ENYEN INANG - (Four Eyes)

Enyen Inang-(Four Eyes)  Ekong Nke! … Nke Ekong abasi… Eyen owong eyem mfatWhen a child asks for rashes Abasi ono nam.God gives him sores From time, long ago, folktales were told by the elders who passed them down to our fathers who told us that a time will come when it will be our turn to tell stories. I think that time is now. A man, his wife and a son lived by a river away from the village of Osung-Nko. Okop Idem preferred to live away from the people, not because they hated him but as an appointee of the shrine of oracles, the keeper of the fears of the people. It was demanded of him to have very little contact with the people in order to develop finer eyes that can see spirits, to alert the people and warned them of their greatest fear, death by masquerading ghosts. On the other side, beyond the river bank, a solitary road divided the forest into two, deeper into the forest, the road diminished into a path and the path terminated in an arena with several tracks leading deeper and deeper into the inner recesses of the forest considered by the people of Osung-Nko as the end to the world of the living. Beyond this arena, humans and the dead – ghosts interacted most of the time unknowingly, though in some cases, they traded, farmed and went fishing alongside members from either world. It was for this reason that Okop Idem and his wife never wanted their son to follow them to their farm land beyond the arena in spite of his requests and insistence to follow them.He would say, “Mummy can I come to the farm with you today?” the mother would answer “Ask your father.” When he asked his father, he would refuse him out right- “No my son, it is dangerous to follow us to the farm at your age”. Eyen Inang accepted his father’s admonition when he was younger, but he was older now and had success-fully passed the test for manhood during the last harvest. He won a prize during the competitions. He decided to follow his parent to see things for himself. He must follow them without their knowledge. He woke up early as usual on this particular day, made fire to warm the soup and boil water. He packed the ashes left behind by firewood of the previous night cooking into a small sack with a hole at the bottom and placed it in the basket the mother would carry to the farm. When they had finished everything, he bade his parent good-bye. The mother reminded him to prepare foo-foo in the afternoon for their supper. He went to the back of the house, pretended he had something important to do and gave them sometime for them to make a good head start before following them using the ashes dropping on the road from where he placed in the mother’s basket. When he got to the arena, he search for the track with ashes and followed until he came to a point where the track divided into two. There a creature with one eye, one hand and one leg, it stood there like a tree in between the divided tracks. He was surprise though he pretended not to be afraid and ventured to ask the creature which of the paths led to the farmland, acted as if he did not know from the ashes. The creature pointed to the direction his parents went and made a shrieking sound that made Eyen Inang want to go back. He stood there for a while before proceeding on the way to the farm. He walked for a while before he sighted the farmland. At the east end he also sighted his parents who were surprise and angry to see him. His father walked up, “Did I tell you not to come to this farm?”. He shouted at him. “I am sorry, but I can…” Enyen Inang tried to speak.  “Sorry for what?” His father cut him off,   “You have disobeyed me” he added. “I only what to be helpful” he retorted. The mother, Iquo came closer to Okop Idem and pleaded, “Ete please, let us allow him, he his here already”. “What will happen when he is hungry and needs water to drink?” The father asked. “Let him go back the way he came”. He added. Eyen Inang realized how blinded he was in his desire to know this farm without thinking of carrying water and food along. He realized that the breakfast he had in the morning would not carry him through and soon he would be hungry. He was sorry for himself and the thought of meeting the creature with one eye, one hand, and one leg sent cold chill down his spine. This thought was not helping and the distance, a long way from home made him plead to be allowed to stay back even if it meant that he would eat his excrement and drink his urine. The mother pleaded with the father who was still very angry. When he agreed finally to allow him work with them at the farm, he made it clear that he would not share his food. They worked separately but Eyen Inang worked close to the mother. When it was in the afternoon, he became very hungry, he tried to endure but also knew that he needed to eat something to be able to walk back when they finished. He sighted some smoke rising to the sky some distance away from them. He asked, the mother if he could take two of the harvested tubers of yam to roast from the fire producing the smoke he saw. The mother in turn asked the father