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| author | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-05-14 14:01:27 -0700 |
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| committer | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-05-14 14:01:27 -0700 |
| commit | 5c55bb7497cbd243ae19ad21502c0b96d8fb33a9 (patch) | |
| tree | 2b84ae648857a63254599b7aac9af4a96e210792 /78684-h/78684-h.htm | |
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+ width: 50%; +} + +.column3 { + float: left; + width: 33%; +} + +/* stacks column-wide images in smaller viewports */ +@media screen and (max-width: 650px) { + .column2, .column3 { + width: 100%; + } +} + + +/*inserted text*/ +ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + +/*page number color */ +.pagenum { + color: gray; +} + + + + +/* table with no borders*/ +table.autotable3 {border-collapse: collapse;} +table.autotable3 td {padding: 0.25em;vertical-align:top;} + +/* table with closer rows*/ +table.autotable4 {border-collapse: collapse;margin-left:1%;margin-right:auto;margin-top:.5em;} +table.autotable4 td {padding: 0.1em 0.5em 0.1em 0.5em;vertical-align:top;} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp42 {width: 42%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp42 {width: 100%;} +.illowp100 {width: 100%;} +.illowp30 {width: 30%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp30 {width: 100%;} +.illowp47 {width: 47%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp47 {width: 100%;} +.illowp50 {width: 47%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp50 {width: 100%;} +.illowp40 {width: 40%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp40 {width: 100%;} +.illowp58 {width: 58%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp58 {width: 100%;} +.illowp45 {width: 45%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp45 {width: 100%;} +.illowp37 {width: 37%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp37 {width: 100%;} +.illowp48 {width: 48%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp48 {width: 100%;} +.illowp50 {width: 50%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp50 {width: 100%;} +.illowp98 {width: 98%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp98 {width: 100%;} +.illowp97 {width: 97%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp97 {width: 100%;} +.illowp87 {width: 87%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp87 {width: 100%;} +.illowp55 {width: 55%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp55 {width: 100%;} +.illowp56 {width: 56%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp56 {width: 100%;} + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78684 ***</div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a><a id="Page_ii"></a>ii</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp42" id="fig000" style="max-width: 70.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig000.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, + in the costume of the Peri play + </figcaption> +</figure> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">iii</span></p> + + +<h1>SOME NIGERIAN<br> +FERTILITY CULTS</h1> + +<p class="center sm1">BY</p> + +<p class="center">P. AMAURY TALBOT</p> + +<p class="center sm2">RESIDENT, NIGERIA</p> + +<p class="p4 center sm1">OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS<br> +LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD<br> +1927</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">iv</span></p> + +<p class="p4 center sm3">PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN<br>BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.<br> +THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE"> + PREFACE + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The facts collected here are almost exclusively such +as came to my notice in the course of the ordinary +administrative work in Degama Division, to which I was +posted in June, 1914.</p> + +<p>The region is mainly inhabited by sections of the two +great tribes of Ibo and Ijaw. A full description of +these will be given later, but it appeared best to +issue without further delay this little monograph, +dealing with a certain aspect of their religion, the +publication of which has already been long postponed +owing in the first place to the war and then to +pressure of other work.</p> + +<p>As regards the remaining tribes, the subject will +be found discussed in other books, especially the +<i>Ethnological Sketch</i>, comprising the second +and third volumes of <i>The Peoples of Southern +Nigeria</i>, published by the Clarendon Press. The +descriptive parts in the following pages were written +by my first wife.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right"> + P. A. T. +</p> + +<p><i>June, 1925.</i></p> +</blockquote> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a><a id="Page_vii"></a>vii</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> +</div> + + + + + +<table class="autotable3"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Preface</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_v">v</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +I. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">The Great Drum</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_1">1</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +II. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Mbari Houses</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_10">10</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +III. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Mbari Houses</span> (<i>continued</i>) +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_26">26</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +IV. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Mbari Houses</span> (<i>continued</i>) +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_40">40</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +V. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Sky God and Earth Goddess</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_52">52</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +VI. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Ibudu</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_65">65</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +VII. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Eku</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_82">82</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +VIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">The Yam Cult</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_99">99</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +IX. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Ale and the Ancestors</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_120">120</a> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +<span class="smcap">Index</span> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#Page_138">138</a> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a><a id="Page_ix"></a>ix</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"> + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table class="autotable3"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<i><a href="#fig000">Frontispiece</a></i> +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of the Peri play +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig001">1</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ikuru drum at Ihie +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig002">2</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba), Okpala +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig003">3</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Chief juju at Tema +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig004">4</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Outside the Mbari House, Omo Dim +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig005">5</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig006">6</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Abara, the messenger of Ale and Amad’ongha or Otaminni +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig007">7</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig008">8</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Humorous figures +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig009">9</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig010">10</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig011">11</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig012">12</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +‘Little Moon-face’, Omo Dim +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig013">13</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Group in Obogwe Mbari house +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig014">14</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Obukere Club head-dresses +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig015">15</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere Club, Oduaha +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig016">16</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Figure in Mbari house, Umoyo +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig017">17</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Wrestling scene (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia and Ale. Shrine drummers on the right +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig018">18</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari house<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">x</span> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig019">19</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and Otamelli +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig020">20</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig021">21</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The Aroid which grows round about the great Amad’ongha shrine at Ozozo +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig022">22</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with blood-stained linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the shrine at Ewawfe +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig023">23</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many piccans +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig024">24</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo Chuku +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig025">25</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig026">26</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig027">27</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ite Uru Ibudu +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig028">28</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Charm +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig029">29</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu Nwa +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig030">30</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig031">31</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu at Digiriga +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig032">32</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara quarter of Akpani +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig033">33</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ibudu at Akpani +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig034">34</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig035">35</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques. Kalabari shrine of Awome-Ka-So +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig036">36</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Patterns of the low Eki +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig037">37</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Group of Eku, near ’Ndelle +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig038">38</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The Wekwe Eruru +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig039">39</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’ +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig040">40</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Clay figures at the base of a cotton tree near Elele +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig041">41</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Figures at the base of a cotton tree, near Elele<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">xi</span> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig042">42</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +The Eni Awsoku +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig043">43</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig044">44</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by the memorial pillar of the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig045">45</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche’s place, Elele +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig046">46</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Ancestral tablet +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +<a href="#fig047">47</a>. +</td> +<td class="tdl"> +Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xii"></a><a id="Page_1"></a>1</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="I"> + I + <br><span class="sm"> + THE GREAT DRUM + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>The outbreak of war seemed a favourable opportunity +for discontented natives to throw off the restraints +imposed by Government and return to old customs, and +disturbances occurred in various parts of Nigeria. One +of these took place in Aba District to the north-east +of Degama. We have since learned that the native name +for this region is Aba-Ala, <i>i.e.</i> Aba of the +Earth Goddess Ale or Ala. Here two messengers employed +by the Native Courts were seized and dragged before +the great drum, described as from 18 to 20 feet in +length, which stood in one of the Juju houses. Later, +reliable testimony declared this to have been one of +the principal shrines of the Earth Mother herself.</p> + +<p>According to the account given us, the unfortunate +victims were forced to kneel at the end of the long, +trough-like base, from the centre of which the rounded +portion of the drum was carved, and their heads struck +off so that they fell forward into the cavity. The +drum was then splashed with blood and the heads, still +bearing the uniform caps, were placed thereon amid +the skulls of former victims as a defiance to British +rule, which, the insurgents hoped, was no longer +powerful enough to protect its servants.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards, a policeman passing through the +region with a prisoner, whom he was bringing down <span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span>to +Degama, was also seized and done to death. Vengeance, +swift and sure, followed these crimes. By order of +the Resident, the blood-stained drum was burnt to +ashes and justice meted out to the guilty persons. The +destruction of this fetish was an act of necessity, +since no other measures would have produced the same +effect upon its worshippers; yet the step was taken +with great regret, for the drum was of an interesting +type and most elaborately carved.</p> + +<p>Some weeks later our road led us through the town of +Ihie, where we came upon a similar drum, of a kind +then new to us. Cleft from an even larger trunk than +the Ibibio big drum at Jamestown, to which it showed +some points of resemblance, the giant bole extended +at both ends in a Noah’s Ark-like base, on which +were seated, at either extremity, a male and female +figure—the latter holding a babe in her extended +arms. (See fig. 1.)</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig001" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig001.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 1.</span> Ikuru drum at Ihie + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>We were informed that the name of the drum, and of the +cult, was Ikoro (or Ikuru). One of the chief towns +devoted to its worship was Ohambele nearby. ‘This +town,’ in the words of Mr. B. M. Pepple,</p> + + + +<blockquote> +<p>has a big Ikoro drum which is highly respected. Before +Government came, they gave it human sacrifices, but +now only goats and fowls. They beat this drum during +war time. Any human head cut off in war is brought +and placed on the drum with blood. No man can see the +big Ikoro drum unless he has cut off a human head and +presented it to this. It does not matter whether the +head was got by war or not. The Ikoro play falls twice +a year. The first is called Mkpukpu-Chi (thanksgiving) +and falls at harvest time. The second is carried out +in the farming season, and is called <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a><a id="Page_4"></a>4</span>Omehie Ogugu +(remembrance of the Juju Ogugu). Any man in the town +has the right to dance the Ikoro. The big Ikoro is +beaten in the house, while the dancers keep outside. +Those men, who had cut off a human head, would come to +the front of the big Ikoro house and play their motion +by raising the sword and telling of the brave deeds +they have done; then they would begin to dance again. +The Ikoro drum was never carried to another town. +Before the time of Government small towns did not make +an Ikoro drum. If any small town ventured to do so, +the big towns fought them and seized the drum.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Detailed examination of the drum at Ihie showed that +the ornamentation carved in relief was of exceptional +interest. In the middle, between the figures of a +man and woman rudely enough represented and probably +depicting the carver and his wife, who were usually +sacrificed on the completion of the work, was the +carefully chiselled shape of a great serpent folded +round on round. On either side of this, various +symbols were to be seen, several of which were easily +enough recognised as the crescent moon, the sacred +crocodile, a Juju horn, and, what seemed to our eager +imagination, a fresh example of the double-headed +axe, but which was explained by the natives as a +musical instrument called, in Ibo, Igilla. The reason +why, on closer investigation, our interpretation +rather than theirs seemed to be the right one, will +be stated later. For the moment our attention was +caught by an object quite new to us, the meaning of +which we could not even conjecture. On asking its +significance we were told simultaneously and with like +positiveness from two different sides, one that it was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span>a representation of the familiar tortoise, while the +other volunteered the unexpected statement that it +pictured the labia majora, with the clitoris showing +between.</p> + +<p>Those who voiced the opinion first given asked +contemptuously whether it was not a matter of common +knowledge that tortoise played an important part in +the greater number of Jujus. On this, the second +party subsided for the moment as if abashed by their +opponents, but later one came in private to point out +that tortoise is depicted with the crossed lines which +indicate the cracks in her shell, whereas in this +case the small vertical dashes are the conventional +representation of hair. He further explained that +the opposition party was right to a certain extent, +in that tortoise herself symbolises the feminine +generative organs, just as the serpent is well known +to typify the phallus.</p> + +<p>Till then, the presence of the impaled tortoise before +most Jujus, even remotely concerned with the granting +of fertility, had been more or less of a puzzle; for, +although the snake is recognised by anthropologists +as the phallic emblem, no widespread feminine symbol +of like significance appears to have been known here +hitherto.</p> + +<p>The supremacy of tortoise in most tales of African +origin has often proved puzzling to folklorists. +The subject is mentioned in <i>The Times Literary +Supplement</i> of 10th December, 1914:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>There is one very curious point which these and other +stories of the kind have in common—that though +these professional jokers, so to call them, have the +better of all <span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span>the animals with whom they ordinarily +enter into a contest of wits, there is one ... who +always has the better of them all, even of the jokers +themselves—the tortoise. He appears under that name +in the translation of the bushman’s tales; he is, of +course, Uncle Remus’s Brer Tarrypin and he has no less +credit in South American stories. Why is the tortoise +credited with such wisdom? One wonders.... Is it just +this—that the bright little up-looking head and eyes, +when put forth, suggested the idea of intelligence? It +is something of a serpentine head and we have read a +piece of folklore which tells us that the serpent was +the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Surely the meaning of the tortoise symbol, stumbled +upon thus unexpectedly, goes far to explain the +difficulty. To the native mind the ‘serpentine head,’ +appearing between the walls of shell, as naturally +pictures the clitoris as does the serpent its male +counterpart. By a train of thought not difficult to +follow, this particular part of the body has grown +to symbolise femininity in general. For Africans, +therefore, tortoise stands for the feminine qualities +of persuasion—sometimes, perhaps, not untinged +by guile—as opposed to the more forceful male +attributes. It may be remembered that, in Pliny’s day, +a powder made of a whole tortoise shell was thought to +be an aphrodisiac.</p> + +<p>A few days later, in an Mbari house close to Okpala +market-place, the two emblems, snake and tortoise, +were found modelled side by side in the very centre +of the first row of symbolic figures. Further on at +Obogwe, where the Mbari house is built in two separate +sections—the first, dedicated to the Thunder <span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span>God +Amade Onhia, usually contracted into Amad-ongha, and +the second to his spouse, the Earth Goddess Ale or +Ala—the phallic serpent was found in a position of +great prominence in the shrine of the male deity, +while tortoise was seen, modelled alone, in that of +the goddess. Another example in which the two symbols +were found, this time again in juxtaposition, was upon +the main post of the shrine of the Juju Ogboloma at +Tema near Degama—one of the principal Kalabari Jujus. +Here, as so often, the two are combined with the +figure of the sacred crocodile.⁠<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>⁠</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig002" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig002.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 2.</span> Phallic serpent (Eke) + and tortoise (Naba), Okpala. + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig003" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig003.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 3.</span> Chief juju at Tema. + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>With the new suggestion in mind, the detailed drawing +of the sacred drum was examined, with the result +that the emblems carved thereon seemed to take +upon themselves a deeper significance. As already +mentioned, at either end of the trough-like base, sits +a male or female figure carved from the solid wood and +distinct from the drum. To the left, the male, bearing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span>the symbols of manly strength, the sword in the one +hand and the horn, typifying plenty and masculine +virility, in the other. To the right the Mother—her +head adorned with the high coiffure which, among +Ibo, designates pride in offspring—a babe in her +outstretched arms. In the centre of the drum itself, +in the place of honour, carved in bold relief, is +shown the phallic serpent. To the left of its pointed +head rises the crescent moon—the world-wide symbol of +growth—especially connected with childbirth, since +expectant mothers count their time by its waxing and +waning.</p> + +<p>On either side, in the one case above and on the other +below, are seen, twice repeated, the disputed signs, +in both cases in conjunction with the old Cretan +symbol of the union of the sexes—the double-headed +axe. That the native explanation of the last-named +figure was given in good faith, there is no reason to +doubt. It is only another case of the way in which +a symbol has survived long after the loss of its +meaning. Indeed, a certain similarity exists; but, to +those acquainted with native ways, I venture to think +that the sharpness of angle marked in the joining of +haft to head, instead of the easy curves called for +by a representation of the musical instrument, is +clear enough indication that the carver was following +faithfully, though blindly, in the footsteps of +long dead craftsmen whose work once bore another +significance. A considerable number of examples of the +old Minoan double-headed axe cult were found in other +parts of West and Central Africa.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span></p> + +<p>Besides those already discussed, only three other +symbols are shown on the front of the great drum: +viz. (1) the sacred crocodile—the terrible emblem +of West Coast cults such as the Human Alligator +Society and the great Ekoi women’s secret cult of the +Nature Goddess Nimm. Possibly the crocodile sometimes +symbolises another plane of being or the future life; +it is a common belief here that many souls live in +crocodile form both during the life, and after the +death, of the human body. There may also be some +connection with the Egyptian worship of this creature. +(2) The horn placed beneath the double-headed axe, as +the so-called tortoise symbol is above—considered +so powerful an emblem of virility that even its +representation in bronze is supposed to excite desire, +and, held in the hand of a pregnant woman, to assist +delivery; and (3) the figure of a dog—regarded among +Ibo and Kalabari as the means of first bringing fire +to earth—possibly typifying the brute creation in +general, or at least that part of it which is friendly +to man.</p> + +<p>Among some tribes, especially the Ekkett Ibibio, the +tortoise shell is looked upon as the symbol of the +Earth Deity, the goddess of fertility. The snake is +the chief phallic symbol, not only on account of its +shape but also because many species live underground +and are therefore taken to represent the dead, to +whose influence the fruitfulness of the crops is in +many places considered mainly due.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig004" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig004.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 4.</span> Outside the Mbari + house, Omo Dim + </figcaption> +</figure> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="II"> + II + <br><span class="sm"> + MBARI HOUSES + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>From Aba, we passed through Omo Dim, in Owerri +District, to visit the Mbari house there.</p> + +<p>According to Ababua, priest of Amade Onhia at Ibo near +Okomoko, the meaning of the word Mbari is ‘fine’ or +‘decorated.’</p> + +<p>The central part of the strange structure at Omo Dim +proved to be a rectangular building with steeply +pointed roof and overhanging eaves, the latter so wide +as to make a broad verandah. The walls, forming the +central chamber, were painted with elaborate frescoes, +mostly in red and white upon yellow, or red and yellow +upon white. On either side of the main entrance to the +inner, sacred apartment were here, and in most Mbari +houses subsequently visited, figures so strikingly +like those of Omogwa and Otamelli, the two strangely +elongated guardians of the Thunderer’s shrine at Ibodo +(<a href="#fig019">fig. 19</a>), as to make it probable that all had a +common origin and were set there for the same purpose, +namely to warn trespassers from approaching the shrine.</p> + +<p>To others the people had only answered vaguely in +reply to questions as to the purpose of the building: +‘We make it for nothing, only to please ourselves.’ +The identity of the white figure at the top of the +ladder <span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>was explained, as a portrait of the District +Commissioner!</p> + +<p>We were more fortunate, mostly on account of the +energy displayed by the interpreter, Chief G. A. +Yellow, a man of unusual intelligence, to whom the +reason of our enquiries had been explained and who +was far-sighted enough to wish to aid them by every +means in his power. By his persuasion an old chief +was induced to come forward and give somewhat more +information. According to his account the name of the +structure was Njokku Mbari, and it was erected in +honour of a great ancestor, long dead, named Njokku +and his wife Mbafor. The white figure at the top of +the ladder on the right of the building represented +Njokku himself and, as the chief artlessly pointed +out, the birds upon the rungs of the ladder showed +that this was the road by which the spirit of the +dead man had climbed to his place in the sky, whence +he now ruled as a great chief. The fact that he was +painted white signified that he was no longer an earth +child but had passed to the ghost realm, from whence +he watched over his descendants who brought offerings +at certain times of the year in order that he might +be gently disposed towards them and grant plentiful +harvests. As mentioned elsewhere, there is little +doubt that the word Njokku is the same as that in use +on the Nile, where Jok is the Dinka appellation for +ancestral spirits and the Lango name for God.</p> + +<p>On the testimony of a considerable number of Ibo we +learned that no Mbari house is built save at the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>orders of, and in honour of, one of the great deities +worshipped throughout the Etche country and Owerri +District, namely Ala, Amade Onhia, Otaminni (the +genius of the Otaminni River) called, by the priest +of his principal shrine at the Etche town of Opioro, +‘The Lover of Ale,’ and Oloba, a spirit living in the +Owerri bush. So far as we could hear, the cult of the +latter is quite local.</p> + +<figure class="figleft illowp30" id="fig005" style="max-width: 24em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig005.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 5.</span> Clay figure of Ale in + an Ibo Mbari house + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>The more than life-sized figure, facing the principal +entrance to the enclosure, was explained by the same +chief as that of the ancestress Mbafor, with her +small girl-piccan on her knee. It was, he said, the +head priest of Ale, the Earth Goddess, whose shrine +is close to the Mbari house, who ordered the erection +of the building, chose out those who were to raise +it and himself directed every detail of decoration. +There seemed, however, reason to believe that the +figures of the so-called ancestors Mbafor and Njokku +really represented Ale and Amade Onhia, regarded, in +many parts, as consorts and jointly responsible for +the crops. The resemblance between the figures of the +deities, as here shown, and those admittedly meant +to depict the Earth Goddess and Thunder God in other +Mbari houses, is so striking as surely to be more than +a mere matter of coincidence.</p> + +<p>It is indicative of the position of Ale that only +the head chief of a town can aspire to become her +priest. This is the case with all dominant Jujus; +for instance, Otaminni at Opioro and Amade Onhia at +Ozozo, the parent shrine of the Thunder God’s worship, +from which all other centres of the cult derive their +power. <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a><a id="Page_14"></a>14</span>The following was the account given by the +Omo Dim chief as to the erection of the Mbari house:</p> + +<p>‘At the time of the new yam harvest the building +is begun and, throughout the first part of the dry +season, men and women, chosen for the purpose by the +priest of Ale, work hard at beautifying and adorning +it.’ Only those specially designated for this purpose +may take part. Should anyone not called thereto by +the priest attempt to share in the work, death would +fall upon such unauthorised intruders as surely as +that which overtook him who, of old, stretched forth a +presumptuous hand to the Ark.