THE LIVING-DEAD

Once upon a time, there lived an amiable couple. They understood each other so well that they lived happily together. They were people of humble means. They had three children of very tender age. It was while the woman was delivered of the third baby that she died of exhaustion in protracted labour.

THE MOON MAN

Once upon a time, a man took his axe and went to a nearby bush to split firewood on a Sacred Day. He was not a stranger in the Land. So he knew that one should not work, cry, quarrel or fight on Eke market day no matter what. So his act amounted to defiance. He caught the full impact of his offence when God  placed him on the moon for all to see, as a reminder that disobedience is not good. Thereafter, to forestall such a drastic penalty from God, men quickly intervene whenever there is contravention on Sacred Days. They gather together immediately they hear the noise of quarrelling on a Holy Day and punish the offenders by giving them a fine of a fowl each. Thereafter the community pursue and catch any fowl seen in the vicinity. The fowls are killed, cooked and eaten by all the people present as a kind of peace offering but if the fowls do not belong to the offenders, they would pay for them.

WHY WALL GECKO IS CALLED "THE TELLER"

Once upon a time, there was a great famine, an extreme scarcity of food resulting in widespread hunger within the animal kingdom. The Tortoise racked his brains on how he survived famines in the past and he mapped out clever strategies to enable him survive this one too. He contracted the rabbit to burrow an underground subway from his house down to the marketplace. On a market day, just as people were busy buying and selling, the Tortoise and the rabbit hid themselves in the hole and began to sing this hair-raising song with disguised voices:

Ụmụmmadụ n’azụ ahia. kparanụma nụma n’azụ ahia kparanụma

Anụmanụ n’abia ahia, Kparanụma nụma n’abia ahia kparanụma

Ụmụagbara abiala ahia, kparanụma nụma abiala ahia kparanụma

Ụmụmmụọ chọrọ aja, kparanụma nụma chọrọ aja kparanụma

Onye k’ eji achụọ aja? Kparanụma nụma eji chụọ aja kparanụma!

WHY MEN APPEASE NATURAL FORCES

In ages past, there lived a couple Mmiri (Rain) and Egbe-eluigwe (Thunder). They begot a son, Amụma-mmiri (Lightning), named after Mmiri, his father. The couple were very close hence the adage: “If you heed the voice of thunder you will not be drenched by the rain.”  Egbe was well known for her deep and thunderous voice that sounded like a gun and whenever she conversed with her husband, her voice rumbled in the distance. In fact it was because of her voice that she was named Egbe, meaning gun, and because it seemed as if Elu-igwe (the sky) shot the gun, eluigwe was added to Egbe to get Egbe-eluigwe (Sky’s gun). Moreover, she had to be distinguished from her namesakes Egbe (Hawk) and Egbe (Dane gun).

Egbe-eluigwe was adventurous but life in the sky was unexciting. Therefore she preferred to live elsewhere with her son, Amụma-mmiri, amid a community of people. She was very humorous.