20. The Locust-Bean Seller (Iya-Oniru)

A long, long time ago in Makawa – a town in a faraway land, there was a locust-bean seller (Iya-Oniru). Iya-Oniru was one of the sellers of the best quality and best tasting locust-beans. This was not surprising because she had grown up knowing everything there was to know about locust-beans. Her father had been a farmer who planted locust-bean trees among other things, and her mother had traded in the locust-beans and other produces from the farm. Iya-Oniru knew everything there was to know about locust-beans – from planting to harvesting, and the preparation of the beans for sale at the market. She knew how the best quality locust-beans were produced – about the kind of soil required, the weather conditions, and how and when to harvest them.

“Go to the farm with your father, and help him pick ripe locust-beans from the trees, and when you come back peel them from their outer shells ready for me. I’m returning home early today. We’ll go to the river to wash the locust- beans, and then we’ll prepare them for market.” Iya-Oniru still remembered the countless of times her mother had said this to her.

It was customary for locust-bean sellers to wash their locust-beans at rivers or streams. The preparation of the locust-beans for market which took place thereafter involved boiling the locust-beans properly – that is at the right temperature (not over-boiling or under-boiling them) – and then removing the actual locust-beans from their inner shells. It also involved preserving the locust-beans, which they did by putting them in calabashes or wrapping them in leaves, and storing them at the right temperature (not too hot) – so that they did not spoil.
“We’re also going to dry some of the beans you peel” her mother would add from time to time.

Iya-Oniru knew also that locust-beans – peeled from their outer shells – could be preserved for up to about a year by drying, before they were prepared for market, and she always made sure that she stocked dried locust-beans in addition to the fresh ones. Whenever she ran out of fresh locust-beans, she would fall back on her dried stock. They came in useful when locust-beans were not in season, or when there was a drought.

Iya-Oniru’s parents were now too old to continue their work – the father as a farmer, and the mother as a trader, and Iya-Oniru, their only child, had been managing both of their work as best as she could. They could not afford to do full-scale farming, so she had limited the farming to the planting of locust-beans, and reduced their farm-hands to one. She had continued, as her father used to, with planting and harvesting, grateful that she knew a lot about the kind of land locust-beans thrived on, the weather conditions, and how and when to pluck them.

Iya-Oniru had continued the work of her mother as a trader, but limited herself to selling just locust-beans at the market. She would take them to the river to wash, and then prepare them for sale at the market – just like she and her mother used to do. Just like she and her mother used to do, she also always made sure that she stocked dried locust-beans in addition to the fresh ones, so that if she happened to run out of fresh locust-beans, she would fall back on her dried stock. She was very hard-working, single-minded and determined to make the most of things.

Many people bought iru from Iya-Oniru because of the quality and taste of her iru, but she, as a person was not well-liked. Nobody seemed to have a good word to say about her anywhere she went. For example, at the market where she sold, buyers and sellers alike complained about her because of her behaviour towards them, and if anybody tried to call her to order she would become very defensive and rude.

“Why are you so rude to buyers – even when they just bargain with you? You know very well that this is how things are done around here. Besides you charge too much”, another locust-bean seller asked her one day.

“I don’t care how things are done around here, and why shouldn’t I charge what I charge? Are my locust-beans not the best around here? If buyers don’t like the way I speak to them, let them go somewhere else. ‘Take it or leave it’ you know”, Iya-Oniru answered, shrugging to show that she was not in the least bothered by what her colleague had just said.

“You say ‘Take it or leave it!’, yet when customers turn away from you – go and buy from another locust-bean seller, you’re not happy; you resent it. You also become nasty, and start using abusive language. You’re always quarrelling with people. You know what your problem is? You’re just afraid of competition!”

“I don’t need to listen to any of this!”

“Of course not!”

Market sellers were generally known to be a cheerful lot – to be supportive of each other. They interacted with each other in an amicable and cordial manner; they chatted amicably.

“Market sellers exude camaraderie and solidarity”, people said of them.

Iya-Oniru was none of these things. She was most unfriendly. In fact, she hardly exchanged customary greetings with anyone, and would certainly not initiate them. What was more, she was not generous by nature. She was also rigid in her views, selfish and uncaring, which did not help matters. People gossiped about her:

“Quite frankly I think she is stingy and mean!”

“She thinks too much of herself and her locust-beans!”

