By dennismary.slave@gmail.com In the little village of Aniche situated 8 kilometers east of Pranil, Uduma Oko, a peasant farmer was digging a well behind his newly completed house. Several inhabitants of Aniche drank from such wells which were usually very deep, as the nearest stream was over 26 kilometers away. Uduma had been digging for three days and had gone quite deep when suddenly the ground under his feet gave way. He fell through space and landed on firm ground again, some 4 meters below the point he had dug up to. Panting with fear, he started shouting at the top of his voice for help. It was completely dark in there and he could not see much. He shouted and called, and no help came. An idea quickly occurred to him.
“I must make some attempt at coming out; he mused.” The rope which he had thrown into the hole he was digging, and by means of which he climbed in and out was about 1.5 meters above him. Its other end had been firmly tied to the trunk of a nearby tree above. He jumped as high as he could, but he could only get as close as about half a meter from the tip of the rope.
Now, he conceived a beautiful idea. “By spreading both legs across the diameter of the hole and pressing on the upper part with both palms similarly spread out, I can get to this rope end; he assured himself. And he began.
He threw out one leg into the dark surrounding, for a feel of the wall and there was no wall nearby. He nervously threw out both hands wide apart to feel the walls and the hands merely swept through hot air. A much greater fear gripped him. He began to shiver. He shouted and shouted, and soon realized that there was some echoing sound between the spells of shouting.
Uduma’s voice soon brought to the scene, a little boy who was playing nearby. As soon as he saw the boy’s face as he tried to peep down into the hole, Uduma pleaded with him to run and call everybody.
The little boy ran out and delivered the message. Soon people started running to the scene.
As they arrived, Uduma;s elder brother who was among them called out.
“Uduma! what is wrong? Ah! you have already gone so deep in such a short time. “Please go to that tree and loosen that rope and throw more length ofthe rope so that I can come out. Please hurry I am in danger.” pleaded Uduma. Off he ran, accompanied by two other men, They did as was requested. The rope came down near enough for Uduma’s grip. He gripped it firmly, and started climbing out as all the men pulled on the rope to facilitate his deliverance.
Puffing out air from his lungs like a blacksmith’s bellows, Uduma, with face scowled with fright and wonder began the story of his experience in the under-world.
“My people;” he continued, “I am of the opinion that that mighty hole must be harboring some big dangerous animal. It could be some mighty snake, and I am afraid it could come out from the hole I have dug for the well, and devour us.”
“How big is the hole?” asked Peter who was also contemplating on digging a well for his own family.
“I am telling you that the hole is big enough to hold an animal as big as ten elephants. I spread out my hands in that darkness, but could not feel the boundary. It is a very mighty space”.
“It may be a cave used by the old-age people thousands of years back,” reasoned another. “And very often, these caves are inhabited by big snakes, came another.” “We are no longer safe here, you know” warned Uduma.
At this everyone was gripped with fear, and they resolved to alert the whole village about it.
The story soon spread like wild fire. Soon, varying versions of the same story were heard in. various quarters. In some areas, it was held that someone was digging a well, and suddenly sank into another world under-ground, and it was said that the temperature was too hot in this under-world. Some believed that the fellow was at the out-skirts of Hell which was believed to be under the earth.
Some interpreted what Uduma described as echoing of his voice, to be voices of spirits of the under-world mimicking Uduma’s shouts for help.
As the villagers could no longer bear the horrifying stories being told in various quarters about the hole, they soon started packing, until the entire Aniche became a ghost village.
The exodus of the villagers gave greater publicity to the story, and soon other neighboring villages started panicking. Many feared that since the villagers of Aniche had all moved, whatever was living in that hole, if it meant any havoc would continue advancing until it got to the other neighboring villages. This instilled an irrepressible fear in every one and soon the exodus became so wide-spread that the central government was faced with an unprecedented refugee problem. Government appeals on the villagers to return to their various villages fell on deaf ears.