Ohia and the Thieving Deer

There once lived on the earth a poor man named Ohia, and his wife was called Awirehu. One misfortune after another had fallen on them. Whatever they tried, bad luck seemed to be waiting for them, and nothing they did ever succeeded. In the end they were so poor that they could hardly find a cloth to cover themselves.

At last Ohia thought of a plan that many of his neighbours had tried with success. He went to a wealthy farmer nearby and offered to fell some of his palm-trees and collect their sap to make palm wine. When the wine was ready for market, Awirehu would carry it into town and sell it, and the money would be split equally among the farmer, Ohia, and Awirehu.

The farmer was happy to agree. He even lent Ohia a supply of earthen pots to catch the sap, since the poor man could not afford to buy any.

Ohia and his wife set to work with great delight. They felled the trees, prepared them, and placed the pots underneath to collect the sap. On market day, before the cocks crowed, Ohia set out with a burning torch to gather the wine and get it ready for Awirehu to take to town. She was almost ready to follow.

But when he reached the first tree, his heart sank. Instead of a pot full of sweet sap, he found the pot lying broken on the ground and the wine gone. He went on to the second tree and the third, and at every one the same thing had happened.

Just then his wife came along, cheerful and ready for market. One look at his face told her that misfortune had struck again. Sadly they looked over the damage and agreed that some wicked person had stolen the wine and then smashed the pots to cover up the theft. Awirehu went home in despair, but Ohia started over. He brought a second set of pots and put them in place to catch the sap.

When he came back the next morning, the same thing had happened: the wine stolen, the pots in pieces. There was nothing to do but go to the farmer and tell him of this new trouble. The farmer was kind and generous and said Ohia could have as many pots as he needed.

So the poor man went back to the trees and set out his pots a third time. This attempt ended no better than the first two, and Ohia went home miserable. His wife thought they should stop fighting their bad luck; it was plain, she said, that they would never succeed. But Ohia was determined at least to catch and punish the thief, if it could be done.

So he bravely laid out the pots one last time, and when night fell he stayed among the trees to keep watch. Midnight passed and nothing happened. But at about two in the morning, a dark shape slipped past him to the nearest palm, and a moment later he heard a pot break. He crept up to the shape and found that the thief was a bush-deer. It had a large jar on its head and was pouring Ohia’s wine into it, tossing each empty pot carelessly onto the ground, where it shattered.

Ohia edged closer, meaning to grab the thief, but the deer was too quick. It dashed away, dropping its great jar as it ran. The deer was very fast, but Ohia was determined to catch it and followed. The chase went on for many miles until midday, when they reached the foot of a tall hill. The deer began to climb straight away, and Ohia, though almost worn out, kept after it.

At the top of the hill Ohia found himself in the middle of a great gathering of four-footed animals. The panting deer flung itself down in front of King Leopard. His Majesty ordered that Ohia be brought forward to be punished for interrupting such an important meeting.

Ohia begged to be heard before they condemned him; he wanted to explain why he was there. After talking it over with some of the other animals, King Leopard agreed to listen. So Ohia told the story of his unlucky life. He described how every effort had failed and how at last he had tried palm wine. He told how he had felt when he found the first theft after all his work, and he described his second, third, and fourth attempts and how each had ended. Finally he told of his chase after the thief, which explained how he came to be at their meeting.

The animals listened closely to all of Ohia’s troubles. When he finished, they agreed as one that the deer was guilty and the man was blameless. The deer was sentenced to be punished, and Ohia was given an apology on behalf of the whole assembly. It turned out that every morning King Leopard had given the deer a large sum of money to buy palm wine for the gathering. The deer had stolen the wine and kept the money.

To make up for Ohia’s losses, King Leopard offered him a gift: the power to understand everything animals say to one another. This, he said, would soon make Ohia rich. But there was one condition. On pain of instant death, Ohia must never tell anyone about this wonderful power.

The poor man set off home overjoyed. As soon as he arrived, he went back to work on his palm-trees. After that, his troubles seemed to be over. Nobody ever meddled with his wine, and he and Awirehu grew more prosperous and happier every year.

One morning, while he was bathing in a pool close to his house, he heard a hen and her chicks talking in his garden. He listened and clearly heard one chick tell Mother Hen about three jars of gold buried in Ohia’s garden. The hen told the chick to be careful, in case their master saw her scratching near the gold and found it.

