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diff --git a/78684-0.txt b/78684-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bd83cc --- /dev/null +++ b/78684-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4139 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78684 *** + + + + +[Illustration: Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of +the Peri play] + + + + + SOME NIGERIAN + FERTILITY CULTS + + BY + + P. AMAURY TALBOT + + RESIDENT, NIGERIA + + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD + 1927 + + + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. + THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW. + + + + +PREFACE + + +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. + +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. + +As regards the remaining tribes, the subject will be found discussed +in other books, especially the _Ethnological Sketch_, comprising +the second and third volumes of _The Peoples of Southern Nigeria_, +published by the Clarendon Press. The descriptive parts in the +following pages were written by my first wife. + + P. A. T. + + _June, 1925._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PREFACE v + + I. THE GREAT DRUM 1 + + II. MBARI HOUSES 10 + + III. MBARI HOUSES (_continued_) 26 + + IV. MBARI HOUSES (_continued_) 40 + + V. SKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS 52 + + VI. IBUDU 65 + + VII. EKU 82 + + VIII. THE YAM CULT 99 + + IX. ALE AND THE ANCESTORS 120 + + INDEX 138 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +_Frontispiece_ Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of +the Peri play + +1. Ikuru drum at Ihie + +2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba), Okpala + +3. Chief juju at Tema + +4. Outside the Mbari House, Omo Dim + +5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house + +6. Abara, the messenger of Ale and Amad’ongha or Otaminni + +7. Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro + +8. Humorous figures + +9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro + +10. The chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni + +11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim + +12. ‘Little Moon-face’, Omo Dim + +13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house + +14. Obukere Club head-dresses + +15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere Club, Oduaha + +16. Figure in Mbari house, Umoyo + +17. Wrestling scene (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia and Ale. Shrine +drummers on the right + +18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari house + +19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and Otamelli + +20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin + +21. The Aroid which grows round about the great Amad’ongha shrine at +Ozozo + +22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with blood-stained +linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the shrine at Ewawfe + +23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many piccans + +24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo Chuku + +25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku + +26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle + +27. Ite Uru Ibudu + +28. Charm + +29. Ibudu Nwa + +30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada + +31. Ibudu at Digiriga + +32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara quarter of Akpani + +33. Ibudu at Akpani + +34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga + +35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques. Kalabari shrine of +Awome-Ka-So + +36. Patterns of the low Eki + +37. Group of Eku, near ’Ndelle + +38. The Wekwe Eruru + +39. The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’ + +40. Clay figures at the base of a cotton tree near Elele + +41. Figures at the base of a cotton tree, near Elele + +42. The Eni Awsoku + +43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu + +44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by the memorial pillar of +the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke + +45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche’s place, Elele + +46. Ancestral tablet + +47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji + + + + +I + +THE GREAT DRUM + + +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.e._ 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. + +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. + +Shortly afterwards, a policeman passing through the region with a +prisoner, whom he was bringing down 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. + +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.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 1. Ikuru drum at Ihie] + +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, + + 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 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. + +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 a +representation of the familiar tortoise, while the other volunteered +the unexpected statement that it pictured the labia majora, with the +clitoris showing between. + +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. + +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. + +The supremacy of tortoise in most tales of African origin has often +proved puzzling to folklorists. The subject is mentioned in _The Times +Literary Supplement_ of 10th December, 1914: + + 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 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. + +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. + +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 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.[1] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba), +Okpala.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3. Chief juju at Tema.] + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4. Outside the Mbari house, Omo Dim] + + + + +II + +MBARI HOUSES + + +From Aba, we passed through Omo Dim, in Owerri District, to visit the +Mbari house there. + +According to Ababua, priest of Amade Onhia at Ibo near Okomoko, the +meaning of the word Mbari is ‘fine’ or ‘decorated.’ + +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 (fig. 19), 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. + +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 +was explained, as a portrait of the District Commissioner! + +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. + +On the testimony of a considerable number of Ibo we learned that no +Mbari house is built save at the 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house] + +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. + +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. The following was the +account given by the Omo Dim chief as to the erection of the Mbari +house: + +‘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. + +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. + +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 _Journal of the African +Society_,[2] declares 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. + +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,[3] 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 of life indeed from cradle to grave, and even beyond, here finds +itself reproduced. + +The following account of the raising of an Mbari shrine was given by +Amuneke of Umo Yekki quarter, Owerri: + + 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.[4] 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. + + 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 do not obey at once, then at least twenty + men from that quarter will die. + + [Illustration: FIG. 6. Abara, the Messenger of Ale and + Amad’ongha or Otaminni] + + 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,[5] in which to + sleep. Across the middle of this a line is drawn. 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. + + 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.’ + + 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. + + 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. At this point the father says: + + ‘Ubu anyi abiala. Bia ikpe ogu. Anyi + ‘Now we are coming. Come judge matter. We (_i.e._ between us) + + agi oku awsaw ade pa. Anyi emena nhie icheri. + you words again are no(t). We have done things thought your. + + Ubu anyi abiala bia ekpaw nwa anyi. Oku + Now we are coming come to take son our. Words + + awsaw adr pa.’ + again are no(t) (_i.e._ all is finished).’ + + After this the mother says (for a son): + + ‘Ubu-laka nhie oma ka ega enyi anyi na nwam + ‘Now things good you are going to give us and son my + + makana ihie oma onu oma onu nagi. Nam na + because (he has done) things good work good work for you. I and + + dim na ji unwenne na omu umonu na ewu + husband (my) and yam I have and children I born and goats + + mwenne nhie oma ka anyi ega anhu afor anhua.’ + I have things good make (for) us go see year this coming.’ + + For a daughter the mother says: + + ‘Aborolam nwam obi oma. Mejiea na mejieadia + ‘I am taking my child (with) mind good. Give gifts to her and gifts to her + husband (for) + + onu-ma ka. Aronona ge anyi. Mfu ga ezi ubu-laka + work good your. Have worked for you we. If (I) go out now + + afu na nam nhie ojo.’ + finished for me things bad.’ + + 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 _walk + backwards_ 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. + + When they reach the house all join in a great feast, with fish + of every kind, plenty beef and tombo too much! That night the + people tear down the fences, which were put up to hide the + work, and burn them in a very great fire. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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 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. + + [Illustration: FIG. 7. Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro] + + [Illustration: FIG. 8. Humorous figures] + + 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.e._ wooden images consulted by native doctors): for so + the Juju orders. Ala has other sons beside Okpara Ala.[6] 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. + + 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.e._ 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. + + 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 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. + + 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro] + +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. 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.’ + +The only information we could get ran as follows: + + 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. + + 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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.’ + +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 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: + + 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10. The Chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim] + + + + +III + +MBARI HOUSES (_continued_) + + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12. “Little Moon-face,” Omo Dim] + +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, while +pregnant women count the time to their delivery by her waxing and +waning. + +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.e._ 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. + +Considering the close connection between the waxing moon and the +powers of fertility, it is not without significance that personified +representations of the crescent 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. + +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! + +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, _ipso +facto_, 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 p. 40). + +[Illustration: FIG. 13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house] + +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.e._ +‘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 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. + +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: + +(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. + +(2) Connection is absolutely forbidden during the hours of daylight, or +even at night time when a light is burning in the room; also at any +time in the bush or in a farm, where there is no house. + +(3) It is the height of impropriety for a man to have relations with a +woman who is not clothed in the prescribed custom. + +(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.’ + +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. + +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 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. + +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.[7] 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. + +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 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. + +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: + + About three months ago accused came to my father’s house to + have connection with him. At that time I went to bed.... + + _Question by Court._ When he came to your house, where did he + stay with your father to have connection? + + _Answer._ Outside the house. + + _Question by Accused._ What date did I come to your house? + + _Answer._ Orie day. + + _Question by Court_ (_to father_). Was accused your friend? + + _Answer._ No. + + _Question by Court._ Did accused ever come to your house and + have connection with you at night? + + _Answer._ Yes. He always come to my house and prosecutor saw + him. + +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 _whereby our flocks and herds might be multiplied +and made strong. Even, it is said, the crops in the farms are increased +thereby._’ + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14. Obukere Club head-dresses] + +[Illustration: FIG. 15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere +Club, Oduaha] + +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 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. + +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 swamp from Alessa, and which will be more fully described +later on page 99. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16. Figure in Mbari House, Umoyo] + +[Illustration: FIG. 18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari +house] + +[Illustration: FIG. 17. Wrestling scene (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia +and Ale. Shrine drummers on the right] + + + + +IV + +MBARI HOUSES (_continued_) + + +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.’ + +Omu Ngwaw is literally ‘the children (or young leaves) of the tombo +palm tree,’ _raphia vinifera_. 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 +before the shrines of all beneficent Jujus; the half-unfolded frond +stands as type and symbol of fruitful motherhood. + +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[8] 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. + +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 outline the design exactly as does the brass edging the enamelled +leaves and flowers of the above-mentioned ware. + +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. + +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. + +So near to one another are the figures that the little sleeping mat +of the attendant could hardly find space 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. + +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.e._ birds, +were perched. + +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.[9] These are small and vaguely modelled, but +it is possible that they once represented the eagles of Zeus--which, +among Ibibio, are still sacred to Obumo, the Thunderer.[10] + +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: + +‘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. + + 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. + + 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and +Otamelli] + +As already mentioned on page 20, 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. + +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. + +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 plaited part is said to +represent the rainbow, while the long fringe from the lower edge +typifies the rain itself. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Amade Onhia, the +only other shrine of importance in Omo Chuku is dedicated to Ale. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin] + + + + +V + +SKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS + + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 festooned from side to +side with spray upon spray, rich in flower, fruit and leaf. + +[Illustration: FIG. 21. The Aroid which grows round about the great +Amad’ongha shrine at Ozozo] + +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. + +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. + +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: + + 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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +Chioma Madume gave the following account: + + I myself have been priest of Amade Onhia for seven years.[11] + Before me my father, Madume, held the office for about the + same time and before him my grandfather, Odu Kerin, ruled--I + cannot tell for how long. + + 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. + +(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.) + +Chioma continued: + + 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. + +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. 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. + +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.e._ 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.[12] + +[Illustration: FIG. 22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with +blood-stained linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the +shrine at Ewawfe] + +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. + + 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + + 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. + +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 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. + +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.[13] + +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.[14] + +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 +Commissioner. _Re_ Wansumu _v_. Egeom. 