“All she cares about is making money, and nothing else, and she is stingy. She can’t part easily with anything, especially money!”
“I don’t think she cares for anyone – not even her family!”

Iya-Oniru was not popular at the river where she took her locust-beans for washing either. Users of rivers for this purpose were generally known to be a cheerful lot as well. They chatted with each other in an amicable and cordial manner as they went about their work, and supported each other where necessary. Iya-Oniru kept to herself, the same way she did at the market, hardly exchanging customary greetings with anyone, and certainly not initiating them. She was afraid that she might be distracted by the others there, and be careless about her locust-beans.

“I must keep my eyes on my locust-beans. I don’t want anything to happen to them in a place like this!”

The market where Iya-Oniru sold her locust-beans, Gbaje Market, was the biggest market in Makawa – unprecedented for its availability of a wide range of well-stocked goods not available at other markets. People came from far and near to shop there. However there came a time when locust-beans were very difficult to find because there were not enough locust-beans trees growing them, and this scarcity of locust-beans hit Gbaje Market eventually. It was disheartening for the people of Makawa because locust-beans were highly-related ingredient in soups and stews, especially efo or efo riro (vegetable) stews; wives who believed that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach were not too happy.

“No locust-beans? How can we cook stews without locust-beans, especially efo riro?” many housewives complained when they went to market and were told that this important ingredient was not available, and whenever the sellers suggested alternative ingredients, the answer would be:

“Locust-beans are a class of their own. It’s not just the taste, but they’re also very good for the health.”

Buyers started to seek out sellers of locust-beans who still had them in stock, and were prepared to pay any amount of money for them. People came from far and near to buy locust-beans from these sellers who were lucky to still be in business. Unfortunately, the sellers took advantage of the situation not only to inflate their prices, but also to use all kinds of ploys to get buyers to buy their locust-beans. For example they would pretend that they were running out of stock when they were not, so that the buyer would buy more than originally intended; they would not give ‘ina’ (a little extra helping) when serving customers – not even to their regular customers; the measuring containers would be levelled as opposed to slightly heaped or heaped; they started making it compulsory for people to buy other ingredients with the locust-beans.

“If you want to buy locust-beans you have to buy tomatoes, onions, pepper, garlic… as well”, they would say to customers, naming a host of other things.

Iya-Oniru was one of the lucky locust-bean sellers who continued in business, and she and others like her became very rich indeed; their locust-bean trees were not dried up – the soil being rich – and were still producing locust-beans. In fact, they made so much money that they were believed to be the richest in town. Unfortunately, this unexpected turn of events affected the character of most of them, and they were soon labelled as ‘stingy’, because the more money they made the more they hated parting with any of it. Iya-Oniru, who was ungenerous by nature, and who had the tendency to be stingy anyway became even more so, and as time went on, she got worse and worse.

Iya-Oniru made so much money that she was able to restore her father’s farm to its former glory, with so many other trees planted apart from the locust-bean trees which luckily for her had not dried up because of the rich soil. She was able to afford more staff instead of the one she had at the farm, and she could now afford to pay for house helps. Yet, as far as locust-beans were concerned she was the only one handling them; she could not trust anyone with them.

Iya-Oniru moved the family to a bigger house which she bought.

“Now that Iya-Oniru has made so much money, and has people working for her, one would have thought that she would let them wash the locust-beans (iru) for her at the river, and prepare them for market”, some people were saying.
“No way! She’d be afraid that they’d steal her locust-beans!”

“What are we here for, if we can’t do a simple thing like that for you?” a worker said to her one day.

“What! A simple thing like that! I prefer to go myself. You can be careless when you’re washing the locust-beans, and drop them, and I don’t want to lose a single one! One locust-bean is money you know!”

She continued to go to the market herself even though she could afford to pay someone else to do so, and whenever she had to leave her stall, which she made sure was not often, she would warn her workers:

“Don’t give ‘ina’ to anyone even if it is just one iru! The measuring containers must be levelled not heaped when you’re serving the iru. Locust-beans are too costly! No question of tasting the iru either unless the customer is prepared to pay – even if it is just one iru!”
“And you’d better be careful not to drop any of them when serving – not even a single one or I’ll take the money for it out of your salaries! I have counted all the locust-beans there, and I know roughly how many of them fill up the measurement tins. You won’t be able to steal them either!” she would shout in warning.

