Goloto the Spider and the Princess

Goloto the Spider and the Princess
Goloto l’Araignee et la Princesse
Yivi Golotoe kple Fiavi la


The sovereign of the watsi kingdom had a daughter, a daughter who was very beautiful but also very haughty. Seda was her name. Despite her fragile health (she vomited up even the smallest morsel that landed in her stomach, so she ate nothing that wasn’t made of either honey or bread), this princess saw herself as too dazzling to tend the cookfire of any ordinary household so she turned her nose up at all the rich men who came around to speak to her of love and marriage. But, you know it well, many proud women have fallen because of their bad choices.
In the lands of the king lived a spider-man called Goloto. The tales of the beauty of this girl echoed all the way out to him, and he waited with great anticipation for an opportunity to meet her and trick her into marrying him with a clever trap.
One night, Goloto the Spider was on the roof of his hut, covering it with new straw, when he saw Seda. She was on her way to her aunt’s house just a few streets away. Goloto the Spider quickly jumped off the roof, ran to get in front of her, splashing honey on all the grasses along the path. He left the empty gourd nestled in a little bush and hid himself nearby.
When she arrived at the path, Seda the Princess was surrounded by the scent of honey and thought she’d been transported to the heavenly kingdom of bees. She stopped, took a deep breath of the perfumed air, then set about licking the delicious leaves all around the path. In her joy, she thought the leaves smiled and beckoned to her. She made her way up the path until she reached the empty gourd. She noticed a few droplets of honey still on the bottom and reached out her hand to pick it up. She had barely touched it when Goloto the Spier bounded out, grabbed her and began clamoring to have his honey back.
The princess bowed her head in confusion, tears stained her white flowered dress. She begged Goloto the Spider and promised to exchange the honey she’d eaten for her jewelry, but Goloto the Spider refused all her proposals.
“Since you do not have my honey to give back to me,” he said to the princess, “the only thing to do is to marry me, to prevent me from going throughout the kingdom crying out that the king’s Beauty stole my honey.”
Now, as you know, being a thief is a very serious offense. But it was even more serious in the princess’s kingdom. If she were accused of theft, she would be beaten and then banished forever, sent far away from her beloved father and forced to live on her own.
So, hearing the words of Goloto the Spider, Seda through herself into the arms of Goloto the Spider and became his wife. The two new lovers then walked arm in arm to the doors of the palace where Seda went to her knees before the man and begged him not to accompany her further. Goloto the Spider said nothing.
He waited in front of the house for hours, but the princess didn’t come back. Unable to wait any longer, because soon the sun would set, he went in to find her in the palace.
“Ooh!” she said with disdain on seeing him, “I told you to wait for me on the doorstep, no? I will come see you! Why are you here?”
“Do you want to be quiet?” grumbled Goloto the Spider angrily, “or perhaps, do you want me to go shout your crime from the rooftops?”
Seda was quiet. She already knew just what the Spider was capable of.
This skinny tyrant became all chubby during the three months spent in the palace, under the princess’ bed, where he hid every time a servant came to attend to his companion. Seda’s pride waned like a crescent moon while her belly waxed to fullness. Once Seda’s pregnancy was obvious, Goloto the Spider disappeared from the palace.
The king had the great gong rung, demanding the father of the Seda’s baby to present himself, but no one came forward. The princess herself, ashamed of her proud beauty now sullied by Goloto the Spider, was always in tears and now only opened her mouth to eat her bread and honey.
Finally, she gave birth to a boy. They announced the news to all of the village but still the father did not come forward. The child grew to three years of age. The king, still obsessed with knowing the father of the child, gathered all of his subjects and ordered his grandson to tour the assembly to show him his father.
Could you guess that, in that huge crowd, the child would go nestle up between the legs of Goloto the Spider? A thunder of applause mixed with cries of shock and horror spread through the huge crowd for a long time. And the king left the boy in the care of his father that night, reminding his subjects of the old Mina proverb:
“No matter where or how far away a prince lives, he always belongs to the king.”
But young girls’ should heed the lesson that if they’re too picky they could end up with Goloto the Spider for a mate.