|| A Nigerian folktale ||
Many many years ago, Ndarake was the King of Idu. Being young and rich, he was very fond of fine girls, and had plenty of slaves.
There was another man in the country called Nsiat, who had a very pretty daughter. She had beautiful eyes and lovely glowing skin. Ndarake was in love with her and wished to marry her. The Nsiat family lived separately from others and mostly kept to themselves.
But Ndarake was determined. He went to their house and he spoke to the father about the matter, Nsiat hesitated. He replied, ” Chief, I, of course, have no objection personally, as it would be a great honour for my daughter to marry the king”
He continued, “But, unfortunately, everyone in my family always gave birth to twins. As you know, this is not allowed in the country. We had kept it a secret so far, but marrying you, we would all be exposed!”
The cruel native custom at that time was to kill both the children and throw them into the bush, the mother being driven away and allowed to starve. Primitive people were easily scared of things they cannot explain, like twins.
But the king, at this point, was so captivated by the daughter, Adit, that he promised her father Nsiat that he would not let any harm come to them.
So Nsiat had to agree.
A large amount of dowry was paid by the king (In most Native African tribes, dowry was paid by groom to the bride’s family)
A big play and feast was held. The bride, Adit was carried by slaves during the whole ceremony. She sat cross-legged on straw mat and was lifted and taken around. This was done to show what a rich and powerful man the king was.
After the marriage, in due course Adit gave birth to twins, as her mother had done before her.
The king immediately became very fond of the two babies, but according to the native custom, which was too strong for any one to resist, he had to give them up to be killed.
When Nsiat heard this, he went to the king and reminded him that he had warned the king beforehand on what would happen if he married Adit. The grief-stricken king admitted his hopelessness.
Nsiat then requested one thing. Rather than that the twins should be killed, he and the whole of his family would leave the earth and dwell in the air, taking the twins with them. There was no point in trying to live where they are hunted, he said.
The king did not want his wife and children to be killed, so he consented to this unusual idea. Nsiat took the whole of his family, as well as Adit and her two children away. They turned into birds and flew away and made their home in the trees.
But as they had formerly lived in the town with all the people, they did not like to go into the forest, so they made their nests in the trees which grew in the town.
That is why you always see the ‘Nsiat birds living and making their nests only in places where human beings are. The males are black and the females are golden colour and they always still lay eggs in pairs of two.
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