Hello Steemians... Thank God It's Friday. The week is finally over, Yay!!. Time for some rest time. With that being said, I'd like to share a story with us. You can call it Tales by Moonlight too if you want 😀 (Only Nigerians will understand). It's a folklore. Yeah, I know. I love Folklores...😁. So, here goes....

The following story has a historical source. It tells the fearsome history of the slave trade. The sea monsters here are the slavers who came from Europe, and the air monsters are those who came from inland. Another purpose it serves is to show children why they should obey their parents. Nowadays, in fact, it is told chiefly for this reason, since it would be difficult for them to understand the connection between slavery and what happened in this tale.

Onwuekwe and his wife, Ebele, had two little daughters, Nma and Omelu, whom they loved very dearly. The times they lived in were very troubled and extremely dangerous. Stories were told of children being snatched violently from their mothers and carriee away by sea monsters, of children who went to fetch firewood and were never seen again, of grown-up men and women who were overpowered on the road and carried away. Town criers went round advising parents to keep a careful watch over their children. There was fear in every heart.

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Onwuekwe and his wife were traders and often travelled to very distant markets to sell their merchandise. Because of the stories they had heard, and because of their own fears, they always warned their daughters on how to behave while they were away. Before setting out, they gave the children some yams and told them to cook their food carefully, so that no smoke would escape into the air. They also cautioned them against making too much noise in the house, and especially against pounding the yams into fufu. Finally, they told them they should never go out to play with the other children.

Nma and Omelu were very disobedient girls. On several occasions they had gone out to play with the other children. Nor were they all that careful about the other warnings they had received. However, the monsters only visited the town occasionally; though ones they did, the caused lasting harm. Because nothing had happened to them so far, the sisters paid very little heed to their parents advice.

One day, Onwuekwe and Ebele went to the market after giving their daughters the usual warnings, little thinking they would never see them again. The children pounded yams loudly; they roasted some of them over a smoky fire, and after they had eaten, they went out to play in the bush.

Suddenly, with a rush and a roar, the monsters were upon them. The sisters were struck with terror and ran about in utter confusion. But, of course, they were soon caught. Nma was taken by sea monsters; Omelu fell to monsters of the air. Both of them were carried off to unknown regions.

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You can imagine what sorrow there was when Onwuekwe and Ebele returned to find their children gone!

Far, far away, the separated sisters lived as captives in the homes of their masters. By and by, however, Nma found favour with her master, who eventually married her and had a son by her.

Omelu, on the other hand, suffered horribly and was sold and resold from one monster to another, until at last she was bought by Nma's husband, who employed her to look after their child.

This alas, was not the end of her troubles, for neither sister recognised the other, and Nma treated the new comer with as little regard for her feelings as she would have shown to any other slave.

Nma had become a trader, and before she went off to the market each morning, she left the poor nurse just enough food to keep her alive. When she came home, if she learned that her child had cried even for a moment, she savagely punished the girl.

Often, during the day, poor Omelu would sing the child a lullaby, telling the whole story of her life. An old woman who lived in the same compound overheard her one day and recognised the names that Nma had so often mentioned to her. The following day, Nma pretended that she was going to market as usual, but circled back and hid behind the house.

When poor Omelu began singing her sad lullaby, Nma realised at last that the captive in her house was her long-lost sister. She rushed out from her hiding place, her eyes brimming with tears, caught her sister in her arms and embraced her tenderly.

From that day, Nma and Omelu lived happily together. But they both remained strangers in a foreign land, far from their parents and their home.

THE END!

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