Category: Folktales

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Folktales

How a Man Became Unwitched

In the land of the Gios there was a poor man named Keizoe. He was so poor that often his wife and children had nothing at all to eat, and although he had some knowledge of bush medicine and unknown person had witched his medicine powers, and good fortune was a stranger to the house of Keizoe.

A diviner lived in a town beyond the borders of Gio land, in what is now French Guinea, and Keizoe decided to travel there and seek the diviner’s advice. He journeyed from town to town for many days, through high forests and the mountains in the north, and in the course of time he reached the town he sought. The diviner was in his house.

“Wise man,” Keizoe said, “I come from a distant place in the land of the Gios. Some one there has witched me and my times are bad. My crops are poor and the prey of pigs, my children sick and grow thin; my house is old, and so am I. I wish to prosper and see my family grow fat, but everything I do is dust because someone has witched me.

“I will think on this,” the wise man said. “I will read the sands tonight and dream, and tomorrow I will tell you what to do; and to lend my magic strength you must bring me seven white kola nuts, seven mats, and seven chicken eggs.”

On the morrow Keizoe brought him all these things, and the Diviner said:

“If a man lives in one place and is unhappy, then he should leave and live in another place.” He gave Keizoe a cotton tree see, and a long stick with a short hooked limb at one end.

“Travel towards your village,” he said, “and perhaps beyond. Drag this stick behind you, and where it catches in a tree, or rock, or bush, there you must make you house and live.”

“Along in the forest with my small family?” Keizoe felt nervous when he thought of the great forest.

“This cotton tree seed will protect you,” said the Diviner. “Guard this seed, and keep it always with you, and fortune will be your constant guest. Build your house and live there with your family; you will prosper, and your family will grow fat.

Keizoe set forth towards his village dragging the hooked stick behind him. He walked for several days and reached his family and fared on for another week to rich abnd lonely lands, and in a certain place the stick hooked firmly to a tree.

“Zuon-mehn!” he cried. “I have arrived! Here is rich and abundant earth which no man owns, and also a pleasant stream. Let us build our house, and this land will be ours.”

The house was built; the children grew and other houses were built where they lived with their wives and husbands, and the place became a village and grew into a town. Today the place is called Zuen; it is a prosperous town and part of Boo-Quila Chiefdom.

When Keizoe died he was buried, and the seed of the cotton tree was buried with him in a pouch about his neck. A cotton tree grew from his grave, and the people of the town began to worship it for they believed that Keizoe himself was the spirit of the tree.

Even today this tree is given great respect, and no foreign tongue or dialect is spoken in its presence.

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Folktales

The Witch Called Jealous

A farmer had two wives. One of the women gave him a boy-baby and a girl-baby, but the other woman was barren. The farmer said to his childless wife:

“Since you do not bear me any children, I shall not give you cloth. I will only give cloth to the mother of my children.”

The barren wife decided to bewitch the children. She made witch-medicine and threw it on the boy. The boy became sick and died, and went to the Town of Spirits.

The mother took her remaining child to the rice farm, and left it in the shade while she worked. The barren wife made more witch-medicine and changed herself into a large bird. She seized the little girl and flew to a cottonwood tree.

The mother screamed. The boy who had died heard the noise and saw the bird in the cottonwood tree with his sister. He said to himself: “That is sister!”

He threw a stone at the bird and killed it. His sister was saved and his mother rejoiced.

Jealousy is a witch who poisons the hearts of men and steals away their honor.

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Folktales

Why Men No Longer Hunt With Fire

There was a hunter so skilled at hunting with fire that no animal could escape him. He would set fire to the forest in such a way that all the animals therein would be forced to flee along a narrow trail, and there they would fall prey to the hunter’s spears. One day the animals appealed to the Bush Devil for protection.

“Then live in my town,” Bush Devil said, and they went to live in his town. They were safe there. Bush Devil went to the hunter with an empty rice-hamper and said:

“Hunter, get into my hamper.”

