Once there lived an old man and his wife. They had two sons, named Ajala and Adele. Ajala was older than Adele. Their father and mother were so poor that they could not live without borrowing money from the inhabitants of their village. They were also buying their clothes on credit.
One day, when the father failed to pay some of their debts, the creditor acted very rudely to him. Having seen this, Ajala was so ashamed that, the following morning, he invited his younger brother, Adele, to one corner of their house, and told him, ‘Adele, you see, we are old enough to go abroad to find a kind of job to do. When we work there for some years and we save some amount of money, then we shall come back to our father and mother and give them the money. And when they pay their debts from the money, they will be free from their debts.’ This was Ajala’s advice to Adele.
Without argument, Adele agreed to his brother’s advice. Then the following morning, both of them told their father and mother that they were going abroad for a job, and they all bade each other goodbye. Thus Ajala and Adele left their village for an unknown place.
A very long, long time after they had left their village they came to an endless jungle. Having travelled in the jungle for nine days, they came to its middle.
Ajala and Adele were tired and wearied before they reached there. They stopped their journey, and they sat down in order to rest on that spot for some hours. But as they started to discuss the food that they would eat, a fearful old woman appeared before them unexpectedly.
Ajala and Adele were so afraid of the strange old woman that they were unable to stand up and run away for their lives because they thought that she came there to kill them.
‘What have both of you come to do in my land, or don’t you know that this is my land?’ the old woman shouted horribly at them.
Ajala, the senior brother, hastily apologized with a dead voice: ‘We are sorry that we have come to your land. But we shall be happy if you will spare us a few minutes to explain to you what we were looking for before we came to your land.’
‘Yes, I am pleased to listen to your explanation, boys,’ the strange old woman confirmed loudly.
‘Thank you, mother. You see, our father and mother are so poor that they buy almost everything on credit. They owe so much money that they cannot go out in the day, but only at night. But to help them pay their debts, both of us have resolved to go abroad to look for a job there. When we work hard and save a large sum of money, then we shall go back to our father and mother, and then we shall help them pay all their debts,’ Ajala explained to the strange old woman.
‘Is that so?’ she bent forward and asked with wonder.
‘It is so, mother,’ Adele, the younger brother, confirmed loudly.
‘Well, if both of you can keep to my law, you will leave this my land with much money and happiness,’ the old woman assured Ajala and Adele.
‘We shall keep your law, mother,’ Ajala and Adele promised.
‘All right. If you are sure to do so, stand up and follow me now.’ So without hesitation they stood up and they followed her. After a while, they trekked to a big farm which was full of kola-nut trees. She took them round the farm and showed them the kola-nuts.
‘I put both of you in charge of these my kola-nut trees as from today. Whatever kola-nuts the trees bear are for you. If you wish, you may carry the nuts to the market which is near this my jungle. Any amount you sell them for is yours. But be sure that you keep all the money so that you may have a large sum of money to give to your father and mother when you return to them perhaps in six months’ time.’ Thus the old woman explained to them as if she really wanted to help them.
After that, she took the young boys, Ajala and Adele, to a small hut which was in the centre of this farm. She told them to live in it. She also showed them one strange spot. On this strange spot, there was a big deep and wide pit, and it was covered with a broken pot. Inside this covered pit, there were two duck’s eggs, but Ajala and Adele did not know what was inside the pit.
Having shown them the covered pit, she warned them seriously, ‘Whatever happens to you, you must not attempt to remove the cover of this pit in order to see what may be inside it. If you dare remove the cover and see what may be inside the pit, it means you break my law. And breaking my law means you disobey me, and this can transform you into a horrible thing.’ Having thus warned Adele and Ajala, she disappeared unexpectedly.
So Ajala and Adele lived in that hut. They plucked the kola-nuts and carried them to the nearest market, selling them, and keeping the money in a small hole which they dug in a corner of the hut. And they were so very careful to keep to the old woman’s law that they did not go near the pit or remove its cover.
When Ajala and Adele had spent three years on the farm and they had saved enough money, they decided with each other that soon they would leave there and return to their father and mother.
Unfortunately, just a few days before the period when they decided to leave, their youngest sister, who was born after they had just left their village, and who had heard that she had two brothers but who both had gone abroad, started to look for them. Thus she was going from one village to another looking for them until she came to this jungle. She was lucky to meet Ajala and Adele, her brothers, in their hut one morning not long before they planned to leave.
Bukola, for that was her name, greeted them with due respect. Although they responded nicely, they could not recognize her as their sister. But when she explained herself to them, that she was born a few months after they had left the village, they received her with gladness. Then she told them the condition of their father and mother, that it was far worse than before, when Ajala and Adele had not left them. And they told her how the old woman received them with kindness and how they had saved a large sum of money. Then they showed her the covered pit and warned her not to attempt to remove its cover in order to see what was inside it. And she told them that she would not.
But one morning, after Ajala and Adele had taken their kola-nuts to the market, Bukola, their disobedient sister, went to the pit. She remarked to herself, ‘What kind of thing will be in this pit which a person must not see? Today, I will remove the cover to see what is in it.’
To Bukola’s surprise, when she removed the cover of the pit, she saw that there were two duck’s eggs. She took both out at once. But immediately the eggs struck each other. They hatched and two ducklings came out. Then with fear she took them and walked back to the spot where she had been sitting in the hut. She sat down while the two ducklings were in front of her, and then she waited for the return of her two brothers to show them the ducklings.
