An Elephant fell madly in love with a Zulu woman Cisse and married her. Cisse’s two brothers came to visit her secretly but, for fear of him, she told Elephant she wanted to fetch some wood and then went and hid the two brothers in the firewood.
Then she said, “Since I have married into the kraal, I beg you to tell me, has the one-without-hair-at-the-knees been slaughtered for me?” {That would be a fully grown ram.} The blind mother-in-law answered her, “Things that were not spoken about of old, these she now speaks of and the smell of a Cisse is present.” Thereupon the woman answered her mother-in-law, “Should I not anoint myself in the old way and sprinkle myself with incense?” And the mother-in-law said, “Hum, things are being said by my son’s sweetheart which she did not say of old.”
Just then, Elephant, who had been in the field, came home and behaved as though he had found out that the woman’s two brothers had come. He rubbed himself against the house. Then the wife said, “What I did not do of old, now I do. Which day did you slaughter for me the ram lying far back in the kraal, and when did I anoint myself and sprinkle myself with my incense? Thus the woman spoke to him. Thereupon the mother-in-law said to him, “Things which were not spoken about of old are spoken now; therefore grant her her desire.”
So the one-without-hair-at-the-knees was slaughtered. And the woman herself fried it. That night she asked her mother-in-law, “How do you breathe when you sleep the sleep of life, and how do you breathe when you sleep the sleep of death?” And the mother-in-law said, “Hum, this is an evening rich in conversation. When we sleep the sleep of death, we breathe sui sui, and when we sleep the sleep of life, we breathe choo awaba, choo awaba.”
Then the woman prepared all her things as well as herself, while the others just slept. When they snored heavily and slept the sui sui sleep, she rose and said to her brothers, “The people are sleeping the sleep of death, let us make ready!” So they rose and went out, and she uncovered the mat-house and took all the necessary things and said, “Any noice that is made means that someone wants me to die.” So all things were done in silence. Then with the two brothers, who stood ready to go, she went among the flock, leaving her husband just a cow, a sheep, and a goat. Then she instructed the cow, “Do not cry as though you were only one, if you do not desire my death.” She spoke to the sheep and the goat in a like manner. Then they moved on with all the flock behind them. Now, the animals that had been left behind, cried out and cried out noisily in the night, as though all of them were still there, and Elephant thought all of them were really there. When he arose at daybreak, he saw his wife had left with everything, so grabbed a stick and said to his mother, “If I fall, the earth will resound with a thud.” And he pursued them.
When his wife and her brothers saw him coming close, they turned aside bout could not penetrate a rock which barred the way. Thereupon the woman said, “We are people behind whom a big company of travelers is following, so, rock of my forefathers, spread out to both side for us!” And the rock parted and then, when all had gone through, closed again.
Elephant, too, soon arrived and said to the rock, “Rock of my forefathers, cleave yourself for me too!” Then it spread itself and then he had entered, closed again. There Elephant died. The earth resounded with a thud. His mother at home said, as it was predicted by my oldest son, so it has happened. The earth has just resounded with a thud.”
I want to give you some idea of the conditions you may expect to meet in any successful projections, so that you will be prepared to some extent. For simplicity’s sake, we will call the body forms discussed in our last Blog forms one, two and three.
Form one will spring out of an ordinary dream state. In spontaneous projections, you may become conscious in form one, project, return to the ordinary dream state and from there project again several times. You can expect these particular projections to be difficult to interpret now, though you may find the experience intact in the middle of any given dream record.
Your excursions with form one will be within our own system, largely connected to the earth, although past, present and future may be involved. You may, for example, visit New York in the year 3000.
The projections here are fairly short in duration, though exceptionally clear. You may encounter phantoms from your own subconscious, however, and they will seem exceedingly real. If you realize that you are projecting, you may simply order any unpleasant phantoms to disappear, and they will do so. You may banish a nightmare also, if you realize that it is a product of your own subconscious. If you treat it as reality, however, then you must deal with it as such until you realize its origin or return to the ordinary dream state.
In form two you will not, as a rule, encounter any subconscious phantoms. Ordinary dream elements will not be as frequent, not will they intrude as much. A longer duration of projection is possible. The vividness is extraordinary. Here you will begin to perceive quite clearly constructions that are not your own, where earlier these are but dimly glimpsed. A certain period of orientation will be necessary, simply because these other constructions may seem bewildering. Some will exist in your future. Some may have existed in your past, and some were thought of, but never materialized.
