Reading Notes: African Nigeria Part A

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The story, "Of the Pretty Stranger Who Killed the King," was very interesting. The first thing that I thought about while I was reading, was that it was very quick and to the point. The King of Calabar was ruthless and disliked, so another town wanted to take him down. They found a witch that was willing to kill the king, so they sent her to Calabar to finish the job.
I find it somewhat humorous that the King of Calabar, Mbotu, laid eyes on this witch that transformed herself into a beautiful young girl and wanted to marry her immediately. It seems very unrealistic because who jumps into a marriage in less than a day?
It is also very interesting that the task of killing the king was so easy for the woman. She sedated him with medicine, killed him, and left undetected. Why did she choose such a gruesome way to kill the king? Was he so ruthless that he deserved a ruthless death? I thought that maybe the medicine she was going to give him was poisoned or something, but no, she had to cut off his head.
Along with the aggressive murder tactic, she carried the king's head all the way back to her town and presented it to her king and the people of the town. They were all happy that their enemy was dead, but why did they have to send soldiers to over throw the town of Calabar.
The town lost their king and the next day they would lose a lot of their civilians. I like that the story was straight to the point because the fast pace of the story made it flow very well, but I do not like how violent the story had to end.
Also, the witch showed her younger version transformation off to the whole town of Calabar before she went through with the plan, why did no one think to suspect that she had anything to do with the king's murder, especially since she was his new wife, or wife to be.
I have a lot of questions, but I really did enjoy the story and it drew me in to where I wanted to read more.
The witch stranger in her young 

Bibliography: The Pretty Stranger Who Killed the King by Elphinstone Dayrell from the African Nigeria Folk Tale Unit

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