2 The Slaughter and The Acceptance

Different incantations he vomited as the rest of the priests continued to chorus every last word he spewed and at the same time shaking their gourds which could be seen in their hands.

The moment the eldest priest stop his incantations another of the priest began as the rest also chorused his every last words in a song and so it goes until every one of the priest has said their incantations.

The king and the rest of the chiefs, including the elders who were present at the scene of the sacrifice already developed their cold feet; bunch of namby-pamby they were for the voice of the eldest witch and the hysteric laughs of the rest of the witches which caused the trees to wave, and the wind that will not stop blowing with anger.

The name of King which the eldest witch called as she ordered him to stand closer to the eldest priest before the sacrifice almost had him stop breathing as his fears had crippled his confidence.

Even the chiefs and the elders who were encouraging him with their silent words and gesture, just for him to step more forward were drunken in their largest and mighty fears that they could pick a race if a leaf had fallen from a tree or, an insect had walked on the surface of their body.

But who would be in the presence of the witches and not tremble? Was it their voice that sprouts from unseen elements or the feel of their presence that caused an earthquake will not cause them to run as fast as their legs would carry them?

Definitely, it was the first time of King Oranmiyan performing this ritual with the priests for his father, king Osabiegun who had been the one fulfilling this ritual after his father and his father after his father's father had passed on at his old age thus, the title of the king and the throne to which his father had seat belonged to him.

Even so, Oranmiyan who was already a grown man had married before the death of his father but never bear a son and this was the reason he continued to pick a new queen until the fourth one who also will not bear him a son.

Oranmiyan will do everything and anything just to have a son. To him, not having a son was a disgrace and this reason alone was enough to have caused him anything and everything.

The first queen bear for him three daughters and same with the second queen who had disappointed him with three daughters. His hope were solid as he had danced to the tune of offering sacrifices to the river goddess for a son yet again disappointed with the third queen who bear him two daughters and so was his newly married queen who bear him one daughter.

This was the ninth daughter Oranmiran would bear and only for this reason, king Oranmiyan was never a happy king and always wallowing in sorrows, sad thoughts, sober and angry but at same time, he was one who would smiled to everyone else aside the queens but shed his tears in the dark corner of his room.

In the village of Ifa-ile, right from the days of their ancestors, it was a taboo to crown a female a king and if this forbidden act happened, great tribulation will afflict the land until the error has been corrected. Thus, no one king maker would dare to commit this great sin.

If a king failed to bear a son, his elder brother or his younger brother would be crowded as king and if the king does not have a male sibling one of his distant relations whom Ifa shall pick, would become a king. This was the fear of Oranmiyan as he will have no one to continue his legacy and the legacy of his father and that of his father's father.

A shame it was for Oranmiyan and one of the solid reasons he would treat his queens with so much hatred. None of them he loved as they will not give him a son, and he looked forward to getting himself a new queen.

In ifa-ile, a woman was believed to be capable of choosing if to give her husband a male child or a female child and a woman who continued to give birth to a female child was always considered barren and if care was not taken, such a woman could be killed by the husband or the woman's family as she has been a subject of shame to them.

Patience is the father of success is what an old saying says and a person who is patience will not only even find the source of food in the desert, he will break the hardest rock and eat the eggs that comes from it.

Patience was what was preached to Oranmiyan countless times he had visited the priests of Ifa-ile for the fact that he was childless as according to him, having no son was having no child at all.

The more he continued to shake at the presence of the witches whose loud and continuous sneer was the main cause of his already grown cold feet though they cannot be seen, he was instructed to slaughter the sacrifice himself and empty the blood in the calabash which the eldest priest had already placed down.

No matter how hefty a leopard can be, it always grew shy at the presence of his tawny adversaries. And this was the case of King Oranmiyan even with his mighty powers cannot be confident at the feel of the witches.

The hands he raised up, and slowly as he brought it down slaughtered the baby through his neck and his blood gushed into the calabash.

None of the chiefs, or the elders looked away for the main reason that they could not witness the slaughter. Their eyes continue to glue on the event as even the hysteric wicked laugh of the witches continued more loudly.

Their sacrifice was accepted was what all the witches echoed at once and throughout the village their voices was heard as everyone trembled in their homes for the strange voice that suddenly woke them from their sleep.

But even the eldest witch will not stop talking and so have everyone listened. A warming she had uttered for them not to forget to always offered this sacrifice if they want the birds to keep crying like the birds, the rat should keep crying like the rats and if they want the fishes to keep creeping like the fishes.

That if they deviate from this instruction even the sun will fail to shine upon their village, and the moon will vanish from the sky. All their sons will stop to breathe one after another until all of them gives up the ghost, their streams and rivers will flow with blood and even their crops with become afflicted until they see maggots as food because a person will not see the snake and deliberately march on its tail, a person will not see a tiger, and say he haven't seen his death.

For they were on their own when their fathers came to them for help and this condition they must always fulfill until the sun and moon which always rises in the west and set in the east rises in the North and set in the south. Until the stars ceased to shine in the sky, Until forever and forever more for a day that never comes.

They all turned and slowly walking back the same way and fashion they came,with a strict warning from the witches which was for them never to look back because if they do, even a pillar of salt they will be turned to will be too little a consequence that will happen to them. The eldest priest at the fore front followed by the king, and the chiefs and elders then the rest of the priests.

They must not look back the witches echoed again again and again for their sacrifice has been accepted and as further they kept walking and chanting songs to praise the witches, the more their loud smirk continued to explode in the air as the body of the sacrifice and the blood of the sacrifice has now disappeared into their realm as they began to feast and dance.

The moment Oranmiyan arrived into the palace, his queens were already awoken waiting for him as they kept shivering in fear for the strange voices of the witches they heard left them trembling.

But even Oranmiyan did not care if they were awakened or asleep all he did was entered into his private chambers as he laid his head hoping for the night to get conquered again by the day.

This was always a repeated action from Oranmiyan to the queens as he has considered them useless and that nothing good will come out from them.