Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty

by Amos Tutuola

  As soon as Ade threw this juju-gourd into the river, he went to the same cruel king who condemned him to death before I woke him. He told the king: “Your worship, I bring this secret news to you. Ajaiyi, my friend, who woke me last time when you condemned me to death, had told me that whenever any one of your family dies, he would not wake him, just to revenge on you because you condemned me to death last time.” Having heard this bad news from Ade, the king grew annoyed and he kept this news in mind.

  Of course I did not tell Ade such a secret news as this at all but he really told this lie to the king so that he might kill me because I did not tell him the uses of the juju-powder.

  A few days later, I returned with happiness from my journey, and Ade came to my house, we drank together for many hours but he did not show it in his behaviour that he had betrayed me and I too did not know that my juju-gourd had been thrown into the river and that the one which was resembled it was hung on the rack by Ade.

  A few days after that I returned from my journey, one morning, Aina and I sat down and we counted the money which I had saved and it was two hundred pounds. So with happiness, I told Aina that we were now free from our poverty which we had inherited from our father and mother before they died. And as I told her with happiness as well that we would return to our village with the money in a few days time. Having told Aina like that and she bursted into a great laughter, I went into the room, I kept the two hundred pounds in my box. But I hardly came out of the room when Ade entered. He told me that one of the king’s family had just died by an accident and that the king sent him to come and call me for him.

  Without hesitation, I ran to the king to hear what he wanted me for. But when I met the king in his palace, he begged me with a trembling voice and tears to help him wake his prince who had just died by an accident. And without a word, I went back to the house. I hastily took that inferior gourd from the rack which I supposed to be my own. When I returned to the king, I hastily removed the cork just to put the juju-powder on to the eyes of the dead family. But to my fear, it was sand which came out of it instead of the real juju-powder. In short, I failed to wake the prince. But as Ade was a traitor and unfaithful friend, he did not allow me to say anything when he started to ask me before the king: “Ajaiyi, have you not told me the other day that, one day, you would revenge on the king for condemning me to death the other day!”

  “Ade, when did I tell you so?” I asked from Ade with great anger. “Oh—ho!” Ade shouted greatly on me. “Because both of us are before the king, that is why you deny now that you did not tell me the other day that you would revenge on the king for condemning me to death the other day!” When I heard all this from Ade, I was so confused that I was simply looking on without knowing what to say again.

  Now, the king was convinced of the truth of the lies which Ade told him. So without hesitation, this cruel king ordered his killers to take me to that dreadful bush and then to beat me to death. When the killers were taking me to that dreadful bush Ade followed them and he was making a mockery of me with great laughter along the road to the dreadful bush. And Aina, my sister, followed us as she was weeping repeatedly along the road. Having reached the bush, the killers and Ade beat me to death on the very spot on which he was beaten to death the other day before I woke him. When they beat me to death with clubs, the killers and Ade went back to the town but Aina did not go back with them. She sat before my dead body and then she began to weep loudly. Thus Ade, the unfaithful friend, betrayed me to death at last. And he hardly reached the town when he went to my room, he broke my box in which I kept my two hundred pounds. He took it away without leaving even one shilling for me.

  A few minutes after the killers and Ade had left for the town, the very terrible creature who gave me the juju-gourd with which I woke Ade from the dead the other day, came there. Without hesitation, he woke me and then he asked for my friend—“Where is your friend, Ade, today?” “He is not here, he was even the very one who caused my death and he was even among the king’s killers who beat me to death here with the heavy clubs,” I wiped my face with both hands and then explained to this terrible creature with sorrow as Aina was looking at me.

  “Did you not beg me the other day that Ade was faithful to you and that I must spare him for you?” this creature reminded me. “Certainly, I begged you that day to spare him for me and not to eat him. And it is true that I told you that day as well that he was faithful to me and that he was the only man that I liked most in this world,” I replied with a dead voice.

  “Now, I come back to you today but as you did not allow me to eat the dead-body of Ade the other day, I shall eat you today instead, because the human dead-bodies are my favourite food!” But as this terrible creature was preparing to kill me back and then to eat my dead-body. Aina hastily knelt down before him, she began to beg him with tears to spare me for her. She explained to him that I was her only brother that she got in this world and that it was the poverty which we had inherited from our father and mother was driving us about until we came to Ade’s town. Luckily, when Aina explained like that to this terrible creature with tears which were rolling down her cheek, he hesitated for a few minutes and then he said: “All right, I reluctantly spare him for you because it is a pity to me to hear from you that he is your only brother and that both of you are in poverty! All right, both of you can go back to the town now but I warn you seriously that you should disassociate yourself from Ade forthwith otherwise he will soon run you into another trouble! Goodbye!” This terrible creature hardly spared me for Aina and warned me seriously when he disappeared suddenly.

  *

  Then Aina and I went back to the town with happiness and the people of the town including Ade, the traitor, were surprised to see that I returned alive. Of course, I woke Ade from death the other day when the cruel king condemned him to death for only a minor offence which was not deserved death sentence. But he betrayed me to death at last.

  However, as soon as Aina and I entered the house I went direct to the room just to open the box in which I kept my two hundred pounds to take a few shillings from it which to be used for our food. But to my disappointment, I saw that the box had been broken into pieces and the two hundred pounds had been stolen away. Immediately I saw that the money had been stolen, I did not know when I fell down and fainted for about thirty minutes before I became normal. As soon as I became normal I went out I asked from a number of people whether they knew who had stolen my money. But they told me that they saw Ade when he entered the house and that he was the man who had stolen away my two hundred pounds. Having heard this information from the people I went to Ade. I asked him about the money but he denied entirely that he was not the one who had stolen it. When I tried all my efforts to recover the money back from Ade but were failed then I came back to the house with great sorrow and embarrassment. But I was quite sure that he was the right person who stole the money. That was how my two hundred pounds was stolen away by Ade, the unfaithful and traitor friend.

  Now, I came back to my poverty as before. When I came back to the house, I sat down and then I began to say within myself that it was certain that I was really created with poverty otherwise Ade could have not been able to steal my two hundred pounds. Now I could not get such a big money as this again because the juju-gourd or magic gourd which had the power to wake the deads had been thrown into the river by Ade and the terrible creature who gave it to me, the terrible creature who had the voice that of the human beings, had taken it back as soon as Ade threw it into the river. It was this magic gourd which had fetched me the two hundred pounds.

  Now, as the money had been stolen away by Ade, the traitor, and the juju-gourd or magic gourd had gone back to the terrible creature, the owner of it. I told Aina that we should leave this town in the following morning for our village. So in the following morning both of us left this town without even a half-penny in hand except the sword which I had taken from the shrine of the Chief Idol Worshipper who wanted to sacrifice us
to his idol when the kidnapper sold us to him.

  Having travelled for some days, luckily we came to our village in the midnight. So we opened the doors and windows and we swept the whole house. In the morning, a number of our neighbours came in and greeted us. They gave us food and many yams as well. But when it was the third day that we had arived in the village. All my creditors came to me, they asked me to pay their money which I owed them before Aina and I were kidnapped away from the village. These my creditors thought that I brought money from our journey, they did not know that it was only sword that I brought. But when I begged them for many hours to give me some days to pay their money, luckily they agreed and then they went back to their houses.

  Within a few days that we had arrived in the village, Aina’s old friend, Babi, heard that she had arrived in the village. She came to greet her and then both of them continued their friendship. Because both of them were loved each other since when they were children. They were wearing the same kind of clothes and were going together to everywhere in the village and to several other villages as well. They were doing everything so much together that many people who did not know their parents thought that they were twins.

  DON’T PAY BAD FOR BAD

  When there is a quarrel the song becomes an allusion. It is the end that shows the winner.

  Excessive jealousy makes a woman to become a witch.

  Fretting precedes weeping; regret follows a mistake; all the brain men of the country assemble but they find no sacrifice which can stop a mistake.

  *

  Aina and Babi were still going about together until when they became old enough for marriage. But as they loved each other, they decided within themselves to marry to two men of the same family who lived together in the same house, so that they might be with each other always. Luckily, after a few days that they had thought to do so. They heard of two gentlemen who were born by the same mother and father and who lived in the same house as well. So Babi married to one of these two men while Aina, with my consent, married to the second one who was the senior. Now, Babi and Aina were extremely happy as they were together as well in their husbands’ house as when they had not married.

  A few days after their marriage, Aina cleared a part of the front of the house very neatly. She sowed one kola-nut on that spot. Within a few weeks this kola-nut shot out. Then Aina filled up one jar with water and put it in front of her new kola-nut tree. Every early in the morning she would go and kneel down before her tree and the jar. Then she would pray to the kola-nut tree and the jar to help her get baby in time. After the prayer, Aina would drink some of the water which was inside the jar, after that she would go back to her room before the rest people in the house woke. Aina was doing like that every early in the morning. Because she believed that there was a certain spirit who was coming and blessing the kola-nut tree and the water in the jar in the dead night.

  After some months, the kola-nut tree grew up to the height of about two feet. But this time, the animals of the village began to eat the leaves of this new tree and this hindered its growth. One morning Babi met Aina, her friend, as she knelt down quietly before the tree and the jar and she was praying quietly. After she prayed and stood up just to enter the house, Babi asked: “Aina, what were you telling your kola-nut tree?” “Oh, this kola-nut tree is my god and I ask from it always to help me to get a baby in time,” Aina pointed finger to the tree and the jar and she explained to Babi calmly.

  But when Babi noticed that the animals of the village had eaten the leaves of the tree. She went back to her room. A few minutes later she brought out the head of her large pitcher, the body of which had broken off. She gave it to Aina and she told her to cover her kola-nut tree with it so that the animals might not be able to eat its leaves again. Aina took the head of the pitcher from her and she thanked her greatly. Then she covered her tree with it at the same time, however as from that morning the animals of the village were unable to eat the leaves of the tree and at this time it was growing as quickly as possible in the centre of the head of the pitcher.

