A long time ago, Adisa and Ade were close friends. Adisa was faithful to Ade in everything that they did. But Ade was unfaithful to Adisa in all respects, but of course this was not revealed to Adisa.
At that time, there was a king who reigned in their town. This king was very cruel to all offenders. He reserved a bush in which all offenders were killed. The bush was at a distance of about two kilometres from the town. It was a terrible bush indeed to all offenders, and in it was a fearful bird who lived in a stream in the bush and had the voice of a human being.
One day Ade, the unfaithful friend, offended the king. The offence was quite simple enough for another king to have forgiven. Although Ade asked for pardon, this king refused entirely, for he had never pardoned an offender in his life.
There was a tree at the front of the palace to which every offender was tied until the day arrived he would be killed. This tree was in the open place, so that all the people of the town might come there and pay their last visits to any offender tied up.
Ade was tied to this tree, and all the people of the town came to pay him their last visits, until the very day was reached on which he would be killed. Every one of these people was thankful to the king for sentencing Ade to death, because he had been unfaithful and betrayed most of them. But Adisa, the faithful friend, was trying his best to see that Ade was released by the king. Yet all his efforts failed, for the king did not listen to his plea at all, so Adisa was distressed.
When Ade was taken to that dreadful bush by the king’s killers, Adisa followed them. And in his presence, Ade was beaten to death with heavy clubs of iron, as that was the order that the king had given to the killers.
As Adisa was faithful to Ade, he did not follow the killers back to the town. Instead, he sat near the dead body of his friend Ade, which lay on the ground.
He stayed there, and he was driving away all the flies which were flying round the dead body of Ade, and he was weeping bitterly. His intention was to remain with the dead body until he too would be killed either by a wild animal or a spirit. And Adisa was still weeping loudly when a creature came to him from an unknown place. This strange creature had the voice of a human being and his appearance was that of the dreadful bird that lived in the bush. He was a human-dead-body-eating strange creature.
Immediately upon coming, the strange creature shouted horribly at Adisa, ‘Eh, leave this place now! I want to eat this dead body; it is my food!’
‘Please,’ Adisa begged, ‘spare this dead body for me.’ He then explained, ‘It was my friend, and he was the man that I loved most in this world, before he was killed on this spot.’
‘Do you believe that he was faithful to you before he was killed here?’ the strange creature asked quietly.
‘Indeed, he was,’ Adisa confirmed with sorrow.
‘Are you sure he will not betray you to death in the near future?’ the strange creature inquired as he stared at Adisa.
‘I believe he will not,’ Adisa confirmed with assurance.
‘All right,’ the strange creature replied calmly, along with a shrug of the shoulders. ‘If you are certain that he was faithful to you before he was killed, and that he will not betray you in the near future, then take this small gourd, remove its cork, and then put some of the magic powder which is inside on to your friend’s eyes, and he will come alive at once. But take care that your friend does not know the use of the juju-gourd and the juju-powder.’ The small gourd which he gave to Adisa was vomited from his huge stomach.
Then the strange creature hinted at all that would happen to Adisa in the future, saying, ‘I do not believe you at all, that this your friend was faithful to you. And as you do not allow me to eat his dead body now, it will be revealed to you soon that he is not faithful to you. Perhaps he may even be the one who will cause your death at last.’ Then he disappeared into the bush.
Adisa was distressed when the creature disappeared suddenly because he could not decide whether the creature was a spirit or not. He did not know that he was the dead-body-eating creature, the terrible bird who had the voice which was similar to that of a human being, and who lived in the river which was in that bush. And, of course, Adisa did not know that it had been his weeping that called him out from the bottom of the river.
However, Adisa removed the cork from the gourd and put some of the juju-powder which was inside it on to both eyes of his dead friend. And to Adisa’s greatest surprise, Ade woke from death immediately as if nothing had happened to him. Then Adisa, at once, corked the gourd and threw it into his pocket so that Ade might not see it, because the strange creature had warned him not to let Ade see it or know the use of it. Then both of them returned to their houses with happiness.
