Moonlight Series: Why there is Day and Night

Moonlight Series: Why there is Day and Night

By: Bassey B. Eshiett

Why there is Day and Night

In the beginning there was no night. Everywhere bright. In those days you could travel anywhere without being afraid of darkness. If you felt tired after a long day's work slept. There was no special time for sleeping and waking.
  One day a woman who had a stubborn child called her and said:
  'Nsima, I want to go to the farm. I have left a heap of palm nuts for you to crack. Don't leave the house for any reason. If your playmates come to call you do not go out with them '.
   Nsima was busy working when her playmates called on her. They invited her to accompany them to The Great Forest for mushroom hunting. She readily left the stone and palm nuts and joined her friends on this trip.
     The Great Forest was a very big forest that even adults dreaded. It harboured many deities. Sometimes the villagers told tales of seeing spirits in human forms with seven heads, seven eyes and seven legs. This forest also harboured dangerous animals. People who ventured there prepared charms to stop the spirit from harming them. This forest was also noted for choice mushrooms, very big snails and herbs for preparing delicious meals.
   The girls reached the forest and started picking mushrooms into their basins. Suddenly, Nsima cried out:
    'Oh I have found a very large mushroom. Come and see. It is very different from any you have picked '. Nsima's voice came. There in Nsima's hand was a choice mushroom very beautiful. The top was white with red and yellow dots which dazzled the eyes. She refused to put it into the basin with other mushrooms. Unknown to her she had picked a mushroom which was a sun goddess. It controlled the light and darkness.
   Everybody's basin was filled so the girls started their homeward journey. While still filling out of the forest tracks, Nsima caught her foot on the root of a tree, stumbled and fell. When this happened, her beautiful mushroom fell off her hands. Immediately there was darkness. The girls were frightened. They wished they had never left their mother's huts. They started crying and wailing. Darkness was something none of them had ever experienced. Nsima groped about in the dark and soon picked her mushroom. To everybody's delight light returned and they could find their way out of the forest.
    When the girls got to the village, they went to their separate homes. Nsima got home, saw her mother from afar and ran to embrace her. When she got close enough, she carelessly threw down the mushroom she was holding so as to give her mother a hug. Immediately, darkness covered the whole village. Nsima was frightened. In tears she told her mother what had happened in the forest when this mushroom was thrown down. Together they groped for the mushroom and found it and oh! light flooded in.
     The village diviner was sent for. He quickly consulted his oracle and told the surprised villagers that Nsima had picked a deity in The Great Forest. This mushroom was a sun goddess that caused day and night. He told the people that the goddess wished the people to rest while it was dark and work while it was day. The mushroom was taken back to the forest by powerful medicine men for who would dare eat a deity? From that day there was day and night.