Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (4 page)

As the whole of them were still hurthing here and there, Simbi with the rest slaves who had been expecting their turn to die, ran out of the shrine. Having glanced round there for a shelter and when there was none, they were running along on a path that which was found thereabouts as hastily as they could, so that they might
run far away and then shelter themselves from the people of the Sinners' town, who probably might be chasing them to kill.

But Simbi still held the sword with which she had beheaded the king, etc. Thus she saved herself and the rest slave girls of about nine in number, among of whom were Rali, Sala, Bako and Kadara respectively.

Having run furiously on that path for about one hour and became tired, then they started to walk along slowly. Having travelled till the daybreak but they did not reach a town and they did not meet anybody, then they stopped and sat down in form of a circle and were mobbed, of course, they were always on the alert perhaps the people of the Sinners' town were chasing them to kill.

When they were quite sure that that path was the Path of Death, they thought first to return to the Sinners’ town and from there to find out for a safe path on which to be travelling and looking for the right way to their village.

But then they remembered that the people of the Sinners’ town would catch and kill them as a revenge of what they had done to them before they had escaped from the shrine. Therefore they did not attempt to go back and they did not go further but sat down on this Path of Death.

Having moped for some minutes, the first question that Simbi perplexly asked was “Am I now a spook, Bako, because I remember now that I had already been beheaded last mid-night by the king of the Sinners’ town?” “Not at all, Simbi, you were not beheaded by anybody, but you were the brave girl who beheaded the king together with some of the chiefs, etc., and by so did, the rest of us were saved by you,” Bako explained to her.

“All right, Bako, but I am not yet sure that I am not a spook!” The rest sighed and glanced at her whether she was mad.

“But as there was no any safe path on which to travel except this Path of Death, I am sure, all of us are going direct to the house of death and he (death) shall kill us without any struggle!” Rali thought, and the rest were terrified when heard this.

“But ladies, I want you to believe that we are now a gang of refugees!” Sala reminded the rest. “Surely, we believe before you remind us, that we are now refugees,” the rest said. “What are we going to eat, because I am nearly to die now of hunger?” Simbi asked calmly. “Of course, you are our leader and you suppose to find what all of us shall eat,” the rest replied.

Then Simbi stood up, she went round there for any edible thing, but there was none to be found, except a kind of a tree which had the fleshy props could be found. And she cut some of them with the sword with which she had killed the king of the Sinners’ town. Then she brought them to her gang. These fleshy props were to be roasted in fire before they were to be eaten, but there was no fire. Having thought of the fire for a while, they raised up their heads, they looked round as far as their eyes could reach. Luckily a light smoke was rushing out on the summit of a mountain, and it was the fire which the eruptions had caused. And at the same time, two ladies went there and a few minutes after, they brought the fire. Then the dried refuses and sticks were gathered together and they put the fire in it, and within ten minutes, it became a big fire. The fleshy props were roasted and they ate them, and it was about eight o’clock, in the morning by that time.

Having satisfied their hunger with the fleshy props (roots), they sat round the fire, they were warming their bodies with it.

After a while, Simbi, the leader, suggested whether they could continue to be travelling along the on Path of Death, hence they could not go back to the Sinners’ town, and they could not stay with the fire throughout their lives time.

“I suggest that it would be better if we should start from here to be finding the way to return to our village,” Kadara suggested.

“But we ought to be travelling on a path probably before we can trace out the right path to our village!” Simbi exclaimed.

“And we are to put in mind that we have lost the right path to our village from the Sinners’ town. And now we cannot trace out the right part of the world that our village is!” Rali reminded the rest loudly.

“Of course, I am quite sure, our village is at the West!” Sala said. “No! is at the north!” Bako doubted. “At the north? No! that is entirely wrong, please. But our village is at the east!” Kadara explained.

“All right, ladies, to make sure of which part of the globe that our village is, let us wait until the run rises. For I am quite sure, any part of the sky that the sun appears in the morning, is the west, and that is the part of our village is!” Simbi explained.