The hunter called him a fool and beat him with a stick. The next day when Hunter was sitting by his home Bush Devil appeared again and said:

“Hunter, get into my hamper.”

The hunter’s wives picked up sticks and beat Bush Devil. Bush Devil kept on repeating the same words, for the beating did not hurt him.

The Chief of the town called all his men and threw spears at Bush Devil, but it made no difference. They seized him and flung him into a house, then burned the house. Everything burned except Bush Devil. He came out and said:

“Hunter, get into my hamper.”

The hunter found he could not eat. He began to grow thin, and the men of the town held council. They told the hunter to get into Bush Devil’s hamper and finish the palaver. He might be killed and he might not, but if he did nothing he would soon die of thinness anyway. The hunter climbed into the hamper.

Bush Devil tied him up and hurried off with him. He went to his town and untied the hunter. He showed him all the animals.

“The animals have asked for my protection,” he said, “and I have promised they will never be hunted again by fire. As you know I can kill you, but you cannot kill me. If you hunt animals again with fire I will kill you. If you promise you will never hunt with fire again, all the animals will return to the forest and you will be free to find them if you can.”

The hunter swore he would never use fire again to hunt, and the animals went back to the forest. That is why fire is no longer used to hunt.

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Folktales

How Spider’s Son Was Eaten By a Goblin

A goblin lived in the forest and he had a son called Pei. Pei was a great hunter and killed many animals; but one day when he went to hunt he found there were no animals left. He only saw Spider’s son and carried him home. Father Goblin said:

“Clean him and hang him up to dry. Tomorrow we will eat him.”
Pei hung the dead thing up to dry.

When Spider went home he could not find his son, and he wondered where he was. He said to himself: “I will go and look in Goblin’s house. His son, Pei, kills much game.”

When Spider reached Goblin’s house he saw his son hanging up inside. He said to Pei:

“What kind of game is this?”

“Nothing special,” Pei answered.

“It looks just like my son.”

“Oh! I didn’t know it was our son.”

They began to fight. Eggs were hanging by the door in a basket, and they were Goblin’s private eggs. Spider knocked them down, and in a moment he had swallowed them. Pei was silent for a little time, feeling sad about the eggs.

Then he said: “Spider, this palaver between you and I is finished. You have killed my things, and I have killed yours. Go home.”

The eggs made Spider’s stomach happy, and he went home.

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Folktales

The Herald of the Dawn

When Wala made the world and the animals therein, there was a great distinction between Day and Night, and often it was difficult to tell if it was light or dark, or in between, or the other way around.

The animals decided to sent a messenger to Wala to ask for some means of telling when the night was over and day began.

The animals worked long and hard building a ladder, a tall, tall ladder which reached right up to the sky. But when the ladder was finished there was grave doubt if anyone could climb it. Many animals tried, but they either became dizzy and fell down, or were too frightened to climb very far.

In those days Rooster was an ugly and ungainly creature, not so fine a fellow as he is today; and the animals all laughed at him when he tried to climb the ladder. But Rooster ascended the ladder little by little, further and further, until he could see Wala.

Wala listened to his story, and looked kindly on him.

“You are a brave animal,” he said, “to come all this way and tell me of your troubles telling night from day. Such a brave animal should also be beautiful.”

Wala gave Rooster brilliant colors and a better shape, and placed a red crown on his head to be a symbol of the rising sun.

“Henceforth,” he said, “night will be night and very dark, and day will be day and brighter. And you will wear your red crown, and sing a song each morning to announce the dawn.”

That is how Rooster won his colors and his crown, and why he always sings a song at daybreak.

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Ethnic Origin

The Origin of the Putu

“The Putu people are not a distinct people, but are part of the Krahn of the Kru group.” (Liberian Bureau of Folkways.) However, the Putu were once a more powerful and numerous people than they are today, and incline to regard themselves as a group in their own right.

