The gift of the cow-tail switch


Near the edge of the Liberian rain forest was the village of Kundi. In this village lived a hunter by the name of Ogaloussa. He lived with his wife and many children. One morning Ogaloussa took his weapons and went into the forest to hunt. The day passed, and darkness came, but Ogaloussa did not return. Another day went by, and then weeks. At first Ogaloussa's sons talked constantly about their father's disappearance, but as time passed they gradually ceased to mention his name.

After he had been gone about four months, Ogaloussa's wife bore another son who was called Puli. When Puli was finally old enough to talk, his first words were "Where is my father?"

The other sons, slightly surprised by the question, looked across the fields. "Yes," asked one of them as he now remembered his father. "Where is our father?' "Something must have happened. We ought to look for him," said another.

So the sons took their weapons and started out to look for Ogaloussa. Several times in the deep forest they lost the trail, but each time one of the sons would find it again. At last they came to a clearing, and there on the ground lay Ogaloussa's bones and his rusty weapons, They knew then that Ogaloussa had been killed in the hunt.

One of the sons stepped forward. "I know how to put a dead person's bones together." He gathered all of Ogaloussa's bones and put them together, each in its right place.

Another said, "I know how to cover the skeleton with sinews and flesh." He went to work and covered Ogaloussa's bones with sinews and A third son put blood into the body. A fourth added breath. Movement and speech were added by other sons. At last Ogaloussa sat up and spoke,"Where are my weapons?"

His sons picked up the rusted weapons and gave them to their father. Then they started home through the forest. At home Ogaloussa bathed and ate and remained in the house for four days. On the fifth day he came out of the house. He killed a cow for a great feast. From the cow's tail he braided a switch and decorated it with beads and cowry shells and bits of shiny metal. It was a beautiful thing. Ogaloussa carried it to all important functions. Everyone in the village admired the switch. They thought it was the most beautiful cow-tail switch they had ever seen.

Soon there was a celebration in the village because Ogaloussa had returned from the dead. Some of the men grew bold and asked for the switch. Then all the women and children begged for it, but Ogaloussa refused them all. At last Ogaloussa stood up, and the noise stopped, for everyone wanted to hear what Ogaloussa had to say.

"While I was hunting," he began, "I was killed by a leopard, My sons brought me back from the land of the dead, and it is one of them who must receive the switch. Though all my sons did something to bring me back, I have only one cow-tail switch. I will give it to the one who did the most to bring me home."
The sons began to argue. One claimed that he had done the most because he had found the trail when it was lost. Another said he should have the switch because he had put the bones together. Still another deserved it, he said, because he had put blood into Ogaloussa's body. Each son claimed the right to possess the wonderful cow-tail switch.

The villagers began to choose sides, arguing for the son they thought had done the most to bring Ogaloussa back from the land of the dead. They argued back and forth until Ogaloussa asked them to be quiet. He came forward and bent low and handed it to Puli, the little boy who had been born while Ogaloussa was in the forest.

"To this son I will give the cow-tail switch, for I owe most to him," Ogaloussa said.

The people of the village remembered then that the child's first words had been, "Where is my father?" They knew that Ogaloussa was right. For it was a saying among them that a man is not really dead until he is forgotten.