The Tortoise and the Monkey by Imonikhe Ahimie (top 10 best books of all time TXT) 📖

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

This book was first published as part of a Kindle eBook in 2013. That book is no longer available.

The story here has been edited, expanded and reformatted for reading on multiple eBook formats and is issued as a free eBook in 2015

Text copyright © 2013 Imonikhe Ahimie

Text copyright © 2015 Imonikhe Ahimie

All rights reserved.

FOREWORD

 

The Tortoise is the most popular character of all the varied characters that abound in the folklore of the Nigerian peoples. The exploits of the Tortoise, whether in all-animal stories or in stories that have an animal-human mix, are without compare in all of the folklore that originates from The Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

Indeed, in all of Nigerian folklore, there may be as many Tortoise stories as there are all other stories combined. In different circumstances, the Tortoise is associated with wisdom, selfishness, just low cunning or even, sometimes, kindness.

 

In this Tortoise adventure, our hero shows that he won't tolerate being underrated; not even by his closest and oldest friend.

 

Great Friends

The Tortoise had always had a very high regard for his intelligence, as did the vast majority of the folk who inhabited the animal kingdom. As with most other geniuses, the Tortoise was prone to some pride and he liked, from time to time, to show off his great intelligence. Anytime he did this, he appreciated the adulation that was showered upon him by less brain-heavy folk; conversely, he was totally opposed to folk who tried to show that they were unappreciative of his mental gifts. Regarding such unappreciative folk, it was the Tortoise’s unwavering policy that he would find a means of teaching such a one the folly of the path that he or she had embarked upon.

At a certain time, a very long while back, the Tortoise and the Monkey were the greatest of friends. The friendship between the two was of long-standing; dating back to the days of their insouciant youth, the relationship between the two had grown and grown as they had grown into adulthood. Now, as the duo were approaching middle age, their friendship growing stronger and stronger with every passing day, week and year, the saying “as tight as the Tortoise and the Monkey” had become a proverbs of sorts amongst the inhabitants of the animal kingdom whenever there was a need to illustrate a deep friendship between folk.

It was a nice and breezy evening as the bosom friends were taking a quiet stroll through the forest; the conversation was general but just as the Monkey was about to round off what he thought was quite a funny anecdote, the Tortoise suddenly interrupted and began to speak in a most portentous tone:

“Supreme God! All of you great deities, known and unknown; even you, those deities that have yet to come into existence! Every single one of you, our most illustrious ancestors! We pray, here and now, that we may be protected from getting involved in troubles the origins of which we have no knowledge.” Then in his most sonorous voice, he added a resounding “Amen”.

The Monkey was stunned and he stared at his friend in amazement. Nothing in the conversation which they had been having or anything that had happened or seemed probable or possibly to happen as they wound their way through the forest seemed to warrant the type of prayer that the Tortoise had made. That the prayer had interrupted his witty anecdote also rather piqued the Monkey for, knowing his friend of old, he knew how much the Tortoise loved hogging the limelight.

Now, if there was one particular trait in his friend that had always seemed somewhat obnoxious to the Monkey, it was the Tortoise’s penchant for always hogging the limelight. As far as the Monkey was concerned, the Tortoise was much too intolerant of seeing anyone in the limelight unless the person in the limelight was the Tortoise himself or, if someone else, such a person had come into the limelight through the Tortoise’s own devising!

Consequently, the Monkey maintained a sullen silence and made no response to the Tortoise’s unexpected interjection.

As his friend made no response to his prayer, the Tortoise asked in a mild tone why it was that the Monkey had failed to respond to the prayer that he had just uttered; the prayer, after all, was specifically uttered for the benefit of all who had had the benefit of hearing it.

The Monkey answered in the haughtiest manner imaginable. It was not his custom, he declared in icy tone, to respond with “amens” to prayers that were made for no obviously discernable reasons. The Tortoise’s prayer, the Monkey went on, was one that had been made for no reason; this being the case, he could not bring himself to say an “amen”.

