The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories (5 page)

‘Remember the day after tomorrow, my sons.’ That was how the father used to warn his two sons, Dele and Deji, whenever they offended one who was older than them. The father, mother, and their two sons, Dele and Deji, who, in the days gone by, lived in a remote village, were poor, but the father was not poor in the civilities which surround human life. In the night, when the day’s work was over, and as soon as all of them sat before the fire, the old father would start to lecture his sons on how to respect their elders so that they might live longer, to make their lives happy and worth living among the people of the village.

‘Perhaps,’ Dele suggested one day to his younger brother, Deji, ‘“Remember the day after tomorrow” is the name of our eldest brother who was born and left our father and mother for a big town before we were born.’

‘And probably our father is just reminding us not to forget him,’ Deji said, supporting his brother, Dele, because both of them were puzzled about this warning. And it was a pity that they did not understand what their old and weary father meant by that. But alas! Dele and Deji did not ask their father to tell them the meaning of the warning, but instead both convinced themselves that ‘Remember the day after tomorrow’ was the name of their eldest brother who had left their village for a big town before they were born.

Unfortunately, a few years after their father had started
to warn them like that, he died suddenly, and two months later their mother died as well. Then the two young boys began to take care of themselves, but not as satisfactorily as when their father and mother were alive.

Dele and Deji each had a very big hunch on his back, as had their father, mother, and the rest of the family. So for their strange hunchbacks, other people in the village always called them ‘the Hunchback Family’.

A year after their father and mother died, a strange, hefty man came to them, in their father’s house. The name of the man was Totofioko. He was tall, cheerful and talkative, and always wore smart clothes. However, he was an expert trickster and kidnapper of children. He lived in the village which was next to Dele and Deji’s village. He was very well known throughout his village and many other villages as well for his tricks.

Totofioko had overheard when the father of the two boys warned them, ‘Remember the day after tomorrow,’ and noticed as well that every one in the family had a hunch on the back. So one day he put a flat stone on his back in such a perfect way that the stone seemed exactly like a big hunch when he wore a garment over it. Having done so, he took a big suitcase and one expensive umbrella and then he went to Dele and Deji in their dead father’s house. He met them as they sat in their sitting room.

‘Hello, my dear two junior brothers!’ Totofioko said as he walked into the sitting room with a smiling face and put the umbrella and the big suitcase down. ‘Hello, sir! Welcome, sir! Please have a seat, sir!’ Dele and Deji said as they received Totofioko with a bit of a shock, especially when they saw the costly garments which he wore and the costly suitcase and the umbrella in his hand.

‘Thank you very much, my dear junior brothers! I am very sorry to tell you now that this is the first time I have ever come home since when both of you were born,’
Totofioko quickly explained to the boys as he was sitting down on the seat.

‘This is the cold water, sir,’ Deji said as he ran to the pot and brought cold water in an earthen bowl. He knelt down with due respect as he gave Totofioko the water.

When he had drunk from the water and rested for a few seconds, Totofioko asked the boys, with a quiet voice, as if he had not yet heard of the death of Dele and Deji’s father and mother, ‘Has your father gone to the farm?’

‘Father? Our father died over a year ago,’ Dele and Deji exclaimed at the same time with sorrow.

‘Is it true that my father, or our father of the whole family, has died? Please tell me the truth!’ Totofioko said, pretending to care.

‘Certainly, our father died long ago.’ Dele and Deji, who were still greenhorns, confirmed the death of their father loudly.

‘My father is dead?’ Totofioko raised his head up and hesitated for a few seconds and then dropped his head down. ‘Could the two of you remember that our father used to warn you always before he died that you must not forget – “Remember the day after tomorrow”?’ Totofioko asked the boys with a deceitful grief.

‘Oh, yes, you are right. Our father used to warn us always before his death that we must remember “
Remember
the day after tomorrow”, and he told us also that “Remember the day after tomorrow” would come home soon,’ Dele explained hastily.

‘Was that so? Good!’ Totofioko paused for a few seconds as he started to raise his head up and down in a slow motion as if he was thinking seriously about the boys’ father’s death.

‘Now, I confess to both of you that I am your eldest brother, whose name your father, before his death, had been mentioning to you often. And my name is “
Remember
the day after tomorrow,” and I am thus before you
today,’ Totofioko said, and then he stood up. He posed himself before them for a few seconds and then sat back down. ‘I was born and went to a big town before both of you were born. So, both of you are my junior brothers because your father was my father as well. And I am coming to stay with you as from today, and I shall be taking great care of you as well as our father did before he died. Now, to be sure that I am your eldest brother, the firstborn of our father, look at my hunchback, and how it resembles those of your own. But of course it is bigger than your own, and that must be so, because I am older than you!’ Totofioko stood up; he showed the boys his false hunchback, and then he sat down again. Thus he, with his trick, persuaded the two boys in such a cunning way that they accepted at once that he was their eldest brother.

Saying, ‘Hah, this is our eldest brother whose name is “Remember the day after tomorrow”,’ Dele and Deji embraced Totofioko with gladness.

‘By the way, where is your mother, who is my mother as well?’ Totofioko, now their deceptive brother, asked loudly with his usual trick.

‘Oh, she died just a few months after our father died,’ the two boys replied with sorrow.

‘Hoo-hoo-hoo!’ Totofioko, having heard this, covered his head with both palms and wept for some minutes just to deceive the boys.

‘Hah! Stop weeping, brother. What are you doing that for? Stop it, sir!’ Dele and Deji stood up and caressed Totofioko until he stopped his false weeping. Then hardly had he stopped weeping when he stood up. He walked up and down in the house. He peeped into every room just to know the kind of property that was inside it.

‘I am glad. All the property in the rooms is precious enough and I will carry it back to my village,’ Totofioko thought in his mind before he came back to the sitting
room while Dele and Deji were busy cooking food. And he and the boys ate together.

Some days after Totofioko had begun living with Dele and Deji, he told them one morning. ‘Yes, now, both of you are aware already that only the eldest person in the family has the right to be in charge of all the property of his deceased father or mother. Therefore, I wish you to gather all of our father’s and mother’s property together and bring it all to me. But instead of sharing these things now, I shall put all inside one of the rooms. Then I shall lock up the room and keep the key for myself.’

‘Indeed, you are the right person to do so, sir!’ Dele and Deji exclaimed with gladness. For, in fact, it is the eldest person in the family who has the right to be in charge of the property of his or her deceased. But in this case Totofioko was not the right person to be in charge of Dele and Deji’s father’s and mother’s property. Of course, these two boys did not realize that Totofioko was not their eldest brother and was not related to them in any way.

So they gathered all of their father’s and mother’s property together. They brought all to Totofioko, and he put it all inside one of the rooms, and he kept the key in his pocket.

In the mid-night, when Totofioko saw that the two boys slept deeply, he opened the door of that room. He carried all the property to his village, and he returned before daybreak. So the boys never knew that their inherited property had gone to Totofioko’s village.

Having spent a few days more with Dele and Deji, Totofioko advised them, ‘As I see, things are not moving fast in this our village. So, I shall take you to the big town from which I have recently come. You will be working there and earning a large sum of money. And, I believe, in one year’s time, each of you will surely become a rich man. Out of your earnings, you will marry beautiful ladies and after that you will come back to this village.’

‘Many thanks, brother, for your useful advice. But who will take care of our property after we have left our house?’ Dele and Deji asked doubtfully.

‘Never mind about the property, my junior brothers. And you should not be afraid. There is not any thief who can break into our house and steal our property. Look at this juju-leaf. It is a strong charm which has the power to scare away thieves, and I am going to hang it on the main door now.’ Totofioko showed Dele and Deji an empty leaf, and then he stood up; he went to the main door, and he hung the leaf there.

Then at four o’clock in the morning, before the people of the village had woken up, Totofioko, with his usual tricks, took Dele and Deji to his village. He hardly had entered his house when he pulled down the flat stone which he had put on his back, and which he had used to deceive the boys that he had a hunch like them. Now the boys knew that it was a flat stone Totofioko put on his back and not a hunch. And in their presence, he sold all their father’s and mother’s property to an auctioneer.

‘Oh! This is our inherited property! Don’t sell these things!’ Dele and Deji shouted unhappily when it was revealed to them now that Totofioko had carried their inherited property to his village and that he was selling it all.

‘Shut your mouths there! Or don’t you know who you are talking to?’ Totofioko boomed on the boys and then struck their mouths with a stick.

‘Brother, don’t be harsh to us this time. For you have confessed to us that you are our eldest brother whose name is “Remember the day after tomorrow”,’ Dele bravely reminded Totofioko.

‘Who is your eldest brother? Tell me now! I say, tell me!’ Totofioko shouted loudly with a fearful voice. But Dele and Deji became dumb with fear. They could not speak out.

‘I am afraid that things have changed now!’ Deji
whispered
to Dele.

Dele nodded and whispered back to Deji, ‘I believe this man is a kidnapper of children and not our eldest brother or relative. This is not “Remember the day after tomorrow” at all.’

The following morning, and without giving food to the boys, Totofioko sold them to a slave dealer who lived in the next village. One morning, as Dele and Deji were working on the farm of their buyer, Totofioko, who had dressed in a costly garment, came up to them.

Proudly, he explained to them. ‘Yes, there you are now. I am sorry that it is too late for you to understand that “Remember the day after tomorrow” is not the name of a person, but it is a warning for the future. And it would have been better if you had asked the meaning of it from your father before he died. Then there could be no
deceiver
like me who would deceive you like this. And it is a good practice for a young boy who does not understand the meaning of either a warning, proverb, or twisted words, to ask for the full meaning and understand it thoroughly before it is too late! Goodbye, boys!’ Totofioko then hastily went away, as both boys were weeping bitterly.

A long time ago, Adisa and Ade were close friends. Adisa was faithful to Ade in everything that they did. But Ade was unfaithful to Adisa in all respects, but of course this was not revealed to Adisa.

At that time, there was a king who reigned in their town. This king was very cruel to all offenders. He reserved a bush in which all offenders were killed. The bush was at a distance of about two kilometres from the town. It was a terrible bush indeed to all offenders, and in it was a fearful bird who lived in a stream in the bush and had the voice of a human being.

One day Ade, the unfaithful friend, offended the king. The offence was quite simple enough for another king to have forgiven. Although Ade asked for pardon, this king refused entirely, for he had never pardoned an offender in his life.

There was a tree at the front of the palace to which every offender was tied until the day arrived he would be killed. This tree was in the open place, so that all the people of the town might come there and pay their last visits to any offender tied up.

Ade was tied to this tree, and all the people of the town came to pay him their last visits, until the very day was reached on which he would be killed. Every one of these people was thankful to the king for sentencing Ade to death, because he had been unfaithful and betrayed most of them. But Adisa, the faithful friend, was trying his best
to see that Ade was released by the king. Yet all his efforts failed, for the king did not listen to his plea at all, so Adisa was distressed.

When Ade was taken to that dreadful bush by the king’s killers, Adisa followed them. And in his presence, Ade was beaten to death with heavy clubs of iron, as that was the order that the king had given to the killers.

As Adisa was faithful to Ade, he did not follow the killers back to the town. Instead, he sat near the dead body of his friend Ade, which lay on the ground.

He stayed there, and he was driving away all the flies which were flying round the dead body of Ade, and he was weeping bitterly. His intention was to remain with the dead body until he too would be killed either by a wild animal or a spirit. And Adisa was still weeping loudly when a creature came to him from an unknown place. This strange creature had the voice of a human being and his appearance was that of the dreadful bird that lived in the bush. He was a human-dead-body-eating strange creature.

Immediately upon coming, the strange creature shouted horribly at Adisa, ‘Eh, leave this place now! I want to eat this dead body; it is my food!’

‘Please,’ Adisa begged, ‘spare this dead body for me.’ He then explained, ‘It was my friend, and he was the man that I loved most in this world, before he was killed on this spot.’

‘Do you believe that he was faithful to you before he was killed here?’ the strange creature asked quietly.

‘Indeed, he was,’ Adisa confirmed with sorrow.

‘Are you sure he will not betray you to death in the near future?’ the strange creature inquired as he stared at Adisa.

‘I believe he will not,’ Adisa confirmed with assurance.

‘All right,’ the strange creature replied calmly, along with a shrug of the shoulders. ‘If you are certain that he was faithful to you before he was killed, and that he will not betray you in the near future, then take this small gourd, remove its cork, and then put some of the magic powder
which is inside on to your friend’s eyes, and he will come alive at once. But take care that your friend does not know the use of the juju-gourd and the juju-powder.’ The small gourd which he gave to Adisa was vomited from his huge stomach.

Then the strange creature hinted at all that would
happen
to Adisa in the future, saying, ‘I do not believe you at all, that this your friend was faithful to you. And as you do not allow me to eat his dead body now, it will be revealed to you soon that he is not faithful to you. Perhaps he may even be the one who will cause your death at last.’ Then he disappeared into the bush.

Adisa was distressed when the creature disappeared suddenly because he could not decide whether the
creature
was a spirit or not. He did not know that he was the dead-body-eating creature, the terrible bird who had the voice which was similar to that of a human being, and who lived in the river which was in that bush. And, of course, Adisa did not know that it had been his weeping that called him out from the bottom of the river.

However, Adisa removed the cork from the gourd and put some of the juju-powder which was inside it on to both eyes of his dead friend. And to Adisa’s greatest surprise, Ade woke from death immediately as if nothing had
happened
to him. Then Adisa, at once, corked the gourd and threw it into his pocket so that Ade might not see it, because the strange creature had warned him not to let Ade see it or know the use of it. Then both of them returned to their houses with happiness.

Adisa hung the juju-gourd on the rack as soon as he entered his room. Then, as from that day, if a person died in the town, Adisa would be invited to wake him or her, and he would take a large sum of money as his reward. Very soon Adisa was well known to all people and to the king of his town, as he who had the juju-gourd which could wake the dead.

And he was so faithful that he always gave a half of any money that he received to his unfaithful friend, Ade. But Ade could not be satisfied with that. Ade worried Adisa every day to teach him how to use the juju-powder which was inside the gourd, but Adisa did not teach him.

But Ade was so unfaithful to Adisa that, one day, when Adisa went to another town, just to return in a few days’ time, Ade entered his room. He took the juju-gourd from the rack and he hung in its place an inferior one. After that, he took the superior one to the large river and he threw it into the water. And it fell into the hand of the very same strange creature who had given it to Adisa. Instantly he swallowed it, and then he waited for the day when he would ask Adisa to give it back to him.

As soon as Ade had thrown the juju-gourd into the river, he went to the same king who had condemned him to death before Adisa woke him. He said, ‘Your majesty, the king, I bring secret news to you. Adisa, my friend, who woke me when you condemned me to death last time, has told me that, whenever any member of your family dies, he will not wake him or her. This will be his revenge on you for condemning me to death.’

And the king kept this bad news in his mind from that day. But of course Adisa had not told Ade such a thing at all. Ade was just trying to convince the king he should kill Adisa – all because Adisa did not teach Ade how to use the juju-powder inside the juju-gourd.

A few days later, after Adisa had returned from his journey, one of the king’s family died suddenly. Ade did not show in his behaviour that he had betrayed Adisa out of his juju-gourd, and Adisa himself was not aware that his juju-gourd had been thrown in the river, and an inferior one hung in its place. The king sent for Adisa. He implored him to help him wake his dead man. Without a word, Adisa returned to his house. He took that inferior gourd, which he supposed to be his own, and returned to the
king. He removed the cork, so as to put juju-powder on the eyes of the dead body. To his dismay, it was sand that came out of it.

In short, Adisa failed to wake the dead man. Then, in the presence of the king, Ade said, ‘Adisa, you have done as you told me you would, that one day you would take revenge on the king because he condemned me to death some time ago!’

Adisa stared at Ade in shock. ‘Ade, when did I tell you that I would not wake the king’s man if such a man should die?’

‘Ho-o-o!’ Ade shouted. ‘Because both of us are now before the king, you now deny all you planned to do to the king! But if you did not plan to take revenge on the king, please, just wake the dead man now!’

Now the king was convinced of the truth of the lies which Ade told him. Without hesitation, the king ordered his killers to take Adisa to the bush and beat him to death at once.

Ade followed the killers to the bush, and he and the killers beat Adisa to death before they went back to the town. Thus Ade, the unfaithful friend, betrayed Adisa, his faithful friend, to death at last.

A few minutes after Adisa was beaten to death, the strange creature who had given him the juju-gourd came there. He woke Adisa and asked him thus: ‘Where is your friend, Ade, today? And where is my juju-gourd, which I gave to you the day you woke Ade from death?’

‘He is not here.’ Ade wiped his face with both palms, and then he explained with great sorrow, ‘He was the very one who caused my death. And he joined hands with the killers, and they beat me to death.’

‘Did you not tell me on that day, that Ade was faithful to you, and was it not for that you begged me to spare him for you?’ The strange creature spoke with a horrible voice.

With a tired voice, Adisa replied. ‘Certainly, I did.’

‘Now, since you did not allow me to eat the dead body of Ade the other day, today I shall eat you, instead!’ Then he killed Adisa again and ate his body. When he had finished the body, he went away.

Of course, Adisa saved his friend, Ade, from death, but Ade betrayed him to death in return.