The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories by Amos Tutuola

Author:Amos Tutuola [Amos Tutuola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571311330
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-07-03T04:00:00+00:00

Ade, the Traitor

A long time ago, Adisa and Ade were close friends. Adisa was faithful to Ade in everything that they did. But Ade was unfaithful to Adisa in all respects, but of course this was not revealed to Adisa.

At that time, there was a king who reigned in their town. This king was very cruel to all offenders. He reserved a bush in which all offenders were killed. The bush was at a distance of about two kilometres from the town. It was a terrible bush indeed to all offenders, and in it was a fearful bird who lived in a stream in the bush and had the voice of a human being.

One day Ade, the unfaithful friend, offended the king. The offence was quite simple enough for another king to have forgiven. Although Ade asked for pardon, this king refused entirely, for he had never pardoned an offender in his life.

There was a tree at the front of the palace to which every offender was tied until the day arrived he would be killed. This tree was in the open place, so that all the people of the town might come there and pay their last visits to any offender tied up.

Ade was tied to this tree, and all the people of the town came to pay him their last visits, until the very day was reached on which he would be killed. Every one of these people was thankful to the king for sentencing Ade to death, because he had been unfaithful and betrayed most of them. But Adisa, the faithful friend, was trying his best to see that Ade was released by the king. Yet all his efforts failed, for the king did not listen to his plea at all, so Adisa was distressed.

When Ade was taken to that dreadful bush by the king’s killers, Adisa followed them. And in his presence, Ade was beaten to death with heavy clubs of iron, as that was the order that the king had given to the killers.

As Adisa was faithful to Ade, he did not follow the killers back to the town. Instead, he sat near the dead body of his friend Ade, which lay on the ground.

He stayed there, and he was driving away all the flies which were flying round the dead body of Ade, and he was weeping bitterly. His intention was to remain with the dead body until he too would be killed either by a wild animal or a spirit. And Adisa was still weeping loudly when a creature came to him from an unknown place. This strange creature had the voice of a human being and his appearance was that of the dreadful bird that lived in the bush. He was a human-dead-body-eating strange creature.

Immediately upon coming, the strange creature shouted horribly at Adisa, ‘Eh, leave this place now! I want to eat this dead body; it is my food!’

‘Please,’ Adisa begged, ‘spare this dead body for me.’ He then explained, ‘It

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