An Old Man Turns Elephant

This tale has been adapted from the original for readability:

Some people lived far up in Mende country. There was an old person there who had grown very frail and unwell, and the others had become tired of looking after them. They said the old one was too much trouble. So, because the old person could no longer do anything, their companions carried them out into the bush. They cleared a spot and built a little shelter over them, nothing much, just a rough bamboo roof for cover.

Then they took four mortars and set them in place. They put the old person’s hands into two of the mortars, and their feet into the other two. They pushed a pestle up to the old person’s mouth, as if to make a long, long mouth like an elephant’s. They tied two fanners to the sides of the head for ears. And when they’d done all that, they left the old person there and went away.

Afterwards, when someone went back to look, the old person was gone. People said they had turned into an elephant, with their feet still set in the mortars.

“Is that really true?” Konah asked at once, because the idea caught hold of her imagination.

“They say it’s true,” Dogbah replied, not wanting to swear to it. “My father’s cousin’s sister-in-law’s husband saw it with his own eyes.”

“A person can turn into an elephant,” Mammy Yamah said firmly. “Once, two girls went into the bush to gather firewood. They heard a monkey singing a certain song. One girl started singing it too, and she turned into an elephant. The other girl was frightened and ran home to tell the people. The people begged her to sing the song as well, and when she did, she turned into an elephant.”

Still the messenger pressed on. He had a pit dug deep, with sharp blades and broken glass set all around, and a chair placed over it as bait. The boy was summoned and told to sit and talk. He walked up, then said he never sat anywhere until he tested the spot. The king hesitated, but agreed. The boy took a heavy stick and struck at the chair, and at once it tipped and fell into the hidden hole. The boy did not sit; he went home.

The messenger said this was the last chance, and the king let him try. The boy was called again, and they laid out a mat, saying they would crown him king. They told him to lie down, wrapped him tight so he could not move, weighed him with heavy stones, and planned to throw him into deep water and leave him there for three days, claiming this was the way of crowning. But the boy had come with a servant. Just as they were about to carry out their plan, the servant cried out that he had forgotten something a mile away. At once the others began to say the same, even the king, and they all rushed off in confusion, as if their minds had been pulled loose.

When they were gone, the boy called a small child nearby. The child came and untied the ropes, and the boy slipped free. He filled the mat with heavy stones, tied it again exactly as before, and quietly made his way home. Soon the servant returned, and the king and his people came back with him. They lifted the mat, believed the boy still inside, and threw it into the deep water.

Three days later they heard drumming and celebration from the boy’s town. When the third day ended, the boy rode out wearing a crown, with a great company following him, all rejoicing. He returned to his father’s town, gathered the people, and said he had come to tell them what he had seen when he died. The people believed him. He said that after he was thrown into the water, he met the one who crowned him, and that person told him, “When you go back, you must crown the messenger in the same way.”

At that, the wicked messenger tried to run, but the people seized him. They wrapped him in a mat, tied him so he could not escape, loaded him with heavy stones, and sank him in the water, and he died. And that is why it is no good to plot evil against an innocent person.