The Happy king

There was once this king who ruled along the shores of the peninsular mountain ridges of Rokamp, long before Pedro Da Cintra came along those areas with his vessel full of sick Portuguese sailors and called the the area "Serra Lyoa" meaning lion mountains. It was even before a chief called Nepo in the areas between the rivers Moa and Maleh in an eastern land far away from Rokamp, named his son Sei in the town of Gbandilo and many people come from far and near to see the chief's son Sei, ultimately giving the town the name Sei-gbay-ma, which the British spelt in their nasal tone as Segbwema. Seigbayma meaning the place where the people went to see Sei.

The Great King

The great and magnificent king of Rokamp, with forty wives, 77 concubines and 145 biological children had no equal from the shores of the Atlantic to the innermost tributary of the great river Scarcies. The king was feted and feasted. He was a wise king and a good ruler. He surrounded himself by only people who agreed with him. People who disagreed with him or were different from him were not important, were not significant, did not matter. People who disagreed with him did not see that he was trying to build a kingdom so great that it would one day be the envy of even the gods. He had no patience for these type of people, they were not wise, they were not ambitious and they vexed him. The happy and great almighty king had no patience for small minded people who vexed him. He had time only for the wise and great men who thought like him, who saw the world from his own view point.

The king was happy with the way things were, but he had only one very secret sadness that sometimes troubled him greatly. Somedays the weight of this great sadness bore down so much on his chest that he found it difficult to breathe. For years the king moved amongst the people, always  pretending to be happy, but a wise old man saw the troubled look that sometimes passed across the king's majestic face, even in the midst of festivities and thought that there must be something troubling this great and mighty chief. 

The Wise Agreeable Man

One day the wise old man came upon the chief sitting alone in the garden of his youngest and newest wife with the same sad look on his face. The old man, knowing that the chief was a kind and benevolent spirit who only cut of people's" head when they did something terribly wrong, decided to muster the courage and ask the king once and for all what the matter was that sometimes troubled him so deeply. At first the chief denied and stated that he was very happy. He had many wives and children and the people loved him and said he did not understand why the old man thought he should at anytime be unhappy. He assured the old man that he was happy from the moment the sun rose to the moment it set beyond the walls of his magnificent palace. The old man did not however relent, but kept prodding the chief, to know the source of his great secret unhappiness.

At last the great king of the land of Rokamp on the shores of the peninsular mountains conceded the truth and told the old man the source of his great secret unhappiness, on the pain of death, if he were to ever mention it to someone else.

"Old man," The king said, "I am secretly unhappy because in spite of all that I am and all that I have done, there are still people in this kingdom who disagree with me."

"Great King do not let this trouble you anymore more. I will take you to the secret cave of the great God  who satisfies every wish. Just ask him what you want and he will give it to you. No man knows about this cave and swear not to reveal it to anybody," the old man said. The king promised never to tell a single soul and allowed himself to be led to the cave by the wise old man who always agreed with him, blindfolded.

At the cave the king said. "Great God you have made me very happy and I want only one more thing to complete my happiness. I want everybody in this kingdom to always agree with me."

A deep voice from the cave said to the great and almighty chief, "Go safely home wise king, tomorrow when the first fowl crows cocorioko, your wish shall come to pass."

The old man blindfolded the king once again and led him out of the secret cave. They went home, and the king was exceedingly happy.

On the morning of the next day, the king rushed out upon hearing the first Cocorioko and lo and behold everyone in the kingdom had become a sheep and they all agreed with him all the days of his life and all they ever replied to anything that he said was, "baa baaa baa, and beh beh beh.

The Agreeable Subjects