Strange: Live Rainbow Descends And Appears In Front Of Villagers In Edo State

                                                                Rainbow over the hills

In the tropical Rain Forest part of Nigeria, where rainfall is heavy and constant during the middle months of the year, it is common experience to witness the rays of rainbow occasionally during the months of rain. This is a phenomenon generally associated with a mythological credence. This is an age long myth which until recently, after this experience of villagers, has been unbundled  by the people of the northern part of Edo State, Nigeria, where the naturally uncanny incidence took place.  

It has been an age long belief by the Etsako people in Edo State that whenever a rainbow appears in the sky, it is always a communication between two giant serpents. Though this tribe does not have different names for boa constrictor and python (that is, both giant snakes bear same name in that dialect), yet they associate the appearance of rainbow over the forest especially, as communication between two pythons or boa constrictors. The people in this region have regarded both species of giant snakes as one, hence they appellate them same name. 

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Even in this modern era of civility and technological advancement, no clarity has been offered by any learned personality in this region to get others illuminated about this myth. Many people who are not lucky to hear the story of these villagers experience with a live rainbow, still believe that the age long belief is not a myth but reality. Some had even toppled the ordinary myth of pythons/boa constrictor communications with the advanced belief of the giant snakes visiting themselves with rainbow appearance as channel. 

To unravel this mythology, here is what happened in the Uzairue area of Etsako West Local Area of Edo State:

Around the month of October in 2007 when the heaviness of rainfall is limited to mainly drizzling and showering, a woman with her two children and her friend's daughter, went to harvest cassava in the farm which was about 3km away from the their village. On this day, the village was organizing a special prayer for their youths progress and prosperity in both home and abroad. Therefore, it was not permissible for anyone to go to the farm that day. However, this woman together with her children and the daughter of her friend, decided to go for cassava harvest to avert hunger in their homes as cassava flakes is the main source of food in that locality. This is usually a farming execution that does not take more than 3 hours to accomplish thru and fro. But things turned out differently on this faithful day.

According to the woman, they had got to their farm and successfully harvested their cassavas and as they were about heading home, rain started drizzling. Since the rain was just a drizzle, they did not consider seeking for shelter in the nearby farm hut, so they set out to return home. 

Just at about 1km to the village, they witness something strange and horrific. They were all the while rushing to get back to the village so as to meet up with the village organized general prayers. Of the footpath which they trekked, there was a spot clouded by mango trees. These mango trees were so many in the spot that they rendered the entire spot dark and hazy such that when someone gets in the midst of the trees through the footpath, the person normally experience the same experience of evening periods of the day immediately after sunset. 

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As the woman and children were about to step in the midst of the trees through the footpath which was the only route to their home, they noticed a strange change in the atmosphere. The entire area suddenly changed into an uncanny weather condition. Even though the rain drizzling was still in progress, there was a sudden flashes, lighting and deep falling sound of an unknown object. It was as if water fall just busted from the sky and poured heavily on the top of the mango trees. As they paused abruptly to ascertain the sudden change of weather, they noticed the weirdest experience of their lives. All the surrounding trees, shrubs, grasses and weeds which are naturally greenish suddenly turned yellowish gold!

In a motionless perplexed situation, these villagers stood like effigies without the iota of next move or action in their senses. According to the woman, she just concluded that their end had arrived. They could neither move forward now backward. Their fears were even heightened when they decided to look at themselves in puzzle but discovered that even their own clothes and the colour of their skins had also turned yellowish gold. They could not scream because they were frightened by this sudden incidence to the extreme. They have never heard of a story relating to occurrence of such nature in their lives before. 

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It took them about 10 minutes in motionless status before they were however liberated  by silently individual prayers, and before then, they had already got rid of the cassava loads on their heads in fear and confusion. In a confused mood of silent prayers, the woman decided to raise her hands to the sky in supplication for God's protection and safety. Only then she realized the sole cause of the sudden change around them. She realized that the falling sound which had startled them earlier, was the descending speed of a rainbow. She noticed that from their position, a rainbow had stationed its rays of colour which elongated unto the sky. As she realized this, she became more frightened when she suddenly recollected about the myth among her tribe.

What came to her mind after discovering they had all the while startled by a rainbow fall, was that a python/boa constrictor could be very close to them. Then, she could not control hear fears anymore. She did not realized when she screamed: 'God! I only went to the farm to bring food for my children. Please don't let me be a food for the python o!' These words brought the senses of her two little children and the older girl with them alive. All of them looked up the sky simultaneously and their next action was distressed weeps and cries. They all grabbed their mother as they cried in prayers, awaiting their end in the belly of a mythological python/boa constrictor. They were in that position for some few minutes with their eyes tightly shut when they heard a strange voice saying, 'It has gone!'

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As the woman and her children turned around, the voice was that of her friend's daughter who stood some feet away from them as she did her own prayers in the doctrine of her religious faith which was different from that of the woman. According to the woman, that voice brought back her life. As she looked up and saw no rainbow; and also noticed that both the trees and the shrubs had returned greenish, she fell on her kneels to thank and glorify God. Even with their previous state of fear and perplexity, they could not prevent themselves from screaming in joy as they jumped up in praises to God for keeping them safe from the anticipated swallowing by the heinous python/boa constrictor.

When they got home and narrated their rainbow ordeal, the villagers scolded the woman for not hearkened to the Village Head about the mandated general prayers which compelled everyone not to leave the village.

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