The Seven Dogs
Once upon a time, there was a man who lived with his wife in a village. Every night, the man was troubled by a witch. The man didn't know the wife was the witch troubling him every night. Every morning, he would complain to the wife and show her the marks of witchcraft all over his body. The wife would tell him not to worry, and that the witch would get tired and stop disturbing him. It persisted and the man couldn't bear it anymore. So, he went to consult a native doctor.
The native doctor told him to buy seven brown dogs. The man did and every night he would keep the dogs under the bed where he and his wife slept. In the night, whenever his wife transformed to a dog and wanted to carry out her witchcraft on him, the seven dogs would attach her and she would quickly transform back to a human being. That made her not to have the chance to carry out her witchcraft. She was not happy and after she had attempted severally, to do witchcraft but was prevented by the dogs, she told her husband that she didn't like the dogs; that he should remove them from the house. The man loved his wife so much, so he obeyed her and in the night, he no longer kept the dogs under the bed but outside the house.
In the night, the wife transformed into a dog, thinking that since the dogs were outside the house, she could carry out her witchcraft. But, the dogs still came to attach her and she quickly changed back into a human being, without being able to carry out her witchcraft.
After trying several times without success to convince the man to kill the dogs or do away with them, the woman became angry with her husband and made up her mind to kill him. One day, she told him that they should go to the forest to fetch some firewood and that they shouldn't go with the dogs. The man agreed and they went, leaving the dogs behind. In the forest, the woman asked the man to climb a tree. The man obeyed her and climbed the tree to cut some wood. But, as he was on the tree, the woman transformed into a snake and started climbing up the tree to meet the man. As the man looked down to check on his wife, he saw the big snake coming up gradually to him. He shouted in fear and his dogs he left at home heard him. They cut off the ropes he used to tie them to a wood. They ran into the forest and attacked the snake and killed it. That was how the woman died. The man climbed down the tree and thanked the dogs.
The Half Man
There once lived a very beautiful girl in a village. So many suitors came to ask for her hand in marriage, but she refused to marry them. The news of her beauty spread all over the lands, such that people came from distant lands just to take a look at her. There was a man who lived among the spirits of the dead. One part of his body was completely rotten, while the other part was still normal like that of a human being. He told his friends that he wanted to go and marry the beautiful girl. They laughed at him, they told him not to attempt such an action, because the girl wouldn't marry him since he was a half man. The man insisted that he had to go and try his luck and he went.
For him to get to the girl's village, he had to pass through seven lands and seven rivers. As the half man got to each land and river, he borrowed something and added to himself. He borrowed one eye, one hand and other things including clothes and shoes. Immediately he got to the girl's village and the girl saw him, she jumped up, welcomed him and told her parents that he was the man she would marry. Everyone was surprised. Her parents were happy that at last she had accepted to marry someone. They got married and after the man had spent some days in her village, they journeyed to the man's home.
As they went on the journey, they got to land that gave the man clothes; the people there sang a song:
Give me my cloth,
Ange, ange, ange,
Give me my cloth.
The man removed the clothes he borrowed and gave them up. The girl was surprised and questioned why he did so; he told her it was just a way of catching fun.
They continued the journey and every land and river they got to, the man give back the things he borrowed after the inhabitants had sung for him. The girl became worried upon seeing that the man was rotten on one part. They got to the land, where they lent him one leg, and the inhabitants sang:
Give me my leg,
Ange, ange, ange,
Give me my leg.
The man gave out the leg and began to hop. The girl wept bitterly. She requested the man to take her back to her village. The man mumbled to her that she could no longer go back to her village. He dragged her to the grave where he lived.
The Wise Little Animal and the Elephant
There was a small animal that the Gbagyi people called, Giri. The animal was very small, but it was also very wise. The animal was a friend to the elephant. They worked on each other's farm. The elephant would go with Giri to its farm and assist Giri to work on it and in return, Giri would also go with the elephant to work on his farm. As they did that, they also prepared food and are whenever they were working on each other's farm.
There was a day, they worked on the elephant's farm. After they were done with the work, the elephant brought the food it cooked for them to eat. Giri ate the food together with the elephant. As they were set to go, Giri complained that it was too tired and could not move to its home again. The elephant offered to assist it home and carried Giri on its back and they went home.
The next day, they went to work on Giri's farm. After they had finished working and had also eaten as well, the elephant told Giri that since it was the one that carried Giri home the previous day, it was the turn of Giri to carry it home. Giri became dumbfounded, but it couldn't also object to what the elephant had said. It began to wonder, how it was going to carry such a big animal on its small back back. It regretted to have tricked the elephant to carry it home, the previous day. As it wondered, how it was going to survive the weight of the elephant, it decided to go and drink some water in the river that was a little distance away from the farm. As it buried its face in the water, distressed and in fear of what was to happen to it, if the weight of the elephant rested on it, a thought came into its mind. Giri, quickly, removed its face from the water and began to think aloud:
"Where is the world headed? Why would they want to take the private part of the elephant? What did the elephant do? The elephant, my only friend, what did it do, that it is its private part that is wanted. Where is this world headed?"
As Giri spoke, continuously, and moved towards the farm where the elephant set, waiting for it to return, the elephant overheard it speaking and asked:
"Why are you speaking in anger to yourself, my friend?"
Giri explained that while it went to river to drink water, it saw some people who were searching for the elephant, saying, they wanted the elephant's private part. So, they were searching for the elephant that so they would extract the private part. The elephant became afraid and jumped up from where it sat. It told Giri to climb it and cover its private part, so that they could run away, as quickly as possible.
Giri climbed on elephant's private part and the elephant ran as fast as it could from the farm. At a point it became tired and asked Giri whether the people were still coming. Giri told it, that they were almost catching up with them and the elephant sped up again upon hearing that. It ran until they got home and Giri climbed down, while the elephant hid in the house. Giri laughed and thanked its forefathers for giving it the wisdom that saved it from the weight of the elephant.
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