one day ombure the crocodile god slithered from the lake and demanded sacrifices,
one virgin a year to live with me in the depths of the lake - well, the villagers defied him
and the villagers died, their weapons unable to penetrate his scaly hide. they tried
leaving while ombure slept but when ombure found them missing he cast a great spell,
I am ombure, chief of all the forest and the waters and the storm above, hear the words
of my tongue and be quick to act upon my command, hinder those who would flee
from me, thwart any plan to deny me, I am your chief and you will obey my command
and so it was the storm hindered them, and so it was the forest confused them and led
them back to another side of the very same lake, from which ombure slithered out and killed
and killed and killed, I am ombure, chief of the waters, I am ombure, chief of the forests.
i am ombure, chief of the storm, have my virgin ready when I return
but this virgin he did not take, that morning she was still there and 9 months later she
delivered a boy who was called son of the crocodile, mistreated and loathed by the village,
especially when his mother was taken the next year by ombure (surely he would not
take her this year since he left her before) but in the year between this and that she had
worked a mighty fetish for her son - son of the crocodile grew up wild to become a fearsome
young warrior who had but one friend who cared for him and when she, on her 18th birthday,
was chosen for ombure, together they decided to end ombure and his sacrifices, so all
that day he gathered gourds while the women of the village, weary of this annual harvest,
brewed pots and pots and pots of palm wine so that when ombure slithered out of the
lake instead of a virgin trembling in fear he found gourds of palmwine strewn thickly
about - ombure was sorely wroth but a sip of palmwine intrigued him and come dawn he
sprawled drunkenly on the beach and bereft of his power, at this point the son of the crocodile
commanded the lightning to strike ombure but the lightning refused, ombure is my master, said
lightning, i cannot harm him, but son of the crocodile commanded again, strike ombure, i cannot
said lightning - and so son of the crocodile stood then next to ombure and commanded - strike me
lightning lit up the dawn and struck the beach and all the gourds of palm wine exploded and ombure
was no more but he fetish protect he son of crocodile and he lose eye but he otherwise unharmed
and the two of them, son of crocodile and virgin sacrifice, endowed w/power of ombure, were
chosen to be king and queen of all the people on earth, a burden they accept only if
there is never again to be any sacrifice of any living thing
the only sacrifice worth giving is your own
demoja
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