</p> + +<p>Before the making of new farms the house must be +finished and ready for the celebration of its strange +rites. Later, when the germs of the new season’s +crop—corn-grains, sections of yam-tubers and seeds +of pumpkins, great and small—have been confided to +the dark bosom of Mother Earth, men and maids of the +region gather together bringing gifts, ‘rack upon rack +of dried fish, goats, sheep and fowls without stint, +palm-wine in plenty and all else needed for a great +feast.’ Of the maids, who have undergone initiatory +ceremonies, a certain number are chosen by the Ezale +(head priest of Ale) to act as priestesses for the +rites about to be held in and around the Mbari shrine.</p> + +<p>As to the nature of the ceremonies, the natives were +naturally reluctant to speak; but Mr. Whitehouse, +a former District Commissioner, in a short account +published in the <i>Journal of the African +Society</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> declares <span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span>them to have been of +licentious character. Subsequent enquiries confirmed +this, and the nature of the rites is borne out by the +groups of clay figures set both round the central +shrine and beneath the roof depending from the inner +side of the wall, which encircles the whole erection +cloister-wise. These images represent, with remarkable +fidelity, the life-cycle of bird, beast and human +being, from the act of procreation—depicted with +astounding naïveté—to the lying down, when life is +done, for a last long rest in the arms of the Earth +Mother.</p> + +<p>It is noticeable that, though beasts of prey play a +great part in the series, as is only natural under +the conditions here prevalent—such, for instance, as +leopard or hippopotamus devouring human beings—these +fierce beasts are shown either as destroyers or as +falling beneath the weapons of the hunters, never in +the propagation of their kind. Harmless or useful +creatures, on the other hand, such as fowls, both +wild and domesticated, dogs, sheep,⁠<a id="FNanchor_3_3" href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> etc., together +with human beings, are depicted first in the act of +procreation, secondly that of giving birth, thirdly +suckling their young and later in every conceivable +scene of life. Men are modelled as engaged in hunting, +fishing, canoeing—as police, court messengers, clerks +or musicians. Women are shown grinding cam-wood, +arranging elaborate coiffures, undergoing operations +of extreme delicacy from native doctors—every act <span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span>of +life indeed from cradle to grave, and even beyond, +here finds itself reproduced.</p> + +<p>The following account of the raising of an Mbari +shrine was given by Amuneke of Umo Yekki quarter, +Owerri:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>There are many such houses in our part, and they are +starting to make a new one, in honour of Ala, this +month (October 1915) in my own quarter. First of all, +when she, Amad’ongha or Otaminni, wish for a new +house, they send a messenger called Abara.⁠<a id="FNanchor_4_4" href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> This is +a sort of devil, very dreadful to see! In his hand he +carries a sword, because he is not only the messenger +but also the executioner of Ala. The image at Omo Dim +is made with birds perched upon the four horns on his +head to show that he is of the Sky People and is often +sent by Amad’ongha. The grasses in his hand show that +he is also a servant of Ala.</p> + +<p>He goes straight to the compound of the head chief +(who is always priest of one of the four great cults +already mentioned). Ordinary people are not able to +see him; only Juju people can do this, but all hear +the place shake as he enters. So soon as the chief +knows, from this shaking, that the messenger has come, +he sends to a native doctor who goes into the little +shrine, where he talks to the spirits, and starts to +beat drum. This is a sign to Abara that he is ready to +hear the message. When the devil appears, the Juju man +sees him clearly, listens to the commands he brings +and reports them to the people, saying: ‘The Juju +asks for an Mbari house to be begun on such and such +a day.’ Then the head chief chooses out those who are +to do the work, four men and three women from each +compound. These go out secretly at night time so that +no man may see them. If a strong Juju orders an Mbari +house to be built and the people <span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>do not obey at once, +then at least twenty men from that quarter will die.</p> + +<figure class="figleft illowp47" id="fig006" style="max-width: 30em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig006.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 6.</span> Abara, the Messenger + of Ale and Amad’ongha or Otaminni + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Before beginning to build, they make a high fence +round the place so as to hide up the work they are +going to do. Then they start to make a long house, +called Eki-Wari,⁠<a id="FNanchor_5_5" href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> in which to sleep. Across the +middle of this a line is drawn.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> Men sleep on the one +side and women on the other. It would be regarded as a +very bad thing should a woman permit a man to approach +her at this time.</p> + +<p>From the moment of starting the work till it is quite +finished, even if it lasts for a year, no one may go +home again, save the one man chosen from each compound +to fetch food every day. That is why four men are +always chosen to every three women; because one is +needed to go backwards and forwards on ‘chop palaver.’</p> + +<p>During all the time that the workers live inside the +fence, they are forbidden to eat coconut, palm-nuts +or cassava. Only cooked yams and soup may be eaten. +Also, they may never sleep at night time, only by day. +This rule is made because no one must see them when +they go out to get the clay from which the figures are +formed. This must be taken from the centre of a white +ant hill, softened with water and carefully kneaded. +No other clay is permitted to be used. So soon as +darkness falls, they must begin to work and keep on +till just after sunrise.</p> + +<p>When the building is finished, on a day appointed +by the Juju, all people, whose sons or daughters +have been working, make ready for a great feast. +After nightfall, they go to the Mbari house bearing +a new-made pot. This must be one never before used, +filled to the brim with clear water. Also they carry +a cock for every son and a hen for each daughter. +All their kinsfolk follow them up to the fence which +hides the workers. Only the fathers and mothers may +go inside, while the rest of the people wait without. +Each couple steps, one after the other, in order of +rank, together with the priest, before the big Juju +set in front of the main doors. There the Juju priest +kills a fowl and mixes its blood with water in the +new bowl. Then, with a small wooden spoon, he throws +some upon the head of son or daughter and pours the +rest upon the great image to whom manillas are also +offered. <span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span>At this point the father says:</p> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +‘Ubu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +abiala. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +Bia +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ikpe +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ogu. +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +‘Now +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +we +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +are coming. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +Come +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +judge +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +matter. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +Anyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +agi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +oku +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +awsaw +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ade +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +pa. +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +We (<i>i.e.</i> between us) +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +you +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +words +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +again +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +are +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +no(t). +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +Anyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +emena +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nhie +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +icheri. +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +We +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +have done +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +things +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +thought your. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +Ubu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +abiala +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +bia +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ekpaw +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nwa +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anyi. +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +Now +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +we +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +are coming +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +come +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +to take +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +son +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +our. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="clear autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +Oku +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +awsaw +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +adr +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +pa.’ +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +Words +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +again +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +are +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +no(t) (<i>i.e.</i> all is finished).’ +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>After this the mother says (for a son):</p> + + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +‘Ubu-laka +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nhie +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +oma +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ka +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ega +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +enyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nwam +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +‘Now +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +things +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +good +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +you +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +are going +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +to give +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +us +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +and +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +son my +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +makana +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ihie +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +oma +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +onu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +oma +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +onu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nagi. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +Nam +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +because (he has done) +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +things +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +good +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +work +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +good +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +work +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +for you. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +I +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +and +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +dim +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ji +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +unwenne +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +omu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +umonu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ewu +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +husband (my) +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +and +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +yam +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +I have +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +and +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +children +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +I born +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +and +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +goats +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +mwenne +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nhie +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +oma +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ka +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anyi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ega +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anhu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +afor +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anhua.’ +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +I have +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +things +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +good +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +make (for) +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +us +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +go +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +see +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +year +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +this coming.’ +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<p>For a daughter the mother says:</p> + + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +‘Aborolam +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nwam +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +obi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +oma. +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +‘I am taking my +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +child (with) +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +mind +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +good. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +Mejiea +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +mejieadia +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +Give gifts to her +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +and +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +gifts to her +husband (for) +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +onu-ma +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ka. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +Aronona +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ge +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +anyi. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +Mfu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ga +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ezi +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ubu-laka +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +work good +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +your. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +Have worked for +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +you +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +we. +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +If (I) +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +go +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +out +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +now +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +afu +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +na +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nam +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nhie +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ojo.’ +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +finished +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +for +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +me +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +things +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +bad.’ +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>So soon as the last word ‘ojo’ has been spoken, the +priest seizes son or daughter and pushes him, or her, +towards the parents who at once catch hold on either +hand. All three <i>walk backwards</i> towards the +gate. As the first foot strikes the threshold, they +face round and the relatives waiting outside catch up +the worker without an instant’s delay and bear him +back to his home. No foot of any such may be set to +ground, lest Ala should be vexed.</p> + +<p>When they reach the house all join in a great feast, +with fish of every kind, plenty beef and tombo too +much! That <span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>night the people tear down the fences, +which were put up to hide the work, and burn them in a +very great fire.</p> + +<p>Those years, in which a new house is built, the yams +grow bigger in our farms, goats and sheep have more +piccans, while nearly always the girls chosen by the +Juju for her work bear babes fine past those of other +mothers. Usually they conceive soon after the work is +finished—often within one or two moons of the play.</p> + +<p>About every five or six years a new Mbari house is +raised to Ala. She has more than any other god. Next +in number come those built for Amade Onhia and still +less for Otaminni and Oloba. I have never heard of any +such house being made for the ancestors, as was said +to be the case at Omo Dim. This may be true for that +part; only I know nothing of it.</p> + +<p>It is in the little inner room that the god lives. In +each of these a tall stone, shaped like an Ibudu, is +set. After making its face smooth and clean all about, +they cover it with a piece of white cloth. It is into +this stone that the spirit enters.</p> + +<p>Suppose one man charges another with doing bad things. +Then they bring the accused for night time and lock +him up alone in the small inner room. Next morning, if +he be innocent, he walks forth unharmed; suppose he +be guilty, then Juju kills him and his dead body is +carried out at dawn. Perhaps Juju beat him to death, +perhaps kill him other way; but always he die. No help +for such man.</p> + +<p>When a big pointed stone is found in our bush, an +Mbari house is always built for it. In places where +such things are, the knives, with which the old people +made them, may be dug up out of the earth. I myself +found one such knife at Baro. It was of very strong +stone, hard past iron and curved over in a sharp point.</p> + +<p>At Olakwaw near Owerri one very big stone was found. +They carved it into an Ala figure and built a house +for it. This they put in the place of honour, +facing the big door. Also at Ne-Ewu and Ihuara in +Owerri District there are stone <span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>figures of Ala, +Amad’ongha, Okpara Ala (the first born son of the +Earth Goddess) and Eke, the great snake. This is the +kind of big snake which lives for bush and always has +a shining stone in its head, such as white people call +diamond. It is because of these serpents that Eke day +is said to take its name.</p> +</blockquote> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig007" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig007.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 7.</span> Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni + house, Opioro + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig008" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig008.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 8.</span> Humorous figures + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<blockquote class="clear"> +<p>Images of Ale and Amad’ongha may be carved out of +stone or moulded in clay, but must never be cut from +wood like the Agu Isi (<i>i.e.</i> wooden images +consulted by native doctors): for so the Juju orders. +Ala has other sons beside Okpara Ala.⁠<a id="FNanchor_6_6" href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Among +Etche Ibos and those of Owerri the younger sons are +worshipped every month, four days after the coming of +the new moon. They are represented under the shape of +small cut stones such as were taken from the bad Onye +Dibia (medicine man) at Awka. These stones are always +kept in one of the round box stools, rubbed with +cam-wood. The medicine man sits upon the box, then +rises and shows the stones to the people who throw +themselves upon the ground before these, praying for +piccans, kids, lambs and yams. These sons are never +represented in any other shape. No figures of them are +to be found in Mbari houses.</p> + +<p>Sometimes we call these buildings Mbari, sometimes +’Mgbe. This last word means a small boy or girl +orphan. There are two kinds of ’Mgbe—those who have +relatives to look after them and those who have none. +We call the latter Osu ’Mgbe, <i>i.e.</i> the worst +’Mgbe. He is so very poor he can only get food by +searching round the bush for palm-nuts. For this +reason his image is nearly always made with palm-nuts +in hand.</p> + +<p>In olden days such a boy was always bought by one or +other of the quarters and presented as a slave to the +Juju. Afterwards he might never enter the compound +which bought him, but could go to beg food from +others. Sometimes, when he has grown big enough, he +makes himself a <span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>little house in one of the corners of +the Mbari. Then people bring yams to him. Sometimes +too the Juju asks for chop for him. If the Juju loves +him very much, it will also ask one of the chiefs to +give him a slave wife; but such a boy may never marry +any free-born girl of the town. The same rule holds +for girl orphans bought with money and given to the +Juju. They may take slave husbands, but never marry a +free-born man.</p> + +<p>Another figure to be seen in every Mbari house is that +of the ape Ogbango. This is the kind into which the +souls of bad Ibo go after death.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In the Western Etche country these temples are +generally called ’Mgbe houses. Umoyo, the principal +place hereabouts, is a queer little town—or rather +two towns—through which runs a single long street, +fenced in on either side by a palisade of posts and +palm-leaves. The houses lie well back, often out +of sight from the main road, in gardens which bear +luxuriant crops. At the end of the street stretches a +line of cacti to keep out evil influences.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig009" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig009.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 9.</span> Shrine of Otaminni, + Opioro + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>The head chief Wobilo was friendly to Government, +and we had hoped to gain from him a considerable +amount of information regarding the origin and rites +of this singular cult. By an unfortunate accident, +however, some of the principal men of the town had +lately been drowned in the Juju water formed by the +sacred Otaminni River just below its junction with +the Ogochi. No sooner were the sad tidings made known +to relatives and friends than the whole town turned +against the head chief, saying that the deaths lay at +his door, because he had induced them to undertake +the journey which resulted in their untimely end. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>In consequence, Wobilo found himself outcast in his +own town and, when on our next visit we asked a few +questions concerning the figures in the local ’Mgbe +house, the chief refused to run the risk of increasing +his unpopularity by giving away information, and we +were everywhere met by the answer: ‘I do not know. We +did it for no reason. Perhaps our ancestors may have +had knowledge of these things; but, as for us, we have +long since forgotten, and only copy the customs taught +by our fathers because we believe that by so doing we +shall draw prosperity upon our town.’</p> + +<p>The only information we could get ran as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Mbari or ’Mgbe is our Chineke, also our Juju. People +from Orata built the house. At certain seasons girls +dress themselves and come before the shrine, there to +dance, eat and drink.</p> + +<p>Amad’ongha is a great Juju, but our people do not +worship him much. His proper country is over the other +side of the Otaminni River.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>When an Mbari house was to be erected in Etche +country, a medicine man was consulted as to time and +place of building. Thereupon he brought out a human +skull—in the old days that of a slaughtered victim, +but since the coming of white rule one sought amid +the ‘bad bush’ near his town. Round this were set +out the Agu images—always, be it remembered those +typifying fatherhood and motherhood, together with +representatives of the animal kingdom, including ‘dog’ +who brought fire to earth. A cock was killed and its +blood sprinkled over the skull and the little images. +Then the magician gave utterance to the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>supposed wish +of the Earth Mother or Sky Father with regard to the +building to be erected in their honour, by means of +which, it was thought, prosperity of farm, byre and +marriage bed might be secured to the town.</p> + +<p>At Opioro stands an Mbari house built in honour of +the spirit of the Otaminni River—the only one known +to us throughout the Division. The image of Otaminni +is set in the centre of the front side, with his ‘big +relation’ Ala to his right and his three wives Ogori, +Ocham and Wujere in a row on his left.</p> + +<p>On the opposite side of the house, in the seat of +honour, sits the Earth Mother again; while, near her, +groups of women are engaged in pursuits set apart by +custom as purely feminine. For instance, a midwife +ushers a babe into the world; cam-wood is ground, etc. +All the characters, with which one had grown familiar +in other houses of this type, were here reproduced +with one exception, that of ape. An enquiry into the +cause of his absence brought the surprised reply: +‘Ogbango is here, sir! He stand for middle place at +other side of house.’</p> + +<p>A visit to the spot indicated revealed no sign of +what we were seeking—only an unseemly group such +as is to be found in nearly all such buildings, the +woman bending forward at right angles from the waist, +her head resting upon the square base of one of the +roof pillars, while the male figure behind her was +unmistakably engaged in the Geschlechts Akt. The +present head priest of Otaminni, Amade Onyeche, was +at the moment anxious to be appointed to the post +of warrant chief in the place of his late brother. +This <span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>made him not only willing but eager to impart +information. His disclosures were, indeed, on certain +points rather embarrassingly full. He stated, and his +account was afterwards borne out by those of other +Ibo, that the male figure was not that of a man but of +the very Ogbango whom we had thought absent. In proof +of this statement the priest pointed out that, in its +right hand, on the left shoulder and beneath the left +arm, the ape held a round ball, representing those +hard fruits which, according to widespread native +testimony, it is his habit to fling at passers-by, +thereby stunning, or even killing, them. This we had +already heard from many parts of the country. At +Obogwe it was added that so heavy were the fruits +and so great the strength of this ape that it was +thought he might even succeed in stunning an elephant +therewith! Amade Onyeche continued:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>It is customary among our people to take up the +position of this couple for such a purpose, when there +is no bed near at hand. It is forbidden to lie upon +the ground, lest Ale should be defiled thereby. There +are many of these great apes in our bush who, if they +meet a woman alone, force her to bear a child to them.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The same belief, according to Amuneke of Umo Yekki, is +held in the neighbourhood of Owerri. It is probably +connected with the idea that the souls of bad men pass +into ape form at death. It appears that the evil human +spirit, confined in the animal body, is thought to +take this means of providing a new form in which to +re-incarnate.</p> + + + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig010" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig010.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 10.</span> The Chief of Opioro, + head priest of Otaminni + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig011" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig011.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 11.</span> Figure of Mbafor in + the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span></p> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="III"> + III + <br><span class="sm"> + MBARI HOUSES (<i>continued</i>) + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>In Mbari houses built in honour of Amade Onhia it +is made perfectly clear, as is natural, that the +Thunderer himself holds first place, while his consort +is of secondary importance. In the shrine at Omo +Dim, as previously mentioned, the place of honour, +facing the entrance, was occupied by the figure of +the so-called deified ancestress Mbafor—a bowl for +offerings sunk into the ground at her feet and her +daughter upon her knee. The face and form of the +mother are bright yellow, the colour of the clay from +which she is modelled as are those of Ala in all +shrines yet visited; while the whole body of the child +is dead white, like that of the Thunderer himself, the +deified ancestor Njokku seated above his sky ladder, +or indeed ghosts and ‘sky people’ in general.</p> + +<p>On the white of her body five coal-black crescent +moons had been painted; one just above the shoulder, +one on the top of the arm and three down the flank. +All, save that on the arm, showed a protuberance in +the centre, exactly in the place where the nose would +come when children draw the face of the man in the +moon. The point would not have been worth mentioning +but for the fact that in each Mbari house visited +a peculiar decoration was noticeable, only to be +described as a screen of lattice-work, formed of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a><a id="Page_28"></a>28</span>interlacing human figures. This was explained as +representing the slaves sacrificed and flung into the +grave—or laid there still living, but with broken +arms and thigh bones—to form carpet and bier for the +body of the dead chief. It may well have borne some +such interpretation, but this would hardly explain +the fact that, in each case which we came across, one +row of figures, usually the centre one, bore faces +the shape of a crescent moon, mostly dead white and +outlined by a deep black rim. At Omo Dim, Okpala and +Obogwe too there is a figure—which is duplicated +with more or less fidelity in several other shrines +and which for obvious enough reasons was named, by my +companions, ‘little moon-face’—of the same type as +those in the human trellis work.</p> + +<figure class="figleft illowp40" id="fig012" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig012.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 12.</span> “Little Moon-face,” + Omo Dim + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Now the crescent moon is a sign of growth the world +over. Ekoi women come together, beneath her faint +beams, to carry out the rites which, according to +their belief, will ensure fruitfulness. Ibibio and Ibo +also hold that her rays are endued with fecundative +powers, <span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>while pregnant women count the time to their +delivery by her waxing and waning.