nce upon a time a man cleared a piece of land and his wife seeded it so that they could grow a nice crop of cassava. Ah, how they loved fresh cassava bread baked from the roots of the cassava plant!
When it came time to pull out their new crop, the man and his wife joyfully visited the farm. Much to their alarm, however, they discovered that bush-pigs and other animals had visited their farm first, because nearly all the roots had been pulled out, chewed and trampled! It seemed as though the man and his wife would have nothing left to show for their trouble.
They talked about what to do, and agreed that the husband would have to dig a large pit. Then, the wild animals that came by their farm to steal would fall into the pit and be trapped.
The next day, while the man was digging the hole, an Imp -- a nasty, mysterious creature of the forest -- jumped from the trees. The Imp asked the man what he was doing. Hearing that the man was digging a trap for animals, the Imp said, "Are you now? Well, that is very interesting. I will help you to dig the pit and you will share with me the animals that fall in the trap." The man, fearing the Imp would kill him if he refused, accepted his offer. Then the Imp said, "All the male animals that fall into the trap will be yours, but all the female ones will be mine."
The man felt he had no choice but to agree. They finished digging the hole together. After the trap was finished, they returned to their homes.
The next morning they went to look at the hole and found one male pig in it, which the man took according to their agreement. Every morning they went and it was the same -- male pigs, antelopes and buffaloes were in the trap, never any female ones, sometimes there were two males and sometimes even five! The man laughed and said to the Imp, "You were foolish to make such a bargain. Did you not know that only male animals go about in search of food?"
The man took the animals home. The wife said, "Certainly we have plenty of meat now, but we still have no cassava bread to eat with it. There must be some cassava roots left in the soil. Tomorrow I will go and dig up what I can find and make some bread."
So early the next morning the woman took her basket and her hoe and went
to the farm, leaving her husband at home to look after their little boy. When the woman had been gone some time, the boy began to cry for his mother. His father comforted him and they decided to go to the farm together and visit her there. As they drew near the farm they heard the Imp gleefully singing, "O my, O my, at last I have a female animal in the trap!"
On reaching the trap, the man asked the Imp why he was jumping, dancing and singing about. When he heard that it was because there was at last one female animal in the trap, the man laughed at the Imp for making so much fuss over one animal, but looking into the pit and seeing his wife there, he cried out with alarm! The man shouted that there was no way the Imp could claim a woman because a woman is not an animal.
They became very angry in their discussion as to whether the woman was an animal or not. At last the boy spoke.
Said the boy, "Father, you agreed to the bargain that you were to have all the male animals and he was to have all the female ones that fell into the trap. We have had plenty of animals out of the hole already, but he has not had a single one. Let him take this one."
The Imp grinned wide. "Is this wise judge only a boy?" While the father was still speechless at what his son had said, the Imp jumped into the trap to claim his prize. No sooner had he done so than the boy called out, "Father, look! There is a male animal in the trap and it is yours!"
On dropping down into the trap the Imp had become, according to his own agreement, a male animal in the trap, and consequently he belonged to the man. The Imp, to save himself, had to give up all claim to the woman. And this is the way that the boy saved his mother's life.
FOOTNOTE