Adisa hung the juju-gourd on the rack as soon as he entered his room. Then, as from that day, if a person died in the town, Adisa would be invited to wake him or her, and he would take a large sum of money as his reward. Very soon Adisa was well known to all people and to the king of his town, as he who had the juju-gourd which could wake the dead.
And he was so faithful that he always gave a half of any money that he received to his unfaithful friend, Ade. But Ade could not be satisfied with that. Ade worried Adisa every day to teach him how to use the juju-powder which was inside the gourd, but Adisa did not teach him.
But Ade was so unfaithful to Adisa that, one day, when Adisa went to another town, just to return in a few days’ time, Ade entered his room. He took the juju-gourd from the rack and he hung in its place an inferior one. After that, he took the superior one to the large river and he threw it into the water. And it fell into the hand of the very same strange creature who had given it to Adisa. Instantly he swallowed it, and then he waited for the day when he would ask Adisa to give it back to him.
As soon as Ade had thrown the juju-gourd into the river, he went to the same king who had condemned him to death before Adisa woke him. He said, ‘Your majesty, the king, I bring secret news to you. Adisa, my friend, who woke me when you condemned me to death last time, has told me that, whenever any member of your family dies, he will not wake him or her. This will be his revenge on you for condemning me to death.’
And the king kept this bad news in his mind from that day. But of course Adisa had not told Ade such a thing at all. Ade was just trying to convince the king he should kill Adisa – all because Adisa did not teach Ade how to use the juju-powder inside the juju-gourd.
A few days later, after Adisa had returned from his journey, one of the king’s family died suddenly. Ade did not show in his behaviour that he had betrayed Adisa out of his juju-gourd, and Adisa himself was not aware that his juju-gourd had been thrown in the river, and an inferior one hung in its place. The king sent for Adisa. He implored him to help him wake his dead man. Without a word, Adisa returned to his house. He took that inferior gourd, which he supposed to be his own, and returned to the king. He removed the cork, so as to put juju-powder on the eyes of the dead body. To his dismay, it was sand that came out of it.
In short, Adisa failed to wake the dead man. Then, in the presence of the king, Ade said, ‘Adisa, you have done as you told me you would, that one day you would take revenge on the king because he condemned me to death some time ago!’
Adisa stared at Ade in shock. ‘Ade, when did I tell you that I would not wake the king’s man if such a man should die?’
‘Ho-o-o!’ Ade shouted. ‘Because both of us are now before the king, you now deny all you planned to do to the king! But if you did not plan to take revenge on the king, please, just wake the dead man now!’
Now the king was convinced of the truth of the lies which Ade told him. Without hesitation, the king ordered his killers to take Adisa to the bush and beat him to death at once.
Ade followed the killers to the bush, and he and the killers beat Adisa to death before they went back to the town. Thus Ade, the unfaithful friend, betrayed Adisa, his faithful friend, to death at last.
A few minutes after Adisa was beaten to death, the strange creature who had given him the juju-gourd came there. He woke Adisa and asked him thus: ‘Where is your friend, Ade, today? And where is my juju-gourd, which I gave to you the day you woke Ade from death?’
‘He is not here.’ Ade wiped his face with both palms, and then he explained with great sorrow, ‘He was the very one who caused my death. And he joined hands with the killers, and they beat me to death.’
‘Did you not tell me on that day, that Ade was faithful to you, and was it not for that you begged me to spare him for you?’ The strange creature spoke with a horrible voice.
With a tired voice, Adisa replied. ‘Certainly, I did.’
‘Now, since you did not allow me to eat the dead body of Ade the other day, today I shall eat you, instead!’ Then he killed Adisa again and ate his body. When he had finished the body, he went away.
Of course, Adisa saved his friend, Ade, from death, but Ade betrayed him to death in return.