</p> + +<p>Some few weeks later, in passing through the town of +Ebubu in the extreme east of Degama District inhabited +by that strange and hitherto unstudied tribe, the +Mbolli, we came across a shrine of a type such as +we had never before seen. It is carved from a solid +block of wood some four feet high, set in a carefully +smoothed clay base, swathed round the bottom by folds +of white cloth and surmounted by an inverted crescent. +The name of this Juju is Obo Esa, <i>i.e.</i> in +Mbolli dialect four hundred yams. The reason given +for this name is that only full chiefs have the right +to erect such a fetish, to which they must sacrifice +each harvest time baskets containing the given number +of yams. It was explained that Obo Esa is a male +Juju—a statement borne out by the appearance of the +symbolic pillar—and to him, at the cutting of new +farms and digging of fresh yams, living sacrifices +must be brought and slain so that their blood is shed +upon the clay base, whence it trickles down over the +seven little moon-shaped depressions to the thirsty +earth beneath. These small half moons may well typify +the period during which the yams are confided to the +bosom of Mother Ale—called Nkike by the Mbolli—while +the great crescent, surmounting the pillar, probably +represents that of the month of September during which +the harvest festival is usually held.</p> + +<p>Considering the close connection between the waxing +moon and the powers of fertility, it is not without +significance that personified representations of +the crescent <span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>are to be found in each Mbari house, +especially when it is remembered that the shrine of +the Earth Goddess is always close by and that only +after consultation with her priest is the building +begun and carried through.</p> + +<p>Again, although we were expressly told, as already +related, that the chief figure at Omo Dim did not +represent either of the principal deities, but only +a deified ancestress, yet a man present volunteered +the information—it is true, in a highly superior +manner—that some old and very ignorant people held +them to be those of Amad’ongha and Ale. So stupid, +however, were such that they even believed the white +child, on the knee of the Earth Mother, to be the +moon! As if any but the most foolish could look upon +the moon as a daughter of Earth!</p> + +<p>In the Obogwe Mbari house—the only one which we have +yet found built in two separate edifices—the first +building was dedicated to Amad’ongha and the second to +Ale, locally called Ala. Our informant, Omere Madu, +was the son of the late head chief who therefore, +<i>ipso facto</i>, was priest of Ale. He told us that +this goddess was the dominant power in the town, and +that she ordered her priest to have the two houses +built in that place and form—one for herself and one +for her spouse Amad’ongha. In both buildings he sits +in the seat of honour, but in the first alone, while +in the second she is seen on his left, in the same +position as that of the figure at Obodo to which her +name was first given, but which was later called Omu +Ngwaw, the fruitful mother (see <a href="#Page_40">p. 40</a>).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span></p> + +<figure class="figright illowp40" id="fig013" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig013.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 13.</span> Group in Obogwe Mbari + house + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>In the temple dedicated to the Thunderer, on the left +of the central figure is seen one, the name of which +was said to be Eku Nechi—<i>i.e.</i> ‘the big woman +who cooks,’ or more fully ‘who gathers the children +of others around her and cooks for them.’ The figure +is seated, supporting a boy and a girl against her +sides; while another pair sits, one upon each of her +outstretched legs. The most singular thing about +this group is that each of the male children bears a +crescent moon for face, while from the necks of the +two girls is painted a cloth thickly covered with +white dots. On the wall of the Ale shrine, a fresco +may be seen on which a moon-faced boy is depicted +climbing up the right hand side of a rainbow, painted +in black, yellow and red stripes. In such a position +he is supposed to be an envoy from the Earth Goddess, +climbing the sky with a message from Amade Onhia, +or, when descending, bringing word from the latter +to the children of men. Beneath, on a black ground, +a crescent moon and stars are shown—the stars +represented by white dots exactly like those painted +round the necks of the girl piccans of Eku Nechi. It +is not <span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>impossible therefore that here again, in ‘the +big woman who feeds the children of others,’ we have +another forgotten picturing of Ale, the Earth Mother, +with her starry progeny.</p> + +<p>A singular fact about all the Mbari shrines hitherto +visited is that, in each, figures may be seen, +obviously modelled with the express intention of +depicting licence in its most blatant form. Primitive +peoples the world over, however frank in picturing or +mentioning facts treated with the greatest reticence +by civilised races, are usually ignorant of real +vulgarity or indecency, since the very simplicity +of manner and treatment robs their statements of +offence. The Ibo of this region, especially, have a +code with regard to sexual matters which, however lax +according to our ideas, is yet strangely strict in +some directions. According to them four of the most +evil things are:</p> + +<p>(1) For man and woman to lie together on the earth, +since this is thought to defile Ale. Among Kalabari +indeed the idea is carried so far that no woman is +allowed, under any circumstances, to seat herself upon +the ground. In the absence of stool or convenient +tree-trunk she must stand. As already mentioned, +according to chief Amade Onyeche, the position +adopted by Etche Ibo, when no bed, mat or cloth is +available, is for the woman to stand bending forward +at right angles from the waist, while her lover stands +immediately behind.</p> + +<p>(2) Connection is absolutely forbidden during the +hours of daylight, or even at night time when a light +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>is burning in the room; also at any time in the bush +or in a farm, where there is no house.</p> + +<p>(3) It is the height of impropriety for a man to have +relations with a woman who is not clothed in the +prescribed custom.</p> + +<p>(4) For a husband to attempt to view the genital +organs of his wife is regarded as so serious an +offence as to be considered valid ground for divorce. +In a case brought before me in the Degama Native +Court, the claim ran: ‘To demand freedom of marriage +on account of peeping.’</p> + +<p>In every Mbari house yet visited, however, figures +were seen modelled with the obvious purpose of +expressing a breach of one or other of these rules. +In most of the buildings groups were found in which +the feminine figure was shown partially lying on +the ground—in a position impossible to any human +anatomy and therefore, it would seem, so posed as +intentionally to express direct rebellion against the +generally accepted rules of decency.</p> + +<p>An official of high rank, who was the first Government +representative to visit this region, described to me +a shrine which he saw about twelve years ago, near +Ingaw in Owerri District, where certain points were +even more naïvely depicted than by those erected in +the present day. Among the more noticeable groups were +men in the act of copulating with a sheep and antelope +respectively. As regards the latter animal, it is not +without interest to recall that, according to several +accounts from well-informed sources, ancient Yoruba +custom ordained that, after the kill of his first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span>antelope, a young hunter must have connection with +the still warm form. Possibly some such rule obtained, +or maybe even yet exists, in these regions.</p> + +<p>The group of men and sheep seems to point to the +existence of a like custom among Ibo as one learns, +on good authority, prevails among the neighbouring +Ijaw, with whom the chief feature of male initiatory +rites consists in each boy proving his manhood, before +a circle of elders, upon a specially selected sheep. +Should he be unsuccessful, he must wait until the +following year and is prevented from marriage until +after having passed the test. From certain information +it would appear that one of the principal centres, +where this rite is carried out, may be found on a +southern creek in the neighbourhood of Kula.⁠<a id="FNanchor_7_7" href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> It was +naïvely added that the sheep ‘never go ’gree to this +and always vex too much’ when the rite was carried +out. Later, a similar custom was reported from among +the Ekkpahians of Ahoada District.</p> + +<p>It is true that every Ibo or Kalabari who mentioned +the subject was eager to state that Ekkpahians perform +this rite ‘merely out of badness; for no proper reason +at all.’ Yet, though it is unfortunately not permitted +me to give a single name as authority, it would +appear, after very careful weighing of evidence, that +the practice has been exacted from time immemorial +as a test of manhood. Both Ibo and Kalabari also +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>asserted that unnatural vice is extensively practised +among this people, though rare with other races of +the Division; but it is only just to state that the +practice appears to be carried on not for the purpose +of sensual indulgence, but, in some cases at least, +from the idea, held among certain Australian tribes, +that such customs increase the race by magical means.</p> + +<p>That the practice is not held in as great detestation +throughout Ekkpahian and neighbouring territory as +among other tribes is proved by the more or less +casual manner in which the matter was mentioned as +well as from one or two Court cases. It will be +enough to quote that heard at Omokku on January 20th, +1913, in which Atoma of Erema charged Okereke of Idu +with indecent assault. In the course of her evidence +plaintiff stated on oath:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>About three months ago accused came to my father’s +house to have connection with him. At that time I went +to bed....</p> + +<p><i>Question by Court.</i> When he came to your house, +where did he stay with your father to have connection?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i> Outside the house.</p> + +<p><i>Question by Accused.</i> What date did I come to +your house?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i> Orie day.</p> + +<p><i>Question by Court</i> (<i>to father</i>). Was +accused your friend?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i> No.</p> + +<p><i>Question by Court.</i> Did accused ever come to +your house and have connection with you at night?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i> Yes. He always come to my house and +prosecutor saw him.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span></p> + +<p>Among Ekkpahians and the Abuan, as well as with the +Western Ikwerri, elaborate, two-storied buildings may +be seen, upon which the wealth and utmost resources +of the town have been lavished, even to stained- and +patterned-glass for all the windows. My attention was +drawn to these buildings by a man high in the medical +service of the Protectorate, with the information that +they were erected for the practice of unnatural vices. +This was later confirmed from native sources with the +addition that they were the homes of the Obukere Club +and that the customs were of religious significance. +The fact that such habits exist is, unfortunately, too +well known to be worth mentioning, were it not for a +few words dropped by one of the chiefs and intended in +extenuation of the practice. ‘It is true,’ he said, +‘that the custom is a very bad one; yet aged men +tell us that it was taught in olden days as a very +great magic <i>whereby our flocks and herds might be +multiplied and made strong. Even, it is said, the +crops in the farms are increased thereby.</i>’</p> + +<p>The idea was confirmed by another chief who however +insisted that it was only a tradition from the olden +time—held by dead men, very far away—and he did not +think that any such belief was prevalent nowadays. He +also added, cautiously, that this form of vice was far +less indulged in at present than was formerly the case.</p> + +<p>The information fitted in with that already gleaned +concerning the supposed efficacy of phallic shrines +set up amid the fields in order to secure plentiful +crops.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span></p> + +<p>As a result, further information was sought concerning +the cult of Obukere, one of the most interesting of +whose lodges was discovered at Obelle Oduaha. An +avenue, half a mile in length, every trunk of which +bore a sinister-looking smear of cam-wood dye, led +to the house. At the entrance to this grove it opens +out into a cleared space, from the centre of which +springs a clump of trees smeared with deep bands of +red and hung round with white cloth. Behind these +rises a giant ant hill, while round their roots a +mound of earth about five feet high was piled. Amid +the rich mould and fallen leaves stood votive pots and +bowls, among which bundles of young tombo palms just +bursting from the parent kernels, were to be seen, +mostly enclosed in wrappings of broad green leaves +bound round with tie-tie. This clump of trees is +regarded as the abode of Obukere himself. Here members +of his cult assemble to carry out the rites. Before +his dwelling-place the worshippers cover their faces +and, thus veiled or masked, go in procession through +the sacred grove—the tree trunks of which, down to +the smallest sapling, have been fresh smeared with the +symbolic blood-red cam-wood. In these regions Obukere +is regarded as the great giver of fertility to all in +air, water or upon earth—fish, animals, plants or men.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig014" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig014.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 14.</span> Obukere Club + head-dresses + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<figure class="figleft illowp40" id="fig015" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig015.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 15.</span> Sacred drum used to + call together the Obukere Club, Oduaha + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>All lodges of this club as yet visited show a peculiar +development in the highly conventionalised animal +head-dresses which are worn for plays. In the Otu +Obukele (house of Obukele or Obukere) a big shed made +of solid wooden posts, at the Abuan town of <span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>Okobaw, +some head-dresses of unusual type were found; among +them representations of antelopes, porcupines and the +‘increase of the Sky people,’ typifying the sky world +above that of men.</p> + + + +<p>Round the lodge at Obelle Oduaha were seven phallic +shrines six of which were of the usual pillar type, +while the seventh showed a featureless head, arms and +legs indicated in the roughest manner, and only the +distinctly feminine organs modelled with any care. The +position of these shrines in close proximity to the +house of Obukere worshipped with the avowed purpose of +increasing fertility in man, animals and crops, can +hardly be regarded as without significance. Within the +house were two objects of interest—a xylophone in the +shape of a canoe manned by eight figures, stated by +the chief to have been specially designed to express +‘joy’ and raise feelings of pleasure in those who +behold them; and an object which strongly resembled +the Ajokko-Ji or king yam shown to us at Oppe, +separated by the sacred crocodile <span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span>swamp from Alessa, +and which will be more fully described later on page +99.</p> + +<p>The drum used at Oduaha to call together the members +of the Obukere Club was said to have been brought +from Abua and to have been made for the Sekapu Club, +connected with the spirits of fish, crocodiles and—in +this part of the world—land beasts. It may be only +a whim of the carver that the figure of the woman, +depicted with rounded body as a sign of pregnancy, +should be joined to that of the sacred crocodile. +Drums of similar type were later found among Abaw Ibo.</p> + + + + +<div class="clear contain"><div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig016" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig016.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 16.</span> Figure in Mbari + House, Umoyo + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig018" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig018.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 18.</span> Clay figure of Amade + Onhia in an Ibo Mbari house + </figcaption> +</figure></div></div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig017" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig017.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 17.</span> Wrestling scene + (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia and Ale. Shrine + drummers on the right + </figcaption> +</figure> + + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span></p> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IV"> + IV + <br><span class="sm"> + MBARI HOUSES (<i>continued</i>) + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>In nearly all towns of importance in the Etche +country, elaborate Mbari shrines are to be found, +built in honour of the Thunder God. In most, just +within the principal entrance, may be seen the seated +figure of the deity, white from head to foot, and +bearing in the right hand a sword, spear or bayonet, +and in the left an imitation of one of the old stone +axe-heads, thought by natives to be thunder bolts, +or one of the long iron sceptre-rattles, or possibly +another sword or dagger. By his side sits his consort, +to whom various names are given, most of them +apparently synonyms for the Earth Goddess Ale, Ala, +Ana or Aja. At Ibodo we were told by one informant +that the figure represented Ala—Bride of the Bladed +Thunder. The more general Ibo idea as to her identity +was confided by the head priest, Achongwa by name, to +chief G. A. Yellow: ‘That,’ said he, ‘is Omu Ngwaw, +wife of Amad’ongha.’</p> + +<p>Omu Ngwaw is literally ‘the children (or young leaves) +of the tombo palm tree,’ <i>raphia vinifera</i>. +Now, when a woman has given birth to a first or +second babe, the days which she spends in seclusion +are often called by the same name, while the word +for fruitfulness itself, or giving birth, is Omumu. +The connection thought to exist in primitive minds +is the probable reason why young palm-leaves are in +such evidence <span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>before the shrines of all beneficent +Jujus; the half-unfolded frond stands as type and +symbol of fruitful motherhood.</p> + +<p>On floor and walls, serpents twine and twist; +hippopotami hold men half devoured in their mouths, +leopards stand over new-slain goats, elephants wave +long trunks or fall to the guns of hunters, apes climb +or swing, and fabulous creatures disport themselves +on every hand. A clerk counts his money on a little +table. Two wrestlers may be seen locked in one +another’s arms⁠<a id="FNanchor_8_8" href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and a native doctor anoints the womb +of a woman patient with a feather dipped in oil. In +short, so far as in them lies, the whole life-history +of the people is here reproduced with infinite +pains and care. As in the Owerri Mbari houses, the +head-dresses of the women are most elaborately +rendered, while the modelling of a ram’s head and +of one small monkey which sat devouring a corn-cob +were extraordinary samples of artistic skill. Again, +a peculiar feature of several of these were figures +obviously modelled with the intention of expressing +the feeling of joy. It is probably only a coincidence +that so many of the figures of Ale show much enlarged +navels—the ὀμφάλος of the Earth Goddess.</p> + +<p>In all these shrines the mural decoration is not +painted, but applied to the walls like a gigantic +piece of Cloisonné—clay, tinted with various dyes, +being filled in between strips of raphia palm which +serve to <span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>outline the design exactly as does the +brass edging the enamelled leaves and flowers of the +above-mentioned ware.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting of the temples visited lay +some two and a half miles off the main road near Ibodo +and was approached first by a narrow bush-path and +later by a broad way over-arched by great trees, the +branches of which interlaced overhead to form a clear +translucent twilight even at noonday. As we passed +beneath the fern-fringed, orchid-decked boles, the +sky was overcast and the sun already low in the west, +while the voice of the Thunder God might be heard in +the distance—a low, threatening note in the twilight.</p> + +<p>When the village of Omako was reached and we +approached the shrine, the sun was just setting. +Blue smoke rose from amid the strange figures, over +which flames flickered and danced from a little fire +tended by an old, old woman, who among such uncanny +surroundings was quietly cooking her evening meal. +She was the ‘slave of the Juju’ who had sought his +protection as a refuge from oppression untold moons +ago. Her whole life is spent amid the weird figures +which she guards and serves, lighting fires during the +rains that the soft clay may not be melted nor the +roof and wood-work rotted by damp and mould—though, +strangely enough, it is strictly forbidden to make the +slightest attempt at repairing when cracks appear in +figure or wall, however much care was expended on the +building of the shrine.</p> + +<p>So near to one another are the figures that the little +sleeping mat of the attendant could hardly find space +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>to be stretched out in between. Their eyes were +set with fragments of looking-glass, which twinkled +and gleamed in the most life-like way, as the flames +rose and fell. How many years the gentle old slave, +with her soft voice and deprecatory gestures, had +served the Juju, none could tell. She herself seemed +to have lost all memory of any other life; but the dim +eyes brightened at the gift of tobacco leaves and the +gentle voice followed us, still calling Ndeawo—the +common word both for ‘thanks’ and for ‘greeting’—as +we went away.</p> + +<p>In every case which we have seen as yet, the Thunder +God wears a sharply pointed black beard. In many +instances little rattles hang from his neck or are +attached to a spear or staff held in his hand, while a +cluster of bells is slung from a rope usually passing +over the right shoulder and resting on the left hip. +In one place his feet were set upon a curved bar of +iron which had once been gaily painted and was said +to represent the rainbow. It is with the rattles that +he produces the roll of his thunder, while the bells +strike together to form the clash and bang of each +separate peal. The type of figure was identical with +that of the so-called deified ancestor Njokko, seated +at the top of his sky ladder upon each rung of which +‘air people,’ <i>i.e.</i> birds, were perched.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps not without significance that, upon +either hand of his throne, two slender pillars the +shape of an elongated torch and each bearing a bird, +are set.⁠<a id="FNanchor_9_9" href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> These are small and vaguely modelled, but +it is <span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span>possible that they once represented the eagles +of Zeus—which, among Ibibio, are still sacred to +Obumo, the Thunderer.⁠<a id="FNanchor_10_10" href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>⁠</p> + +<p>At Ibodo, on either side of the door of the central +shrine—the ‘holy of holies’ which only the priest +can enter unscathed—we first noticed the two +strangely-shaped figures which are also to be seen +guarding the inner sanctuary of the Owerri Mbari +houses. They were thus explained to us:</p> + +<p>‘These are the servants of Amad’ongha. Their names +are Omogwa and Otamelli. The first’—with spread +tresses—‘is calling up the tempest by striking on +her mouth.’ (This action was later described, at +another shrine, as ‘cleaning her teeth with a bush +stick!’) ‘The second is about to loosen her hair which +floats around her in the storm-wind darkening all +the earth’—a possible picturing of the rain-bearing +clouds.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Omogwa’s left hand is stretched out to warn intruders +from entering the chamber which she and her sister +Alose are set to guard, lest thereby the wrath of +Amade Onhia should be drawn down upon the trespasser.</p> + +<p>In former days, when men had offended against the law +of the Juju, they were brought by the priests and shut +up within the shrine. Then, in the night time, came +some fearful thing to torture them to death, perhaps +by beating, perhaps in other ways. At any rate the +body of the offender was always borne forth at dawn +and shown to the trembling people as a sign of the +fate which would overtake any who dared disobey the +law of the Thunder God or the commands of his priests.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp58" id="fig019" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig019.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 19.</span> The Guardians of the + Shrine, Omogwa and Otamelli + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span></p> + +<p>As already mentioned on <a href="#Page_20">page 20</a>, this custom also +prevailed among the people of Owerri. Near the two +Alose, on each side of the inner entrance, are small +holes in which offerings of kola are placed when +people come to ‘bless the shrine’ or ask for special +favours.</p> + +<p>In the neighbourhood of Ibodo and indeed all over the +Etche country, according to the testimony of chief +Achongwa, it is customary before cutting palm-nuts to +offer sacrifice to some specially tall trees, one of +which will be found in every compound. These are named +Amad’ongha’s palms, because the people say that those, +which reach very high, are nearer to the deity. Men +who neglect this rite find that their palm-nuts do not +produce much oil. Later, we found that the custom was +also practised by Aro and a row of the trees—here +known as the palms of Kamalo, the name given by this +people to Amad’ongha—was shown us in the compound +of chief Ogunda at Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. In an Aro +compound at Ozoaba each tree had a tall palm-leaf tied +against its base, the top leaflets cut off straight +and surmounted by a scarlet parrot’s feather, an egg, +etc.</p> + +<p>At Ibodo, from the Thunderer’s shrine to the corner +of the rest-house, stretches a sacred grove beneath +the shade of which native pots and other offerings +may be found. Here, during the dry season, a number +of small mats of plaited palm were seen, each bearing +an offering of goat’s flesh. It is perhaps worth +mentioning that, among Ibibio, curtains of plaited +palm-leaf are hung before holy pools and groves or +round the trunks of sacred trees. The <span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span>plaited part is +said to represent the rainbow, while the long fringe +from the lower edge typifies the rain itself.</p> + +<p>In the grove at Ibodo beneath one of the trees, +peeled, short-branched wands—the symbol of +lightning—were still standing, and we were told that +formerly many such had been set up in other spots. +When these rods decay, the power of the Thunder God +is said to pass from them into the nearest tree. Once +drawn within the many-forked branches, the ‘mana’ of +Amad’ongha fades not with the fading of its first +frail tenement, but is drawn into the vegetation +around, growing and spreading with each new season’s +boughs.</p> + +<p>At the far end of the sacred grove stands a tree such +as we had never seen elsewhere, of which the crowded +panicles of single petaled flowers, deepest crimson +in colour, swayed to and fro in the breeze amid dark +quivering leaves, or fell earthward in showers, like +drops of new drawn blood.</p> + +<p>One night, at the beginning of the tornado season, +we were sleeping in the neighbouring rest-house, +when a storm arose with the appalling suddenness +usual at this time of year. The wind tore at the +frail palm-leaf roofs, while rain lashed in through +open window- and door-frames, flash after flash was +followed, with scarce an interval, by crash and roar +so deafening that for a long time all other sounds +were drowned in the awful tumult. As the storm began +to pass away, another sound made itself heard in +the lengthening intervals. Each lightning gleam was +followed by a burst of trumpeting, as though the +followers of the storm god had come together undaunted +by the force of the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>tempest to hold a play in honour +of their great deity. It is impossible to give any +idea of the impressiveness of this act of worship. +From out the impenetrable darkness, between long +lines of rain, like a sword from its scabbard leapt +the dazzling flash. The branches of the sacred grove +moaned and swayed, bitumen dark against this more than +daylight brilliance; while, from beneath their shade +or from the neighbourhood of the shrine, each burst +of flame was answered by a blare of savage trumpets, +the sound of which merged into the roll of the sequent +thunder.</p> + +<p>So long as the storm lasted the strange music +continued, broken now and again by the cries of the +terrified cattle, which rose in chorus from countless +byres and were hardly distinguishable at times from +the rude horns blown by their owners.</p> + +<p>Save for the fact that the outer colonnade, which +gives accommodation to further groups of figures in +Owerri Mbari houses, is absent, wholly or in part, +from many of the Etche shrines, the buildings are +practically identical in type. Many groups are to +be found, save for the smallest of details, exactly +reproduced in each, and it is owned that freedom of +intercourse between the sexes is allowed in the cults +of both Ale and Amade Onhia at certain seasons, with +the idea that this will have the effect of increasing +fruitfulness not only among the human inhabitants of +the town but also in farm and byre.</p> + +<p>The connection between the two cults was indicated +by a practice which still obtains at Omo Chuku, a +quarter of the town of Ibo near Okomoko inhabited <span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>by +Etche Ibo. The principal chief of the place, Ababua +by name, is also head priest of the Thunder God and, +by the local law of the cult, is only permitted to +eat in a hut which stands by itself in the middle of +his compound. In this, all the dried yams and seed +corn are stored and there too is his Ajokko-Ji or king +yam, here represented by a basket filled with yams and +skulls.</p> + +<p>Each wife cooks in turn, and the one who has prepared +the meal serves it and is permitted to partake. Should +the priest so will, son or daughter may be invited to +join in the repast; but none may do so without special +permission. The chief himself sits upon an elaborately +carved stool, but the others place themselves humbly +upon the ground or on small logs. The doorway is +curtained by a fringe of young palm-leaves which are +never allowed to wither.</p> + +<p>The son of chief Ababua, who accompanied us for some +distance, stated that his father might never eat of +the new season’s yams for at least two months after +this was permitted to ordinary men. As chief priest of +Amad’ongha, Ababua was also obliged by ancient law to +perform certain ceremonies to his personal god as well +as to the special protectors among his ancestors—the +shrines of which are placed just within the threshold +of his Obiri (reception room)—before allowing any +portion of the new season’s yams or corn to pass +his lips. It was explained that, by taking his food +amid the seed set apart for planting, the priest was +thought to endow these with special fertility by the +power of the Thunderer whom he served.