The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories Read Online Free PDF Page B

till it flung itself into the river, and I followed it. I simply found myself in this your massive building unexpectedly.’
    ‘Is that so?’ the Nymph wondered greatly to see that Ajao was so hungry for food that he chased a bone to her house which was under the river.
    ‘It is so,’ Ajao replied painfully.
    ‘All right, take this wooden spoon. When you return to your house, ask it to do your work for you. But never come back to me for anything as from today!’ The Nymph gave a wonderful wooden spoon to Ajao which would supply him with every kind of delicious food and drink.
    Ajao thanked the Nymph when she gave the wooden spoon to him. Then she told him to sit on a chair, and he had hardly done so when he found himself on the bank of the river. From there he went to his house with the spoon.
    As soon as he entered his room, he asked the spoon: ‘Do your work now, wooden spoon!’ And he had hardly asked thus when the room was full of all kinds of delicious food and drink. Then greedily he and his family ate and drank to their entire satisfaction.
    In the following morning, instead of keeping the secret of the wonderful wooden spoon within himself, Ajao went to the king. He told him to invite all the people of the town to his palace.
    ‘For what reason, Ajao, shall I invite all the people to my palace?’ The king was suspicious because he knew Ajao as an expert trickster and deceiver.
    ‘I wish to feed them with delicious food and drink!’ Ajao replied with pride.
    ‘You, Ajao, want to feed the people of the town with food and drink in this time of great famine? Or you cannot remember what you came to me for?’ The king was still mistrustful.
    ‘I say I have enough food and drink to give to all the people!’ Ajao confirmed loudly.
    The king still doubted. ‘But I am afraid, Ajao. Even I as king of this town have not eaten now for over four days. How much stranger it is for a poor person like you to get sufficient food and drink to give to all the people!’
    ‘Your majesty, just do what I am asking you to do,’ Ajao said, compelling the king with his sweet voice.
    So in the evening the king’s bell-ringer announced to the people of the town that they should gather on the assembly ground which was in front of the palace. And immediately all the people gathered on the assembly ground while the king sat in the middle of the crowd of people. All were waiting for Ajao to come.
    After a while, Ajao came with the wooden spoon, and in the presence of the people and the king and his chiefs, he commanded the spoon loudly: ‘My wooden spoon, do your work now for these people!’
    And Ajao had hardly commanded like that when everyone saw the delicious food and drink in front of him or her. Then greedily the people, the king and the chiefs ate and drank as much as they could.
    But after a while, when they were intoxicated by the drinks, they started to play so roughly that they did not know when they smashed the wonderful spoon and it split. So the people and Ajao did not think about the spoon. When they became tired, everyone walked sluggishly back to his or her house, with the hope of coming back in the following morning to eat and drink as before.
    On the following morning, all the people, the king and the chiefs gathered again on the assembly ground. They were waiting for their breakfast when Ajao arrived. When he came, because he was late, he hastily commanded the wooden spoon to do its usual work. But unfortunately it failed to supply food and drink. He tried all his best, but the spoon could not supply anything because it had split when the people trampled on it the night before.
    The people and the king exclaimed angrily, ‘You are an expert deceiver, Ajao, as we already know. We believe you have commanded the spoon not to supply food and drink for us!’
    ‘I think it is powerless to supply food and drink as it was split yesternight,’ Ajao suggested to the people with fear.
    ‘If it is so, you had better