Chapter 4

Terrified and confused about what witchery was going on and how come so many fish which certainly were hard to find were leaping into his boat just like that? He knew that mackerel was difficult to find in this river but how come they were so abundant? Adigun quickly wiped his hands over his eyes to be sure that he wasn't dreaming.

When he looked into the canoe again, the fish were still writhing inside his canoe with most of them gasping for air with open mouths.

Just then, Adigun heard a small splash in the water, thinking that it was another fish, he was surprised to see a dark preparing for a leap, he held his breath when he saw a head slowly rising out of the water till it revealed a feminine face and slender shoulders and he instantly knew that it was the creature which he had set free a moment ago. But why did she still linger around? He had thought that she was gone.

"You came back." He said in Yoruba again. 

"Are you satisfied with the fish or do you want more?" She asked in Yoruba and Adigun was dumbstruck. She speaks! By the gods, she could speak and she also spoke in the same dialect of Yoruba!

"Did you do this?" He asked.

She gave a subtle nod. He could only see her head and shoulders; the rest of her body was hidden in the murky water.

"Who are you?" He asked in curiosity. "And why were you in the river at this time of the night?"

"My name is Enitan and the river is my home... I only got trapped in your net because I was too curious for my own good."

Adigun scoffed and stared out at the river. "The river is your home? That's impossible. No one lives in the river." He skeptically said.

"Orisha Osun (the river goddess) is my mother and I'm her heiress whenever she retires or joins Olodumare (God)." She said.

Adigun knew who Osun was quite alright. She was the river goddess whom the village also served along with other deities; in fact, individual families had the deities they served and had created a place for them in their homes. Osun was considered to be the goddess of beauty, sensuality and fertility. 

Once a year, a festival was thrown on her behalf while a virgin who was given the honour presented the sacrifice of goodies to her, and in return, the villagers believed that Osun blessed the village with abundance rain which helped their farm crops boom and made them the envy of other villages. Even though a few people had claimed to see someone swimming far away in the river and disappearing under it, Adigun had never really believed the myth until now. 

He grew excited now and stated, "This is good! You should present yourself before the Kabiyesi (king)! You'll be treated with reverence, that I assure you, daughter of a goddess!"

"No!" Enitan refuted, there was fear in her voice. "I cannot be seen by mortals! I'm not even supposed to come to the surface, my mother forbids it! We are to remain unseen to save our kind from greedy and malicious humans."

Adigun sighed softly now. He greatly understood. He had once heard of how the whites had attempted to capture Osun herself during her annual festival and they were going to take her to their country where she would be displayed elites all over the world in a large aquarium in order to prove the existence of mermaids, after which she would be auctioned to the highest bidder, but Osun had gotten wind of their evil plot and had refused to surface anymore during the festival for her own safety.