Free Feather Woman of the Jungle by Amos Tutuola

that song, because it added to my punishment instead to lessen it. For as he was singing it with me, he was just doing as if he was crazy. He enjoyed it so much that he had lost all his senses at the same time and he was jumping up so highly that his head was striking the roof of that hole. And he rode me to the roughest part of the hole which he had avoided before.
    When he rode me till twelve, he went down from my back, he chained me near the door of his room and after he had loosened the string of my neck, he entered the room. After a while, he came back with some unripened bananas and he threw them on my head. But he hardly threw them on me when I snatched them and swallow all even quicker than to swallow my spat, because I was already nearly to die of hunger.
    Having taken his own food which was meat and drunken many shots from each of all the drinks which were hung in the corner of his room, he lay down on the mat of corals and then he fell asleep. I sat down and leaned my back on the rock nearby. As I was thinking in mind that if I failed to escape, he would ride me to death soon or if he did not ride me to death before their next meeting, no doubt, they would kill me in the meeting. But as sleep was just as death, so I did not know when I fell asleep unnoticed.
    As I was still sleeping with pains, he woke up. He walked to where I was and when he saw me that I was sleeping, he was so annoyed that he kicked me on the back. When I woke and stood up suddenly, he gave me several slaps on the face before he walked back to his room. I was very lucky that he did not ride me for the rest part of that day and I did not see him until when he was going out in the night. When he went out he closed the main entrance back with usual heavy stone, so that I might not go out or escape before he returned.
    When he came back in the morning, he loosened the chain away, from my waist, he put the usual string of leather on my neck, he held the usual whip and then he mounted my back and started to ride me to and fro. But as my power could not carry him along as quickly as I had done the previous day and that I began to fall down continuously, because I was so tired that I could not even lift myself up. So instead to come down from my back, this cruel man held my head and throat with all his power and simply kept quiet.
    At last, when I could not breathe well and I was dying, then having struggled for a few minutes, I stood up and he continued to ride me along without mercy. With extreme pains, I did not know when I began to call my dogs so loudly that they heard my call. But when they heard my call they struggled so hard that the rope with which they were tied up cut, because before that time it had already dried up by theheat of the sun. And within a few minutes, they ran to that rock but unfortunately, they could not enter into it because the entrance was shut with a heavy stone by that cruel man. As I was still calling them loudly, they did not waste time at the entrance but they started to go around the rock, they were looking for another entrance.
    But as this cruel man had seen my dogs before me he hastily covered my mouth with his thick palm, so that I might not be able to shout again. But of course, I was still struggling with him to take his palm away from my mouth. My dogs climbed the rock to the top, then they jumped into that hole through the small round space which was on top of it. They hardly jumped in when they rushed to him and began to bite him so severely that he jumped away from my back without his wish.
    When he bent down and was just picking up one stone with which to beat them, they rushed to him again and they bit both his head and eyes so severely that he fell down powerlessly at the same time. And without hesitation, I started to beat him with a heavy stone which I found nearby. When I believed that he had no more power to revenge on me that time. I walked round the hole and I found my matchet from where he had