We and the red-people in the red-town
After we had travelled about 12 miles away in the ‘ Red-Bush’ with the Red-lady, we entered a Red-town and there we saw that both people and their domestic animals were deep-red in colour. So we entered a house which was the largest in that area, but as we were feeling hungry before reaching there, we asked the lady to give us food and water. After a while she brought both for us, but to our surprise, both food and water were as red as red paint, but both tasted as ordinary food and water so we ate the food and drank the water also. After she had brought the food for us, she left us there and went away, but as we sat down there, these Red-people were coming and looking at us with astonishment. After a few minutes the lady came back and told us to follow her and we did so. Then she took us around the town and showed is everything, after that she took us to their king who was also red as blood. The king saluted us well and told us to sit down before him. Then he asked us where were we coming from? We replied that we were coming from the Faithful-Mother who was in charge of the white tree. When he heard so from us, he said that the Faithful-Mollher was his sister, then we told him how she helped us from our difficulties etc. After that he asked us what was the name of our town. We told him the name. Then he asked whether we were still alive or dead before coming there. We told him that we were still alive and we were not deads.
After that he told the Red-lady that brought us to him to put us in one of the rooms in his palace, but the room was very far from the other rooms and nobody was living near there. So we entered the room and began to think – What was his aim, the Red-king of the Red-people in the Red-town, was the question we asked ourselves, and we could not sleep till morning, because of this question.
When it was early in the morning, we went to the Red-king and sat down before him and waited for what he would say. But when it was about 8 o’clock, the Red-lady who brought us to the Red-king came and sat down behind us. After a while the Red-king started the story of the Red-town, Red-people, and the Red-Bush thus: – He said – “The whole of us in this Red-town were once human-beings; in the olden days when the eyes of all the human-beings were on our knees, when we were bending down from the sky because of its gravitiness and when we were walking backwards and not forwards as nowadays.” He said also ‘ One day, when I was still among the human-beings I set one trap in a bush which was very far away from any river, even a pond did not be near there, then I set one fish-net inside a river which was very far away from any bush, even a piece of land did not be near there. But when it was next morning, I went first to the river in which I set the fish-net for fish, but to my surprise, the net had caught a red-bird instead of a fish and the red-bird was still alive as it was in a river. Then I took out the net together with the red-bird and put it down on the bank of the river. Next I went to the bush in which I had set the trap for bush animals and again the trap had also caught a big red fish and it was still alive. After that, I took both the net and the trap with red-bird and red fish to my town. But when my parents saw the red fish that the trap caught instead of a bush animal and again that the fish-net had caught a red-bird instead of a fish, and both were still alive, they told me to return them to the place that I brought them from, and I took both of them and returned to put them in the place where I had caught them.
But when I was going along the way, I stopped mid-way under the shade of a tree and made a fire there, then I put these two red creatures inside the fire. My aim was to burn them into ashes and return to my town from there. But what surprised me most was that, when I was going to put these red creatures in the fire, they were talking like human-beings, saying that I must not put them in the fire, because red creatures were not to go near fire at all, but when I heard that from them, I was greatly terrified. Of course, I did not listen to them, I was only taking both of them from the net and trap to the fire, but as I Avas taking them out of the net and trap, they were still boasting that I could not put them in that fire at all. Although when I heard that from them, I was greatly annoyed and put them in that fire by force. As these red creatures were inside that fire, they were saying that I should take them out of the fire at, once, but I told them that that could not be done at all. After a little time, they burnt into halves, but they were still talking. Then I gathered more dried sticks and put them inside the fire, but when the fire rose up, I was suddenly covered by the smoke which came out from the fire, and I could hardly breathe. Before I could find my way out from the smoke I had turned red, and when I saw that I had become red, then I ran to my town and entered our house, but the smoke was following me as I was running to our house, and entered the house with me. When my parents saw that I had turned into red, they wanted to wash me, perhaps the red would be washed away, but as soon as the smoke entered with me the whole people became red also, then we went before the king who was on the throne to show him what had happened, but the smoke did not allow the king to say anything, before it scattered all over the town and all the people, domestic animals, town, river and bush became red at the same time.
But when everyone of us had failed to wash his or her red away, then on the 7th day after we had turned into the red the whole of us died with our domestic animals, and we left that town and settled down here, but we were still red as before we died and also our domestic animals, rivers, town and bush or anything we met here became red, so that since that time we were called Red-people and our town was called Red-town etc. But some days after we had settled down here, the red fish and the red-bird came and lived inside a big hole which was very near this town. Since both red creatures came here they have been coming out from the hole every year for human sacrifice and we are sacrificing one of us to them yearly to save the rest of us. So we are very glad that both of you came to the Red-town just now because there remain only three days before these two creatures come out for their sacrifice of this year and I should be very glad too if one of you would volunteer his or her life for these two creatures.