who said, “I don’t care what he does about his food. I don’t care whether he eats his excrement and drink his urine, just as he said earlier, let this be a lesson for him. But tell him that the smoke he sees rising to the sky may not be made by humans, we have never ventured beyond this farm and you know that, don’t you?” Eyen Inang took with him two tubers of yam and walked down to the end of the farm. He paused and looked back. His father was busy doing what he was doing while the mother stood there with crossed hands feeling sorry for her son. Eyen Inang walked further down only to realize that the smoke was farther than he thought. He walked on till he came to a clearing where he saw a similar creature he saw earlier where the track divide into two standing. He approached the creature, this time, he knelt down with one knee and said, “please, there is fire there, I want to go and roast my yam”. The creature made a similar shrieking sound and said, “You must wrestle with me, if you win, you can go, if not, you die. If I let you go, the one with two heads won’t let you”. As the creature said this, it charged towards Eyen Inang, they wrestled. Though this creature had one of everything, his eye, hand and ear seemed to be every where. Eyen Inang studied its technique he kicked it a little below the knee and the creature crashed on the ground and disappeared. He walked a little further; another one appeared, this time with two heads and two of everything, standing right in the middle of the path. Eyen Inang knelt again and asked, “Please, I want to roast my yam in the fire over there, can I pass”. The creature or ghost replied, “Only after defeating me in a wrestle match, if I let you go, the one with three heads will not let you”. They wrestle and wrestled till Eyen Inang jumped and kicked one of the legs against the other when the creature surged forward to attack him. The creature lost its balance and felled to the ground and disappeared. He walked further on and the one with three heads appeared. Eyen Inang asked, “I come in peace, please can I go to that fire and roast my yam?” The creature answered, “Only if you defeat me in a wrestling, if I let you, the one with four heads will not let you”. Another round of wrestling ensured, Eyen Inang noted that he was becoming stronger each time he defeated a creature and his techniques were becoming effective, he become smarter in spite of the growing hunger, he wrestled on defeated the one with four heads, defeated the one with five and six heads until the one with seven heads appeared. Eyen Inang looked at the ghost with seven heads, not knowing what to expect from it. He knelt down, and explained that his intention was to roast yam and eat, not to fight or wrestle. The ghost replied “You are the first to meet me; many have wandered and failed in their attempt to reach the fire. The only way to roast your yam in our fire is to defeat me”. As the ghost with seven heads said this, some invisible drums came alive with the common wrestling beating. A large number of ghosts that were hither to invisible appeared forming a huge circle round Eyen Inang, the ghost with seven heads and the fire place right at the centre. This took Eyen Inang by surprise. A while ago the fire place which was still some distance away was suddenly placed within his reach. Should he ignore the ghost with seven heads and go for the fire or… he did not complete his thought when he heard a song directing to him “Brave four eyes dog, hold firm to what you have, hold firm, if it fails off your hands, you will die, hold firm”. Eyen Inang Ewa Ukotum mum song ubok,Mbak edi ubokotum mum song ubokAma uboko aya akpatum mum song ubok. Mbak edi uboko This song made Eyen Inang to realize that if he went for the fire first, he might not make it through. The fire was there to distract him. He turned away from the fire and faced the ghost with seven heads. They charged at each other. They fought and fought with the ghost with seven heads having the advantage. It would fling Eyen Inang far away with the cheering multitude of ghosts. It turned out to be that the ghost with seven heads had all the powers of the six ghosts, summing up to twenty five heads. As Eyen Inang struggled to his knees, the ghost with seven heads turned around to the crowd of ghosts, in response to their cheering, displaying a show of strength. Enyen Inang asked himself why he was facing these challenges. The only answer available to him was… ‘To roast yam and eat”. One purpose, so why did he have to fight seven ghosts with a total of twenty-five invisible heads. He recounted, mentally the characteristics of each of the heads, the surge of new strength each time he defeated a ghost. He counted the total heads again and got back twenty-five, that is two and five. Add them together, you have seven. He added further, if you added another head to that of the ghost that will make it eight, which was not the ghost wanted. Even number will cripple him and give his opponent undue advantage. The ghost with seven heads was still enjoying his jokes of