In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The Man-Eating Lion There once lived a palm nut cutter. He had one wife and one child, a girl. The man dearly loved his daughter and often took her with him on short visits within the village. He sometimes let her carry his raffia bag, slung across her chest as if she were a boy. But harvesting palm nuts often kept him away from home during the day. When the man left home in search of palm trees laden with ripe fruits, the daughter would burst into tears, she’d run after him, she’d beg to go with him. “My mother,1 you can’t come with me to the forest,” her father repeatedly told her. “You’re too young to accompany me to the forest. Besides, there’s terror in the forest. The eye that sees the lion flees from it.” She was not consoled by his warnings. Every day she wept and every day her father refused to take her with him. One day, she secretly followed him. The man climbed a palm tree, harvested a cluster of nuts, and just as he turned around to throw the bunch down he saw his daughter standing under the tree. Had he not been vigilant, he would have thrown the cluster directly on her head. He flung the cluster farther away, climbed down the tree, and took his daughter home. The palm nut cutter was very worried about his daughter’s behavior, for it was common knowledge that a man-eating lion 59 1 Affectionate usage; this daughter might also be named after her paternal grandmother. 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. lived in the woods on the outskirts of the village. The lion was known to sneak into the village and capture children for its food. It hunted adults only when there were no children on the playgrounds. The people beseeched their chief to send men into the forest to hunt the lion, but the chief was afraid of losing more men and refused. The lion kept on killing children. It soon began attacking women, but the chief would not change his mind. This was the heart of the harvest season, and the palm nut cutter made the difficult decision to spend two weeks at home watching over his family. After that fortnight he got restless and went out in search of nuts. He was worried that the palm nuts would rot and he’d lose a good crop. Again, his daughter secretly followed him, but once in the forest she lost sight of him. She searched for her father. She went from tree to tree, looked under one thicket after another, followed one track and another, but couldn’t find her father. After roaming the forest for half a day she came face to face with the lion. The lion captured her and carried her off to a secret spot deep inside the forest. At that special spot, the lion removed a plant cluster to reveal a well-camouflaged hole. The hole opened the way down a path into his house. He pushed the girl down the hole and followed after her. Once inside, the lion covered the hole with the plant. Lion’s house was built entirely of human bones. It comprised seven rooms. Lion dragged the girl to the last room. He poured palm oil in a pot large enough to hold three tins of oil. He put the pot on the hearth, lit a fire, and went to sleep. The little girl watched the oil slowly come to a boil and pondered her escape from Lion’s ossuary. Though frightened, she kept very quiet and remained calm. She had to make every effort to stay awake. What had her father said? “The eye that sees a lion flees from it.” She had got herself into this trouble; she was going to get herself out of it. She waited for Lion to go to sleep and 60 / 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. then she waited until she could hear his snore rattle the bones along the walls. She tiptoed out of the...

Share