A long, long time ago, there lived an ugly ogre inside large forest, which was next to a large village. The village had valiant warriors who easily defeated other villages in wars. There were also some beautiful women who the ogre had heard about but had never seen.

There was this season when the most beautiful maidens went into the forest to have their virginity checked. If they passed the test, they would then be allowed to collect firewood, then go to bath in a river with clean water that ran through the forest.

On the two previous occasions when maidens had to go for this ceremony, the ogre did not know about it and missed the opportunity of seeing them when they set out to go and collect firewood after they had been checked.

But this time round the village chief’s daughter, the most beautiful woman in the village was in the party of the girls who were to go to the village. The security was going to be very tight and the ogre at one moment was left wondering whether he could be able to lay his eyes on the maidens.

The chief’s daughter was his only child and according to their tradition, the person who married her was supposed to take over as the next chief. Several of the brave warriors in the village were very eager to win the hand of the chief’s daughter so that they could become the next leaders of the village.

They tried to be nice to the chief, went to weed his farms and took his livestock to the fields when they were not fighting or doing other duties like building huts in the village. They were all looking forward to this day when the maidens would come from the forest and be allowed to talk to potential suitors.

The ogre heard about the arrangement that the suitor would not be from outside the village. There was a requirement that he should be someone people knew so that when he became the chief, people would appreciate him.

The ogre went to his Inyanga who had helped him before. He asked advice and was told to come back the following day. After his research, the Inyanga had discovered that there was one of the best warriors who had gone to fight against another tribe but never returned. His body had not been recovered and even when the two villages made peace, no one knew where this likeable young man was.

Hearing this news, the ogre went to a distant land and stole a lot of cattle which the Inyanga had asked for to enable him to transform the ogre from the ugly one eyed monster to a handsome warrior whom everybody liked.

Work had to start as soon as possible because the time for the maidens to go to the forest was near. He was smeared with different types of herbs, first to get rid of his ogre appearance. This took several weeks and then the next stage had to start. The Inyanga did not know how the warrior looked like and had to ask his ancestors to help him to make a perfect image. After all people would understand if his manners had changed because he had been away for such a long time.

In a few weeks time, the Inyanga had completed his job and it was time for the long lost warrior to make a triumphant return to his village. The Inyanga know that anyhow, people would still welcome him as a hero who had returned home.

The day when the ogre disguised as the warrior entered the village, there were feelings of disbelief as many people who were jealous of him had come to believe that he had died and his threat of becoming the chief had long gone. He majestically walked to the homestead that belonged to his parents and announced his arrival.

The parents were very emotional about his return and organised a very big feast, which was attended by everyone. Before he left the village, he had been a bit rough with people. But this time round, he was kinder and more withdrawn. He spoke to very few people and each time he would wake up and go the chief’s homestead where he would help to do some various odd jobs.

Everybody in the village started to gossip about his new nature and that the hardships he had gone through had helped him to prepare to be the next chief of the village. Finally, the day when the maidens had to go to the forest arrived. He had now seen the beautiful girl again and again and had become fond of her as days went by.

He was obviously selected to be part of the group of warriors that will keep guard so that the process of checking the maidens will not be disturbed by either wild animals or enemy villages. They sat on the edge of the bush for the two days keeping guard and the process went on and finally all the girls came out to start the process of collecting firewood. Thos warriors who had ruled themselves out because of the return of this popular warrior started to choose their future wives from the other girls.

Finally the girls returned to the village and life went back to normal. But in the background, moves were being made to get the person who will marry the chief’s daughter. The obvious choice was this warrior who had recently returned from the forest.

The announcement was finally made that the warrior was going to marry the chief’s daughter. Plans were made and the wedding date was finally set. The wedding took place according to the traditions of these people and on their first night, the power of the muti that had been used to turn him into a handsome warrior started to wear out. Instead of sleeping, he went out into the darkness to look for bones because he was now feeling very hungry.

The bride was woken up by loud sound of bones cracking and peeped out to see what was happening. Instead of the handsome warrior she had married, she saw an ugly one-eyed ogre chewing bones. She could not believe her eyes and did not want to disturb him because she suspected something was wrong.

The following day they woke up and she pretended like she had not seen anything. In the night, he went out and brought bones the house and turned himself into an ogre, which started to chew bones. The bride could not contain herself the following day and went to tell her mother. The mother alerted the father who made went into the hut and hid himself in a dark corner. As usual the ogre went out to collect bones and turned himself into the ogre that he was and then went on to chew his bones.

The chief could not contain himself any longer for he believed that his daughter was in danger. She was really going to be in danger because the ogre’s plan was that after he had finished collecting the bones that were littered all over the field because of the wedding party, he could turn to his wife and eat her up.

But the chief organised warriors who kept vigil outside the hut and when the ogre started to chew bones, they went into the hut and arrested him.