The Song of Mawu. Jeff Edwards

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      Crazed with dispair, Loko rushed into the glade as Rang continued to kneel beside the dead stag and prepared it for butchering.

      ‘Murderer!’

      Rang had heard Loko’s approach, but didn’t bother to stop his work. Quietly he went about his preparations and said calmly over his shoulder, ‘Unlike you Loko, my fellow gods enjoy the taste of meat.’

      This was not the first time that the pair had clashed. As usual it was over Rang’s duties as hunter and supplier of meat to the god’s larder. However, both knew that there was a deeper reason for Loko’s animosity toward Rang.

      Many seasons before, both gods had fallen in love with Mawu and had sought her brother Lisa’s permission to take the beautiful moon goddess as their wife. Lisa had taken their requests to his sister, and after much time in assessing the qualities of the two suitors had chosen the fair hunter Rang over the more petulant Loko.

      This rejection had rankled with the god of the forests who wrongly believed that the choice had been made on their looks alone. Now he sought every opportunity to try to show the gods that Mawu’s choice had been an act of folly. However, they recognised his futile attempts for what they were and scorned him for his bad manners.

      Now Rang continued to ignore Loko’s presence as he went about his bloody work and this raised Loko’s ire even more. ‘You murdered the finest animal in the forest!’

      ‘I allowed him to perform his duties,’ replied Rang with simple logic. ‘He wouldn’t have survived another season as the master of the herd. Now go away and let me get on with my work.’

      Loko was infuriated by Rang’s dismissal, ‘How dare you speak to me like that! I’m an important dignitary.’

      ‘You’re a fool and a laughing stock. Go back to pampering your beloved trees,’ smiled Rang without turning around, ‘and let a true warrior get on with his work. No wonder my wife wanted nothing to do with you,’ he added.

      Loko felt as though he had been slapped across the face. Already in a blinding rage, he reacted instinctively to the jibe. Snatching up Rang’s spear, he drove the point deep into the hunter’s exposed back.

      Rang screamed in pain as his body arched backward and blood fountained from the wound, splashing over Loko’s tunic.

      Shocked at what he had done, Loko stood rooted to the spot, staring down at his mortally wounded adversary. Suddenly he realized that a heavy price would be demanded for his unthinking actions and he fled the scene of bloody death.

      ***

      From high above Mawu saw the deadly spear being driven home, and heard her husband’s scream of mortal pain.

      Her own scream of anguish reverberated throughout the land, as she rushed to her husband’s side, as Loko disappeared amongst his trees.

      Cradling Rang’s fair head, Mawu knew that her husband’s life-force was quickly leaving him and that there was nothing she could do to stop the inevitable.

      His eyes fluttered open and the hunter smiled at her for the last time while her own heart began to break. Sobbing, she began to croon a soft sweet song of love to him.

      Her song became louder as she kissed his brow, and they held hands as his life slipped away. As his eyes closed for the last time, tears coursed down her cheeks and the song of love turned to one of anguish and misery.

      ***

      Lisa, the sun god, heard the sounds of his sister’s anguish and followed the song of doom until he came upon his sister cradling the great hunter’s lifeless body. Her song was now of such pain that the whole land fell to crying as well.

      The gods buried Rang where he fell, wrapping his body in the skin of the great stag, while singing songs to his glory. They sang of his great feats in hunting and in battle, and they sang of the goodness of his spirit.

      When all the songs were done, Mawu took up the refrain once more, but this time it was a song of love departed, a love that could never be replaced. Finally, she left the gathering of gods and returned to her place in the sky to travel its pathways alone until the end of days.

      ***

      With Mawu now returned to her proper place in the heavens, Lisa knew that the time had come for Rang’s killer to be found and retribution decided.

      Until now the gods had refrained from bringing Loko before them. They all understood that any justice to be dealt out must be done fairly and not in a climate of anger.

      ***

      Rising high above the earth, Lisa and his fellow gods looked for Loko, calling upon the woods and its trees to reveal the hiding place of their keeper.

      However, Loko had been allowed time to prepare. He had spread the word among his followers throughout the woods exclaiming that it had been the evil work of Rang that had resulted in the death of the great stag. He told them that Rang had been killed by Loko in a fight to defend the mighty stag. According to Loko, it was Mawu who had falsely accused him of murder and that Lisa had believed his lying sister and was now attempting to destroy an innocent person.

      Believing their guardian, the trees and forests sought to protect Loko by hiding the god from the eyes of Lisa. They refused to help in any way and so Loko was able to remain hidden for many years.

      ***

      The area in which Loko now chose to dwell was a lush and wonderous place. Fed by a clear, pure spring, the valley was filled with ancient towering trees and its thick woods abounding with all manner of animals and birds. The very thickness of the canopy of leaves and branches provided the cover needed to defy Lisa’s prying eyes.

      However, a disheartened crow, banished from his realm by Loko for feeding upon the dead carcass of a fellow crow, sought revenge for this perceived slight and revealed Loko’s hiding place to Lisa.

      ‘Finally!’ roared the sun god as he rose threateningly into the sky.

      He positioned himself over the lush valley and called in a clear and commanding voice for Loko to come forth.

      Loko cowered in the darkness beneath the outstretched arms of the trees and defied Lisa’s demands.

      Lisa then called on the trees to pull back their web of leaves to reveal Loko’s presence, but they had believed their master’s Loko’s story and refused to help.

      ‘I will destroy you all if you do not reveal the murderer to me,’ demanded Lisa, but Loko whispered to them, ‘Ignore him. He can do nothing. He’s too far away.’

      Once again Lisa’s demands were refused.

      Angry now, Lisa poured forth a beam of heat upon the woods below him. At first there was only an uncomfortable heat among the tree tops but as Lisa’s anger grew the heat intensified. The green leaves were sapped of their vital juices and withered, before dropping to the ground. One by one the trees were denuded until the ground below, now thick with the dead leaves, could clearly be seen.

      Still the heat mounted and the dead leaves burst into flame, which set the trees themselves on fire.

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