The Tortoise stared long and hard at his friend then, heaving a long and heavy sigh, he turned the conversation to other matters. But his friend’s attitude had been deeply upsetting to the Tortoise and he resolved in his mind to teach the Monkey a lesson that he would never forget.

The Tortoise pays a visit

As soon as the Tortoise got home that evening, he instructed his wife to prepare a quantity of bean cakes for his use. When the bean cakes were ready, the Tortoise soaked them overnight in a jar of sweet honey. The next morning, he removed the bean cakes from the jar of honey and left them out to dry; by the evening, the bean cakes were just the way he wanted the cakes to be.

Early the next morning, the Tortoise placed the bean cakes in a small bag and proceeded to pay a visit to the Leopard. The Leopard, you will understand, was one of the grandees of the animal kingdom and, as such, the Tortoise was on very friendly terms with him; it was a firm tenet of the Tortoise to always be on friendly terms with the grandees of the land. At all events, as soon as the Tortoise entered into the Leopard’s presence he threw himself prostrate upon the floor before the great cat and started to reel out praises in his honor.

The Leopard was lord and master over all the inhabitants of the forest; a terror to his enemies but the loving protector of those whom he deigned to accept as friends. The incorruptible judge, he was always swift to inflict condign punishment on all malefactors. And so on and so forth.

The Leopard was extremely pleased at the laudatory manner which the Tortoise used in greeting him and, in return, he described the Tortoise as the most widely traveled person in all the whole wide world and the wisest being in all of creation.

When all the pleasantries were over and the Tortoise had taken his seat, the Leopard asked as to what had brought the Tortoise hither for it had been quite a while since the Tortoise had last paid him a visit.

“Is there anything that I can do for you, my good friend?” asked the Leopard.

“Nothing my lord, nothing at all” the Tortoise replied.

“It just happens that I was in the neighborhood and it struck me that it had been quite a while since I last dropped in to pay my humble respects to you my, my lord.

“I trust, your highness, that you will forgive me for being so remiss.”

The Leopard was extremely pleased at the Tortoise’s contrite words and manner that the Tortoise used and he assured the Tortoise that he harbored no ill will towards the Tortoise for the long interval between visits; he, the Leopard, was always more the happy to receive his dear friend.

Now, as this conversation was going on, the Leopard noticed that the Tortoise was removing some stuff from a small bag he had with him and, popping such into his mouth, ate the stuff with every evidence of great relish. When it became clear that the Tortoise had no intention of offering any of whatever it was that he was eating to his host, the Leopard spoke up.

“Well Tortoise, I really am surprised at your behavior; you didn’t use to be so rude! Here you are, munching away on your own, without even the courtesy of offering me some of whatever it is that you are eating with such evident relish!

“You didn’t used to be so lacking in courtesy and manners!”

The Tortoise was immediately all contrite. Throwing himself prostrate on the ground before the Leopard, the Tortoise vehemently declared that he did not have the slightest inclination to offer discourtesy to the Leopard.

“Your highness, I myself have developed a particular taste for this poor snack and, although I love it to distraction, I am reluctant to offer it to you so as not to cause any offence.”

“I’ll be the judge of the relative richness or poverty of the snack” growled the Leopard.

“My lord…..” the Tortoise began.

He was cut short by a stern look from the Leopard who snatched the bag containing the bean cakes away from him. Picking out one of the morsels, the Leopard popped it into his mouth and, as the wonderful taste of that honey-infused bean cake hit his taste buds, his hitherto stern look turned into a positively ominous one.

“So, you devious so and so, it was your intention to eat every single one of these absolutely delicious morsels on your own without even giving me a taste, wasn’t it?”

The Tortoise was by this time rolling all over the ground in what could only be interpreted as an abject combination of trepidation and contriteness; certainly, this was the way in which the Leopard interpreted his friend’s behavior.

“Perish the thought, O Great One!” in quavering tones; “The reason that I made no offer was that I naturally assumed that you would not be willing to eat of the morsels because of the source.”

“What could possibly be the matter with the source of such delicious fare that one would hesitate to eat of it?” tossing a couple more of the delicious bean