CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Night of Story
The moon had reached its full cycle and was bright in the sky. Its rays pierced through the various leaves and roof openings. The voices of children were a common thing to hear - it was a time they enjoyed most. They call names and nicknames of their fellow children to invite them to playgrounds. The older men were needed at these times, because though these elders were no longer too useful in the farm, storytelling was one service they could render well, while the children perched and sang around them. In families that lacked aged people, the young father told the younger ones a good story to keep them active all night. Storytelling was not only a common entertainment in many families, but it gave us the children nights of good dreams and beautiful mornings. These stories would remain with us as we grew from children to young adults. It was told and retold from one generation to another.
Mother could play a role of either my father or grandfather and she would not allow us to go out to listen from the ingathering of others. She was no good storyteller. I could not tell why Mother lacked the art of storytelling despite her good background. As I was still imagining things, Mother blew up.
‘Now, children, listen!’
She began clapping her hands and asked my siblings to join her. We did not like the story that she was about to start. Already we know it.
"One day, tortoise looked into his storehouse and noticed it was empty. Suffering from shortness of supplies, the tortoise hired a rabbit to dig a tunnel from his hole to the market place. When the people were assembled with their things to sell, the tortoise and the rabbit, remaining hidden in the tunnel, began to sing,
Mbe mbe tuu jenje tujenje
Mbe mbe tuu jenje tujenje
Mbe mbe tuu jenje tujenje
Mbe mbe tuu jenje tujenje
When the people heard the unfamiliar sounds, and could not see where they came from. They were frightened and ran away believing evil spirits had invaded the market. The tortoise and the rabbit thereafter ran out of the tunnel and got enough goods, left by the people to restock their storehouse. And they continued to practice this trick whenever their storehouse got low and no one in animal kingdom knew of it.
Later on, the suspicion of the market people was aroused and they accused Tortoise of trickery. He strongly denied the charge and declared his readiness to submit the case for trial. A day was fixed for swearing in the shrine. Meanwhile, just before the day of the trial, Tortoise made a contract with the birds called asha; the talkative bird. He put a large number of them into a pot and instructed them to utter cries in accordance with a code of signals. The tortoise concealed the pot under an awe-inspiring shrine that was in itself sufficient to put something on the minds of the people; and when the birds began to sing it was too much for the assembled crowd, and they refused to proceed with the trial. Thus, Tortoise escaped by means of his skilful trickery.
Tortoise returned to his house carrying the pot containing the little birds with him. They served him loyally, but he returned evil for good. He placed the pot upon the fire and when the birds cried for mercy he mocked them.
He removed the pot from the fire expecting to find all the birds ready for eating. As he lifted the cover, one bird flew out, the only survivor, and landed on the head of Tortoise's oldest son. Tortoise became so angry, lost his self-control and cried out to his son to stand quite still, seized a big knife and struck viciously but the bird hopped to one side and the blow fell upon the head of tortoise's son, killing him on the spot.
This still did not quiet Tortoise's anger. He turned and saw the bird perched on the back of his oldest daughter. Striking blindly in his fury he was again deceived by the bird's swiftness and, consequently, also killed his daughter. The bird flew to the top of a tree and, watching to cause more harm, landed swiftly on the back of tortoise himself, who by now was completely out of his mind, tried to think of how he might overthrow his little enemy. Finally, he decided to climb a tree, intending, when he reached the top, to throw himself down, and turning a somersault, to fall upon the bird on his back and crush him.
Once more, however, the bird was equal to his tricks, and as Tortoise dropped from the tree, the bird slipped off his back and flew away. Tortoise fell heavily to the ground and was almost killed.
Thus, Tortoise, in the many months it took for his injuries to heal, learned the value of self-discipline and compassionate."
She had ended the story.
‘What kind of story is this?’ I asked.
I looked at my younger ones, they had dozed off.
“May the day break,” I told Mother.
We went to our bed heralding the dawn of another day. We did not know when the next day came. The rays of the sun penetrated through the little openings of the thatched house creating a golden tint. The male birds had all gone out after waking us up.
It was really a beautiful morning. We all sat up and waited briefly as we seated on the edge of our bed and yawned. We quietly stood up and welcomed that morning with prayer.