He later

spread the food on top of it.

When the woman reached home and saw nothing, she was annoyed that she has fallen

victim to the tortoise’s mischief. She hurriedly ran back, took her food and went to her parent’s

house.

The woman came and everyone was happy to meet her. When it was time to eat, the

plates, cups and spoons were all brought out. The food was shared out to everybody. Everyone

who tasted the food was very disappointed with the woman and they nearly tore her apart with

words. She cried and pleaded with them to have mercy on her. It was then that it occurred to her

that that could be part of the tortoise’s mischief and she went home to prepare another one.

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This time she made a child-like figure with foo- foo and kept it in front of her kitchen.

She finished cooking and deliberately left it outside. Tortoise came again and saw it. He was

very happy and immediately jumped at the food. As he wanted to touch it, the figure shouted,

‘Don’t touch it!’

The tortoise was annoyed and felt insulted by the child. ‘Who are you to tell me not to

take the food?’ Kpaa! He slapped it, but his hand got stuck to it. He kicked at it to let himself go

but his leg also got stuck, so did his stomach.

The woman came, saw the tortoise glued there and shouted, ‘Oh! So it has been you all

along eeh!’ She brought a cane and flogged the tortoise up until it made marks on his back. That

is why the tortoise’s shell is like that.

5. The Tortoise and the Cricket

Once upon a time, the tortoise wanted to go for a burial and assembled all the animals together.

He said to the goat, ‘if your father died, how would you cry?’

The goat cried, ‘kpee! Kpee!

The tortoise said to him, ‘will you kpee yourself out of the place’. Then he again went to the

sheep and asked him, ‘if your father died, how would you cry?’

The sheep cried ‘mee, mee!’

Then the tortoise said to it, ‘will you mee yourself out of this place! Then he went to cow

and he cried ‘moo-moo’. He said to him, ‘will you moo yourself out of this place!’

When he came to the cricket and asked him, he cried:

Chee- chee- chee- chee (Twice) ------------------------Ndebeleke I am going for a burial-------------------------------------Ndebeleke It hit me both at the waist and the leg-------------------Ndebeleke If it hits my waist, it will vibrate to the tune-----------Ndebeleke.

The tortoise seemed over-joyed and told him to sing it again. After he had sung it, the

tortoise invited him to go to a burial ceremony with him. When the appointed day came, he set

off with the cricket well-hidden in his bag. Immediately he got there, he told the cricket to start

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crying. As the cricket cried, the tortoise rubbed some saliva on his eyes and opened and closed

his mouth in the same as rhythm as the song.

The people were so touched by the tortoise’s cry that they crowned him king. They later

set food and wine before him. But while he enjoyed himself, he only threw in bones to the

cricket. This annoyed the cricket and he crept out of the bag. He went and told a medicine man

and he punished the tortoise by making him glue to the ground after he had the food.

When he finished the food and wanted to go, he could not move. He cried and begged the

people to go to the medicine man and find out what was wrong with him. They went there and

saw the cricket, who narrated everything to them and told them that he was responsible for

tortoise’s plight. They begged him to release the tortoise for them and he did so. When they

came back and confronted the tortoise with it, he lied and swore that he never knew the cricket

from Adam. They immediately rounded the cricket up and killed him for lying against their king.

6. Tortoise And Apia (Heron-Like African Bird)

Once upon a time, there was a great famine in the animal kingdom and the tortoise

noticed that Apia went out every morning to search for food. In order to find out this secret, he

sent his son to Apia’s house to collect charcoal for making fire. When he got there, Apia gave

him a well-roasted palm nut, which he handed over to his father as soon as he got home.