17th February, 1915,’ and ran +as follows: + + Sir, + + I have the honour, most respectfully, to lodge this my humble + complaint before your kind worship.... + + 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.... + + Leaving this for your discretion + + I have the honour to be, + Sir, + Your obedient servant, + WANSUMU (his X mark). + +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: + + 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 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. + +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, + + 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +VI + +IBUDU + + +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. + +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[15] +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 impaled tortoise, already explained as a +feminine symbol, is as a rule seen in the foreground. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many +piccans] + +[Illustration: FIG. 24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo +Chuku] + +[Illustration: FIG. 25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku] + +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, combines both male and female attributes, somewhat in the +style of the Indian Linga. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle] + +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: + + 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 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 27. Ite Uru Ibudu + +_See page 71_] + +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 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 28. Charm + +_See page 71_] + +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. + +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.e._ 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 (fig. +27). + +[Illustration: FIG. 29. Ibudu Nwa] + +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 (fig. 28). The arrows were planted so thickly that one +could not see of what the oval groundwork was made. + +At Ale-Barada, a charming town to the west of the Upper New Calabar +River, never before visited by a 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.e._ 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 (fig. 29). + +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.’ + +[Illustration: FIG. 30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada] + +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. 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 through the wide waste of waters to form the first +abiding place for her children--men, beasts, trees and flowers. + +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.’ + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 31. Ibudu at Digiriga] + +[Illustration: FIG. 32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara +quarter of Akpani] + +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 +utmost care, showing that in the minds of its makers this detail was +of very special significance. + +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. + +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: + +‘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 headless animal lying in front of +this were the work of the few children then existing. + +[Illustration: FIG. 33. Ibudu at Akpani] + +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. + +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 ways but +joined together by a ridge of clay, which forms, as it were, the back +of the sphinx. + +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 page 74, 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. + +Chief Onomonu, the owner of the shrine, told us: + + 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. + +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 _richest_ 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 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. + +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.[16] + +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 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. + +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: + + Man Eja! I am staying with you. + O, I am staying with you! + Ekumoke! I am staying with you. + O, I am staying with you! + +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.’ + +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. + +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. + +In those parts of the country where rock is available, _i.e._ 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 +_The Peoples of Southern Nigeria_. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga] + + + + +VII + +EKU + + +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. + +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 +(_Dolichandrone_ 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 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. + +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. + +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.’[17] 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 meals upon the same three pillars prepared by her own hands. + +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.e._ 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: + + 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques. +Kalabari Shrine of Awome-Ka-So] + +Sir James Frazer, in his wonderful _Golden Bough_, 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. + +Chief Igo, of Omo Nelu, gave the following information: + + 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. + + Chief Chuku’s quarter cooks for two weeks (_i.e._ 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 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.’ + + [Illustration: FIG. 36. Patterns of the low Eki] + + 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. + + 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 37. Group of Eku, near ’Ndelle] + +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 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. + +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. + +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 p. 66). + +Some time after all the Eki have been set up in the farms, compounds +and bush round Elele, preparations are made for the carrying out of a +further ceremony, called Nwan Aja, _i.e._ 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 38. The Wekwe Eruru] + +In some places all the girls of the quarter join together to seek out +an ant hill and dig up the part in which 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.’ + +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, is a natural ant hill, daubed with paint, against which +leaned several of the lesser symbols. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 39. The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’] + +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. + +Every other year a special play is given. According to Mr. D. Braid: + + ‘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 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.’ + + 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. + + 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 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.e._ about two months. + +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. + +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 (_Acatina marginata_) or empty fish racks, in shape much +like the head of a Badminton racquet. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 40. Clay figures at base of cotton tree near Elele] + +[Illustration: FIG. 41. Figures at base of cotton tree near Elele + +_See p. 94_] + +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 other, round the +base of the tree and reaching about four feet up its trunk, forming +a rough altar upon which piles of _Acatina marginata_ 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.e._ 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 42. The Eni Awsoku] + +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. + +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. + +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). + + + + +VIII + +THE YAM CULT + + +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[18] 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. + + 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. + +While visiting Oppe, a farm settlement just outside Alessa, we were +shown a ‘strong Juju’ connected 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu] + +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 Ajokko was made. +Eight, therefore, were those belonging to the ancestors. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + 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 trunk + or tornado strike it down, loud would be the wailing of those + who had grown up beneath its shadow.[19] + +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. + +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.e._ every head of a family of +standing--a slave was killed as a sacrifice to the sacred tree. + +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 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. + +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: + +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. + +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.e._ some dozen years 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. + +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.’ + +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: + +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. + +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 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. + +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: + +Yenanu, the plaintiff, stated on oath: + + 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. + + 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 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. + +Oluene, witness for plaintiff, stated on oath: + + 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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.’ + + 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.[20] 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. + +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. + + ‘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.’ + +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: + + ‘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!)’ + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by +memorial pillar of the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke] + +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.e._ 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.e._ 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. + +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 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: + + 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. + + 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. + +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. + +‘How indeed could such a thing be possible,’ he queried, + + 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. + +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. + +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. + +Opposite the door of the principal shrine a little group of offerings +was to be seen, backed by the branched sticks of the Thunder God. +Questioned as to this, Eleche said: + + 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. + +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.e._ 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 at noonday is to call the attention of +the ancestral shades to the fact that the ritual wrestling is about to +begin. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche’s +place, Elele] + +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. + +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,[21] 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.’ + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Men and women danced in separate lines, approaching and retreating. +To our surprise we saw that 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. + +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 +_Lohengrin_, 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 different +notes and shadowing forth a very infinitude of meaning. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +IX + +ALE AND THE ANCESTORS + + +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. + +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. + +In the local shrine of Obaji (or Obazi) the god of the 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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 46. Ancestral Tablet] + +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. + +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 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. + +Among Mbolli, in the words of the Chief Igwe of Ogali: + + 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.e._ ten moons. + + At the feast of the ancestors we pour out drink, saying: + + ‘Ebe atena ’mgbom ami, ami ’mgbo nan mwi.’ + ‘As (my) father got me, (let) me get other child.’ + + 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. + +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: + + 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. + +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. + +During all that time strict continence obtains. It is absolutely +forbidden for any man to approach a woman, _even his own wife_. 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. + +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: + + 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. + +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. + +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 cohabitation was not allowed, into a village, where this +could take place with impunity. + + 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. + +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.e._ (Waterside for +urine). + +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’ 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. + +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. + +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 +themselves to strangers, so excesses, regarded as most reprehensible +at other periods, are encouraged at this. + +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. + +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. + +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’). + +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: + + 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + + 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 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. + +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. + +Here, as in most other Ibo towns, nearly every compound has its sacred +tree which is usually a specimen either of Ojji (_Chlorophora excelsa_) +or Oil Bean (_Pentaclethra macrophylla_). 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. + +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 or bowls and the +freshly-offered plantains, etc., which may always be found amid the +roots. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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: + + 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 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. + +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. + +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. + + 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. + +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. + +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. + + 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. + +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: + + 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. + + 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,[22] called ’Nsu by Ibos, + and lays it before the Odala tree, praying: ‘Make my dream come + true.’ + + 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, should he + do any evil thing that day, Ale would surely kill him. + + 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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: FIG. 47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See also figures on the ancestral tablet described on p. 121. + +[2] 1904, pp. 134, 135. + +[3] 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. + +[4] A different word to Abara ‘Juju.’ + +[5] 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 +chapter vii. + +[6] 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.’ + +[7] 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.’ + +[8] The wrestling scene depicted in every Mbari house generally +represents the ceremonial wrestling ‘to help the crops grow’ described +on p. 112 _et seq._ + +[9] Cf. The Bird and Pillar Cult of old Crete. + +[10] See _Life in Southern Nigeria_. + +[11] 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, _vide_ p. 103 _et seq._ + +[12] The tabu among Okoba and Ale Nsaw Ibo against climbing palm trees +is probably due to the same idea. + +[13] _Zeus: A Study of Ancient Religion_, by A. B. Cook. + +[14] Vide _In the Shadow of the Bush_, p. 14. + +[15] Many of these would now be classified by me as symbols of +‘medicines’ or charms, not ‘jujus.’ Vide _The Peoples of Southern +Nigeria_, vol. ii. p. 153. + +[16] _In the Shadow of the Bush_, p. 76. + +[17] It is perhaps worth remarking that among Mbolli all fire brick is +used for the same purpose. + +[18] The Ajokko-Ji, the Yam Spirit, is further described in _The +Peoples of Southern Nigeria_. + +[19] _Woman’s Mysteries of a Primitive People_ (Cassell), p. 81. + +[20] 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 p. 7. + +[21] Mbiencha is the child of Nkike, the Mbolli Earth Goddess. + +[22] This offering is of the same shape, though apparently slightly +larger than the small phallic symbols found before the Juju Ezum Mezum +depicted on p. 92. + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Abara, messenger of the Earth Goddess, represented in Mbari Houses, + 16-7. + + Abaw, clan of Ika sub-tribe of Ibo, 79. + + Abuan, Semi-Bantu tribe, 75, 121, 123. + + Adultery: + Tabus, 126-7; + condonation of, 127. + + Ajiji, ‘play’, 93-4. + + Ajokko-ji, or Njokku: + Yam cult, 99 _et seq._; + among Mbolli, 29. + + Ala, or Ale, or Ana. _See_ Earth Goddess. + + Ale Nsaw, sub-tribe of Ibo, 122-3. + + Amade Onhia, or Amad’ongha. _See_ God of Lightning. + + Ancestors: + and Fertility, 9, 60, 113, 120; + and Ale, 120 _et seq._ esp. 134; + accursed, 64; + shrines and phallic figures, 84; + symbols, 80-1; + between reincarnations, 77, 130-2. + + Ant hill, and phallic cults, 90-2. + + Ape, represented in Mbari Houses, 22, 24-5. + + Aro, sub-tribe of Ibo; and worship of Thunder God, 46. + + Art, clay figures in Mbari Houses, 15, 41. + + Axe, double-headed, depicted on Ikoro drum, 4, 8. + + + B + + Binny, Mr. J. M., former District Commissioner, 108-9. + + Bird and Pillar worship, 43. + + Birth: + representation in Mbari Houses, 15, 24, 51; + due to Jujus, 60. + + Blood and Fertility, 102, 