But the reality of all of these constructions will be equally vivid, you see, for they are, indeed, equally real. I will give you a simple example. You may find yourself in a room with certain people. Later, upon awakening, you realize that both the people and setting belong to a particular sequence in a novel. You think then: ‘This was no projection, then, but only a dream.”
It may, however, be a valid projection. The room and people exist but not in a way that you endorse as reality. They exist in another dimension, but as a rule you cannot perceive it. (To Dorian:) The paintings that you will paint exist now. It is possible for you to project yourself into one of your own future landscapes. This would not be an imaginative projection. This is what I am trying to tell you.
You may find yourself, for example, in the middle of a battle that was once planned in some general’s mind, a battle that never materialized in physical reality. In such case, incidentally, you were not a part of the battle and could not be harmed. However, you might be attracted enough to project yourself spontaneously into the body of one of the soldiers, in which case you could experience pain until your own fear pulled you back. As you learn control, such mistakes vanish.
There are various situations you must learn to handle, attractions and repulsions which could pull you willy-nilly in any direction. Experience will teach you how to handle these. What is needed is a steady maintenance of identity under conditions which will be new as far as your conscious awareness is concerned. I cannot emphasize too strongly that projections into other dimensions do occur. Many such instances are often considered chaotic dreams because there is no way to check them against physical events since they did not occur in physical terms.
It is possible for you to project to a future event in which you will be involved and by an act that you make in the projection, alter the course that this future will take. Such an action would therefore appear to happen twice, once in your present and once in your future. But in the future, you would be the one whose course is altered from this traveling self from the past.
Let us take an example: While asleep, you project into 3082. There you see yourself considering various courses of action. For a moment you are aware of a sense of duality as you view this older self. You communicate with this other self; and we will go into this sort of thing more deeply in another Blog. In any case, your future self heeds what you say. Now in the actual future you are the self who hears the voice of a past self, perhaps in a dream, or perhaps in a projection into the past.
Gulari once found some snakes fighting. As he came near and looked at them he saw that one snake had been killed. He reproved them. He said, “Go away.”
One snake gave him a charm, saying, “By means of this charm you will hear all things. When the rat talks, you will hear it. When the cow talks, you will hear it. You will hear everything that is said.” The man passed on. He came to the village.
At night Gulari’s wife Wadda locked the house so that there was no open place. All was quite dark. She and her husband Gulari lay down to sleep. A mosquito came to the door. It examined the house and found no way in. The mosquito exclaimed, “They have locked the house very tightly. How can one get in?”
The Gulari understood and laughed.
“What are you laughing about?” asked Wadda his wife.
“Nothing,” said Gulari.
Later, a rat came. He examined the door. He found it fast closed and left it. Then he tried the eaves of the house and got in. He searched everywhere. He wanted butter but he found none. He said, “Oh, where has that woman stored her butter?” Gulari laughed.
His wife Wadda asked him, What are you laughing at?”
He answered, “Nothing.”
In the morning Gulari went to his barn. He let the cattle out. When it was nearly milking time his wife Wadda came to milk. When she arrived the cow said, “Of course you come, but you will not milk me today. I shall withhold my milk. My calf will drink it afterward.” Gulari laughed.
Wadda asked him, “what are you laughing at?”
He answered, “Nothing.”
Wadda left the cow. She returned to the village. Then the calf sucked its mother.
The next day Wadda again came to milk. The cow again with held its milk. In the afternoon Wadda’s child was ill for want of milk. She brought it to the barn and she talked to Gulari. She said, “That calf will kill my daughter.”
The cow interrupted, “What! My daughter will kill your daughter?”
Gulari laughed.
Wadda asked him, “What are you laughing about?”
He answered, “Nothing.”
When it was nearly sunset his wife said, “I shall get a divorce.”
She called all the people. They came to her husband’s place. They seated themselves. They said to the wife:
“You Wadda and your husband Gulari talk. We will listen.”
Wadda talked. She said to the people, “When we lie down to sleep, my husband Gulari always laughs at me without any reason. When I ask him why he does it he hides the reason from me. That is why I object to him?”
Then they asked Gulari, “Why do you laugh at Wadda? Tell us.”
He answered, “Nothing.”
They said again, “Tell us.”
He answered, “Men, if I tell it, I will die.”
They said, “Tell it Gulari! Do not hide it.”
He replied, “Oh, men, I will not tell it. I will surely die if I do.””