Immediately tortoise ate it, he crushed out the embers and ordered the boy to go back for

more. Apia gave the boy palm nuts as many times as he went there. Tortoise could not endure it

any longer and went there himself. He said to his friend, ‘don’t mind these children of nowadays,

who play their time out when sent on an errand by there parents. Imagine this little boy leaving

the embers I sent him for to die out while playing with his mates!’ Apia invited him into his hut

and gave him another delicious palm nut. Tortoise cleared his throat and asked him, ‘my friend,

Apia, where do you normally get these wonderful nuts from?’ Apia replied, ‘I usually get them

from a palm tree, which is very far away in the middle of the forest. But the problem is that you

cannot fly.’ Just immediately, a thought came to him and he told tortoise that he would carry him

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in his bag. He also warned him to come out early so that they could come back the same day.

Tortoise, who was very happy with the idea, thanked his friend and left.

On the appointed day, tortoise went and crept into Apia’s bag. Apia, after waiting for

tortoise to no avail, took his bag and left. The more he picked the nuts, the lighter the bag

seemed. Tortoise was really having his fill of the contents, and throwing the kernel into the river

underneath through a whole he made in the bag. When Apia put his hand in the bag to feel the

contents, tortoise screamed, ‘be careful, you are pricking me in the eye!’ As Apia heard, he cried

out at what his friend did to him. He made to throw him into the water but tortoise cried and

begged for his forgiveness. Apia agreed and told him to join him in picking the nuts so that they

would quickly make up for the lost ones before it becomes dark.

As tortoise was picking his, a nut fell into the river below. He went after it despite his

friend’s words to forget it. He kept following it till they got to a large compound owned by the

spirits and one of the children was grinding the palm nut together with the snuff. Tortoise

jumped and cried, ‘that cannot be my palm you are grinding like that, I suppose. Please I want

mine back.’ After begging him and nothing seemed to be coming out of it, the spirits told him to

go and choose a drum from a set of drums hanging on the wall and warned him never to wash it.

He chose the smallest one and left.

When he came out, he beat the drum and food fell down from nowhere. He went home,

did the same thing and the animals were so happy that they crowned him king immediately.

Tortoise went out one day and the animals were hungry. His wife brought out the drum, beat it

and fed the animals; but in order to close her tracks, she washed her finger prints out of it.

Tortoise came back and proudly brought out the drum to feed the animals once again to

ensure their loyalty, but to his utmost surprise, nothing came out! He felt bad when he heard

what happened and could not contain the fact that he was no longer king. He quickly took his

bag and went into the forest for another drum.

When he got there, he took a palm nut and pushed it the hole. He kept forcing it to move

with his foot till they came to the land of the spirits. The same event repeated itself, but this time,

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tortoise went for the biggest drum, and of course; it will bring more food than the other. Hardly

had he came out of the hole when he beat the drum to have a taste of the food. But O! Bees! In

their millions surrounded him and stung life out of him. When he got hold of himself, he thought

aloud, ‘no! I can’t suffer this alone; all the other animals must have a taste of it, since they shared

my food too.’

He came home and called all the animals together. When he saw that all of them had

gathered there he told them that the drum required a stronger hand since it was much bigger than

the other one. He therefore appointed the elephant to do the task and quietly crept away.

Elephant used all his strength to beat it and Wawoo! The bees came in the greatest numbers and

it was ‘kparakata! Kparakata!’everywhere. My story has finished

7. The Tortoise, the Bat and the Sheep.

The tortoise assembled the animals and told them that none of them could out-do him in

the game of cunning. He also told them that whoever deemed himself fit should come and

accompany him to a feast. The sheep came out and the tortoise told him to get the spoons, cups

and plates ready for the trip.

When the appointed day came, both of them set out for the trip. They came to a spot and

the tortoise told him to drop the spoon there. They came to another and he told him to drop the

plates and likewise he also did to the cups.

When they reached there and were served food, he said to the sheep, ‘could you please

run back and collect the plates?’ The sheep ran back to collect it but when he came back, the

tortoise had finished the food. When they were again served with wine, the same thing

happened and the sheep was later left with empty stomach. The tortoise caught him and fed him

with water up until the stomach bulged out and he used the kernel to cover the sheep’s anus to

prevent it from gushing out.