The following is one of the various legends which describes their origin:

In centuries gone by a people known as the Sabo lived in the Sudan. There came a time when, inspired by hunger and a desire for new and better land, and the need for salt, this group began moving southwest towards the sea; their leader was a warrior called Saydi.

They crossed rivers and mountains and penetrated deep into a region of thick forests, fighting hostile peoples as they advanced.

When they came to fertile land on the eastern edge of the river known today as the Cavally, one clan of the Sabo settled there. This was the Flebo clan, which prospered. Another clan settled at the Southern limits of Tchien land; this was the Zela clan.

The Sabo were weakened by the loss of these two clans, but when they met the Drebo people they fought with them and pushed them south. The Sabo failed to reach the sea for the groups between them and the coast were strong and well-established; They therefore occupied the Drebo land which they had won by conquest.

A certain stream called Putu creek ran through the middle of this land; the Sabo took this as their place-name, and became known as the People of Putu Creek, or the Putu.

 (An alternate theory is that “putu” meant “cost nothing,” and the land was thus called because it had not been paid for.)

The Zela, Flebo and Putu peoples remain a pure and loyal brotherhood, and no man among them may look upon the blood of any kinsman. Any member of these groups may walk into his kinsman’s house to sleep, to eat, to live; and if he fancies any object he may take it without question.

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Ethnic Origin

The Putu Deity

In the land of the Putu there is a certain deity who lives in a cave on the side of Mount Gedeh; the name of this fabulous being is Tuobo Nyeka.

Tuobo Nyeka is an oracle and has served the Putu people well, giving wise advice on important matters and solving many problems which could not be solved by men. The position of the medium or Ba Weyon Sloo who deals directly with the deity is hereditary, passing from father to son; but today the modern Ba Weyon Sloo lives in a foreign land, and the oracle sleeps in the cave awaiting his return.

The surroundings of the cave were kept clean and orderly by the Putu, and fireplaces were maintained for visiting members of the Sapa, Half-Grebo and Putu groups who traveled from afar to consult Tuobo Nyeka on matters concerning tribal and clan welfare, ill-health, misfortune, barren wives and poor crops.

The deity was consulted only when the moon was full; strangers gathered on the mountainside to await the coming of the full moon and — as was the custom of the Greeks at the oracle of Delphi — they often used to pass the time by holding athletic contests.

When the moon was full the Ba Weyon Sloo would enter the cave and the visitors would follow bearing gifts of ivory, salt, gold or country cloth; no visitor was permitted to sit in the presence of Tuobo Nyeka, and if he did he would be devoured by a giant snake. the Ba Weyon Sloo would intercede on behalf of each visitor, and Tuobo Nyeka would give wise and uncanny counsel on their problems.

Barren wives bore children after intercession, and these children were usually gifted and highly respected in their groups; certain foods were forbidden them, lest Tuobo Nyeka be deprived of proper fare.

The Putu live in the most remote fastnesses of the nation and like other proud and virile peoples they proved reluctant to bend to the will of the Liberian Government. In 1924, when they learned that Government troops were advancing on this region, the Ba Weyon Sloo approached the deity and asked him what would happen.

Tuobo Nyeka answered that the Putu would never be conquered until the Ba Wyen Sloo’s little finger became pregnant and bore a son; but the Ba Weyon Sloo died on the following day, before the troops arrived, and this promise did not come true. The Putu people were severely defeated.

The son of the last Ba Weyon Sloo is a man called Kama-in, an educated man who lives in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Some say the deity who lives in the cave would have nothing to do with a westernized man, but others wait and pray for Kama-in to return and take up his lawful duties in the cave on the slopes of Mount Gedeh.

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Folktales

The Power of Nysoa’s Name

A certain chief had a rice farm on land across a river from his town. When his crop was ripe he caused it to be cut and stacked in the centre of a field. Green Pigeon made her nest upon the stack of rice, and laid three eggs therein.

