Come, come, children. Gather round. I have a story to tell you, but you know it’s not for free. Ever since Old Hidja lost her teeth, she can’t eat meat like the other adults. Give me the sweet berries you pick in the jungle, I can’t pick them myself, I’m too old and my hip’s too bad.

That’s right, berries and broth. Porridge and soup are only supposed to be for children, the milk and the fat are too rare to waste on an adult, especially an old woman like me. You children will give Hidja food though, for a story, won’t you? Bring me berries and porridge and broth to soften my bread, and I’ll tell you a story you’ve never heard before.

There now, let’s see. What story haven’t I told? Do you know the tale of the warrior and the tarantula? You do? It’s not a very good story anyway. Well, then, what of how slow, stupid Boa Constrictor lost his feet? That one too, eh? I don’t suppose I’ve told you of Itoe and the tiger? No? Well, then, that’s quite a story for you.

Now, Itoe was always a good girl when she was young like you all. She listened to her mama and her papa, and went down to the well whenever they needed water. She was the oldest of many children, and she would take care of the babies and mend with her mama and even chop wood with her papa during the rainy season.

She never spoke up or refused to do her work. You could all take a lesson from Itoe, children. Old Hidja knows about how you run wild at the night, and how you spill the corn that could make an extra loaf of bread and slosh the water that could quench an old woman’s thirst. Yes, I know that Itoe got into her own trouble later on, but take a lesson from her childhood. Be good.

When Itoe was ten years old, her mama and papa saw that she was getting older, and began to arrange a marriage for her. Now, Itoe was a pretty girl, graceful and sweet, besides her obedience. You all know that those are very good qualities for a wife. Her parents didn’t have any trouble finding a husband, and they made the proper arrangements with the handsomest, strongest, and most kind man of the whole entire village: Oksiw.

Oksiw had already proven himself in battle, and he had 3 slaves all his own from old battles. People said Bear had given him extra strength for battle, because he always painted the bear claw on his chest and he never got wounded. Because of this, people called him Bear-Fighter.

The night before Itoe was to be wed, she went into the jungle. You all know of how a child becomes a woman, children, and Itoe did her duty as she always did. She drank the gods’ juice, which would show her visions of her future, and waited by the midnight pool, where the virgin goddess and the mother goddess would trade her from the world of childhood to the world of motherhood.

To this day, nobody knows exactly what Itoe saw during her vision, for we know that many secret things are forbidden to tell others. Other visions, however, we are free to share, and Itoe told me that she saw this ;

First, she watched the moon grow full, and she knew that her belly must also grow full, and that she would be a prosperous mother with many children. Then, she saw fruits on trees grow rotten uneaten, and fall to the ground, and from this she knew that she would have great happiness in the future, but she must guard against jealousy, which will rot away any gift.

While Itoe pondered these things, she watched the midnight pool, and Fish climbed out, using his wet fins like hands and feet. Very few people speak with Fish, as he is a reclusive god and doesn’t like people very much, but Fish told Itoe a secret that she couldn’t share with anyone else. I know the last thing he told her, though, and that was “Watch.”

Then, Itoe watched an open glade, and Bear ambled out of it, his muzzle sticky with the sweet honey of marriage, and his paws dipped in the red blood of war. Itoe knew that Bear had come to her to represent her betrothed, Bear-Fighter, and she took great hope that all of the promises of happiness would come once she married Bear-Fighter.

While Itoe watched, however, Tiger came out of the woods, another god rarely seen, because he is strong and frightening and beautiful, and he hunts men when men do not hunt him. Itoe became afraid that Tiger would devour her before her wedding night, and prayed that Bear would protect her. “Please, Bear,” she begged on her knees. “I will be the wife of your fighter, and I ask that you not let me be torn apart tonight.”

Sure enough, Bear moved to fight Tiger, and the battle was ferocious! Claws and teeth and blood and what loud roaring! Poor Itoe shook and quivered but in her heart, she knew that Bear would prevail. Why else would she have seen such visions of such kind promises if they were not to come true?

