"Dear Chicken," said Wildcat, "will you marry me?"
"I will," said Chicken.
"Wonderful!" said Wildcat. "I'll prepare a lavish wedding feast, and you can invite all your relatives and friends."
While Wildcat cooked, Chicken visited her friends and relatives, inviting them all to the wedding feast.
Then, as Chicken's friends and relatives arrived, Wildcat secretly ambushed them, killed them, and ate them.
Chicken was surprised that none of her friends or relatives arrived to share the wedding feast that Wildcat had prepared.
Later, when Chicken and Wildcat went to bed that night, Wildcat strangled his bride and ate her too.
[a Hausa story from northern Nigeria]
Inspired by: "The Wild Cat and the Hen" in Hausa Superstitions and Customs by A. J. N. Tremearne, 1913.
Notes: You can read the original story online. Tremearne has a useful note comparing this wedding-feast trick to the sham funeral trick found in other folktales.
No comments:
Post a Comment