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span></p> + +<p>Not far from the little dining hut, a small, highly +decorated mud house was to be seen, consisting of a +dark inner chamber opening from an outer porch-like +one. The chief explained that this was the local Mbari +house and that they built it each year—making the mud +walls gay with shells and brightly coloured plates +because their fathers had bidden them do this in order +to draw down prosperity upon their people. He added, +somewhat hastily, that no special rites were carried +out and that the structure got its name only because +the word means ‘fine’ or ‘decorated’—probably from +its decorations or, perhaps, from the gay robes, beads +and brass ornaments worn by the women when gathered +together there.</p> + +<p>All round the compound the much-branched, peeled +wands sacred to Amad’ongha are to be seen. Beneath +one of these, two pottery drums were placed, one half +embedded in the ground and one above. By the principal +shrine before the main entrance a curious adjunct was +noticed. From a sapling, cut so as to form a fork, +hangs a large oval calabash. Between the prongs a +farm hoe is held, while beneath it two tortoises are +impaled. The explanation of this given by the chief +was that one night his god ordered them to be placed +beside the shrine. The combination of objects, taken +in conjunction with the fact that this priest of the +Thunderer may only eat amid the seed corn and yams, +suggests that this is another of the many Jujus for +augmenting the fertility of the farm. It is not +without significance that, beside that of <span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>Amade +Onhia, the only other shrine of importance in Omo +Chuku is dedicated to Ale.</p> + +<p>At Okehin, the Thunderer, instead of occupying a whole +building, is only given the front verandah of a house. +At one end was to be seen the figure of a mother with +a new-born babe in her arms; at the other, a group +representing a corpse laid in the grave with a pot +of offerings beside it and a pet monkey watching at +the foot by the seated figure of a woman. The pot of +offerings usually contains a small plate, knife, pipe, +tobacco, snuff and bottle of gin, rum or palm-wine. +Between these two groups representing birth and death +stands the figure of a medicine man, a magic horn in +his right hand and a Juju knife in his left.</p> + +<p>In niches cunningly contrived in the rear wall, or +upon the low clay ridge which separates the verandah +from the road, carefully modelled birds sit upon +nests of interwoven twigs, containing eggs, tinted or +speckled in close imitation of nature. Small monkeys +climb the pillars, dogs mount guard, while the phallic +serpent twines and twists between all.</p> + + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="fig020" style="max-width: 40em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig020.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 20.</span> Burial scene in Amade + Onhia shrine, Okehin + </figcaption> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span></p> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="V"> + V + <br><span class="sm">SKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS</span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>Among Etche Ibo, especially those to the west of +the Otaminni River, Amade Onhia has practically +usurped the place of Chi, the Creatrix, and reigns +as supreme deity. For months after our arrival, we +were invariably told by natives of all parts of the +Division that the Thunderer was distinct from his +brother Igwe, Lord of the Bright Sky. Later on, while +collecting information concerning rain-making by +magical means, it transpired from the words of the +invocation used that the two originally symbolised +different aspects of the same personality—Zeus of the +thunder, lightning and storm cloud, Lord of the dark +sky as well as the bright. Now, though most people +regard them as separate deities, the old idea has not +yet died out, especially among rain-makers.</p> + +<p>Formerly, it is said, Igwe was more generally +worshipped than at present. This was explained as due +to the fact that the God of the Bright Sky only gives +advice by his oracles and does not ensure wealth, +health or special good fortune to his votaries; while +these additional gifts may be obtained through prayer +to Amade Onhia.</p> + +<p>In January 1915 good fortune led us to Ozozo, where +stands the greatest of all shrines of the Thunder +God—a temple not made with hands—the sanctity <span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span>of +which is so great that pilgrims come thither from +hundreds of miles. Until now its existence had been +carefully guarded from the knowledge of Europeans, +and the chief priest had so far avoided coming into +contact with any white man of the few who had visited +the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Early next morning we set out to seek the place of +pilgrimage. The way led through a part of the bush set +aside for the reception of the corpses of the unburied +dead. At intervals the road was strewn with cowries, +while ghost-offerings such as pots, broken that their +astral forms might be set free for the use of the +shades, and lengths of cloth, faded by sun and rain, +were to be seen in the bush on either hand. Here and +there, too, a long, narrow crate formed of palm stems +was passed, half covered by the dense undergrowth. In +these the bodies of the unblest dead had been borne +to their last resting-place, thence to be flung forth +for vultures, ants and other carrion-feeding creatures +to work their will upon—leaving but a handful of +bleached bones for the luxuriant vegetation to cover +with its charitable mantle.</p> + +<p>Through these ill-omened shades we hurried, only +stopping to pluck a new flower, the white cups +of which together with masses of their strangely +flattened calices had been found strewing the pathways +of the beautiful Oban District, but hitherto it had +been impossible to secure any leaves owing to the +height of the trails, which had eluded discovery amid +the network of giant branches to which they clung. +Here, in the glade of the unburied dead, the path was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span>festooned from side to side with spray upon spray, +rich in flower, fruit and leaf.</p> + +<figure class="figleft illowp37" id="fig021" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig021.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 21.</span> The Aroid which grows + round about the great Amad’ongha shrine at Ozozo + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Thence we crossed the market-place and, by a network +of many mazy paths made apparently for no other +purpose than to mislead chance-comers, reached an open +space shaded by giant cotton trees and heavy-scented +Monodoras. In the low bush round about sprang great +aroids, said to be connected with the worship of the +Thunder God’s children. It is possible that the idea +is due to the phallic-like appearance of the central +spike, the long, thin, basal flowers of which give +it somewhat the look of the Schlange im Schilf—the +Pangwe description of the phallus.</p> + +<p>At the further end of the space lay the compound of +the head priest, its open sheds full of cult objects +but deserted; for the priest and all his family had +fled at our approach.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span></p> + +<p>Towards the near end of the cleared space two paths +branched off, one on either side of a great clump of +trees, the gnarled roots of which stretched right +across as though barring the way. These two paths join +later by a second group of no great size, which has +sprung up round the riven base of a forest giant, the +remains of whose trunk, lightning-scarred, may still +be seen stretching far out into the bush beyond. Some +few yards away a palm-leaf screen is placed across, +shutting off the cleared space from the priest’s +compound. In the midst of the screen a little erection +like the door-frame to a miniature house may be seen +thickly plastered with the blood and feathers of +sacrificed fowls. For about seven feet before this the +ground is broken as though continually disturbed, and +here and there in the soft sand depressions may be +found as though round-bottomed water-jars had been set +therein. This was explained as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>When pilgrims come hither bringing the appointed +gifts, the priest first makes sacrifice and afterwards +calls aloud the special favour which the worshipper +has come to ask. Should Amad’ongha be favourably +inclined, so soon as the prayer is finished, the +roll of his thunder begins to sound, no matter how +clear the sky. Then, with a great crash, a ball +of stone about seven inches across falls from the +blue overhead. This is the sign of the god himself, +come down from his home in the clouds to bless the +earth-folk.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In vain we looked upwards, expecting to see branches +which might serve to hide these mysterious missiles. +Nothing was to be seen above but slender twigs tossing +a delicate tracery of scarce open leaves against +the blue. <span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>On the far side of the fence, however, +stretched part of the high priest’s compound; so, if +the means by which the seeming miracle was worked +baffled discovery, the probable agency, at least, was +not far to seek.</p> + +<p>Later we learned that the name of the priest was +Chioma Madume, and after some difficulty we succeeded +in overcoming his dread of meeting a white man—a +matter which had hitherto been considered as tabu. +He was even persuaded to come with his two assistant +priests to visit us. He proved to be a strange and +somewhat pathetic figure, borne on a rude litter, +thin, pale and with only one foot; the other, +according to his own account, had ‘rotted away and +dropped off.’ The skin of his two attendants was of +that peculiarly vivid red occasionally met with in +these regions. This appears to bear out Sir Harry +Johnston’s theory of an original red stock, but is +explained by Ibo as showing that man or woman so +marked out is a child of Amade Onhia. Both among the +last-named people and the Kalahari the law of the +Thunder God ordains that all such shall be devoted to +his service and become ‘slaves of the Juju’ unless +ransomed by their family for a heavy sum. A sister of +chief G. A. Yellow was thus chosen on account of the +redness of her skin but was afterwards ransomed.</p> + +<p>Chioma Madume gave the following account:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>I myself have been priest of Amade Onhia for seven +years.⁠<a id="FNanchor_11_11" href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Before me my father, Madume, held the +office for <span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>about the same time and before him my +grandfather, Odu Kerin, ruled—I cannot tell for how +long.</p> + +<p>Our god is a very great god and is the only one +throughout this region who gives a visible sign of his +presence. When he wishes us to sacrifice or perform +ceremonies for him, we ask a sign whereby we may know +that this is really his will. In answer he sets a +rainbow in the sky. When he descends into the shrine +before the screen of plaited palm, the rainbow comes +down also and hangs just above the place, thereby +showing his presence. Many thunder stones fall there +and the holes in the ground before the shrine are +caused by something which falls from the sky, denting +the earth; but it is invisible. No man has looked upon +its shape.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>(This assertion is in direct contradiction to the +statements of pilgrims, who declared, as above +related, that the holes were caused by stone balls, +roughly speaking, seven inches in diameter, which fell +down from above. It was, however, explained by one of +the chiefs present that it was probably unlawful for +the priest to describe the mysterious missiles—the +outward, visible sign of the Thunder God’s power.)</p> + +<p>Chioma continued:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Amade Onhia, like Ale and the Aro Chuku Juju, is +against all those who act contrary to native custom. +The Thunder God sends down his bolt to strike such +sinners; so, when a man is killed by lightning, people +always know that he has done some bad thing. Witches +and wizards specially dread his power and never dare +to go out during a storm.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>It was explained, in all seriousness, that the reason +Amade Onhia so often sends his lightning to strike +tall trees or hill tops is because he is jealous of +all things which seek to raise themselves near to +his kingdom. Only the birds may venture safely into +the sky realm. <span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>The children of earth should keep +close to the breast of their mother. The idea seems +contradictory to that held among some Etche Ibo and +Aro as to the efficacy of sacrifices made to the +so-called ‘palms of the Thunder God’ mentioned on p. +46.</p> + +<p>With Amafa Ibo this jealousy is thought to be +developed along curious lines. Among this people it +is forbidden for a woman to climb to any height, up a +tree-trunk or even over the top of a wall or fence. +So strictly is the tabu enforced that ‘civil war’ +actually broke out among this people because the +late chief Oosi, father of the present head chief of +Amafa, built himself a ‘story-house,’ <i>i.e.</i> a +two-floor building raised above the ground upon a +foundation of piles—and allowed his women to go up +and down the stairs. That this superstition obtains +also among Isokpo Ibo is shown by a complaint brought +before me by two men of Nkarahia as to the treatment +accorded them by the chiefs of their town who were +enraged because they had ventured to build themselves +a ‘story-house,’ to the top rooms of which they +allowed their women to climb. The chiefs declared that +this endangered the safety of the town; for, should +Amade Onhia hurl his bolt at the offending structure, +peradventure he might punish the whole people for this +disregard of his laws by two of their number.⁠<a id="FNanchor_12_12" href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>⁠</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp48" id="fig022" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig022.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 22.</span> The shape, surrounded + by skulls and draped with blood-stained linen, which + represents the earth goddess Ale in the shrine at + Ewawfe + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>At sacred places, such as the shrine at Ozozo, +the grove at Young Town or the sacred bush at +Ngeri-Baw-Ama, no leaf may be picked nor branch broken.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>To every one of the great Jujus slaves can run +throughout the Ibo country and become its servants, +after which no man has power to take them back without +paying a great sum of money to the priest. In some +cases even this is forbidden. In many parts of the +interior such slaves can go into the market-place and +take anything they want without payment; for no one +dares touch them. After living for a long time with +the Juju, they might sometimes go free; but could only +go back to their native town at their own risk, for +there their masters could recapture them. Amad’ongha +and Ale have special power and their shrines are often +placed near to one another, because this is pleasing +to both, since they work together.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Perhaps the central part of Degama District may be +looked upon as that where the worship of Ale holds +chief sway. One of the strangest of her shrines +lies at Ewawfe, in friendly nearness to church and +school. Between them, more to the rear is a great, +open shed, with elaborately fringed, corrugated iron +roof. Beneath this are several clay pillars of the +Ibudu type, before one of which some beautifully +wrought torque-like bronze manillas lie amid a heap +of smaller ones. A few yards off stands a small mud +hut containing a figure of Ale indescribably gruesome +with its strangely-shaped skull, its folds upon folds +of blood-stained linen and the streams of blood poured +and splashed over the supporting logs and the skulls +and clumps of feathers thickly strewn around.</p> + +<p>At this town it is customary to store all seed yams, +etc., in the huts built for carrying out the rites +of the ancestors—to whose care the germs of the new +season’s crops are thus entrusted.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span></p> + +<p>Indeed, amongst many peoples here, the dead are +thought to be more powerful even than Ale for the +granting of fertility, especially as regards the +crops, which is not surprising since they are supposed +to live under the ground between incarnations on +earth. In most parts, however, the fertility of the +marriage bed, of the byre and of the crops is deemed +to be chiefly due to the great Mother Goddess of the +Earth. The duty is usually delegated to some of her +subordinate tribes of Jujus and it is the members of +one of these who are responsible for placing in the +womb of the mother the spirit of the being about to be +born on the earth plane. There is no ignorance here +as to the necessary part played by the human father +and mother, but their action would be fruitless and +conception impossible without the help of the gods or +jujus.</p> + +<p>At the neighbouring village of Ogbokoro the chiefs +were anxiously waiting to speak of a serious trouble +which had befallen them. One of the schoolboys had +broken the fence round the principal Ale shrine and +stolen therefrom a quantity of manillas out of the +mass of such which were to be seen, half smothered in +feathers and congealed blood, upon the mud altar. On +being assured that such desecration would be severely +punished, the head chief answered:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>This is a good word for us. We feel this thing very +much. Ale is our mother and our god; all that we have +comes from her, and without her gifts we must indeed +be lost.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>As already mentioned, it is indicative of the +reverence in which the Earth Goddess is held, that +only the head chief of a town can aspire to be her +priest. It is not <span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>without significance that the +same rule holds with regard to the principal shrines +of Amade Onhia. Only after pilgrimage to Ozozo may +subsidiary lodges be erected, while the shrine of Ale +is usually found nearby.</p> + +<p>Where Amad’ongha is paramount, he appears to arrogate +to himself the functions of Igwe, the Ibo sky god +proper (cf. p. 52), thus following in the footsteps of +his Grecian prototype, ‘Zeus, God of the bright sky,’ +who is also ‘Zeus, God of the dark sky’; and it is in +this capacity, as Lord of the drenching rain-storm, +that he fertilises his consort the Earth Goddess.⁠<a id="FNanchor_13_13" href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>⁠</p> + +<p>Of these mystic spousals of Earth and Sky perhaps the +most beautiful picturing of all is to be found among +the Ekoi of the South Cameroons and of Oban, Southern +Nigeria.⁠<a id="FNanchor_14_14" href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>⁠</p> + +<p>A curious link between the worship of Ale and the +bearing of babes came to light one morning just as +we were leaving Isokpo waterside, a market town +of some importance on the banks of the upper New +Calabar River. A long, shadeless march, by roads as +yet practically unknown to white men, lay before us. +We had risen at earliest dawn in order to place the +first miles behind before the sun should add to the +burdens of the carriers, when, just as we were setting +forth after seeing the last load safely started, a +complainant arrived with a letter appealingly held out +in both hands. It was entitled ‘To his Majesty the +District <span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>Commissioner. <i>Re</i> Wansumu <i>v</i>. +Egeom. 17th February, 1915,’ and ran as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Sir,</p> + +<p>I have the honour, most respectfully, to lodge this my +humble complaint before your kind worship....</p> + +<p>I am living in the defendant’s town because it is my +mother’s city. Deceased is my brother.... His death +took place in that month during which it is forbidden +to die. By our native custom, should any one disobey +this law, heavy expenses used to be paid before that +person might be buried. Defendant knew that the place +I am residing in is a mother city, yet he allowed +me to perform all the ceremonies on behalf of the +deceased Wawesi without assistance....</p> + +<p>Leaving this for your discretion</p> + +<p class="right"> + <span style="margin-right: 11.0em;">I have the honour to be,</span><br> + <span style="margin-right: 17.5em;">Sir,</span><br> + <span style="margin-right: 7.0em;">Your obedient servant,</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Wansumu</span> (his X mark). +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>On reading this document, it struck an ignorant white +man as somewhat strange that there should be any month +‘in which it is forbidden to die.’ On this point the +complainant stated:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>The man died in the seventh month of the year. Now +according to our native law and custom no unmarried +man may be buried during the seventh moon of the year. +Should any die at that time, none may take notice of +his passing and no relative may show sign that a death +has taken place; for the seventh moon is the month +of our mother Ale and by her law it is forbidden for +anyone to die during this holy time. Most of all does +she forbid the death of the unfruitful, whether man or +woman. The bodies of such must be thrown away with all +secrecy and may not be buried. The only exception to +this rule is in the case of a man belonging <span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>to a very +rich family. Then, in consideration of the property +left, some of the relatives may undertake the expense +necessary for carrying out his funeral rites. Should a +man die during the holy month of Ale many purificatory +ceremonies must be gone through. This law extends over +the whole of our country lying round Isokpo part.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>When questioned on the subject, chief G. Yellow owned +that a similar ‘rule’ exists among Kalabari, but is +only enforced during the day on which an Owu play is +given. He added that the prohibition as to burial +applied also to those who die of certain diseases. +‘When such people die,’ he said,</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>a certain mark is visible upon the body. The flesh +of such an one looks decomposed, whereon people say +‘Ale has forsaken him!’ Such bodies must be carried +far from the town and, if buried at all, it must be +a long way from the haunts of men. When a woman dies +in childbirth, her death is concealed for the same +reason, since to pass away before bearing a babe is +displeasing to Ale. In such a case, a corpse must be +carried forth at night secretly through the back door +of the house. Young maids and pregnant women may never +see the body of one so accursed. By native law all +the property of the dead must be destroyed by fire, +lest the ban of sterility should pass to any who might +afterwards make use of such things.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Among Okrikans, during the seven days on which the +feast of the Earth Goddess, called by this tribe +Elechu, is held, a similar rule obtains. Should a man +die, he may not be buried but must be flung away into +the ‘bad bush’ set apart for such outcasts. Only if +the family be rich enough to support the cost of the +purificatory ceremonies necessary before the goddess +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>can be appeased, may the dead be laid to rest in the +breast of the Earth Mother—thence, like sown seed, to +spring forth to new life. The spirits of the accursed +corpses flung into the place of ‘bad bush’ on the +other hand become Akalagoli or Ekwensu and on such the +gate of reincarnation is closed for ever. They haunt +waste places and lonely creeks, seeking to harm those +who still dwell in the sunshine. Specially at noon or +midnight is their evil power most to be dreaded.</p> + +<p>Should pot or bowl be let fall, or wooden implement +broken, during the feast of Elechu, the sherds must be +piled in a heap upon which is flung the body of any +animal which should die during the festival. So large +had these mounds grown in many cases that they formed +a serious menace to the health of the town and proved +no inconsiderable difficulty in the way of an official +with leanings towards sanitation. It is to a mixture +of good fortune on the one hand and reasonableness on +the part of the Okrikans that the trouble is now, for +practical purposes, a matter of past history.</p> + +<p>Among Ibibio the burial of women dying in childbirth +is also forbidden. These were borne forth, through a +hole purposely broken in the house wall, to be flung +away in the bush, lest their barrenness might have ill +effect upon the fruitfulness of the Earth Mother.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VI"> + VI + <br> + <span class="sm">IBUDU</span> + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>To those who pass through the country with open eyes +it is obvious that the phallic cult is very strong +among Ibo. Where the Ibibio had contented themselves +with a plain mud pillar, set as emblem amid the +farm, Ibo take special pains in modelling not only +a personification of the symbol, but in showing +unmistakably that the circumcised phallus is intended +to be represented.</p> + +<p>Among Ibo, as with the ancient Egyptians also, the +feminine, as well as the male, genital organs are +worshipped. Both are rudely depicted under the title +Ibudu—a name which embraces the chief protective +Jujus⁠<a id="FNanchor_15_15" href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> erected in town or compound, the primary +purpose of which appears to be the granting of +piccans, though most also act as protector in general +to the family or village of which they are the fetish, +and bestow fertility on farm and byre. The feminine +part of the Juju is usually in bell shape, instead of +the pot or calabash form found among Ekoi and Ibibio. +It generally shows the high coiffure only permitted to +Ibo women after the birth of a babe. The nose is often +joined to the base of the hair ridge and the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>impaled +tortoise, already explained as a feminine symbol, is +as a rule seen in the foreground.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most convincing testimony to the efficacy +attributed to the feminine genital organ is a +carefully carved representation of the labia, which +was explained as having been one of the most sacred +objects in a great Andoni Juju house, whence it was +taken by a man who had no idea of its significance. +In course of time it came to my notice and was +subsequently added to our collection.</p> + +<p>An example of the simplest form of phallic pillar may +be found in a compound next door to that of Ababua, +head chief of Omo Chuku. Save for two roughly modelled +feet at the base, no attempt was made to add limbs to +the column, down either side of which a row of rough +wooden pegs had been driven. It was explained that +each man of the compound inserted one of these on +taking a wife, so that the Juju might have a constant +reminder of the need to send ‘plenty of piccans’ to +their hearth.</p> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> +<div class="column3"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig023" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig023.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 23.</span> Obelli Oduaha Ibudu + juju for granting many piccans + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column3"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig024" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig024.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 24.</span> Ibudu in compound + next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo Chuku + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column3"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig025" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig025.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 25.</span> Headless Ibudu in Omo + Alipo compound, Omo Chuku + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<p class="clear">In another quarter of the same town, in front of Omo +Alipo compound, an Ibudu may be seen of which the +pillar represents a body from the loins upward—the +hands, so roughly modelled as more nearly to resemble +feet, resting upon the circular base as though in the +act of lifting the upper part through from the earth +beneath. The figure is headless; only the end of the +central pole and the twigs and tie-tie forming the +core, round which such images are modelled, protrude +from the broken rim. It is perhaps worth remarking +that this pillar, like some to be mentioned later, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span>combines both male and female attributes, somewhat +in the style of the Indian Linga.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most highly conventionalised of all such +images is one to be found in a shrine built in a +prominent position on the main road, just outside +the Omo-Ofo quarter of Ndelle. This represents the +male part of the Juju. At the other end of the shed a +smaller figure is to be seen, bell-shaped and showing +feminine symbols. This is typical of most of those +intended to represent the feminine creative power, +though one of a type more nearly approaching the male +form of Ibudu was found, later on, in Chief Wokogg’s +compound at Omo Akani, Owerri District.</p> + +<p>Just beyond the shed containing the two phallic +pillars, a couple of shrines may be seen, one on +either side of the main road. That on the right is +built in honour of the Juju Onru-Ji (farm yam). This +was explained as ‘one very big woman spirit, all same +Ala.’ In the ground were many knives and pieces of +iron, said to have been placed there by order of the +priest who declared that the Juju needed them.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fig026" style="max-width: 40em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig026.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 26.</span> Ibudu at Ogaminni, + near Ndelle + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>A little further, on the opposite side of the road +beneath an arbour-like cutting made in the thick bush, +was a piece of white baft stretched between two posts. +This is set up in honour of Onru Ka’n Ala, stated to +be the husband of Onru-Ji. The chief of the quarter +explained:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Both of these Jujus are strong too much. Therefore we +never swear a man on their name, because, should he +even hesitate to tell the truth when brought before +them, the spirit of one or other would strike him dead +at once, giving <span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span>no time for repentance! It is a +very strong rule for our part that both Jujus must be +dressed by the people of Omo-Ofo before they may eat +new yams.</p> +</blockquote> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fig027" style="max-width: 40em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig027.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 27.</span> Ite Uru Ibudu<br> + + <i>See page <a href="#Page_71">71</a></i> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>At Aloa, a town in the centre of the Division, a +shrine is to be seen containing a fetish, the like of +which is not, to the best of my belief, to be found +elsewhere in these parts. It is in the corner of a +room set apart <span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>as sacred to Chineke, the Creatrix, +in the compound of Chief Wegu, and consists of an +oblong block, terminating in a carefully modelled +representation of the male genital organs, raised upon +three steps. To this the owner makes sacrifice every +month, usually at the time of the new moon, in order +that ‘plenty piccans’ may be born to those of his +house.