The Demons and Spiritual Bath
In the remote village of Makine, an event unfolded to the consternation of the people. It began when Felix, a prince from the village who lived in the city came on a visit to celebrate the annual yam festival. During this festival, all the indigenes of the village came from far places to perform the age long festival of harvesting new yams. According to tradition, the new yam should be eaten first by the king before other indigenes could eat it. It was a taboo for anyone to eat yams in the village before the king because the people believed that whoever did so would be chased by yams with human heads and feet.
No one knew how that kind of superstition began but many people confirmed that their grandparents informed them that violators of the taboo were actually pursued by two legged yams with human heads.
However, while the new yam festival was taking place that day, Felix, the prince had a different agenda. He knew that everyone would be busy at the palace with his father cutting and eating the new yam. He hatched a plot to steal some artifacts at the courtyard of the palace when no one would see him.
Theft of artifacts such as crowns, beads, coronets and masks had been on the increase in the village and it's environ but no one knew those who were behind the theft. The stolen artifacts were usually sold and they ended in other countries. People had always had the suspicion that those who were behind the theft of artifacts were visitors to the palace, museums, and ancient sites in the area. They did not know that the stealing involved a prince.
At the village of Makine, many of the artifacts had been stolen. As the ceremony went on in front of the palace that day, Felix combed the nooks and corners of the courtyard desperately searching for the objects that he could steal. Suddenly, his eyes caught a rod that had the heads of snakes on four sides. He was not even scared at all because in the past, he had stolen more fearful objects. He looked at it with excitement. He felt that he had not searched the courtyard in vain and he would have something to sell after all. He heard a footstep and he was afraid. He hid in a corner but the man who was passing by was one of the priests at the palace. The priest did not see Felix. After the man left the area, Felix disappeared from the spot with the rod hidden in a bag.
People did not see him as he walked away from the palace to one of his friend's house. Even if they saw him, no one would have the guts to challenge a Prince and ask him to open his bag. After the festival, everyone departed. The following day, many of the people from the village who had traveled from the big cities returned. It was after they left Makine that the Chief Priest of the village found that the rod that had the snakes' head had vanished.
"How can someone come into the shrine and steal such an important rod," demanded the worried King.
"I do not know your Highness. But what I do know is that if this rod is not returned by the thieves wherever they take it will not know peace because they will not be able to perform the rituals as required by our ancestors," said the Chief Priest.
"I thought that these thieves who stole artifacts had stopped after all these months that we did not experience thefts," said the King.
"From what has just happened, they did not stop," said the Chief Priest.
"It appeared that they went for reinforcement and returned with full force to steal again," said the King.
"That's true if you judge by the importance of what had been stolen. What they stole is not an ordinary wood. It is not just a rod. It is what our forefather's had used over the years to appease the god which demonizes people not to be violent. If anyone keeps that rod without putting palm oil on it on a weekly basis, the person that has it in his possession and the village will not know peace," said the Chief Priest.
"I hope that they will know what they have stolen this time around and return it immediately if they do not want the wrath of the god to be on them," said the King. He was unaware that it was his own son Felix who stole the rod.
"I think that I will have to go and tell everyone through all available means that there is a missing rod and whoever has it should return it before the god of the rod begins to harass them," said the Chief Priest.
Felix was also unaware of everything that happened in the village after the rod had been stolen. He kept the rod inside the bag in a corner of his room in the city before going to resume duties at his place of work. He wanted to take the rod for sale when he had enough time at the beach where many tourists who love artifacts might put a good price on the object.
Before his arrival from work that day, there was a big spark from the rod. It looked electric. Four demons came out of this rod and began screaming and yelling.
"What are we doing here?" Asked the Head Demon.
"Why are we here?" Asked the second Demon.
"This is not our place of abode. We used to live in a place where they appreciated us and gave us our oil regularly," said the third Demon.
"I miss the palm oil very much," said the last Demon as the wriggled and walked all over the room when Felix was not at home.
"What are we going to do?" Asked one of the Demons.
"Should we continue this way?" Asked the third Demon.
"No we cannot continue this way. We have to take a decision and show this fellow that brought us here signals that will make him take us back to where he picked us from," said the Head of the Demons.
Before the arrival of Felix, the Demons had taken a decision on what to do with Felix vowing that he had to return them to their abode in the village of Makine where they understood their language and would propitiate them accordingly. Demons later returned to their abode in the rod and it appeared that nothing had happened.
Felix returned that evening. He ate and went to bed without knowing what happened when he was away. While he was asleep, he saw himself being pursued by four demons. He was petrified as he ran for safety towards a huge tree. The four demons chased him. Felix got to the tree before the demons. He jumped to hold one of the branches of the tree. He caught the branch and began to climb as the demons got to the base of the tree.