One day the Chief said to his people:

“Tomorrow my rice must be hauled to town, nothing else will be done.”

Green Pigeon heard of this, and flew into the sky to see Nysoa.

“O God,” she said, “I have made my nest on a stack of rice in a field, and in the next I have three eggs. The Chief who owns this rice has said that it must be hauled to town tomorrow, although the proper time for hauling has not come. What must I do?

“Did the Chief call on my name?” Nysoa asked.

“No, God; he did not call on your name.”

“Then return to your place; for the strength of men is small, and you are safe.”

During the night rains came, and the lasted for a week. The river rose in flood, and even when the rains ceased no man could pass the river for many days. Green Pigeon’s eggs hatched out, but before the chicks had feathers the river fell, and the Chief announced again:

“Tomorrow my rice must be hauled to town; no other work will be done.”

Green Pigeon flew to God again:

“O Nysoa, I bring my thanks to you. My eggs have hatched, but my young are very young and cannot fly. The Chief has said today that he will haul his rice tomorrow, and my nest is on his rice; what shall I do?

“Did the Chief call on my name?” Nysoa demanded.

“No, O God; he did not call on your name.”

“Then return to your place; for the pride of men is great, but you are safe.”

Rains came again that night; the river swelled and men could no longer pass over it. Green Pigeon’s children grew long feathers, and when they were about to fly the river fell, and the Chief declared to his twin:

“Tomorrow, with the help of God, my rice will be hauled to town.”

Green Pigeon flew to God.

“O God, my children are ready to fly, and the Chief has again decided he will haul his rice to town. What must I do now?
“Did the Chief call on my name?”

“Yes, Nysoa, he called on your name.”

“Then leave your nest and fly away with your children; for tomorrow, with my help, the Chief will haul his rice to town.”

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Folktales

Why Hawk Kills Chickens

A woman had a little girl whose body was covered with ugly sores. She went to all the best country-doctors and Diviners, but nothing would remove the sore, so one day she became discouraged and decided to throw the child away. That night she carried her to a dung pile and left her there.

Hawk had built her nest above the dung pile in a tree, and in the morning she saw the child below her weeping. She carried the little girl up to her nest, and gave her a certain medicine only known to hawks; in time the child became well, her sores dropped off and her skin was clean and beautiful.

There came a day when Hawk told the child she could go back to her town and help her mother; but she told her to be sure to return before night fell. The little girl went to her mother’s home where she was welcomed; her mother wept bitterly to think that she had once abandoned her.

When evening came the child stole away and went back to Hawk, whom she had learned to love, and this went on for several days. No one in the town knew where the little girl went at night.

On the seventh day her mother and the townsfolk would not let her leave the town, although she cried and tried to go back to Hawk’s tree; and when Hawk saw that the people held the child she was vexed. She swooped down upon the people of that town scratching and biting and screaming, and there was palaver and excitement everywhere.

A wise man came and with wise words he put an end to the fighting. He said:

“That child belongs to its mother, for its flesh and blood are the mother’s flesh and blood. But Hawk has done good services, and for such service she must have some good reward. O Hawk, do you agree?”

“If the reward is good, I will agree.”

“Then name the things you want, and let it be a thing we can give.”

“Then let your chickens be my slaves,” said Hawk, “and you may keep the child . . . until you throw her out again.”

All the chickens in that town became the slaves of Hawk. They brought her food and washed her, scratched her back and gave her eggs to eat; Hawk lived in luxury for some years. In those days she wore a ring about one foot, a symbol of her rank among the birds, and one day she lent it to a chicken who was courting a cockerel.

When the chicken was walking about the ring fell off, and was lost among the leaves and dirt. On the following day Hawk said:
“Chicken, give me back my ring.”

Chicken could not give it. “I have lost your ring,” she said. Hawk flew into a rage, for the thing was precious to her and without it she could not command the respect of other birds.