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp98" id="fig028" style="max-width: 25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig028.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 28.</span> Charm<br> + + <i>See page <a href="#Page_71">71</a></i> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>A somewhat similar fetish was found among the Ale Nsaw +Ibo in the shrine of Chief Idu of Oborotta raised upon +a clay step in the angle of the wall at the right +hand corner. This consisted of two small round pots +fixed neck-downward into the clay, while between them +protruded a piece of wood, roughly phallic in form, on +the upper surface of which two miniature Offor sticks +were bound lengthwise and side by side. The object of +this fetish was to bring prosperity in general and, in +particular, many children to the compound.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span></p> + +<p>A Juju, intended to represent a woman’s body from +the waist downward, was found among the same people. +This was called Ite Uru, <i>i.e.</i> pot of gain, +and was supported at the rear by the wall and in +front upon two roughly modelled legs. It formed the +principal cult object in the shrine of Chief Okuroji +of Obokoffia and was set up by the grandfather of +the present head of the house, but had been freshly +decorated (<a href="#fig027">fig. 27</a>).</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig029" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig029.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 29.</span> Ibudu Nwa + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Another Juju for bringing ‘plenty piccans’ to the +house and for making them grow up fine, strong and +tall—also for giving long life to its owner—was hung +up to the roof over the main door of the head chief’s +house at Ndelle (<a href="#fig028">fig. 28</a>). The arrows were planted +so thickly that one could not see of what the oval +groundwork was made.</p> + +<p>At Ale-Barada, a charming town to the west of the +Upper New Calabar River, never before visited by a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span>white man, and which, as its name denotes, is under +the special protection of the Earth Goddess, a Juju is +to be found, called Ibudu Nwa, <i>i.e.</i> Ibudu for +children. This occupies the centre of a rectangular +shrine and is set beneath a canopy of tie-tie, +attached to the roof, from which depend inverted pots, +the shape of a shallow bell, each with a twist of +gay-coloured cloth swinging, clapper-wise, from its +centre. Beneath these hang fringes of palm-leaf, so +long, in places, as almost to sweep the market-basket +placed upon the neck of the strange, headless figure +beneath (<a href="#fig029">fig. 29</a>).</p> + +<p>On marriage, before going to the bridegroom’s house, +each maiden of the town is brought by her friends to +this shrine and, bending before the image, dips her +hand into an earthen pot filled with ‘medicine’ which +is placed there in readiness. Then she rubs her hands +over the Juju, after which she laves them in a small +bowl filled with pure water. Again she passes her left +fingers over the image and afterwards over her own +body; ‘for’ as the head chief explained, ‘Ibudu Nwa is +a very strong Juju in our town and will surely grant +fruitfulness to all those who carry out these rites. +So we were taught by our forefathers and this we +believe even to-day. Should any man doubt, he has but +to look round and see the many piccans which are born +to our town.’</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp58" id="fig030" style="max-width: 30em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig030.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 30.</span> Ibudu Nwa at + Ale-Barada + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Between the upraised arms, resting upon the place +where the head should be, is a market-basket, full of +dried roots, seed yams, etc. Outside the shrine, each +protected by a small shed, were two unusually large +phallic pillars, to which bridegrooms bring offerings. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span>Across all, from post to post, rising like Venetian +masts, were long chains made from linked rings of +creeper, from which hung, at intervals, inverted bowls +with gay-coloured strips of cloth waving to and fro in +the breeze, like those decorating the canopy of Ibudu +Nwa. To the left stood a great tree, its trunk hung +round with white cloth, the reputed home of a powerful +and beneficent nature spirit. Before the principal +shrine sprang little saplings of the bush which Ale +first brought when she came swimming <span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span>through the wide +waste of waters to form the first abiding place for +her children—men, beasts, trees and flowers.</p> + +<p>Altogether Ale-Barada is a charming spot and the +manners of the sons of the soil were unusually gentle +and friendly. They willingly answered every question, +in striking contrast to the inhabitants of the next +town, Oduaha, where a Juju of somewhat different type +is to be found. This was sullenly explained to us as +without name and only used for protection—‘not to +give piccans.’ The canoe upon its head was likewise +stated to have been put there ‘only to look fine. Not +for any purpose.’</p> + +<p>At Omo Hume, a quarter of Omo Dioga, another Ibudu +was found, which was said to be intended as a +representation of the Earth Goddess, here called Aja. +In a little clearing to the right of the main road +stood a shrine of unusual size, sheltering two phallic +pillars. The smaller of these, placed in front and a +little to the left, was obviously female and smeared +with blood from the breast downward. The rear figure +bore no name save ‘Husband of Aja,’ or at least none +other was confided to us. So tall was this that it +filled the whole space from floor to roof, looming, +colossal and with a certain impressiveness, from +out the shadows at the back of the shrine. Between +the two, on either side, lay a piece of plaited +palm-cloth, black and white, such as widows wear in +some parts; while two deep fringes of palm-leaf were +hung before the entrance, screening the strange, rude +deities within from the glances of passers-by.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span></p> + +<p>It was explained that the cloths were those of barren +women, and had been laid at the feet of Aja and +her spouse in the hope that, when resumed by their +owners, the ban of sterility, imposed through the hate +of some rival, might be broken by the power of the +fertility-bestowing Earth Gods.</p> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig031" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig031.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 31.</span> Ibudu at Digiriga + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig032" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig032.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 32.</span> Ibudu placed before + the entrance to Omu Dara quarter of Akpani + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<p class="clear">At Bush Digiriga again, a small town to the east of +the Sombreiro River inhabited by Abuan people and +never before visited by Europeans—a Juju ‘for the +obtaining of piccans’ is to be found, which in many +ways resembles the Ibo Ibudu. About this particular +fetish, however, there are certain points which +we never met elsewhere. In addition to the high +coiffure—a recognised symbol of femininity—the head +is provided with a square beard in shape like those +false ones worn during certain dynasties by Egyptian +rulers, especially queens reigning in their own right. +It is perhaps worth noting that, while the arms of +the figure are mere stumps, without any attempt to +reproduce hands, and the feet are so rude as to be +almost shapeless, the phallus is modelled with the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span>utmost care, showing that in the minds of its makers +this detail was of very special significance.</p> + +<p>Outside the entrance to the Omo Dara quarter of +Akpani, an Ibudu of unique type may be seen, one +looking-glass eye twinkling in the middle of its head +beneath a ring of feathers set crown-wise in the clay. +Before it, to a four-branched post, a medicine-pot was +bound.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the quarter, beneath a little +palm-leaf hut, stands a group of Ibudu. The largest +of the pillars represents the female, the smaller +the male, attributes. They are modelled seated back +to back—a prostrate leopard lying to the left and a +crater-like mound, containing a pot for Juju medicine, +to the right. Chief Woke Abara, head of the quarter, +gave the following explanation:</p> + +<p>‘Formerly it was very hard for us to get children. +Nearly all our women were barren, so we raised the +two Ibudu, one male and the other female. Since then +we got plenty piccans in our town.’ He added that the +‘leopard spirit’ helps the Juju to prevent the deaths +of children. The small cone in the foreground and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>headless animal lying in front of this were the work +of the few children then existing.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig033" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig033.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 33.</span> Ibudu at Akpani + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>With regard to the figure of a leopard, it is perhaps +worth remarking that the ancient kings of Benin were +wedded, in mystic spousals, with a leopard bride. +Also, among those Ibo dwelling in the group of towns +round Igrita, the spirits of the righteous dead often +take up their abode in leopard form while awaiting +a new term of earth life, but those who enter into +crocodile, ape, or bush cat, are regarded as for ever +accursed.</p> + +<p>Amid a branch of Kalahari settled at Oguta in Owerri +District, a type of Ibudu is to be found, not, so far +as our knowledge goes, to be met with in other parts. +Each of these emblems consists of two sphinx-like +figures, one male and the other female, facing +different <span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span>ways but joined together by a ridge of +clay, which forms, as it were, the back of the sphinx.</p> + +<p>At the Ibo town on the far side of the beautiful +Oguta lake, we came across another phallic pillar +combining the figures of the dual personality, male +and female, of the Ibudu Ezum Mezum. As in the case of +the Ale shrine, described on <a href="#Page_74">page 74</a>, the consort was +nameless, bearing no designation save that of husband +of Ezum Mezum. The figure representing him held the +place of honour at the base of the column which +symbolises the joint attributes of the Juju; while, +at a height almost double that of the husband, towers +the face of the wife. On either side of the pillar, +out-topping the male figure from the neck upwards, +climb two great crocodiles; while placed here and +there, at irregular intervals, human heads stand out +in high relief.</p> + +<p>Chief Onomonu, the owner of the shrine, told us:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>The Ibudu Ezum Mezum is mostly worshipped at Amaii +in Abaw District and priests came thence to build +this shrine for us. It was made at a time when a +great sickness was raging in our town, in the hope +of staying this scourge, granting protection and +prosperity in general and especially to help our +people in the bearing of piccans.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>At its installation, about twelve years ago, the +Abaw doctors held a great ‘smelling out,’ and, in +consequence, decreed that the epidemic was caused +by the witchcraft of the six <i>richest</i> women +of the town, who must therefore be put to death and +their property be made over to the medicine men! +When informed of their doom, the victims refused to +acquiesce and were therefore <span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>beaten to death in +the market-place. The number of heads, modelled at +irregular intervals over the pillar, corresponds +to that of the victims thus slaughtered at the +inauguration ceremonies—four at the back and two +in front, between the sacred crocodiles. All are +liberally smeared with blood poured upon the heads and +trickling downward. This is the only example known to +us at the time in which an Ibudu is so represented as +to show the dual creative forces, male and female, +combined so as to form a single pillar. Many Ibudu +were later seen among the Abaw Ibo of Kwale District, +where this particular type of symbol would seem to +have reached its greatest development.</p> + +<p>The phallic figures, above-mentioned, are, however, +by no means the only examples met with in West Africa +of the mingling, in one object, of male and female +symbols. For instance, the emblem of the greatest of +all Ekoi Jujus, Eja, unmistakably combines the two. +Here, the phallus, represented with the uttermost +pains and fidelity, is the sign of the harvest god +himself, while the bowl-like object to which it is +attached represents the womb of his wife Ekumoke. The +united symbol stands upon a base formed of wide-open +human jaws.⁠<a id="FNanchor_16_16" href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>⁠</p> + +<p>Among the Ekoi, both in the South Cameroons and +Southern Nigeria, as indeed throughout the greater +part of the West Coast generally, a pot or calabash +is regarded as a feminine symbol, and it is of +considerable significance that traces of male semen +have been found <span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>in no inconsiderable number of the +pots set before Ibudu images and in other Juju shrines +throughout the Ibo country. This fact is vouched for +by a medical officer.</p> + +<p>In the ritual chant sung by Ekoi at the festival of +Eja, which is also the feast of the first fruits, the +names of the combined deities are always invoked:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Man Eja! I am staying with you.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O, I am staying with you!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ekumoke! I am staying with you.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O, I am staying with you!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Of these two deities it was expressly stated: ‘Eja is +male and the most strong. Ekumoke is less strong than +Eja; nevertheless without her help he can do nothing.’</p> + +<p>During the annual rites a woman was formerly +sacrificed and the genital organs cut out and laid in +the sacred pot, which contains the ‘medicine’ of the +cult. Since the coming of Government it has naturally +become increasingly difficult to obtain this necessary +ingredient, and it was a matter of grave anxiety on +the part of the priest lest the power of the Juju +should decrease in consequence.</p> + +<p>Amidst some of the eastern Ibo sub-tribes and the +northern Semi-Bantu, the ancestors are represented +by small clay pillars or mounds, clay balls or round +or pointed stones, before which sacrifices are made +and prayers offered for the granting of fertility, +especially at the two great festivals of the year, the +planting of farms and the harvest.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span></p> + +<p>In those parts of the country where rock is available, +<i>i.e.</i> among the northern Yoruba and Semi-Bantu, +many stone monoliths may be found, some of which are +unmistakably phallic, while others are used not only +for this worship but also as ancestral memorials. +In fact, the two cults are inexplicably mixed, as +is natural when it is remembered that amongst these +peoples fruitfulness is, to a large extent, attributed +to the forefathers. Some of these memorials date back +many hundreds of years; a fuller description will be +found in Chapter XVII, vol. ii, of <i>The Peoples of +Southern Nigeria</i>.</p> + +<p>In the club-houses of the great Ekkpe secret society +the sacrifices are made before a phallic monolith, +which represents the former members of the club as +also the tutelary deity, while in, or near, its base +are generally placed rounded pebbles, the symbol of +the Earth Goddess. A similar monolith is worshipped +amongst many of the Bantu and Bafumbum-Bansaw as a +representation of the supreme deity.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig034" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig034.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 34.</span> Eku at Umo Abale + quarter of Omo Dioga + </figcaption> +</figure> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span></p> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VII"> + VII + <br><span class="sm"> + EKU + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>All over the western part of the District a strange +rite still obtains which is obviously only another +manifestation of the phallic cult. As there are +local differences it will be necessary to describe +separately the peculiarities of each centre.</p> + +<p>By the roadside near Umo Abale, a quarter of Omo +Dioga, half hidden amid grass and creepers, we +came across a crowd of figures formed of sun-baked +clay, cone-shaped and painted black. Further on, in +front of almost each compound, smaller groups were +to be seen, usually arranged at the base of some +Juju tree, or round a sapling of the sacred Ogrisi +(<i>Dolichandrone</i> sp.). In several cases circular +moulds of baked clay, much like an old-fashioned +spittoon in shape, lay nearby. It was explained +that upon these the girls of each compound, after +undergoing the initiatory ceremonies preparatory to +marriage, set the food cooked as an offering to the +Eku, as the phallic figures are called. This word is +also used to designate the cones of baked clay used to +support cooking-pots. Should any girl, after arriving +at the age of puberty and being inducted into the +feminine mysteries, neglect to set up such an image +each year, about the time of making new farms, until +she becomes a member of her husband’s house, no babes +would bless their <span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span>union. In one or two cases a +slight amount of decoration, formed by lines drawn +with the fingers in the soft clay, has been added; +while here and there an attempt was made to surmount +the cone by what was explained as a representation of +the high head-dress only allowed to Ibo women after +the birth of a babe. Mostly, however, the images +showed nothing more or less than a simple attempt at +depicting the phallus.</p> + +<p>About a month later, at the house of Chief Ugwa in +the Oturu quarter of Akpani, Eku of a still simpler +type were found, together with clay pot-rests of much +the same shape as those already described; while just +outside, in the bush by the roadside, we came upon +some thirty or more phallic figures, the tallest and +frankest yet seen. Some stood on circular, some on +rectangular, bases; but on each the membrum virile was +modelled with especial care.</p> + +<p>It was explained that every year, when making the +more elaborate pillars, each betrothed girl fashions +several of the plainer type, a foot to a foot and a +half in height. These are said to be used as ‘strong +Juju on which to swear people.’⁠<a id="FNanchor_17_17" href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Three of these are +borne by each maid to her bridegroom’s compound, there +to be presented to the chief woman of the family, by +whom they are set together to support the pot in which +food is cooked for the future husband. When ready, +this is poured into a native bowl and placed upon the +clay ring. After marriage, the bride comes to the new +home and herself cooks her husband’s <span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>meals upon the +same three pillars prepared by her own hands.</p> + +<p>It is not without significance that the trinity of +cone-shaped pillars, with cup-like depressions, raised +before the Kalahari Nduen Fobara (ancestral shrines), +into which libations to the forefathers are poured +every eighth day, are of almost identical type. At +Oru-Sangama, an ancient town on a creek leading into +the San Bartholomeo River, we came across two of these +small cones modelled within a circle, also of clay, +beneath the palm-leaf roof of a tiny hut. So like were +these to the Eku emblems that we took for granted that +the little shrine was but another dwelling-place of +one of the manifold representations of Ibudu Omumu, +<i>i.e.</i> the Ibudu of fertility. Long sojourn in +Africa should, however, teach caution even to the most +careless enquirer, and we therefore, as always, took +the precaution to keep our ideas to ourselves and +asked the significance of the symbol. As a result we +were told that they represented the Nduen Fobara of a +neighbouring house. Our informant added:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Some men make three, some two, small pillars for the +pouring out of libations to the spirits of their dead. +Some again make only one such emblem for the reception +of drink offerings. Here no carved images are shown as +is usual in rich Kalahari towns; the cones themselves +represent the ancestors, except in the case of men of +distinction.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Considering the peculiar powers thought by many tribes +to attach to the phalli of the dead, especially those +of warriors or others who excelled in strength or +power, as also the Egyptian legend of the birth of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>Horus—that seed of life, snatched by the widowed +Isis from Death himself—it is perhaps not too far +fetched an idea to imagine that the likeness of symbol +was intended to signify a connection between the +physical body of the new-born and the astral shape +or ethereal mould, supplied in most cases according +to general belief from the ghost realm, where the +ancestral shades await reincarnation—by preference in +the bodies of those about to be born to the family to +which they themselves formerly belonged.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig035" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig035.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 35.</span> Pillars, carved + tusks, and bronze torques. Kalabari Shrine of + Awome-Ka-So + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Sir James Frazer, in his wonderful <i>Golden +Bough</i>, tells of sacrificial victims whose phalli +were beaten with twigs—not out of cruelty, but with +the idea of increasing the powers of virility. Among +the Ekkett Ibibio sacred boughs are drawn over the +pudenda of warriors while parts are even cut off and +buried secretly by the marriage bed, in the byre +or on the farm. In this connection it is perhaps +worth mentioning that one of the most dreaded of +West African tortures, employed upon captives of +distinction, was the continued flagellation of the +phalli.</p> + +<p>Chief Igo, of Omo Nelu, gave the following information:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>We start to make the Eki—as they are locally +called—at the time of cutting the undergrowth for the +new farms. Then, when we have carried out the images +and set them up by the roadside, we begin clearing +away the top branches. The ornamented pot-rests are +used for cooking chop for the Eki.</p> + +<p>Chief Chuku’s quarter cooks for two weeks (<i>i.e.</i> +sixteen days). Amadi’s and my quarter cook for +thirty days. It is the young girls who make these +things—both the cooking ones and the others. For +twenty-five days we hold the first <span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>festival, that of +the low round Eki, which we call Eki Mother. Every +evening at about five o’clock time the girls cook. On +the twenty-fifth day each girl starts making one of +the high Eki, Ada Eki (eldest daughter of Eki), which +is worshipped for five days before carrying it out. +When my father was alive, the ceremony always started +in his compound; for he was the head chief. After +he had made festival for eight days, all the other +compounds joined in and continued till thirty days +were finished. Then all men took notice and said: ‘It +is now time to start the new farms.’</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp97" id="fig036" style="max-width: 35em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig036.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 36.</span> Patterns of the low + Eki + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>With us also the young girls go and get ant hill earth +before they make the Eki, but they do not use it for +these, only keep it in their houses for three months +and afterwards take it with them to the market-place, +where they dance and play round it and then finally +throw it away.</p> + +<p>Egu ’Nde ’Nwayin is a woman’s festival held at the +time of digging new yams. It was my father, the priest +of Ale, who set the time for this ceremony also. At +this time the women dress very finely, wearing many +beads round their ankles.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span></p> + +<p>On another occasion, just after leaving Ndelle en +route for Rumoji, we found, by the side of a bush-path +beneath the spreading branches of a Berlinia, a hut, +the long, low, palm-leaf roof of which was covered +with the fragrant white-petalled flowers showered +down from above. Under this shelter was a platform of +clay some twenty feet in length, carefully smoothed +and with gaily coloured plates set at intervals along +its edge. Upon this a double row of strangely-shaped +finely-decorated figures were to be seen, formed of +sun-dried clay, much in the style of the Eku already +mentioned, but far more elaborately modelled and +painted. On the bright yellow clay, ridges and lines +of shining black, vivid blue and white were to be +seen, while each was surmounted with an attempt to +represent the elaborate styles of coiffure affected by +girls of marriageable age.</p> + +<p>Each had been brought thither by a maiden of the +neighbourhood after undergoing initiatory rites in +company with her ‘age class.’ The ceremonies are +conducted in places set apart, under the leadership +of elderly women of the town. The time chosen is +after the planting of new farms when the seeds first +germinate. At this season all little maids who have +reached, or are approaching, the age of puberty—for +the ‘age class’ includes those born within three years +of one another—come together to be instructed, by +matrons chosen for the purpose, in all that it is +thought necessary for them to know as a preparation +for marriage. Later, the neophytes return to their +parents’ house and there model the figures shown <span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>in +the photograph. When all are ready they go, together +with their instructress and a band of relatives, each +bearing one of the Eku upon her head in procession +to the spot chosen by priest or instructress. Here a +platform of clay, decorated with insets of plates, +pieces of looking-glass, etc., has already been +prepared. The celebrants in turn place thereon the +queerly shaped image which is supposed to be necessary +in order to draw down upon the girl, who offers it, +the blessing of fertility.</p> + +<p>Beside those newly initiated, older maidens, to whom +the mysteries have formerly been revealed but who are +as yet unwedded, also take part in the rite, bearing +a fresh Eku in the procession, year after year until +the whole, or at any rate the main part, of the dowry +has been paid, and they leave their parents’ house for +that of a husband. The elder girls offer images often +over a yard in height, while the new initiates bring +smaller ones, proportionate to their size.</p> + +<p>At a little distance from the places set apart for the +principal images, fish racks may occasionally be seen +by the roadside and on, or between them, the smallest +figures of all are to be found. These are said to +represent ‘the slaves of the Eku.’ Each girl, after +modelling her own symbol, makes at least one such +little attendant, so that her image may be well served.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig037" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig037.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 37.</span> Group of Eku, near + ’Ndelle + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Near Ndelle waterside a somewhat different arrangement +obtains. In front of the long line of Eku, a separate +group may usually be found set round a sapling of the +sacred Ogrisi tree. The central figure is dedicated to +the principal girl of the town, while <span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>the smaller +ones grouped round her represent her attendants. Near +the centre, springing out of the clay base, was a +small sprig of the bush which Ale brought with her +when she first formed the earth.</p> + +<p>At the same time of year, when the seed corn and yams +lie awaiting rebirth in the womb of the Earth Mother, +the unmarried girls of Elele carry out a ritual +similar in many respects but with certain points of +difference. Here the images are modelled from clay +supplied not by the parents, as is usual in other +parts, but by the bridegroom. These must be rubbed +and smoothed for seven days and each is surmounted +by a head, the coiffure of which is carefully copied +from that of the girl herself. Every evening, food +offerings are carried to the place where the Eki are +set up, while the girls dance and sing before them. +The bridegroom must provide from sixty to a hundred +Awarawu manillas during this time, which are accepted +by the parents as part of the dowry.</p> + +<p>Often these strange images are modelled with breasts +in addition to the male emblem. Is it an unwarrantable +assumption to think that this may possibly be intended +as a primitive attempt at picturing the ideal +marriage, in which male and female attributes play +equal parts? This peculiarity is not confined to the +Eku but is even more marked in many Ibudu, as for +instance the one already mentioned at the Umo Alipo +compound, Omo Chuku (see <a href="#Page_66">p. 66</a>).</p> + +<p>Some time after all the Eki have been set up in the +farms, compounds and bush round Elele, preparations +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span>are made for the carrying out of a further ceremony, +called Nwan Aja, <i>i.e.</i> Child of the Earth, +which is said to be closely related to the festival +already described. For this, the unmarried girls +of Elele go out to the bush and search round until +each has found one of the great mounds thrown up by +termites. ‘With the help of relatives she digs down +into this until she comes to the heart of the cave, +named in our speech Wekwe Eruru.’ The floor of this +looks like a mountain range in miniature. Breathless +with excitement, the little maid counts the number of +peaks; for just as many as there are of these, so many +babes she will bear. With infinite pains, that not +one may be broken off, she cuts round, then lifts the +flat, roughly circular mass to her head and carries +it home. This is a time of great anxiety; for, should +any part break away during the process, the number of +fallen points denotes—alas!—the still-born babes +which fate will send her.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig038" style="max-width: 30em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig038.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 38.</span> The Wekwe Eruru + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>In some places all the girls of the quarter join +together to seek out an ant hill and dig up the part +in which <span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>dwells the queen ant. ‘One of their number +is appointed to carry this thing, which is then borne +back to the town and set down on the road near some +of the principal compounds. All stand watching to see +in what direction the ants will go; for the way they +take points out the compound in which the girls are +to live until the time of the new yam harvest. There +they must stay in seclusion, grinding cam-wood and +preparing for the approaching festival. Thither their +future husbands come bringing palm-wine, yams and +fish, together with six Awarawu manillas as dash for +the owner of the compound.’