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When they were about to choose the child who was to rule the earth, Heviosso was the first to offer to go. Mawu said as the earth was too far from the sky, the oldest had better go. So Sakpata went. When he came there, Heviosso stopped the rain from falling.
He waited for men to entreat his mother to send him instead. The people complained. They said [of Sakpata], "This king is not good for the earth. Since his coming, we find nothing to eat; we find nothing to drink. We have nothing."
One day Mawu sent Legba to earth to see what was happening. He went to see Sakpata, and Sakpata told him Heviosso was keeping the rain from falling. Legba said, "All right. That is nothing." He climbed back into the sky, promising Sakpata to send him a bird who would tell him of Mawu's decision.
On his arrival there, Legba sent a bird named Wututu to Sakpata with the message that a fire, so great that the smoke would mount on high, should be kindled at once.
Now Legba had himself suggested that Heviosso cause the rains to stop. To accomplish his purpose, Legba had gone to Mawu with a tale that there was no water in the sky, and that everyone was dying of thirst. Mawu, on hearing this, had given orders that not a drop of rain should leave the sky, so that all the water might be retained there for those in the heavens.
But now, after visiting Sakpata on earth, Legba had told the bird Wututu that when Sakpata lit the great fire and the smoke began to rise so high, Wututu should begin to sing.
Thus when Wututu came to earth with his message, Sakpata kindled the fire he had been told to light and, as the smoke rose, Wututu began to sing. Legba then hurried to Mawu and said that he had not been able to go to earth himself, but had sent his "little assistant," Wututu, who, because there had been no rain on earth and the heat had so dried everything that the trees and all else were burning, and was on the verge of being consumed.
He said, also, that all the sky risked being destroyed in the flames, if rain was not at once made to fall and extinguish the fire. Mawu at once gave Legba orders to command Heviosso to cause the rain to fall, so that Wututu should not be burned. And rain fell abundantly and the earth was saved.
All this time Mawu did not know about the quarrels between the brothers, Sakpata and Heviosso, and to this day knowledge of their quarrel bas been withheld from her.
However, because of what occurred, Mawu decreed that all rain should be regulated from the earth, since the danger of a universal conflagration lies there. For this reason Wututu was sent to live on earth, and when this bird finds that the ground is too hot, he cries out, and the rain comes down.
Later, Legba effected a reconciliation between the two brothers, so that today, people live without fear of another such severe drought.
Return to: Ancient Lore
