XVIII.—How the River came into Existence; or, Why a Crab has no Head.
When the Creator made the earth he appointed the elephant ruler of the world. In those days there were no rivers but the Creator made a pond for the elephant to drink out of. One day the elephant told his friends, the hawk and the crab, that he was going to hunt in the forest on a certain day. When the appointed day arrived the elephant and the hawk went off with their bows and arrows, and having surrounded a part of the forest, commenced to hunt.
Now the crab was a poor thing and could not walk fast, neither could he use a bow and arrow, so he took a long net with him into the forest and waited for the animals to run into it. When an animal which had been wounded by the elephant or the hawk ran into the net it very soon became entangled in the meshes of the net. The crab then went up to the animal and killed it with a stick; having thrown the arrow away he would put the animal on one side as his own.
At the end of the day the elephant had killed five buck and the hawk three, but the crab had secured ten animals all much bigger than himself. When the hunt was over the elephant told the hawk and the crab to bring to him all the animals they had killed, but when he saw that the crab had killed ten animals to his five he was very angry and told the hawk to put him down on the ground and cut his head off.
But the crab begged the elephant so hard to forgive him, and offered to give up the animals he had killed, that at last the elephant trumpeted: “Go!” in a very loud voice, and the crab went, leaving the ten animals behind him.
The crab was very angry at losing all the meat, so he thought he would revenge himself upon the elephant. He therefore crawled along sideways to the elephant’s house, and told the elephant’s wife that the place where they had been hunting was very cold and that her husband wished her to make him some good soup and that she was not to forget to put plenty of peppers in it.
The mammie elephant did as she was told, and the crab went down to the elephant’s pond and filled it up with earth, so that there would be no place where the elephant could drink. When he had finished he dug a small hole where the pond had been and buried himself in it.
Shortly after this the elephant returned home, carrying the meat, and bringing his friend the hawk with him. The elephant’s wife then brought the soup she had made, and the elephant and the hawk sat down together and finished it.
When the meal was over, the elephant told his wife to bring some water for them to drink, as the soup was so hot from the peppers that he had become quite thirsty, but his wife said that she had not got any water that morning, so they had better go to the pond, as it was not so far. The elephant went down to the pond but found to his intense surprise and disgust that there was no water, and that the pond was full of mud. At this he was very angry and went home and told the hawk.
Then the hawk, who was also very thirsty, went down to the pond with the elephant, and together they dug the mud out until at last they came across the crab. The elephant at once guessed that it was the crab who had filled up his drinking pond, and being in a furious rage, he cut the crab’s head off and threw him into the pond.
The water came back into the pond at once and both the elephant and the hawk had a good drink and wash. After a time he thought that if he left the crab in the water that he would fill the pond up again, so he told the hawk to dig away at the lower end, so that the water could flow out of the pond. The hawk did as he was told and made a running stream. This stream became larger and larger until it grew into a big river. The crab then went into the river, but having no head he could not see, so he went to the fish and asked him to cure his wounds and give him a pair of eyes to see with. The fish cured his wounds after a time, but, having no eyes to spare, he sent the crab on to his friend the prawn.
The prawn got some eyes, which he placed on the shoulders of the crab, and they grew there, so that he could see quite well, but the crab has never had a head since that time.
Told by Ewonkom, an Ikom woman.—[E.D., 22.6.10.]