</p> + +<p>From many indications we had long suspected that +the magic powers of the ant hill proceeded, in part +at least, from its phallic resemblance. This was +borne out by the number of Ibudu shrines, avowedly +raised for the increase of children, before which +these curious structures, known in these parts as +‘Bush-men,’ were found. In several, one of these +lesser ant hills had been set up amid the special +‘servants of the Juju’ modelled on either hand of the +principal image. Such an one is to be seen in the +shrine of Ezum Mezum, erected within the compound of +the Aro chief Ogunda of Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. On +each side of the pillar stand her ‘servants.’ The +nearest, a conventionalised phallic pillar surmounted +by a head and with a little doorway in its tower-like +base, through which one of the small elongated chalk +cones—offered by every woman of the compound after +conception—is seen, half in and half out, so as to +appear in the act of entering. Next to this, but +further from the image, <span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>is a natural ant hill, daubed +with paint, against which leaned several of the lesser +symbols.</p> + +<p>These chalk cones or images, though more roughly +moulded, bear considerable resemblance to those +carefully modelled in clay and suspended over their +father’s shrine by each ‘true daughter’ of an Ibibio +chief in the Mkpokk region to show that they were the +legitimate offspring of the dead man, not of slaves, +or of ‘widows’ born to the house, of whom he was only +titular parent.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp87" id="fig039" style="max-width: 30em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig039.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 39.</span> The ‘Servants of Ezum + Mezum’ + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>At the end of their period of seclusion in Nwan Aja’s +compound, the girls of Elele put on new cloths and gay +ornaments, then sally forth to market (Eke Oma). This +is a sign that the play is ended for the time.</p> + +<p>Every other year a special play is given. According to +Mr. D. Braid:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>‘This cannot be carried out more often, on account of +the great expense incurred therein by the bridegroom. +The name of this play is Ajiji’—in <span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>some places Adidi +or Adadi—‘and it is one of the best of all plays for +girls and ladies. It looks grand whenever they start +same. They dress with brass ornaments, corals, etc., +on their feet, all which expenses are run by the +husbands, with the exception of the anklets for one +foot which the parents are expected to provide. The +brass ornaments are prepared by the blacksmiths, from +nine Awarawu manillas for growing up ladies and four +to five for younger girls. All go in procession round +the town until they come to a place in the Omuneta +quarter called Ebu, where there is a great tree in +which dwells a certain powerful Juju. Here fowls are +sacrificed and cut in such a manner that blood falls +upon the feet of each girl. After this has been done, +they sing all kinds of songs, dancing with great +gladness for some hours.’</p> + +<p>Both on the way there and back those girls who are +about to marry rich men are carried in decorated +chairs, with a canopy fastened above them. Bearers +are hired for this service by the future husbands. +During the Ajiji ceremony many ghosts flock into the +town. In olden days, these would strike the girls as +they were borne by; because spirits are jealous of any +mortal whose feet are not set upon the ground. A bride +thus struck always sickens and usually dies within +the year. That is the reason why, nowadays, each girl +holds a picture before her, so that the ghosts may +strike at this and let her go by unharmed.</p> + +<p>On reaching home a feast is given by the parents +and next morning all the girls take chop to the +husbands’ place. This food is distributed to all in +his compound, together with rewards of money. The +bridegroom is expected to do the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>same in return and +all the expenses incurred by him at this time are +counted as dowry. The play generally lasts for seven +Ekes, <i>i.e.</i> about two months.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In October 1916, just outside Elele, on the Nkarahia +road, a group of specially interesting symbolic +images was found. It consisted in roughly modelled +male and female figures, arranged in pairs and lying +outstretched at the base of a great cotton tree +(Akpu). The bays, formed by its buttress-like roots, +were separated from one another by giant snakes +moulded in clay, which, arranged in irregular loops, +usually with the tail of one against the tail of the +other, served to fence off the sacred enclosure from +the wayside. Within the various bays thus formed +smaller serpents twined and twisted, often placed +between the male and female figures. In one case the +phallic serpent was shown in the act of entering the +body of a woman.</p> + +<p>Dotted over the slope, forked sticks were seen driven +into the ground or raised on little clay mounds. +From these depended strings of great snail shells +(<i>Acatina marginata</i>) or empty fish racks, in +shape much like the head of a Badminton racquet.</p> + +<p>This group, the name of which was given as Akpu Ogbe +Ajiji, had been modelled by maidens of marriageable +age belonging to Chief Woyike’s compound as an +additional means of increasing fertility.</p> + + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig040" style="max-width: 20.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig040.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 40.</span> Clay figures at base + of cotton tree near Elele + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<div class="column2"><figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig041" style="max-width: 20.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig041.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 41.</span> Figures at base of + cotton tree near Elele<br> + + <i>See p. <a href="#Page_94">94</a></i> + </figcaption> +</figure></div> + +<p class="clear">Just beyond Elele Aliminni, on the Ndelle road, a +great tree may be found to the Genius of which the +unmarried girls of the neighbourhood go and pray +during the Ajiji—locally called Adidi—ceremony. +Three circular clay steps are built, one above the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> +other, round the base of the tree and reaching +about four feet up its trunk, forming a rough altar +upon which piles of <i>Acatina marginata</i> shells +and empty fish racks (Paka Eji) were laid. A few yards +further, in front of the compound of Chief Ofonda, a +large terminal bud of the banana flower-spike, pierced +with four slivers of wood was set up on a tall palm +stalk. This bud is called Eni Awsoku, <i>i.e.</i> +navel of plantain or banana. It is natural enough that +these two trees should bear special significance in +the fertility rites. The combination of phallic-shaped +fruit and terminal bud with its oval form offers an +obvious symbol of the male and female reproductive +organs.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig042" style="max-width: 25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig042.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 42.</span> The Eni Awsoku + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>After building the Adidi altar and setting up Eni +Awsoku, the celebrants go in procession round the +town, their faces rubbed with chalk of a pale café au +lait shade and their hair covered with bright yellow +paste. From a distance this colouring gives them a +curiously European look. At the back, hanging round +the waist, they wear a kind of apron of large glass +beads, arranged in alternate squares, usually green +and brown in colour, the whole fringed with little +brass balls.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span></p> + +<p>After a girl has been given in marriage and has gone +to live with her husband, she may never again take +part in the Ajiji play. At the end of the series of +Eku ceremonies, which last, roughly speaking, from the +ending of farm planting to harvest time, the whole +town of Elele goes to Chief Eleche’s compound for the +feast of new yams which is held in honour of the great +Juju Aya-Eke. On this occasion every man, woman and +child bears a gift to the priest. Even little babes, +too small to stand alone, are borne before him. The +mothers press a gift into the tiny hands and then hold +them out towards the chief that not even the smallest +should fail to make offering.</p> + +<p>The name Ajiji, given by Ibo to the greatest play +in the series, would seem to be derived from Aja +(sacrifice), which is also in some parts the name of +the Earth Goddess herself, and Ji (yam).</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VIII"> + VIII + <br><span class="sm"> + THE YAM CULT + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>At the cutting of new farms most Ibo chiefs make +sacrifice to Ale and again before harvest. Beside +offerings to her, some should also be made to the +Ajokko-Ji⁠<a id="FNanchor_18_18" href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> or Njokkoji—the king (or Juju) yam, the +biggest one of all the crop in which the yam spirit is +thought to take up its abode. This is always set aside +from one season to another, and when bird or beast +is slain in sacrifice to the Genius of the farm, the +blood is thrown upon the Ajokko-Ji.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Should a man find that he has more yams one year than +in the seasons before, he brings the richest sacrifice +in his power and offers it in thanks to the Farm +Spirit for giving increase and doing good to him. +The word Ajokko means Juju, but it is also used with +the signification of ‘great’ and ‘mighty.’ This king +yam, as it is sometimes called, is kept throughout +the whole year until next harvest comes round. +Either fowls’ or goats’ blood should be poured out +in libation upon it. Formerly a spirit dwelt within, +which protected all the yam racks in the farm. Now, +owing to the dying out of such beliefs, people are not +afraid to steal from these. In olden days they never +dared to do such a thing for dread of the yam Juju.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>While visiting Oppe, a farm settlement just outside +Alessa, we were shown a ‘strong Juju’ connected <span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>with +the worship of Nkike, the Mbolli Earth Goddess. This +was formed from a collection of skulls, yams and other +roots, bound round with tie-tie into the form of a +gigantic yam and then attached to a stout stake, the +end of which was sharply pointed for driving into the +ground. This symbol was said to take, for the Mbolli, +the place of the giant Ajokko-Ji to which Ibo offer +sacrifice.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig043" style="max-width: 30em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig043.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 43.</span> Ife Ja Okko or Ife + Ajokko at Ogu + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>A more elaborate substitute was found at Ogu on the +Niger—a town occupied by a sub-tribe of Ibo, allied +to those of Onitsha. There, in the house of one of the +secondary chiefs, a row of small pots was seen, set +in the clay floor, along one side of the verandah. +These were explained as the Ife Ajokko—called Ife +Ja Okko by some—which for this tribe take the place +of the Ajokko-Ji. There were nine pots of different +shape; the number was explained by saying that, as +each chief succeeded to the headship of the house, a +new Ife <span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>Ajokko was made. Eight, therefore, were those +belonging to the ancestors.</p> + +<p>Among Mbolli the phallic pillars are of a peculiar +type mostly carved from wooden blocks instead of being +built in clay. Of these, the one in the Juju house at +Obudu may be taken as typical. Such bear the name Obo +Esa—the four hundred yams—and are specially raised +as a means of increasing the crops.</p> + +<p>When a fresh farm is cut, a special ceremony is +carried out to induce the yam spirit to transfer +its abode from the old farm to the new. The basket +in which the great yam is contained, or post to +which it is bound, is usually kept near a sapling +of the tree which over the greater part of the West +Coast is regarded as most sacred of all. This is a +variety of Dolichandrone—strangely named considering +the functions ascribed to it by natives—called by +Kalahari Odumdum and by Ibo Ogrisi.</p> + +<p>Among Ekoi, Efik and Ibibio, this beautiful tree with +its glossy imparipinnate leaves and great clusters of +pinkish-mauve flowers, is known as ‘The Mother of the +Town,’ and a sapling of it is planted in nearly every +compound. The finest specimen ever seen by us was +found in one of the town playgrounds at Ikotobo in the +Eket District.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Within the hollow trunk stood native pots filled with +offerings, for to it come wives, young and old, to +pray that ‘plenty piccans’ may be sent to bless their +hearths. Hither, too, come ancient women to beg a like +boon for their children and grandchildren. Should +lightning shiver the ancient <span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>trunk or tornado strike +it down, loud would be the wailing of those who had +grown up beneath its shadow.⁠<a id="FNanchor_19_19" href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>⁠</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>It is unusual that trees of this species grow to such +a size; yet very few compounds in the Ibo country +are without a sturdy sapling, for not only its +fertility-bestowing but also its purificatory powers +are held in the utmost reverence. Should a Kalabari +woman meet with vexation which causes her to shed +tears while cooking her husband’s food, it is thought +that this will have ill results upon him unless, +before serving it, she plucks some of the sacred +leaves, draws them over her body and then strikes them +upon the ground round about, that the evil effect of +her tears may be negatived and her husband not suffer +therefrom.</p> + +<p>Not only is the Ajokko-Ji usually kept beneath the +shelter of these sacred boughs, unless confided to +the care of the ghosts in some ancestral shrine, +but the Ogrisi itself becomes a symbol of the yam +spirit. It was principally in this capacity, as +emblem of the chief crop of the year, that at the +death of each chief important enough to own an Obiri +(reception room)—<i>i.e.</i> every head of a family +of standing—a slave was killed as a sacrifice to the +sacred tree.</p> + +<p>Such unfortunate members of the community were well +fed for several days, during which everything was +done to cause them to be of good cheer and in perfect +condition. Then they were robed in gay apparel and led +forth to the sacred tree, where their throats were cut +in such a manner that the blood flowed to the ground, +fertilising the earth about its <span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>roots. No portion of +such victims was ever eaten; their bodies were buried +near by that thus Mother Ale might be enriched and +induced to grant plentiful crops to those who brought +her the offering.</p> + +<p>The following information concerning the great Elele +yam cult, Aya-Eke, was gleaned from Mr. D. Braid, for +several years Native Court clerk of this town:</p> + +<p>The compound where the Juju is kept is called +Omo-Kpurukpu and there, from election until death—at +most seven years later, even should the full term of +office be completed—the priest dwells, carefully +guarded by all his people and never crossing the +threshold unless called forth by some grave emergency. +The reason for this restriction is that up to a few +years ago any man who succeeded in killing the holder +of this office would reign in his stead.</p> + +<p>The whole prosperity of the town, especially the +fruitfulness of farm, byre and marriage bed, was +linked with his life. Should he fall sick, it entailed +famine and grave disaster upon the inhabitants, and +there is reason to believe that, in such a case, +facilities were offered to a successor. Under no +circumstances did the term of office last for more +than seven full years. This prohibition still holds; +but since the coming of Government it is said that +another of the same family, who must always be a +strong man, may be chosen to take up the position +in his stead. No sooner is a successor appointed, +however, than the former priest is reported to ‘die +for himself.’ It was frankly owned that, before +Government came—<i>i.e.</i> some dozen years +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>ago—things were arranged differently in that, at any +time during his seven years’ term, the priest might be +put to death by one strong and resourceful enough to +overcome him.</p> + +<p>In answer to the question as to whether, in view of +the fate known to follow after so short a period, it +was not difficult to find men willing to succeed to +the office on such terms, Mr. Braid answered in a +somewhat surprised tone: ‘Oh, no! Many wish for the +post, because so much wealth is brought them at the +annual festival that they become very rich—past all +others in the town.’</p> + +<p>Our informant also stated that, during his own term of +office, Chief Eleche has only once been known to pass +beyond the compound walls. The occasion was as follows:</p> + +<p>A fellow townsman accused him of making a Juju to kill +the complainant. The case came into court and, all +unconscious of the excitement which such a proceeding +must cause, the chief was bidden to attend and answer +the charge. He arrived, accompanied by nearly all the +townsfolk, who not only filled the courtyard, which +is a very large enclosed space, but thronged the +market-place outside. They came, in a state of great +anxiety, to watch over the sacred priest and guard +him, so far as in them lay, from any misfortune the +effects of which, it was believed, would at once react +on all the countryside.</p> + +<p>Doubtless Mr. Braid would have been less ready +to impart information of this nature, had it not +been that he was about to leave the place, in all +probability never <span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>to return, and had therefore +nothing to fear from the townspeople. So soon as other +official work allowed, I returned to Elele to adjust +some difficulties which had meantime arisen, and also +with the hope of gleaning further knowledge concerning +Aya-Eke and its priest.</p> + +<p>First I looked up the case in the course of which +Eleche was summoned to appear. This was recorded under +No. 353 and was heard on 7th December, 1914. It runs, +in substance, as follows:</p> + +<p>Yenanu, the plaintiff, stated on oath:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>About two years ago I fell sick and the native doctors +told me that people of my compound were trying to kill +me. I therefore called a family meeting, in which +the big men decided that Juju should be sworn for +me. Eleche performed the ceremony, calling upon the +Juju to slay anyone guilty of trying to bring about +my death before new corn time. If this happened, +they agreed to pay me four hundred manillas, four +demi-johns of tombo, a basket of yams and a bottle +of gin. Should no one die, it would prove that the +accusation was untrue and I myself must pay the like +amount in compensation for bringing a false charge. +The time fixed upon had not expired when one of the +men died, but I did not ask for payment.</p> + +<p>Nine months after swearing Juju, the accused called +me at Oka’s compound and informed me that it was now +young corn time; yet no one had died, therefore I must +pay the amount agreed upon. This I refused to do since +one of them had been slain by the Juju. Then they +conspired together and gave orders that I should be +killed; also they put Juju in my well to prevent me +and my people from getting water. Certain Jujus were +also hung on the road to my farm by Eleche and Okuku. +On this I went to Chief <span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>Chioma and related the whole +matter. He advised me not to eat any yams from the +farm near which the Juju was placed. After this they +ordered me to clean a portion of the road, but seeing +that they were seeking to kill me I refused and went +to work with Chief Chioma’s people. After the road +was finished, I was called before a meeting at Woda’s +house, where they ordered me to break down my compound +and take all my properties to Chioma’s quarter.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Oluene, witness for plaintiff, stated on oath:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>I was present at the family meeting when the accused +consulted together and made a rule that anyone who +saw Yenanu should kill him; nor did any of our people +allow him to take fire, etc., from their houses.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The case was dismissed, but the complainant died soon +after. Next Eke day, Eleche, wearing his Juju hat +trimmed with seven eagle’s feathers and the tail of +a parrot, sallied forth, followed by all his people, +to hold a progress throughout the town, while his +attendants triumphantly proclaimed that Aya-Eke had +slain the man who dared to summon her priest before +mortal tribune.</p> + +<p>On arrival at Elele our next step was to seek further +information from the head men of the town, when these +came to salute us. At first, the result was distinctly +disappointing. No one had ever heard of the Juju or +its priest! In fact, on the authority of all the +principal inhabitants, no institution even remotely +resembling Aya-Eke existed in the neighbourhood. Only +after the case above quoted was shown to them did a +light dawn upon the chiefs. Ah yes, they said, in very +ancient days they believed there was some such <span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span>Juju +in their town, but the memory of it had long since +died away. As for Eleche, now they came to think of +it, the priesthood had been in his family and possibly +even he might hold that the office had descended +to him. Since Government came to their country +however—this with the most ingratiating smile—people +had no use for such old superstitions, which had +therefore fallen into utter neglect and forgetfulness. +It was eagerly stated that there were other customs +in their town much more worthy of the notice of the +District Commissioner—for instance, Odo’s Juju, +the head priest of which was immediately found and +brought forward. It would indeed be a pity, they added +deferentially, should our time be wasted in enquiries +into matters of so little account as those with which +Eleche was concerned.</p> + +<p>It was quite obvious that one and all were anxious to +prevent further investigations and the result of the +interview was naturally to send us hot-foot to the +Omo-Kpurukpu quarter of the town, which is separated +from the main section by some half mile of road. +Here, in a house formed of elaborately carved wooden +panels—to the best of my belief the only dwelling +of its kind throughout the whole Division—lived the +priest-king Eleche. Before the house stood a rude +figure, formed of a stout post bound round with cloth, +crowned with a cap and with two sticks extending +arm-wise at right angles from near the top. This +represented the late priest Eyinda, a brother of the +present holder of the dignity, said to have died about +two years ago.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span></p> + +<p>Eleche himself wore a similar hat of office, its crown +bound with a strip of white cloth, into which the +seven emblematic eagle’s feathers and the parrot’s +tail were fastened. He explained that he could not yet +wear the full Juju dress of white baft, because he was +not entitled to don this until after the third year of +his priesthood, which period would not be ended before +next harvest. His predecessors in the office, so far +as his personal recollection went, had been named +Eyinda, Omeneyin, Wana and Azunda. He himself had been +a small boy when Azunda died. ‘These,’ said he, ‘were +great men of our house. Now of them all I alone am +left to carry out the rites of the Juju, which is so +powerful that death falls upon every man who offends +against its laws.’</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>The rule of this Juju is very good, much like the +law of the white men. By it, it is decreed, that no +fighting or quarrelling, no seizure of property—above +all, no shedding of blood—may take place upon Eke +day.⁠<a id="FNanchor_20_20" href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> No priest of Aya-Eke may eat of the new +season’s yams. All the harvest must be garnered and +the festival held. Then, though others may eat, I may +not until all the new farms have been cut and planted. +Only when the last of the seed yams has been laid in +the ground do the people bring me those which yet +remain over in the yam racks. These I eat, calling +the first of them ‘my new season’s yam’ though, in +reality, it was garnered at the last harvest about +seven moons before.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Our visit chanced to be paid at the beginning of +April, and Eleche told us that nine days earlier he +had eaten his first yam of the year.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>‘All the people of Elele bring offerings to me,’ he +said. ‘When the yams finish they bring plantains and +I begin to chop those. Also they bring me much tombo. +It is a very strong law of the Juju that no yams, +save such as are old enough to plant, may be eaten by +a priest of Aya-Eke. None has ever broken this rule; +for, should it be disobeyed, the seed yams would die +in the ground, bearing no increase. All the great men +of our family have kept the law faithfully. Now no +more big men are left in our house; but I, though but +a small boy in comparison with those powerful ones, +also hold to this rule.’</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Hereupon one of our party asked if he himself had +power to appoint a successor, or in what way one was +chosen. No sooner was the word ‘successor’ uttered +than Eleche raised his arms over his head twice as +though to ward off threatened danger, while his head +wife, who kept close to him throughout, shrugged her +shoulders violently over and over again, repeating in +an agitated voice: ‘Mba! Mba! Che! Che!’ (Let it not +be! Let it not be!) Meanwhile the crowd of retainers +took up the cry, low but angry, like the rumble of +distant thunder, waving hands outward as if to drive +off the ill-effects of such ominous speech. Eleche +answered excitedly, the words tumbling over one +another in his agitation:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>‘No successor is needed; for I shall never die! It +is forbidden even to mention such a word! In the +beginning of things, when I came out of the world, it +was arranged that I should not be as other men but +should live very long—looking after my people and +bringing them prosperity. The fate of common men is +not for me!’ Thereupon, like a Greek chorus, came the +response of the crowd: ‘Oda! Oda! (Forbid it! Forbid +it!)’</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span></p> + +<p>The head wife, who had seated herself so soon as her +husband did so, although all the others remained +standing at a respectful distance, was a youngish +woman evidently holding a position of more than usual +importance. Later, we learned that it was customary +for this head wife to die ‘about the same time as her +husband’; but all attempts to extract more definite +information were met with professions of ignorance.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp55" id="fig044" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig044.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 44.</span> Chief Eleche with his + head wife, standing by memorial pillar of the late + Head Priest of Aya-Eke + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>The most important ceremonies of the cult are held +at the time of the new yam harvest, when a great +sacrifice is made and, as already mentioned, every +man, woman and child of Elele brings a gift to the +house of the priest. Before leaving, we asked whether +no other rites were observed in honour of Aya-Eke +and were told that early in May, <i>i.e.</i> at the +beginning of the rainy season, all the inhabitants +gathered to witness a wrestling match held in the +open space before Eleche’s house. This is continued +on every big Eke day, <i>i.e.</i> each eighth day, +for about three months until the new yam festival, +during which the feast of the ancestral spirits is +also celebrated. Later, all go to Chief Woyike’s +compound in the Omopo quarter and there wrestle in +honour of the new corn Juju, Mbara (Lord of the Town), +of which he is priest. After his festival is over, all +wrestling finishes for the year.</p> + +<p>No sooner had we learned this than we set out for the +new shrine. Here, at the opposite extremity of the +town, lies the compound known as Obakere, inhabited by +Woyike, priest of the rival Juju. The chief received +us with simple friendliness and seemed <span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>willing for +a visit to his shrine. Nor, after the first shyness +had worn off, did he show any reluctance to speak of +the Juju, concerning which a few carefully-careless +questions brought out the following information:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>When the wrestling at Eleche’s is finished, all men +come here to witness mine; after which the whole town +must cease from such contests, which may not be held +again till the next season comes round. We think that +this ceremony will help the crops to grow strong, +overcoming evil influences and bearing much increase. +The reason why the wrestling is held first at Eleche’s +place and then mine, is that his Juju Aya-Eke is wife +to my Juju ’Mbara. The first is feminine and looks +after the yams; mine is male, the spirit of corn. When +the first green shoot pushes through the soil, I make +ready and, on the coming of the young cobs, my Juju +proclaims a four months’ peace. During this time no +one may fight with another nor seize any person or +property. Should a man offend against this rule six +manillas and a goat must be paid to revoke the Juju +for him, otherwise he would die.</p> + +<p>When the time comes round, I go forth and announce +that if anyone does anything to annoy the Juju I +will not allow him to take part in my ceremony. To +me no gifts are brought like those borne every year +to Eleche; but when the season comes round I make a +great feast for the people, giving them much food and +palm-wine in abundance.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The priest was old and somewhat worn-looking. Round +his shrunken ankles were bound little bones, pierced +through at either end and fastened by black cord in +three rows. These, he said, were a powerful medicine +to keep off rheumatics and other ills which beset the +aged, but had nothing to do with his Juju.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span></p> + +<p>‘How indeed could such a thing be possible,’ he +queried,</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>since ’Mbara is a male Juju and the bones are those +of Tortoise, who, as is well known, is proper only to +feminine cults? By the place where I usually sit a +tortoise was impaled years ago for protection; then, +when it was decayed enough, I took the little bones +out from the shell and, after they had been cleaned, +strung them into these anklets, as you see. There +are three Ale shrines in our town, by each of which +Tortoise is impaled. Also before the shrine of Aya-Eke +a shell may naturally be seen.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Towards the middle of May we found ourselves back +again in Elele and enquiries brought out the fact that +the first wrestling of Aya-Eke was to be held about +noon on the morrow. The hour seemed a strange one to +choose for such a purpose, under a tropical sun; but +before mid-day drums began to beat in the distance, +summoning the people with the unmistakable rhythm only +used for such occasions. So soon therefore as court +was over, we set out to follow the call.</p> + +<p>It was 15th May and a day of blazing sunshine; yet +crowds had already collected and sat, the elect in a +circle many deep round the compound, while the rest +almost blocked the road along its front. Three sets +of drums were playing; first Eleche’s household band, +secondly one supplied by a neighbouring quarter, and +thirdly, just before the shrine, that which bore the +proud name of ‘The Juju’s Own.’ This consisted of six +drums, three tall and upright, three long and oval.</p> + +<p>Opposite the door of the principal shrine a little +group of offerings was to be seen, backed by the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span>branched sticks of the Thunder God. Questioned as to +this, Eleche said:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Amade Onhia is kin to my Juju. In many towns the +biggest Jujus have the habit of sending to request him +to come and stay by them. Aya-Eke did this and ordered +that his shrine should be placed opposite to her own, +saying that when ceremonies were made in her honour +they should be performed for him also. On being asked +as to when the wrestling would begin, Eleche answered, +with true African placidity, that this depended upon +the arrival of the combatants, who would probably +not appear until the sun sank lower in the heavens. +He explained that he had told us the play began at +mid-day, because by ancient custom the summoning drums +must start at that time.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Now, according to widespread West Coast belief, noon +and midnight are the special times at which ghosts +walk abroad. Among Ibo and Kalahari little children +are warned never to throw sticks or stones when the +sun is high overhead, lest they should inadvertently +injure one of these wandering spirits and thus draw +down its wrath upon themselves. With Mbolli and Etche +Ibo—as usually in the Ikwerri country—seed yams +and corn are stored in the shrine of the ancestors, +<i>i.e.</i> beneath the guardianship of these +beneficent friends, much as was the seed-grain of +ancient Rome within the sacred Mundus. Chief Eleche +also told us that the Egu Nda Madu, the festival of +the forefathers, is always held at the same time as +that of the new yams and, were these rites neglected, +the ghosts would cease to exert a protective influence +upon the next season’s crops. It is probable, +therefore, that the reason the drums must start to +play <span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>at noonday is to call the attention of the +ancestral shades to the fact that the ritual wrestling +is about to begin.</p> + +<p>First, one or two youths stepped out, at long +intervals, from the ranks of patient spectators, to +dance round in wide circles, always from left to +right—in the contrary direction to the hands of a +clock. Later, as the shadows lengthened, more and more +joined in the pastime, till from twenty to thirty were +dancing almost continuously. Nearly all raised eyes +and hands to heaven at a point, roughly speaking, +halfway round the circle. Most of the performers wore +necklets of knotted palm, while a considerable number +bore in addition a single vivid bloom of the scarlet +Akpane Besin—the old Ekoi wrestlers’ challenge—stuck +in their black locks.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the circle danced a strange figure, +wearing a tail of skin behind and a long strip of +blue native cloth falling before. Round his waist was +a girdle of brass bells; a band of cowries, three +deep, was fastened beneath the knee, while a cloth of +leaf-green silk was tightly bound round the loins. In +his right hand he bore a horn, black and twisted like +that of a bushbuck, the open end filled with a tassel +of long fur. This, when stationary, he sometimes drove +point downwards into the earth or, while circling +round with the other dancers, bore it raised over +his head. Chief Yellow explained that such was the +traditional wrestlers’ costume.</p> + +<p>During the dances several ‘masters of ceremonies,’ +bearing bunches of palm-leaves, went up and down, +keeping a clear space—driving back the circle of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span>spectators by striking these on legs and feet. +Suddenly the performers scattered, leaving two of +their number alone in the centre. These bent and +touched the ground with their fingers, then almost +immediately gripped and after a struggle, which +caused the wildest excitement among the spectators, +the taller and slighter of the two flung the other to +earth and seated himself firmly astride the prostrate +form—to be lifted upon the shoulders of a friend and +thus borne round amid the plaudits of the multitude.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fig045" style="max-width: 40.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig045.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 45.</span> Wrestling to make the + yams grow. Chief Eleche’s place, Elele + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>So it went on, couple after couple struggling till one +was overthrown. Occasionally, if they were deemed ill +matched or thought to be growing angry, friends rushed +in, as is usual in such contests, to separate the +combatants. What struck us as unusual was the short +time allowed to each pair. Should one not succeed in +throwing the other after the first few minutes the +spectators flung themselves between and bore them +apart by force. This was explained to be ‘lest they +should become exhausted,’ and was possibly done with +the idea that such a result might, by sympathetic +magic, have an ill effect upon the crops.</p> + +<p>These wrestling rites are carried out amongst nearly +all the Ibo in the Division, though held in greatest +importance among the Ikwerri. The same ceremony is +customary with the Mbolli, whose head chief told us: +‘When the season comes round for the festival of +Mbiencha,⁠<a id="FNanchor_21_21" href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> we make sacrifice to her of fowls and +goats. After the sacrifice has been made, we start +wrestling. We do this for children, farms and health.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span></p> + +<p>One evening, during our stay at Elele, we heard the +sound of a far-off tom-tom, beaten with a queer +insistent call. The method of playing was new to +us, so without a word to any one we set out to +investigate. There was no need to ask the way, since +it was easy enough to follow the beat of the drum. +This led through the market-place along the Omo Dioga +road; then, after a sharp turn to the right, we found +ourselves in an open space, upon one side of which +trees tossed dark branches against a sky of scuttling +cloud.</p> + +<p>The moon, nearing her third quarter, was climbing up +the heavens, shedding a cloud of misty silver radiance +upon the scene beneath. By a fortunate chance our +shoes fell soundlessly upon the soft sand; so we stole +in unnoticed, shadows amid a multitude of shadows +which flitted to and fro ‘now in glimmer and now in +gloom’—in swaying, everchanging lines of a dance +impossible to describe.</p> + +<p>My companions were wearing white, as was nearly every +woman and most of the men present. The latter mostly +wore long flowing Hausa robes, bought or imitated +from the fashion set by Chief Ododo, the enterprising +Hausa who, following in the steps of a mighty +elephant-hunter of his race, settled here and made +himself chief of the town.</p> + +<p>At once, on realising what was going forward, we +slipped into a pool of shadow, cast, it seemed, +expressly for our convenience in a spot where we +could see everything but ourselves passed for a while +unnoticed.</p> + +<p>Men and women danced in separate lines, approaching +and retreating. To our surprise we saw that <span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>many +of the latter wore not only white robes but white +coiffures as well; for their crisp, dark wool was +covered with a dressing of native chalk or pale-tinted +clay, while the faces were often streaked with white +lines, giving them an appearance indescribably +ghost-like. To and fro, backward and forward, +co-mingling at one moment and the next in clearly +defined lines, moved the dancers to the monotonous +tom-toming of their strange orchestra, which somehow +managed to suggest things beyond the power of +words—the fall of the first rains upon the parched +earth; the enfolding of soft mists, from whose gentle +embrace springs a stirring and quickening, changing +her barrenness into fruition; the swelling of grain +and root crops in the dark ground; the first feeble +upward striving of young shoots, later to spring into +radiant verdure in the free air above; the passion +of pride, of life and strength and love—all that +is poignantly felt but can seldom be expressed save +perhaps by the monotonous beat of the tom-tom, the +strange soughing of elephant horns and thrumming of +savage lyres on such a night as this.</p> + +<p>Only one air evolved by a northern musician gives +any idea of the effect of these weird African +melodies—that is the Braut March in <i>Lohengrin</i>, +which, written on so few notes, yet beats with a +strange persistence on certain fibres of the human +instrument. In this, too, the theme is much the +same—the bringing of the Earth Bride to the arms +of her mystic bridegroom. Each thema, monotonous in +itself, changed imperceptibly into another equally +monotonous but built on <span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>different notes and shadowing +forth a very infinitude of meaning.</p> + +<p>In and out among the dancers crept strange shapes, +elaborately coiffured and with whitened faces, much +in the style of some Ibo masks, at the time of +unknown origin, which wandered into our collection +several years ago. These have since been explained +as typifying the moon, much after the manner of the +so-called Isis masks of the Pangwe Moon Goddess So; or +again as representing those strange wanderers from the +ghost realm, the spirits of beneficent ancestors who +watch over the harvests of their descendants.</p> + +<p>Hardly daring to breathe, we watched the strange +phantasmagoric figures pass to and fro in the +intricate mazes of the dance—the lines merging and +separating in oozy triangles, squares and circles such +as those woven by Ka for the perdition of the Banda +Log.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a change came over the scene. The tom-toms +sounded a series of sharp insistent strokes. The moon, +emerging from friendly clouds, shed a brilliant light +upon the place where we had hitherto remained hidden +in shadow, and the crowd, grown aware of our presence, +began to scatter. We withdrew with all possible speed +since nothing further was to be learnt by delay. +After our departure the mystic dance began once more +and continued, as could be heard from the far-away +drumming, almost till the first rays of dawn.</p> + +<p>On 26th July chance led us to pass by Chief Eleche’s +compound while a ceremony connected with the Aya-Eke +cult was in progress. Under the Obiri shed, a <span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>band +of various drums, together with a particularly +sweet-toned xylophone formed of cork-wood slabs laid +upon fresh-cut plantain stems, was playing. To the +sound of this music danced the chief of Elele Aliminni +(Ale by the water) with his three principal wives. Two +points were specially noticeable in the performance; +first, the intense solemnity of the dancers, and, +secondly, the way in which their oneness of purpose +was emphasised by gesture. This is the only West +African dance witnessed by us in which the performers +continually linked arms, or twined these round one +another’s shoulders and waists.</p> + +<p>When Chief Eleche was questioned as to the meaning of +the ceremony, he said that it was performed in order +to draw down the blessing of the great Juju Aya-Eke +on the chief of Elele Aliminni, his family and crops, +before beginning to dig the first yams of the year.</p> + +<p>A few weeks later came one of the greatest +disappointments of our tour. By means of much planning +it had been made possible, though with considerable +difficulty, to arrive at Elele on the day before +that fixed for the great yam festival, which we were +anxious to witness. As ill fortune would have it, +however, a runner came in in the late afternoon to +bring tidings of trouble which was thought likely to +break out in a far-off corner and to prevent which +the presence of the white man was needed. To hesitate +under such circumstances was of course naturally +impossible. So the crowning ceremony of the year, the +Aya-Eke harvest festival, was perforce missed.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IX"> + IX + <br><span class="sm"> + ALE AND THE ANCESTORS + </span></h2> +</div> + + +<p>Another link between Ale and her human children may +be found at Ogu, a town inhabited by Okrikans, in +the extreme east of the District. Here marriage is +only solemnised once a year, immediately before the +making of new farms. The Earth Goddess, locally called +Amakiri (Earth of the town) is the principal deity, +and not far to the rear of her shrine stands that of +Ababa, the protectress of marriage. The spot sacred +to the latter is an oval enclosure, fenced round by a +wall of rough logs. Within this grow many Odumdum—the +tree which, as previously mentioned, is looked upon +almost all over the West Coast as bestower of babes, +protector against evil influences and purifying agent, +as well as in some cases the symbol of the yam spirit +and that of the Earth Goddess herself.</p> + +<p>Thither, before the cutting of new farms, go all the +brides of the year to take the vow of faithfulness to +their new-made lords. Libations of rum and palm-wine +are poured out, while the blessing of the indwelling +Genius, Tenye Te’en, is invoked upon the faithful and +her vengeance called down upon any woman who should +prove false to her wedded vows.</p> + +<p>In the local shrine of Obaji (or Obazi) the god of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>sea, we came across a representation of multiplied, +or limitless, birth—eight frogs carved from a solid +strip of wood. Several other slabs showed designs of +the sacred crocodile with human beings laid out before +it in sacrifice.</p> + +<figure class="figleft illowp40" id="fig046" style="max-width: 15em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig046.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 46.</span> Ancestral Tablet + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>A frog is often depicted—with probably the same +reason—in the carved tablets known as Nyama Ahia or +sometimes Ahia Osimiri (the river market), which are +hung up as ghost-offerings in Ikwerri Ibo houses in +order to remind the ancestral spirits of the need for +constant activity in increasing the prosperity of +their descendants. In one found at Elele, the sacred +crocodile and the phallic serpent are shown together +with the hoe, the symbol of fruitful Ale. Again, the +central figure has its tail joined to another hoe, +while the tail of the serpent touches that of the +crocodile and is thereby linked with the hoe.</p> + +<p>During the making and planting of farms among Mbolli +and Abuan—both tribes of particular interest and +distinct type—the rule of strict chastity must be +observed. No man may approach his wife until his share +of the work is over. The labour apportioned to the +males of the tribe at this season consists, first, in +cutting and firing bush, after which women clear away +the charred branches. Men again usually dig the holes +into which it is the task of maids and matrons <span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>to +lay the yam-tubers. Nowadays, however, both the last +mentioned duties fall to the lot of women. Till every +‘seed of Proserpine’ has been laid in the dark ground, +however, neither wife nor maid may yield to the prayer +of husband or lover; for should the strictest chastity +fail to be practised during this period, the farm of +the frail one would yield but scanty increase.</p> + +<p>Among Mbolli, in the words of the Chief Igwe of Ogali:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>We worship our ancestors (Okwenji). We sacrifice to +them fowl and fish. Rich men give goats at such times. +The sacrifices are made three times a year—at the +harvests; first at the new corn month, next one month +later again and then five months later, when we start +digging yams. We hold this festival in the tenth month +(November) and go to cut farm again two months later. +We start to count months from putting the crops in the +ground till we begin to dig—<i>i.e.</i> ten moons.</p> + +<p>At the feast of the ancestors we pour out drink, +saying:</p> + + +<table class="autotable4"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> +‘Ebe +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +atena +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +’mgbom +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ami, +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +ami +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +’mgbo +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +nan +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +mwi.’ +</td> +</tr> +<tr class="sm2"> +<td class="tdc"> +‘As +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +(my) father +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +got +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +me, +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +(let) me +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +get +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +other +</td> +<td class="tdc"> +child.’ +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>We have already lived two moons in the farm—October +and November. We shall stop another five. While we +stay in the farms, we may not have connection with +our wives; for such a thing we must come back to the +town, sleep for a night and then go back. Otherwise we +should offend ’Nkike, who would not let our crops grow +well or send plenty children.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Among the Ale Nsaw Ibo a strict rule as to chastity +was imposed by the direct command of the Earth +Goddess. On this point Chief Osu of Obiakpo stated:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Our people are generally known by the name of Ale +’Nsaw (Ale’s tabu or the land of the tabu) because +in our ancestors’ time there were many forbidden +things in our part. All our women were sacred to Ale, +therefore in olden days no man might reach out a hand +to touch a woman’s leg or foot. Should a man meet a +woman going to bush, he must at once hide his eyes +or pass by another way. In those days it was a very +terrible sin for any man to commit adultery. Should +one fall into this crime, he was not only heavily +fined but at once made outcast. Never again was he +permitted to join any ‘company.’ Never again might he +drink or eat with others. As regarded his own family, +because he was of their kin they would help to collect +the fine, but after this was paid off they would have +nothing further to do with him.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Among the Abuan, who live to the west of the Sombreiro +River, the law of the Earth Mother as to chastity is +even more strictly enforced. Like the Mbolli, this +people on starting the new season’s farms early in +January, take up their abode in little huts built on +their plantations. There they spend the space of three +months, after which they return to their town for +about four weeks, and then go back for another three +months, weeding the crops and tending them till they +grow strong for harvest.</p> + +<p>During all that time strict continence obtains. It is +absolutely forbidden for any man to approach a woman, +<i>even his own wife</i>. Should desire prove too +strong, the pair must leave their farm and seek their +town dwelling for the purpose. Any breach of this law +is thought to have disastrous effect upon the crops.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span></p> + +<p>Again, while, as already mentioned, it is regarded +throughout the whole of the region as a grave sin +against the Earth Mother for a woman to yield to the +embraces of any man, whether lover or husband, while +lying upon the ground, the crime is of yet deeper +dye if committed upon farm land than in the depth of +the bush. In olden days a couple convicted of such +an offence would have little chance of surviving +the wrath of their outraged townsfolk. Even now +such a charge would bring down upon the accused the +invocation of some reputedly fatal Juju. For instance, +in a case heard at Abua Court (No. 116/14), a woman +named Ugenni stated as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>All our townspeople laughed at me, saying that I was +having connections with men under plantains. So I +said, whoever accused me of having connections under +plantains, the Juju Obuku of Amingbokko must kill that +person.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The same law against intercourse in the bush—and in +some parts in a canoe—prevails throughout almost the +entire Niger Delta. Among the Jekri it is so strong +that in a recent murder case (Rex versus Iyeabor) it +came out that the dead woman had such belief in the +strength of this tabu—and an additional one which +enjoined chastity during pregnancy—that she had no +hesitation in going into the bush with her murderer, a +man whom she knew to be desirous of her.</p> + +<p>Case No. 297 tried in the Ijaw Native Court of Nembe +in January, 1925, gives the procedure which was +adopted in order to convert a ‘bush’ place, where +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span>cohabitation was not allowed, into a village, where +this could take place with impunity.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Igoin and his people sometimes stayed at this newly +discovered place for two months, but no cohabitation +was to be conducted there. One of the main reasons +why they used to return to Nembe was because no +husband was allowed to use his wife as regards sexual +intercourse there.</p> + + +<p>Finally an envoy was sent to the Long Juju (that of +Aro Chuku)—a journey which would have taken at least +several weeks—to ask for the necessary ceremony to +be performed on the village, so that one can have +connection with his own wife. Alegi returned from the +Long Juju and told Ogede the rites which should be +carried out. Ogede performed the necessary ceremony. +The ceremony he performed was first he let a cock and +hen cohabit at Ewelesuo. He brought one thing called +‘Ovo’ (Covenant) from Long Juju, one ‘Odo’ (a red +round stuff) and a round white lime and gave these +to the juju to appease the jujus and prayed that the +village should become an inhabitable town and that +one can have connection with his wife. Before this +ceremony was performed it was forbidden for a woman +to urinate in the village (Ewelesuo). On this account +one place was chosen and called ‘Sanpogu’ <i>i.e.</i> +(Waterside for urine).</p> + +<p>Egula and Ogede were friends. After the ceremony +had been performed Egula went after his friend and +settled at Ewelesuo. Egula was dancing a juju called +‘Akpana.’ This juju Akpana and those at Ewelesuo made +a covenant and Egula then ‘danced’ <span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>juju at Ewelesuo. +Eugla is a native doctor. Ogede asked the juju, when +Egula was dancing it, why they are not allowed to +remain at Ewelesuo in November month. The juju asked +whether he will be able to do so. He said ‘Yes.’ The +juju then told him that, if people wanted to remain at +Ewelesuo in November month, the people should keep a +watch-night in the town and when the water ebb, they +(the people) should take all jujus to the water edge +and let the water soak them—which signifies that all +the juju has gone out of the town (Oru iderimo). Then +when December came the whole inhabitants should man +one canoe, beat the tom-tom and sing a song and go to +a creek called ‘Orumokolo.’ A prophet native doctor +was to be in the canoe who will say to the people in +the canoe that the jujus had come in. Then the canoe +is to return to the town (Oru iwomo) and a juju called +Ogoni is to be danced. Ogede agreed to perform all +these. They (the people) were then to dance on three +consecutive days after these jujus have been performed.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In many parts of the country there is likewise a +strong tabu against the commission of adultery, +particularly in the husband’s or adulterer’s house, +and against a woman cooking food for her husband when +she has just returned from her lover.</p> + +<p>No sooner is farm work finished, however, than, +as already stated, scenes of licence are not only +permitted over the greater portion of this region, +but even enforced in certain parts; for, just as the +priestesses of some temples of old Greece were obliged +to offer <span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>themselves to strangers, so excesses, +regarded as most reprehensible at other periods, are +encouraged at this.</p> + +<p>Among certain of the Brass Ijaw adultery is openly +condoned under certain conditions. It is the custom, +for some towns that are friendly together, to make an +agreement that no man will take an action in Court +against any other of their inhabitants and claim +damages or punishment for adultery.</p> + +<p>This plea was raised in case No. 253/25 before +Amassama Native Court and an action for damages was +dismissed in view of a covenant to this effect between +the towns of Amassama and Agoro.</p> + +<p>The cult, in which religious prostitution was perhaps +most openly and extensively practised throughout the +Ibo country, was that of Ife-Ala (literally ‘thing of +Ala’ or ‘that which concerns Ala’).</p> + +<p>To those few Europeans, who have hitherto had +knowledge of this cult, it appears to have been known +as the Ifallum Juju. All natives questioned on the +subject, however, including Chief Gabriel Yellow, +stated that the real name was as above given. The +headquarters of this particular cult of the Earth +Goddess were at Nguru, a town to the North of Okpala +in Owerri Division:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>All people from neighbouring lands went there and +lodges were also set up in nearly all important towns +throughout Degama District. Many men and women, who +could not be cured from trouble by native doctors, +went there to pray <span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span>for help, but the priest refused +to invoke the aid of the Juju unless the suppliant +brought him a virgin as gift. The priest then took her +as handmaid and she was kept in the temple and hired +out by him to worshippers—especially to sterile men +who came to pray for increased virility. Such ‘slaves +of the Juju’ were marked out by a shaven patch at the +top of the head.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>There were about three hundred of these girls at Nguru +but to none of them was it permitted to rear a babe, +because by native custom they would have been obliged +to refrain from the company of men for the two years +during which they were suckling their offspring—and +this would naturally have greatly diminished their +earnings. So soon as a babe was born, therefore, the +law of the Juju ordained that it must be disposed of +in one of two ways; either must it be clubbed on the +head and flung away, or laid in one of the big earthen +jars and deposited in the bush beyond the town.</p> + +<p>The Nguru lodge was suppressed about 1913 by Mr. J. M. +Binny, District Commissioner. Great was the joy of the +three hundred women thus set free to rear the babes +born to them, instead of being forced to slay these at +the harsh behest of the covetous priest of Ale.</p> + +<p>A belief in the efficacy of sacrificial blood in order +to purchase the favour of the powers of fertility is +world-wide; but perhaps nowhere in past days did this +dread libation flow in such streams as in West Africa. +It is true that now the vigilance of Government and +missionary effort have succeeded, to a great extent, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>in substituting that of slaughtered fowls, sheep +and goats, for the costly ichor drawn from mortal +veins; but in many a hidden shrine on the banks of +unexplored creeks or in the depths of the silent +bush—wherever indeed a chance occurred to do so in +secret—human victims were till lately offered up. +Especially was this practised at the season when the +yam vines first send forth tender shoots to clothe the +poles with green—as a means towards strengthening +the new crops—and at harvest, in gratitude to Ale +for her bountiful gifts of garnered grain. At such +times it was dangerous for any unprotected wayfarer to +venture forth beyond the borders of his own country, +since strangers were very liable to seizure for such +a purpose. Kula, the centre of many strange and +terrible cults, bore an ominous reputation in this +respect, until its evil practices drew the attention +of Government and, as a result, the principal shrines +were destroyed.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>In May of one year, a chief stated, they chanced +to sacrifice a Brass woman. I do not know how she +managed to disappear from her own town, but the Kula +people caught her for their Juju. Always they made +sacrifice when the new yams were coming up from the +ground. Every Juju of every nation demands a victim +at that time of year. News of the sacrifice of this +Brass woman was brought to Mr. Binny when he was D.C. +of Degama; so he went down and destroyed that Juju +house. Word went forth that it was to be burnt to the +ground, whereon the people came to him and said: ‘May +we not take the sticks of which it is made to mend our +own compounds?’ Therefore he gave permission and the +townsfolk pulled it down themselves. In the shrine +were found many skulls carved from wood in <span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>exact +imitation of real human skulls. There too were human +figures, finely painted; some like those modelled in +clay in the ’Mbari houses and others like the ’Nduen +Fobara (ancestral images) in Kalahari shrines.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Yet another link between ancestor worship and that +of the Earth Mother Ala is to be found at Omo-Ala +(children of Ala)—a town in the south-eastern part of +the Division which proved to be a great centre both of +the cult of the Earth Goddess and of the forefathers.</p> + +<p>Here, as in most other Ibo towns, nearly every +compound has its sacred tree which is usually a +specimen either of Ojji (<i>Chlorophora excelsa</i>) +or Oil Bean (<i>Pentaclethra macrophylla</i>). In +this the souls of the departed are thought to dwell +while awaiting reincarnation. So long as the least +fragment of the tree lasts, the faithful shades cling +to its ancient trunk or branches or even retire into +the furthermost rootlets. For this reason, when one +of these giants falls beneath Time’s axe, the family +to which it belongs marks the place where it formerly +stood and no farm may be made thereon again. Were +this not done, it is thought that the ghosts might be +imprisoned for ever since they could not break through +the earth to return to the light of day, lest, by so +doing, they might injure the sown crops of Ale.</p> + +<p>Before the last rootlets of the ‘ghost trees’ return +to the dust of Mother Ale, the spirits announce to +their family through the mouth of some medicine +man that a new tree must be chosen for their +dwelling-place. The homes of such ancestral shades are +obvious, even to the most careless passer-by, from +the earthen pots <span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>or bowls and the freshly-offered +plantains, etc., which may always be found amid the +roots.</p> + +<p>At the planting of new farms the members of each +compound assemble beneath the family tree and give a +great play. At such times they bring gifts and dance +and sing, robed in their best, praying the ancestral +shades to guard the seeds laid in the bosom of Mother +Earth and help them to come to fruition. Again, at +harvest time, another play is held to thank the ghosts +for their share of the crops. A part of the increase +is always set aside in gratitude to these beneficent +spirits.</p> + +<p>There is an interesting point to be noted about such +‘ghost trees.’ In this part of the District only the +souls of good men are thought to await reincarnation +in these peaceful dwelling-places, gladdened by +sunshine, quickened by gentle dews or warm fertilising +rain and refreshed by soft breezes. It is a matter of +firm belief that, however fiercely tornados may rage +around, these are spared. The branches of such trees +are never rudely torn nor dashed together, while no +thunderbolt has ever been hurled against their sacred +trunks.</p> + +<p>The ghost of an evil man would in vain seek admittance +within the shelter of the family tree, but would be +driven forth by the shades of his blameless kin to +await, in animal form, a new term of earth life.