The sheep’s children saw their father and were very happy that there father fed well

because of his protruding stomach. But as he turned to go into his hut, they called him and said,

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‘father, something is stuck on your bottom, let us remove it.’ They removed it and the water

gushed out of him. He fell down and died. The tortoise went and reported his victory to the

other animals.

Another day came and he assembled the animals together, he again told them that

anyone who deemed himself fit enough to challenge him should come forward. The bat came

forth and said, ‘I will go with you.’

They again set out for a feast and the tortoise told the bat to do exactly as he had earlier

told the sheep. When they got there, the food was brought out and he said to the bat, ‘could you

please run back and collect the spoons.’ Before he could sit down, the bat was back. The

tortoise was annoyed and said to him, ‘Do you want the food that much? You can as well go on

and finish it.’ The bat finished the whole food without giving the tortoise any. It kept on like

that up until everything was served and the bat ate them all. He caught the tortoise, forced water

down his throat and his stomach bulged out. When he got home, the children were happy that

there their father fed well. As he wanted to enter his hut, they said, ‘Father, come let us remove

what has stuck on your bottom.’ When they removed it, the lees gushed out of his anus and he

fell down dead. The bat assembled the animals together and declared himself the winner.

8. The Tortoise and the Earthworm.

Once upon a time the tortoise was an orphan and his trap caught a bird. On hi way back,

he saw an old woman sitting by the fire, enjoying the warmth emanating from it. He asked her,

‘Woman, why is it that you don’t have anything roasting in the fire?’ The woman answered, ‘my

dear, I do not have anything to put in the fire. If I had, I would have done so.’ The tortoise gave

the woman the bird to roast. When she finished eating it, the tortoise started crying and sang;

‘This woman, give me my bird, my bird that was killed by

my trap. My lee, my trap lee------- Ndebele, to forage for food is not

stealing.’

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The woman gave him a piece of yam and he went on with it up until he met the farmer. He

said to him, ‘This farmer, why is it that you are working and you don’t have anything to quench

the hunger with.

The man replied, ‘My dear, I do not have anything to put in there, if I had I would have

done so.’ The tortoise gave the man his piece of yam. Immediately he saw that the man had

finished eating it, he started crying, asking for his yam that was given to him by the old woman,

who ate his bird.

The man gave him a machete and he went on with it up until he met some men clearing

the land. He said to them, ‘These men, how could you be clearing a land as big as this without a

good machete?’ The men told him that they did not have any. The tortoise gave them his machete

and they broke it. He cried again that it was given to him by the farmer, who ate his yam, which

was given to him by the old woman, who ate his bird.

They gave him an nko, an implement used to pick fruits that are beyond reach. He went on

with it up until he met some girls picking �t�, an African wild fruit with a thick pod that has some

seeds inside it.

Tortoise continued with his journey up until he met girls picking �t� which were far

beyond their reach. He said to them, ‘these young girls, why are you doing that without an ‘nko?’

‘We don’t have any’, they replied. The tortoise gave them his nko which made their job a

lot easier. But before long, the nko broke and the tortoise seeing this, started crying again as

though he willed his so called nko to last forever. Heartbreak was evident in his tears and with

remorse, the women compensated him with some �t� and he moved along with it. He met some

market women making for home and again wanted to extend his steadfast generousity, he said to

them, ‘these market women, you are coming back from the market and you have not eaten

anything?’

The women replied, ‘we don’t have any to eat yet.’ He offered them all to the hungry

women. As they finished the fruit, the tortoise realized he hadn’t any left; he cried bitterly once

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again and sang his song of sorrow. They gave him head-sized lump of salt which he accepted and

moved on with his journey.

He met a horse and said to him, ‘I’ve got some salt here with me, why don’t you have

some?’

The horse replied, ‘I wonder whether you offered any to me and I rejected it.’ The

tortoise gave him the whole salt. The horse licked all of it and the tortoise felt somewhat

cheated and his routine tears ensued as he could not forcefully retrieve it from the horse. The

horse gave him an aka (an Igbo traditional bead necklace). He took it from him and left. He met

the earthworm.

