It was a lazy morning, John woke up with a head ache+ a bad dream. It was a torment, the past few days had been hectic, writing exams and doing business. John was over 20, but something peculiar about John was his ability to remember.
Being Saturday morning, John felt he could treat himself to a little bit of brain tease only it was a childhood memory.
When John was a young boy, he had an experience that was mind blowing. In a local African/Nigerian community, people believed in "jaz"( an African term that is used to signify the use of diabolic or occult powers), John did not believe, well, until that day when he saw it happen for real.
The man displaying the show was an Hausa native( one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria), he had the traditional Hausa mark on his face, something that John still did not understand how they passed through the horror of the process involved in getting those marks. He had a weird smile on his face, he simply sat down while his partner did the talking. They were confident in their Jaz powers and did nothing to bring fear or doubt in the hearts of the people that watched them. The only thing that mattered was the thrill and fear that the people got from being in suspense.
In a traditional African community showing off diabolic powers was always a mean to an end of drawing attention. This was the case in this scenario, John was captivated, his memory was not o sure, but he felt he was probably alone that day or occult with his elder sister, he was very young and so being with his sister must have been the case.
As john continued in his day dream, he recalled that everyone was captivated, the orator of the two was telling people about the charm that he had to sell and that with those charms they can do the impossible and that they were there to display the potency of the charm.
John was keen to understand, he did not have any money, but he was captivated. So people can really do such things.
As the show continued, the first display was changing slippers into snake. The charmer began, he cut a pair of slippers into two, displaying the box and letting everyone know that the box was empty, he then cu pieces of broom sticks, place them at the distal end; which were supposed to serve as fangs for the snake, John watched on, as well as the okada men( motorcyclist) who were close. The Hausa man said a number of incantation, he placed the slippers with the broomstick into the box and closed it. He then said more incantations , waving a magic stick around the box. John began to smile.. He was young, but he was not stupid, he was sure nothing will happen, so he just smiled and waited for the big flop. He expected a sick wave of disappointment to pass through the crowd... But, after a few incantations, the orator addressed the crowd, asking them to be ready and not to stand in the way of the snakes- citing that they were creatures of the forest and should be allowed to live their lives. The moment of thrill and suspence was soon to end. Everyone's eyes were wide open. Johns sister held his hands- she loved him and valued his life and above all she didn't have the courage to tell stories later to their father if anything went wrong, so she held him close..slowly, the enchanter opened the box and out of the box crawled out a big Python. The snake was moving really fast as if it was released from bondage running for the closest bush around. Everyone was scared, everyone believe and people around the place were beginning to buy a charm which the orator claimed will protect them from snake bit.
They soon began the next display of the night, in an attempt to get people to buy more charms. This time, they intended to pass a snake through one end of a mans pant and to let it crawl out through the other end.
John as in the present, reasoned the risk involved, wondering what kind of mad courage will make a man take such rick.....the snake was a long and huge cobra, in a few minutes there were two volunteers- "its such pity that men put trust in their fellow men, following what they can see. Its faith, but a blind kind of faith."
The orator asked the man to sit down, spreading his legs. He spoke a few incantations into a rolled bead and asked the man to place it in his pocket, this was his protection and that as long as he had it in his pocket the snake will see him as a friend and not hurt him. This display was also to show off the potency of their charm.
He brought out the snake from a black box kissing and caressing the snake as if it were a pet, he soon began to pass the snake through one of the holes of the pants, it took a few minutes for snake to get towards the perinea region( where his penis was), at this point the man grabbed his penis, complaining to the orator that the snake is kissing the scrotum of the penis. The orator replied its normal, although thinking about it now, John felt it a rather strange event. The show was successful, the snake came out the other side and it was another credit source for the jaz duo.
Finally they had one more display to make and they wanted everyone to gather around for this. It was the highlight of the show and they wanted people to know that they can make men fly- at least, not only oyinbo people (white men) can do that.
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