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The Flutes This story was passed down to me by my mother, who heard it from her mother. I learned to play the flute because of the boys in this story. “Are you listening?” “Yes.” “Are you?” “Yes, we are.” “I will proceed, then.” A man had two wives.1 Each wife bore him four children. As the family size increased, the family had to trek miles and miles, farther and farther away from the village every year, to find arable land. Consequently, the women owned farms far, far away from home. One year they farmed at Akontom; three years later, they farmed at Ntah Metse.2 One woman even cultivated her cocoyam farm as far away as Mbe-amfi.3 This was 63 1 The practice of polygamy used to be a fact of life among the Beba right through the mid-twentieth century. A lot has changed since with the advent of education and especially rural exodus. The fon of Beba still has many wives, his and those he inherited from his father. However , polygamous marriage is less common in today’s Beba society. 2 The original settlement site of the Beba. See also the discussion of migration and settlement of the Beba in the Afterword. 3 Mbe meaning forest, amfi meaning dark; dark forest, implying land with fertile soil. You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. hard on the family, for they had to ascend and descend at least seven hills before they reached any of these farms—not to mention that crossing rivers was treacherous at the height of the rainy and harvest season. One day, when they left for one of the farms, a son of the first wife took his flute with him. They toiled all day on the farm and the boy forgot his flute when they left at sunset. “I cannot sleep if I do not go and get my flute,” the boy told his mother, father, and stepmother. “No! It’s already dark,” they said. “I must go for it.” “You can’t. That farm has ghosts. Why do you insist on going there tonight? Can’t you collect it tomorrow when we go back to the farm?” The boy was adamant. “I must go for my flute!” “You know what happened to the boy who disobeyed his parents, don’t you?” The boy’s parents recounted scary stories about what befell disobedient children, but they could not shake his resolve. Seeing his determination, they let him go. After all, isn’t it said that if you put your hand in fire and the fire burns you, you should not complain? They thought their son was behaving like the chirping cricket that invites its own death. The boy threw all caution to the wind and walked in darkness to the farm. He searched and searched for the flute but couldn’t find it. He was about to give up when he saw some ghosts sitting in a group and conversing. They were the strangest-looking people he had ever seen. Worse, they talked through their noses. “Why are you here? What has brought you here?” one of them snorted. “This is our farm. I have come for my flute. I forgot it here earlier today,” the boy replied. “Well, son, this is our home. Your family visits it during the day, so you think it belongs to you, but all this is ours. If you 64 / Makuchi You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. see the flute will you know it? Can you recognize your flute if we show it to you?” “Yes, I can. It is a bamboo flute. It is brown and old. I made it myself. Just bring the one that belongs to me and I will recognize it.” The ghosts took the boy into a house. They brought out one flute. It shone so bright one would think the sun had forgotten to close its eyelids. The boy took one look at it and said no. They brought another one, the color of a king’s gold. The boy shook his head and said, “Please, bring only my flute...

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