Poems

Metekù

There was once a youth named Metekù. Even though he was an orphan, his neighbours wanted him dead. One day, when he was outside his
house, the neighbours killed the only bull he owned and divided its meat between them. So that he understood that the bull had not fallen victim to the hyenas, they left its hide by his door. He understood who were his enemies, but without saying a word he went to sell the hide of his bull in the villages. But nobody wanted to buy it from him. He wandered for the whole week and the hide dried. Taking advantage of his departure, his neighbours burned down his house.
Metekù started walking towards home. Before he reached his village, it became dark and he climbed up a tree in order to sleep so as to not be a prey to the hyenas and other ferocious animals.
Under that very tree, a group of merchants and their camels decided to sleep there too because there was a spring of water nearby. At night, while shuffling in his sleep, Metekù made a strange noise with the dried hide that he was now using as a mattress. The merchant, far from thinking there was a man on the tree above them, thought that it was the devil and they fled, leaving all their good behind.
Metekù could not understand the reason for their flight, but fearing that they would come back, he waited for three days. When he understood that they had no intention of doing so, he decided to take all their riches to the market of the province's biggest town, and became rich over the course of a few days. On his return, he bore no anger for what they had done to him and he had himself a house built that was similar to that of the King's. At the warming ceremony of his new abode, he invited everyone from the village, including the neighbours, and they asked him the origins of his wealth. He replied "Thanks to the hide of my bull" And so in order to be as rich as him, they decided to kill their own bulls and to sell their hides. But they couldn't earn more than the hides were worth.
Then one of them thought that if they too burned down their houses, they would become as rich as Metekù. Everyone then burned down their houses. But no wealth came of it. Homeless and poor, they began to beg for alms. But Metekù took pity on them and had new houses built for them.
The wisdom and goodwill of Metekù spread far and wide. A young princess in his country asked her father to allow her to meet him.
When he presented himself, the princess was struck not only by his wisdom, but also by his beauty. And she married him even though he had never done any heroic deeds.