Ijapa and the Snail's Wedding

Ijapa the Tortoise was invited to the wedding of the Snail's daughter. He was told to bring a gift. Being very greedy, Ijapa arrived with a huge, empty sack. When the feast was served, he did not eat. Instead, he secretly funneled all the best food—pounded yam, rich stew, and roasted meat—into his sack to take home. When it was time to dance, the sack was so heavy he could barely move. The other guests, seeing him sweating and struggling, asked what was in the sack. "It is my dancing costume!" he lied. "It is very heavy and traditional." They urged him to put it on. Trapped in his own lie, Ijapa had to open the sack. All the stolen food tumbled out. The other guests, led by the drummers, immediately created a song to mock him: "Ijapa the thief, his greed is his heavy costume!" He was so deeply shamed that he crawled into his shell and did not come out for a week.