This is an amusing West African cumulative tale.A farmer was gathering some yams and one of them started to talk.

The farmer gets a real fright. "Aiyeee!" he screams and runs and runs, uphill and downhill, until he meets a man carrying some fish. "Why are you running in the heat of the day?" says the fisherman.

The farmer explains. "Oh," says the fisherman, "that can't happen." "Oh, yes it can," says a fish. "Aiyeee!" screams the men and off they run.A similar scenario occurs with a weaver and his cloth and a swimmer and the water.

Then the farmer, the fisherman, the weaver and the swimmer all run to the house of the chief.

He comes out and sits in his royal chair. "Talk, talk, talk!" he says. "Too much talk!" And he threatens to throw them all in jail. "Imagine," he says to himself when they've gone, "a talking yam!

How can that be?" But then he gets a shock, too, for his chair says, "So true.

Whoever heard of a talking yam?" "Aiyeee!" screams the chief and he runs off and is never seen again.Angela Shelf Medearis has written "Eat, Babies, Eat!" and "Bye-Bye Babies!".