‘You earthworm, why are you not wearing an ‘aka’ to complement your looks?’ The

tortoise asked.

‘I don’t have, have you offered me any and I rejected it?’ The millipede answered. The

tortoise gave him the aka to wear. Wearing it, the millipede burrowed into the soil. The tortoise

cried and started singing his sorrowful song but the earthworm kept going deeper into the soil.

The tortoise never had it back as the earthworm took it for good. That is why the earthworm has

rings all over its body.

9. The Tortoise and the Snake

The tortoise boasted that none of the animals could outwit him. Then, the Snake came

and challenged him. Later, the snake went to tortoise’s house and told him to go home and wait

for him. Then the snake went to the Sun and asked him to accompany him on an errand. He told

him what he would do for him and they both went home.

When the appointed day reached, the Snake went and bought a sky-coloured material

with which he clothed himself. Together, he went with the Sun to the tortoise’s house only to

behold his absence. The snake went and leaned on the door post and told him to shine on him.

The tortoise came back, looked into his house and jumped up. ‘I am dead ooo! What is

this oooo!’ He sped off immediately. The snake caught up with him and laughed in his face

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saying: ‘didn’t you say that you are the king of wits Oga Tortoise? Why then are you running

away like a dog whereas all that you saw was me? Then the tortoise was very ashamed of

himself when he realized what the snake did to him and he went home feeling very dejected.

10 Tortoise and the Pig.

Tortoise and Pig worked for someone in the farm and were paid some money. Tortoise

hid his own share of the money and went to Pig and said to him,

Pig my friend, please I am sorry to be telling you this now. I lost my share of the money and my wife and her dance group will be displaying their new dance in a few weeks time and she needs a new wrapper for that. You know how the women behave, if I do not buy it she would never let me drink and keep the empty cup in peace.

Pig gave his friend the required money and the both agreed on the day Tortoise would

pay back. But Tortoise already has something else in his mind. He had already made up his mind

that Pig should consider that one a forgotten issue. Pig could hardly wait for the day to come

because he was in urgent need of the money for his seed yams. So, when the finally came, Pig

went to Tortoise’s house very early in the morning because he wanted to catch up with him

before he left for the farm. Pig was totally disappointed when Tortoise’s wife, who was grinding

something on the huge grinding stone at the corner, told him that her husband has gone out

because he never knew his friend as one who could have gone out early. Pig calmly told her that

he would be back another day, that she should kindly relay the message of his visit to the

husband.

Tortoise, who had been peeping from his not-too- distant hiding place, immediately came

out and inquired from his wife the purpose of Pig’s visit, which he already knew. As he was

looking at his wife, a thought came to him and he immediately hatched up a plan of escape from

the debt. He told his wife, ‘When next Pig comes here for his money, you will disguise me to

look like that grinding stone and use me to grind.’ The wife agreed and they both looked forward

to the said day.

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Another day, Pig came for his money and met Tortoise’s wife grinding something again.

He asked where Tortoise was and was told that he had gone again. Pig felt very annoyed and

charged towards the wife with blood-shot eyes, ‘where is your husband, you useless woman!

You only sit there and grind everyday as if that is the only thing in the world to do.’ He took the

grinding stone from her and threw it away with every energy left in him into a near by bush and

stormed out of the house. Immediately he left, Tortoise quietly crept out of his hiding place and

laughed at what happened.

When next he came for his money, he saw Tortoise sitting quietly in his house and he felt

happy inside him that he would get his money that day. Tortoise welcomed him very well, served

him the Kola nut and waited for him to state his purpose of coming. When Pig finally told him

why he had come, he cleared his throat and said to him,

My very good friend, Pig, my wife told me what happened the last time you came to my house. Did you have to throw away my costly grinding stone because I owe you that small amount of money? Do you know that I passed seven seas and seven lands to buy that stone? Do you know what it took from me to get it down here?