Iya-Oniru’s excessive behaviour vis-a-vis her locust-beans became worse and worse. After a while she stopped putting locust-beans in the stews for the family just to be able to increase her supply at the market. Her parents, who had been aware of their daughter’s shortcomings since childhood, and had tried to curb them, saw the change in her, and were deeply concerned.

“You’re too preoccupied with locust-beans. Money is not everything you know. We’ve always taught you to care about other things, and especially about people, and you’ve never listened to us, and now you’ve got worse!”

“We know that you’ve always been very hardworking and ambitious, and that this has got you far, but at what costs?”

“Even now that you should sit back from all the work you’ve been doing and let others help you, you can’t because your only thought is how to make money from locust-beans!”

Iya-Oniru said nothing. She was tempted to point out to her parents that without her the family would not have been where it was now, but she knew that money made no difference to them – it made no difference to them whether they were rich or poor. It made a lot of difference to her, however; she just could not get over the fact that she had made money, and she kept on saying again and again to herself “I’m rich! I’m rich, and I’m only a locust-bean seller!”

Iya-Oniru’s parents were also concerned that their daughter had never got married up till then. They knew that she had not been popular with men (and women for that matter) – her behaviour put them off – and her parents thought that since she had got worse and worse, it was most unlikely that she would find a husband now. Iya-Oniru did not seem to be bothered by it.

People continued to gossip about Iya-Oniru and her locust-beans; nobody was impressed by anything about her including her money, and very soon she became a laughing-stock.

“She’s more and more stingy. She can’t part with even a single locust-bean!” a neighbour said to another one day.

“There must be something wrong with her!”

It was customary for the people of Makawa to use the nearest river to their homes for different purposes, including to bathe, wash clothes and dishes, fetch water, and of course to wash food items such as locust-beans. Iya-Oniru had been taking her locust-beans to a river that was very close to where she lived when she suddenly decided to take them to another river, Odo-Alo, not frequented by most people.

In those days not every river, in Makawa and elsewhere, was seen as ordinary. Some of them were seen as strange – sacred and mysterious even – and some were referred to as “odo abami”. Nobody knew how a particular river came to be seen as not ordinary or “abami odo”, but there were all kinds of stories being told about these rivers – about extraordinary events which were believed to take place there. Once a river if referred to as not ordinary or “abami odo” some people were ready to steer clear of it.

“God forbid going to that river. It’s not an ordinary river”, was often heard in Makawa.

Not everyone had heard these stories, and not everyone who had, believed them, but most people generally avoided such rivers, with the exception of a few individuals who either did not believe the stories or defied them. To these individuals the benefits they could derive from going to these rivers – perhaps to swim, fish or fetch drinking water – far outweigh any fears they might have about them. For example, some of the rivers have therapeutic properties; their peaceful and beautiful surroundings and their lovely and clear water worked wonders for the health.

People who had heard the stories, and believed that Odo-Alo was not an ordinary river were deeply concerned for Iya-Oniru when they learnt that she was now taking her locust-beans to wash there.

“There’s definitely something wrong with her!”

Iya-Oniru’s going to Odo-Alo, an “abami odo”, to wash her locust-beans became much talked about in her neighbourhood.

“I wouldn’t go anywhere near that river from all the stories I’ve heard about it!” a friend was saying to another, when he heard about Iya-Oniru going there.

“But nobody knows for sure if these stories are true”.

“I wonder what may become of Iya-Oniru if some of the stories are true, and she continues to take her locust-beans to Odo-Alo”.

“Well if the stories are indeed true, then it depends on the kind of character the person who goes there has – on how they handle the situation they are faced with, not so? The stories are not all bad… just strange – I mean the kind of things the people in the stories are believed to have experienced. After all, that woman, for example, who dropped her ‘igbako’ (wooden scoop) in the river and went after it became rich from her experience, didn’t she?”

“Yes, but her ‘iyaale’ had quite a different experience, didn’t she?”

The most frequently told story was that of two women married to the same man – ‘iyaale’ and ‘iyawo’ and the rivalry between them. The ‘iyawo’ went to the river to wash dishes, and her ‘orogun’ (‘rival wife’)’s ‘igbako’ got swept away by the swift running water. The story depicts her encounter with a fisherman and then a woman with a large wound (Iya-Elegbo), and her interaction with them leading to her being taken to a courtyard where she was told to pluck some pumpkin seeds – the ‘silent ones’ and not the ‘kami-kami-kami’ (‘pluck-me, pluck-me) ones. The ‘iyawo’ plucked the silent seeds with highly desirable results. The ‘iyaale’ decided to try “her own luck” but plucked the ‘kami-kami-kami’ seeds, with disastrous results.

Whether Iya-Oniru had heard them or not, or chose to believe them or not, she continued to take her locust-beans to Odo-Alo, to wash before preparing them for market.

“Well, she has nothing to gain or lose by going there, I suppose. After all she’s not likely to jump into the river after locust-beans, if she were to drop them?”

“Don’t be too sure about that! Those locust-beans are too precious to her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she chases just one of them to the end of the earth!”

“Don’t be absurd!”

In the most frequently told story there was a ‘being’ with special powers who owned Odo-Alo and its surroundings. This ‘being’ was called Goddess of the River or Yemoja or the Creator, and she was in charge of everything that went on there. There were other ‘beings’ who were associated with her. Among them were ‘guards’, such as ‘eso Yemoja’, and other individuals with special powers of their own who could act independently of the ‘owner’ of the river. Nobody knew who these other individuals were, or how they came to be there, but whenever something valuable to someone got swept away by the deep, swift current, and the person, deeply distressed, jumped in after it, these ‘river individuals’ would appear as if from nowhere, and interact with the person. This interaction was believed to take place either inside the river, or at the area surrounding the river, and to throw light on aspects of the person’s character. Some people believed that there was a whole life under the river – lovely meadow with the sun shining brightly, on dry land.

Extraordinary developments would follow, leading to a dramatic change in the life of the person. The change could be highly desirable or disastrous. Some of the developments were believed to take place either in a courtyard or a big garden, or at a palace, and involve plucking pumpkin seeds (eso pandoro) by the person or being given a marble (ado). There were two types of pumpkin seeds – the silent ones which were never blown by the strong wind, and the ones which emitted the sound ‘kami-kami-kami’ when blown by the strong wind.

“Well, if Iya-Oniru believes any of these stories and happens to drop her locust-beans in the river one day, she may want to jump in after them hoping that this would lead her to those famous ‘silent pumpkin seeds’ that made that ‘iyawo’ rich”.

“But she is rich already. Surely, apart from the ‘lost item’ of the person who jumps into the river after it which is found en masse in one of the ‘silent pumpkin seeds’ the ’shower of goodies’ found in the other ‘silent seeds’ are things Iya-Oniru has got already?”

“Yes, the other ‘silent seeds’ are believed to reveal money, clothes, gold, silver and precious gems, and countless of lovely and valuable goods. What’s more, as the stories go, a few men would appear to carry the things home for the owner of the seeds.”

“Well, Iya-Oniru certainly has all these things – even many people to do things for her. “

“Well, let’s hope she has heard the stories, because if not, knowing the kind of person she is – greedy and all that – she might decide to pluck the ‘kami-kami-kami seeds, and you know what that means?”

“The ‘kami-kami-kami” seeds! My goodness! They are supposed to reveal all kinds of horrible and dangerous things like snakes and scorpions, and other reptiles, and poisonous insects like wasps and bees!”

“Yes! Let’s hope that a better plight awaits Iya-Oniru if she happens to drop her locust-beans in the river and decides to chase after them, and she hasn’t heard any of these stories before! We don’t want her to come to a horrible end, do we?”

“No! Of course not! I wonder how she would react to the ‘river individuals’ referred to in the stories even before she gets to chose between the ‘silent seeds’ and ‘the kami-kami-kami’ seeds’, if the stories are indeed true and Iya-Oniru finds herself in the same situation as the people in the stories!”

The ‘river individuals’ associated with Yemoja or the Goddess of the River or the Creator were generally the same type in the stories, whether the events took place inside the river or outside – a fisherman, an old woman or man with a very big sore on her/his right leg (Iya-Elegbo/Baba-Elegbo), a bald-headed man, an old woman sitting at the bank of the river who had wanted to cross to the other side, but was afraid to do so, an old woman with such large teeth.

In the most commonly told story about two women – ‘iyawo’ and her ‘iyaale’, the ‘iyawo’, after jumping in the river after her ’iyaale’’s ‘igbako’ first came across a fisherman who helped her search around for the ‘igbako’, and then an old woman (an old man, in some versions) with a very big sore. The old woman wanted her sore tended to, and the ‘iyawo’ did not hesitate to do so, and after that the latter was directed to a courtyard where she was invited to pluck some ‘silent pumpkin seeds’, in which she found all kinds of ‘goodies’. The ‘iyaale’ on the other hand, was ungracious to both the fisherman and the old woman when she ‘tried her own luck’, but the old woman overlooked this. She still invited the ‘iyaale’ to pluck the ‘silent seeds’, but the latter thought that she would benefit much more from the ‘kami-kami-kami’ seeds. The result was, of course, disastrous.

“I can’t imagine Iya-Oniru being gracious to and agreeing to help anyone she comes across if she happens to jump into the river after some locust-beans!”

“I can’t either”.

“Let’s just hope that Iya-Oniru doesn’t drop any of her precious locust-beans in the river when washing them, in the first place, and that if she were to do so she wouldn’t get carried away and do anything foolish.

Iya-Oniru continued to take her locust-beans to Odo-Alo, to wash before preparing them for market, oblivious of all the things that were being said about the river with reference to her – oblivious that others were deeply concerned about her, wondering if something was wrong with her because of the way she was behaving vis-a-vis her locust-beans. In the river she would wash the locust-beans very well, and carefully, making sure that not a single bean dropped into the river. She would take two bowls made of calabash with her for this purpose, and wash the locust-beans together first, and then one by one, counting them, grateful that hardly anyone else went there. One or two people had come there to swim, fish and fetch drinking water, and they had not been anywhere near the side of the river bank where she washed her locust-beans. There was peace and quiet around at the river, and at the sea beyond.

“Now I can wash my locust-beans in peace and quiet, with no distraction from others who like to talk whilst they’re washing things in the river as if their lives depend on it! I can keep an eye on the locust-beans without fear of anyone eying them, waiting for an opportunity to steal some of them!”

It was a pity that not many people went to Odo-Alo because the river and the sea beyond, and the surroundings were truly beautiful. There were clusters of tall and elegant-looking palm trees, coconut trees and pine trees all around the river and the sea, a gentle breeze blowing their leaves against the blue sky. At their feet the green grass with beds of pine-needles, beautiful flowers and plants, lent an array of dazzling colours to the surroundings. There was whispering in the trees caused by the gentle breeze, which, together with the chirping of birds, the sound of the water flowing and ebbing at the river made Odo-Alo truly enchanting and mystical.

“I wonder what it’d be like to swim in this river – downstream, and then straight on to the sea”, Iya-Oniru asked herself the first time she went to Odo-Alo to wash her locust-beans, remembering how it felt in the other river where she used to wash the locust-beans the few times she had swam in it.

The river was deep and swiftly flowing as it ran into the sea, but the sea was even deeper, and more swiftly flowing. The waves rose up and down, sometimes roughly. Sometimes the sea was not quite its normal colour, but is a yellowish-green, and the more the colour changed the more troubled the water became. The waves would then crash on the rocks; they would rise up and down, like mountains – higher and higher as if they would reach up to the heavens!

Then one day, Iya-Oniru went to Odo-Alo to wash her locust-beans. As usual she washed them together in one calabash bowl, and as she was washing them one by one into an empty bowl, and counting them, the bowl with one locust-bean remaining dropped into the river and got swept away by the current. Iya-Oniru jumped into the river with no other thoughts in her head than to go after the bowl of one locust-bean. She was overwrought, and not thinking straight. She swam downstream with the swift current, singing:

Awe iru kan (A piece of locust-bean)
Emi re la jo n lo (We’re both going together)
Bo o rokun (Whether it goes into the sea)
Emi re la jo n lo (We’re both going together)
Bo o rosa (Whether it goes into the lagoon)
Emi re la jo no lo
Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo n lo

Suddenly she caught sight of a man at another side of the river close to where she now was, beckoning to her. The man had been fishing, and had heard her song. She thought that the bowl had drifted to his side of the river, and that he was about to return it to her.
“Have you found my bowl of one locust-bean then?” she asked him, full of hope.

“Are you out of your mind, woman? You can’t swim after a bowl of locust-bean down this deep and swiftly flowing river, and then on to the sea which is even more dangerous! Haven’t you noticed the colour of the sea – that it’s not quite its normal colour, but is a yellowish-green – and you know what that means? The more the colour changes the more troubled the waters become. The waves… You want to kill yourself over one locust-bean? Go back home! Besides, do you seriously believe that you can still find the bowl, not to talk of the locust-bean which would have been washed away?”

