This story begins: with "7 sticks"
Unity rose to his feet to address his family. Walking away from the table to make sure that everyone could see him, he began.
"My father had a tale for every occasion it seemed, and in my, or should I say in our youth, he would educate us using his tales. Although I thought, they were useless, I have found myself referring to his stories regularly in my personal and business life. The story that stuck with me was entitled "The Magic Bird," and I will attempt to tell the story."
A long time ago, and far away the Nyame people that my father sometimes spoke of existed in small villages. This was many years before Gye, and long before the Nyame became as advanced as they were said to be. The Nyame lived in relative peace but out of nowhere they were besieged by a swarm of magic birds. These birds would swarm on all the villages during meal times and take all the prepared food. As the days went by their attacks became more bold. The bird began attacking not just during meal times, but when anyone had some prepared food. The Bird would never attack the crops, or the animals the bird only ate ready foods. So if you were about to sit down and eat a cooked meal, that you spent all day making preparations for, the birds would show up and be gone with your food before you could react. If your child had a snack, these birds would appear and take it before the child could take a bite. This went on for weeks and finally. A council meeting of the village elders was called. The elders decided to put a man named Chaco in charge of solving the problem for the Nyame.
Chaco was a well-respected member of the Nyame, and if anyone could solve the problem he could. After looking at the situation surrounding the birds, he figured that there was some magic involved. He knew that magic, like any other problem was easy to solve all you had to do was get to the root. If you eliminate the root of a problem or magic in most cases, you solve the problem.
Chaco decided to get the best trackers from all the villages and task them with finding the bird's resting place. He figured if he could find their nesting place there he would find the root of the problem. So the trackers went out, and for weeks they followed every clue that they could find and eventually came near the hiding place of the magic birds. The birds nested all together on one tree a few miles away from Chaco's village. All of the trackers agreed that the tree must be magic, because this was an extremely large and old tree, that all the trackers swore was not in that spot a year ago. Nyame trackers are very thorough and are known for knowing every tree, and path in the forest surrounding the villages. Chaco listened, then gave them food, a reward for their hard work, and he began to hatch a plan.
Chaco figured that the best people to handle this issue would be the elders. He was sure that they had the experience necessary to destroy the tree, deal with the magic, and vanquish the birds. He immediately sent a messenger to all the villages calling for an important meeting of the elders.
Chaco awaited all the elders for he knew they would want to get down to business as soon as they all arrived. Chaco painted the picture of the situation and then began to explain why he had called the elders together. Chaco commenced to talk as soon as he received permission from the elders.
"Elders I called all of you here so that I can tell you about what I found, and what my plans are for dealing with the birds. Elders I have chosen you because you are the population that is most capable for handling a threat of this magnitude. We are dealing with some form of magic here, and who better to render this magic harmless than those who have wisdom. You all also are the most skilled in our community so the chopping down of the tree should be easy."
The elders all agreed with him and decided to return to the sacred meeting spot with their axes and other tools in one day.
When the elders returned Chaco was there to greet them. When all of them arrived, Chaco decided to help build up their spirit with a chant. Chaco called for the crowd's attention, and everyone fell silent.
"Now elders I do not need to speak to you about how important the mission you have decided to go on is for our people. We have long depended on your wisdom to feed, cloth and protect us. Now we need your actions."
Chaco fell silent looking around the crowd and then began speaking again.
"These birds have caused us much pain, and they must fall. These birds must fall!"
Then Chaco did something that no one, not even himself expected. Balling his fist tight he began throwing his fist in the air and chanted.
"Down with the bird!"
"Down with the bird!"
"Down with the bird!"
"Down with the bird!"
At first, the elders were shocked, and appeared not to know what to do, but slowly they all began joining in on the chant, and soon they could be heard for miles. The elders began walking toward the tree.
When they reached the tree, they were still chanting, the elders who were warriors set up a perimeter around the tree. Those with the spears and shields took the front. Those with the swords were next in line and to the rear, so they could have a clear shot was the elders with the bows and arrows. The font line moved in slowly closing the perimeter awaiting an attack from the birds in the tree, but the birds didn't move. They just sat
in the tree as the sun reflected off of their beautiful feathers, it looked like a living rainbow.
When the elders shields got close enough the elders who were the most skilled woodsmen jumped out of the crowd and began to chop the tree with their axes. The birds did not attack. They all just looked at what was happening looked up in the sky and began to sing.
At first, the elders kept chopping, but when the song got louder, they dropped the axes first, then the shields, spears, swords, bows, and finally, the arrows. The elders appeared to fall into a trance as they listened to the bird's song. Surprisingly, some of the elders began to cry listening to this song, and it only got more beautiful the longer you listened. Elders were weeping not because of sadness or pain, but because the bird's magic song helped them relive the past at least in their minds. They remembered love gained, and love lost. They relived adventures, and most importantly they remembered their youth. Some of them began dancing around. Others at this moment cried for joy, and some just jumped up and down in excitement.
This went on all night, and when the sun rose the elders grabbed their weapons and tools and walked back to their villages sending representatives to Chaco to explain what happened and what the elders had decided. When they arrived, Chaco greeted them expecting good news, but was shocked when he found out that the elders not only failed but decided not to try again. Chaco tried to argue and remind the elders of how important this mission was, but he eventually realized that it was no good because the elders had been bewitched by the birds.
Chaco had to come up with another way of getting rid of these birds, but who could he call?
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