Once upon a time there lived a woman who couldn’t have children. Because of that all her husbands kept leaving her. One day she was feeling so sad, miserable and lonely that she decided to go and see a witch doctor, for him to help her have a baby. The witch doctor said: “How can I help you? To have a baby you need a husband, and you haven’t got a husband!” She begged him to do everything in his power. In the end he relented; “OK, he said, I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t be easy. But as I’ve got a reputation to keep up, I’ll perform a miracle on you.” He gave the woman three limes and told her to take them home with her. “At the end of each day, he said, for the next three days, before you go to bed, make sure you have a bath. Wash your hands thoroughly. Take one of the limes and cut it in two, squeeze the juice, rub it on your tummy, your thighs and your hands.”
The woman followed these instructions exactly. After a few weeks, she noticed that her stomach and her thighs were getting big. She got worried, and went back to see the witchdoctor again to ask his advice. He told her not to worry, these were the signs that the magic was working. “You just have to go through with this, you will be fine,” he said. He added that once the children got big, and started to wonder about their father, she should tell them that the father is a one-eyed antelope.
As time went by, she got bigger and bigger. After nine months her left thigh just opened up and a baby boy jumped out. Then her stomach opened up and a baby girl jumped out. She was very happy that at last she was a mother, and for some time they lived happily like any normal family. She called the boy Atta, and the girl she called Attakuma. As the children grew older, they became very headstrong. They always did exactly what they liked and took little or no notice of their mother’s wishes or commands.
One day when her twins were about ten years old, the woman told them: Your dad is not a human. He is an antelope with one eye. If you go hunting and you come across a one-eyed antelope, don’t kill it, it could be your father. The children promised her they would never kill any one eyed antelope they might come across.
One day the twins went hunting. They walked really far searching the jungle for meat. They spent all day searching, then decided to go back home empty handed. One the way back they encountered a one-eyed antelope. Atta said to his sister: “Look at the size of that antelope! Let’s shoot it and take it home.” “No no, no, said Attakuma, remember what our mother told us, if we shoot it, we might be killing our father!” Atta turned to his sister and snorted: “What!? You believe that stuff? How can our father be an animal. No way, that’s impossible!” With that he raised his bow and shot the antelope right in its heart. The beast died immediately. But the animal was so big and heavy that it was impossible for them to carry. They had to make some rope, tied it round the animal and dragged it all the way back home. Their mother hadn’t returned from the market yet, so they set about cooking a delicious meal. When mother got home she was very pleased to find that her children had prepared a meal for her, and set down immediately to eat. But after a few bites, she thought this meat tasted just like antelope meat. She called out to her children: “Is this antelope meat I’m eating? Did you kill an antelope today?” “Yes” replied Atta. The mother screamed and threw her food away. “Oh, lord Oh lord; the witchdoctor warned me about this. What am I going to do, I’m sick and tired; these children of mine, they never listen, they always disobey me.”
The next day she went out and bought two chairs. These chairs she took to Mister Death, and explained to him that she’ll be sending her twins along later to collect the chairs. “When they get here, she said, I want you to capture them, and take them to the other side for me.” Death agreed to this quite happily. The woman went home and told her children she had just bought two chairs for them, but they were too heavy for her to carry, so she left them with the merchant. So the twins set out to fetch the chairs from the merchant. When they got to Death’s house he told them to sit and wait while he got the chairs from the back. But he came back with a rope, and tried to tie them up. The twins however were far too quick and smart for him, and got away. Back home, they told their mother what had happened. “That nasty man tried to kill us!” Attakuma said. “No. no, said the mother, you must have done something to upset him” But she was upset that her plan hadn’t worked.
A few days later she tried again. This time she bought some bread, and left it with Death, and asked her twins to collect it for her. But Attakuma had a plan. She told her brother to go to the front of Death’s house, and ask for the bread. This Atta did. In the meantime Attakuma went round the back of the house, and found the rope. She knew Death