Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 178: Nigeria- The Head, Ole and the Ants, The Boa Constrictor

Transcript

EP 178: Nigeria- The Head, Ole and the Ants, The Boa Constrictor · Sandman Stories Presents

• 0:28
  Welcome back, listeners to Sandman stories presents.
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  A folklore podcast where I read you to sleep or until the next
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  story. I'm your host Dustin today, we
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  are back in the book of Yoruba folklore recorded by Mir Gumi
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  Foo. In the first story, the main
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  character learns that you need every part of your body to get
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  ahead. And in the Second Story, a lazy
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  old man, gets high to be able to see what his neighbors are up to
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  but he loses everything to the ants.
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  And in the final story Mighty Hunter uses magic to turn into a
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  boa. But when a spell is broken, he
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  might not be able to come back. Okay, let's begin.
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  The head. There is a certain country where
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  the inhabitants have heads but no bodies.
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  The heads move about by jumping along the ground, but they never
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  go very far one of the heads desired to see the world.
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  So we set out one morning secretly, when he had gone some
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  distance, he saw an old woman looking out of the door of a
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  Hut. And he asked her, if she would
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  kindly lent him a body, The old woman willingly.
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  Lent him the body of her slave in the head thanked, her and
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  went on his way. Later he came upon a young man
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  sleeping under a tree and asked him.
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  If he would kindly lent him a pair of arms as he did not
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  appear to be using them. The young man agreed and the
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  head thanked him and went on his way.
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  Later still, he reached a river bank or Fisherman's Hat singing,
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  amending their cone shape, net. The head asked, if any one of
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  them would let him a pair of legs as they were all sitting
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  and not walking one of the fishermen agreed and the head
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  thanked him and went on his way, but now he had legs arms and a
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  body and so appeared like any other man.
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  In the evening, he reached to town where he saw a maiden's
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  dancing while the onlookers threw coins to those, they
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  favored. The head through all his coins
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  to one of the dancers and she's so much admired, his handsome
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  form that she consented to marry him and go to live with him in
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  his own country. Next day they set out but when
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  they came to the river bank, the stranger took off his legs and
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  gave them back to the fisherman. Later they reached the young man
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  who still lay sleeping under the tree and to him, the head gave
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  him back his arms. Finally, they came to the
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  cottage where the old woman stood watching and here the
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  stranger gave up his body. When the bride saw that her
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  husband was merely ahead. She was filled with horror and
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  she ran away as fast as she could go.
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  Now, that the head had neither body arms nor legs, he could not
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  overtake her and so lost her forever.
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  The end. Okay.
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  And Story number 20, lay and the Ants.
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  There was a certain lazy and disagreeable, man, whom
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  everybody called Olay or lazy one.
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  He liked to profit by the work of others and was also very
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  inquisitive about other people's affairs.
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  Once he saw that, the ants had begun building a pillar in the
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  compound of his house, but though the ants destroyed all
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  the plants in the compound and stripped all the trees, well,
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  they would not trouble to kill them or to break down their
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  pillar. Instead he thought to himself
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  when the ants have made this pillar very high, I will sit on
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  top of it and then I should be able to see all that my
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  neighbors are doing without leaving my compound.
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  This thought, pleased him and he was glad that the ants swarmed
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  in his compound, each day, their pillar grew higher and at last
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  the ants ceased their building and began again elsewhere.
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  Only then climbed up onto the pillar and spent the whole day,
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  observing the doings of his neighbor's and laughing at their
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  activity. Here.
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  I sit like a great Chief and I see all things sang Olay.
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  But while he sat on the pillar, the ants began to demolish his
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  house in all that, it contained in a short time there was
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  nothing left of all of his food and possessions.
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  Olay, thus became the laughingstock of the village and
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  everyone who song cried kui Juco or greetings to you on your
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  sitting. Soon afterwards, he died.
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  And it is not known to this day whether he died of shame or of
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  laziness. The end.
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  Okay. And Story.
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  Number 3, the boa constrictor. Alguna Manera the famous Hunter
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  live to such a great age that he was no longer able to go into
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  the forest and Chase the deer in the leopard.
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  Life had no pleasure for him other than hunting.
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  So we went to a magician and ask for some charm which would
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  enable him to in continuous occupation.
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  The magician gave him two pots. Each container charm.
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  Every day, okuni era dipped his head into the first pot and was
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  at once transformed into a boa constrictor in which form, he
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  glided into the forest and hunted to his heart's content at
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  night. He returned and dipped his head
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  into the second pot and so became a man, again.
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  This went on for a long time without the knowledge of the old
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  Hunters family but when At Last I chance to discover the secret,
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  they were filled with horror and his son in a rage kicked at the
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  pots and overturn them both. Oh goon was at that moment
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  hunting in the forest and when he returned to his house found
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  the magic pots overturned an empty.
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  He was filled with dismay for he had no means of regaining his
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  human form for some days. The boa constrictor glided about
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  near the house, seeking for a few drops of the charm.
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  But in vain and at last, he disappeared into the forest and
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  was never seen by his family again.
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  The end. I really enjoyed the first
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  story, the most, it reminds me of a long joke.
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  I heard a few times in my family but a guy that is just ahead,
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  then he turns into a grape and a squash.
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  And so the punchline is he should have stopped while he was
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  ahead. The Second Story, I think would
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  be a great Illustrated story seeing the old man, get higher
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  and higher on the big pile in the middle.
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  While The Termites Ate Everything, it would just be an
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  excellent visual for that story. And the third story is a cool.
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  This is how bows were made style story.
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  Logan has a lot of meanings, and so I'd have to ask someone who
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  knows the nuances of the story to properly translated.
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  I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as I did, there's only
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  17 stories left which translates to about six more episodes after
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  I finish this book, I'll start a new one from the same region to
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  keep Africa represented. And the podcast shout out is to
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  Tibet folklore. It's not a folklore podcast but
• 8:23
  rather just a Twitter user. It is posting Tibetan folklore
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  for all to see Seriously, just go check them out.
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  They are just at Tibet, folklore on Twitter and go read their
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  stories. And my listener, shout-out goes
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  to the capital of Colombia. Bogota d.c.
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  Nicknamed, the Athens of South America.
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  The city was first settled by the muisca people who may have
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  named it moist Kita. Meaning the Walling of the
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  farmland, It was later colonized by the Spanish, which is the
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  majority language in the area. Although there is a school now
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  teaching classes in chicha It looks like a beautiful place and
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  I would really like to see the altiplano.
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  So if I get a chance, I'd love to go there.
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  And so to my listener in, Bogota I say, gracias, Edwin is noches.
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  Thank you. Good night.
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  Thank you. Good night.