Akoba lived with Chief Leku for a little time, but very soon got tired of him. So she made up her mind that she would kill him and resume her former life. She said to herself, “It is very dull living with Leku all the time. If I kill him, I can have any man I fancy and make plenty of money, as all the young men want me, and are willing to pay, whereas now I have to do all the housework, and work hard on the farm, and Leku does not ‘dash’ me anything.”
Now, Chief Leku was a hunter, and made his living by killing animals (bush cows, buck, and kobs) and selling their meat. He had five dogs who were very clever, and had been taught to follow animals by scent. When they were young, a ju-ju was made for them, and certain leaves were mashed up and rubbed on their noses, which gave them very strong smelling powers, and they could follow wounded animals in the bush, which was most useful to Chief Leku.
The morning after Akoba had made up her mind to kill her husband, she said to him, “I want you to come into the forest with me to cut some palm nuts, but leave your hunting dogs behind as I do not like them.” Chief Leku, suspecting nothing, agreed, and they started off together.
When they got to the palm tree, the chief put his climbing belt of tie-tie round the tree, and, having secured it round his back, walked up to the top and commenced to cut the leaves or branches off round the nuts.
Akoba then beat her breast, and produced a sharp axe with which she began to cut down the tree, at the same time calling out to her husband that she was going to kill him. Very soon, the tree began to fall, but was fortunately caught by another tree growing near. Then Leku climbed into the other tree. Akoba, who was a witch, then started to cut down the tree in which her husband had taken refuge.
So the chief called a bird to him and sent it off with a message to his hunting dogs to come and rescue him. Immediately the dogs got the message they started off to help their master, but the witch Akoba caused a flood to overflow the path, so that the dogs could not track her. At last one of the dogs jumped into the water and swam across, and was very soon followed by the other four.
When they reached the foot of the tree the Chief told them to kill the woman, so they all leaped on her, and bit her until she died.
Then the chief came down from the tree, and divided Akoba’s body into five bundles, and told his dogs to carry them to his house, which they did.
When they reached the house it was night time, so the chief went to bed and told Achor what had happened to his new wife.
In the morning Achor saw the five bundles outside, and asked her husband how he had managed to carry them all, but he refused to tell her. So when night came and the chief went to bed, Achor said to him, “I will not sleep with you unless you tell me how you managed to carry those five bundles.” Now, Chief Leku was very fond of Achor, and wanted her badly, so he gave in, and told her that his hunting dogs had carried the bundles for him. Achor then went to bed, but the next morning she rose early, and calling the dogs to follow her, she went to the farm, where she collected five bundles of firewood and placed them in a row. Then Achor said to the dogs: “If you can carry bundles for your master, you can carry my firewood. Take those loads to my house at once.”