128-9. + + Burial. _See_ Death. + + + C + + Chief of town, must be priest of Ale, 12. + + Child birth, tabus re, 63. + + Coiffure, representations in Mbari Houses, 15, 41. + + Cooking cones. _See_ Eku, 82 _et seq._ + + Copulation: + method of, 24-5; + with the dead, 132; + unnatural, 33-6; + tabus re, 32-3, 121 _et seq._; + and cults of Earth Goddess and Thunder God, 15, 48. + + Crocodile, depicted on Ikoro drum etc., 4, 7, 9. + + Cult, yam, 99 _et seq._ _See_ Fertility. + + + D + + Dance, at Elele, 116 _et seq._ + + Death, tabus re, 62-4. + + Drum, the Great, 1 _et seq._ + + + E + + Earth. _See_ Goddess. + Spousals with Sky, 61. + + Egyptians, Ancient, 75; + Legend re Horus, 85. + + Ekkpahian, sub-tribe of, Ibo, and unnatural copulation, 34-6. + + Ekoi, Semi-Bantu tribe, 65, 79. + + Eku, phallic figures, 82 _et seq._ + + Eleche, Priest of Aya-Eke yam cult, 104 _et seq._ + + Elele, Ikwerri Ibo town, home of Aya-Eke Yam cult, 103. + + Etche, sub-tribe of Ibo, builders of Mbari Houses, 12, 20, 23, 40 _et + seq._ + + Ethnological Sketch by P. Amaury Talbot, v. + + + F + + Farms, 99. _See_ Fertility. + + Fertility: + of farms, 50, 99 _et seq._; + of farms and flocks, 36, 113; + and Jujus, _see_ Ibudu, 65 _et seq._; + linked with priest, 103; + desire for, 133; + and blood, 128-9. + _See_ Ancestors, also Earth Goddess, esp. 40-1, 48, 60. + + Frazer, Sir James, 85. + + Fruitfulness. _See_ Fertility. + + + G + + Genital Organs, 65-6, 70, 5-6. + _See_ Phallic, Symbols. + + Ghosts. _See_ Ancestors. + + Girls, and initiatory ceremonies, 14, 82 _et seq._ + + God, of Lightning and Thunder, Amade Onhia or Amad’ongha, 52 _et + seq._; + and Mbari shrine, 12, 20-1, 27, 30-1, 40, 43; + symbols, 47; + signs of, 57; + his ‘Palms’, 46; + his Priest, 49, 56; + and witchcraft, 57, 136. + + God, Sky, 52 _et seq._, 61. + + Goddess, Earth, 9, 52 _et seq._; + the coming of, 135; + and Mbari shrines, 12, 16, 21, 26, 30, 40; + and Ancestors, 120 _et seq._; + and witchcraft, 136. + + + H + + Head-Dresses: + of Obukere Society, 37-8; + representation in Mbari Houses, _see_ Coiffure. + + Horn of Plenty, 9. + + + I + + Ibibio Tribe, 64-5, 85. + + Ibo Tribe: v. + + Ibodo, Etche Ibo town, 42, 44. + + Ibudu, phallic pillars, 65 _et seq._ + + Ikoro Drum, 2 _et seq._ + + Initiatory ceremonies, feminine. _See_ Girls. + + Intercourse. _See_ Copulation. + + + J + + Jekri, sub-tribe of Yoruba, Tabus re copulation, 124. + + Johnston, Sir Harry, 56. + + Jujus, and Fertility of human beings, 60, 65. + + + K + + Kalabari, sub-tribe of Ijaw, v, 56; + and double Ibudu, 77-8. + + + L + + Lightning: + and trees, 58; + God of, _see_ God. + + + M + + Marriage: + among Okrikans, 120; + ideal, 89; + betrothed girls, 82 _et seq._ + + Mbari Houses: Chs. 2, 3 and 4; + at Omo Dim, 10 _et seq._; + at Ibodo, 44; + construction of, 14 _et seq._; + ceremonies at, 14; + in Etche country, 40 _et seq._; + license depicted in, 32-3. + + Mbolli, tribe: + and yam cult, 29, 115; + and farms, 121-2. + + Medicine man, and construction of Mbari House, 21, 23. + + Mgbe, and temples, 21, 23. + + Moon: + depicted on Ikoro drum, 4; + on figures in Mbari Houses, 26 _et seq._, 31; + and fertility, 28-30. + + + N + + Njokku, figure in Mbari House, 11. + _See also_ Ajokko-Ji, 99 _et seq._ + + + O + + Obogwe, Ibo town, Mbari House at, 30. + + Obukere Club: 36-9; + and unnatural copulation, 36. + + Ohambele, Ibo town, where Ikoro drum is worshipped, 2. + + Okrikans, clan of Kalabari sub-tribe of Ibo, and Death Tabus, 63. + + Omo Dim, Ibo town, Mbari House at, 26 _et seq._ + + Opioro, Etche Ibo town, Mbari House at, 24-5. + + Otaminni, River Deity, and Mbari Houses, 12, 20, 24. + + + P + + Peoples of Southern Nigeria, by P. Amaury Talbot, v. + + Pepple, Mr. B. M., 2 + + Phallic Cult, 65 _et seq._, 84-5. + _See_ Procreation, Fertility, Symbols, Genital organs. + + Pillar, Bird and Pillar worship, 43-4. + + Pliny, 6. + + Priest: + of Earth Goddess, 12, 16, 30; + of Yam cult, Fertility linked with his life, 103; + of Thunder God, 49. + + Procreation, represented in Mbari Houses, 15, 32. + + Prostitution, religious, 127-8. + + Puberty, girls’ initiatory ceremonies, 82 _et seq._ + + + R + + Rainbow, sign of Lightning God, 57 + + Romans, and seed-grain, 113. + + + S + + Seed Yams, and corn, 49, 59, 113. + + Sekapu Society, 39. + + Sex, Male and Female combined, 89. + + Sky God. _See_ God. + + Slaves: + of Juju, 56, 59; + in Mbari Houses, 42; + sanctuary in shrines, 59. + + Snake: + depicted on Ikoro Drum, etc., 4, 6-7; + symbol of male organ, 5 _et seq._; + cults, 34. + + Stone, worship of, 80-1. + + Symbols: 65, 79-81, 84-5, 94; + on Ikoro drum, 4; + of tortoise and snake, 4-9; + of lightning, 47. + + + T + + Tabus: + re copulation, 25, 32-3, 121, 123-6; + food, 49, 102; + climbing, 58; + picking leaves, etc., 58; + death, 62-4; + revocation of, 125. + + Thunder, God of. _See_ God of Lightning. + + _Times Literary Supplement_, quotation from, 4-5. + + Tortoise: + symbol of female generative organs, 5-9; + and Folklore, 5. + + Tree, sacred, 101-2, 130-1. + + + U + + Umoyo, Etche town, 22. + + Unnatural copulation, 33-6. + + + W + + Whitehouse, Mr., former District Commissioner, 14. + + Witchcraft, and Earth Goddess and Thunder God, 136. + + Wobilo, Chief of Umoyo, 22-3. + + Wrestling: + depicted in Mbari Houses, 41; + in connection with yam and corn cults, 110 _et seq._ + + + Y + + Yam Cult: 99 _et seq._; + among Mbolli, 29; + Aya-Eke cult, 103 _et seq._ + + Yellow, Mr. G. A., 11. + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. + THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW + + +Transcriber’s Notes. + +Italic text is indicated with _underscores_, bold text with =equals=. +Small/mixed capitals have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS. + +Evident typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected +silently. Inconsistent spelling/hyphenation has been normalised. + +A half-title page has been discarded. + +Internal references treated as footnotes have been inserted into the +text. Remaining footnotes have been relocated to the end of the text. + +To improve text flow, illustrations have been relocated between +paragraphs. Page numbers in the list of illustrations have been +discarded. + +New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the +public domain. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78684 *** |