“Lost?” she cried. “Lost? Then this is a sorry day for chickens! I shall kill every chicken I can toady, and the killing will not cease until my ring is found.

She killed that chicken first, and took it to her nest where she devoured it. All the other chickens began scratching among the leaves and dirt, searching and searching for the ring. The ring has not been found. Hawk has never ceased killing chickens, and chickens still scratch up leaves and dirt looking for that ring.

Hawk no longer has the respect of other birds, and that is why they dart about her singing mocking songs as she hovers in the air.

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Folktales

The Discontented Spider

When Hungry Season came Spider assembled his people and said:

“Tomorrow I will go from you and seek food, and nothing I can do will be of help to you if I stay here.”

He journeyed many miles from his house, and saw smoke rising from a distant village. He walked and walked until he came to this village, and found it was inhabited by cassavas.

“You are welcome, Spider,” they declared. “We are waiting to be eaten. Will you have us boiled or fried, or roasted?”

Spider said he would eat them any way at all, but just as he sat down to dine he spied a column of smoke arising from another distant town.

“Who lives there?” he asked.“That is where the eddoes live… Oh Spider, don’t leave us yet! But already Spider was hurrying off towards the eddoes’ town!

Spider swooned away, and his family found him lying on the ground. They gave him fish-bone soup and corn husks, and he revived a little; but never again did he find the villages of food which he had seen.

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Folktales

How a Wicked Woman Burned

Men tell a tale of two rich chiefs, River Chief and Hill Chief. River Chief lived by a river and had a handsome son who was a clever fisherman, and an ugly daughter whose name was Ti. Hill Chief had no children.

River Chief sent Ti to him as a wife, and Hill Chief took her; she was a good and gentle woman and Hill Chief did not mind her ugliness.

After a time new life began to grow inside Ti, and Hill Chief prayed the child might be a boy. But his head wife, who was a wicked woman and had borne no children, became jealous of Young Ti and resolved to kill the baby as soon as it was born.

She took ugly Ti to midwives and she gave birth to a son. The head wife put the baby in a box and threw it in the river, and took a kitten to Hill Chief.

“Chief, see what the ugly girl called Ti bore you.”

Hill Chief gazed in surprise and shame at the kitten.

“I have never heard of such a thing before,” he said. “It is against nature.” He grieved that the blessing of a son was denied him. Being filled with shame he forbade any mention of this thing inside his house; and the head wife abused and misused Ti like a common slave, causing her much unhappiness.

The box with the baby floated down the river and was snared in a fishing net cast by the son of River Chief. He took the box to his father; they opened it, found the baby boy, and cared for it.

Again new life grew in Ti, and she bore second child, also a son. The head wife bound a cloth about Ti’s eyes, as she had done before, and Ti could not see. The head wife put this second baby in a box and threw it in the river; and she said to Ti:

“You have borne a baby dog. How is this?”

Ti wept and shook her head in grief.

“No,” she cried, “it was a child, my child. What have you done with it?”

But the head wife took a puppy to Hill Chief, saying:

“Your ugly wife Ti has borne the child of a dog, as ugly as herself.”

Hill Chief was amazed: first a kitten, and then a puppy. A curious affair. For shame he ordered that no one in his house should speak of this.

The second boy was also discovered in the river by the son of the River Chief, and saved; and the two baby boys grew up to handsome youths. River Chief began to suspect the two children belonged to Hill Chief, and one day he called his daughter to his side and asked:

“Ti, how is it that you have borne no children for your husband.?”

“I did! I have borne two children. But each time I bore a child the head wife bound a cloth about my head so that I could not see, and took the babies from me. I saw neither of them, and what she did with them I do not know. On the first occasion she gave a kitten to my husband, saying I had borne a kitten; on the second occasion she gave a pup to my husband, saying I had borne a puppy! But no one would believe it was not true. Each time I heard my baby cry; it was not the cry of an animal!”

River Chief realized that the two young men he and his son had raised belonged to Ti and Hill chief; and on the following day he said to the two boys:

“Today I send you to your father, your real father, who is Hill Chief and an honorable man. Go but do not tell him who you are, and return.”

He also warned them not to reveal their secret to their mother until the time was ripe. The two youths went to Hill Chief, and when he saw his own two sons, not knowing them he wept with sorrow that he had no sons of his own. He accepted them into his house and honored them, and sent them to the head wife’s house to eat the best of food.

The two lads saw the head wife scolding and beating their gentle mother, and watched her drive her from the house saying such an ugly creature was not fit company for two handsome young men.

The two boy’s bowels burned with anger, but they said nothing. On the next day they went back to their ‘father’ by the river.

At the proper time River Chief returned with them to Hill Chief, and there he asked Hill Chief to assemble all the people of the town to hear important words. to the gathering he said:

“You see before you two young men, both noble men of royal birth; it is thought they are my sons, but now their story can be told. Some years ago I gave my daughter Ti to Hill Chief as his wife.

Ti bore two sons, but Hill Chief’s head wife, being evil, threw them in the river; my own son fund and saved them, and they have lived in my family until now. I now give them back to Hill Chief with my blessing.”

The two youths went to their father and embraced him, and Hill Chief wept tears of joy, for his greatest wish had been suddenly fulfilled. He called Ti to his side, and honored her.

All the town rejoiced, and shouted for the head wife’s blood. The head wife cowered in the corner, sick with fear. Men brought her before the Chief, and she groveled in the dirt and begged for mercy.

“Mercy?” he cried. “Men, tie her to a post in the market place. Put sticks about her feet and light them, so that she may slowly burn.”

Thus the wicked head wife burned alive, Ti gained honor and the love of her husband and two sons, and the two great Chiefs united in rejoicing with their sons and wives.

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Folktales

How Antelope Revenged His Wife

Nemo, the Pigmy antelope, left his house and went on a long journey; his wife stayed in town. One night Chimpanzee came to the house and knocked on the door.

“Who knocks? asked Lady-Antelope. She would not open the door. Chimpanzee went to a diviner and asked for medicine to make his voice small like Nemo’s. The diviner told him to swallow a piece of red-hot iron; but Chimpanzee was afraid to do this and asked the diviner to help him.

The diviner heated a piece of iron in the fire until it was red, and then stuffed it down Chimpanzee’s throat.

Chimpanzee sat down and said nothing for a long time. He was quite certain that pieces of red-hot iron were not fit food for chimpanzees, but the diviner gave him sweet juices to drink and he felt better.

That night he went again to the door of Nemo’s house and said:

“Open the door, dear wife.” His voice was now small-small like Nemo’s, and lady-Antelope opened the door. Chimpanzee sprang on her and killed her. He ripped her stomach out and threw it in a drinking pot, and carried the rest of the body away to eat.

Antelope returned from his journey. He went to his house, found the door open and his wife gone, and saw something in the drinking pot. He said to himself: “Someone has killed my wife. I will go to the diviner and find out who it was.”

The diviner said to him:

“A herd will pass by. the last in the …”

“What kind of a herd?”

“Don’t interrupt divining. As I was saying, a heard will pass by. The last in the herd will be singing in a small-small voice, and he will be the one who will kill your wife.”

Nemo thanked him, and went to hide behind a bush with a spear. a herd of chimpanzees strolled by, and the last one was singing in a small-small voice:

“I took the life of someone’s wife, and craved her with a hunting knife…”

Nemo threw the spear and killed him. The other chimpanzees hurried back and drove Nemo away, then went and lay beneath a tree to sleep. Nemo cut kola nuts, and put half a nut in each side of the chimpanzees’ bottoms so that everyone would see this, and know that they were villains.