Why the Hawk kills the Chicken

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a very beautiful, young and attractive hen who lived with her parents.
One day Hawk was flying around and noticed the beautiful hen picking up corn close to her father's house. Hawk flew down immediately and greeted the hen and offered to marry her.
She was flattered and agreed, so Hawk spoke to her parents and the amount of the dowry was set--which consisted of mostly corn. Hawk paid the dowry and took his new bride home.
Shortly after, a young Cock who lived near Hen's father's house and had fallen in love with her became angry and jealous that Hawk had married Hen. He went after her to Hawk's house and while Hawk was away he crowed in his best voice to Hen. When she heard his sweet voice she could not resist his invitation, so she went out to him and they both ran away from Hawk's house.
When Hawk came back and did not find his wife Hen, he hovered around looking for her for days. Then one day he saw her in the Cock's house. He went to the king and reported the mattar. The king sent for Hen's parents and told them to repay Hawk the amount of the dowry he paid if their daughter does not return to Hawk.
Hen's parents responded that they did not have the money to pay Hawk because they were poor, so the king decided that Hawk could kill and eat any of Cock's children whenever and wherever he found them as payment of his dowry, and if the Cock made any arguments the king would not listen to him.
The End.

How Tortoise Defeated the Elephant and Hippopotamus.

Once upon a time, the Elephant and the hIppopotamus were very good friends and they did everything together. One day, as they were both eating, Mr. Tortoise appeared and challenged them--that even though they were both big, none of them could pull him out of the water or into the water with a strong piece of tie-tie.

He offered the Elephant ten thousand cowries and the Elephant, seeing that the Tortoise is very small, said, "If i cannot draw you out of the water, I will give you twenty thousand cowries." So the Tortoise took the tie-tie rope and went under the river.

When he got under the river, he tied the rope to a big rock, and the Elephant pulled with all his might until the rope snapped. The Tortoise, seeing what happened, quickly tied the rope to himself and came out of the river. He showed everyone that the rope was still tied to his leg, and that the elephant had failed. The Elephant paid the Tortoise twenty thousand cowries.

After some time, when Tortoise had almost finished spending his cowries, he went to Hippopotamus and made the same bet. But the Hippopotamus said, "I will take the water and you can take the land. I will pull you into the water." And Tortoise agreed.

As soon as Hippopotamus turned his back and headed towards the river, Tortoise tied the other end of the rope in his hands to a palm tree and hid behind it. Hippopotamus pulled with all his might until he got tired. He came out of the water blowing water everywhere from his nose. As soon as Tortoise saw this, he came out of his hiding place, tied the rope to his leg, and walked down towards Hippopotamus, saying, "You could not pull me into the river." Hippopotamus admitted that he lost the bet, and paid Tortoise twenty thousand cowries.

The Elephant and the Hippopotamus then decided to take Tortoise as their friend, because they both thought he was so strong. Tortoise then told them that he would like to live with both of them, but he could not be in two places at the same time. He said he would leave his son to live with Elephant on land, while he would live with Hippopotamus in the water.

This why there are two types of tortoise, the land tortoise and the water tortoise, and the land tortoise is smaller than the water tortoise.

The End.

Tortoise and the Igbako (wooden turning spoon)

Once upon a time, there was a famine in the land, and every animal was starving except for Bird. Tortoise noticed that Bird looked better than every other animal, she had flesh under her wings. So one day Tortoise stopped Bird as she was in flight and asked her where she got her food from. "I am starving, like everyone else," replied Bird. "If you are starving, how come you look better than everyone else?" insisted Tortoise. "If i show you where I get my food from you cannot reveal it to anyone." "I promise," Tortoise replied.



Bird gave Tortoise some of her wings, and they started flying together. Tortoise was afraid in the beginning because he thought he would fall, but Bird held onto his wings and they both flew together.



They flew over land and sea to a very far, far, far place and they went under the ocean and the met the Water Goddess. The Water Goddess asked Tortoise what he wanted and Tortoise told her that his family was starving. She gave him Igbako and instructed him to use it only for his family and not to reveal its secret. Tortoise thanked her as she disappeared."Igbako, what do you do?" asked Tortoise. Igbako responded in a song:



I make huge iyan

I make huge eba

So much that everyone has leftovers.



Before he finished the singing, lots of food appeared. Tortoise started to eat. He ate as much as he could, took Igbako and flew back home.



When he arrived home, he gathered all his family and asked Igbako in the presence of everyone, "Igbako, what can you do?" Igbako repeated the song, and plenty of food appeared again. All his family ate all they could and still had leftovers. Tortoise was so proud of himself and he thought of how much power he would have with Igbako if he could feed all the animals.



Tortoise went to King Lion and summoned all the animals, he asked Igbako, "What can you do?" and Igbako responded in the song again. Plenty of food appeared and everyone ate and had leftovers. All the animals started singing, "Who says we do not have a father? Stop it, we do! Tortoise is our father." After feeding everyone for two days, Igbako broke. Everyone got angry at Tortoise when they were hungry.



Tortoise went back to the Water Goddess and she gave him another Igbako, but a smaller one that made only small food, Tortoise went back again to his family and fed them with the small food from the small Igbako. They complained that it was not enough. The rest of the animals also complained when Tortoise tried to feed them with the small Igbako, like he did before. "The food is too small!" they chanted. After two more days Igbako broke again. All the animals grew angry at Tortoise and told him to go get another Igbako. So Tortoise went back to the Water Goddess and requested for another Igbako.



The Water Goddess asked Tortoise, "Are you feeding only your family?" He responded, "Yes, I am." "Hmmmmmm," she said, "Did you reveal the secret of Igbako to everyone?" "No," Tortoise responded. The Water Goddess gave Tortoise a rod this time and told him, "This will not break," and she disappered. Tortoise was so happy and he asked the rod, "What do you do?" and the rod responded in a song:



I whip disobedience

I whip greed

Till their skin turns white with pain.



As soon as the song was over, the rod started whipping Tortoise, who tried to get away from it. When it stopped, Tortoise took the rod with him back to his family who were anxiously awaiting his arrival. He gathered everyone and asked the rod in their presence, "Rod, what do you do?" The rod responded with the song again:



I whip disobedience

I whip greed

Till their skin turns white with pain.



All members of his family ran away as Rod started to whip everyone, The King and all the other animals summoned Tortoise to the King's palace because they were hungry. Tortoise arrived with Rod and asked the rod before everyone, "Rod, what can you do?" and the rod responded with the song, and whipped every animal that was present.



THE END.