They urged him. When he was worn out he told them. Gulari said to the people, “This is the reason why I laughed when we were lying down in the house. After a while at night the mosquito would talk. It would say, “Who is this woman that has locked up her house so tightly?’ Where can one get in?” That is why I laughed.”
Gulari died, as he had said. The people cried. Some of them dug a grave. As they were about to bury the body a certain snake hastened to the desolate spot. It wrapped itself around the body. It stuck its tail in the nose of the dead man Gulari. He sneezed. the people were amazed. Some of them said, “Is it his god?”
Others replied, “Why ask who it is?”
When Gulari stood up the snake left.
When Guklari had quite recovered he travelled through the desolate places. He found the snake under a tree. The snake said, “But why did you tell? Long ago when I gave you that charm I told you it would make you hear all things.”
Gulari replied, “They urged me, so I told them.”
The snake said, “Oh!”
Then the snake gave him another charm, saying, “You will hear the words of the birds which eat the corn, if another bird came near, the first one would say, “Bird! Do not come. We shall be seen. I am eating quietly. This is my place. Let us separate. The field is large.”
After a while another bird would reply, “What! I shall be found out?” A third would break in, “How will you get out? Perhaps they will find us.”
“Let him go.” cried one bird.
“I am not going,” said another. Gulari laughed there in the corn field.
It is said that there was once a great town in a certain place which had many people living in it. They lived only upon grain. One year there was a great famine.
Now in that town there was a poor man, by the name Mbenque, and his wife. One day they went in their garden, and they continued digging the whole day long. In the evening, when the digging gangs returned home, they returned also. Then there came a bird which stood upon the house which was beside the garden, and it began to whistle and said:
“Mbenque’s cultivated ground, mix together.”
The ground did as the bird said. After that was done, the bird went away.
In the morning , when Mbenque and his wife went to the garden, they were in doubt, and said, “Is this really the place we were digging yesterday?”
They saw that it was the place by the people who were working on each side of them. The people began to laugh at them, and mocked them, and said, “It is because you are very lazy.”
They continued to dig again that day, and in the evening they went home with the others.
Then the bird came and did the same thing.
When they went back next morning, they found their ground altogether un-dug. Then they believed that they were bewitched by some of the others.
They continued digging that day again. But in the evening when the digging gangs returned, Mbenque said to his wife, “Go home, I will stay behind to watch and find the thing which undoes our work.”
Then he went and laid himself down by the head of the garden, under the same house on which the bird always perched. While he was thinking, the bird came. It was a very beautiful bird. He was looking at it and admiring it, when it began to speak.
It said, “Mbenque cultivated ground, mix together.”
Then he caught it, and said, “Ah! it is you who eats the work of our hands!”
He took out his knife from the sheath and was going to cut off the head of the bird.
Then the bird said, “Please don’t kill me andI will make some milk for you to drink.”
Mbenque answered, “You must bring back the work of my hands first.”
The bird said, “Mbenque’s cultivated ground, appear,” and it appeared.
Then Mbenque said, “Make the milk now,” and behold, it immediately made thick milk, which Mbenque began to drink. When he was satisfied, he took the bird home. As he approached his house, he put the bird in his bag.
After he entered his house, he said to his wife, “Wash all the largest beer pots which are in the house.”
But his wife was angry on account of her humger and she answered, “What have you to put in such large pots?”
Mbenque said to her, “Just listen to me, and do as I command you, then you will see.”
When she was ready with the pots, Mbenque took his bird out of his bag, and said, “Make milk for my children to drink.”
They commenced to drink, and when they were finished, Mbenque charged his children, saying, “Beware that you do not tell anybody of this, not even one of your companions.”
They swore to him that they would not tell anybody.
Mbenque and his family then lived upon this bird. The people were surprised when they saw him and his family. They said, “Why are the people at Mbenque’s house so fat? He is poor, but now since his garden has appeared he and his children are so fat!”
They tried to watch and to see what he was eating, but they never could find out at all.
One morning Mbenque and his wife went to work in their garden. About the middle of the same day the children of that town met together to play. They met just before Mbenque’s house. While they were playing the others said to Mbenque’s children, “Why are you so fat while we remain so thin?”
They answered, “Are wet hen fat?” We thought we were thin just as you are.”
They would not tell them the cause. The others continued to press them, and said, “We won’t tell anybody.”
Then the children of Mbenque said, “There is a bird in our father’s house which makes milk.”
