The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories Read Online Free PDF

returned to the palace still before daybreak.
    But as soon as Yanribo had seen that the king and his counsellors had returned to the palace, she stopped half-way , and, with the intention of returning from there to her parents, she threw the sacrifice into the forest.
    Unfortunately for her, the sacrifice had hardly touched the ground, when Yanribo turned suddenly into a big beetle. And without hesitation, she, as the beetle, crawled into the forest. So it was that since that midnight Yanribo became the Beetle-lady.
    But in the morning, when Yanribo’s father, mother and all those who loved her knew that the king and his counsellors had forced Yanribo to carry the sacrifice, and that she had turned into the Beetle-lady, they started to burn the houses of the counsellors, and they also burnt the king together with his palace in protest. After a few days, this revolt became a serious civil war which, at the end, ruined the whole city. Though Yanribo had turned into the Beetle-lady , her beauty had at the end ruined the city for ever.

Ajao and the Active Bone
    A long time ago, there lived a man in a small town. His name was Ajao. He was an expert trickster and deceiver and, because of his profession, everyone in the town took him to be the most useless man in the town.
    One year, there was a great famine. Within a few months after the famine had started, there was nothing for the people to eat.
    One day, as Ajao was wandering about on the outskirts of the town, looking for food to eat, he came upon the shrine of a god. He eagerly entered it with the hope that, at least, there would be a sacrifice and he could satisfy his hunger with it. But to his disappointment there was nothing like a sacrifice, except one old bone which was half stuck into the sand before the god who was the occupant of the shrine.
    The bone was not an ordinary one, but a small god.
    Unknowing, Ajao ran to the bone and picked it up immediately. As he was about to leave the shrine he heard a horrible caution from one corner of the shrine: ‘Eh! Don’t take that bone away! It is not an ordinary bone as you suppose it to be! Come and put it back in the very spot you have taken it from!’
    Ajao was greatly afraid and confused when he heard this warning. He glanced at every corner of the shrine, but nobody was there except the huge god. Nevertheless, as Ajao had not eaten anything for the past few days, he did not pay heed to the horrible warning. Instead, he stubbornly ran with the bone to his house.
    Ajao entered his room and shut the door; then he began to chew the bone greedily. To his surprise, as he was still enjoying it, it fell from his hand. And as he was just stretching his hand to pick it up, the bone became active suddenly. It immediately began to throw itself along the ground.
    Ajao began to chase it along, trying to pick it up in order to continue to chew it.
    Thus the bone was throwing itself along and along until it left the town and came to a big river which was at a little distance from the town. Instead of stopping on the bank of the river, this wonderful bone flung itself into the river and, without hesitation, it sank.
    Ajao jumped in the river as well. He dived, and he continued to chase the bone along the bottom of the river.
    After a while, the bone disappeared, and Ajao was carried to the deepest part of the river by the current. To his surprise, within a few seconds, he found himself unexpectedly inside a massive building. The massive building was under the river, and it belonged to the Nymph or Water Spirit who governed the river.
    ‘Who are you?’ the Nymph asked, astonished.
    ‘I am the son of man,’ Ajao replied with a trembling voice.
    ‘What do you want here, the son of man?’ the Nymph shouted.
    Ajao fearfully explained. ‘Thank you, Nymph. You see, there is a great famine in my town now. So as I was chewing the only bone which I found in a shrine, it mistakenly fell down from my hand. Then it began to throw itself