"The Dog and the Tortoise "- my favorite folktale

When I saw this prompt of a "favourite folklore" it reminded me of my paternal grandma, she isn't directly the one who birth my father ,she is eldest of the family,but my dad is like her child because my dad was born after she had been married and giving birth in her husband house, you know olden days, mother still give birth even when here daughter is giving birth already, may her soul continue to rest in peace. During her days she do come to visit us constantly, she was friendly ,she jokes a lot,she cherish my dad alot, even when it comes to between my dad and her grandchildren(us) she will pick my dad.

Whenever she comes like that, we are always happy knowing we will be listening to a folktales . It's always after dinner, we move out to the compound receiving fresh air. She has tell a lot of folktales to us about tortoise, dogs and all ,mostly about animals. I will be telling you one .

The tortoise and the dog
Once upon a time in the animal kingdom , there was a total famine in the land, all the animals had nothing to eat but the dog was looking fine and healthy with a big tummy, tortoise noticed the dog and went to him, "How come you look this healthy with this much famine on the land?" Dog didn't replied him at first but after so much persuasion from the tortoise he finally speak out how he and his family had been feeding. Dog told tortoise to meet him the next morning in his house. when it was morning, tortoise went to his house and they moved on a journey, soon ,they got to a farmland full of different food. The Dog warned the tortoise that he has to be fast in taking what he needs and also take little he can carry so that he can run with it before the owner of the farm comes back .

Source

Tortoise didn't heed to the dog warning, instead he is busy stalking yams on his back ,when the dog pick the little things he wants,he told the tortoise he is done and they should be on their way, he started going but the tortoise is finding it hard to walk because of the heaviness of the yams he carried coupled with his nature that he is slow,the dog didn't look back instead he is walking more fast so that the farm owner won't catch him there. Tortoise saw that dog won't wait and started singing loud :

Dog wait and help me with this burden ,fere-ku-fe (2times)
If you don't wait and help me with this burden, fere-ku-fe
I will shout so loud the farmer will hear!! ,fere-ku-fe
He will hear and he will bind us,fere-ku-fe
He will bind us and collect our yams!!,fere-ku-fe

Source

The dog didn't wait, he kept on moving and has gone so long that tortoise couldn't see him again.
Not so long...the farm owner later met the tortoise at the entrance of his land, struggling with tubers of yam while the dog is not even in sight again.
The farmer said to tortoise " so, you have been the one always coming to my farm to steal from me? The tortoise replied that it's not him, it's Dog that has been stealing from him, he was only helping the Dog to carry the yams. Then the farmer told tortoise to bring him to dog house ,so he can confirm what he said .

Dog has known that would finally happen since tortoise couldn't walk fast ,so as soon as he got home , he told his wife to rob him palm oil all over his body and he put two raw egg inside inside his check , as the farmer and tortoise got to his house they met him laying down covered with clothes and shivering, the farmer explained what tortoise told him and when dog wanted to talk he cracked one egg from his cheeks and spart it on the floor.

The farmer look up to tortoise and said " I know you are lying,how would this dog that's not feeling well have accompanied you on this mission? Tortoise has no evidence to back his words ,so the farmer took him to the king and the king ordered him to be killed.
The End.

"The story teaches us not to be greedy and as well it's not good to steal"

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