OLANMA: STOLEN TREASURE

The town crier's voice rents through the still atmosphere. This was when the weary bodies of men and women laid on their raffia mats.

"It has happened! People of Ekimze, it has happened! The lion's cub has been taken and the whole pride sleeps. Where are the men? Where are our warriors? Our wives and children are not safe anymore", he cried as he walked through the bush path.

Men sprang out of bed, women tied sucklings on their backs to stop them from crying, and grown children kept the little ones inside the huts.

The chiefs were already at the palace as the men of the village thronged into the court. The king came into the court with a look of one whom the gods had told will die a miserable death.

"My only daughter, your princess has been taken. She and her maids were going to the river to wash themselves when they were attacked. Adaku, one of her maids had stopped to relieve herself when this happened. She returned to inform us of this ugly event." the king said with a shaky voice.