The others said, “Please show us the bird.”
They went in to the house and took it out of the secret place where their father had placed it. They ordered it as their father did, to make milk, and it made milk, which their companions drank, for they were very hungry.
After drinking they said, “Let it dance for us,” and they loosened it from the place where it was tied.
The bird began to dance in the house, but one said, “This place is too confined,” so they took it outside the house. While they were enjoying themselves and laughing, the bird flew away, leaving them in great dismay.
Mbenque’s children said, “Our father will this day kill us, therefore we must go after the bird.”
So they followed it and continued going after it the whole day long, for when they were at a distance it would sit still for a long while and, when they aproached, it would fly away.
When the digging gangs returned from digging, the people of the town cried for their children, for they did not know what had become of them. But when Mbenque went into the house and could not find his bird, he knew where the children were, but he did not tell any of the other parents. He was very sorry about the bird, for he knew that he had lost his food.
When evening set in, the children wanted to return to their homes, but there came a storm of rain with heavy thunder, and they were very much afraid among them was a brave boy, named Sombwa, who encouraged them and said, “Do not be afraid. I can command a house to build itself.”
They said, “please command it.”
He said, “House appear!” and it appeared, and also wood for a fire. Then the children entered the house and made a large fire, and began to roast some wild roots which they dug out of the ground.
While they were roasting the roots and were merry, there came a big cannibal, and they heard his voice saying, “Sombwa, give me some of the wild roots you have.”
They were afraid, and the brave boy said to the girls and to the other boys, “Give me some of yours.”
They gave some to him, and he threw the roots outside. While the cannibal was still eating, they went out and fled. He finished eating the roots, and then pursued them. When he approached, the children scattered more roots upon the ground, and while the cannibal was picking them up and eating, they again fled.
At length they came among mountains, where trees were growing. The girls were already very tired, so they all climbed up into a tall tree. The cannibal came there and tried to cut the tree down with his long sharp fingernail.
Then the brave boy said to the girls, “while I am singing you must continue saying, “Tree be strong, Tree be strong!”
He sang this song:
“It is foolish,
It is foolish to be a traveller,
And to go on a journey
With the blood of girls upon one!
While we were roasting wild roots
A great darkness fell upon us.
It was not darkness,
I was awful gloom!”
While he was singing, there came a great bird which hovered over them, and said, “Hold fast to me.”
The children held fast to he bird and it flew away with them, and took them to their own town.
Was midnight when it arrived there, and it sat down at the gate of Sombwa’s mother’s house.
In the morning, when that woman came out of her house, she took ashes and cast them upon the bird, for she said, “This bird knows where our children are.”
At midday the bird sent word to the chief, saying, “Command all your people to spread mats in all the paths.”
The chief commanded them to do so. Then the bird brought all the children out, and the people were greatly delighted.
For all practical purposes, of course, you will usually find yourself in some sort of body form in your out-of-body experiences. These are a necessary camouflage, for you cannot yet think of identity without some kind of body, so you project in such a form. It varies according to your abilities, and without it, you would feel lost indeed. The form itself is not important, but it can tell you something about the dimension in which you are having the experience.
The dream body is the one with which you are most familiar. It has been called the astral body. It strikes us as being physical when we are in it, But we can do things with it that can’t be done ordinarily. You can levitate, for example. As a rule, however, we do not go through walls with this body. This is the body we use for ordinary dreams. Levitation is possible with it but on a limited basis.
When we enter a different dimension, the abilities of the body form change, and for all intents and purposes, it is a different body form – which we will now call a mind form. It still seems physical in shape, but we can walk through physical matter with it. we can levitate much more freely, traveling within the solar system. But we cannot go further with it.
In the first form, it is possible to perceive the past, present or future on a limited basis. In the second form, this perception is increased, the scope of consciousness widened. This is the form we will use if we meet by appointment with others in the dream state.
The third we may call the true projection form. In it, it is possible to travel beyond our solar system, and to to perceive the past, present and futures of other systems as well as our own. The various forms that we use do not dictate our experience, however. We may begin in one form and change to another – or go from the first to the third. On such occasions we must pass through in reverse direction (on returning). The forms merely represent stages of consciousness.
At physical death, after the last reincarnation, then the normal form is the dream body, and excursions are made from this point. It is possible, as mentioned, to suddenly switch from the third form to the dream body, but with a considerable jolt to consciousness.
