King Buzzard

An ancient, wise man I know, name of Old Jehu, told me that his grand daddy told him a story passed down from his forefathers going way back that went something like this.

Way back in slavery days, back in Africa, there was a big mean king by the name of King Mohammed. He was the king of his tribe and lorded it over other tribes, and when the white traders would come to the shore he would trap his own people where the slave ships could take them in chains and carry them across the ocean. When the Arab traders came he sold his people to them too, and the Arabs would chain them together and walk them across the cruel desert to their lands. The slavers gave King Mohammed all sorts of money and little things, and he was happy to betray his people. After he betrayed thousands into bondage the white folks tried to take him as a slave, but he fought then. He could fight after all, when it suited him. He fought well enough that he escaped them, but was mortally wounded and died soon after, alone in the bush.

When he was dead there was no place in heaven for him after all his multitude of sins, and the devils didn't want him in hell neither. Nobody wanted him nowhere. And the great Lord above decided that this evil king was lower than any animal that crept on the ground or swam in the mud and his punishment would be to wander forever over the face of the Earth. That as he killed the bodies and spirits of men and women and enslaved their descendents for generations, he must ever roam. His spirit was doomed to travel forever in the form of a great big buzzard here, in this country, and unclean, rotten carrion would be his only food.

At times he appears to men whose fathers and mothers he sold, but he can't hurt nor touch them. For his final punishment is that his beak and claws cannot touch a living thing. He is known in the spirit world as King Buzzard, and he is the loneliest spirit on the face of the night, nor will he ever find comfort, rest or companionship.



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