A man once went into the bush with his wife to collect palm nuts. He saw a palm with ripe clusters upon it, and climbed it to get them. While he was trying to cut through the stems, a black fly began to buzz round him, dash into his eyes, against his nose, and all over his face. He lifted his hand to drive it away, and as he did so he dropped the knife.
“Run, run,” he called to his wife, who was just beneath the tree, for he feared that it might fall upon her. She sprang aside so quickly that she was out of the way before the knife reached the ground.
In her haste she jumped over a serpent. This startled it so that it dived down a brown rat’s hole, and begged for a drink of water. The rat handed the serpent a calabash full, and the serpent drank it all at once. The rat was so frightened at such a thing that it sprang past the serpent out of the hole and ran up a tree, where it sat trembling. The place where the rat had stopped was near a plantain-eater’s nest. No sooner did the latter see the rat than it raised a cry. This startled a monkey, which rushed forth ready for a fight.
In his haste to meet his enemy, the monkey sprang on to a ripe fruit of the tree called Ntun. This fell from its stalk onto the back of an elephant which was passing beneath. The animal rushed away in such terror, that it tore down and carried off a flowering creeper which caught round his neck.
The creeper in turn pulled over an ant hill, which fell on the bush fowl’s nest, and broke its eggs.
The bush fowl was so sad because of the loss, that it sat brooding over the crushed eggs, and forgot to call the dawn. For two days, therefore, the whole world was in darkness.
All the beasts wondered what could be the reason of this continued night, and at length Obassi called them before him to find out the cause.
When all were present Obassi asked the bush fowl why it was now forty-eight hours since it had called for light. Then the bush fowl stood forth and answered:
“My eggs were broken by the ant hill, which was pulled over by the creeper, which was dragged down by the elephant, which was knocked over by the Ntun fruit, which was plucked by the monkey, which was frightened by the plantain-eater, which was startled by the rat, which was scared by the serpent, which had been jumped over by a sick woman, who had been made to run by the fall of a knife, which had been dropped by her husband, who had been bitten by a black fly. Angry, therefore, on account of the loss of the eggs, I refused to call the day.”
Each was asked in turn to give the reason for the damage it had done, and each in turn gave the same long answer, till it came to the turn of the black fly, the first cause of all the mischief. Instead of answering properly, as the others had done, the black fly only said, “Buzz, buzz.” So Obassi commanded the fly to remain speechless forevermore, and to do nothing but buzz about and be present wherever a rotten thing lies.
To the bush fowl he said that at once it should call the long-delayed dawn, and never again refuse to do so, whether its eggs were broken or not. Day must dawn.