away three years, and all the people said he was dead; so his wives remarried; but three months later they saw him in the house without knowing how he came there, and he called the people and his (former) wives and all the quarters and said they had done evil. So he was vexed and took a spindle and put his wives inside; then he took the thread on the top and held it and threw the spindle up, and it stayed in the sky. Then he took Osun (a tutelary deity) and the whole town begged him to stay; but he said he had sent his people away, and put Osun under his arm and climbed the thread to the sky. As he was climbing, Osun was vexed and fell down, and the doctor saw that it fell in the house he had left. So he said: “As you are vexed, the people of this quarter who see you shall die.” So no one goes where Osun fell; it has gone into the ground. But the doctor reached the sky and came down again at Isebe, and sent people out to Edo and to Sabongida, and to Afuje and to other places. Since that time Isebe has been full of doctors.
xiii.
Two men went out to steal yams and each made up a load. And when they reached the road at night they had to climb a hill; and on the way down the man behind took yams from the one in front and put them on his own load. So the man said: “How light my load has got”; but the other one said his load was heavy. When he found out what had happened, he said: “You steal my yams; but there are yams enough on the farm.” Which of them was the proper thief?
Sabongida, Ora Tribe.
xiv.
One snake has two heads; it is called elahomo-elahomo. One day this snake told his father-in-law he was coming to help him in his farm in seven days; the same day his
