The dog hides his mother

There was a famine in the animal kingdom. This famine had lasted so long that any existing source of food had been completely depleted. The animals knew they had to do something real quick or they would all die off one by one. They called a meeting where every animal was in attendance and they determined that they had to do something drastic. It was decided that the mothers would be sacrificed to ensure the continuation of the animal races. They would eat their mothers.

The dog who had been at the meeting decided to hide his mother. He was not going to sacrifice his mother, so he hid her in the sky. Everyday, he would go to a particular spot where he sang a song asking his mother to drop a rope.

Dog would sing:

Iya Iya ta?kun wa le o
Alu jon jonki jon
Gbogbo araye pa yeye re je
Alu jon jonki jon
Aja gbe ti re o d?orun
Alu jon jonki jon
Iya Iya ta?kun wa le o
Alu jon jonki jon

Mother Mother send down your rope
[Chorus]
All have killed and eaten their mothers
[Chorus]
Dog has taken his mother to the sky
[Chorus]
Mother Mother send down your rope
[Chorus]

His mother would drop a rope and the dog would climb to the sky where his mother would have a feast waiting for him.

One day as the dog was singing for his mother to drop the rope, the tortoise was passing by and he hid himself to observe what was going on. He heard the song dog was singing, then he saw a rope being dropped from the sky with which the dog climbed to the sky.

The following day, the tortoise went to the same spot and disguising his voice like the dog?s, he sang the song he had heard the dog sing the day before. A rope dropped from the sky and the tortoise began to climb this rope. At this same time, the dog was just approaching the same spot and he saw the tortoise climbing to the sky. The dog immediately started to sing to his mother. This time, he sang that he was not the one climbing the rope and his mother should cut the rope. Dog?s mother got a pair of scissors and cut the rope sending the tortoise crashing to the ground. This caused tortoise shell to break into several pieces. He managed to glue these pieces together but that is how the tortoise ended up with the rough shell we know today.

Narrators comments: It has always struck me as odd that the dog's mother had plenty of food in the sky while there was a famine in the land. Could the other animals not have taken advantage of this same location? I guess folktales are often full of these inconsistencies.

When I was younger, I never thought for a minute about the mothers being sacrificed. Now I wonder what events could could have occurred in the history of the people that led to this great maternal sacrifice.

04/29/2008 update: Added the song (see blog post for comments).