Woe Or Happiness?
The story that follows will tell us about the lives of two men, a lion and a snake. It teaches us how we can show our gratitude to those who help us in difficult times.
Copyright © 2020 Anike Foundation
Once upon a time in a village lived the King, his wife, his daughter and the whole population of the kingdom.
One morning, a man who lived in the kingdom decided to go to the forest as usual to look for food for his family. When he arrived, he saw a hare and began to pursue it.
However, like any living soul, the hare was afraid of being caught and killed, so he hid in a hole near an old tree. While the man was pursuing this animal, he was not alone. There were other pursuers – the Lion and the Snake.
When he arrived in front of the hole that the hare had entered, the man saw the Lion roaring at his side and the snake that tried to break into the hole in which the hare had hidden. By disrupting the hole, the old tree nearby fell on them. All of them began to cry for help, “Help, please save us!”
Suddenly, a hunter who happened to live in this forest heard the cries of anguish and decided to approach to get a better understanding of what was happening. As soon as he arrives, he sees the man, the lion and the snake stuck under a tree and needing the hunter to save them.
The man said to the hunter, “Please save me; I am a human being like you. I am also someone who will come to help you in difficult times. Please save me.”
The lion at this moment also began to beg the hunter, saying, “Please, hunter, you and I have known each other a long time in this forest, I have never eaten you even when I was very hungry. I've always considered you my greatest friend. Now, please be nice to me, get me out of here and one day I will make you a gift that you never dreamed of.”
The snake then told the hunter, “Please sir, I know that there is always enmity between you and me. You hate me, but today I swear I will do thee no harm. Save me and see that I also will save you one day.”
The hunter said to all of them, “You're all lying! What proves that you are not lying to me? I will not save you. You’ll stay there until you die.” Then he started berating the man and said, “Today, you tell me to save you because you're human like me, but you forget that you are jealous of others, you are a thief. I will not help you because if I do, one day you may betray me.”
Then he turned to the lion and said, “Look at you lion! You eat men like me, you also sow terror in the forest, eating animals like you, and you say that you are the king of the forest. Although you are a king, you call the people of your kingdom to come and save you. Certainly, you will eat me if I release you.” But the lion still begged the man to be lenient with him and let him out of the trap.
The hunter turned to the snake on the side and said, “You snake, you know that you bite people, you even bite animals in this forest. If I release you, you will turn against me and you will bite me too, so I cannot save you.” The snake told him, “No my lord, that will not happen.
Please do save me!” Therefore, the hunter took pity on them all and released them.
A few days after the hunter helped the man, the lion and the snake, the King's daughter told her servants that she needed to go swimming in the river in the forest. Once the King’s daughter and her six servants arrived near the river, the lion sprang, attacked and then fell on the King’s daughter; all her servants panicked, running in her direction while crying, “Help us, help us!!”
In the meantime, the lion had caught the King's daughter. He refused to eat her but carried her alive in appreciation of the hunter who had saved him. The lion said to the hunter, “Dear hunter, you remember the day I was stuck under the tree and asked you to save me, I made you a promise that I would offer you a gift that you never dreamed of. So my gift is this girl that I give you as a wife.”
The hunter knelt before the lion and said, “Lion, I always thought of marriage, but all of the girls in the kingdom refused my advances. Now you bring me this gift so very precious to me. Yes, I understand now that you're my friend.” The hunter took the King's daughter as a wife. He told her to stay with him and not be afraid.
When the six servants arrived in the royal courts, they explained what had happened with fear and tears. They explained to the King that a lion attacked and threw himself on the only King’s daughter, “Then we do not know if the lion ate her or how,” explained the six maidens to the King and his council. The King fell on his face, saddened by the unexpected disappearance of his daughter, and began to cry for his only daughter. Later he ordered his military to fetch his daughter. But when the soldiers arrived to the place where the lion had attacked the royal daughter, they did not find any trace of blood. They looked for it everywhere, but without success. Then they said that the King's daughter might have run away. They returned home empty-handed to the King’s palace, only to tell him that they had searched everywhere but had not found the girl.
Following this, the King organized a memorial for his daughter, but signed a decree that he would give whoever found his daughter everything he owned except the royal power.
“But what will happen?” the man that had saved the hunter said to his wife. “We have nothing to eat. I'm going into the forest and maybe we can get something to eat.” His wife reminded him to be careful and not to make a misstep. As soon as he entered the forest, he saw the King's daughter sitting next to the hunter. Quickly, he brought the news to the King., only to tell him that they had searched everywhere but had not found the girl.
He said, “King, I found it, I found your daughter, she lives with a man in the middle of the forest.”
So the King asked the man who brought the message to explain it in these terms, “Son, please tell me, have you actually seen my only daughter that I’ve been searching for every day alive?” The man replied, “Yes, my King, I saw your daughter sitting next to a poor man in the forest. She's alive.”
From the palace, the King ordered the Kingdom soldiers and the witness who saw his daughter to immediately stop the person who kept his daughter for several days without informing him. When the soldiers arrived in the forest, they found the King's daughter and the hunter in their box and took them to the village. When the King saw his daughter, he ordered them to give to the one who found his daughter everything he needed, and they did it. But the hunter was imprisoned and sentenced to the death penalty.
When the execution day came, the King told his advisors to inform the whole kingdom population to come and attend the execution of the man who had kidnapped his daughter. Everyone came to answer the call of the King to see how the hunter would be hanged. As everyone awaited the hunter’s death, the snake saved by the hunter in the forest came to see him in prison. The snake gave him an antidote and told him to take it while he stood guard, saying, “When the King decides to leave his house to give the order to execute you, I will bite him. We will then seek someone who has the antidote to save the King and then you will cry that you know how to save him.”
As the King left his house, the snake bit him just as he crossed the threshold of his house. The King fainted, everyone panicked and the King’s advisors began to ask the crowd, “Who can save the King?” But nobody answered.
For the second time, they asked, “Who knows how we can save the King?” The hunter in the prison cried with a loud voice, saying, “I'm going to save him.” Therefore, the King's men led the hunter where the King was lying and gave him a few drops of antidote in the mouth. Once the King opened his eyes, he asked, “Who saved me?” His advisors said to him, “Please, King, it was the hunter you wanted to kill that saved you.”
Against all odds, the King ordered the hunter's immediate release, gave him his only daughter as his wife and made him second in succession to the King. After this event, the snake came again to see the hunter and said to him, “Do you remember what I told you the day I was stuck by the tree in the forest?” The hunter replied, “Yes, I remember you promised me that you would save me one day and that day is definitely here. I thank you with all my heart,” said the hunter to the snake.
Lesson: Why did the man that the hunter had helped not acknowledge his help? Why did he not try to warn the hunter to let the princess go back to her father lest he be arrested or under penalty of being sentenced to death?
From this story, we learn that we should be grateful to those who help us. Like the lion and the snake that recognized that they went through a very difficult time and the hunter that helped them, be grateful.
Love our African folktales? Donate now to support our work.
We need your support to bring you more stories like this and carry out our education projects in Africa. Please make a donation today to allow us to continue this important work. Thank you for your support!