HOW THE TOAD BECAME THE KING OF THE RIVERS AND SWAMPS

Once upon a time, all animals lived together with people everywhere and were understanding themselves very well and were also helping each other. The elephant used to be their king at that time. So, there came a day the elephant thought to himself that, “It would be good that all the rivers and the swamps have their king who can announce to the whole village when the rainy season will come so that they can beforehand prepare their crops, hoes and cutlasses to work their farms with.” So the king sent out his slave the cockroach to pass the announcement to all animals that, “He who wants to be the king of all rivers and swamps should come to ‘ndaw tsə̀’ (traditional council) in my compound in the morning.” The cockroach passed the announcement exactly as the king said to the whole village.

In the morning, Mbee the elephant entered ndaw tsə̀ and met many different kinds of animals sitted already and very eager to take the possition he publicised. Amongst the animals that were there were the cat, the monkey, the frog, the toad and the crab. So mbee began looking round at them one after another.