The Tortoise visits the City in the Sky - Imonikhe Ahimie (read after .TXT) 📗

towards the construction of the Tortoise’s wings and this was soon accomplished. Once the wings had been made up and placed upon the Tortoise, the Tortoise looked so resplendent and gorgeous that even the Peacock looked positively shabby in comparison. Every bird there present was completely put in the shadow by the Tortoise’s magnificence. There was a lot of muttering concerning the Tortoise’s glorious appearance but there was really nothing that could be done now. Once the wings had been properly fitted, the entire party took off and started to make their way to that city above the clouds.

 

The contingent arrived at their destination in due course and their hosts made them very welcome indeed. There were a lot of flattering comments made by the inhabitants of that city concerning the gorgeous appearance of the Tortoise whom, of course, they had not seen on the previous occasions when their guests had visited. He must be their king, the hosts whispered one to another, for so overwhelmingly gorgeous did the Tortoise appear.

 

Now, the hosts were happy that they had extended the best in hospitality to their guests on their previous visits; if, imagine, they had been less hospitable, then they might never have had the opportunity of seeing, talk less of sitting in the company of such a splendiferous being; so much did the Tortoise’s splendour overshadow that of all of the other birds.

 

Once the guests were seated, a spokesperson for the hosts gave a beautiful welcome speech and, once the welcome was complete, the Tortoise rose to respond on behalf of the guests. This action on the part of the Tortoise was not in any way presumptuous for, although we have not mentioned it earlier, this was one of the demands made of him by the birds and which he had agreed to so that he could come with them to the great feast.

 

One thing that the avian folk had noticed in the course of their previous visits was that the quality of the speech made by anyone chosen to speak on their behalf was always markedly inferior to the quality of the speeches made by their hosts. The Tortoise, widely travelled, a raconteur of no compare was, they had thought on that meeting day, the perfect person to redeem their image. And they were not mistaken in their assessment.

 

Always eloquent and witty and, dare we say, brilliant, the Tortoise’s performance that day superseded anything that even the most optimistic bird could have hoped for. Simply put, his performance was superlative.

As he spoke, even those few birds who still harboured misgivings as to the wisdom of bringing the Tortoise along with them were now completely won over, nodding one to the other as to the correctness of their decision.

 

As for the inhabitants of that city above the clouds, if they had been impressed by the Tortoise’s fantastic plumage, they were even more impressed by his wit and his breadth of knowledge. Their guests, the hosts whispered to themselves, were truly worthy of being hosted, for they had chosen for their leader not just the most physically attractive specimen amongst their kind but also the most intellectually attractive person that it had been their luck ever to come in contact with.

 

The applause which greeted the Tortoise’s response was, in a word, overwhelming. As for the birds, they were all really chuffed up by the Tortoise’s performance; they felt that the Tortoise’s tour-de-force had more than made up for the long list of sorry excuses that had been presented by their representatives and passed off as responsive addresses in the past and the enthusiastic response that the Tortoise’s performance elicited from their hosts confirmed them in their view.

 

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Now, it was over with the speechifying and it was time to get down to the nitty-gritty, so to speak: the food and drink. The servers came out with platters of the most mouth- watering foods and jugs of the sweetest smelling palm wine that the Tortoise had seen or smelt in many a long month and, as those platters and jugs were placed before the guests, it is sad to say, but true nonetheless, that the Tortoise’s inherent bad character came into play. Not having had anything approximating a real meal in a long, long time, the Tortoise’s good sense abandoned him and he gave way to his greed.

 

Turning towards his companions, and calling them into a huddled impromptu powwow, the Tortoise explained to his avian friends that the food that their hosts had just brought in was designated for him as spokesperson. As they all could see, most of the food and drink had been placed right in front of him. This procedure, the Tortoise explained, was a long standing custom in the whole wide world; the other guests would be served their own portions in due course. It was his humble view that they adhere to this age old custom so as not to put themselves to shame before their distinguished hosts.

 

Knowing that the Tortoise was the most travelled creature in the entire world, the birds had no difficulty in accepting this statement as the truth. Indeed, some of them upbraided the Tortoise for not having acquainted them with this custom before they left home. They cringed with shame when they recalled how, not knowing of the existence of this custom, they had fallen to like cultureless folk and eaten as soon as their hosts had brought in the first round of the food and drink on the occasions of their previous visits. How barbarian-like they must have seemed to their hosts. Thanking the Tortoise profusely, they shifted all of that delicious looking food as well as all of the sweet-smelling palm wine that was not already placed in front of the Tortoise right before him and then they sat back to await the arrival of their own portions!