Pig felt bad with his actions and admitted that to his friend. Once Tortoise saw that

countenance, he told him that he (Tortoise) would only pay back the money only when

returned the grinding stone, which should be exact to the one he threw away. Pig wanted his

money urgently and seeing that all his pleadings fell on deaf ears, went out digging with the

only tool he had- his snout. Up until today, the Pig has not found Tortoise’s grinding stone

and that is why we still see him digging the ground with his snout.

11. Tortoise and Nwatinga

One day, Tortoise had a farm and Nwatinga went and stole his yams. Tortoise went to the

farm one day and caught him. Tortoise said to him,

I will teach you a lesson you will never forget in your entire life. You come here to steal my yams knowing full well how much I put into it to ensure that I have a huge harvest. You

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do not know that it has been long I have been tailing you, today I will show you what the fire does to the rat’s ear.

Nwatinga begged Tortoise to no avail and Tortoise took him into the farm house and set

the house on fire. He really wanted to teach Nwatinga the lesson of his life as he threatened.

Tortoise stood at near by to make sure that Nwatinga burnt to ashes, not leaving out any bone

or flesh. When the house finished burning, Tortoise did not seem satisfied. He went close to the

ash and moved it with his legs to know whether he would see any piece of bone left. Satisfied

at what he saw, he took the ash and smelt it cursing the Nwatinga, ‘see how the Idiot’s ash

smells.’ Immediately Tortoise did that, his nose sprouted out. It was so long that it touched the

ground. Tortoise did not know what to do, he sat down and thought.

Another day, he called all the animals together and suggested to them that they should

have a bath in the stream together. They all seemed happy with the idea without even asking

any question. Tortoise again suggested to them that before they did that, they should each

remove their noses as that would add to the fun. They all agreed to that suggestion and went to

the stream for the bath. As they were in the stream, they were all carried away by the fun and

they played out their day there. Tortoise had a very quick bath and crept away without anyone

noticing that.

He ran to where they kept their noses and selected the one he liked most and proudly

left walked away. Elephant being the fattest was the last to come out. When he came, he saw

only one long nose remaining there. He looked around, and thought out loud, ‘Well I would

better have this than nothing at all.’ He took it and set well at the former one’s position. That is

why the elephant has long nose.

12. How Tortoise was made the King.

One day, the animals needed a king. They all gathered together to devise a means of

selecting the strongest among them. They all agreed on a test, which is to finish a bowlful of

hot and peppery food without making a hissing sound, ‘Sss-aaah!,’ which is expressed the hurt

and flaming sensation in the tongue as a result of eating such food. They all ate and cried out

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for water as the food burnt them down to their intestines. When it came to Tortoise’s turn, he

ate and danced around as the food burnt his tongue. He sang out, ‘Ooo! This food is very tasty,

‘Ssh-aah! And very delicious, Sss-aah! I like it, Sss-aah!’ He continued with his song up until

they told him to stop. All the other animals marveled at his bravery but at a stage they thought

may be they did not work hard enough, so, they agreed on another test.

They considered the last test a bit mild since one of them scaled through it. Then they

had to go for another harder one, which not even the gods could pass. They all put heads

together and all nodded their general agreement to the new one. The next day, they all gathered

for the test and went to the bush in search of the bee hive. They later saw one and told one

another to test their strength their. They wanted to know who would shake at the bees’ sting.

They agreed that no one should attempt wave off or kill the bees as they stung them. All the

animals took turns to go and they all jumped out, crying aloud. They all swore not to touch the

crown if that was what it deserved. Then Tortoise quietly came and said weakly, ‘I want to try.’

They all laughed out aloud at him saying,

‘What makes you think you can pass through it even when you have watched the lion, the leopard, the tiger and the elephant fail. You think it is like the other one you passed because we did not work hard enough. Pass this one and we know that you are really the king.’

At that mockery, Tortoise boldly walked up to the bees and as they stung him, he told

them a story, ‘Do you know that cow of my father’s that has a white patch here and there (he

demonstrated by hitting his body with his palms and waving off the bees). None of the

animals was able to notice that he was actually going against the rule with style. They were all

surprised at what they saw and immediately crowned Tortoise their king.

