How It Came About That Aturukuku, the Turtle-Dove, Went to the Bush, and Let Akoko, the Hen, Come to the House
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
AKOKO, the Hen, and Aturukuku, the Turtle-dove, came from one father and came from one mother. Now the Hen said to the Turtle-dove, “Go off to the Tall-grass-country, and I, too, shall go to the Thick-forestcountry, and if you get food, then you will come and tell me.” Then they separated. For three years Aturukuku did not see her sister. She said to her husband, “Accompany me, for I am going to seek for my sister.” Then her husband said, “When you have spoken, I have heard, off you go, and let me accompany you.” And she and he set out and reached the outskirts of a town (where her sister lived). They saw a conical mound of (mud) there, and it was there that she and her sister met. And the Hen asked the Turtle-dove, saying, “When you went to the Tall-grass-country, did you get food to eat?” She replied, “Where I went, there was only guinea-grain; and when I hatched my children, about six, and they attached themselves to me, and when they were as big as this (indicating their size), I kept them close to me, and a hunter fired his gun, pom! and killed my children, and, had I not known sense, they would have killed me too.” When she had finished speaking, the Hen said, “Where I went to, I became at once a person of real importance.” Aturukuku asked her, saying, “Tell me what you mean by your ‘person of real importance ’.” Then the Hen said, “The meaning of a ‘person of real importance ’ is, for example, if my master spread a fine mat, then I go and sleep on it, and my droppings fall upon it, and when my master takes meat to put in the soup-stew, then I take out what I want; any food my master will eat, I go and take some of it, and when I eat thus, my master cannot take his gun or a stick and beat me. That is the reason I say I am a person of real importance.” The Hen said, “Where you live there, it is not a good place, so on a Saturday, preceding a Sunday Adae, bring your children, and your husband, and let them all live in our house.” Aturukuku said, “I have heard, I shall go, and on the Saturday preceding a Sunday Adae, I shall have come.” Now a certain priest came to the Hen’s village, shaking his little bells. They inquired of him, saying, “Grandfather, what is it? ’ He said, “Dente says you have allowed him to be hungry for two years, so you must go to the chief and tell him to bring fowls (and) twelve eggs.” Then the Chief went and caught four fowls, brought twelve eggs, took and pounded eto, and went and gave them to the god Dente at his conical mud altar, cutting off the heads of the four fowls and placing them there, and taking their feathers and their heads, and their legs, and plastering them against the side of the mud altar; and he also stuck the mashed eto on it. Now, on the day preceding the Adae, Aturukuku was going to meet her sister. As she went along she saw, at the altar sacred to Dente, her sister’s fathers, and her head, her feet, her wings, her liver, and her intestines. Aturukuku said, “After all this, I cannot ever go there again.” And Turtle-dove flew away and alighted on a silk-cotton tree, and said (sang):
“I weep for my sister o,
Sorrow o.
You, Hen, who were a person of some importance, is this your head?
You, Hen, who were a person of some importance, are these your wings?
You, Hen, who were a person of some importance, are these your feet?
You, Hen, who were a person of some importance, is this your liver?
You, Hen, who were a person of some importance, are these your intestines?”
And Aturukuku said, “I shall never go to the Forest country again, for the forest people are not good.” That is how Aturukuku came to remain in the Tall-grasscountry, while the Hen remained in the house.
This, my story, which I have related, if it be sweet, (or) if it be not sweet, some you may take as true, and the rest you may praise me (for telling of it).
