The Nubian Woman

Following is a story. “But at the end you must tell me what it means in the comments.” In life there are always contingencies. Please comment...


In the long ago time there was a beautiful Nubian woman. She not only was beautiful but she had the most incredible ruby robe and necklace. The other women of the village were very jealous of her beauty and talent. Since they made fun of her and refused to socialize many days she was lonely and sad. Friday all the women brought their clothes to the river to wash. As usual the others made fun of her and ignored her. This Friday something was different. Although she was not late she heard all the women laughing and splashing in the river.

When the beautiful Nubian woman reached the river the others turned to her and said, “Join us, join us for we are very sorry for treating you so mean.” “Please, Oh Please!” Wanting so much to be liked and accepted she readily took off her robe and jumped into the river. As she looked about she noticed none of the women wore their necklaces. So she asked,” What have you all done with your beautiful necklaces?” “Oh, they said, we came out early to the river and did a very solemn ceremony and offered our necklaces to the gods and goddess of the river. We asked for forgiveness for being mean.”

The young Nubian woman was so touched by this she too wanted to be part of the ceremony so she thought and said a beautiful prayer then threw her necklace into the river. As soon as the necklace sunk out of sight all the women began to splash her and shout, “Oh you stupid stupid girl. How could you believe that we would throw our beautiful necklaces into the river?” They splashed and covered her with mud as they laughed. The Nubian woman began to cry. All the other women climbed out of the river dug up the necklaces they had hidden in the river bed picked up their clothes and walked away.

The Nubian woman dived and dived into the river searching for her necklace, her face red with shame and hurt. As sunset came she was exhausted and did not care about her life any longer. She dove deep into the bottom of the river. The bottom was muddy and covered in slime. When her vision cleared she saw a hideous lump of a creature all covered with sores oozing pus and blood. A high pitched cackling voice came from the lump demanding, “Lick my sores.” The voice repeated the demand as the Nubian woman stood shaking with fright. Slowly the woman bent down and picked up the creature’s hand and began to lick the sore. As soon as she did this the creature transformed to the goddess of the river.

Thump Thump Thump the river bed shook, earth trembling and mud spun about blocking all vision. “Hide my child, I will protect you.” The Nubian woman hid beneath the robes of the goddess just in time. A huge ugly beast came up demanding to know where was the fresh blood he smelled. The goddess told him that a beautiful young woman had just swam down the river and if he moved quickly he could catch her, so off he went.

The young woman came out of hiding and the goddess told her she must leave immediately. As the young woman turned to leave the goddess of the river handed her an incredible necklace of pearls and diamonds. More beautiful than any she had ever seen. The young woman swam up to the top of the river and looked back to find a robe of the finest cloth. She put on the robe and picked up her basket of clothes.

Now as happens in stories time differs and for the people of the village a week had gone by and it was again Friday and the women were coming to the river to wash their clothes. They were shocked to see the young woman and then demanded to know where she got such a beautiful necklace and robe.

Being the honest, good and kind woman she was she pointed to the river and said the goddess of the river …. but before she could finish the women were diving into the water. She shouted BUT WAIT! BUT WAIT! only no one heard or listened.

As the women of the village reached the muddy bottom of the river they too saw the creature covered in sores oozing pus. The creature asked the women to “Lick her sores” but they cringed back, ooo no, yuck, disgusting and other derogatory declarations. They were so busy making fun of the creature and calling her names they did not hear the THUMP THUMP THUMP of the river bed as the demon came upon them and gobbled them up.

So now I shall ask all of you to tell me what your heard and what you think the story was about.