confidence with the crowd of ghosts. Eyen Inang looked at it once again, recounted the heads as if he was seeing it for the first time but this time he added an imaginary heard to make them eight. There was no other ghost with eight heads. The ghost with seven heads was the only thing standing between him and the fire. An idea came into his head. He must add another head to the heads on the ghost, but how? His own head This time the ghost with seven heads turned round to Eyen Inang with pride because it was not going to waste its time any further but to finish with him. As it walked towards its opponent, Eyen Inang noted the head in the middle. In a flash ‘head butt’ came to his mind. If only he could get close enough to head butt the head of the ghost in the centre. He got up pretended he was going to run away, then stopped and started displaying the characteristics of the ghost he had defeated. This caught the ghost with seven heads with amusement as all these characteristics were inside of him. As Eyen Inang was doing his display, he was moving closer and closer until he got to a comfortable distance with a very good aim at the head in the center. He stopped and challenged the ghost with seven heads. He mocked at it, that it carried too many loads called heads. Yours is heads of nothingness, he shouted at it. When the ghost with seven heads could not bear the insults coming out of Eyen Inang any longer, it charged with anger and blinded by fury, it extended the head in the center to Eyen Inang who surged forward with a dive straight to the head in the center. He clenched his teeth very tight and head butted the central head with a thundering crack. At first, he thought it was his head. This collision sent them crashing on the ground. He sprang immediately expecting the ghost with seven head to get up and attack but not. Instead it laid there dead. When a ghost, believed by the people to be the spirit of the dead dies, in the land of the ghosts, it is a double death. That ghost goes to ekpo mkpasuo. Immediately, the drumming stopped, the songs stopped and all the crowd of ghosts disappeared. After a little while the dead ghost with seven heads also disappeared and only the fire was left behind. Eyen Inang roasted his yam, eat some and took some back to his parent. It was getting late, Okop Idem and Iquo were getting ready to return. Though Iquo was afraid Eyen Inang might not come back she couldn’t share her fear with her husband. Now see what his stubbornness has led him into. With tears in her eyes, she sighted someone at a distance coming toward them. She said “Ete… look, who is coming?” Okop Idem replied without looking, “May be it is a ghost, let it come and I will show you that ghost should not have business in the land of the living”. Iquo continued to look with a rising excitement that it could be their son. As Eyen Inang came closer, Iquo reclaimed “It is a lie for the sake of truth; it is our son”. Okop Idem turned and saw Eyen Inang dirty, in torn clothes and roasted yam in his hand. For a moment he could not believe his eyes. He gave up hope of ever seeing him again since he ventured to roast the yam from the fire in the land of the dead. He remembered the prophecy from the shrine of oracles, that her high priest shall bring back fire from the land of the dead. So his son, Eyen Inang is the one, the high priest of the shrine of Oracles. He threw away everything in his hands, ran and passed Iquo to Eyen Inang. He embraced him, “My son, I am so sorry; I was too hard on you. I did not see the signs. So you are the one”. Eyen Inang was surprise. He did not know what his father was talking about neither did Iquo. So, she asked, “what do you mean?” Okop Idem kept saying “You are the one, you are the one”. Then he explained the prophecy to his family and noted the roles they played. Though he was an appointed by the people the serve at the shrine of the Oracles, the gods of the shrine of the Oracles have chosen his son as their high priest. He thanked the gods for finding favour in his son. Eyen Inang recounted his story. Okop Idem added that with his son’s conquest, he has banished the dead to the land of the living. That ghost no longer had business in the land from where his son went to roast his yam. That land now belongs to the human. Thanks to his son. They hurried home. When they arrived, they did not wait, left the farm tools and produce in the front of the house and walked up to the center of the village with gongs calling out all able bodied men and women even children, to inform them that the peoples fear had been conquered. When everybody was seated in the village square, Okop Idem and Eyen Inang recounted their stories. The entire community and other communities on hearing the story of Okop Idem, the people’s appointee to serve at the shrine of Oracles, went in to an all night celebrations that lasted till following evening. At the end, the communities resolved to build a bridge to connect the forest and the adjoining lands, since there were no ghosts to be afraid of any more. Ekong Nke…Nke ekong abasi