How the Ntoro Called “Aninie” Came into the Tribe
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
THERE once was a certain man, a hunter, and he lived in a small settlement with his wife, and she conceived, but her man was not able to look after her properly, and the woman went off there to Nyankonpon, the Sky-god, saying, “I am coming to you to enter into the relationship of an ‘in-law’, for when I bring forth, you must take my child in marriage.” Now the Sky-god agreed to this. Then she went off to Osebo, the Leopard, and also entered into the relationship of in-law with him, that she might get meat to chew. The Leopard also agreed. Then she went and told her husband the news. When the Leopard got meat, he used to bring some to his mother-in-law. When the Sky-god, too, got meat, he used to take it to his mother-in-law. They carried on thus, looking after the woman until she bore. When she gave birth, it was a girlchild she bore, and she made them go to the Sky-god and say, “Your mother-in-law has given birth to a female child.” Then she also said to the Leopard, “Your mother-in-law has given birth to a female child.” Now the Leopard collected a heap of presents, and caused them to be brought, to take the infant out of its state of ugliness and dirt. And the Sky-god brought some gifts for the same purpose. They reared it, and caused it to grow up well and beautiful. Now (the child) reached puberty, and they went and told the Sky-god the news. They also went and told the Leopard the news. The Sky-god caused gifts to be brought to his betrothed (gifts called), “things for pounding the puberty mashed yams”. And the Leopard, too, brought “gifts for pounding the puberty mashed yams”; and he added a gift of a silver bangle. ‘They finished doing all this. Now the Leopard did not know that she was the wife of the Sky-god; and the Sky-god, he, too, did not know that she was the wife of the Leopard. Now, later on, the Leopard came to hear of it, and he said to his mother-in-law, “You have made a fool of me, but in spite of that I will not do anything to you; as for your child, the silver bangle I gave to her, I will take back what belongs to me.” He caught her hand, and cut it off at the joint, and took off the bangle, and went off to his village. Now the Sky-god caused the mother-in-law to be informed that as his wife was grown up, she should be brought to him. Now as she was going, they dressed her in a batakari gown, so that no one should see her hand. Then they set off. When she used to bathe, she bathed at night. Now the girl had a handmaid called “Kra”, with whom she lived, and Kra used always to spy on her, and she saw that she had a stump for a hand. Then she said to the girl’s co-wives, “The woman who has come here, surely she has a stump for a hand, so, when the Adae falls on a Sunday, on the Monday, let her winnow rice for the Sky-god to take to place in the offering (which he gives to his soul).” They told the girl the news. Next morning, when things became visible, she pounded eto, and added eggs (to the mash). She said, “I am going to mother there, to get myself in readiness.” As she was going, she came to a certain pool of water, and in it lay Onini, the Python. He asked her, saying, “Why, when no one must come here, have you come here?” And she told the Python all the news. The Python said, “This is not serious, and what is that you have brought with you?” She replied, “I have brought eto and eggs.” And the Python received them and ate. Then the Python opened his mouth and spoke to the girl, saying, “Take your stump of a hand, and put it in my mouth.” And she thrust it in. After a little, he said, “Remove it.” She took it out, and the stump was gone, and had become a real hand. Then the girl asked him, saying, “What will you take from me (in return)?” He replied, “I will not take anything from you, but the child which you will bear by the Sky-god, bring it to me.” Then the Python looked behind him, brought out a golden mortar, and a golden pestle, and gave them to the girl, and she went off with them to the Sky-god’s village. Next morning, when things became visible, the Sky-god had seated himself, saying that the women should come and winnow rice for him. Then the girl pulled off her robe, and took out her hands (from the folds). All the people shouted, “Yie e!” Then she brought out the golden mortar and pestle, and they finished winnowing the rice. The Sky-god and she went to rest, and she conceived, and bore a female child. When the forty days had passed, she bade her people good-bye, saying she was going to her mother’s village. Then she pounded plenty of eto, and (took) a hundred eggs, and she set out, and travelled until she reached that place where the Python was. And she said to him, “To-day I have come to return thanks to you; here is the infant.” And she produced the eggs and the eto in addition. Then the Python said, “As for me, I shall not kill this infant, but name it “Little Python ’, so that my name shall never be lost.” Then she thanked the Python; and she set off and returned home. That is how the Aninie (ntoro) came into the tribe.
This, my story, which I have related, if it be sweet, (or) if it be not sweet, some you may take as true, and the rest you may praise me (for telling of it).