The Hare and the Ogre

Along time ago, Hare also known as Apuoyo, was a great friend of Apul Apul (Ogre). Both wanted to marry but were in love with the same girl. Because of his cunning, Apuoyo managed to sweep the girl off her feet, and so Apul had to marry another girl. After a while, both of them got children but Apuoyo’s girls were prettier than Apul’s.

Apul was very unhappy about this, and their friendship came to a sudden end. During this time there was a great famine in the land. Every morning Apuoyo would leave the house to look for food many miles away. He instructed his daughters never to open the door for anyone else except when they heard him singing a particular song. Because of the rivalry between them, Apul Apul had vowed to eat Apuoyo’s children.

So as soon as Apuoyo left the house, Apul went to his house and sang in a hoarse voice hoping that Apuoyo’s daughters would let him in. But they could not be fooled as every toddler in that county knew Apul’s voice a mile away. As he was determined to fulfil this desire, he went to consult a medicine man on how to make his voice mellower. He was advised to eat crickets which would soften his voice.

However, Apul failed to find a cricket and instead ate a frog. This made his voice even hoarser, and when he tried to sing Apuoyo’s children called out mockingly at him.

He decided to consult another medicine man who also advised him to eat a cricket to soften his vocal chords. This time round, he was lucky to catch a cricket which he quickly swallowed, making his voice sounding like Apuoyo’s. He quickly dashed off to Apuoyo’s house and began to sing. In spite of this, Apuoyo’s younger daughter was still suspicious and dissuaded her elder sister from opening the door. The elder sister nevertheless opened the door, and Apul immediately swallowed her. The younger sister was lucky to escape before Apul could catch her.

When Apuoyo returned from his journey, he was horrified to find the door fastened from outside. He quickly unfastened it and began to sing:
Where have my children gone?
My two children.

When his youngest daughter heard him singing, she quickly emerged from the water pot where she had hidden. She narrated to him what had happened, and Apuoyo was too stunned to speak. Luckily for him, on that day the elders had called a meeting at the riverside to discuss how to make rain, for the drought had caused a great famine in the land. He decided to attend the meeting, which had begun a while ago.

Some drinking had been going on, and there was banter about singing in turns as a form of entertainment. King Lion (Sibuor) insisted on singing before everyone else, but his voice was so off-key that he was politely persuaded to stop. Then Apuoyo offered to sing. Apul and his friends protested but Sibuor ruled that he be given chance to sing. He took a drum and sang thus in tune with the drum beat:
Ati-ti-ti nyambla diang’a
See the homestead exuding smoke.
Ati-ti-ti nyambla diang’a
See the homestead exuding smoke.

This song so amused the animals that they all danced gleefully as the drink began to take control of them. Apuoyo soon slipped from the meeting and headed for Apul’s home. He set it on fire with Apul’s children trapped inside. He then ran back to the ceremony which was now approaching its climax.

When everybody noticed he was back they persuaded him to sing his entertaining song again. This he did with gusto, again and again. Apul soon began to smell a rat; how could Apuoyo enjoy singing such banality? He quickly ran to a raised ground above the riverside and looked in the direction of his homestead. He was shocked to see a huge smoke and fire razing his homestead. The meaning of Apuoyo’s song hit him hard.

His immediate reaction was to confront Apuoyo at the ceremony, but his nemesis had vanished as soon as he realized that Apul had discovered his deed. He kept running and hiding the whole day as Apul mounted a sustained man-hunt for him. Much later when it was very dark, Apul sat down to rest and to mull over the recent happenings in their county. Unbeknown to him, Apuoyo had been sitting on a rock a few yards away from him.

At the crack of dawn, Apuoyo was the first to realise that he had been sleeping near his sworn enemy and quietly began to creep away. Unfortunately he stepped on a dry twig which snapped noisily and woke up Apul. Apul was both taken aback, and glad that his enemy was in close proximity. The chase now took the direction of the village. Soon Apul met Sibuor and Kwach (Leopard) who asked about his business on the plain so early in the morning. He narrated to them his side of the story.

Sibour promised to convene a court session to arbitrate between the two. On the day of arbitration Apuoyo arrived early with his daughter as witness to the genesis of this conflict. Mwanda the Antelope, was then dispatched to summon Apul, and on their way to court advised him to demand part of Apuoyo’s daughter’s bride-price as compensation for his loss.

Deliberation on this conflict lasted a whole day. In the end both parties were found guilty of one felony or another, although Apul had incurred the greater loss. When asked to demand compensation, he asked for what Mwanda had advised, to which Apuoyo agreed.

But when Apuoyo’s daughter had grown old enough to be married, the family migrated secretly to live somewhere else. Apul Apul could not trace their whereabouts, and was left to rue his actions that had led to his current predicament.