Fearfully, though, Tiger pounced upon Bear and bit into his throat. Now Bear, being a god, could not be killed by such a gesture, but he was certainly hurt, and he ran off into the woods, leaving Itoe alone with Tiger. Oh, how frightened she was! She saw many other things during that vision, too, but I cannot tell you what they were.

When morning came and the visions were complete, Itoe headed back to the village, as she was supposed to. Along the way, though, as she wound her way through pre-dawn trails, she came across a tiger. This was not the god, mind you, but a real tiger, and Itoe began to cry with fear, for she knew the vision would soon come true, and he would eat her.

When the sun’s first orange rays hit the tiger’s fur, however, they drank up all his orange, leaving behind a black man, and a fine looking one at that. When Itoe asked him what had become of the tiger, he said he was the tiger, and when she asked him his name, he said he had none. He then agreed to accompany her to the village, so that Itoe need not face more danger.

All the preparations for her wedding had been made, and Itoe’s family and her fiancée and his family all waited with glad hearts. When Itoe told them what she’d seen, however, they became frightened, for they realized that the gods did not look upon the union with joy. Itoe then told them of the tiger man, and of how she intended to marry him, and everyone became even more troubled.

First, the elders of the village argued with Itoe, reminding her that no man could become a tiger and no tiger could become a man. Perhaps the transformation she’d witnessed had still been part of her vision, a warning that this man was dangerous. Itoe did not heed their warnings.

Then, her family argued with Itoe, reminding her that this mysterious man had no family to speak to him. He didn’t even bear the markings of his tribe, meaning he was a Nobody, a nomad, the worst life one could lead. If he were a runaway slave, he would at least have a brand, but he even lacked these, making him worse than a demon. Itoe did not heed them.

Finally, her fiancée, Bear-Fighter, spoke with her. He reminded her that nobody could take care of her as well as he could, and that he had won many battles, but nobody knew what this tiger-man had done. He also reminded her of the gifts he intended to give Itoe’s family to say thanks for his beautiful bride. Itoe did not heed him.

Even after all the argument and disagreement, Itoe still intended to marry the nameless tiger man. She sought her chosen fiancée, who refused to enter the village because his wild tiger’s heart kept him far from man’s establishments. Itoe told the tiger man that she had chosen him as her husband, based on the vision the gods had granted her. The tiger man refused to marry her, though, because he saw marriage as a trick of man, and he was a tiger at heart.

Evening fell, and nobody knew what to do. The tiger man transformed into a tiger again, and ran away into the jungle to hunt. Itoe tried to follow him, but her family stopped her, locking her in their house so that she could not hurt herself in the jungle, which is a dangerous place during the day, and even more dangerous during the night.

Bear-Fighter then made his announcement to the village, that he would hunt the tiger and kill him to prove his worthiness to marry Itoe. In this way, he would demonstrate the foolishness of her vision, and his right to her hand. All of the village applauded his efforts, for no one approved of Itoe’s bond with the tiger-man.

That night, Bear-Fighter went into the woods. He dug a very deep hole, and planted sharp stakes at the bottom so that any animal that fell in would get stabbed. You all know that this is the way all tiger traps are built, but Bear-Fighter paid extra careful attention, and dug so many stakes, no animal could move in the hole without dying. Then, he climbed out of the hole, and covered it with stick and grass so that a foolish animal might walk over it, not knowing it to be a trap.

What Bear-Fighter did not know is that Itoe hid in the jungle, very close to the trap, waiting for her tiger to appear again so that she might save him from the trap. She, and everyone else, knew that the man would turn into a tiger again once the sunlight disappeared and gave him back his orange stripes, and so Itoe disappeared shortly before sunset, braving the dangers of the jungle at night so that she might warn her new love.

I believe that the tiger knew Itoe would be there, although some say that it was simply by luck that she rescued him that night. When the moon was high, he came prowling toward her, and Itoe recognized him as her own love, and not a simple wild tiger from the fact that his eyes were a deep human brown, rather than the yellow of a normal wild cat.

When she recognized him, Itoe jumped out of the tree where she had been hiding and ran around the trap toward him, warning him that man’s death waited at the bottom of that leaf-covered spot. Then, she jumped on his back, as tiger can travel far faster than any man, and she rode him all the way back to the village. There, she shouted and screamed outside the village gates so that everyone would wake up and see her and the tiger together outside.