"If you like, run to heaven but we will get you," said the Head of the Demons.
"We will surely wait for you at the base of this tree until you come down," said the second Demon.
"Everyday is for the thief, one day is for the owner. Don't you know what you have stolen from your father's palace? It is not the kind of artifact that you used to steal," said one of the demons.
Felix was scared to his bones. He looked at the demons but he could not do anything. As he looked heavenwards as if begging any of the angels to appear and come to his aid, he saw a very big bird. This bird hovered above the tree. The bird was going to perch on the tree. While Felix was thinking of what to do, the strange bird spoke like human beings.
"I am going to eat you right now for what you have done. As you can see, you cannot escape. I am going to eat you now!" Said the strange bird. Felix could no longer bear it. While he was looking down, one of his legs missed one of the branches and he fell down into the midst of the demons.
Suddenly, he woke up to reality. And he thought he actually saw four demons walking out of the rod he kept in a corner of his bag.
The demons looked exactly like the ones he saw in his dreams. He was perplexed. He cleared his eyes to find out if he was still dreaming and he found that he was not. He stood there with amazement as the demons walked out of the room without saying one word to him. This time around, Felix knew that he had done something abominable but he still did not know the kind of rod he had stolen from his father's palace. After awhile, he returned to the bed and dosed off.
The following day, his mind thought desperately about how he could dispose the rod. But he could not really come up with a proper and lucrative way that would still suit him. By evening of the following day, he remembered John who was one of his friends and he thought about the expatriates that used to work in Cough 2000 International Inc. that they might buy this rod. He felt that this would be a quick way of getting rid of the rod.
Because it was already dark, he decided to take the rod to John in the office the following day so he could help him sell it off. While sleeping that night, the most bizarre thing that almost killed him happened. About three o'clock in the morning, Felix was woken up by the sound of something fidgeting in the bag he kept in a corner of the room. While trying to figure out what was happening, he saw a cat coming out of the bag where he was keeping the rod. He was very terrified.
This was unbelievable. He knew that he was in serious trouble again. He wondered what a cat would be doing in his bag and how it got there in the first case. Before he could reach out for something to hit the animal, the cat stood up on her hind legs and began to talk strangely.
"Get me out of here. I do not belong here!" Said the cat.
"Are you a real cat?" Asked Felix.
"Yes. But I and my other colleagues do not belong here. You must get us back to where you picked us," said the cat as it ran out and disappeared into the night.
Felix did not sleep throughout the night. In the morning, he took his bath and went straight to Cough 2000 International Inc to meet people who could help him dispose the rod. Unfortunately for him, he did not meet anyone that he wanted to discuss with in the office.
Hain and John who had gone on assignments returned from work in the evening and after eating, they joined other friends who were playing a game under a tree in front of the house.
The men often converged in front of the house to play all kinds of game after the close of work. And when night fell, the moonlight came with the streetlight and lit up everywhere. After the game, John returned to his apartment first.
There was nothing for him to do, so he retired to bed very quickly. Other men later went to their rooms.
Two hours later, the entire street was quiet except for the noise of cats and other night animals. No one would believe that it was the same place that was very lively few hours earlier. But as usual, there were activities of nocturnal creatures. Everyone had been concerned about the strange noise that usually came out of one particular tree on the street but no one knew exactly what went on inside it.
They did not understand what was going on. But inside his mind, John knew that something unusual was going on in the neighborhood based on the stories his father had told him when he was young in the village. He remembered the story his father told him about a sacred tree that was at the center of their village in the hinterland. The tree was said to be the abode of gnomes and some evil spirits that roamed through the streets between midnight and three o'clock.
People heard their voices echoing from the tree but they did not get to see them. Some people even swore that they heard the spirits operating markets inside the tree and the spirits inside telling one another that they were going out to pay visits to other real markets operated by human beings. He was trying to retire to bed when he heard a knock on the door. He wondered who could have come to his house at that period of the day. He went to the door and found that the person knocking was Felix who lived a stone throw from his house. Felix was holding the rod in his hand. Hain wondered what this fellow had come to do in his apartment very late in the night. They exchanged pleasantries and Hain offered him a sit. As soon as he sat down, he began to narrate what had brought him to Hain.
"One of my brothers from the village has brought this artifact to me for sale. I hope we can sell it to any of those expatriates who like to buy artifacts. You know that your office brings expatriates to work there," said Felix as he opened the artifact for inspection.
"Are you sure this is a genuine artifact from the ancient groove?" Asked Hain.
"I am sure that it is genuine," said Felix.
"It's a beautiful one but I hope we can find someone to buy it soon," Hain said.
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