The Palm-Wine Drinkard: And His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town

They arrive at a clearing and find three living creatures: Drum, Song, and Dance. The half-bodied baby climbs down from the Drinkard’s head and joins them. When the creatures begin to perform, their music is so compelling that the Drinkard, his wife, and others are forced to dance along for five days straight without rest or food. The procession ends at a mud compound, where the three creatures and the baby enter and disappear. Finally free, the couple travels for two days and arrives penniless in a new town. The Drinkard recalls that he is the father of gods who could do anything in this world, so uses his juju to transform himself into a canoe. His wife operates him as a ferry service across a river and, in one month, they earn over £56. With their new wealth, they continue their journey.

After leaving the town, the Drinkard and his wife encounter gangs of highwaymen. To avoid them and the dangerous animals in the bush, the Drinkard uses a juju to turn himself into a large bird resembling an airplane. With his wife and their belongings on his back, he flies for five hours over the perilous region. After landing, they continue on foot and soon arrive in the town where his wife’s father told him his tapster was living. However, the townspeople inform him that the tapster left two years prior and now resides in Deads’ town, a place inhabited only by the dead.

With no path to Deads’ Town, the couple travels through a thick bush. At night, they encounter a huge white creature resembling a pillar, with no human head, feet, or hands, but one large eye at its topmost. The Drinkard uses a charm to turn himself and his wife into a fire for protection. Soon, many more of these creatures appear and surround the fire to warm themselves, trapping the couple. They eventually escape by moving the fire to the edge of the creatures’ territory. Next, they cross a field of grass with razor-sharp edges and stop to rest under a large termites’ house. At night, they discover they are in the center of a bustling market and the termites’ house was its owner. Captured by the field’s creatures, they are brought before their king, a being made of refuse. Here, they meet a creature named Laugh, whose laughter is so contagious they forget their pain. The king orders them taken to the “gods of war” (46), but the narrator, as Father of gods, uses his knowledge to pacify the god, who then leads them safely out of the field.

The couple arrives at the Wraith-Island, a town inhabited by beautiful, kind creatures who spend their time playing music and dancing. The Drinkard and his wife are welcomed and live there happily, with the Drinkard taking up farming. One day, a monstrous animal with long fingernails and five horns begins eating his crops. The Drinkard learns the beast is the owner of the land and pacifies it with an offering of crops. The animal then carries him to its home and gives him magical seeds of corn, rice, and okra. When planted, the seeds germinate, grow, and produce ripe fruit within minutes. The Drinkard harvests the miraculous crop and saves the seeds for his journey.

The Drinkard joins the creatures of Wraith-Island in clearing a field for their king. A tiny creature, who was not invited to help, magically causes the weeds to grow back. This happens twice more before they catch him. The creature explains he acted out of offense for being excluded. After 18 months on the island, the Drinkard and his wife depart. They journey through a “greedy” (52) bush where the air smells of baked goods, satisfying their hunger, and encounter a row of talking palm-trees. They then enter a forest filled with flesh-eating birds. At night, a Spirit of Prey appears, which kills its prey by closing its eyes, causing victims to die and drag themselves to the spirit. The intense heat from its open floodlight eyes causes the Drinkard’s wife to faint. The Drinkard carries her up a tree just as the spirit closes its eyes to kill a passing buffalo. The spirit finds their baggage but, discovering nothing edible, waits until nearly dawn before leaving.

In a ruined town, the Drinkard takes a cola from a basket near an image despite a warning voice. This provokes a backwards-walking creature with eyes on its knees, which chases them until they reach a wide, clean road. They realize the road leads to the Unreturnable-Heaven’s town and are magically forced down it, unable to stop or turn back. A gate opens, and they are thrust into the town, where they are captured by its cruel inhabitants, who do everything backwards. The creatures take them to their king, then torture the couple by shaving their heads with broken glass, rubbing pepper into the wounds, and burying them in the ground up to their necks. An eagle is brought to peck out their eyes but refuses to harm them. After a heavy rain softens the ground, the eagle helps the Drinkard escape his hole, whereupon he frees his wife. That night, they set fire to the town, which is made of thatch, and burn it to the ground, killing most of the residents. They build a shelter in the bush and stay a total of five months, with the Drinkard’s wife recovering fully after three months. They reach an impassable river and see a giant white tree. Two large hands emerge from it, grab them, and pull them inside.

Inside the white tree, they find themselves in a beautiful town. The hands deliver them to an old woman named the Faithful-Mother, who explains that she helps people who are in trouble. She takes them to a grand hall filled with images of all the people she has rescued, including white images closely resembling the Drinkard and his wife. She then leads them to a hospital where their heads, which were wounded by the creatures of the Unreturnable-Heaven’s town, are treated until their hair grows back.

The Drinkard and his wife live with the Faithful-Mother for over a year, enjoying a life of luxury with endless food, drink, and dancing. The narrator gambles away the money he had received for selling his “death” (74). Eventually, the Faithful-Mother tells them it is time to continue their journey. Though they beg to stay, she explains she has no right to delay anyone more than a year and some days. She gives them gifts, including a gun, and they find themselves suddenly outside the tree again. They retrieve their “fear” (75) from the borrower, who pays them the last interest instalment upon its return, but the buyer of their death refuses to return it. The Faithful-Mother uses a stick to create a bridge across the river for them, then disappears. They soon meet a tall lady dressed in red.

The Red-lady leads them to a Red-Bush and then a Red-town, where everything and everyone is red. The Red-king explains that they were once human, but he caught a red fish in a trap and a red bird in a net. When he stopped midway under a tree and tried to burn them, the smoke followed him back to town and spread, turning his entire town and all its inhabitants red, after which they died and reformed in this new, red land. He reveals that the two red creatures now demand an annual human sacrifice. As the time for the sacrifice is near, he asks the Drinkard or his wife to volunteer. Knowing he cannot die, the Drinkard agrees. At the creatures’ hole, a monstrous red fish emerges, which the Drinkard kills with his gun. A giant red bird appears next, and he kills it as well. The Red-king, fearing the Drinkard’s power, flees with his people, transforming into a great fire that burns the town before they turn into two trees and disappear. The Drinkard realizes his wife is with them and follows for days. When the trees reform into a town, he finds her and discovers the people are no longer red. The Red-lady reveals she is Dance, and she summons Drum and Song for a celebration so powerful that the dead rise and all creatures join in. Drum beat himself until he reached heaven and could not return; Song sang until he entered a large river and was seen no more; Dance danced until she became a mountain and never appeared again. The Drinkard and his wife settle in the new town, where he uses his magical seeds to become a rich man.