The Sacred Door and Other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba

A Secret Is Difficult to Keep

A Secret Is Difficult to Keep This hunter went hunting every day. He hunted even on Nshialah , the day of rest. One Nshialah he was alone in the forest when he smelled the path of a deer. A lion had also seen the deer’s footprints. He was lying down on his belly, a well-sharpened axe by his side, awaiting the deer’s return. The hunter looked for a hiding place but when he noticed the lion had come before him he climbed up a tree. The lion looked at the hunter, yawned, rolled over on his side, and ignored him. The deer was away all day eating. He picked his way home as dusk was approaching. The minute the lion saw the deer he threw his axe at him but missed. The axe fell into the bushes and the lion couldn’t find it. The deer immediately escaped. The lion went in search of his axe instead. The hunter sat quietly in the tree and watched the lion search from tree to tree. He would occasionally look up the tree and see the hunter still sitting there. “Did you see the axe I flung at the deer?” “Yes.” “Please come down and show me where it is.” “No! Your species is untrustworthy. You want me to come down so you can devour me.” “No, I will not. Please come down. I will tell you something .” “Leave this tree? I should be such a fool. I won’t.” 164 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. The lion persisted and the hunter finally gave in. He scaled down the tree, picked up the axe where it had fallen, and gave it to the lion. “I will give you something in return. Aren’t you here waiting for animals?” “I am,” says the hunter. “I will reveal many things to you. When you go out hunting, you will hear the chimpanzee howl. From that moment, you will kill anything that moves on the face of the earth, but, mark you, release this secret and you die.” After warning the hunter a second time, the lion gave him all the necessary instructions and libations he needed to master. They both parted ways. From that day forth, the hunter used this power to kill many animals. When a chimpanzee howled on one hill, calling the pride to a meeting, the hunter would be there before the animals arrived. This way, he had his choice of the big game when he went hunting. One day, one of his wives asked him what made him so good at tracking big animals. The man was reluctant , not prepared to part with his secret, for he remembered the lion’s warning. He joked about his strong legs instead. On another day, his wives dealt him a combined attack. They forced him to tell them his secret. “You must have a weapon. You must tell us your hunting secret. We are your wives, not nosy strangers. You should tell us,” they insisted. Hearing the commotion was a cock searching for worms near the nsaa. He pecked at sand, a sign he always used to beckon his girlfriend, the hen, but the hen did not heed his call. “Look. Listen. Why do you refuse to come when I call for you? Listen to those women. Don’t you see how that man wants to tell his wives a secret between him and the lion? A secret that will end his life if they know the truth?” The man overheard what the cock said. He jumped up like a man possessed, grabbed his cutlass, and killed his wives. Just A Secret Is Difficult to Keep / 165 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. as swiftly, he was condemned and banished from the land as custom demanded. People today still remember how late into the night piercing sounds thundered in the distance as the kpwefo1 made its terrifying presence felt in this hunter’s compound . No one dared step outside their homes or crack a window . Even the children had the good sense to run for their lives into neighboring homes when...