There, Itoe showed everyone how she had saved the tiger from his trap, and she warned that if anyone built any more traps to try to hurt her love, or any other tigers of the jungle, she would return with fire and teeth and claw and have her revenge on her family. That night, Itoe’s father and mother trembled with fear and shame, for the girl who had once been so obedient now obeyed family and village and tradition. It was love that made her misbehave so: that, and a promise of prosperity from the gods.

After her bold speech, Itoe leapt back onto the tiger’s back, and the two disappeared into the jungle, moving so quickly that some say they were magically carried on moonbeams back to the tiger’s secret hiding-place. I don’t believe they were helped by any magic, for I have seen a tiger move before, and I know their natural grace and speed. This was what helped Itoe and the tiger-man disappear.

The next morning, the greatest hunters of the village searched all over the jungle, but could find no trace of Itoe or the tiger man. Some said they were frightened that the tiger-man may have only pretended to love Itoe so that when they were alone, he could kill her and eat her, like any other tiger would. I don’t believe that, but I know that some people do.

That same morning, Bear-Fighter looked into the trap intended for the tiger, and saw that in it he had captured a great boar, larger than any other boar ever before captured by any of the village’s hunters. The great boar was large enough to feed the entire village in a wedding feast, and he took this as a sign that he must still be married, even though his chosen bride was now gone.

Later that day, Bear-Fighter was wedded to my older sister, Uhiru. The preparations had already been made for Itoe, and the boar was prepared shortly after it was discovered slain so that we could eat and rejoice that evening. Everything was done quickly, and Uhiru, despite her grief at Itoe’s loss, celebrated greatly, for Bear-Fighter was a fine husband, far finer than one as ugly as herself could hope to gain if not for the rush for a wedding after Itoe left.

Nobody ever saw Itoe after the day she rode away with the tiger. As I said before, some think she is dead, a victim of the animal’s appetites. Others, like me, think she is a happy mother, as the gods promised, and that she raises a whole pack of children with the tiger-man as their father. During the day, as a man he is her husband, and during the night he hunts as a tiger so that the family need never want for food.

If you listen to the old men and women who whisper amongst themselves, you will learn that they fear Itoe’s children. They believe she birthed dozens of witches, a whole tribe of them who will one day return and attack our village because we opposed her marriage and because Bear-Fighter tried to kill her husband.

I don’t believe this, though. Itoe was never a vengeful girl, and although she warned us against hunting her husband, nobody tried to pursue them after that first day. I believe she is a mother to hundreds of tiger cubs, who hunt and kill as a tiger will, but who stay far from the village and will not harm the home of Itoe’s family.

You all remember, surely, the time Avada got lost in the jungle at sunset. She told everyone that she saw a tiger, and that instead of attacking her, it ran off, and when she ran after it, she found the path back to the village. Everyone says she was lying, but I believe her, because I believe the tiger guided her to the right path, and that tiger was a child of Itoe.

This is all speculation, though, and that’s not what I’m here to offer you. I told you the story of Itoe and the tiger, and I assure you, it’s all true. You can ask your parents or your grandparents if you don’t believe me, and they might deny it. After all, this all happened when I was a very young girl, and now I am the oldest woman in the village. I am probably the oldest person who remembers it, although some people who still live today were babes when all this happened.

I assure you that the story is true, though. I know all of this because Itoe was my oldest sister, and all the tigers of the jungle are my cousins. One day, when I am too old even to tell stories and bribe you for food, I will go into the jungle just as my sister did. There, the tigers will gather around me and care for me, just as the tiger man used to care for Itoe, and I’ll eat the sweetest, freshest berries and drink the coolest water of the streams. Then, everyone will ask themselves, “What happened to Old Hidja?” and “Where did that woman go?” and “Do you think she’s still alive?”

That day is still a long way away, though, children, and in the meanwhile, you must bring me sweets if you want to know my story. I like broth that is not too salty, and those purple berries that grow among the poison oak- be careful that you don’t catch an itch. Bring these things to me so that I can eat and stay strong, and then tomorrow I will tell you another story, one that is even more interesting than today’s.