13. Tortoise and the Lion.

A long time ago, there was a great famine in the animal kingdom. This famine was so

severe that one could search for up and search down and has nothing to show for such a long

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and weary task. One day Tortoise paid his friend, Lion, a visit and immediately Lion heard his

voice, he started singing out;

Mbe, son of Aluga, you are welcome oh! This famine is becoming so unbearable for me that I don’t know what else to do oh----!

Tortoise, on hearing the song, had pity on his friend and told him that it was not his

problem alone, that all would be fine in no distant time. Tortoise advised his friend that they

should work harder by putting more effort in their farm work to ensure that their tomorrow

would be better. Tortoise invited Lion to go to farm with him but he told him that he would

join him later.

At the farm, the animals were through for the day and they all left for home. Antelope

was the first to leave and on his way home, he came across Lion’s house and heard him

singing a song. He slowed down and wanted to get a grasp of what Lion was saying. As he

was listening, he heard Lion call out his name and walked closer, gbudum gbudum. Then the

song came clearly to him;

Dear Antelope, you are welcome oh! My father has just gone oh! My life has just finished too oh! I don’t know what to do oh! This famine is too much and I do not have anything left for his funeral oh! I don’t know what to do oh! Come and see him with your two eyes oh!

Antelope cried out in sympathy with his friend because he knew full well what that

death required during such a hectic period. He walked in to express his sympathy but

immediately he walked in, a loud sound was heard, kpawuuum! Antelope immediately fell

down dead. Lion felt very excited at his catch and ate him up. He prayed for every other day

to be like that. Another day, the cow walked by gbudum gbudum. Lion again sang his song

and cow came in.

When Cow got in to see his friend, the same ordeal as that of Antelope faced him and

Lion was again happy and ready to try that out with all the animals. Then he said to himself,

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‘The famine can continue till eternity for all I care, all I know is that I can never go hungry

again till the entire animal in the forest finish’ It continued like that up until it came to

Tortoise’s turn. Lion sang his song again when he heard Tortoise’s footsteps going, kiho kiho

behind his house. Tortoise stopped, listened very hard and made to go in when he clearly got

the content of the song. He was full of his sympathy for his friend and wanted to go in and

express his surprise at the suddenness of the death, since it had not been long he saw the man

last. But as he was about to go in, something struck him as he looked down the entrance into

Loin’s house. None of the foot prints that went in came out; yet Lion kept on insisting that he

come and see his father’s corpse. Tortoise said to him, ‘let me rush home and something for

you. I have a barn full of yams, bags of maize and many kegs of palm wine being tapped at

the moment.’ He came back with a gun, which he hid behind him and called out to Lion that

he had come. He started dancing round Lion’s hut and told him that a warrior should be

buried by a fellow warrior. He danced this way and that with forceful steps and he did that, he

wielded his gun forcefully in the air, occasionally making forceful advances to Lion. Lion was

lost in his gaze at Tortoise when a great sound was heard; kpawuuum! Lion fell down dead

and Tortoise smiled at himself and said; ‘when a cunning man dies, a cunning man buries

him.’

14. Tortoise and the King’s �v�r�

There was famine in the animal kingdom and the king had a big �v�r� tree. The

�v�r� fruits were so ripe and looked so juicy that none of the animals could resist tasting it.

Then t hey all went to the king to beg him for some. The king agreed but t old them to pick

one each. All the other animals heeded the king’s instruction but when Tortoise came to pick

his, he picked all the fruit on the tree. That was because he feared that if he took one and ate,

there will be none to eat another day.

When the king came and saw the tree empty with fruit, he was so annoyed that he

summoned all the animals at once to find out who it was that committed the crime, not only

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that but also went against his words when told them to pick one each. None of the animals

agreed to have taken more than asked to take. That annoyed the king the more and he went

and called the village medicine man. The man came and after his usual incantations, told the

animals that they were all going to swear an oath by the village oracle. He told them the

rules to observe while they were at it. After singing a particular song he would teach them,

they should then jump over the oracle, called Nwoperekete. The song went thus;

The king said that no one should eat the �v�r� ,eat the �v�r� . Now the king is giving me Nwoperekete, Nwoperekete, Nwoyadome. Mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, w�, w� ,w�,w�, , mi, w�, w� ,w�, mi, w�, w� ,w�!