Ohia pretended not to have heard and walked away. Later, when the hen and her chicks had gone, he came back and started digging in that part of the garden. To his great joy he soon found three big jars of gold, enough to keep him comfortable for the rest of his life. He was careful, though, to tell no one but his wife, and he hid the treasure safely in the house.

Soon Ohia and Awirehu were among the richest couples in the district, with a good deal of property. Ohia felt he could now afford a second wife, so he married again. Sadly, the new wife was nothing like Awirehu, who had always been good, kind, and honest. The new wife was jealous and selfish. She had a mobility impairment and feared that people were making fun of her. She got it into her head that whenever Ohia and Awirehu were together, they laughed at her behind her back. Nothing could have been further from their minds, but she would not believe it. Whenever she saw them together, she stood outside the door listening to what they said. Of course, she never heard a word about herself.

At last, one evening, Ohia and Awirehu had gone to bed. Awirehu was fast asleep when Ohia overheard a conversation that amused him greatly. Two mice in a corner of the room were planning to slip into the larder for food as soon as their master, who was watching them, had fallen asleep. Ohia found this so funny that he laughed out loud. His second wife heard and burst into the room. She accused him of mocking her again to Awirehu. Astonished, he denied it, but she would not listen. If he was laughing at an innocent joke, she insisted, he would tell her what it was at once.

Ohia could not do that without breaking his promise to King Leopard, and his refusal only convinced her that she was right. She did not rest until she had taken the whole matter to the chief. The chief, who was a close friend of Ohia’s, tried to persuade him to tell the joke and settle the matter. Naturally, Ohia would not. But the woman gave the chief no peace until he summoned her husband to answer her complaint before the assembly.

Ohia saw no way out, so he prepared to die. First he invited all his friends and relatives to a great feast and said farewell to them. Then he put his affairs in order. He left all his gold to faithful Awirehu, and his property to his son and his servants. When everything was done, he went to the Assembly Place, where the people of the district had gathered.

He said goodbye to the chief and began his story. He told of his many misfortunes, of his adventure with the deer, and of his promise to King Leopard. Last of all he explained the joke that had made him laugh and upset his wife. As he spoke the words, he fell dead, just as King Leopard had warned.

He was buried with great mourning, because everyone had liked and respected him. His second wife was blamed for his death, accused of witchcraft and executed, and her ashes were scattered to the four winds. Because of that, the story says, jealousy and selfishness are now spread all through the world, where before there was hardly any.

Where this tale comes from

“Ohia and the Thieving Deer” opens the “Miscellaneous Tales” half of William H. Barker’s West African Folk-Tales, illustrated by Cecilia Sinclair (1917), as story XIX. Barker’s note explains that the animal called ‘tiger’ in this collection is a leopard; this retelling uses leopard accordingly. The book says the jealous wife was burnt as a witch; this page states her end more briefly.

In his introduction Barker compares this tale with a Serbian story in which a man is also given the language of animals on pain of death and is pressed by his wife to reveal why he laughed. In the Serbian version, he notes, the ending turns to comedy instead of tragedy, and he wonders how two such distant peoples came to share the plot.

The ending offers a fictional explanation for the spread of jealousy. The wife’s accusation does not establish witchcraft, and her disability does not explain or excuse any character’s actions.

Read the original: West African Folk-Tales (Gutenberg) — Barker and Sinclair

For older readers: deprivation, a fatal secrecy condition, marital suspicion, public pressure, sudden death and execution following an accusation of witchcraft. The supernatural penalty and origin of jealousy belong to the tale.

Reading the story closely

The animal court first threatens Ohia for an interruption, then changes its judgment after hearing his account. The human assembly presses for an explanation without knowing that speech carries a fatal price. Put the two hearings side by side: who is allowed to explain, what facts are missing, and what authority does the listener exercise?

The gift compensates Ohia for a theft but attaches a dangerous restriction to the compensation. His second wife’s suspicion contributes to the crisis, yet the chief’s pressure and the king’s condition also shape it. Trace this chain of decisions before assigning all blame to one person. Awirehu’s work at the beginning and her inheritance at the end also invite attention: prosperity was a shared project before it became a source of conflict.

Talk about it

• Why did Ohia keep going back to the palm-trees even after the wine was stolen three times?
• What gift did King Leopard give Ohia, and what was the condition?
• Why couldn’t Ohia simply tell his second wife why he laughed?

Related stories

• The Hunter and the Tortoise — another man ruined by revealing a secret wonder
• Maku Mawu and Maku Fia — a man facing death before the assembly
• Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked — a friendly “tiger” who is really a leopard