Why the Hawk Preys on Chicks
Once upon a time there lived a childless woman and her husband. Time after time her neighbors teased her because she was childless. One day one of her neighbors with whom she was quarrelling teased her so much that she became brokenhearted. When she went to bed that night in tears, she prayed to her chi to give her a baby of her own. This time, her prayer was answered, and she was blessed with a very beautiful baby girl, who she named Adanma.
Adanma, or beautiful girl, was known as Nma, or beauty. Her name fit her like a glove, for she was truly beautiful. When she became of age, every man in the land began to court her. Adanma, though, had one flaw that always worried her parents. She had an insatiable appetite for udala, or apples. As a beloved only child, she was never in want and was always well provided for. But her greed for apples soon got her in very big trouble.
One day when Nma’s parents wanted to go on a trip they stocked the house with food and several baskets of the tastiest and juiciest apples.
“Nma,” her mother called her. “Your father and I are going on a trip. You have everything you will ever need. Promise me that you will never leave the house while we are gone. And, you must never go to pick apples, especially at full moon. That is when the ghosts like to pick their apples.”
“I promise, Mother,” Nma told her mother.
When her parents left, Nma invited her friends over and they made a feast of the apples and foods. By late night of the following day, Nma, having exhausted her stock of food, became so hungry that she forgot what her mother had told her. She ran to the big apple tree to pick more apples under the light of the full moon, not realizing the ghosts were already there.
One of the ghosts picked some juicy apples and dropped them at her feet. Excited by her luck, Nma picked them right up. She was about to eat them, when the ghost asked her to marry him.
“Marry me, Nma,” the ghost proposed, “and take these apples as a sign of my love!”
Nma was afraid. She looked around. “Where did that voice come from?” she wondered. But she didn’t see anyone about. So, she took the apples and ran for home.
When her parents returned the next day, they were very happy to see their daughter. They hugged her and gave her lots of treats they had bought for her.
Later that night, at the stroke of midnight, a sharp rap at their door broke the calm glow of the bright moonlight and the serene quietness of the night. Trap, trap, tratatatap! The door rapped.
Nma’s father walked slowly to the door and opened it. On the other side of the door was a weird looking old man. Nma’s father could barely see the old man’s face, as the moon cast the latter’s shadow upon him.
“May I help you?” asked Nma’s father.
“I have come to take my wife,” growled the old man.
Meanwhile, Nma’s mother had awakened when her husband left the bed. She walked up to her husband and stood behind him, holding on to him in fear and sadness. As she realized what her daughter had done, her heart raced within her like a stampede of wild Afrikan elephants.
“Please, stranger, don’t take my only daughter away from me,” she begged him. “I will give you all the gold in the whole world. I will even add any of my lady servants you like.”
The old man shook his head. Nma’s mother couldn’t change his mind.
Then Nma’s mother went to her daughter’s room to talk with her for the last time, before the old man took her away to the never-never land.
“If you ever want to see your father and me again,” she told her, “listen to me carefully. You must run away when the old man goes into a deep sleep. You will know from his snore.”
“When he snores ‘grrr fee fee fee fee. . .ghosts asleep, ghosts not awake,’ don’t waste any time. Run back home, for he has fallen into a deep sleep. Do you hear?”
“Yes, Mother,” Nma nodded, as she sobbed.
Then Nma’s mother dressed her in torn old clothes and dressed her lady servants in the beautiful cloths and jewelry she had bought for Nma. Then she took the servants to the stranger hoping that he would mistake them for Nma. But each time the old man refused. Nma’s mother knew her tricks had failed. So she have Nma to the old man, who took her to the never-never land of the ghosts.
The trip took them through seven forests and seven seas and they did not arrive at their destination until late the following night. When they finally lay down to sleep during the wee hours of the morning, Nma was very scared. Although she was very tired, she couldn’t sleep. Finally, she was about to doze off when she was awakened by a loud snore:
Grrrr fee fee fee fee!
Ghosts asleep, ghosts not awake!
Grrrr fee fee fee fee!
Ghosts asleep, ghosts not awake!
Quickly, Nma jumped off the bed and ran away. She wandered about the forest in the waning moonlight of the early morning. She became even more tired and lay down by a big oak tree to rest. Then she dozed off and slept. As she slept, she heard footsteps getting closer, and closer.
“I will catch her soon enough,” said one voice. “And I will make her mine.”
“But she is my wife, remember?” said the other.
Nma forced her eyes open and noticed that it was already daybreak. Quickly, she stood up and started running again. She looked up at the sky and saw a big Hawk searching for food.
“Please, Hawk. Help me out of this never-never land,” Nma begged hopelessly.
Just as the ghosts were about to catch her, the Hawk swooped down. It scooped Nma up, and carried her to a very big oak tree.
That made the ghosts very mad. They started to chop down the oak tree with machetes and axes. As the tree was about to fall down, the Hawk picked Nma up again. It flew her toward the village. When it crossed the boundary between the living and the ghosts, the ghosts realized that they could not catch up with them anymore. They gave up and went back to their homes.
When the Hawk arrived at Nma’s village it started to sing:
Nma was in the land of the ghost!
Nma was married to the ghost!
Nma is now in the land of the living!
Which mother bore this lovely human being?
Nma’s parents couldn’t believe their ears. As they listened, the song became louder. Then they ran outside the yard and were amazed to see their daughter.
“She has come home at last,” they sighed in relief.
Nma’s parents were very happy to have their daughter back. They hugged her and thanked the Hawk. They offered the Hawk gifts of food and gold. But she wouldn’t accept any. Her eyes were all the time fixed on a chicken and her brood scratching for worms in the corner of the yard.
“If you want those chicks, they’re yours!” said Nma’s mother.
That made the hawk very happy. Nma’s mother packed a basket of chicks for her, and the Hawk thanked her and flew home with her basket.
As she flew home, one of the chicks fell out of her basket. Not wanting to chance losing the rest of the chicks, she let it go.
“Keep that, farmers of the world!” she cried. “Let it be my loan to you. But I will be coming back to collect on the interest!”
That is why Hawks prey on chicks all the time. They believe they are the offspring of their great-great-grandmother’s chick.
Source: The Orphan Girl and Other Stories by Buchi Offodile