There are indeed, others who can help in such experiences, and they can be of great assistance as guides. We will find projections much easier if our head is to the north.
Now, when we project from the dream body, consciously we are already outside of the physical one. We have already made the initial change away from physical focus. The mass of valid projections are made from the dreaming body. When the excursion is over, the return to the dream body is made with no strain, you see, for the ego is little concerned. In many such cases, however, the knowledge is not available to the waking self.
As we become more accustomed to the experience, the waking self will recall more and more and not become frightened. When we panic, from the waking condition, the experience ends. If the waking self had not been taken along in this particular manner, the journey could continue.
We use probabilities like blocks to build events. This presupposes inner knowledge and calculations, for you must be aware of the probabilities in order to choose from them. The inner self, therefore, has this knowledge. These probabilities include webworks, probable actions and reactions involving not only yourself but others. Computers are toys compared with these inner workings.
The majority of events do not ‘solidify’ until the last moment, in our terms. According to our understanding and interpretation of the world events, none are predestined or predetermined by sources outside of yourselves. Your childhood environment, for example, was determined by you before physical birth. Within this framework, you also give yourself the freedom to manipulate and change. The main events of a civilization are chosen by its people, but because a course is begun, this does not mean that it cannot be changed at any point.
Events, then, are materialized in our time from their origins in ‘no time.’ there is no end to the source or supply of probabilities, therefore ‘no time’ is not a static, completed storehouse. Each event you form from any set of probabilities automatically gives rise to new probabilities.
The nature of any given probable action does not lead to any particular inevitable act. Probabilities expand in terms of value fulfillment. One given act does not necessarily lead, then, to act A,B, and C, onward to some concluding action. Instead, it has offshoots in infinite directions, and these have offshoots.
This is what I know of reality. There is far more to be known. Outside of the realities of which I am aware and others are aware, there are systems that we cannot describe. They are massive energy sources, cosmic energy banks, that make possible the whole reality of probabilities.
They have evolved beyond all probabilities as we understand them yet, outside of probabilities, they still have existence. This cannot be explained in words. Yet, none of this is meant to deny the individual, for it is the individual upon whom all else rests, and it is from the basis of the individual that all entities have their existence. Nor are the memories or emotions of an individual ever taken from him/her. They are always at his/her disposal.
All of these probable systems are open. In our system it seems as if we chose one course, one main line of probabilities, and that is the end of it. In our system, only one ego predominates and we think of ourselves as that ego. In other systems, this is not necessarily the case. In some, the inner self is aware of having more than one ego, of playing more than one role at a time. As an analogy, this would be as if you lived, say, the life of a rich man/woman of great talent, the life of a poor man/woman and the life of a mother/father and career man/woman. You would be aware of each role and find abilities being developed in each. This is an analogy, and in several respects it could lead you astray if taken too literally. In such a system, there would be no breakup of time, you see.
HONEY-GUIDE and Capped Wheatear lived together in one place at first and ate out of one dish. Honey-Guide was the elder, Wheatear the younger. They set their minds on going to hunt for honey, and it happened when they arrived in the vicinity of the honey that Honey-Guide said, “Smile, Wheatear, when you see where the honey is.” Wheatear smiled, but he did not see the honey. When Honey-Guide smiled he had really seen it. That is what they did, and then they returned home leaving the honey behind, but Wheatear quietly disappeared and went off to steal the honey.
Next morning Honey-Guide said, “Let us go to our honey.” There they found a bit of bare honeycomb mangled and thrown about, so he asked Wheatear about it, and Wheatear replied, “My brother, I have seen neither it nor him who has stolen the honey. Since we came out yesterday nobody has come back here to demolish the honey in this way.” And once again Wheatear said to Honey-guide, “As for me, I could not eat any of this honey unless you had given it to me.”
So then Honey-Guide said no more, and they went out again looking for honey. Once more they found some honey. Honey-Guide say it before Wheatear did, and he tested Wheatear by saying, “Smile.” Wheatear said, “I cannot see the honey, smile yourself, my brother.” Honey-Guide: “No, child, smile.” So Wheatear smile and he saw the honey; then Honey-Guide asked him, “What do you see?”
Wheatear said, “It looks as if it might be flies fluttering before your eyes.”
Honey-guide said, “Haven’t you seen it?”
But Wheatear was deceiving him, for he saw the honey all the time. When Honey-Guide was about to smile, he saw the honey and said, “Let us cut down the tree to get it.”