She waited and waited till nightfall, but they did not return to the hut from the market. She took both ducklings; she walked to one corner of the hut; she sat down and started to weep bitterly. All this time she did not know it was her two brothers who had turned into those ducklings.
As she continued to weep, while the two ducklings were in front of her, the old woman who had permitted her brothers to be in charge of her farm and sell her kola-nuts for their own benefit, appeared before Bukola. It was so dark that she could see the old woman only faintly in the darkness.
‘What are you weeping for?’ the old woman asked.
‘I am weeping for my two brothers who have not returned from the market since morning!’ said Bukola with tears.
‘Yes,’ the old woman explained to Bukola, ‘your brothers cannot return to you any more because they have turned into these two ducklings which are in front of you now. Your brothers have turned into ducklings because you opened the pit and took out the two duck’s eggs, which later hatched into ducklings. But of course, I had warned your brothers not even to attempt to open the pit.’
Then Bukola knelt down and begged the old woman to change her brothers from ducklings back to persons. But the old woman advised her, ‘No! Unless you can pretend to be a dumb girl from this moment for the period of seven years! Which means you must not talk or make a single noise whatsoever happens to you throughout that period. Then at the end of the seventh year your two brothers will change from ducklings into their usual form as persons.’
Having advised Bukola like that, the old woman began to search every corner of the hut for the money which Ajala and Adele had realized from the kola-nuts. After a while, she found one of the four holes in which the two boys kept their money. Without mercy, she took all the money that she met in the hole. Then she walked zigzag back to Bukola who had by then pretended to be dumb. The old woman threatened the girl so perhaps she would talk or make a noise, but when she did not even make a noise, but was like a real dumb person, the old woman disappeared with the money.
The old woman was not an ordinary woman but a strong witch of this jungle. She would always take the money of those who lived in her farm or jungle after she had turned them into ducklings. At first she would pretend to be kind to those who had trespassed on her farm or jungle, and she would permit them to pluck her kola-nuts and sell them and keep the money they would realize for their own use. But as soon as she had turned them into ducklings, she would search for their money and then take all away for her own use.
This old woman or witch had designed this means in order to get money for her living because she had become so old and wearied that she had no longer had power to pluck her kola-nuts and maintain the farm by herself.
Then, now that Bukola was pretending to be a dumb girl, a prince who was hunting for animals in that farm or jungle saw her in the hut. ‘What are you doing here?’ the prince asked with wonder, ‘You, a very beautiful girl. What is your name? Where have you come from to this hut?’
But Bukola would not reply at all. She was just breathing in and out and looking on like a real dumb girl, with her eyes which showed she was in great sorrow.
‘Are you a dumb girl? If you are so or not, I am taking you to my town to be my wife.’ Having asked a number of questions from Bukola to which she did not reply, the prince thought that she was dumb. Then he simply took her, and her two ducklings, on the back of his horse and then rode to his town.
But when his royal family spoke to Bukola and she did not reply, they believed that she was really dumb. And as it was against the tradition of this town for their prince to marry a dumb lady as his wife, all the royal family advised their prince strongly not to marry Bukola. The reason that the royal family of the town objected to their prince marrying a dumb girl or lady was that they did not wish the son of a dumb woman to rule their town whenever he became king.
At last, when their prince rejected his family’s advice and married Bukola, the royal family gathered together and they decided secretly that whenever Bukola bore either a male or female baby, they would kill it on the day of its naming ceremony. The prince was not aware of this evil plan, but Bukola, who was with them, heard their plan, but still pretended to be dumb.
A few months later, Bukola was delivered of a male child, and, in accord with the royal family’s evil plan, they killed the child on the very day that the name was given to it. And this evil deed was done in the presence of Bukola, for they had confirmed to themselves that she was dumb. However, she was so shocked that she was about to speak out that she was not dumb when she saw that her child was being strangled to death. But she controlled her mouth, for otherwise her two brothers who had been turned into ducklings would not ever change to persons again.
And so it was that the royal family killed all her newly born children.
But of course, as God was so good, when Bukola was being delivered of her fourth child, the end of the seventh year was near. Indeed, it was to be on that very day that her child would be named and then killed, that the end of the seventh year, when she would be free to talk, would be reached. So it was that after the name was given to her child, and the royal family prepared to strangle the child to death, at that moment she hastily spoke to the royal family: ‘Please don’t strangle my child to death. I am not dumb!’
The royal family did not believe their ears at first when they heard her voice. But as she continued to speak to them for some minutes, they believed she was not dumb at all.
Then, all of a sudden, the two ducklings changed into her two brothers. And she was so happy to see her two brothers in the form of persons that she started to dance about in the presence of the royal family.
When she had danced to her satisfaction, the royal family asked why she pretended to be dumb. And when she told them the reason, then the king and the other members of the family were sorry for her and her two brothers.
Then, having sympathized with her for her children which had been killed, and also for her brothers who were turned into ducklings by the witch mother for seven years, the king gave them a large sum of money and a lot of valuable things as well which they took to their village. They paid all their father’s and mother’s debts. Then, after some weeks, Bukola, their disobedient sister, went back to the prince who was her husband.