“Oh yes! that is a fair judgment!” Bako supported. “All right, let us be keeping watch of the time the sun will appear!” the rest confirmed.

Note: Bako, Rali, Sala, Kadara and Simbi were kidnapped by the same Dogo from the same village, although Simbi was kidnapped after the rest four were kidnapped. But the names and villages of the rest ladies were not known, because they had been kidnapped by the same Dogo from their villages since when they were children, although the whole of them were behaving towards each other as sisters after they had bolted away from the shrine of the Sinners’ town. But Simbi was quite sure that Bako was a Siamese twin by birth, her second was a girl as well who was a very rough-mannered girl and she was with her (Bako’s) mother in their village.

Then the whole of them stood up, they huddled quietly, rose up their heads to the sky and were waiting for the sun to appear. But unfortunately there was no trace of the sun from the sky, the day was murky.

A few minutes later, Bako remembered “But we are in the rainy season and sometimes the sun does not appear at its right position, and sometimes it will not appear at all for the whole of this day, or even for many days to come!” “Oh yes! you are right, Bako. We are in the rainy season, therefore we cannot wait for the sun to show us the direction of our village!” the rest supported.

“Now, ladies, what to do next!” one of the nameless refugees exclaimed.

“Let’s throw some dust into the sky and to any direction the breeze blows it, that is the right direction that our village is,” Sala suggested.

“Yes, that is another good idea!” the rest exclaimed and were agreed to do so.

Then they looked thereabout for the dust but there was none to be found, for every part of the ground was wet and muddy.

“Ladies! we have forgotten, we are in the rainy season and therefore we cannot get the dust from the ground except the wet heavy earth or mud!” Simbi reminded the rest and all of them grinned.

At this stage the whole refugees buried their heads under their arms, they kept quiet and were thinking as how to reach their respective villages and also as how they would not travel on this Path of Death before they would reach their villages.

After a while, Simbi, the leader, stood up unexpectedly, she walked round there. She took a handful wet earth from the ground and then came back to the fire, but the rest were looking at her and expecting what she was going to do with the wet earth. Then she dried it with the fire and it became a dust at once having pressed and rubbed it with both palms. Then with all her power she threw the dust into the sky. But alas! there was no powerful breeze at that moment which could blow it, and it came down only a few inches from them.

Having failed for this again, Kadara suggested “I am now quite sure, there was no strong breeze at this moment. But I suggest, if we cut one leaf and throw it into the sky, to any direction it flies is the west and that is the direction of our village!”

“Good! you are quite right, Kadara, and you are sensible too!” the rest praised her. And then Bako, the Siamese twin among them, went to a tree nearby, she cut
one leaf from it. With all her power she threw it into the sky. But to their greatest horror and disappointment, the only light air which was blowing at that moment, blew this leaf along the Path of Death, though they had rejected this path as a safe one. And a few seconds after, the strong breeze came and it started to blow everything along the Path of Death, and within that moment, the sun appeared from where the Path of Death went along.

Having seen all these things which were against their thought, the whole of them stood up, they muddled at a little distance from the fire. Then they gazed at the sun just to make sure of the right direction that it (sun) appeared. But still, they discovered that it appeared from the direction of the Path of Death. “Ladies, I don’t feel that the direction to which the breeze is blowing everything now, is the west. Therefore I am not sure that this Path of Death goes to our village!” Simbi exclaimed painfully. “This Path of Death goes along to our village hence everything is blowing along there!” Bako replied.

“We are now confused by the sun and this breeze, because I believe that this Path of Death which these two things (sun and breeze) are pointing out to us now as the right path on which to be travelled to our village, is entirely false,” Bako said softly.

“And I am quite sure, if we follow this Path of Death, the whole of us shall be perished in a few days’ time!” Rali supported Bako.

“That means all of us are going to die here!” Sala said sharply.

“If we refuse to travel on this Path of Death, where
are we going to travel then? Hence the bush and forest are so thick, thorny, full up of the imps and with incalculable snakes, all of which had once driven us out to this Path of Death,” Kadara explained.