Wheatear refused, saying, “No, as you said yesterday that I stole the honey, well, I am Wheatear! Let us bring some bird-lime and set a trap beside the honey, then if it be I who steal the honey you will catch me.”
“Good business,” replied Honey-Guide.
They went off to get some bird-lime from the human beings. Then when they arrived at their village, Honey-Guide said, “We will come tomorrow to set the trap.” But after a time Honey-Guide quietly disappeared and went off to set the bird-lime at the honey. Said Wheatear to himself, “Let me go quietly and eat the honey.” But the bird-lime was set already, although he did not notice it. When he thought of sitting down beside the honey, he sat on the bird-lime. Said he, “I will strike it with my wing,” but he stuck to it. And when he struck with his tail he stuck to it. When he wanted to draw back his right wing, it was stuck fast. He tried to strike it with his breast but he stuck. When he attempted to bite it with his beak, he bit the bird-lime. Then he simply died for lack of breath.
When Honey-Guide appeared on the scene, after he had looked for him at the village, he found him already dead. Then he mocked him, saying, “Wheatear, smile!” As he was dried up, he said that was the reward of thievery. “From today you will not steal any more. The chieftainship is mine over honey and to be extolled by the people! As for you, from today your portion shall be bird-lime already spread, and thus will you be killed by people.”
Now since they separated there on account of thievery, Wheatear belongs to bird-lime and Honey-Guide is still extolled. While he talked like this, Honey-Guide was standing upon the corpse of Wheatear. they became distinct in other directions, while their cry remained the same and, to this day, Wheatear’s portion is bird-lime and to be entrapped by men.
In the olden Days all cattle, sheep, and goats lived in the forests. Then, one day, Tarikhes called all the animals before him at a place in the jungle, and he lighted a large fire there. And when the animals saw the fire they were frightened and fled away back into the forests. There remained only cattle, sheep, and goats who were not frightened. And Tarikhes was pleased with these animals and bless them, and he decreed the henceforth they should always live with man and woman who would eat their flesh and drink their milk.
The ego structure remains, of course. The responsibility of dealing with physical reality remains, but in some respects the nature of this manipulation changes. It becomes more direct. Physical properties are manipulated more and more at a mental level. The ego becomes more like the inner ego and less like its old self, comparatively speaking. It accepts large portions of reality that it previously denied. Structurally, it remains intact, yet it has changed chemically and electromagnetically. Now it is far more open to inner data. Once this freedom is achieved, the ego can never return to its old state.
I have told you that the ego is self-conscious action that attempts to set itself apart from action and to consider action as object. Now this altered ego retains its highly specialized self-consciousness, and yet it can now experience itself as an identity within and as a part of action.
This is a cornerstone for consciousness and for personality. It is only a first step, however. Without it, no further development of consciousness can occur. It is not attained by all within our system. We are at this point now.
The next step is taken when identity is able to include within itself the intimate knowledge of all incarnations. Yet in this state, the independence of the various reincarnated selves is not diminished. Each of these steps of consciousness involve identity with the inner recognition of its unity with All That Is.
As each separate identity then seeks to know and experience its other portions, then All That Is learns Who and What It Is. Action never ceases its exploration of itself. All That Is can never know itself completely, since action must always act and each action creates a new unknown. Action must travel through itself from every conceivable point, and yet the journey, being itself action, will create new paths.
Mr. Tortoise, who was married to Mrs. Tortoise, Had in Vulture a friend who was constant in visiting him. But, having no wings, Tortoise was unable to return the visits, and this upset him. One day he bethought himself of his cunning ands aid to his wife, “Wife!’
Mrs. Tortoise answered, “Hello, husband! What is it?”
Said he, “don’t you see, wife, that we are becoming despicable in Vulture’s eyes?”
“How despicable?”
“Despicable, because it is despicable for me not to visit Vulture. He is always coming here and I have never yet been to his house – and he is my friend.”
Mrs. Tortoise replied, “I don’t see how Vulture should think us despicable unless we could fly as he does and then did not pay him a visit.”
But Mr. Tortoise persisted: “Nevertheless, wife, it is despicable.”
Said his wife, “Very well, then, sprout some wings and fly and visit your friend Vulture.”
Mr. Tortoise answered, “No, I shan’t sprout any wings because I was not born that way.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Tortoise, “what will you do?”
“I shall find a way,” he replied.
“Find it then, ” said Mrs Tortoise, “and let us see what you will do.”
