WHY THE TORTOISE HAS A BALD HEAD
Once upon a time, in the animal kingdom, there lived an animal called the tortoise. The tortoise is married to Yanribo. The tortoise also has a concubine known as Osemi.
There is a woman that fries `akara’ (bean cakes) by the road side in the neighborhood. Her bean cakes are very delicious and many people always line up to buy bean cakes in the mornings from the woman. Anytime the tortoise is passing by the place the woman is selling `akara’,he is always enticed by the aroma of the bean cake and would wish to buy some, but he did not have any money. He envied those who buy the woman`s akara every morning.
One day he told Yaribo, his wife about the woman’s bean cakes. He said they always make his mouth water but that he does not have money to buy some. He told the wife, ``give me some money to buy akara or I will go to Osemi`s house to collect money from her”. Yanribo replied, ‘I don’t have money, but here is the little money I have”. She gave him a penny. He took the money with his cap on his head and went straight to where the woman was selling bean cakes. When he got there, he met a lot of people waiting to buy bean cakes. He was discouraged but decided to wait for his turn, so he stayed on the queue. When the crowd has lessened and it was nearly his turn to buy bean cake,suddenly,somebody called the woman selling bean cake that she should stop everything she was doing oh!,that her attention was needed at home and that she had some visitors. The woman now appealed to the tortoise to help her watch over the bean cakes on the fire so that they don’t get burnt. The tortoise accepted and was very happy to watch over the bean cakes for the woman.
The moment the woman left, he started eating the bean cakes. As he was frying, he was eating it with relish. He said to himself, ``I will eat and eat and eat and I will keep some in my cap’’. He had not finished talking to himself when he saw the bean cake woman from afar. He immediately began to put some bean cakes in his cap and wore the cap on his head. The bean cakes were hot and he began twisting his neck. When the woman arrived, she thanked the tortoise and also gave him some bean cakes in appreciation. She observed that the tortoise was twisting his neck vigorously, so she asked, ``is anything wrong with you?’’ He said nothing was wrong and he wanted to leave, so he left. The tortoise wanted to remove the bean cakes from his cap on the road, but he couldn`t because people were greeting him and exchanging pleasantries with him as he was going. He then decided to go to Osemi, his concubine’s house. When he got there, he met Osemi, and her relatives. He greeted everyone and was asked to sit down. After he sat down, he was twisting his neck vigorously. When they asked him what was wrong, he replied, `` nothing’’. He said he was okay and would like to take his leave. Osemi’s relatives now said, ``the way you are twisting your neck is too much’’, then his concubine went and removed the cap from the head of the tortoise. Behold! To the surprise of everyone, bean cakes dropped from his head, his hair was burnt and he left there with shame.
That is the reason why the tortoise has no hair on his head and is bald till today. From this story, we learn a lesson that it is not good to be greedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment