30. (Tortoise), Erin (Elephant) and Erinmilokun (Hippopotamus)

A long time ago, the world was very different. Humans and animals had much in common, lived side by side, spoke the same language and generally behaved the same way. Some animals, like the ijapa (tortoise) possessed remarkable physical and mental capabilities.

In a land far away, in the town of Lagoni, lived a tortoise, Ijapa. Ijapa lived in the forest, on a hill – halfway between where an elephant, Erin, and a hippopotamus, Erinmilokun lived. Ijapa’s abode was hidden from sight, but the two big animals could hear his movements. Erin was the biggest animal on land, and Erinmilokun the biggest in the deep river.
Animals formed groups and made friends with each other like humans. Very soon Ijapa, Erin and Erinmilokun became friends. Ijapa liked these two big animals, and regarded them as his best friends on land, and at sea, and they liked him as well. However, there was just one thing about Erin and Erinmilokun that Ijapa found annoying right from the beginning – their boastful nature.

Despite their being boastful by nature, Erin and Erinmilokun were well-liked by the other animals – land animals and sea animals alike. Erin was very protective of land animals, and Erinmilokun’s treatment of sea animals was remarkably good. He really cared for them. Although a lion, Kiniun, had been chosen as Ọba (ruler), Erin and Erinmilokun knew that this had happened because most of the other animals were afraid of what he might do to them if they did not choose him. Kiniun was very wild and dangerous. Erin and Erinmilokun believed that they could overthrow him any time, if they wanted because of their size and strength.

Ijapa had been observing Erin walking along forest paths, moving up and down slowly and arrogantly, and as he walked, he would swing his trunk from side to side, brushing aside anything and everything in his way.
“Between us we can take over the animal kingdom!” Ijapa overheard him say to Erinmilokun once, when the two of them were talking to each other, boasting about their size and strength. It was that day he met them for the first time – on the river bank. Ijapa who liked showing off as well about being wise, and who knew that size was not on his side, was thinking:

“I hope these two huge animals know that size and strength aren’t everything. Being wise, on the other hand…”

“Include me in the list! All three of us can take over the animal kingdom!” he had said to them.

“What!” the two animals had exclaimed at the same time.

“This creature has a sense of humour”, Erin had gone on to say, laughing, and Erinmilokun laughed as well.

“Do you think being big and strong is enough to take over the animal kingdom? What about being wise?” Ijapa had continued.

Erin and Erinmilokun gaped at Ijapa as if they did not have a clue as to what he was talking about.

“Of course! This is Ijapa talking, Erin had said. “We’ve heard so much about you – about how wise you think you are. Why don’t you join us?”

Erin and Erinmilokun were amused by Ijapa’s utterances that day they met him for the first time on the river bank, and from then on welcomed Ijapa’s company.
Erin and Erinmilokun were two of a kind, and it was not at all surprising that they were good friends. They had been good friends for a very long time. The two big animals met on the river bank one day. Erinmilokun liked to venture out of the river onto the river bank, close to the forest where Erin lived, to roll about on the warm sand. Erin, who lived not too far from the river, loved the river. He loved leaving his abode to graze along the river bank where Erinmilokun was. The air there was refreshing, and not many land animals could be found there, especially towards evening when Erinmilokun came out for his night feed.

Erin and Erinmilokun built up their friendship gradually. The first time they met they sized up each other; they were both boastful because of their size. Erin believed that he was the biggest and strongest of all the animals on land because of his size, and therefore the most powerful, and Erinmilokun thought the same about himself vis-à-vis the sea animals. From then on, they would meet once a day at the river bank, chatted and laughed, and had a meal together, prepared by Erin, and Erin would go to the sea to drink with Erinmilokun.
They had continued their friendship in this way, enjoying their talks – stories about water-spirits and other inhabitants of the sea relayed by Erinmilokun, and about other animals and about people, relayed by Erin. They would discuss happenings at sea and at land – both wishing that they could swap places at times. They were both very, very big and strong animals.
Ijapa loved where he lived in the forest. He also loved living near the river and would wander around between the forest and the river bank, gazing all around him in raptures. He had the best of the two worlds. There was the forest with different types of trees – some of them tall and majestic (palm-trees, coconut trees, and pine trees) all around, a gentle breeze blowing their leaves against the blue sky. There were also clusters of not so tall fine-looking trees and bayous – interspersed with shrubs, pine-bushes, and pine-needles, plants and wildflowers, as well as thorns and thistles.

There was also the deep blue sea. Ijapa would gaze in raptures at the clear water flowing and ebbing gently, the blue sky, the horizon, and at the sea shore with its warm sand and its arrays of palm-trees, coconut trees, and pine trees. The air there was refreshing. 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, made the sea and its surroundings, truly enchanting and mystical.
Gradually Erin and Erinmilokun became good friends with Ijapa. The three of them ate together and chatted amicably. Ijapa enjoyed eating Erin’s food on land and drinking at sea where Erinmilokun lived. Erin and Erinmilokun enjoyed listening to Ijapa’s tales from land – about people and animals alike and jokes that Ijapa was ready to tell. They were very much aware of Ijapa’s shortcomings – in particular that he was cunning, devious, and full of mischief and pranks – but believed that he could never outwit them. Ijapa enjoyed the two big animals’ interesting stories about life at sea and on land.

Ijapa, Erin and Erinmilokun had nicknames for one another. They also enjoyed teasing one another, but Ijapa did not really like it when they teased him about his size, which was quite often. Their nickname for him was ‘Small Ijapa’.

“You have a small head and look at how short your hands are as well”, they would say.

Ijapa knew that he did not have size on his side. It was a sensitive issue for him, and he warned Erin and Erinmilokun again and again that he did not like this particular teasing, but they ignored the warning. He complained also about the way Erin and Erinmilokun kept on boasting about their size and strength, but they did not listen to him. Ijapa knew that deep down Erin and Erinmilokun did not mean to cause offence. They were his friends after all, and harmless creatures really. They were just tactless and thoughtless at times, and of course, very conceited.

“I keep on telling you big-for-nothing creatures that size is not everything. It’s no indication that one is strong. I believe that I’m one of the strongest creatures on earth even though I may not be as big as the two of you. I’m strong and wise”, he kept on saying.

“There’s nothing I can’t achieve if I set my mind to it…”

“Yes. We’re aware of that quite all right!” they would reply. “We know you’re full of pranks and mischief from stories about you that we’ve heard from others! We know you achieve most things that way, but your tricks will never work on us!”
Ijapa was known to be wise in his own eyes, known to boast that he could find solutions to problems that defied others, and had been known to do so mainly through ruse. He was indeed a wily creature, full of pranks and mischief. Ijapa was forever getting into trouble for misdeeds, and was punished or sentenced to death, injured or driven away from where he lived (sometimes with his estranged wife, Yannibo, and the children). Sometimes he would leave town to go and live somewhere else, disgraced and ashamed. He was forced to leave Makadu, a town where he was last, for nearly causing the death of three brothers through pure malice and had come to live in Lagoni. As he was being taken away to be locked up and beheaded, he faked his death. After being thrown into the bush, he later pulled out his head, hands and legs from his shell, shook himself, went home and left town immediately.

After some time, the two big animals’ mockery of Ijapa started to grate on his nerves, and he racked his brains as to how to teach Erin and Erinmilokun a lesson – how to outwit his two friends.

“I just have to outwit them, friends or not”.

One day, Ijapa went to see Erin and Erinmilokun.

“You’ve been ridiculing me for a long time. I therefore challenge you to a tug-of-war, to show you that I’m stronger than you two”, he said to Erin first of all.

“What’s a tug-of-war?” Erinmilokun wanted to know.

“I pull you and you pull me. As small as I’m, Erin, I’m going to use my strength to pull you into the sea with a rope.

“As for you, Erinmilokun, big-for-nothing as you are, I’m ready to pull you out of the sea with a rope onto the land”, Ijapa boasted to Erinmilokun”.

Erin and Erinmilokun laughed at Ijapa.

“Impossible! You think you’re as strong as me?” Erin trumpeted. To show you I’m stronger, all I have to do is…”, he started. “Better get out of my way…Dare me to lift you up with my trunk or trample on you with my huge feet!” he added, chuckling.

“You wait and see…!” Erinmilokun said.

“Stop boasting the two of you! I’m as strong as you are!”

“I’ll show you that I’m the strongest animal on land” Erin bellowed. “Even the ground trembles when I walk!”

Erin lifted his trunk then and flung it about to chase some insects that were flying around and laughed out loud. Ijapa was almost swept off the ground by its impact.

“Have I made a mistake in challenging him? Surely, not if my plan works”, Ijapa thought for one second”. He knew where his two friends were going with all this. They wanted to demonstrate their strength there and then, and he was not really afraid; he stood his ground.

“The tug-of-war will be of no problem for me. I could throw you high up in the sky with my trunk. Look at my trunk! Look how heavy it is! I can just raise it and knock down everything, and everyone, including you. Maybe I should do just that”, Erin continued, and he raised his trunk. Ijapa got out of the way quickly.

“No! This is not the way. It has to me measure for measure. This is why I’ve suggested…”.

Erinmilokun who had not said anything whilst all this was going on lifted himself up and interrupted Ijapa.

”Have you heard me sneeze to clear my nasal passages before? If I want to blow you away, all I have to do is sneeze. You see how big my jaws are, and how my horns jut out?”

Erinmilokun sneezed, and in the twinkle of an eye, Ijapa found himself in a hurricane, and was blown into the bushes.

“Is he for real?” Erin asked Erinmilokun.

“He’s taken leave of his senses. Wonder what’s gone over him!” Erinmilokun replied.

When he gathered himself together, Ijapa came out of the bushes, and looked up at Erinmilokun. It was as if Erinmilokun’s huge body was floating in the clouds; Erinmilokun looked so huge and formidable.

“You’re just wasting your time. I don’t need a ‘tug-of-war’ to show you I’m stronger than you”, Erinmilokun said.
“Like I’ve just said to Erin, this is not the way to test who’s the stronger of the two. My way is better because both of us will take part, measure for measure”.

Erin and Erinmilokun burst out laughing. They did not take Ijapa seriously. They thought that he would be too scared of them to try anything. They did not bother to answer him. They just lumbered back to their abodes in fury, and immediately pushed the matter out of their minds. They might laugh at it later on when they had calmed down.

The next morning Ijapa went and bought a new, long, big and strong rope. Then he went to see Erinmilokun during the day when he knew that he would find him alone. He knew that Erinmilokun and Erin would not be anywhere near each other, and that there would be hardly any of the other inhabitants around, because of the heat. The area was usually deserted anyway, at any given time. Ijapa ran down the hill to the riverside, and as he approached Erinmilokun with the rope, the latter could not believe his eyes. He had thought that Ijapa was joking the day before, about challenging him to a contest.

“Erinmilokun, today is the day that we’ll know who’s the stronger of the two of us”.

“What’s wrong with you, Ijapa? Have you gone crazy?”

“Let’s have a tug-of-war. I’ll pull you out of the sea, on the land. Take this end of the rope”, Ijapa said, ignoring Erinmilokun’s questions, and stretching out the rope.

“I’ll just go up to my abode up the hill. When you hear me shout ‘pull’ you ‘pull’, and I’ll pull, and bravo…that means the contest has started. In case you don’t hear me, I’ll tug on the rope three times. Better be prepared because by the third tug, I’ll pull you out!”

“You can’t be serious, Ijapa. Wait until I tell Erin this. Ha! Ha! Ha!”, Erinmilokun chuckled.

“Just take the end of the rope”, Ijapa repeated confidently.

“You’re making a big mistake, Ijapa…”.

“Just do it!” Ijapa ordered.

Erinmilokun decided to do it to humour Ijapa, so that he would have something to gossip about with Erin later.

“Okay!” he conceded, taking hold of the end of the rope thrown to him.

Ijapa took the other end of the rope out of the sea, and dragged it on the sea shore, running quickly to the forest to seek Erin out. He found Erin in the distance resting under the shade of a large tree.

“Let’s have a tug-of-war. I’ll pull you from land onto the shore”, he said to Erin, and the latter reacted the same way as Erinmilokun; he laughed almost hysterically, amused and angered at the same time.

“Get away with you! You’re just being ridiculous! You don’t seriously believe that you can pull me away from here…? There’s no doubt that I am stronger than you, and everyone knows it”.

“Try me!”, Ijapa said confidently.

“All right! Let’s have it! I’ll teach you a lesson…”.

Ijapa gave the end of the rope to Erin.

“I’ll go into the deep sea and when you hear me shout ’pull’ you pull, and I’ll pull, and bravo… If you’re not stronger than I am, I’ll drown you…”.

“Drown me! Pull me away from land? Are you crazy?”, Erin said angrily.

“Perhaps you should be taught a lesson!”, he added.

Ijapa did not answer. He just went back to where he lived in the forest on the hill, in a secluded area, hidden away from sight of the two animals – Erin and Erinmilokun – or any other inhabitants who might be around. Ijapa was very confident about what he was about to do because this forest clearly separated Erin from the river where Erinmilokun was waiting for his command.

Ijapa gave the command ‘Pull’. He also gave the rope that Erin was holding on the right a tug and did the same with the rope Erinmilokun was holding on the left. After this Ijapa climbed up a tree to watch the spectacle. Before one realized it, the tug-of-war had started.

Erin and Erinmilokun started to pull – gently to begin with, out of consideration for Ijapa.

“Ijapa may be crazy, but let fair be fair. No need to pull hard. I’m obviously going to win anyway. There’s plenty of time to prove him wrong”, Erinmilokun was thinking. Erin, too, had similar thoughts:

“Ijapa doesn’t know what he’s in for here. He may have taken leave of his senses, but it still doesn’t mean that I can’t be considerate. After all he’s my friend. Let me pull gently. There’s plenty of time to prove to him that he’s wasting his time with this – what did he call it – ‘tug-of-war’”, he chuckled to himself.

Erin and Erinmiloku would never forget what happened from then on. They heard Ijapa laughing and saying:

“What’s wrong with you? Can’t you pull harder?”

They were surprised and bewildered by what Ijapa had just said, and because they did not suspect anything on-to-ward, they started to pull – this time harder and harder, and found it difficult. They thought they were pulling Ijapa, not knowing that they were pulling each other.

“Is it possible that Ijapa could be this strong?”, they were both thinking, and whenever Ijapa said “What’s wrong with you?” they pulled harder.

Erin and Erinmilokun pulled the rope as hard as they could. Erin pulled even harder; Erinmilokun pulled harder still. Erin pulled and pulled, heaving and huffing, and tumbled down, his tail getting in the way of his huge body. He bellowed and moaned. Erinmilokun pulled and pulled, heaving and huffing until he became blue in the face. He was so exhausted that he collapsed. He groaned and moaned.

They both continued in this way, until evening was approaching. By then they were ranting and raving, bewildered, frustrated and angry. Neither was able to pull the other far enough. They were both of equal strength.

Erin and Erinmilokun could not fathom what was happening. Erin started to fall over everything in his way, such as trees, poles, mounds. Some small animals that had heard the commotion and rushed to the scene were scared. Erinmilokun, on the other side, fell into the deep end of the river with a huge splash. The sea creatures were alarmed, wondering what was going on at sea – afraid for their lives. The impact of the splash was so terrific that some small ones got out of the way quickly so as not to get crushed.
Just as Erin seemed to be getting the upper hand, Erinmilokun doubled his efforts and regained some of the edge. He moaned and groaned even louder and pulled when it seemed that he was about to be dragged out of the water. Then it was Erin’s turn to be pulled nearly out of the forest. He bellowed and pulled with renewed energy. The two animals were so equally matched that neither of them gained advantage for long.

What a terrible day! King of the Forest, and Lord of the Sea – as they see themselves – fighting relentlessly. Help! Who was going to separate them or even wait around? Which animal on land or fish at sea would separate them? The devil was at work!

Erinmilokun had stirred up all the water in the sea. Ajanaku (Erin), too, had knocked down all the trees in the forest. During all this Ijapa was on the tree watching the display, laughing his head off. Imagine Erin and Erinmilokun laughing at him before! It was now Ijapa’s turn to laugh his head off at the two of them!

When Erin found himself pulled well away from land, he started thinking:

“Ijapa of all creatures! That small animal! It’s inconceivable to be dragged into the sea by him – someone of my stature! God forbid it!”.

So, Erin pulled again and again until he almost pulled Erinmilokun out of the water.

When Erinmilokun found himself almost pulled out of the water again, he pulled the rope with all his might, with eyes closed tightly, thinking:

“Heavens forbid! Ijapa can’t pull me out of the water. How would that look?”

This was how the two big animals, Erin and Erinmilokun, continued to wallow in their own importance from morning till evening. They both refused to believe that Ijapa could be stronger.

Ijapa was very proud of himself. He just sat back and enjoyed the ‘show’. Erin and Erinmilokun went at it for a very long time. Eventually Erinmilokun decided to go up the hill and surrender to Ijapa. Little did he know that, as he was making up his mind to do this, Erin himself had made up his own mind to go and beg Ijapa to cease the fight.

When Ijapa noticed that they were coming, he quickly got down from the tree where he had been watching and enjoying the ‘show’, ran to where the middle of the rope was – half-way between Erin and Erinmilokun, drew out his knife, and cut the rope into two. He held on to one with his right hand, and the other with his left hand.

When Erin and Erinmilokun came face to face and found Ijapa holding the ropes they thought that he had been pulling each of them with only one hand and were surprised. Ijapa was laughing his head off.

What struck Erin immediately was that Ijapa looked calm, as if he had not been in a fight of any kind – in a tug-of-war as he called it.

“How could he have been pulling me with only one hand, and sustained it for that long, with no visible sign of a struggle?”, he wondered. He was surprised and did not know what to make of it.

“Something here doesn’t make sense. Supposing…” Before he could dwell on it further, a few animals who had heard a commotion earlier on when Erin was falling all over the poles, trees, mounds, etc that were in his way, and had come to see what was happening, arrived at the scene.

“Haa! You’re a small creature. How can you be this strong? If you, a small creature, are as strong as this, if you were bigger than this, then your strength would be boundless”, Erin continued to think.

Erinmilokun, on the other hand, was saying:

“I’m completely exhausted. I give up. You’re indeed as strong as I am, if you can pull each one of us with just one hand. Supposing you were to use both hands! Here was I puffing and blowing”.
However, the two animals were not really sure that they believed what they had just said, and neither did the few animals who had gathered around them.

“But what other explanations are there to the whole thing?”, they were asking themselves.

In the meantime, Ijapa was laughing his head off.

“I’m surprised you lasted that long”, Ijapa boasted. I thought I was going to pull you out of the sea sooner, Erinmilokun, and you Erin, away from the land. Anyway, I’ll accept from now on that we’re as strong as each other”.

Ijapa continued to laugh hysterically, and Erin and Erinmiloku found themselves thinking again about other possible explanations to the whole thing. They were becoming suspicious that there was more to the whole story.

“Come to think of it, Ijapa did not tell me that he was going to pull Erinmilokun and me at the same time when he gave me the rope – that the tug-of-war between him and me, and between him and Erinmilokun were going to take place at the same time! Supposing…!” Erin was thinking, whilst Erinmilokun was thinking something along the same line vis-à-vis Erin.

What Ijapa went on to say confirmed their worst fears, and they felt deeply ashamed. Ijapa must have tricked them. They must have been pulling each other all along!”

“You very foolish animals who think that size and strength are the most important things in life. What do you say for yourselves now? What about wisdom? Am I not wiser than the two of you?”, Ijapa was saying. “Even if you think you’re the most powerful, you’re not the wisest!”.

“Don’t you ever make fun of me again or boast to other animals about your size. We’re all three equal. If we’re going to remain friends you must never forget that”.

The other animals who had been observing what was going on had already come to the conclusion that Ijapa must have tricked the two big animals. He must have set them up to pull at each other, and then went on to cut the rope into two! But would Erin and Erinmilokun admit openly that Ijapa had made fools of them – King of the Forest and Lord of the Sea!

Erin and Erinmilokun were indeed not sure which would be more disgraceful – admitting that Ijapa was as strong as the two of them – or even stronger, or that he had tricked them by letting them pull at each other. In the end they decided to stick to the former. They asked Ijapa to forgive them for the rude way they had been behaving towards him before – for defying him. They had learnt a lesson – being big and strong was not everything.

From then on Erin and Erinmilokun started to accord Ijapa honour and respect. They saw the three of them as the real rulers in the animal kingdom. They stopped boasting to other animals, but if the urge to boast about their size and strength overwhelmed them, they always included Ijapa in the equation.

“Erin, Erinmilokun and Ijapa are the strongest and most powerful animals in the forest, and at sea”, was often heard.

Ijapa would always remember the first time he met the two big animals on the river bank.

“Include me in the taking over of the animal kingdom.”, he had said to them.