“Yes, I can still find it if you haven’t already done so and are just pretending!” Iya-Oniru said contemptuously.

The man shook his head with pity and continued with his fishing. Iya-Oniru continued to swim downstream, searching frantically for the bowl, singing the same song again and again, as if she had taken leave of her senses.

Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo n lo
Bo o rokun
Emi re la jo n lo
Bo o rosa
Emi re la jo no lo
Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo n lo

Suddenly she saw a woman swimming towards her in the water. She must have been swimming and heard her song, and she was deeply shocked.

“You must be a very stingy woman. How could you chase one locust-bean, not only down this river, but to the sea?” she asked pointing in the direction of the sea which the river ran into.

“Why would you want to chase a single locust-bean in a bowl in this river, and follow it to the sea?” she rephrased in wonder. “Are you crazy? Do you seriously think that you can find such a thing? What difference would one locust-bean make to your life? Go home now! You’ll die if you continue further. Look across at the sea! The waters will continue to change colour, and the waves will crash on the rocks; they will rise like mountains – higher and higher! Are you not afraid that the waves would sweep you away? You’re a very foolish woman!”
“I’m not crazy. I’m not foolish either. Don’t you know how expensive locust-beans are? I’m going after my locust-bean, and you’re holding me back with all your talk. Get out of my way, please!”

The woman shook her head with pity just like the man had done. Iya-Oniru would not listen to reason, and they were afraid for her life. The woman continued her swimming in the opposite direction to Iya-Oniru and the latter started to sing again:

Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo n lo
Bo o rokun
Emi re la jo n lo
Bo o rosa
Emi re la jo no lo
Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo n lo
As she was about to make for the sea, she saw a woman near where the river joined the sea, carrying a large container of water. She must have just fetched drinking water at an area close to the sea, known for this purpose where the water was the clearest. She too had just heard Iya-Oniru’s song and was waving frantically and rushing towards her.

“You are not seriously going to chase after a locust-bean in the sea – a locust-bean that has long been swept away by the river? Let’s just agree that you’re out for a swim. Even if you’re a good swimmer – at least you’ve not drowned in the river – what chances do you have of not doing so in the sea?”

“I don’t know who you are, and why you think you know what I’m doing, and what I’m not doing here. My locust-bean is now in the sea, and I’m going after it. Didn’t you hear the words of my song?” she said, and started singing again:

Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo n lo
Bo o rokun
Emi re la jo n lo
Bo o rosa
Emi re la jo no lo
Awe iru kan
Emi re la jo no lo

“Is it worth losing your life over one locust-bean? You and I know that if you swim in this sea, you’re surely going to die. Go home now! What difference would a single locust-bean make to your life?”

“You don’t know what you’re saying. One locust-bean is a lot of money.”

Iya-Oniru refused to listen to reason and continued to swim towards the sea. The woman shook her head with pity, just like others before her had done, and went on her way.

Once in the sea Iya-Oniru found that it was deeper and more swiftly flowing than the river just like everyone had been saying, and that it was more difficult to swim there. However, she refused to be scared, and started searching for the bowl and the locust-bean, struggling to keep afloat. She kept on singing the song again and again as if demented – as if her life depended on it. She was driven by greed, and had lost all reason.

The water looked turbulent and the waves rose higher and higher, as the swift current took her further and further into the deeper part of the sea.

“If the current doesn’t sweep me away, the waves will surely swallow me up!” she thought as fear seized her. She struggled to keep afloat with no other thoughts in her head than that – no thoughts of her locust-beans. She was not even searching for the bowl any more, not to talk of the one locust-bean.

“What have I done?” she asked herself as realization of what was about to happen dawned on her. She was full of regrets and wished she could go back and undo all she had done wrong.

“I’m going to die, and just because of one locust-bean!” she lamented.

“Just one locust-bean!” she found herself repeating – just like others had said to her.

Iya-Oniru struggled on, trying to keep afloat, but the swift current took her farther and farther away, the waves enveloping her, until she was seen no more. When people in Makawa learnt about her plight, they kept on saying:

“What a waste! Just one locust-bean!”

This was the price Iya-Oniru had to pay for being stingy. She lost her head because she could not part with any of her locust-beans; she also lost her life.