 

The Tortoise, for his own part, lost no time in doing justice to the meal that was set before him; devouring that excellent food and swilling down the sweet palm wine. So long had it been since the Tortoise had eaten and drunk so well that his concentration on the feast he was enjoying was quite monomaniacal; the Tortoise became wholly oblivious of the birds, by whose grace he had come to the feast, as well as of their hosts who had prepared this most excellent repast that he was devouring so gluttonously.

 

Oh yes, the hosts!

 

As for the hosts, they had never in their wildest imaginings thought of something akin as to what was happening before their very own eyes. That a single being could consume the quantities of food and wine that their guests’ king was putting away was a wonder in itself. But, they wondered, why didn’t the other guests join their master in the feast? Their conclusion was that it was the custom of their guests to defer to their king in matters of eating and drinking, and this view was reinforced by the simple fact that the Tortoise had not hitherto visited with the birds. So, exquisitely polite, the inhabitants of the city above the clouds said nothing and went on as if all was going just as they expected.

 

And as for the birds, it took a bit of time before some of the brighter of the avian folk began to suspect that a dirty and most despicable trick was being played on them, and by the time that this idea had started to take root in their minds, the Tortoise had consumed the best of the food and wine.

 

One can well imagine the feelings of the birds. To say that the birds were incensed would be putting it extremely mildly, but they did nothing untoward in the presence of their hosts. Some of the birds, pressed by hunger, picked at the remnants of the food but the majority of the birds preferred to return home hungry, the famine state of the homeland notwithstanding.

 

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The birds were determined to pay the Tortoise back for his mean trick. At the same time, they were determined not to let on to their hosts that they had been taken for so great a ride so, putting on brave faces, they thanked their hosts for the hospitality that had been shown them and took their leave. Managing the Tortoise, who was still essentially out of it all, they repaired to the staging place from which they were wont to return to the world below. By the time that they reached their departure point, the Tortoise had started to recover from the effects of his gluttony and he realized that he was in potentially very dire straits. His assessment was by no means a wrong one.

 

One by one, the birds requested the return of the individual feathers that each of them had loaned to the Tortoise. As the Tortoise’s wings grew smaller with every passing second, the enormity of his predicament became ever clearer and now, how he regretted that irrational impulse that had impelled him to his despicable action. Having no other choice, the Tortoise started to plead but not even his much vaunted eloquence could avail him on this occasion. The whole avian community was determined to exact their own revenge and in short time the Tortoise was deprived of the wings that were a requirement for his return home. Now, the Tortoise pled that someone would deliver a message to his wife on his behalf, but this approach was also futile. One by one, the birds left and the Tortoise was left alone, stranded so far off in the sky.

 

As the Tortoise lay prone on the ground lamenting the greed that had brought him to this sad state, the Vulture, whom, as we may recall, had been one of those most vociferously opposed to allowing the Tortoise to accompany the birds to the feasts, and whose condemnation of the Tortoise’s shabby behaviour at the feast had been just as vehemently vociferous, returned and declared that he was now prepared to deliver a message on Tortoise’s behalf to Mrs Tortoise.

 

“I have seen the extent of your remorse” declared the Vulture, “and I am convinced that you have truly learnt your lesson. It is a pity that all the other birds are gone for, if they were still here, I would have tried to prevail upon them to return the feathers so that you could fly back home with us; and I’m sure that they would have listened to me. As it is, although I am quite prepared to return the feather that I retrieved from you in my blind anger, you will no doubt agree with me that a single feather is of absolutely no use to you.

 

“What is it you want told to your Lady Wife, dear Tortoise? Inform me, and I will see to it that your message is delivered most faithfully.”

 

Although the Tortoise was somewhat apprehensive as to the Vulture’s sudden change of heart, beggars have never been able to be choosers so, falling prostrate before the Vulture and with tears streaming down his face, the Tortoise pled that the Vulture ask his wife to bring out all of the soft furnishings that they had at home, every single bit of soft furnishing that they owned, and stack them up in the backyard of their home.

 

“Tell her, dear Sir, to stack all of my clothes as well as all of hers; all of the cotton, spun or un-spun, in the house; every single soft item in the house as well as all of the soft items that she can borrow off the neighbours.

 

“Please, good Sir Vulture, have pity on me. Forgive my greed; the Devil made me do it! It wasn’t my fault; I would never do a thing like that if I was in my correct senses and not thoroughly Devil possessed.”

 

The Vulture responded in the most reassuring of tones, and assured the Tortoise of his best wishes; for, as he declared, it had ever been his policy to forgive anyone who