After the Red-king had related the story for us and in his conclusion bad said that one of us should volunteer his or her life for the two creatures, willingly or not, I asked my wife what could we do now? Because I do not want to leave her or she to leave me here alone and none of these Red-people wanted to volunteer his or her life for these creatures and again the king wanted to hear from us as soon as possible.
But my wife said these words – “This would be a brief loss of woman, but a shorter separation of a man from lover.” But I did not understand the meaning of her words, because she was talking with parables or as a foreteller. After a little time I went to the Red-king and told him that I should volunteer my life for the two red creatures. And when the Red-king and Red-people heard that from me, they were exceedingly glad. The reason why I volunteered my life was that when I remembered that we had sold away our ‘ death’ to somebody, I knew these two creatures would be unable to kill me at all. I did not know that these Red-people would perform their native ceremony for me or anybody who volunteers his or her life to the two creatures before the very day that the two creatures would come out from their hole.
Now the Red-people removed all the hair of my head and painted the half part of it with a kind of red paint and the other part with white native paint, after that, the whole of them gathered together and put me on their front with their drummers and singers. They told me to dance as the drummers were beating their drums around the town. My wife was also following us, but she did not show that she would lose me soon at all. But when it was 5 o’clock early in the morning that the two red creatures would come out, I took my gun, ammunitions and cutlass which the Faithful-Mother gave me before we left her, then I loaded the gun with the most powerful ammunitions and put it on my shoulder and sharpened the cutlass and held it firmly with my right hand. When it was 7 o’clock of that morning, the Red-king and all the Red-people took me to the place where the hole was, and put me there for the red creatures, then the whole of them went back to the town. The place was not more than half a mile from the town.
They left me there alone and ran back to the town, because if the two red creatures should see more than one person whom they give them as sacrifice, they would kill them as well. But my wife did not return to the town with them, she hid herself near the place I was but I did not know at all. When it was half an hour that I stood before the hole, I began to hear that something was making a noise as if it was a thousand persons in that hole, every part of that place was shaking, by that time I took only my gun from my shoulder and held it firmly, then I sighted the hole. But when these two red creatures were coming out from the hole, they did not walk side by side but following each other and when the one at the front appeared and was coming towards me, it was red fish in form. As a matter of fact, when I saw this red fish, I was greatly terrified and I was soon faint, but I remembered that we had sold our ‘death’ and I could not die again, so I did not care about it again, but I feared it greatly because we did not sell our ‘fear’. At the same time that the red fish appeared out, its head was just like a tortoise’s head, but it was as big as an elephant’s head and it had over 30 horns and large eyes which surrounded the head. All these horns were spread out as an umbrella. It could not walk but was only gliding on the ground like a snake and its body was just like a bat’s body and covered with long red hair like strings. It could only fly to a short distance, and if it shouted a person who was four miles away would hear.
All the eyes which surrounded its head were closing and opening at the same time as if a man was pressing a switch on and off.
At the same time that this red-fish saw me stood before their hole, it was laughing and coming towards me like a human-being, but I said within myself that this was a really human-being. Then I got ready as it was coming laughing towards me, but when it still had about twenty feet to reach where I stood, then I fired at it on the centre of its head and before the smoke of the gun scattered away, I had loaded again and shot it once more, so it died at that same spot. But when my wife saw the red fish when coming out from the hole, from the place where she hid herself, she ran back to the town. As the red fish was coming out from the hole, I knew that I should kill it, but I had no juju any more, all had become powerless from long using.
After that I loaded the gun for the second red creature (red-bird) and within 5 minutes it appeared out again, then I got ready for it. I saw that it was a red-bird, but its head could weigh one ton or more and it had six long teeth of about half a foot long and very thick, which appeared out with its beak. Its head was almost covered with all kinds of insects so that I could hardly describe it here fully. So immediately this bird saw me, it opened its mouth and was coming to swallow me, but I had got ready then, and when it had nearly reached the place that I stood, it stopped and swallowed the red-bird which I had killed already the first time. After that it was coming directly and I fired at it, then I loaded the gun for the second time and shot it to death.
When I saw that I had killed these two red creatures, then I remembered what my wife had said immediately we met the Red-lady who took us to the Red-king. My wife said thus: – It would be a ‘fear’ of heart, but it would not be dangerous to the heart’.
Now I went to the Red-king of the Red-town and told him that I had killed both red creatures, and as soon as he heard so from me, he got up from his chair and followed me to the place where I killed the two red creatures. But when the Red-king saw the two red creatures already dead, he said – “Here is another fearful and harmful creature who could ruin my town in future.” (He called me a fearful and harmful creature.) At the same time that he said this, he left me there and went back to the town, then he called all the people of his town together and told them what he had seen. As these Red-people could change themselves to anything that they liked, before I could reach the town, the whole of them had changed into a great fire which burnt their houses and all their properties. By the time that the houses were burning, I could not enter the town, because of the thick smoke of the fire, but after a little time the fire and smoke disappeared and I thought that the whole of them together with my wife had burnt into ashes. But as I stood in one place looking at the empty town, there I saw that two red trees appeared again at the centre of the town. One of the trees was shorter than the second and also slender and it was at the front of the bigger one. That bigger one which was at the back had many leaves and branches. When I saw that these two red trees appeared in the centre of the town I was going to them, but both were moving towards the west of the town before I reached there, and all the leaves on these trees were singing as human-beings as they were moving on and within five minutes, I could not see them any more, and all the while I did not know that it was the whole Red-people who had changed themselves into that two red trees. As my wife had disappeared with these Red-people, I began to seek her about both night and day, but one day, I heard information that she was among the Red-people who had changed themselves into two red trees before they left the Red-town. Then I started to the place where I heard that they had settled down, but the new town that they had just settled down in was about eighty miles away from the Red-town which they left ruined. After I had travelled for two days, then I reached there, but they had left there when they heard information that I was coming there too, and I did not know that these Red-people were thinking while running away from me that I should kill them as I had killed the two red creatures. So they left that place again and were looking for a suitable place to settle down, but they never got to such a place before I met them, although I was thinking that I would meet them in the form of persons, but they were the two red trees.
As I met them in the midway, my wife had seen me and was calling me, but I did not see her at all, and as I was still following these two red trees to wherever they could get a suitable place to settle down for a week. Then they got a suitable place and they stopped, but I was very far away by that time. And when I came up with them I saw that every part was full of houses, people and their domestic animals etc., exactly as when they were in the town which they had burnt into ashes before they left there. But when I entered the new town, I went directly to the Red-king of this new town (the same king) and told him that I wanted my wife, but when he heard so, he called her for me at once and she saw me, she repeated her words again which she had said before – “This would be a brief loss of woman and a shorter separation from lover,” and she said that this was the meaning of the words. Then I believed her. But when the Red-people had settled down in a new town, they were no longer red, because I bad killed the two red creatures which had changed them like that.
My wife had said of the woman we met: “She was not a human-being and she was not a spirit, but what was she?” She was the Red-smaller-tree who was at the front of the bigger Red-tree, and the bigger Red-tree was the Red-king of the Red-people of Red-town and the Red-bush and also the Red-leaves on the bigger Red-tree were the Red-people of the Red-town in the Red-bush ‘.
Now my wife and I became friends with these people and we were living with them in that new town. After some days, the lady who brought us to the former town (Red-town) gave us a big house in which we were living comfortably. “She was not a human-being and she was not a spirit but what was she?” She was also the ‘Dance’ (the lady that brought us to the Red-town) and you will remember when I mentioned the tree fellows, namely: – “DRUM, SONG AND DANCE.” So when this lady (Dance) saw that I helped them greatly and they were also in a comfortable place and were no longer red, she sent for the other two fellows (Drum and Song) to come to their new town for a special occasion. But how could we enjoy these three fellows? Because nobody could beat drum as ‘Drum’ could beat himself, nobody could sing as ‘Song’ could sing himself, and nobody could dance as ‘Dance’ could dance herself in this world. Who would challenge them? Nobody at all. But when the day that they appointed for this special occasion was reached, these fellows came and when ‘Drum’ started to beat himself, all the people who had been dead for hundreds of years, rose up and came to witness ‘ Drum’ when beating; and when ‘Song’ began to sing all domestic animals of that new town, bush animals with snakes etc, came out to see ‘Song’ personally, but when ‘Dance’ (that lady) started to dance the whole bush creatures, spirits, mountain creatures and also all the river creatures came to the town to see who was dancing. When these three fellows started at the same time, the whole people of the new town, the whole people that rose up from the grave, animals, snakes, spirits and other nameless creatures, were dancing together with these three fellows and it was that day that I saw that snakes were dancing more than human-beings or other creatures. When the whole people of that town and bush creatures started dancing together none of them could stop for two days. But at last ‘Drum’ was beating himself till he reached heaven before he knew that he was out of the world and since that day he could not come to the world again. Then ‘Song’ sang until he entered into a large river unexpectedly and we could not see him any more and ‘ Dance’ was dancing till she became a mountain and did not appear to anybody since that day, so all the deads rose up from the grave returned to the grave and since that day they could not rise up again, then all the rest of the creatures went back to the bush etc. but since that day they could not come to the town and dance with anybody or with human-beings.
So when these three fellows (Drum, Song and Dance) disappeared, the people of the new town went back to their houses. Since that day nobody could see the three fellows personally, but we are only hearing their names about in the world and nobody could do in these days what they did. After I had spent a year with my wife in this new town, I became a rich man. Then I hired many labourers to clear bush for me and it was cleared up to three miles square by these farm-labourers, then I planted the seeds and grains which were given me in the ‘Wraith-Island’ by a certain animal (as he was called) the owner of the land on which I planted my crops, before he gave me the seeds and grains which germinated the same day as I planted them. As the seeds and grains grew up and yielded fruits the same day, so it made me richer than the rest of the people in that town.