At this stage, the rest shook up and down their heads heavily, thought over of the point that Kadara had just raised. A few minutes after, Simbi asked “Are we going to vanish or die here, hence we refuse to travel neither in the forest nor on this Path of Death?”

“Surely, one must be for us, either to die or vanish here,” Sala said calmly.

“We have now come to the climax!” Rali said painfully. “Indeed!” the rest confirmed loudly.

But to their greatest surprise was that immediately they concluded their arguments at about ten o’clock a.m. Bako, the Siamese twin, picked a long, round stone from the ground. She started to beat all of them and she beat Simbi severely more than the rest. For Bako was acting like a mad lady unexpectedly.

When they could no longer bear the beat and it was impossible for them to snatch the stone from her, then they were hurtling along the Path of Death without their wish and she was chasing them along and was still beating them. It was like that this gang of refugees continued to travel on this fearful path.

When Bako chased them till the night-fall she became tired. The rest had already tired before that time, but she did not allow them to stop and rest.

When she stopped and sat down, the rest did so. When they noticed that she became conscious, Rali asked softly from her “By the way, Bako, what had been wrong with you at the time you were beating us with stone?” Having heard this, she implored the gang first before she started to explain to them of what had been wrong with her. “As some of you are quite sure that I am a Siamese twin and you believe also that my second, who is a girl, is a Siamese twin as well, and as both of us were born the same minute, so as I had been treating you it was so my mother or somebody else had been treating her at home. As she had been feeling the pain of the beat, etc., it was so I too had been feeling the same pain here. Anything which may happen to her it must happen to me at the very moment wherever I may be. If she steals something at home thus I too will steal something. Therefore, I apologise for the future whenever I treat you roughly like the first time so that you must bear it without any complaint!” thus Bako, the Siamese twin, explained briefly to her gang.

When the rest heard this terrible explanation they winked to each other and then all sighed with grief at the same moment.

“But, Bako, I beg you that next time when you shall become mad again don’t beat me more severe than the rest,” Simbi warned Bako because she beat her severely more than the rest at the first time.

“Eh, don’t complain about that, Simbi! Were you not telling us the other day when we were in the Sinners’ town, that you left our village just to find out the
‘Poverty’ and ‘Punishment’ and then to experience their difficulties?” Bako asked simply.

“Of course, my wish before I left our village was to seek for the ‘Poverty’ and ‘Punishment’ but I have regretted it since when Dogo had just kidnapped me and sold me,” Simbi explained coldly.

“But before you will regret your wish will be when you return to our village,” Bako replied and then she asked sharply from the rest “or is it not so?” “Yes, it is so!” the rest confirmed loudly.

“Yay! this is another terrible punishment and this kind of the punishment is even more severe than the punishment of this Path of Death,” Simbi mumbled.

It was on this path they slept till morning. But it was Bako’s weeping woke the rest, for she had become a weeper before the dawn. She was weeping so loudly that a person from one mile off could hear her.

When the rest asked of what she was weeping for, she replied that her mother or somebody else was scoffing her Siamese twin sister at home and she (sister) was weeping at that very moment for the scoff.

Having discussed together of what they could eat and they never knew yet, Kadara stood up, she went round. Luckily she discovered plenty of mushrooms. She rooted them out of the ground and brought them to the rest. As they had no fire with which to cook the mushrooms before eating them, they scraped the dirt away from them. But when they were about to start to eat them with greediness, for they were nearly to die of hunger, at that very moment Bako started to knock everyone of them at
mouth, face, etc. She gave Simbi an extra heavy knock which made one of her (Simbi) teeth to fall out suddenly.

At last when they could no longer bear the knock, they left the mushrooms and started to travel along. Thus Bako did not let them eat the mushrooms.

After some hours she stopped to knock them and then she explained “You see, someone had been knocking my Siamese twin sister at home and when I too felt the pain of the knock here, that was the reason why I had been knocking all of you.”

And then Simbi was weeping bitterly along the path for the pain of the tooth which Bako had knocked out by force from her mouth. It was so Bako was illtreating them along the path until she drove them to a wonderful town.