  After a few years, this kola-nut tree yielded the first kola-nuts. The first nuts that this tree yielded were of the best quality in the village. So in respect of that the kola-nut buyers bought the whole nuts with a considerable amount of money. And when this tree yielded the second and third kola-nuts, the buyers bought them with a large amount of money as before. In selling these nuts, Aina became a wealthy woman within a short period.

  But as “when there is a quarrel the song becomes an allusion” and that “excessive jealousy makes a woman to become a witch”, was that when Babi saw the large amount of money which Aina realized from her kola-nut tree, she was so jealous that one morning she asked: “Aina, will you please return the head of my pitcher to me this morning?” “What? The head of your pitcher?” Aina shouted with a great shock. “Yes! The head of my broken pitcher! I want to take it back from you this morning!” Babi replied with a jealous voice. “Well, the head of your broken pitcher cannot be returned this time unless I break it into pieces before it will be able to come out from the kola-nut tree,” Aina replied with a dead voice.

  “The head of my pitcher must not be broken into pieces nor split in any part before you will return it to me!” Babi shouted with the voice of quarrel. “I say it cannot be taken away from the tree unless the tree is cut down!” Aina explained loudly. “Yes, you may cut the tree down if you wish to do so. But at all costs, I want the head of my pitcher back now!” Babi shouted greatly on Aina. “Please, Babi, remember that both of us had become friends since when we were children. Therefore, do not try to take the head of your broken pitcher back this time!” Aina reminded Babi with a cold voice. “Yes, of course, I don’t forget at any time that the two of us have become very close friends since when we were youths. But at any rate, I want the head of my broken pitcher back now!” Babi insisted with great dirty noise.

  At last, when it revealed to Aina that Babi simply wanted to destroy her kola-nut tree so that she might not get the kola-nuts from it to sell again. Then she went to the court of law. She sued Babi for attempting to destroy her kola-nut tree. But at last, when the judge failed to persuade Babi not to take the head of her pitcher back from Aina. He judged the case in her (Babi) favour that Aina must return the head of her broken pitcher to her.

  Then with great sorrow, the kola-nut tree was cut down and the head of the broken pitcher was taken from the stump of the kola-nut tree and was returned to Babi. Babi was now very happy but not in respect of the head of her pitcher but in respect of Aina’s kola-nut tree which was cut down. Because she believed that Aina would not get the kola-nuts to sell any more.

  After Aina’s kola-nut tree was cut down and the head of Babi’s broken pitcher was taken from the stump of the tree and was given back to her. She and Aina entered the house but as “it is the end that shows the winner”, both of them continued their friendship. Because Aina did not show in her behaviour towards Babi that her tree which was cut down or destroyed was a great sorrow to her. But of course Aina believed that however it might be it was the end that would show the winner.

  A few months after the kola-nut tree was cut down, Babi delivered to a female baby. In the morning that Babi’s baby was named, Aina gave her one fine brass ring as a present, she told her to put it on her new baby’s neck, because the brass ring was one of the most precious metals at that time. Babi took this brass ring from Aina with great admiration and with gladness, she put it on her baby’s neck at the same time. So this brass ring added more beauty to her baby. This brass ring was carefully moulded without any joint.

  Ten years passed away like one day, when one fine morning, as Babi’s baby who was then a daughter, was celebrating her tenth birthday. Aina went in to Babi, she asked with a smiling face:

  “Babi, my good friend, I shall be very glad if you will return my brass ring this morning.”

  “Which brass ring!” Babi jumped up suddenly and shouted.

  “
My old brass ring which is on your daughter’s neck now!” Aina pointed finger to the neck of Babi’s daughter as if she was simply joking with her.

  “This very brass ring on my daughter’s neck now?” Babi asked with embarrassment.

  “Yes, please,” Aina replied with a smile.

  “Please, Aina, my good friend, don’t try to take your brass ring back this time. As you know, before the ring can be taken away from my daughter’s neck, her head must be cut off first because her head has already been bigger than the ring!” Babi began to beg with tears.

  “I don’t tell you to cut off the head of your daughter but I want my brass ring back now without cutting it!” Aina was now scowled at Babi and she insisted to take her brass ring back.

  At last when Babi failed to persuade Aina not to take her brass ring back, she went to the same court of law. She sued Aina for attempting to kill her daughter. But as it was certain that “fretting precedes weeping; regret follows a mistake or jealousy or wickedness; and as all the brain men of the world assemble but they cannot find the sacrifice which can stop a mistake”, was that although Babi sued Aina to the court of law for attempting to kill her daughter because she knew that before Aina’s brass ring could be taken away from her daughter’s neck, the head must be cut off first. But unfortunately, the case was judged in favour of Aina when she related the story of her kola-nut tree to the judge how it was cut down when Babi wilfully insisted to take the head of her broken pitcher back ten years ago. In the judgment, the judge added that the head of Babi’s daughter should be cut off in the palace of the king and in the presence of the whole people of the village, so that everyone might learn that jealous was bad. Then a special day to behead the daughter was fixed.