A clear year after my return from the first adventure, I once again took hold of my gun one night and set my head on the road to the Forest of Irunmale, all eager to do some hunting. When I left home I had imagined that it was on the verge of dawn, but the truth was that I had set out in the very dead of night; the brilliant dawn-lingering phase of the moon had deceived me into thinking that a new day was about to break. However, by the time a man could begin to distinguish the lines on his palm, it lacked only two hours for me to arrive at my destination. It was a different route which I took to the Forest this time. I did not wish to return the former way lest it appear that I sought out trouble with my own hands and met the consequent misadventures, that I pulled the whirlwind down on my own head.

I arrived finally just about breakfast time; quickly I made a fire and roasted a piece of soft yam. My meal over I tucked my pipe into my mouth and lit it; my body was filled with pleasure and tingled all over with well-being. After a while I put out my pipe and replaced it in my pocket. When I looked up I found two kolanuts, one had no fruits but the other had some. I plucked the fruits of the latter and found three pods. When I had split them all open the nuts numbered ten. I took the largest of them and peeled it, its skin was wafer dry; I broke it open and it pared in four. So, since this variety of kolanut is excellent for ritual offering to the gun, I propped up my gun and offered the kola. But when I cast the pieces, the result was inauspicious. For if it spoke good, would two pieces not face down and the other two up? Alas it was not so for me, sometimes three pieces faced down and one up, and at other times all four faced down – the matter of this kolanut was simply beyond my comprehension. So when I had cast them many times without good augury, with my own hands I turned two up and faced two down saying, ‘With his own two hands does a man mend his fortune; if you kola pieces will not predict good, I will predict that good for you.’ After I was done I picked up my gun and proceeded to the forest of game.

Even as I stood up, I stubbed my left foot; this was my maternal foot and whenever I stumbled by this foot over any matter, that affair would not prosper. This frightened me somewhat, and while I stood pondering on this unlucky foot an owl flew past and its wings hit me in the face; a most evil omen was this. I stood for nearly ten minutes thinking about these ominous signs but in the end I simply bartered death away saying, ‘What of it! Does a man die more than once? If death must take me then let me get on my way.’ I plunged into this forest and began to seek game. After a long while I saw an antelope, with its haunches turned to me. I waited some time for the creature to turn its head towards me but it did not oblige; thereupon I loosed a shot at it. The animal was hit but the shot was not lethal. It leapt into a zig-zag flight and I in turn seized my cutlass and gun and chased it. I chased it over a long distance but did not catch up with it; after a while it fled into a cave within a large rock and I followed it inside.

The cave was large and exceedingly dark; from the moment I entered it I no longer saw the antelope, I could only follow the thud of its hooves. But after a while there came the moment when I neither saw the antelope nor heard its hooves. It puzzled me how it could have vanished in the middle of this place and I began to hunt it everywhere. I was occupied with this when I suddenly felt someone seize me by the right hand, twist the arm behind my back and fetch me a slap on the ear. This person’s hand had a severe sting to it; even as I struggled to free myself from his grip he used his left hand to grip me by the neck and, when he had squeezed it tight, began to push me forward with regular shoves, slapping me as we went along. When, after some time, the punishment became unbearable I began to cry out, ‘Please let me go, I will never again touch your antelope. Please, I will never again kill your game…’ But he made no reply; he continued to shove me along and punish me as he went. Sometimes he would pinch me, other times he would rap me on the head; there was no variety of torment he did not devise for me and I could not even see him because it was pitch dark. It seemed a long time before we emerged in the open, and only then did I observe the man; he was not much above short and his back had an enormous hunch, fins covered his body so that it had the appearance of a fish. He had two arms, two legs, and two eyes like a human being, but he had a small tail at his posterior and his eyes were enormous; each one was six times the normal size and red as palm kernels. When we came out into the open he ordered me to stoop and place my hands on my knees and I obeyed him. When he observed that I had done so he mounted my back, kicked me and ordered me to bear him about as if I was a horse. Like it or not I had to do this also. I want you to know that he had seized my gun before we came out of the cave, and when he was astride my back it was he who held on to it.