They all sang the song and jumped over the oracle. When it came to Tortoise, he

sang so low that nobody could hear him. He could not open his mouth wide enough to sing

because he was visibly shaken by what was happening. He did not know that the king could

go to such an extent to discover the thief. He was forced to sing again but his voice was very

weak and shrill. The king noticed his tricky actions and forced him to sing out loud. After he

had finished the song, Tortoise refused to jump over the oracle. The king was again annoyed

by that and he gave others to his guards to force Tortoise to jump over the oracle. That

Tortoise did and fell down immediately and died.

15. Tortoise, the Fishes and the Lion.

One day Tortoise was very hungry and he went out into the deep forest to search for

food. On the way to the search, he came across a very wide river, which was too wide for

him to cross. He looked back and forth but saw no one to save him. But when he looked up

and saw Spider on his web not quite a distant from where he was, he said to him; ‘Spider my

friend, could you please use your web to draw me across the river. I am stuck here as I have

neither no one nor any other means of helping myself out of this.’ Spider agreed and threw

his web round Tortoise till it was strong enough to hold him tight to his body.

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As Spider was drawing Tortoise across, they came to the middle of the river and

Tortoise asked him; ‘what is this thing at your at your bottom?’ Spider wanted to know what

he said but Tortoise told him that he said nothing. As they walked on, Tortoise asked him

the question again, knowing full well that it would annoy Spider. Spider got annoyed by the

question and cut his web off Tortoise. Tortoise fell into the river with a very big splash,

kpawuum!

Immediately Tortoise fell into the river, the fishes all gathered around him and

started pecking at him. Tortoise knew that if he did not act fast, he would be used for super

by those fishes. He said them; ‘oh fishes wait first, could you please take me up to the land, I

have something very interesting to present to you when I get there.’ They all agreed and

with all enthusiasm for what he was about to show them, carried him up to the land. Tortoise

saw that he was then safe and said to them;

Come here all of you, do you know that we are all kinsmen but you can see that I am taller than all of you. I can make you all as tall as I am. I think that will be a very nice way to pay you people back for what you have done for me.

The fishes welcomed Tortoise’s idea and were very happy to hear that they would

soon become as tall as Tortoise. He told them to go and get the requirements for the growth

medicine. Those things included a big pot, oil that would fill the pot and fire woods-the big

fishes should get big fire woods while the small one should get small ones. When they

finished assembling all those things together, Tortoise poured the oil into the pot and set the

pot on fire. When pot has boiled to its highest point, Tortoise told them to start jumping into

the pot. Asa jumped in first stretched and died as a result of the hot oil. The other fishes saw

him and were happy that the medicine was potent. They all jumped in and died. Tortoise

was happy and got them all out and tied together with banana leaves.

On his way home, he met Antelope playing and he wanted to know what Tortoise

was carrying. Tortoise immediately thought of what to tell him. He said; ‘it is my sister’s

corpse that I am carrying. I told her not to marry that foolish man from the neighbouring

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village. She foolishly married him and she foolishly died and I am foolishly taking her

home.’ That was what he kept telling all the animals up until he came to Lion who was

playing with his cubs. Lion came and lay across Tortoise’s way and told him that he would

not cross until he had seen what he tied up like that. Tortoise sang with all his energy but

when he saw that it had no effect on Lion, he decided to change his method. He told Lion

that the type illness that killed his sister was such that if one should see the corpse, the

person would co blind. If one touched it, the person would develop fever and so on. Lion

waited for Tortoise to finish his tale and forced the wrapped object from him. Lion laughed

when he saw the contents and said to Tortoise, ‘let me relief you the burden of burying your

sister, you can only go home and mourn her.’