Later Tortoise said to his wife, “Come and tie me up in a parcel with a lump of tobacco and, when Vulture arrives, give it to him and say it is tobacco and, when Vulture arrives, give it to him and say that it is tobacco to buy grain for us.” So Mrs. Tortoise took some palm leaf and made him into a parcel and put him down in the corner.
At his usual time, Vulture came to pay his visit and said, “Where’s your husband gone, Mrs. Tortoise?”
“My husband has gone some distance to visit some people, and he left hunger here. We have not a bit of grain in the house.”
Vulture said, “you are in trouble indeed, not having grain in the house.”
Vulture said, “you are in such trouble as human beings never knew.” And she went on: “Vulture, at your place is there no grain to be bought?”
“Yes,” said he, “any amount, Mrs. Tortoise.”
She brought the bundle and said, “My husband left this lump of tobacco thinking you would buy some grain with it for us and bring it here.”
Vulture willingly took it returned to his home in the heights. As he was nearing his native town he was surprised to here a voice saying, “Untie me, I am your friend Tortoise. I said I would pay a visit to you.”
But Vulture, in his surprise, let go his hold of the bundle and down crashed Tortoise to the earth, Pididi-pididi, his shell smashed to bits, and he died. And so the friendship between Tortoise and culture was broken: and you can still see the cracks in Tortoise’s shell.
They say that once a great hunger came, and that Kwaku Ananse, the spider, said he would go and search for meat and vegetable food and bring it that his wife Aso might eat. He went into a certain stream and there he met certain people. Now these people whom he met, excuse my saying so, were spirits. When Ananse met the spirits, they were standing in the water and splashing the stream-bed dry to catch the fish. Kwaku Ananse said, “Brothers, may I come and splash a little too?”
The spirits said “Come.”
Ananse went, and he saw that they were using their skulls to splash the stream dry. The spirits said to Ananse, “You have seen that which we take to splash the stream dry. Will you allow us to remove your skull in order that you may splash too?” Ananse said, “I will permit you, take it off for me.”
Of a truth, the spirits removed it and gave it to him. Kwaku Ananse and the spirits joined together in splashing the bed of the stream dry. As they splashed, the spirits raised a song:
“We, the spider, when we splash the river-bed
dry to catch fish, we use our heads to splash the water.
O spirits, we are splashing the water.”
Since the Creator made things,
do we take our heads to splash the water?
O the spirits, we are splashing the water.
I take my head to splash the water dry today O,
O the spirits, we are splashing the water.”
Ananse finished singing, and the spirits told him, saying, “We have splashed, we have got fish, your share is a basketful. Take it and go and eat. Take your skull, join it on your body, and go off. But what we have to say most particularly is this – the very day you sing any of that song, your skull will open and fall off.”
The spider said, “Fish in abundance, which you have given to me, is all that I desire, and as for a song – for what reason should I sing it?”
The spirits said, “That is well, go off.”
So the spider set off. The spirits, too, got everything together and they, also, went away. When the spirits had reached yonder, as it were, then they raised their song:
“We, the spirits, when we splash the river-bed dry
to catch fish, we use our heads to splash the water.
O the spirits, we are splashing the water.”
And the spider heard the song and he, too, took it up:
“Since the Creator made things
Have we taken our heads to splash the water?
O the spirits, we are splashing the water.”
No sooner had he finished than his skull opened and dropped off. Ananse lifted it up and held it against his chest. He said, “spirits, spirits, my head has fallen off.”
The spirits heard, and they said “That’s the spider. He hasn’t listened to what we told him, and he is calling us. Let us all go back and hear him.”
Almost immediately, Spider came hastening along. He said, “Puo! Children of my father! My head has opened and fallen off, so I beg of you, if I have done you any harm, forgive it. You are in the right, but take my head and put it in its place for me.”
The spirits took it, and replaced it. They said to him, “Now, if you sing this song again and your head falls off again, we shall not answer when you call us. So get along with you!” The spirits set off again.
As they were going they sang their song. Then Ananse began to sing again, and his head became detached and fell off, kutukum! And he lifted it and, excuse my vulgarity, clapped it against his anus, and leaped to the side of the path. Sora! was the sound of the grass parting as he entered it. He said, “Path, save me! When the day dawns that I am rich, I shall give you some.”
That is why you will see Ananse with a small head and a very big bottom. It all comes from the hardness of his ears.