We emerged into tall grass and it was here that my torment was most severe. Before he climbed on my back he had cut several switches and kept them by him, and from the moment he spurred me and turned my head in the direction of his choice he began to laugh and to drip saliva on my head; whenever I tried and sought to raise my head a little he would lay about me with the whips and I would at once resume the race. Sometimes he would ask me to neigh like a horse and when my voice did not simulate a horse’s satisfactorily he would blast my ears with several slaps. Sometimes he demanded that I toss him up and down like a horse, and there was no remedy but to obey him; if I did not he would thrash the very breath out of me. It was during these riding sessions that we arrived at a spot where there was a large hole. He dismounted and took a thick rope, tied my hands together behind me, then entered deeper into this hole and returned with a large chain which he hooked round my neck. He did not make it too tight but slacked it a little so that I was able to breath comfortably. He then tied the chain to a tree and returned into the cave; this was the home of the creature.

It would be about two o’clock when we came to this man’s dwelling, and when I saw that he was safely in, I took hold of tears and began to weep them. I was careful to cry very softly lest, overhearing me, he return to punish me even more. About half past four, the man came out from the cave and approached me; he pressed on my stomach to see if I was hungry and when he observed that my stomach was little better than flat he returned to the cave and brought out a raw, uncooked yam, cut pieces into a leaf and placed it before me. He put it down and told me to kneel and eat it directly with my mouth. I tried a little of this yam but my throat was not too favourable towards it, so I left the rest alone. His next act was to loosen the chain from my neck, untie my arms and mount again on my back, and I began to bear him round and round in this bush. It was about seven in the evening before we returned to his home and on our return he himself ate some of the yam that I had left uneaten, and I ate the rest. Afterwards he secured me as before, re-entered the cave, and slept.

As you will surely realise, I did not sleep till daybreak. I was full of doleful thoughts and frequently sobbed aloud. The following morning my captor fed me on raw yams as on the previous day and again I galloped him around till nightfall of that day; at evening we returned to his cave and once more he chained me by the neck to a tree, and when he had fed me on raw yams, re-entered his home and slept.

You will be thinking by now that I ought somehow to have freed myself during this length of time – and rightly too. What made the situation so dismal was that he had seized my gun from the moment of my capture and when he arrived home he took it into the cave; he even took my hunting bag at the same time. And from the day that I came to that place, he never allowed me to enter his home: whenever we returned to the cave, it was the chain for me. I tried the few spells and charms which I had left on my person but none of them had any effect. I invoked, bullied and commanded Ogede but the matter seemed to have no solution.

Much later, however, I began to understand where I had erred. I realised that I indulged in magical arts but had failed to reckoning with God. I forgot that He created the leaf and created the bark of the tree. Before daylight broke on my third day I cried to God and prayed:

‘Ruler of skies, Owner of this day, this matter is much beyond me. Help me now, help me for I cannot do it by myself alone. O God, do assist me in this. Forbid it that I become meat for this creature; forbid it that he use my skull for a bugle. Let me not perish in this forest; forbid it that from this spot I become a voyager to heaven: let me not die the death of a fowl; forbid it that this man devour me as a cat devours mice. Let the masquerader worship the mask for as long as he pleases, he must return to render account to you; let the follower of Sango serve and serve Sango, he must render account to you; let the devotee of Oya bow to Oya, he must return in the end to you and render accounts. The Moslems worship you as Anabi, the Christians offer you every minute of their existence. I implore you rescue me, I cannot alone save myself, God Almighty, save me from my plight!’

Even so did I pray that night and I rested my hopes in God. The following morning when the man emerged as usual and offered me the usual raw yams, I was inspired by God to ask him a small question.

‘Pardon me, Master, I beg of you, do not fail to tell me why it is that you do not cook your yam before you eat it.’

He looked at me with wide-mouthed astonishment and confessed that he was not aware that there was such a thing as went by the name of cooked yam. So I elaborated further on it, saying that when yam is cooked it is far more delicious than when it is eaten raw. So he asked me if perchance I could cook this yam for him and, when I answered yes, he unchained me. I made a fire and cooked the yam, and when it was done I peeled and offered it to him. When he tasted this yam it tickled his palate no end and he began to talk to me with interest.

As we were speaking thus we touched on the subject of the gun and he demanded to know what was the use of it. I replied at once that it was a gadget for enjoyment, and that if I thrust the muzzle of this gun in the mouth of anyone and gently caressed its stock at the base, water would flow from the gun of such a quality that the man would experience no thirst for seven clear days. When he heard this he hurried into the cave and brought out my weapon, eagerly he thrust the muzzle in his mouth and bade me caress it at the base. The bird is already eager to fly and idle hands pelt it with stones – this was exactly how the matter was. I took the gun in my hand, blazed away and heard it roar. Down fell the man, dead.