By Dr. Chuks Osuji
In the last edition, I was narrating the encounter between apia and the tortoise. Today, in the concluding aspect of the analysis, efforts will be concentrated on what played out between Apia and the tortoise when Apia suddenly looked into her bag and saw the tortoise squatting comfortably in apia’s bag.
When she looked into the bag and saw tortoise, she was amazed and angrily she asked, ”tortoise, when did you creep into my bag?” The tortoise looked at her and laughed at her derisively. Tortoise laughed and told apia, “that it was because she did not carry him along and that is why he wanted to beat her to her game, hence I crept into the bag at night.”
At this juncture, apia emptied her bag and the tortoise dropped into the sea. Immediately, various species of fishes surrounded the tortoise. They wanted to devour him in a hurry. He beckoned on them, “Please my great grand children don’t harm me because I am your great grandfather lost in the sky many years ago and somehow, the cloud opened and let me loose thus I fell into the sea.” Somehow the fishes had mixed feelings and thoughts as to what to do with the unwanted visitor.
Immediately, the tortoise knew how to swim but not as fast as the fishes. The fishes and the tortoise agreed to go to a side of the sea to negotiate what next to do. A thought came to the tortoise, “My great great grand children, I will teach each of you how to grow taller in a minute. He asked them to go the sea side and make fire. They complied. He asked them to find a container and pour a little oil in the container.
While two or three of the fishes were busy complying with the directives of the Tortoise, a good number of them stayed far from them and watched. When the oil on the fire began to boil, he asked two or three to jump into the fire and they complied and got themselves burnt as they each got elongated and dies. The other fishes around got scared and ran away telling the tortoise that they will go jump into the fire once those already in come out.
They all took to their hills. The tortoise collected the six or seven dried fishes and wrapped them carefully as he left the sea side. On his way, he saw a dog. On sighting the dog, he asked the dog to stay clear because he was carrying the dead body of his mother and the dog ran into the bush on hearing dead body while the tortoise continued to convey his parcel.
The next he saw was a squirrel perching now a small tree. As he saw the tortoise, he asked the tortoise, ”What are you carrying let me come down and help you because nobody can carry his mother’s dead body alone.” The tortoise thanked him but rejected his offer. The tortoise continued his journey. The next person he met was the tiger.
As the tiger asked him what he was carrying, he repeated his story saying it was the body of his mother which he went to carry from the land of the unknown. The tiger said no, I cannot allow you carry your mother’s body alone and before the tortoise could say a word, he pounced on him and grabbed the parcel from him.
Quickly, he pryed into the parcel and saw that the parcel contained roasted fishes as he remarked, “Tortoise, when will your lie and cunning attitude end?” These are dried fishes and you claim it is your mother’s dead body. Then, the tortoise begged him to follow him to his house where they can share the fishes. Stupidly, the tiger followed him to his house.
As they sat down to share the fishes, the tortoise told the tiger that there was a giant rat in his house that had made part of his house his abode and pleaded with the tiger to help him catch the rat to stop its menace. The tiger agreed. The tortoise suddenly went out and knocked at the door of a giant tiger. When he came out, the tortoise whispered to the giant tiger saying, “I have attracted a big animal to the house and I will plan how we can kill him lest he will devour both of us in a minute.
He unfolded a strategy to the giant tiger that he will go into a hole, when you hear long hand, you should run deep inside the hole. But when you get short hand, you should go back so that I can pull some of your hair so that he can be convinced there is actually a rat in the hole. The tortoise went into the hole to implement his plan. The tortoise stepped out, he did to the tiger, “I have confirmed that there is indeed a rat inside the whole.
He dipped his hand into the hole and shouted, “Short hand, short hand.” The giant tiger came out from the inside hole to enable the tortoise take some hairs from its body and ran back inside immediately. Then he brought out his hand and showed it to the smaller tiger that he had gotten some hairs from the rat which clearly indicated that there was a giant rat in the hole. Then the tortoise asked the tiger to use his long hand to catch the rat.
Then the tiger put his hand into the hole and the giant rat ran deep deep deep inside the hole beefs the little tiger will not catch him. Then the tiger tried to reach the rat but did not succeed and the Tortoise advised him to go deeper. As he was trying, the tortoise was shouting long hand long hand, surprisingly, the tortoise reached a stone because he noticed that while the tiger was trying to reach the giant rat in the hole, the tiger overstretched himself and exposed every part of his body then the tortoise hit his head with the stone because he had made himself vulnerable.
He groaned and groaned as he struggled till he died. When everywhere was quiet, the tortoise beckoned on the giant tiger to come out. Now they had a problem to deal with as they thought of what to do with the animal he had killed (tiger). Fortunately, the Tortoise who was never empty of idea suggested that they will excise the hand of the tiger to cook for a feast. They did just that. As the meat was boiling, the tortoise knew that they both could not completely eat the hand of a tiger alone.
Then he asked the giant rat to go and inspect if the meat was done. The giant rat complied. As he opened the burning pot for inspection the tortoise grabbed the two legs of the giant rat, slaughtered it and threw her into the boiling pot. The giant rat being so smart squatted in the boiling pot on the boiling meat in such a way that only the tail was boiled. He collected all the pepper in the boiling meat and stored in his mouth.
Moments later, the tortoise came to know if the rat had died but as he opened the pot, the giant rat spat the pepper onto the face of the tortoise. The tortoise fell down crying and said, ”when two cunning persons meet, they will know who is smarter.”
When the giant rat jumped out of the hot pot, he said to the tortoise, “Don’t you know that I know what you know?” That is why till today, the tail of a rat has no hair on it because of the experience it had in the boiling pot. From that day on, the giant rat and the tortoise became best of friends