Far away in the deep, dark forest, a big grey bird lived in a kola nut tree. This bird was so mean that he ate pepper in between meals so that his meanness would always show. He never had a pleasant word for any other bird, and he could not stand to share any of the kola nuts,’ with man or animal.
One day, the sly and tricky lizard decided to climb the tree to get a few nuts. Big Bird saw him coming and waited until Lizard reached out to pick a few choice nuts, then, Swoosh! —he threw a handful of pepper into Lizard’s eyes. With a loud yell of great pain, Lizard fell to the ground. Holding his eyes, he ran blindly to the water hole and let the cool water soothe his burning eyes.
After a bit, Lizard got up and went to town. His first thought was to tell everybody about the pepper, but on second thought he kept his mouth shut.
Coming toward him from the bush was Black Deer walking proudly with her two young ones. Lizard called her to him, “I know where there is a fine kola nut tree. Would you care to come and pick some? They are by far the choicest and sweetest nuts in the forest.”
Black Deer agreed to go with Lizard, for such a delicious treat sounded very tempting on such a hot day. So, sending her young ones back home, Black Deer joined Lizard. Happily, they chatted as they walked to the kola tree. During all this chattering, Lizard did not breathe one word about Big Bird in the tree, or the terrible pepper.
When they got to the tree, Lizard told Black Deer to climb up and help herself. Deer did so. In the top of the tree sat Big Bird, just sitting and waiting with his pepper. As Deer came up the tree, she looked straight into Big Bird’s eyes. Neither one said a word. Without blinking an eye, Big Bird took a handful of pepper and threw it into Deer’s eyes. Crying in pain, she fell to the ground.
Do you think Lizard tried to help her? Oh, no, that sneaky coward took a big stick and beat Deer as she lay on the ground. The pepper was burning Deer’s eyes so badly that she could not see. She begged for help, but Lizard kept raining blows on her with his big stick, until Black Deer was dead. With the coldness of a monster, Lizard cut up the deer and took the meat home to his family.
With the same cunning, Lizard went back to the forest path a few days later to find another foolish animal. Sure enough, along came Red Monkey just as frisky as you please. “Come, let us go and pick kola nuts, little red one,” said the sly, smooth-talking Lizard. Liking kola nuts very much, Red Monkey went along. Upon Lizard’s suggestions, he climbed the tree where Big Bird was sitting. Poor little Red Monkey did not get the chance to pick the nut before he got pepper in his eyes. Howling like a banshee, Red Monkey fell to the ground.
Picking up a stick, Lizard struck the little monkey so many hard blows that he quivered and died with his eyes open, looking toward Lizard for help. As with Black Deer, he cut up Red Monkey and took the meat home to his family. In this mean way, many animals were killed by Lizard.
Some weeks later, Lizard felt he had to try his trick once again. So back to the path he went. On this fine sunny day along came pygmy Antelope galloping in and out between the trees. Lizard invited him to come and pick kola nuts with him. Little did Lizard know that Antelope was not only wise, but cautious of such friendliness from a lowly lizard. Having a secret plan in mind, Antelope went with Lizard to the kola nut tree.
Near the tree he noticed the tracks of many animals coming to the tree, but no tracks going away from the tree. Antelope was thinking that something strange was going on under this tree, or else something up in that tree was eating animals. So, when Lizard invited Antelope to climb the tree he said, “Lizard, this kola tree is your tree, and you must know where the best nuts are. Suppose you climb up first to show me the way.”
In all his crafty thinking, Lizard had never expected this, but in order to save face he began to climb. As he climbed, he tried to dodge and hide from Big Bird sitting up in the tree. He was hoping that Big Bird might be asleep, or away from the tree, but not so. There as big as the sun sat Big Bird with his bag of pepper.
No sooner had Lizard reached the highest limb, than Big Bird let him have the whole bag of pepper. But Lizard had brought along some pepper also, and he let Big Bird have pepper right back in his face.
Down to the ground howling and screaming fell Big Bird and Lizard in a shower of kola nuts. Antelope, fearing for his life, jumped on Big Bird and killed him. Lizard was knocked unconscious by the fall. With no one to disturb him, Antelope stuffed as many nuts as he could in his two pockets.
When Lizard could open his eyes, he turned to Antelope and said, “You know, you’ve killed a very special bird, and there will be palaver over his unnatural death. We must do something, and do it quickly.” So, together, they dug a hole and buried Big Bird.
Turning to Antelope, Lizard said, “Now, give me all the nuts you picked up, and I will tell no one about the death of Big Bird.” Foolishly, Antelope gave him all of his nuts, and even picked up a few more. Anything to keep Lizard from telling about his bad deed!
Having smoothed the ground over Big Bird’s grave, they went back to town with sealed lips. When the sun went down, Lizard went back to the burial hole and took Big Bird out. He carried the dead bird to his wife and told her to cook it. Then he went outside and tied a rope around his leg and told his wife, “When the bird is done, pull on this rope and I will come to eat.”
While Lizard sat pleasuring himself in the cool of the palm tree, Antelope came along and saw the rope. He thought about it for a minute. Seeing that Lizard was asleep, he untied the rope from Lizard’s leg and tied it around his own.
Moving a short distance away from Lizard, Antelope sat down to see what might happen. In a little while he felt someone pulling on the rope, and his leg jerked. He got up and followed the rope into Lizard’s house. It was so dark and smoky inside the house that Antelope could not see Lizard’s wife, nor could she see him.
“Come, husband, here is your rice and meat. Eat good.” Antelope ate every grain of rice and cleaned every shred of meat from the bird’s bones. When he finished, he went back outside to rest from such a fine meal. In the meantime, Lizard woke up and felt hungry. So, he went to see if the bird was cooked.
“Wife, are the meat and rice ready?” “What meat and rice? I just gave you all the bird and rice. You ate it all. Why do you come looking for more?” asked his exasperated wife. “This is the first time I have been in this house since I brought the dead bird home. Now, who did you give my food to?”
Casually, Antelope strolled in and said, “Your wife gave your nicely cooked bird to me, and I ate it all. She thought it was you in this smoky kitchen. So don’t humbug her. I just paid you back for the dirty trick you played on me. As for killing Big Bird, the Chief will take care of you for that.”
The Chief talked the bird palaver over with his councillors, and they decided that Lizard’s tongue should be spliced at the end for his lying, and that his teeth should be taken away, so that he could eat no more kola nuts. Lizard’s shame was so great that he hid himself under a stone.
Although Lizard still climbs up and down trees, he hasn’t tried to make friends with a bird, nor has he eaten a kola nut since that long-ago time. (Folktale from Ghana) – (Photo: Pixabay)
