NO TASK IS TOO DIFFICULT TO ACCOMPLISH--KAYODE ADEJARE

Far away in the past in the animal kingdom, the king wanted to marry out his daughter, Buje, to whoever was competent to have her hand in marriage. Being the most beautiful girl in the kingdom, there were many suitors and so , to have a befitting husband , the king decided to put all intending suitors to test and the one that was able to carry out the given task would become the husband. The king therefore sent the town-crier out to inform all the animals about his intention and to ask all interested male to assemble in front of the palace on the following market day.

On the market day, the king laid out the task before all animals present – whichever animal that succeeded in tying a string of beads around the princess waist would marry her. In the end, each of the animals was given a string of beads and the next market days which was seven days away was made the deadline. When the tortoise got back home from the palace that day, sleep eluded him and while tossing and turning all night he struck on an idea of how to emerge as the king’s son-in-law.

Days before the deadline, the tortoise went to examine his ‘weapons’ with which he intended to carry out the task of tying the string of beads around the princess waist. The day before the market day, the tortoise as part of the plan went to wait for the return of the princess from the stream where she usually had her bath in the convoy of her female attendants. When the tortoise was sure the princess was coming. He quickly laid a dead snake across the footpath with the head hidden in the bush and went to hide in the nearby farm pretending to be working on the farm. The princess was frightened when she saw the snake having taken it for a live snake and cried for help. Immediately, the tortoise came out of his hiding with a cutlass in his hand and as planned, inflicted a cut on his leg while pretending to be killing the snake. While thanking the tortoise, the tortoise told the princess that he could not walk again as a result of his cut and begged the princess to help him in return by carrying him on her back to his house. The  princess saw nothing wrong in his request as one good turn is  known to deserve another. Unknown to her however, the tortoise only wanted to use the opportunity to tie the beads around her waist. While on Buje’s back, the tortoise sang thus:

Lead:           Buje, Buje, pa mi o (2ce)         Buje has killed me (2ce)

Chorus:                Tere Buje                       Terebuje

Lead:                     Ise mi mo n se                I was busy working

Chorus:                Terebuje                         Terebuje

Lead:                     Oko mi mo n ro             I was working on my farm

Chorus:                Terebuje                         Terebuje

Lead:                     Buje ni n wa pejo                   Buje asked me to kill a snake

Chorus:                Terebuje                         Terebuje

Lead:                     Mo pejo pejo pojugun   I cut my knee while killing the snake

Chorus:                Terebuje                         Terebuje

          The second day when all were gathered again at the palace, the tortoise did not waste time to announce that he had accomplished the task. Everybody including the king did not take him serious at first but when he persisted, the princess, Buje, was brought out and to everybody’s astonishment, the string of beads was found around her waist.  As such, the king gave his daughter out as a wife to the tortoise and gave them possession of half of his kingdom. The story teaches that no task is beyond accomplishment.