</p> + +<p>Young brides, therefore, often linger beneath those +trees in which dwell the souls of gentle ancestors, +in the hope that one such may choose her as his +Janua terrae. Among Owerri Ibo, however, a different +belief is <span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>held; only the ghosts of those foully +slain, whether by force or witchcraft, are thought to +seek refuge in the tree tops, there to wail and cry +throughout the hours of darkness and in time of storms +with a pitiful sound ‘like a small chick or a piccan +but a few days old,’ until the guilty cause of their +untimely death has been brought to justice.</p> + +<p>It has already been mentioned that ghosts, who have +taken on brute form while awaiting reincarnation, +sometimes fall upon women who chance to pass through +their haunts. By means of the animal body, which +they temporarily inhabit, these evil spirits force +their unfortunate victims to bear a babe, into which +the sinful soul may enter—thus procuring an earlier +return to mortal state.</p> + +<p>From a case heard in Degama Native Court it also +transpired that, among some Kalabari at least, the +belief is held that the spirits of dead husbands are +not altogether cut off from earthly joys but, when +bound by specially ardent affection for the wives +they have left behind, may on occasion return for the +purpose of once more embracing the object of their +desire. That such a proceeding is supposed to be not +without danger to the woman thus visited will be +seen from the statement of Ogoloba H. Horsfall, who +summoned her brother-in-law, Charlie H. Horsfall, for +accusing her of witchcraft. Complainant stated on oath:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Three months ago the defendant accused me of +witchcraft. This was on the Government beach. He +stated that several people had died in the house +owing to my having bewitched <span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span>them. My husband was +defendant’s brother. He died, and since his death has +appeared to me in the night time and tried to have +connection with me. I had to make medicine to stop +this, as otherwise I might have died.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>How deeply the longing for offspring is ingrained in +the hearts of these people may be gauged to a certain +extent by the horror of the means to which they will +sometimes resort in order to overcome sterility or +increase fruitfulness. For such an end no crime is +too cruel; no magic rite too dark or revolting. For +example, a case was reported from the Ogoni country on +unimpeachable authority but seven years ago, in which +the foetus was removed from a pregnant woman in order +to be shared out among, and devoured by, others who +believed this to be a sure way of increasing fertility.</p> + +<p>In a land case, which had arisen between the Okrikans +and the Mbolli tribe and came before me in April 1915, +it was stated by Daniel Kalio, head chief of the +former, that the disputed territory had been seized +by his people in punishment for the terrible crime +committed by their opponents.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>In the old days, he said, the river formed the +boundary between our land; but our women were in +the habit of crossing over to attend the markets. +One day, while thus peacefully buying and selling, +the ’Mbolli rose and slew seventy-two of them at +one time—forty-one at one place and thirty-one at +another. Their heads were struck off and borne before +the Juju; while the bodies of those who had been about +to bear babes were slashed open and the small, small +piccans removed and carried away.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span></p> + +<p>It was suggested from another source that this +last outrage was promoted by the same idea as that +recorded among their neighbours the Ogoni and that +the Mbolli sought, by this terrible means, to procure +unprecedented fruitfulness to their own women. The +suggestion, however, has never been substantiated.</p> + +<p>The story of the coming of Ale was told by an Ibo +named Obi Amara. It differs from the usual southern +Ikwerri Ibo idea that Chi, or Chineke, the creatrix, +was the great first cause from which all mortal men +have sprung. He explained seeming contradictions by +saying that to Ale the bodies alone were due, into +which Chi sent down souls from the Spirit Realm.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>They make Ale play for this country at the feast of +new yams and also give food to Ale when they want +plenty yams, especially at the sowing of farms. Ale is +the mother of all Ibo people. Her husband is called +’Ndiche.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Perhaps it is worth mentioning here that this was +the only occasion on which any such appellation was +given among the many local names for the spouse of +Ale. Ndiche, or Ndichie, itself is the ordinary +Ibo word for the forefathers, and the relationship +here mentioned between the Earth Goddess and these +beneficent shades is significant in view of the +co-operation thought to exist between them, not only +as regards seed corn and harvest but also fertility of +the hearth. Further it may be noticed that the primary +cause of the coming of Ale, as here given, was not to +provide a home for the living but a resting-place for +the dead. To continue:</p> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span><blockquote> + +<p>There is a big bird in our country named Ogbughu +(hornbill). Its mother died. In those days Ale was +not, so that the bird could find no place to bury +his mother. He went round and round and at last had +to bury her on his own head. That is why he bears +upon his head a mound the shape of a grave to the +present day. After a while, as he flew over the water, +seeking a resting-place but finding none, he saw one +fine woman and one man swimming in the water. As he +watched, he saw they were making something and, in a +short time, the first land began to appear. When it +had grown quite big, Ale cried: ‘When any man dies, +let him be brought and buried here.’ Her own body she +stretched over the land; she it is who made all, both +the earth and the earth-folk, whom she bore from her +womb. When the dead are buried they turn to earth, so +that our people say: ‘We are of one body with Ale.’ +The trees too she brought. Ojji tree was the first +that ever grew upon earth. The second was Agbo (or +Akpu, the silk cotton tree) and the third Odala. Food +is still given to this tree for every child which is +born to a house and, if a woman wants a piccan, she +brings a fowl to the Odala tree.</p> + +<p>When a woman wants to become a mother, she lies down +to sleep for night time after prayer to Ale. She +dreams that Odala brings a piccan and lays it upon her +breast. At daybreak she wakes and cries: ‘Where is the +piccan that was over my heart?’ Then she takes a long +piece of chalk,⁠<a id="FNanchor_22_22" href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> called ’Nsu by Ibos, and lays it +before the Odala tree, praying: ‘Make my dream come +true.’</p> + +<p>The fourth tree which Ale brought was the Kola Ojji, +the fruit of which is often set out in offering to the +ghosts. At an Ale feast the women bring food and the +oldest man of the town offers it up. After a man has +eaten of such a feast, <span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>should he do any evil thing +that day, Ale would surely kill him.</p> + +<p>When a bad sickness comes upon a town, the old priest +of Ale, who is always the head chief, beats upon the +long drum to call all the people together in order +to find out the cause of the trouble. Then Kola nuts +are laid upon the place set apart for offerings. Each +man in turn kneels down and picks up the kola with +his lips, eats it and goes away. This is done until +the guilty one comes. When a wizard bends down to +take Ale’s kola, the Earth Spirit catches him and he +is forced by her power to confess how he spread the +pestilence. Before all the people he must speak out, +saying: ‘I killed this man. I killed that man. That +woman also I slew!’—until all his crimes are known. +When everything has been told, his belly swells up +and he dies. No man touches him. It is by Ale’s power +alone that he is slain.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>This aversion to witchcraft is characteristic not +only of the Earth Mother but also of her spouse the +Thunder God; for, though certain magicians can raise +a tempest by their spells, it is held to be extremely +dangerous for witch or wizard to practise magic rites +during the time of storms. When a man is struck by +lightning, it is thought that Amade Onhia slew him on +account of his crimes. Such men are never buried, lest +the evil within them should defile Ale. The corpses +are therefore flung away into the bush of the unblest +dead. Similarly among Aro and some other Ibo tribes +no tree struck by lightning can be used for firewood; +since food cooked upon this would be accursed and even +the light and heat given out by such logs would have a +sinister influence on all whom it might reach.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span></p> + +<p>With these peoples the bed-rock of religious ideas +has perhaps been attained in this direction; and, +unless the fascination of the subject has misled one +with will-o’-the-wisp-like glamour, then surely in +the cult of the Earth Mother, of the Sky Father, by +whose fecundative showers her fruition is brought +about, of the kindly ancestors, whose spirits still +watch over their descendants and aid in the sending +of rich harvests—lastly, and most intimately of all, +by sympathetic magic through that mysterious link +thought to lie between the generative organs, both +male and female, and the fruitfulness of the animal +and vegetable kingdoms—the innermost workings of +primitive minds may, in a measure, be reached at last.</p> + + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp56" id="fig047" style="max-width: 40em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/fig047.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <span class="smcap">Fig. 47.</span> Shrine of Ojuku juju + at Woji + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> See also figures on the ancestral tablet +described on <a href="#Page_121">p. 121</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> 1904, pp. 134, 135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_3" href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> In the Mbari houses of the neighbourhood +of Omo Akani, Owerri District, where the Juju Ogugu +holds sway, monkeys also are shown in the act of +procreation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_4" href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> A different word to Abara ‘Juju.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> Our informant did not know of any link, +yet it seems not without significance that the phallic +pillars, raised by maidens before marriage to ensure +plentiful offspring, also bear the name of Eki. See +<a href="#Page_82">chapter vii</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_6" href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> At the Etche town of Okudu Mba there was +an Mbari house erected in honour of Ajala (Aja ground +or mud), ‘a brother of Ale.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_7" href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> In this neighbourhood are the principal +shrines of Adumu, the head and father of all the snake +cults of the region. The little village of Adum-Ama +is its chief centre, while at ’Ngeri-Baw-Ama it was +stated that ‘only men may talk with him; for with his +cult some of the most important of the male secrets +are said to be connected.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> The wrestling scene depicted in every +Mbari house generally represents the ceremonial +wrestling ‘to help the crops grow’ described on <a href="#Page_112">p. 112</a> +<i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_9" href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> Cf. The Bird and Pillar Cult of old +Crete.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_10" href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> See <i>Life in Southern Nigeria</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_11" href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> No information could be obtained as to +whether the priest ‘died’ at the end of the seventh +year of his office, like the priest of the Aya-Eke +cult at Elele, <i>vide</i> <a href="#Page_103">p. 103</a> <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_12" href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="label">[12]</a> The tabu among Okoba and Ale Nsaw Ibo +against climbing palm trees is probably due to the +same idea.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_13" href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="label">[13]</a> <i>Zeus: A Study of Ancient +Religion</i>, by A. B. Cook.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_14" href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="label">[14]</a> Vide <i>In the Shadow of the Bush</i>, +p. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_15" href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="label">[15]</a> Many of these would now be classified by +me as symbols of ‘medicines’ or charms, not ‘jujus.’ +Vide <i>The Peoples of Southern Nigeria</i>, vol. ii. +p. 153.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16_16" href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="label">[16]</a> <i>In the Shadow of the Bush</i>, p. 76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17_17" href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> It is perhaps worth remarking that among +Mbolli all fire brick is used for the same purpose.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18_18" href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> The Ajokko-Ji, the Yam Spirit, is +further described in <i>The Peoples of Southern +Nigeria</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19_19" href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="label">[19]</a> <i>Woman’s Mysteries of a Primitive +People</i> (Cassell), p. 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20_20" href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="label">[20]</a> Eke day is one of the four days of the +Ibo week. It is market day at Elele. Eke is also the +name of the great python. See <a href="#Page_7">p. 7.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21_21" href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="label">[21]</a> Mbiencha is the child of Nkike, the +Mbolli Earth Goddess.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22_22" href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="label">[22]</a> This offering is of the same shape, +though apparently slightly larger than the small +phallic symbols found before the Juju Ezum Mezum +depicted on <a href="#Page_92">p. 92</a>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span></p> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX"> + INDEX + </h2> +</div> + + +<ul class="index"> + <li class="ifrst">A</li> + + <li class="indx">Abara, messenger of the Earth Goddess, represented in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_16">16-7</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Abaw, clan of Ika sub-tribe of Ibo, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Abuan, Semi-Bantu tribe, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Adultery:</li> + <li class="isub1">Tabus, <a href="#Page_126">126-7</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">condonation of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ajiji, ‘play’, <a href="#Page_93">93-4</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ajokko-ji, or Njokku:</li> + <li class="isub1">Yam cult, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">among Mbolli, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ala, or Ale, or Ana. <i>See</i> Earth Goddess.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ale Nsaw, sub-tribe of Ibo, <a href="#Page_122">122-3</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Amade Onhia, or Amad’ongha. <i>See</i> God of Lightning.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ancestors:</li> + <li class="isub1">and Fertility, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and Ale, <a href="#Page_120">120</a> <i>et seq.</i> esp. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">accursed, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">shrines and phallic figures, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">symbols, <a href="#Page_80">80-1</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">between reincarnations, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130-2</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ant hill, and phallic cults, <a href="#Page_90">90-2</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ape, represented in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24-5</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Aro, sub-tribe of Ibo; and worship of Thunder God, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Art, clay figures in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Axe, double-headed, depicted on Ikoro drum, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">B</li> + + <li class="indx">Binny, Mr. J. M., former District Commissioner, <a href="#Page_108">108-9</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Bird and Pillar worship, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Birth:</li> + <li class="isub1">representation in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">due to Jujus, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Blood and Fertility, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128-9</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Burial. <i>See</i> Death.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">C</li> + + <li class="indx">Chief of town, must be priest of Ale, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Child birth, tabus re, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Coiffure, representations in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Cooking cones. <i>See</i> Eku, <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Copulation:</li> + <li class="isub1">method of, <a href="#Page_24">24-5</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">with the dead, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">unnatural, <a href="#Page_33">33-6</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">tabus re, <a href="#Page_32">32-3</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and cults of Earth Goddess and Thunder God, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Crocodile, depicted on Ikoro drum etc., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Cult, yam, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i> <i>See</i> Fertility.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">D</li> + + <li class="indx">Dance, at Elele, <a href="#Page_116">116</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Death, tabus re, <a href="#Page_62">62-4</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Drum, the Great, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">E</li> + + <li class="indx">Earth. <i>See</i> Goddess.</li> + <li class="isub1">Spousals with Sky, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Egyptians, Ancient, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Legend re Horus, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ekkpahian, sub-tribe of, Ibo, and unnatural copulation, <a href="#Page_34">34-6</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ekoi, Semi-Bantu tribe, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Eku, phallic figures, <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span>Eleche, Priest of Aya-Eke yam cult, <a href="#Page_104">104</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Elele, Ikwerri Ibo town, home of Aya-Eke Yam cult, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Etche, sub-tribe of Ibo, builders of Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Ethnological Sketch by P. Amaury Talbot, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">F</li> + + <li class="indx">Farms, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>. <i>See</i> Fertility.</li> + + <li class="indx">Fertility:</li> + <li class="isub1">of farms, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">of farms and flocks, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and Jujus, <i>see</i> Ibudu, <a href="#Page_65">65</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">linked with priest, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">desire for, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and blood, <a href="#Page_128">128-9</a>.</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>See</i> Ancestors, also Earth Goddess, esp. <a href="#Page_40">40-1</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Frazer, Sir James, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Fruitfulness. <i>See</i> Fertility.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">G</li> + + <li class="indx">Genital Organs, <a href="#Page_65">65-6</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5-6</a>.</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>See</i> Phallic, Symbols.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ghosts. <i>See</i> Ancestors.</li> + + <li class="indx">Girls, and initiatory ceremonies, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">God, of Lightning and Thunder, Amade Onhia or Amad’ongha, <a href="#Page_52">52</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and Mbari shrine, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20-1</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30-1</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">symbols, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">signs of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">his ‘Palms’, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">his Priest, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and witchcraft, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">God, Sky, <a href="#Page_52">52</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Goddess, Earth, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the coming of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and Mbari shrines, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, + <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and Ancestors, <a href="#Page_120">120</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and witchcraft, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">H</li> + + <li class="indx">Head-Dresses:</li> + <li class="isub1">of Obukere Society, <a href="#Page_37">37-8</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">representation in Mbari Houses, <i>see</i> Coiffure.</li> + + <li class="indx">Horn of Plenty, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">I</li> + + <li class="indx">Ibibio Tribe, <a href="#Page_64">64-5</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ibo Tribe: <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ibodo, Etche Ibo town, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ibudu, phallic pillars, <a href="#Page_65">65</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Ikoro Drum, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Initiatory ceremonies, feminine. <i>See</i> Girls.</li> + + <li class="indx">Intercourse. <i>See</i> Copulation.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">J</li> + + <li class="indx">Jekri, sub-tribe of Yoruba, Tabus re copulation, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Johnston, Sir Harry, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Jujus, and Fertility of human beings, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">K</li> + + <li class="indx">Kalabari, sub-tribe of Ijaw, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and double Ibudu, <a href="#Page_77">77-8</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">L</li> + + <li class="indx">Lightning:</li> + <li class="isub1">and trees, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">God of, <i>see</i> God.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">M</li> + + <li class="indx">Marriage:</li> + <li class="isub1">among Okrikans, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">ideal, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">betrothed girls, <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Mbari Houses: Chs. <a href="#Page_10">2</a>, <a href="#Page_26">3</a> and <a href="#Page_40">4</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">at Omo Dim, <a href="#Page_10">10</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">at Ibodo, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">construction of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">ceremonies at, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in Etche country, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">license depicted in, <a href="#Page_32">32-3</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Mbolli, tribe:</li> + <li class="isub1">and yam cult, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and farms, <a href="#Page_121">121-2</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Medicine man, and construction of Mbari House, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Mgbe, and temples, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Moon:</li> + <li class="isub1">depicted on Ikoro drum, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on figures in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and fertility, <a href="#Page_28">28-30</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">N</li> + + <li class="indx">Njokku, figure in Mbari House, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>See also</i> Ajokko-Ji, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">O</li> + + <li class="indx">Obogwe, Ibo town, Mbari House at, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Obukere Club: <a href="#Page_36">36-9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and unnatural copulation, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Ohambele, Ibo town, where Ikoro drum is worshipped, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Okrikans, clan of Kalabari sub-tribe of Ibo, and Death Tabus, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Omo Dim, Ibo town, Mbari House at, <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>Opioro, Etche Ibo town, Mbari House at, <a href="#Page_24">24-5</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Otaminni, River Deity, and Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">P</li> + + <li class="indx">Peoples of Southern Nigeria, by P. Amaury Talbot, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Pepple, Mr. B. M., <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Phallic Cult, <a href="#Page_65">65</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_84">84-5</a>.</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>See</i> Procreation, Fertility, Symbols, Genital organs.</li> + + <li class="indx">Pillar, Bird and Pillar worship, <a href="#Page_43">43-4</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Pliny, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Priest:</li> + <li class="isub1">of Earth Goddess, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">of Yam cult, Fertility linked with his life, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">of Thunder God, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Procreation, represented in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Prostitution, religious, <a href="#Page_127">127-8</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Puberty, girls’ initiatory ceremonies, <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">R</li> + + <li class="indx">Rainbow, sign of Lightning God, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Romans, and seed-grain, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">S</li> + + <li class="indx">Seed Yams, and corn, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Sekapu Society, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Sex, Male and Female combined, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Sky God. <i>See</i> God.</li> + + <li class="indx">Slaves:</li> + <li class="isub1">of Juju, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">sanctuary in shrines, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Snake:</li> + <li class="isub1">depicted on Ikoro Drum, etc., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6-7</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">symbol of male organ, <a href="#Page_5">5</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">cults, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Stone, worship of, <a href="#Page_80">80-1</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Symbols: <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79-81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-5</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on Ikoro drum, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">of tortoise and snake, <a href="#Page_4">4-9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">of lightning, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">T</li> + + <li class="indx">Tabus:</li> + <li class="isub1">re copulation, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32-3</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123-6</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">food, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">climbing, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">picking leaves, etc., <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_62">62-4</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">revocation of, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Thunder, God of. <i>See</i> God of Lightning.</li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Times Literary Supplement</i>, quotation from, <a href="#Page_4">4-5</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Tortoise:</li> + <li class="isub1">symbol of female generative organs, <a href="#Page_5">5-9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">and Folklore, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Tree, sacred, <a href="#Page_101">101-2</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130-1</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">U</li> + + <li class="indx">Umoyo, Etche town, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Unnatural copulation, <a href="#Page_33">33-6</a>.</li> + + + <li class="ifrst">W</li> + + <li class="indx">Whitehouse, Mr., former District Commissioner, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Witchcraft, and Earth Goddess and Thunder God, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Wobilo, Chief of Umoyo, <a href="#Page_22">22-3</a>.</li> + + <li class="indx">Wrestling:</li> + <li class="isub1">depicted in Mbari Houses, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in connection with yam and corn cults, <a href="#Page_110">110</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Y</li> + + <li class="indx">Yam Cult: <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> + <li class="isub1">among Mbolli, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Aya-Eke cult, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + <li class="indx">Yellow, Mr. G. A., <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<p class="center sm3"> + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.<br> + THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW +</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<p class="center"> Transcriber’s Notes.</p> + + <p> Evident typographical and punctuation errors have been + corrected silently. Inconsistent spelling/hyphenation has been + normalised. </p> + + <p> A half-title page has been discarded. </p> + + <p> Internal references treated as footnotes have been inserted + into the text. Remaining footnotes have been relocated to the + end of the text. </p> + + + <p> To improve text flow, illustrations have been relocated + between paragraphs. Page numbers in the list of illustrations + have been discarded. </p> + + <p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted + to the public domain.</p> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78684 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |