{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_78684/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_78684","id":"gutenberg_78684","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78684","summary":null,"tags":["Cults -- Nigeria","Nigeria -- Religion","Phallicism"],"text":"[Illustration: Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of\nthe Peri play]\n\n\n\n\n                             SOME NIGERIAN\n                            FERTILITY CULTS\n\n                                   BY\n\n                            P. AMAURY TALBOT\n\n                           RESIDENT, NIGERIA\n\n                        OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS\n                        LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD\n                                  1927\n\n\n\n\n  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.\n  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe facts collected here are almost exclusively such as came to my\nnotice in the course of the ordinary administrative work in Degama\nDivision, to which I was posted in June, 1914.\n\nThe region is mainly inhabited by sections of the two great tribes of\nIbo and Ijaw. A full description of these will be given later, but it\nappeared best to issue without further delay this little monograph,\ndealing with a certain aspect of their religion, the publication of\nwhich has already been long postponed owing in the first place to the\nwar and then to pressure of other work.\n\nAs regards the remaining tribes, the subject will be found discussed\nin other books, especially the _Ethnological Sketch_, comprising\nthe second and third volumes of _The Peoples of Southern Nigeria_,\npublished by the Clarendon Press. The descriptive parts in the\nfollowing pages were written by my first wife.\n\n                                                            P. A. T.\n\n    _June, 1925._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n     PREFACE                                   v\n\n  I. THE GREAT DRUM                            1\n\n  II. MBARI HOUSES                            10\n\n  III. MBARI HOUSES (_continued_)             26\n\n  IV. MBARI HOUSES (_continued_)              40\n\n  V. SKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS                52\n\n  VI. IBUDU                                   65\n\n  VII. EKU                                    82\n\n  VIII. THE YAM CULT                          99\n\n  IX. ALE AND THE ANCESTORS                  120\n\n  INDEX                                      138\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n_Frontispiece_ Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of\nthe Peri play\n\n1. Ikuru drum at Ihie\n\n2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba), Okpala\n\n3. Chief juju at Tema\n\n4. Outside the Mbari House, Omo Dim\n\n5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house\n\n6. Abara, the messenger of Ale and Amad\u2019ongha or Otaminni\n\n7. Girl \u2019Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro\n\n8. Humorous figures\n\n9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro\n\n10. The chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni\n\n11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim\n\n12. \u2018Little Moon-face\u2019, Omo Dim\n\n13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house\n\n14. Obukere Club head-dresses\n\n15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere Club, Oduaha\n\n16. Figure in Mbari house, Umoyo\n\n17. Wrestling scene (\u2019Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia and Ale. Shrine\ndrummers on the right\n\n18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari house\n\n19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and Otamelli\n\n20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin\n\n21. The Aroid which grows round about the great Amad\u2019ongha shrine at\nOzozo\n\n22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with blood-stained\nlinen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the shrine at Ewawfe\n\n23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many piccans\n\n24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua\u2019s, Omo Chuku\n\n25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku\n\n26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle\n\n27. Ite Uru Ibudu\n\n28. Charm\n\n29. Ibudu Nwa\n\n30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada\n\n31. Ibudu at Digiriga\n\n32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara quarter of Akpani\n\n33. Ibudu at Akpani\n\n34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga\n\n35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques. Kalabari shrine of\nAwome-Ka-So\n\n36. Patterns of the low Eki\n\n37. Group of Eku, near \u2019Ndelle\n\n38. The Wekwe Eruru\n\n39. The \u2018Servants of Ezum Mezum\u2019\n\n40. Clay figures at the base of a cotton tree near Elele\n\n41. Figures at the base of a cotton tree, near Elele\n\n42. The Eni Awsoku\n\n43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu\n\n44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by the memorial pillar of\nthe late Head Priest of Aya-Eke\n\n45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche\u2019s place, Elele\n\n46. Ancestral tablet\n\n47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE GREAT DRUM\n\n\nThe outbreak of war seemed a favourable opportunity for discontented\nnatives to throw off the restraints imposed by Government and return\nto old customs, and disturbances occurred in various parts of Nigeria.\nOne of these took place in Aba District to the north-east of Degama.\nWe have since learned that the native name for this region is Aba-Ala,\n_i.e._ Aba of the Earth Goddess Ale or Ala. Here two messengers\nemployed by the Native Courts were seized and dragged before the great\ndrum, described as from 18 to 20 feet in length, which stood in one of\nthe Juju houses. Later, reliable testimony declared this to have been\none of the principal shrines of the Earth Mother herself.\n\nAccording to the account given us, the unfortunate victims were forced\nto kneel at the end of the long, trough-like base, from the centre\nof which the rounded portion of the drum was carved, and their heads\nstruck off so that they fell forward into the cavity. The drum was then\nsplashed with blood and the heads, still bearing the uniform caps,\nwere placed thereon amid the skulls of former victims as a defiance\nto British rule, which, the insurgents hoped, was no longer powerful\nenough to protect its servants.\n\nShortly afterwards, a policeman passing through the region with a\nprisoner, whom he was bringing down to Degama, was also seized and\ndone to death. Vengeance, swift and sure, followed these crimes. By\norder of the Resident, the blood-stained drum was burnt to ashes and\njustice meted out to the guilty persons. The destruction of this fetish\nwas an act of necessity, since no other measures would have produced\nthe same effect upon its worshippers; yet the step was taken with great\nregret, for the drum was of an interesting type and most elaborately\ncarved.\n\nSome weeks later our road led us through the town of Ihie, where we\ncame upon a similar drum, of a kind then new to us. Cleft from an even\nlarger trunk than the Ibibio big drum at Jamestown, to which it showed\nsome points of resemblance, the giant bole extended at both ends in a\nNoah\u2019s Ark-like base, on which were seated, at either extremity, a male\nand female figure--the latter holding a babe in her extended arms. (See\nfig. 1.)\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 1. Ikuru drum at Ihie]\n\nWe were informed that the name of the drum, and of the cult, was Ikoro\n(or Ikuru). One of the chief towns devoted to its worship was Ohambele\nnearby. \u2018This town,\u2019 in the words of Mr. B. M. Pepple,\n\n    has a big Ikoro drum which is highly respected. Before\n    Government came, they gave it human sacrifices, but now only\n    goats and fowls. They beat this drum during war time. Any human\n    head cut off in war is brought and placed on the drum with\n    blood. No man can see the big Ikoro drum unless he has cut\n    off a human head and presented it to this. It does not matter\n    whether the head was got by war or not. The Ikoro play falls\n    twice a year. The first is called Mkpukpu-Chi (thanksgiving)\n    and falls at harvest time. The second is carried out in the\n    farming season, and is called Omehie Ogugu (remembrance of\n    the Juju Ogugu). Any man in the town has the right to dance the\n    Ikoro. The big Ikoro is beaten in the house, while the dancers\n    keep outside. Those men, who had cut off a human head, would\n    come to the front of the big Ikoro house and play their motion\n    by raising the sword and telling of the brave deeds they have\n    done; then they would begin to dance again. The Ikoro drum was\n    never carried to another town. Before the time of Government\n    small towns did not make an Ikoro drum. If any small town\n    ventured to do so, the big towns fought them and seized the\n    drum.\n\nDetailed examination of the drum at Ihie showed that the ornamentation\ncarved in relief was of exceptional interest. In the middle, between\nthe figures of a man and woman rudely enough represented and probably\ndepicting the carver and his wife, who were usually sacrificed on\nthe completion of the work, was the carefully chiselled shape of a\ngreat serpent folded round on round. On either side of this, various\nsymbols were to be seen, several of which were easily enough recognised\nas the crescent moon, the sacred crocodile, a Juju horn, and, what\nseemed to our eager imagination, a fresh example of the double-headed\naxe, but which was explained by the natives as a musical instrument\ncalled, in Ibo, Igilla. The reason why, on closer investigation,\nour interpretation rather than theirs seemed to be the right one,\nwill be stated later. For the moment our attention was caught by\nan object quite new to us, the meaning of which we could not even\nconjecture. On asking its significance we were told simultaneously and\nwith like positiveness from two different sides, one that it was a\nrepresentation of the familiar tortoise, while the other volunteered\nthe unexpected statement that it pictured the labia majora, with the\nclitoris showing between.\n\nThose who voiced the opinion first given asked contemptuously whether\nit was not a matter of common knowledge that tortoise played an\nimportant part in the greater number of Jujus. On this, the second\nparty subsided for the moment as if abashed by their opponents, but\nlater one came in private to point out that tortoise is depicted with\nthe crossed lines which indicate the cracks in her shell, whereas in\nthis case the small vertical dashes are the conventional representation\nof hair. He further explained that the opposition party was right to\na certain extent, in that tortoise herself symbolises the feminine\ngenerative organs, just as the serpent is well known to typify the\nphallus.\n\nTill then, the presence of the impaled tortoise before most Jujus,\neven remotely concerned with the granting of fertility, had been\nmore or less of a puzzle; for, although the snake is recognised by\nanthropologists as the phallic emblem, no widespread feminine symbol of\nlike significance appears to have been known here hitherto.\n\nThe supremacy of tortoise in most tales of African origin has often\nproved puzzling to folklorists. The subject is mentioned in _The Times\nLiterary Supplement_ of 10th December, 1914:\n\n    There is one very curious point which these and other stories\n    of the kind have in common--that though these professional\n    jokers, so to call them, have the better of all the animals\n    with whom they ordinarily enter into a contest of wits, there\n    is one ... who always has the better of them all, even of the\n    jokers themselves--the tortoise. He appears under that name\n    in the translation of the bushman\u2019s tales; he is, of course,\n    Uncle Remus\u2019s Brer Tarrypin and he has no less credit in South\n    American stories. Why is the tortoise credited with such\n    wisdom? One wonders.... Is it just this--that the bright little\n    up-looking head and eyes, when put forth, suggested the idea of\n    intelligence? It is something of a serpentine head and we have\n    read a piece of folklore which tells us that the serpent was\n    the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.\n\nSurely the meaning of the tortoise symbol, stumbled upon thus\nunexpectedly, goes far to explain the difficulty. To the native\nmind the \u2018serpentine head,\u2019 appearing between the walls of shell,\nas naturally pictures the clitoris as does the serpent its male\ncounterpart. By a train of thought not difficult to follow, this\nparticular part of the body has grown to symbolise femininity in\ngeneral. For Africans, therefore, tortoise stands for the feminine\nqualities of persuasion--sometimes, perhaps, not untinged by guile--as\nopposed to the more forceful male attributes. It may be remembered\nthat, in Pliny\u2019s day, a powder made of a whole tortoise shell was\nthought to be an aphrodisiac.\n\nA few days later, in an Mbari house close to Okpala market-place, the\ntwo emblems, snake and tortoise, were found modelled side by side in\nthe very centre of the first row of symbolic figures. Further on at\nObogwe, where the Mbari house is built in two separate sections--the\nfirst, dedicated to the Thunder God Amade Onhia, usually contracted\ninto Amad-ongha, and the second to his spouse, the Earth Goddess Ale or\nAla--the phallic serpent was found in a position of great prominence in\nthe shrine of the male deity, while tortoise was seen, modelled alone,\nin that of the goddess. Another example in which the two symbols were\nfound, this time again in juxtaposition, was upon the main post of the\nshrine of the Juju Ogboloma at Tema near Degama--one of the principal\nKalabari Jujus. Here, as so often, the two are combined with the figure\nof the sacred crocodile.[1]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba),\nOkpala.]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 3. Chief juju at Tema.]\n\nWith the new suggestion in mind, the detailed drawing of the sacred\ndrum was examined, with the result that the emblems carved thereon\nseemed to take upon themselves a deeper significance. As already\nmentioned, at either end of the trough-like base, sits a male or female\nfigure carved from the solid wood and distinct from the drum. To the\nleft, the male, bearing the symbols of manly strength, the sword in\nthe one hand and the horn, typifying plenty and masculine virility,\nin the other. To the right the Mother--her head adorned with the high\ncoiffure which, among Ibo, designates pride in offspring--a babe in\nher outstretched arms. In the centre of the drum itself, in the place\nof honour, carved in bold relief, is shown the phallic serpent. To\nthe left of its pointed head rises the crescent moon--the world-wide\nsymbol of growth--especially connected with childbirth, since expectant\nmothers count their time by its waxing and waning.\n\nOn either side, in the one case above and on the other below, are seen,\ntwice repeated, the disputed signs, in both cases in conjunction with\nthe old Cretan symbol of the union of the sexes--the double-headed\naxe. That the native explanation of the last-named figure was given\nin good faith, there is no reason to doubt. It is only another case\nof the way in which a symbol has survived long after the loss of its\nmeaning. Indeed, a certain similarity exists; but, to those acquainted\nwith native ways, I venture to think that the sharpness of angle marked\nin the joining of haft to head, instead of the easy curves called\nfor by a representation of the musical instrument, is clear enough\nindication that the carver was following faithfully, though blindly,\nin the footsteps of long dead craftsmen whose work once bore another\nsignificance. A considerable number of examples of the old Minoan\ndouble-headed axe cult were found in other parts of West and Central\nAfrica.\n\nBesides those already discussed, only three other symbols are shown\non the front of the great drum: viz. (1) the sacred crocodile--the\nterrible emblem of West Coast cults such as the Human Alligator Society\nand the great Ekoi women\u2019s secret cult of the Nature Goddess Nimm.\nPossibly the crocodile sometimes symbolises another plane of being or\nthe future life; it is a common belief here that many souls live in\ncrocodile form both during the life, and after the death, of the human\nbody. There may also be some connection with the Egyptian worship of\nthis creature. (2) The horn placed beneath the double-headed axe, as\nthe so-called tortoise symbol is above--considered so powerful an\nemblem of virility that even its representation in bronze is supposed\nto excite desire, and, held in the hand of a pregnant woman, to assist\ndelivery; and (3) the figure of a dog--regarded among Ibo and Kalabari\nas the means of first bringing fire to earth--possibly typifying\nthe brute creation in general, or at least that part of it which is\nfriendly to man.\n\nAmong some tribes, especially the Ekkett Ibibio, the tortoise shell is\nlooked upon as the symbol of the Earth Deity, the goddess of fertility.\nThe snake is the chief phallic symbol, not only on account of its shape\nbut also because many species live underground and are therefore taken\nto represent the dead, to whose influence the fruitfulness of the crops\nis in many places considered mainly due.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 4. Outside the Mbari house, Omo Dim]\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nMBARI HOUSES\n\n\nFrom Aba, we passed through Omo Dim, in Owerri District, to visit the\nMbari house there.\n\nAccording to Ababua, priest of Amade Onhia at Ibo near Okomoko, the\nmeaning of the word Mbari is \u2018fine\u2019 or \u2018decorated.\u2019\n\nThe central part of the strange structure at Omo Dim proved to be a\nrectangular building with steeply pointed roof and overhanging eaves,\nthe latter so wide as to make a broad verandah. The walls, forming the\ncentral chamber, were painted with elaborate frescoes, mostly in red\nand white upon yellow, or red and yellow upon white. On either side of\nthe main entrance to the inner, sacred apartment were here, and in most\nMbari houses subsequently visited, figures so strikingly like those\nof Omogwa and Otamelli, the two strangely elongated guardians of the\nThunderer\u2019s shrine at Ibodo (fig. 19), as to make it probable that all\nhad a common origin and were set there for the same purpose, namely to\nwarn trespassers from approaching the shrine.\n\nTo others the people had only answered vaguely in reply to questions as\nto the purpose of the building: \u2018We make it for nothing, only to please\nourselves.\u2019 The identity of the white figure at the top of the ladder\nwas explained, as a portrait of the District Commissioner!\n\nWe were more fortunate, mostly on account of the energy displayed by\nthe interpreter, Chief G. A. Yellow, a man of unusual intelligence,\nto whom the reason of our enquiries had been explained and who was\nfar-sighted enough to wish to aid them by every means in his power.\nBy his persuasion an old chief was induced to come forward and give\nsomewhat more information. According to his account the name of the\nstructure was Njokku Mbari, and it was erected in honour of a great\nancestor, long dead, named Njokku and his wife Mbafor. The white figure\nat the top of the ladder on the right of the building represented\nNjokku himself and, as the chief artlessly pointed out, the birds upon\nthe rungs of the ladder showed that this was the road by which the\nspirit of the dead man had climbed to his place in the sky, whence\nhe now ruled as a great chief. The fact that he was painted white\nsignified that he was no longer an earth child but had passed to the\nghost realm, from whence he watched over his descendants who brought\nofferings at certain times of the year in order that he might be gently\ndisposed towards them and grant plentiful harvests. As mentioned\nelsewhere, there is little doubt that the word Njokku is the same\nas that in use on the Nile, where Jok is the Dinka appellation for\nancestral spirits and the Lango name for God.\n\nOn the testimony of a considerable number of Ibo we learned that no\nMbari house is built save at the orders of, and in honour of, one of\nthe great deities worshipped throughout the Etche country and Owerri\nDistrict, namely Ala, Amade Onhia, Otaminni (the genius of the Otaminni\nRiver) called, by the priest of his principal shrine at the Etche town\nof Opioro, \u2018The Lover of Ale,\u2019 and Oloba, a spirit living in the Owerri\nbush. So far as we could hear, the cult of the latter is quite local.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house]\n\nThe more than life-sized figure, facing the principal entrance to the\nenclosure, was explained by the same chief as that of the ancestress\nMbafor, with her small girl-piccan on her knee. It was, he said, the\nhead priest of Ale, the Earth Goddess, whose shrine is close to the\nMbari house, who ordered the erection of the building, chose out those\nwho were to raise it and himself directed every detail of decoration.\nThere seemed, however, reason to believe that the figures of the\nso-called ancestors Mbafor and Njokku really represented Ale and Amade\nOnhia, regarded, in many parts, as consorts and jointly responsible\nfor the crops. The resemblance between the figures of the deities, as\nhere shown, and those admittedly meant to depict the Earth Goddess and\nThunder God in other Mbari houses, is so striking as surely to be more\nthan a mere matter of coincidence.\n\nIt is indicative of the position of Ale that only the head chief of\na town can aspire to become her priest. This is the case with all\ndominant Jujus; for instance, Otaminni at Opioro and Amade Onhia at\nOzozo, the parent shrine of the Thunder God\u2019s worship, from which all\nother centres of the cult derive their power. The following was the\naccount given by the Omo Dim chief as to the erection of the Mbari\nhouse:\n\n\u2018At the time of the new yam harvest the building is begun and,\nthroughout the first part of the dry season, men and women, chosen for\nthe purpose by the priest of Ale, work hard at beautifying and adorning\nit.\u2019 Only those specially designated for this purpose may take part.\nShould anyone not called thereto by the priest attempt to share in the\nwork, death would fall upon such unauthorised intruders as surely as\nthat which overtook him who, of old, stretched forth a presumptuous\nhand to the Ark.\n\nBefore the making of new farms the house must be finished and ready\nfor the celebration of its strange rites. Later, when the germs of\nthe new season\u2019s crop--corn-grains, sections of yam-tubers and seeds\nof pumpkins, great and small--have been confided to the dark bosom of\nMother Earth, men and maids of the region gather together bringing\ngifts, \u2018rack upon rack of dried fish, goats, sheep and fowls without\nstint, palm-wine in plenty and all else needed for a great feast.\u2019 Of\nthe maids, who have undergone initiatory ceremonies, a certain number\nare chosen by the Ezale (head priest of Ale) to act as priestesses for\nthe rites about to be held in and around the Mbari shrine.\n\nAs to the nature of the ceremonies, the natives were naturally\nreluctant to speak; but Mr. Whitehouse, a former District Commissioner,\nin a short account published in the _Journal of the African\nSociety_,[2] declares them to have been of licentious character.\nSubsequent enquiries confirmed this, and the nature of the rites is\nborne out by the groups of clay figures set both round the central\nshrine and beneath the roof depending from the inner side of the\nwall, which encircles the whole erection cloister-wise. These images\nrepresent, with remarkable fidelity, the life-cycle of bird, beast and\nhuman being, from the act of procreation--depicted with astounding\nna\u00efvet\u00e9--to the lying down, when life is done, for a last long rest in\nthe arms of the Earth Mother.\n\nIt is noticeable that, though beasts of prey play a great part in the\nseries, as is only natural under the conditions here prevalent--such,\nfor instance, as leopard or hippopotamus devouring human beings--these\nfierce beasts are shown either as destroyers or as falling beneath\nthe weapons of the hunters, never in the propagation of their kind.\nHarmless or useful creatures, on the other hand, such as fowls, both\nwild and domesticated, dogs, sheep,[3] etc., together with human\nbeings, are depicted first in the act of procreation, secondly that\nof giving birth, thirdly suckling their young and later in every\nconceivable scene of life. Men are modelled as engaged in hunting,\nfishing, canoeing--as police, court messengers, clerks or musicians.\nWomen are shown grinding cam-wood, arranging elaborate coiffures,\nundergoing operations of extreme delicacy from native doctors--every\nact of life indeed from cradle to grave, and even beyond, here finds\nitself reproduced.\n\nThe following account of the raising of an Mbari shrine was given by\nAmuneke of Umo Yekki quarter, Owerri:\n\n    There are many such houses in our part, and they are starting\n    to make a new one, in honour of Ala, this month (October 1915)\n    in my own quarter. First of all, when she, Amad\u2019ongha or\n    Otaminni, wish for a new house, they send a messenger called\n    Abara.[4] This is a sort of devil, very dreadful to see! In his\n    hand he carries a sword, because he is not only the messenger\n    but also the executioner of Ala. The image at Omo Dim is made\n    with birds perched upon the four horns on his head to show that\n    he is of the Sky People and is often sent by Amad\u2019ongha. The\n    grasses in his hand show that he is also a servant of Ala.\n\n    He goes straight to the compound of the head chief (who\n    is always priest of one of the four great cults already\n    mentioned). Ordinary people are not able to see him; only\n    Juju people can do this, but all hear the place shake as he\n    enters. So soon as the chief knows, from this shaking, that the\n    messenger has come, he sends to a native doctor who goes into\n    the little shrine, where he talks to the spirits, and starts\n    to beat drum. This is a sign to Abara that he is ready to hear\n    the message. When the devil appears, the Juju man sees him\n    clearly, listens to the commands he brings and reports them to\n    the people, saying: \u2018The Juju asks for an Mbari house to be\n    begun on such and such a day.\u2019 Then the head chief chooses out\n    those who are to do the work, four men and three women from\n    each compound. These go out secretly at night time so that no\n    man may see them. If a strong Juju orders an Mbari house to be\n    built and the people do not obey at once, then at least twenty\n    men from that quarter will die.\n\n    [Illustration: FIG. 6. Abara, the Messenger of Ale and\n    Amad\u2019ongha or Otaminni]\n\n    Before beginning to build, they make a high fence round the\n    place so as to hide up the work they are going to do. Then they\n    start to make a long house, called Eki-Wari,[5] in which to\n    sleep. Across the middle of this a line is drawn. Men sleep on\n    the one side and women on the other. It would be regarded as a\n    very bad thing should a woman permit a man to approach her at\n    this time.\n\n    From the moment of starting the work till it is quite finished,\n    even if it lasts for a year, no one may go home again, save the\n    one man chosen from each compound to fetch food every day. That\n    is why four men are always chosen to every three women; because\n    one is needed to go backwards and forwards on \u2018chop palaver.\u2019\n\n    During all the time that the workers live inside the fence,\n    they are forbidden to eat coconut, palm-nuts or cassava. Only\n    cooked yams and soup may be eaten. Also, they may never sleep\n    at night time, only by day. This rule is made because no one\n    must see them when they go out to get the clay from which the\n    figures are formed. This must be taken from the centre of a\n    white ant hill, softened with water and carefully kneaded. No\n    other clay is permitted to be used. So soon as darkness falls,\n    they must begin to work and keep on till just after sunrise.\n\n    When the building is finished, on a day appointed by the Juju,\n    all people, whose sons or daughters have been working, make\n    ready for a great feast. After nightfall, they go to the Mbari\n    house bearing a new-made pot. This must be one never before\n    used, filled to the brim with clear water. Also they carry\n    a cock for every son and a hen for each daughter. All their\n    kinsfolk follow them up to the fence which hides the workers.\n    Only the fathers and mothers may go inside, while the rest\n    of the people wait without. Each couple steps, one after the\n    other, in order of rank, together with the priest, before the\n    big Juju set in front of the main doors. There the Juju priest\n    kills a fowl and mixes its blood with water in the new bowl.\n    Then, with a small wooden spoon, he throws some upon the head\n    of son or daughter and pours the rest upon the great image to\n    whom manillas are also offered. At this point the father says:\n\n      \u2018Ubu    anyi     abiala.        Bia    ikpe    ogu.      Anyi\n      \u2018Now     we     are coming.    Come   judge   matter.     We (_i.e._ between us)\n\n      agi   oku     awsaw   ade    pa.     Anyi     emena       nhie       icheri.\n      you   words   again   are   no(t).    We    have done    things   thought your.\n\n      Ubu   anyi     abiala      bia    ekpaw     nwa   anyi.   Oku\n      Now    we    are coming   come   to take    son   our.    Words\n\n      awsaw   adr   pa.\u2019\n      again   are   no(t) (_i.e._ all is finished).\u2019\n\n    After this the mother says (for a son):\n\n      \u2018Ubu-laka    nhie     oma    ka      ega        enyi    anyi    na    nwam\n        \u2018Now      things   good   you   are going   to give    us    and   son my\n\n      makana                   ihie     oma    onu    oma    onu    nagi.     Nam   na\n      because (he has done)   things   good   work   good   work   for you.    I    and\n\n        dim           na    ji    unwenne    na     omu       umonu    na    ewu\n      husband (my)   and   yam    I have    and   children   I born   and   goats\n\n      mwenne    nhie     oma    ka          anyi   ega    anhu   afor     anhua.\u2019\n      I have   things   good   make (for)    us     go    see    year   this coming.\u2019\n\n    For a daughter the mother says:\n\n         \u2018Aborolam         nwam         obi    oma.        Mejiea          na     mejieadia\n      \u2018I am taking my   child (with)   mind   good.   Give gifts to her   and    gifts to her\n                                                                                husband (for)\n\n       onu-ma      ka.        Aronona        ge   anyi.    Mfu     ga   ezi   ubu-laka\n      work good   your.   Have worked for   you    we.    If (I)   go   out     now\n\n        afu       na   nam     nhie     ojo.\u2019\n      finished   for    me    things    bad.\u2019\n\n    So soon as the last word \u2018ojo\u2019 has been spoken, the priest\n    seizes son or daughter and pushes him, or her, towards the\n    parents who at once catch hold on either hand. All three _walk\n    backwards_ towards the gate. As the first foot strikes the\n    threshold, they face round and the relatives waiting outside\n    catch up the worker without an instant\u2019s delay and bear him\n    back to his home. No foot of any such may be set to ground,\n    lest Ala should be vexed.\n\n    When they reach the house all join in a great feast, with fish\n    of every kind, plenty beef and tombo too much! That night the\n    people tear down the fences, which were put up to hide the\n    work, and burn them in a very great fire.\n\n    Those years, in which a new house is built, the yams grow\n    bigger in our farms, goats and sheep have more piccans, while\n    nearly always the girls chosen by the Juju for her work bear\n    babes fine past those of other mothers. Usually they conceive\n    soon after the work is finished--often within one or two moons\n    of the play.\n\n    About every five or six years a new Mbari house is raised to\n    Ala. She has more than any other god. Next in number come\n    those built for Amade Onhia and still less for Otaminni and\n    Oloba. I have never heard of any such house being made for the\n    ancestors, as was said to be the case at Omo Dim. This may be\n    true for that part; only I know nothing of it.\n\n    It is in the little inner room that the god lives. In each of\n    these a tall stone, shaped like an Ibudu, is set. After making\n    its face smooth and clean all about, they cover it with a piece\n    of white cloth. It is into this stone that the spirit enters.\n\n    Suppose one man charges another with doing bad things. Then\n    they bring the accused for night time and lock him up alone in\n    the small inner room. Next morning, if he be innocent, he walks\n    forth unharmed; suppose he be guilty, then Juju kills him and\n    his dead body is carried out at dawn. Perhaps Juju beat him to\n    death, perhaps kill him other way; but always he die. No help\n    for such man.\n\n    When a big pointed stone is found in our bush, an Mbari house\n    is always built for it. In places where such things are, the\n    knives, with which the old people made them, may be dug up out\n    of the earth. I myself found one such knife at Baro. It was of\n    very strong stone, hard past iron and curved over in a sharp\n    point.\n\n    At Olakwaw near Owerri one very big stone was found. They\n    carved it into an Ala figure and built a house for it. This\n    they put in the place of honour, facing the big door. Also at\n    Ne-Ewu and Ihuara in Owerri District there are stone figures\n    of Ala, Amad\u2019ongha, Okpara Ala (the first born son of the Earth\n    Goddess) and Eke, the great snake. This is the kind of big\n    snake which lives for bush and always has a shining stone in\n    its head, such as white people call diamond. It is because of\n    these serpents that Eke day is said to take its name.\n\n    [Illustration: FIG. 7. Girl \u2019Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro]\n\n    [Illustration: FIG. 8. Humorous figures]\n\n    Images of Ale and Amad\u2019ongha may be carved out of stone or\n    moulded in clay, but must never be cut from wood like the Agu\n    Isi (_i.e._ wooden images consulted by native doctors): for so\n    the Juju orders. Ala has other sons beside Okpara Ala.[6] Among\n    Etche Ibos and those of Owerri the younger sons are worshipped\n    every month, four days after the coming of the new moon. They\n    are represented under the shape of small cut stones such as\n    were taken from the bad Onye Dibia (medicine man) at Awka.\n    These stones are always kept in one of the round box stools,\n    rubbed with cam-wood. The medicine man sits upon the box, then\n    rises and shows the stones to the people who throw themselves\n    upon the ground before these, praying for piccans, kids, lambs\n    and yams. These sons are never represented in any other shape.\n    No figures of them are to be found in Mbari houses.\n\n    Sometimes we call these buildings Mbari, sometimes \u2019Mgbe. This\n    last word means a small boy or girl orphan. There are two kinds\n    of \u2019Mgbe--those who have relatives to look after them and those\n    who have none. We call the latter Osu \u2019Mgbe, _i.e._ the worst\n    \u2019Mgbe. He is so very poor he can only get food by searching\n    round the bush for palm-nuts. For this reason his image is\n    nearly always made with palm-nuts in hand.\n\n    In olden days such a boy was always bought by one or other of\n    the quarters and presented as a slave to the Juju. Afterwards\n    he might never enter the compound which bought him, but could\n    go to beg food from others. Sometimes, when he has grown big\n    enough, he makes himself a little house in one of the corners\n    of the Mbari. Then people bring yams to him. Sometimes too the\n    Juju asks for chop for him. If the Juju loves him very much, it\n    will also ask one of the chiefs to give him a slave wife; but\n    such a boy may never marry any free-born girl of the town. The\n    same rule holds for girl orphans bought with money and given\n    to the Juju. They may take slave husbands, but never marry a\n    free-born man.\n\n    Another figure to be seen in every Mbari house is that of the\n    ape Ogbango. This is the kind into which the souls of bad Ibo\n    go after death.\n\nIn the Western Etche country these temples are generally called \u2019Mgbe\nhouses. Umoyo, the principal place hereabouts, is a queer little\ntown--or rather two towns--through which runs a single long street,\nfenced in on either side by a palisade of posts and palm-leaves. The\nhouses lie well back, often out of sight from the main road, in gardens\nwhich bear luxuriant crops. At the end of the street stretches a line\nof cacti to keep out evil influences.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro]\n\nThe head chief Wobilo was friendly to Government, and we had hoped to\ngain from him a considerable amount of information regarding the origin\nand rites of this singular cult. By an unfortunate accident, however,\nsome of the principal men of the town had lately been drowned in the\nJuju water formed by the sacred Otaminni River just below its junction\nwith the Ogochi. No sooner were the sad tidings made known to relatives\nand friends than the whole town turned against the head chief, saying\nthat the deaths lay at his door, because he had induced them to\nundertake the journey which resulted in their untimely end. In\nconsequence, Wobilo found himself outcast in his own town and, when\non our next visit we asked a few questions concerning the figures in\nthe local \u2019Mgbe house, the chief refused to run the risk of increasing\nhis unpopularity by giving away information, and we were everywhere\nmet by the answer: \u2018I do not know. We did it for no reason. Perhaps\nour ancestors may have had knowledge of these things; but, as for us,\nwe have long since forgotten, and only copy the customs taught by our\nfathers because we believe that by so doing we shall draw prosperity\nupon our town.\u2019\n\nThe only information we could get ran as follows:\n\n    Mbari or \u2019Mgbe is our Chineke, also our Juju. People from Orata\n    built the house. At certain seasons girls dress themselves and\n    come before the shrine, there to dance, eat and drink.\n\n    Amad\u2019ongha is a great Juju, but our people do not worship him\n    much. His proper country is over the other side of the Otaminni\n    River.\n\nWhen an Mbari house was to be erected in Etche country, a medicine man\nwas consulted as to time and place of building. Thereupon he brought\nout a human skull--in the old days that of a slaughtered victim,\nbut since the coming of white rule one sought amid the \u2018bad bush\u2019\nnear his town. Round this were set out the Agu images--always, be it\nremembered those typifying fatherhood and motherhood, together with\nrepresentatives of the animal kingdom, including \u2018dog\u2019 who brought fire\nto earth. A cock was killed and its blood sprinkled over the skull and\nthe little images. Then the magician gave utterance to the supposed\nwish of the Earth Mother or Sky Father with regard to the building\nto be erected in their honour, by means of which, it was thought,\nprosperity of farm, byre and marriage bed might be secured to the town.\n\nAt Opioro stands an Mbari house built in honour of the spirit of the\nOtaminni River--the only one known to us throughout the Division. The\nimage of Otaminni is set in the centre of the front side, with his \u2018big\nrelation\u2019 Ala to his right and his three wives Ogori, Ocham and Wujere\nin a row on his left.\n\nOn the opposite side of the house, in the seat of honour, sits the\nEarth Mother again; while, near her, groups of women are engaged in\npursuits set apart by custom as purely feminine. For instance, a\nmidwife ushers a babe into the world; cam-wood is ground, etc. All the\ncharacters, with which one had grown familiar in other houses of this\ntype, were here reproduced with one exception, that of ape. An enquiry\ninto the cause of his absence brought the surprised reply: \u2018Ogbango is\nhere, sir! He stand for middle place at other side of house.\u2019\n\nA visit to the spot indicated revealed no sign of what we were\nseeking--only an unseemly group such as is to be found in nearly\nall such buildings, the woman bending forward at right angles from\nthe waist, her head resting upon the square base of one of the roof\npillars, while the male figure behind her was unmistakably engaged\nin the Geschlechts Akt. The present head priest of Otaminni, Amade\nOnyeche, was at the moment anxious to be appointed to the post of\nwarrant chief in the place of his late brother. This made him not\nonly willing but eager to impart information. His disclosures were,\nindeed, on certain points rather embarrassingly full. He stated, and\nhis account was afterwards borne out by those of other Ibo, that the\nmale figure was not that of a man but of the very Ogbango whom we had\nthought absent. In proof of this statement the priest pointed out that,\nin its right hand, on the left shoulder and beneath the left arm, the\nape held a round ball, representing those hard fruits which, according\nto widespread native testimony, it is his habit to fling at passers-by,\nthereby stunning, or even killing, them. This we had already heard from\nmany parts of the country. At Obogwe it was added that so heavy were\nthe fruits and so great the strength of this ape that it was thought\nhe might even succeed in stunning an elephant therewith! Amade Onyeche\ncontinued:\n\n    It is customary among our people to take up the position of\n    this couple for such a purpose, when there is no bed near at\n    hand. It is forbidden to lie upon the ground, lest Ale should\n    be defiled thereby. There are many of these great apes in our\n    bush who, if they meet a woman alone, force her to bear a child\n    to them.\n\nThe same belief, according to Amuneke of Umo Yekki, is held in the\nneighbourhood of Owerri. It is probably connected with the idea that\nthe souls of bad men pass into ape form at death. It appears that the\nevil human spirit, confined in the animal body, is thought to take this\nmeans of providing a new form in which to re-incarnate.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 10. The Chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim]\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nMBARI HOUSES (_continued_)\n\n\nIn Mbari houses built in honour of Amade Onhia it is made perfectly\nclear, as is natural, that the Thunderer himself holds first place,\nwhile his consort is of secondary importance. In the shrine at Omo Dim,\nas previously mentioned, the place of honour, facing the entrance, was\noccupied by the figure of the so-called deified ancestress Mbafor--a\nbowl for offerings sunk into the ground at her feet and her daughter\nupon her knee. The face and form of the mother are bright yellow, the\ncolour of the clay from which she is modelled as are those of Ala in\nall shrines yet visited; while the whole body of the child is dead\nwhite, like that of the Thunderer himself, the deified ancestor Njokku\nseated above his sky ladder, or indeed ghosts and \u2018sky people\u2019 in\ngeneral.\n\nOn the white of her body five coal-black crescent moons had been\npainted; one just above the shoulder, one on the top of the arm and\nthree down the flank. All, save that on the arm, showed a protuberance\nin the centre, exactly in the place where the nose would come when\nchildren draw the face of the man in the moon. The point would not\nhave been worth mentioning but for the fact that in each Mbari house\nvisited a peculiar decoration was noticeable, only to be described as\na screen of lattice-work, formed of interlacing human figures. This\nwas explained as representing the slaves sacrificed and flung into\nthe grave--or laid there still living, but with broken arms and thigh\nbones--to form carpet and bier for the body of the dead chief. It may\nwell have borne some such interpretation, but this would hardly explain\nthe fact that, in each case which we came across, one row of figures,\nusually the centre one, bore faces the shape of a crescent moon, mostly\ndead white and outlined by a deep black rim. At Omo Dim, Okpala and\nObogwe too there is a figure--which is duplicated with more or less\nfidelity in several other shrines and which for obvious enough reasons\nwas named, by my companions, \u2018little moon-face\u2019--of the same type as\nthose in the human trellis work.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 12. \u201cLittle Moon-face,\u201d Omo Dim]\n\nNow the crescent moon is a sign of growth the world over. Ekoi women\ncome together, beneath her faint beams, to carry out the rites which,\naccording to their belief, will ensure fruitfulness. Ibibio and Ibo\nalso hold that her rays are endued with fecundative powers, while\npregnant women count the time to their delivery by her waxing and\nwaning.\n\nSome few weeks later, in passing through the town of Ebubu in the\nextreme east of Degama District inhabited by that strange and hitherto\nunstudied tribe, the Mbolli, we came across a shrine of a type such\nas we had never before seen. It is carved from a solid block of wood\nsome four feet high, set in a carefully smoothed clay base, swathed\nround the bottom by folds of white cloth and surmounted by an inverted\ncrescent. The name of this Juju is Obo Esa, _i.e._ in Mbolli dialect\nfour hundred yams. The reason given for this name is that only full\nchiefs have the right to erect such a fetish, to which they must\nsacrifice each harvest time baskets containing the given number of\nyams. It was explained that Obo Esa is a male Juju--a statement borne\nout by the appearance of the symbolic pillar--and to him, at the\ncutting of new farms and digging of fresh yams, living sacrifices must\nbe brought and slain so that their blood is shed upon the clay base,\nwhence it trickles down over the seven little moon-shaped depressions\nto the thirsty earth beneath. These small half moons may well typify\nthe period during which the yams are confided to the bosom of Mother\nAle--called Nkike by the Mbolli--while the great crescent, surmounting\nthe pillar, probably represents that of the month of September during\nwhich the harvest festival is usually held.\n\nConsidering the close connection between the waxing moon and the\npowers of fertility, it is not without significance that personified\nrepresentations of the crescent are to be found in each Mbari house,\nespecially when it is remembered that the shrine of the Earth Goddess\nis always close by and that only after consultation with her priest is\nthe building begun and carried through.\n\nAgain, although we were expressly told, as already related, that the\nchief figure at Omo Dim did not represent either of the principal\ndeities, but only a deified ancestress, yet a man present volunteered\nthe information--it is true, in a highly superior manner--that some old\nand very ignorant people held them to be those of Amad\u2019ongha and Ale.\nSo stupid, however, were such that they even believed the white child,\non the knee of the Earth Mother, to be the moon! As if any but the most\nfoolish could look upon the moon as a daughter of Earth!\n\nIn the Obogwe Mbari house--the only one which we have yet found\nbuilt in two separate edifices--the first building was dedicated to\nAmad\u2019ongha and the second to Ale, locally called Ala. Our informant,\nOmere Madu, was the son of the late head chief who therefore, _ipso\nfacto_, was priest of Ale. He told us that this goddess was the\ndominant power in the town, and that she ordered her priest to have the\ntwo houses built in that place and form--one for herself and one for\nher spouse Amad\u2019ongha. In both buildings he sits in the seat of honour,\nbut in the first alone, while in the second she is seen on his left, in\nthe same position as that of the figure at Obodo to which her name was\nfirst given, but which was later called Omu Ngwaw, the fruitful mother\n(see p. 40).\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house]\n\nIn the temple dedicated to the Thunderer, on the left of the central\nfigure is seen one, the name of which was said to be Eku Nechi--_i.e._\n\u2018the big woman who cooks,\u2019 or more fully \u2018who gathers the children of\nothers around her and cooks for them.\u2019 The figure is seated, supporting\na boy and a girl against her sides; while another pair sits, one upon\neach of her outstretched legs. The most singular thing about this group\nis that each of the male children bears a crescent moon for face, while\nfrom the necks of the two girls is painted a cloth thickly covered with\nwhite dots. On the wall of the Ale shrine, a fresco may be seen on\nwhich a moon-faced boy is depicted climbing up the right hand side of a\nrainbow, painted in black, yellow and red stripes. In such a position\nhe is supposed to be an envoy from the Earth Goddess, climbing the sky\nwith a message from Amade Onhia, or, when descending, bringing word\nfrom the latter to the children of men. Beneath, on a black ground, a\ncrescent moon and stars are shown--the stars represented by white dots\nexactly like those painted round the necks of the girl piccans of Eku\nNechi. It is not impossible therefore that here again, in \u2018the big\nwoman who feeds the children of others,\u2019 we have another forgotten\npicturing of Ale, the Earth Mother, with her starry progeny.\n\nA singular fact about all the Mbari shrines hitherto visited is that,\nin each, figures may be seen, obviously modelled with the express\nintention of depicting licence in its most blatant form. Primitive\npeoples the world over, however frank in picturing or mentioning facts\ntreated with the greatest reticence by civilised races, are usually\nignorant of real vulgarity or indecency, since the very simplicity of\nmanner and treatment robs their statements of offence. The Ibo of this\nregion, especially, have a code with regard to sexual matters which,\nhowever lax according to our ideas, is yet strangely strict in some\ndirections. According to them four of the most evil things are:\n\n(1) For man and woman to lie together on the earth, since this is\nthought to defile Ale. Among Kalabari indeed the idea is carried so\nfar that no woman is allowed, under any circumstances, to seat herself\nupon the ground. In the absence of stool or convenient tree-trunk she\nmust stand. As already mentioned, according to chief Amade Onyeche, the\nposition adopted by Etche Ibo, when no bed, mat or cloth is available,\nis for the woman to stand bending forward at right angles from the\nwaist, while her lover stands immediately behind.\n\n(2) Connection is absolutely forbidden during the hours of daylight, or\neven at night time when a light is burning in the room; also at any\ntime in the bush or in a farm, where there is no house.\n\n(3) It is the height of impropriety for a man to have relations with a\nwoman who is not clothed in the prescribed custom.\n\n(4) For a husband to attempt to view the genital organs of his wife is\nregarded as so serious an offence as to be considered valid ground for\ndivorce. In a case brought before me in the Degama Native Court, the\nclaim ran: \u2018To demand freedom of marriage on account of peeping.\u2019\n\nIn every Mbari house yet visited, however, figures were seen modelled\nwith the obvious purpose of expressing a breach of one or other of\nthese rules. In most of the buildings groups were found in which the\nfeminine figure was shown partially lying on the ground--in a position\nimpossible to any human anatomy and therefore, it would seem, so posed\nas intentionally to express direct rebellion against the generally\naccepted rules of decency.\n\nAn official of high rank, who was the first Government representative\nto visit this region, described to me a shrine which he saw about\ntwelve years ago, near Ingaw in Owerri District, where certain points\nwere even more na\u00efvely depicted than by those erected in the present\nday. Among the more noticeable groups were men in the act of copulating\nwith a sheep and antelope respectively. As regards the latter animal,\nit is not without interest to recall that, according to several\naccounts from well-informed sources, ancient Yoruba custom ordained\nthat, after the kill of his first antelope, a young hunter must have\nconnection with the still warm form. Possibly some such rule obtained,\nor maybe even yet exists, in these regions.\n\nThe group of men and sheep seems to point to the existence of a like\ncustom among Ibo as one learns, on good authority, prevails among the\nneighbouring Ijaw, with whom the chief feature of male initiatory rites\nconsists in each boy proving his manhood, before a circle of elders,\nupon a specially selected sheep. Should he be unsuccessful, he must\nwait until the following year and is prevented from marriage until\nafter having passed the test. From certain information it would appear\nthat one of the principal centres, where this rite is carried out, may\nbe found on a southern creek in the neighbourhood of Kula.[7] It was\nna\u00efvely added that the sheep \u2018never go \u2019gree to this and always vex\ntoo much\u2019 when the rite was carried out. Later, a similar custom was\nreported from among the Ekkpahians of Ahoada District.\n\nIt is true that every Ibo or Kalabari who mentioned the subject was\neager to state that Ekkpahians perform this rite \u2018merely out of\nbadness; for no proper reason at all.\u2019 Yet, though it is unfortunately\nnot permitted me to give a single name as authority, it would appear,\nafter very careful weighing of evidence, that the practice has been\nexacted from time immemorial as a test of manhood. Both Ibo and\nKalabari also asserted that unnatural vice is extensively practised\namong this people, though rare with other races of the Division; but it\nis only just to state that the practice appears to be carried on not\nfor the purpose of sensual indulgence, but, in some cases at least,\nfrom the idea, held among certain Australian tribes, that such customs\nincrease the race by magical means.\n\nThat the practice is not held in as great detestation throughout\nEkkpahian and neighbouring territory as among other tribes is proved\nby the more or less casual manner in which the matter was mentioned as\nwell as from one or two Court cases. It will be enough to quote that\nheard at Omokku on January 20th, 1913, in which Atoma of Erema charged\nOkereke of Idu with indecent assault. In the course of her evidence\nplaintiff stated on oath:\n\n    About three months ago accused came to my father\u2019s house to\n    have connection with him. At that time I went to bed....\n\n    _Question by Court._ When he came to your house, where did he\n    stay with your father to have connection?\n\n    _Answer._ Outside the house.\n\n    _Question by Accused._ What date did I come to your house?\n\n    _Answer._ Orie day.\n\n    _Question by Court_ (_to father_). Was accused your friend?\n\n    _Answer._ No.\n\n    _Question by Court._ Did accused ever come to your house and\n    have connection with you at night?\n\n    _Answer._ Yes. He always come to my house and prosecutor saw\n    him.\n\nAmong Ekkpahians and the Abuan, as well as with the Western Ikwerri,\nelaborate, two-storied buildings may be seen, upon which the wealth and\nutmost resources of the town have been lavished, even to stained- and\npatterned-glass for all the windows. My attention was drawn to these\nbuildings by a man high in the medical service of the Protectorate,\nwith the information that they were erected for the practice of\nunnatural vices. This was later confirmed from native sources with\nthe addition that they were the homes of the Obukere Club and that\nthe customs were of religious significance. The fact that such habits\nexist is, unfortunately, too well known to be worth mentioning, were\nit not for a few words dropped by one of the chiefs and intended in\nextenuation of the practice. \u2018It is true,\u2019 he said, \u2018that the custom is\na very bad one; yet aged men tell us that it was taught in olden days\nas a very great magic _whereby our flocks and herds might be multiplied\nand made strong. Even, it is said, the crops in the farms are increased\nthereby._\u2019\n\nThe idea was confirmed by another chief who however insisted that it\nwas only a tradition from the olden time--held by dead men, very far\naway--and he did not think that any such belief was prevalent nowadays.\nHe also added, cautiously, that this form of vice was far less indulged\nin at present than was formerly the case.\n\nThe information fitted in with that already gleaned concerning the\nsupposed efficacy of phallic shrines set up amid the fields in order to\nsecure plentiful crops.\n\nAs a result, further information was sought concerning the cult of\nObukere, one of the most interesting of whose lodges was discovered at\nObelle Oduaha. An avenue, half a mile in length, every trunk of which\nbore a sinister-looking smear of cam-wood dye, led to the house. At\nthe entrance to this grove it opens out into a cleared space, from the\ncentre of which springs a clump of trees smeared with deep bands of\nred and hung round with white cloth. Behind these rises a giant ant\nhill, while round their roots a mound of earth about five feet high\nwas piled. Amid the rich mould and fallen leaves stood votive pots and\nbowls, among which bundles of young tombo palms just bursting from the\nparent kernels, were to be seen, mostly enclosed in wrappings of broad\ngreen leaves bound round with tie-tie. This clump of trees is regarded\nas the abode of Obukere himself. Here members of his cult assemble to\ncarry out the rites. Before his dwelling-place the worshippers cover\ntheir faces and, thus veiled or masked, go in procession through the\nsacred grove--the tree trunks of which, down to the smallest sapling,\nhave been fresh smeared with the symbolic blood-red cam-wood. In these\nregions Obukere is regarded as the great giver of fertility to all in\nair, water or upon earth--fish, animals, plants or men.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 14. Obukere Club head-dresses]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere\nClub, Oduaha]\n\nAll lodges of this club as yet visited show a peculiar development in\nthe highly conventionalised animal head-dresses which are worn for\nplays. In the Otu Obukele (house of Obukele or Obukere) a big shed made\nof solid wooden posts, at the Abuan town of Okobaw, some head-dresses\nof unusual type were found; among them representations of antelopes,\nporcupines and the \u2018increase of the Sky people,\u2019 typifying the sky\nworld above that of men.\n\nRound the lodge at Obelle Oduaha were seven phallic shrines six of\nwhich were of the usual pillar type, while the seventh showed a\nfeatureless head, arms and legs indicated in the roughest manner,\nand only the distinctly feminine organs modelled with any care. The\nposition of these shrines in close proximity to the house of Obukere\nworshipped with the avowed purpose of increasing fertility in man,\nanimals and crops, can hardly be regarded as without significance.\nWithin the house were two objects of interest--a xylophone in the shape\nof a canoe manned by eight figures, stated by the chief to have been\nspecially designed to express \u2018joy\u2019 and raise feelings of pleasure\nin those who behold them; and an object which strongly resembled the\nAjokko-Ji or king yam shown to us at Oppe, separated by the sacred\ncrocodile swamp from Alessa, and which will be more fully described\nlater on page 99.\n\nThe drum used at Oduaha to call together the members of the Obukere\nClub was said to have been brought from Abua and to have been made\nfor the Sekapu Club, connected with the spirits of fish, crocodiles\nand--in this part of the world--land beasts. It may be only a whim of\nthe carver that the figure of the woman, depicted with rounded body as\na sign of pregnancy, should be joined to that of the sacred crocodile.\nDrums of similar type were later found among Abaw Ibo.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 16. Figure in Mbari House, Umoyo]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari\nhouse]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 17. Wrestling scene (\u2019Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia\nand Ale. Shrine drummers on the right]\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nMBARI HOUSES (_continued_)\n\n\nIn nearly all towns of importance in the Etche country, elaborate Mbari\nshrines are to be found, built in honour of the Thunder God. In most,\njust within the principal entrance, may be seen the seated figure of\nthe deity, white from head to foot, and bearing in the right hand a\nsword, spear or bayonet, and in the left an imitation of one of the\nold stone axe-heads, thought by natives to be thunder bolts, or one of\nthe long iron sceptre-rattles, or possibly another sword or dagger. By\nhis side sits his consort, to whom various names are given, most of\nthem apparently synonyms for the Earth Goddess Ale, Ala, Ana or Aja.\nAt Ibodo we were told by one informant that the figure represented\nAla--Bride of the Bladed Thunder. The more general Ibo idea as to her\nidentity was confided by the head priest, Achongwa by name, to chief G.\nA. Yellow: \u2018That,\u2019 said he, \u2018is Omu Ngwaw, wife of Amad\u2019ongha.\u2019\n\nOmu Ngwaw is literally \u2018the children (or young leaves) of the tombo\npalm tree,\u2019 _raphia vinifera_. Now, when a woman has given birth to a\nfirst or second babe, the days which she spends in seclusion are often\ncalled by the same name, while the word for fruitfulness itself, or\ngiving birth, is Omumu. The connection thought to exist in primitive\nminds is the probable reason why young palm-leaves are in such evidence\nbefore the shrines of all beneficent Jujus; the half-unfolded frond\nstands as type and symbol of fruitful motherhood.\n\nOn floor and walls, serpents twine and twist; hippopotami hold men\nhalf devoured in their mouths, leopards stand over new-slain goats,\nelephants wave long trunks or fall to the guns of hunters, apes climb\nor swing, and fabulous creatures disport themselves on every hand. A\nclerk counts his money on a little table. Two wrestlers may be seen\nlocked in one another\u2019s arms[8] and a native doctor anoints the womb\nof a woman patient with a feather dipped in oil. In short, so far as\nin them lies, the whole life-history of the people is here reproduced\nwith infinite pains and care. As in the Owerri Mbari houses, the\nhead-dresses of the women are most elaborately rendered, while the\nmodelling of a ram\u2019s head and of one small monkey which sat devouring\na corn-cob were extraordinary samples of artistic skill. Again, a\npeculiar feature of several of these were figures obviously modelled\nwith the intention of expressing the feeling of joy. It is probably\nonly a coincidence that so many of the figures of Ale show much\nenlarged navels--the \u1f40\u03bc\u03c6\u03ac\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 of the Earth Goddess.\n\nIn all these shrines the mural decoration is not painted, but applied\nto the walls like a gigantic piece of Cloisonn\u00e9--clay, tinted with\nvarious dyes, being filled in between strips of raphia palm which serve\nto outline the design exactly as does the brass edging the enamelled\nleaves and flowers of the above-mentioned ware.\n\nOne of the most interesting of the temples visited lay some two and a\nhalf miles off the main road near Ibodo and was approached first by a\nnarrow bush-path and later by a broad way over-arched by great trees,\nthe branches of which interlaced overhead to form a clear translucent\ntwilight even at noonday. As we passed beneath the fern-fringed,\norchid-decked boles, the sky was overcast and the sun already low in\nthe west, while the voice of the Thunder God might be heard in the\ndistance--a low, threatening note in the twilight.\n\nWhen the village of Omako was reached and we approached the shrine, the\nsun was just setting. Blue smoke rose from amid the strange figures,\nover which flames flickered and danced from a little fire tended by an\nold, old woman, who among such uncanny surroundings was quietly cooking\nher evening meal. She was the \u2018slave of the Juju\u2019 who had sought his\nprotection as a refuge from oppression untold moons ago. Her whole life\nis spent amid the weird figures which she guards and serves, lighting\nfires during the rains that the soft clay may not be melted nor the\nroof and wood-work rotted by damp and mould--though, strangely enough,\nit is strictly forbidden to make the slightest attempt at repairing\nwhen cracks appear in figure or wall, however much care was expended on\nthe building of the shrine.\n\nSo near to one another are the figures that the little sleeping mat\nof the attendant could hardly find space to be stretched out in\nbetween. Their eyes were set with fragments of looking-glass, which\ntwinkled and gleamed in the most life-like way, as the flames rose and\nfell. How many years the gentle old slave, with her soft voice and\ndeprecatory gestures, had served the Juju, none could tell. She herself\nseemed to have lost all memory of any other life; but the dim eyes\nbrightened at the gift of tobacco leaves and the gentle voice followed\nus, still calling Ndeawo--the common word both for \u2018thanks\u2019 and for\n\u2018greeting\u2019--as we went away.\n\nIn every case which we have seen as yet, the Thunder God wears a\nsharply pointed black beard. In many instances little rattles hang from\nhis neck or are attached to a spear or staff held in his hand, while a\ncluster of bells is slung from a rope usually passing over the right\nshoulder and resting on the left hip. In one place his feet were set\nupon a curved bar of iron which had once been gaily painted and was\nsaid to represent the rainbow. It is with the rattles that he produces\nthe roll of his thunder, while the bells strike together to form the\nclash and bang of each separate peal. The type of figure was identical\nwith that of the so-called deified ancestor Njokko, seated at the top\nof his sky ladder upon each rung of which \u2018air people,\u2019 _i.e._ birds,\nwere perched.\n\nIt is perhaps not without significance that, upon either hand of his\nthrone, two slender pillars the shape of an elongated torch and each\nbearing a bird, are set.[9] These are small and vaguely modelled, but\nit is possible that they once represented the eagles of Zeus--which,\namong Ibibio, are still sacred to Obumo, the Thunderer.[10]\n\nAt Ibodo, on either side of the door of the central shrine--the \u2018holy\nof holies\u2019 which only the priest can enter unscathed--we first noticed\nthe two strangely-shaped figures which are also to be seen guarding the\ninner sanctuary of the Owerri Mbari houses. They were thus explained to\nus:\n\n\u2018These are the servants of Amad\u2019ongha. Their names are Omogwa and\nOtamelli. The first\u2019--with spread tresses--\u2018is calling up the tempest\nby striking on her mouth.\u2019 (This action was later described, at another\nshrine, as \u2018cleaning her teeth with a bush stick!\u2019) \u2018The second is\nabout to loosen her hair which floats around her in the storm-wind\ndarkening all the earth\u2019--a possible picturing of the rain-bearing\nclouds.\n\n    Omogwa\u2019s left hand is stretched out to warn intruders from\n    entering the chamber which she and her sister Alose are set to\n    guard, lest thereby the wrath of Amade Onhia should be drawn\n    down upon the trespasser.\n\n    In former days, when men had offended against the law of the\n    Juju, they were brought by the priests and shut up within the\n    shrine. Then, in the night time, came some fearful thing to\n    torture them to death, perhaps by beating, perhaps in other\n    ways. At any rate the body of the offender was always borne\n    forth at dawn and shown to the trembling people as a sign of\n    the fate which would overtake any who dared disobey the law of\n    the Thunder God or the commands of his priests.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and\nOtamelli]\n\nAs already mentioned on page 20, this custom also prevailed among\nthe people of Owerri. Near the two Alose, on each side of the inner\nentrance, are small holes in which offerings of kola are placed when\npeople come to \u2018bless the shrine\u2019 or ask for special favours.\n\nIn the neighbourhood of Ibodo and indeed all over the Etche country,\naccording to the testimony of chief Achongwa, it is customary before\ncutting palm-nuts to offer sacrifice to some specially tall trees, one\nof which will be found in every compound. These are named Amad\u2019ongha\u2019s\npalms, because the people say that those, which reach very high,\nare nearer to the deity. Men who neglect this rite find that their\npalm-nuts do not produce much oil. Later, we found that the custom was\nalso practised by Aro and a row of the trees--here known as the palms\nof Kamalo, the name given by this people to Amad\u2019ongha--was shown us\nin the compound of chief Ogunda at Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. In an Aro\ncompound at Ozoaba each tree had a tall palm-leaf tied against its\nbase, the top leaflets cut off straight and surmounted by a scarlet\nparrot\u2019s feather, an egg, etc.\n\nAt Ibodo, from the Thunderer\u2019s shrine to the corner of the rest-house,\nstretches a sacred grove beneath the shade of which native pots and\nother offerings may be found. Here, during the dry season, a number\nof small mats of plaited palm were seen, each bearing an offering\nof goat\u2019s flesh. It is perhaps worth mentioning that, among Ibibio,\ncurtains of plaited palm-leaf are hung before holy pools and groves\nor round the trunks of sacred trees. The plaited part is said to\nrepresent the rainbow, while the long fringe from the lower edge\ntypifies the rain itself.\n\nIn the grove at Ibodo beneath one of the trees, peeled, short-branched\nwands--the symbol of lightning--were still standing, and we were told\nthat formerly many such had been set up in other spots. When these rods\ndecay, the power of the Thunder God is said to pass from them into the\nnearest tree. Once drawn within the many-forked branches, the \u2018mana\u2019 of\nAmad\u2019ongha fades not with the fading of its first frail tenement, but\nis drawn into the vegetation around, growing and spreading with each\nnew season\u2019s boughs.\n\nAt the far end of the sacred grove stands a tree such as we had never\nseen elsewhere, of which the crowded panicles of single petaled\nflowers, deepest crimson in colour, swayed to and fro in the breeze\namid dark quivering leaves, or fell earthward in showers, like drops of\nnew drawn blood.\n\nOne night, at the beginning of the tornado season, we were sleeping\nin the neighbouring rest-house, when a storm arose with the appalling\nsuddenness usual at this time of year. The wind tore at the frail\npalm-leaf roofs, while rain lashed in through open window- and\ndoor-frames, flash after flash was followed, with scarce an interval,\nby crash and roar so deafening that for a long time all other sounds\nwere drowned in the awful tumult. As the storm began to pass away,\nanother sound made itself heard in the lengthening intervals. Each\nlightning gleam was followed by a burst of trumpeting, as though the\nfollowers of the storm god had come together undaunted by the force\nof the tempest to hold a play in honour of their great deity. It\nis impossible to give any idea of the impressiveness of this act of\nworship. From out the impenetrable darkness, between long lines of\nrain, like a sword from its scabbard leapt the dazzling flash. The\nbranches of the sacred grove moaned and swayed, bitumen dark against\nthis more than daylight brilliance; while, from beneath their shade or\nfrom the neighbourhood of the shrine, each burst of flame was answered\nby a blare of savage trumpets, the sound of which merged into the roll\nof the sequent thunder.\n\nSo long as the storm lasted the strange music continued, broken now and\nagain by the cries of the terrified cattle, which rose in chorus from\ncountless byres and were hardly distinguishable at times from the rude\nhorns blown by their owners.\n\nSave for the fact that the outer colonnade, which gives accommodation\nto further groups of figures in Owerri Mbari houses, is absent,\nwholly or in part, from many of the Etche shrines, the buildings are\npractically identical in type. Many groups are to be found, save for\nthe smallest of details, exactly reproduced in each, and it is owned\nthat freedom of intercourse between the sexes is allowed in the cults\nof both Ale and Amade Onhia at certain seasons, with the idea that this\nwill have the effect of increasing fruitfulness not only among the\nhuman inhabitants of the town but also in farm and byre.\n\nThe connection between the two cults was indicated by a practice which\nstill obtains at Omo Chuku, a quarter of the town of Ibo near Okomoko\ninhabited by Etche Ibo. The principal chief of the place, Ababua by\nname, is also head priest of the Thunder God and, by the local law of\nthe cult, is only permitted to eat in a hut which stands by itself in\nthe middle of his compound. In this, all the dried yams and seed corn\nare stored and there too is his Ajokko-Ji or king yam, here represented\nby a basket filled with yams and skulls.\n\nEach wife cooks in turn, and the one who has prepared the meal serves\nit and is permitted to partake. Should the priest so will, son or\ndaughter may be invited to join in the repast; but none may do so\nwithout special permission. The chief himself sits upon an elaborately\ncarved stool, but the others place themselves humbly upon the ground\nor on small logs. The doorway is curtained by a fringe of young\npalm-leaves which are never allowed to wither.\n\nThe son of chief Ababua, who accompanied us for some distance, stated\nthat his father might never eat of the new season\u2019s yams for at least\ntwo months after this was permitted to ordinary men. As chief priest of\nAmad\u2019ongha, Ababua was also obliged by ancient law to perform certain\nceremonies to his personal god as well as to the special protectors\namong his ancestors--the shrines of which are placed just within the\nthreshold of his Obiri (reception room)--before allowing any portion of\nthe new season\u2019s yams or corn to pass his lips. It was explained that,\nby taking his food amid the seed set apart for planting, the priest\nwas thought to endow these with special fertility by the power of the\nThunderer whom he served.\n\nNot far from the little dining hut, a small, highly decorated mud house\nwas to be seen, consisting of a dark inner chamber opening from an\nouter porch-like one. The chief explained that this was the local Mbari\nhouse and that they built it each year--making the mud walls gay with\nshells and brightly coloured plates because their fathers had bidden\nthem do this in order to draw down prosperity upon their people. He\nadded, somewhat hastily, that no special rites were carried out and\nthat the structure got its name only because the word means \u2018fine\u2019\nor \u2018decorated\u2019--probably from its decorations or, perhaps, from the\ngay robes, beads and brass ornaments worn by the women when gathered\ntogether there.\n\nAll round the compound the much-branched, peeled wands sacred to\nAmad\u2019ongha are to be seen. Beneath one of these, two pottery drums were\nplaced, one half embedded in the ground and one above. By the principal\nshrine before the main entrance a curious adjunct was noticed. From a\nsapling, cut so as to form a fork, hangs a large oval calabash. Between\nthe prongs a farm hoe is held, while beneath it two tortoises are\nimpaled. The explanation of this given by the chief was that one night\nhis god ordered them to be placed beside the shrine. The combination\nof objects, taken in conjunction with the fact that this priest of the\nThunderer may only eat amid the seed corn and yams, suggests that this\nis another of the many Jujus for augmenting the fertility of the farm.\nIt is not without significance that, beside that of Amade Onhia, the\nonly other shrine of importance in Omo Chuku is dedicated to Ale.\n\nAt Okehin, the Thunderer, instead of occupying a whole building, is\nonly given the front verandah of a house. At one end was to be seen the\nfigure of a mother with a new-born babe in her arms; at the other, a\ngroup representing a corpse laid in the grave with a pot of offerings\nbeside it and a pet monkey watching at the foot by the seated figure of\na woman. The pot of offerings usually contains a small plate, knife,\npipe, tobacco, snuff and bottle of gin, rum or palm-wine. Between these\ntwo groups representing birth and death stands the figure of a medicine\nman, a magic horn in his right hand and a Juju knife in his left.\n\nIn niches cunningly contrived in the rear wall, or upon the low clay\nridge which separates the verandah from the road, carefully modelled\nbirds sit upon nests of interwoven twigs, containing eggs, tinted or\nspeckled in close imitation of nature. Small monkeys climb the pillars,\ndogs mount guard, while the phallic serpent twines and twists between\nall.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin]\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nSKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS\n\n\nAmong Etche Ibo, especially those to the west of the Otaminni River,\nAmade Onhia has practically usurped the place of Chi, the Creatrix,\nand reigns as supreme deity. For months after our arrival, we were\ninvariably told by natives of all parts of the Division that the\nThunderer was distinct from his brother Igwe, Lord of the Bright Sky.\nLater on, while collecting information concerning rain-making by\nmagical means, it transpired from the words of the invocation used\nthat the two originally symbolised different aspects of the same\npersonality--Zeus of the thunder, lightning and storm cloud, Lord of\nthe dark sky as well as the bright. Now, though most people regard them\nas separate deities, the old idea has not yet died out, especially\namong rain-makers.\n\nFormerly, it is said, Igwe was more generally worshipped than at\npresent. This was explained as due to the fact that the God of the\nBright Sky only gives advice by his oracles and does not ensure wealth,\nhealth or special good fortune to his votaries; while these additional\ngifts may be obtained through prayer to Amade Onhia.\n\nIn January 1915 good fortune led us to Ozozo, where stands the greatest\nof all shrines of the Thunder God--a temple not made with hands--the\nsanctity of which is so great that pilgrims come thither from hundreds\nof miles. Until now its existence had been carefully guarded from\nthe knowledge of Europeans, and the chief priest had so far avoided\ncoming into contact with any white man of the few who had visited the\nneighbourhood.\n\nEarly next morning we set out to seek the place of pilgrimage. The\nway led through a part of the bush set aside for the reception of the\ncorpses of the unburied dead. At intervals the road was strewn with\ncowries, while ghost-offerings such as pots, broken that their astral\nforms might be set free for the use of the shades, and lengths of\ncloth, faded by sun and rain, were to be seen in the bush on either\nhand. Here and there, too, a long, narrow crate formed of palm stems\nwas passed, half covered by the dense undergrowth. In these the bodies\nof the unblest dead had been borne to their last resting-place,\nthence to be flung forth for vultures, ants and other carrion-feeding\ncreatures to work their will upon--leaving but a handful of bleached\nbones for the luxuriant vegetation to cover with its charitable mantle.\n\nThrough these ill-omened shades we hurried, only stopping to pluck\na new flower, the white cups of which together with masses of their\nstrangely flattened calices had been found strewing the pathways of\nthe beautiful Oban District, but hitherto it had been impossible to\nsecure any leaves owing to the height of the trails, which had eluded\ndiscovery amid the network of giant branches to which they clung. Here,\nin the glade of the unburied dead, the path was festooned from side to\nside with spray upon spray, rich in flower, fruit and leaf.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 21. The Aroid which grows round about the great\nAmad\u2019ongha shrine at Ozozo]\n\nThence we crossed the market-place and, by a network of many mazy paths\nmade apparently for no other purpose than to mislead chance-comers,\nreached an open space shaded by giant cotton trees and heavy-scented\nMonodoras. In the low bush round about sprang great aroids, said to\nbe connected with the worship of the Thunder God\u2019s children. It is\npossible that the idea is due to the phallic-like appearance of the\ncentral spike, the long, thin, basal flowers of which give it somewhat\nthe look of the Schlange im Schilf--the Pangwe description of the\nphallus.\n\nAt the further end of the space lay the compound of the head priest,\nits open sheds full of cult objects but deserted; for the priest and\nall his family had fled at our approach.\n\nTowards the near end of the cleared space two paths branched off, one\non either side of a great clump of trees, the gnarled roots of which\nstretched right across as though barring the way. These two paths\njoin later by a second group of no great size, which has sprung up\nround the riven base of a forest giant, the remains of whose trunk,\nlightning-scarred, may still be seen stretching far out into the bush\nbeyond. Some few yards away a palm-leaf screen is placed across,\nshutting off the cleared space from the priest\u2019s compound. In the midst\nof the screen a little erection like the door-frame to a miniature\nhouse may be seen thickly plastered with the blood and feathers of\nsacrificed fowls. For about seven feet before this the ground is broken\nas though continually disturbed, and here and there in the soft sand\ndepressions may be found as though round-bottomed water-jars had been\nset therein. This was explained as follows:\n\n    When pilgrims come hither bringing the appointed gifts, the\n    priest first makes sacrifice and afterwards calls aloud the\n    special favour which the worshipper has come to ask. Should\n    Amad\u2019ongha be favourably inclined, so soon as the prayer is\n    finished, the roll of his thunder begins to sound, no matter\n    how clear the sky. Then, with a great crash, a ball of stone\n    about seven inches across falls from the blue overhead. This\n    is the sign of the god himself, come down from his home in the\n    clouds to bless the earth-folk.\n\nIn vain we looked upwards, expecting to see branches which might serve\nto hide these mysterious missiles. Nothing was to be seen above but\nslender twigs tossing a delicate tracery of scarce open leaves against\nthe blue. On the far side of the fence, however, stretched part of the\nhigh priest\u2019s compound; so, if the means by which the seeming miracle\nwas worked baffled discovery, the probable agency, at least, was not\nfar to seek.\n\nLater we learned that the name of the priest was Chioma Madume, and\nafter some difficulty we succeeded in overcoming his dread of meeting\na white man--a matter which had hitherto been considered as tabu. He\nwas even persuaded to come with his two assistant priests to visit us.\nHe proved to be a strange and somewhat pathetic figure, borne on a\nrude litter, thin, pale and with only one foot; the other, according\nto his own account, had \u2018rotted away and dropped off.\u2019 The skin of his\ntwo attendants was of that peculiarly vivid red occasionally met with\nin these regions. This appears to bear out Sir Harry Johnston\u2019s theory\nof an original red stock, but is explained by Ibo as showing that\nman or woman so marked out is a child of Amade Onhia. Both among the\nlast-named people and the Kalahari the law of the Thunder God ordains\nthat all such shall be devoted to his service and become \u2018slaves of\nthe Juju\u2019 unless ransomed by their family for a heavy sum. A sister of\nchief G. A. Yellow was thus chosen on account of the redness of her\nskin but was afterwards ransomed.\n\nChioma Madume gave the following account:\n\n    I myself have been priest of Amade Onhia for seven years.[11]\n    Before me my father, Madume, held the office for about the\n    same time and before him my grandfather, Odu Kerin, ruled--I\n    cannot tell for how long.\n\n    Our god is a very great god and is the only one throughout this\n    region who gives a visible sign of his presence. When he wishes\n    us to sacrifice or perform ceremonies for him, we ask a sign\n    whereby we may know that this is really his will. In answer he\n    sets a rainbow in the sky. When he descends into the shrine\n    before the screen of plaited palm, the rainbow comes down also\n    and hangs just above the place, thereby showing his presence.\n    Many thunder stones fall there and the holes in the ground\n    before the shrine are caused by something which falls from the\n    sky, denting the earth; but it is invisible. No man has looked\n    upon its shape.\n\n(This assertion is in direct contradiction to the statements of\npilgrims, who declared, as above related, that the holes were caused\nby stone balls, roughly speaking, seven inches in diameter, which\nfell down from above. It was, however, explained by one of the chiefs\npresent that it was probably unlawful for the priest to describe the\nmysterious missiles--the outward, visible sign of the Thunder God\u2019s\npower.)\n\nChioma continued:\n\n    Amade Onhia, like Ale and the Aro Chuku Juju, is against all\n    those who act contrary to native custom. The Thunder God sends\n    down his bolt to strike such sinners; so, when a man is killed\n    by lightning, people always know that he has done some bad\n    thing. Witches and wizards specially dread his power and never\n    dare to go out during a storm.\n\nIt was explained, in all seriousness, that the reason Amade Onhia so\noften sends his lightning to strike tall trees or hill tops is because\nhe is jealous of all things which seek to raise themselves near to his\nkingdom. Only the birds may venture safely into the sky realm. The\nchildren of earth should keep close to the breast of their mother. The\nidea seems contradictory to that held among some Etche Ibo and Aro\nas to the efficacy of sacrifices made to the so-called \u2018palms of the\nThunder God\u2019 mentioned on p. 46.\n\nWith Amafa Ibo this jealousy is thought to be developed along curious\nlines. Among this people it is forbidden for a woman to climb to any\nheight, up a tree-trunk or even over the top of a wall or fence. So\nstrictly is the tabu enforced that \u2018civil war\u2019 actually broke out\namong this people because the late chief Oosi, father of the present\nhead chief of Amafa, built himself a \u2018story-house,\u2019 _i.e._ a two-floor\nbuilding raised above the ground upon a foundation of piles--and\nallowed his women to go up and down the stairs. That this superstition\nobtains also among Isokpo Ibo is shown by a complaint brought before\nme by two men of Nkarahia as to the treatment accorded them by the\nchiefs of their town who were enraged because they had ventured to\nbuild themselves a \u2018story-house,\u2019 to the top rooms of which they\nallowed their women to climb. The chiefs declared that this endangered\nthe safety of the town; for, should Amade Onhia hurl his bolt at the\noffending structure, peradventure he might punish the whole people for\nthis disregard of his laws by two of their number.[12]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with\nblood-stained linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the\nshrine at Ewawfe]\n\nAt sacred places, such as the shrine at Ozozo, the grove at Young Town\nor the sacred bush at Ngeri-Baw-Ama, no leaf may be picked nor branch\nbroken.\n\n    To every one of the great Jujus slaves can run throughout the\n    Ibo country and become its servants, after which no man has\n    power to take them back without paying a great sum of money\n    to the priest. In some cases even this is forbidden. In many\n    parts of the interior such slaves can go into the market-place\n    and take anything they want without payment; for no one dares\n    touch them. After living for a long time with the Juju, they\n    might sometimes go free; but could only go back to their native\n    town at their own risk, for there their masters could recapture\n    them. Amad\u2019ongha and Ale have special power and their shrines\n    are often placed near to one another, because this is pleasing\n    to both, since they work together.\n\nPerhaps the central part of Degama District may be looked upon as\nthat where the worship of Ale holds chief sway. One of the strangest\nof her shrines lies at Ewawfe, in friendly nearness to church and\nschool. Between them, more to the rear is a great, open shed, with\nelaborately fringed, corrugated iron roof. Beneath this are several\nclay pillars of the Ibudu type, before one of which some beautifully\nwrought torque-like bronze manillas lie amid a heap of smaller ones.\nA few yards off stands a small mud hut containing a figure of Ale\nindescribably gruesome with its strangely-shaped skull, its folds\nupon folds of blood-stained linen and the streams of blood poured and\nsplashed over the supporting logs and the skulls and clumps of feathers\nthickly strewn around.\n\nAt this town it is customary to store all seed yams, etc., in the huts\nbuilt for carrying out the rites of the ancestors--to whose care the\ngerms of the new season\u2019s crops are thus entrusted.\n\nIndeed, amongst many peoples here, the dead are thought to be more\npowerful even than Ale for the granting of fertility, especially as\nregards the crops, which is not surprising since they are supposed to\nlive under the ground between incarnations on earth. In most parts,\nhowever, the fertility of the marriage bed, of the byre and of the\ncrops is deemed to be chiefly due to the great Mother Goddess of the\nEarth. The duty is usually delegated to some of her subordinate tribes\nof Jujus and it is the members of one of these who are responsible for\nplacing in the womb of the mother the spirit of the being about to be\nborn on the earth plane. There is no ignorance here as to the necessary\npart played by the human father and mother, but their action would be\nfruitless and conception impossible without the help of the gods or\njujus.\n\nAt the neighbouring village of Ogbokoro the chiefs were anxiously\nwaiting to speak of a serious trouble which had befallen them. One of\nthe schoolboys had broken the fence round the principal Ale shrine and\nstolen therefrom a quantity of manillas out of the mass of such which\nwere to be seen, half smothered in feathers and congealed blood, upon\nthe mud altar. On being assured that such desecration would be severely\npunished, the head chief answered:\n\n    This is a good word for us. We feel this thing very much. Ale\n    is our mother and our god; all that we have comes from her, and\n    without her gifts we must indeed be lost.\n\nAs already mentioned, it is indicative of the reverence in which the\nEarth Goddess is held, that only the head chief of a town can aspire\nto be her priest. It is not without significance that the same rule\nholds with regard to the principal shrines of Amade Onhia. Only after\npilgrimage to Ozozo may subsidiary lodges be erected, while the shrine\nof Ale is usually found nearby.\n\nWhere Amad\u2019ongha is paramount, he appears to arrogate to himself the\nfunctions of Igwe, the Ibo sky god proper (cf. p. 52), thus following\nin the footsteps of his Grecian prototype, \u2018Zeus, God of the bright\nsky,\u2019 who is also \u2018Zeus, God of the dark sky\u2019; and it is in this\ncapacity, as Lord of the drenching rain-storm, that he fertilises his\nconsort the Earth Goddess.[13]\n\nOf these mystic spousals of Earth and Sky perhaps the most beautiful\npicturing of all is to be found among the Ekoi of the South Cameroons\nand of Oban, Southern Nigeria.[14]\n\nA curious link between the worship of Ale and the bearing of babes came\nto light one morning just as we were leaving Isokpo waterside, a market\ntown of some importance on the banks of the upper New Calabar River.\nA long, shadeless march, by roads as yet practically unknown to white\nmen, lay before us. We had risen at earliest dawn in order to place\nthe first miles behind before the sun should add to the burdens of the\ncarriers, when, just as we were setting forth after seeing the last\nload safely started, a complainant arrived with a letter appealingly\nheld out in both hands. It was entitled \u2018To his Majesty the District\nCommissioner. _Re_ Wansumu _v_. Egeom. 17th February, 1915,\u2019 and ran\nas follows:\n\n    Sir,\n\n    I have the honour, most respectfully, to lodge this my humble\n    complaint before your kind worship....\n\n    I am living in the defendant\u2019s town because it is my mother\u2019s\n    city. Deceased is my brother.... His death took place in that\n    month during which it is forbidden to die. By our native\n    custom, should any one disobey this law, heavy expenses used to\n    be paid before that person might be buried. Defendant knew that\n    the place I am residing in is a mother city, yet he allowed me\n    to perform all the ceremonies on behalf of the deceased Wawesi\n    without assistance....\n\n    Leaving this for your discretion\n\n                               I have the honour to be,\n                                      Sir,\n                                         Your obedient servant,\n                                               WANSUMU (his X mark).\n\nOn reading this document, it struck an ignorant white man as somewhat\nstrange that there should be any month \u2018in which it is forbidden to\ndie.\u2019 On this point the complainant stated:\n\n    The man died in the seventh month of the year. Now according to\n    our native law and custom no unmarried man may be buried during\n    the seventh moon of the year. Should any die at that time, none\n    may take notice of his passing and no relative may show sign\n    that a death has taken place; for the seventh moon is the month\n    of our mother Ale and by her law it is forbidden for anyone\n    to die during this holy time. Most of all does she forbid the\n    death of the unfruitful, whether man or woman. The bodies\n    of such must be thrown away with all secrecy and may not be\n    buried. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a man\n    belonging to a very rich family. Then, in consideration of the\n    property left, some of the relatives may undertake the expense\n    necessary for carrying out his funeral rites. Should a man die\n    during the holy month of Ale many purificatory ceremonies must\n    be gone through. This law extends over the whole of our country\n    lying round Isokpo part.\n\nWhen questioned on the subject, chief G. Yellow owned that a similar\n\u2018rule\u2019 exists among Kalabari, but is only enforced during the day on\nwhich an Owu play is given. He added that the prohibition as to burial\napplied also to those who die of certain diseases. \u2018When such people\ndie,\u2019 he said,\n\n    a certain mark is visible upon the body. The flesh of such an\n    one looks decomposed, whereon people say \u2018Ale has forsaken\n    him!\u2019 Such bodies must be carried far from the town and, if\n    buried at all, it must be a long way from the haunts of men.\n    When a woman dies in childbirth, her death is concealed for\n    the same reason, since to pass away before bearing a babe is\n    displeasing to Ale. In such a case, a corpse must be carried\n    forth at night secretly through the back door of the house.\n    Young maids and pregnant women may never see the body of one so\n    accursed. By native law all the property of the dead must be\n    destroyed by fire, lest the ban of sterility should pass to any\n    who might afterwards make use of such things.\n\nAmong Okrikans, during the seven days on which the feast of the Earth\nGoddess, called by this tribe Elechu, is held, a similar rule obtains.\nShould a man die, he may not be buried but must be flung away into the\n\u2018bad bush\u2019 set apart for such outcasts. Only if the family be rich\nenough to support the cost of the purificatory ceremonies necessary\nbefore the goddess can be appeased, may the dead be laid to rest in\nthe breast of the Earth Mother--thence, like sown seed, to spring forth\nto new life. The spirits of the accursed corpses flung into the place\nof \u2018bad bush\u2019 on the other hand become Akalagoli or Ekwensu and on\nsuch the gate of reincarnation is closed for ever. They haunt waste\nplaces and lonely creeks, seeking to harm those who still dwell in the\nsunshine. Specially at noon or midnight is their evil power most to be\ndreaded.\n\nShould pot or bowl be let fall, or wooden implement broken, during the\nfeast of Elechu, the sherds must be piled in a heap upon which is flung\nthe body of any animal which should die during the festival. So large\nhad these mounds grown in many cases that they formed a serious menace\nto the health of the town and proved no inconsiderable difficulty in\nthe way of an official with leanings towards sanitation. It is to a\nmixture of good fortune on the one hand and reasonableness on the part\nof the Okrikans that the trouble is now, for practical purposes, a\nmatter of past history.\n\nAmong Ibibio the burial of women dying in childbirth is also forbidden.\nThese were borne forth, through a hole purposely broken in the house\nwall, to be flung away in the bush, lest their barrenness might have\nill effect upon the fruitfulness of the Earth Mother.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nIBUDU\n\n\nTo those who pass through the country with open eyes it is obvious\nthat the phallic cult is very strong among Ibo. Where the Ibibio had\ncontented themselves with a plain mud pillar, set as emblem amid the\nfarm, Ibo take special pains in modelling not only a personification of\nthe symbol, but in showing unmistakably that the circumcised phallus is\nintended to be represented.\n\nAmong Ibo, as with the ancient Egyptians also, the feminine, as well as\nthe male, genital organs are worshipped. Both are rudely depicted under\nthe title Ibudu--a name which embraces the chief protective Jujus[15]\nerected in town or compound, the primary purpose of which appears to be\nthe granting of piccans, though most also act as protector in general\nto the family or village of which they are the fetish, and bestow\nfertility on farm and byre. The feminine part of the Juju is usually\nin bell shape, instead of the pot or calabash form found among Ekoi\nand Ibibio. It generally shows the high coiffure only permitted to Ibo\nwomen after the birth of a babe. The nose is often joined to the base\nof the hair ridge and the impaled tortoise, already explained as a\nfeminine symbol, is as a rule seen in the foreground.\n\nPerhaps the most convincing testimony to the efficacy attributed to\nthe feminine genital organ is a carefully carved representation of\nthe labia, which was explained as having been one of the most sacred\nobjects in a great Andoni Juju house, whence it was taken by a man who\nhad no idea of its significance. In course of time it came to my notice\nand was subsequently added to our collection.\n\nAn example of the simplest form of phallic pillar may be found in a\ncompound next door to that of Ababua, head chief of Omo Chuku. Save for\ntwo roughly modelled feet at the base, no attempt was made to add limbs\nto the column, down either side of which a row of rough wooden pegs had\nbeen driven. It was explained that each man of the compound inserted\none of these on taking a wife, so that the Juju might have a constant\nreminder of the need to send \u2018plenty of piccans\u2019 to their hearth.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many\npiccans]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua\u2019s, Omo\nChuku]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku]\n\nIn another quarter of the same town, in front of Omo Alipo compound, an\nIbudu may be seen of which the pillar represents a body from the loins\nupward--the hands, so roughly modelled as more nearly to resemble feet,\nresting upon the circular base as though in the act of lifting the\nupper part through from the earth beneath. The figure is headless; only\nthe end of the central pole and the twigs and tie-tie forming the core,\nround which such images are modelled, protrude from the broken rim. It\nis perhaps worth remarking that this pillar, like some to be mentioned\nlater, combines both male and female attributes, somewhat in the\nstyle of the Indian Linga.\n\nPerhaps the most highly conventionalised of all such images is one to\nbe found in a shrine built in a prominent position on the main road,\njust outside the Omo-Ofo quarter of Ndelle. This represents the male\npart of the Juju. At the other end of the shed a smaller figure is to\nbe seen, bell-shaped and showing feminine symbols. This is typical of\nmost of those intended to represent the feminine creative power, though\none of a type more nearly approaching the male form of Ibudu was found,\nlater on, in Chief Wokogg\u2019s compound at Omo Akani, Owerri District.\n\nJust beyond the shed containing the two phallic pillars, a couple of\nshrines may be seen, one on either side of the main road. That on the\nright is built in honour of the Juju Onru-Ji (farm yam). This was\nexplained as \u2018one very big woman spirit, all same Ala.\u2019 In the ground\nwere many knives and pieces of iron, said to have been placed there by\norder of the priest who declared that the Juju needed them.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle]\n\nA little further, on the opposite side of the road beneath an\narbour-like cutting made in the thick bush, was a piece of white baft\nstretched between two posts. This is set up in honour of Onru Ka\u2019n Ala,\nstated to be the husband of Onru-Ji. The chief of the quarter explained:\n\n    Both of these Jujus are strong too much. Therefore we never\n    swear a man on their name, because, should he even hesitate\n    to tell the truth when brought before them, the spirit of one\n    or other would strike him dead at once, giving no time for\n    repentance! It is a very strong rule for our part that both\n    Jujus must be dressed by the people of Omo-Ofo before they may\n    eat new yams.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 27. Ite Uru Ibudu\n\n_See page 71_]\n\nAt Aloa, a town in the centre of the Division, a shrine is to be seen\ncontaining a fetish, the like of which is not, to the best of my\nbelief, to be found elsewhere in these parts. It is in the corner of a\nroom set apart as sacred to Chineke, the Creatrix, in the compound of\nChief Wegu, and consists of an oblong block, terminating in a carefully\nmodelled representation of the male genital organs, raised upon three\nsteps. To this the owner makes sacrifice every month, usually at the\ntime of the new moon, in order that \u2018plenty piccans\u2019 may be born to\nthose of his house.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 28. Charm\n\n_See page 71_]\n\nA somewhat similar fetish was found among the Ale Nsaw Ibo in the\nshrine of Chief Idu of Oborotta raised upon a clay step in the angle of\nthe wall at the right hand corner. This consisted of two small round\npots fixed neck-downward into the clay, while between them protruded a\npiece of wood, roughly phallic in form, on the upper surface of which\ntwo miniature Offor sticks were bound lengthwise and side by side.\nThe object of this fetish was to bring prosperity in general and, in\nparticular, many children to the compound.\n\nA Juju, intended to represent a woman\u2019s body from the waist downward,\nwas found among the same people. This was called Ite Uru, _i.e._ pot\nof gain, and was supported at the rear by the wall and in front upon\ntwo roughly modelled legs. It formed the principal cult object in the\nshrine of Chief Okuroji of Obokoffia and was set up by the grandfather\nof the present head of the house, but had been freshly decorated (fig.\n27).\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 29. Ibudu Nwa]\n\nAnother Juju for bringing \u2018plenty piccans\u2019 to the house and for making\nthem grow up fine, strong and tall--also for giving long life to its\nowner--was hung up to the roof over the main door of the head chief\u2019s\nhouse at Ndelle (fig. 28). The arrows were planted so thickly that one\ncould not see of what the oval groundwork was made.\n\nAt Ale-Barada, a charming town to the west of the Upper New Calabar\nRiver, never before visited by a white man, and which, as its name\ndenotes, is under the special protection of the Earth Goddess, a Juju\nis to be found, called Ibudu Nwa, _i.e._ Ibudu for children. This\noccupies the centre of a rectangular shrine and is set beneath a canopy\nof tie-tie, attached to the roof, from which depend inverted pots,\nthe shape of a shallow bell, each with a twist of gay-coloured cloth\nswinging, clapper-wise, from its centre. Beneath these hang fringes of\npalm-leaf, so long, in places, as almost to sweep the market-basket\nplaced upon the neck of the strange, headless figure beneath (fig. 29).\n\nOn marriage, before going to the bridegroom\u2019s house, each maiden of the\ntown is brought by her friends to this shrine and, bending before the\nimage, dips her hand into an earthen pot filled with \u2018medicine\u2019 which\nis placed there in readiness. Then she rubs her hands over the Juju,\nafter which she laves them in a small bowl filled with pure water.\nAgain she passes her left fingers over the image and afterwards over\nher own body; \u2018for\u2019 as the head chief explained, \u2018Ibudu Nwa is a very\nstrong Juju in our town and will surely grant fruitfulness to all those\nwho carry out these rites. So we were taught by our forefathers and\nthis we believe even to-day. Should any man doubt, he has but to look\nround and see the many piccans which are born to our town.\u2019\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada]\n\nBetween the upraised arms, resting upon the place where the head should\nbe, is a market-basket, full of dried roots, seed yams, etc. Outside\nthe shrine, each protected by a small shed, were two unusually large\nphallic pillars, to which bridegrooms bring offerings. Across all,\nfrom post to post, rising like Venetian masts, were long chains made\nfrom linked rings of creeper, from which hung, at intervals, inverted\nbowls with gay-coloured strips of cloth waving to and fro in the\nbreeze, like those decorating the canopy of Ibudu Nwa. To the left\nstood a great tree, its trunk hung round with white cloth, the reputed\nhome of a powerful and beneficent nature spirit. Before the principal\nshrine sprang little saplings of the bush which Ale first brought when\nshe came swimming through the wide waste of waters to form the first\nabiding place for her children--men, beasts, trees and flowers.\n\nAltogether Ale-Barada is a charming spot and the manners of the sons of\nthe soil were unusually gentle and friendly. They willingly answered\nevery question, in striking contrast to the inhabitants of the next\ntown, Oduaha, where a Juju of somewhat different type is to be found.\nThis was sullenly explained to us as without name and only used for\nprotection--\u2018not to give piccans.\u2019 The canoe upon its head was likewise\nstated to have been put there \u2018only to look fine. Not for any purpose.\u2019\n\nAt Omo Hume, a quarter of Omo Dioga, another Ibudu was found, which\nwas said to be intended as a representation of the Earth Goddess, here\ncalled Aja. In a little clearing to the right of the main road stood a\nshrine of unusual size, sheltering two phallic pillars. The smaller of\nthese, placed in front and a little to the left, was obviously female\nand smeared with blood from the breast downward. The rear figure bore\nno name save \u2018Husband of Aja,\u2019 or at least none other was confided\nto us. So tall was this that it filled the whole space from floor to\nroof, looming, colossal and with a certain impressiveness, from out the\nshadows at the back of the shrine. Between the two, on either side, lay\na piece of plaited palm-cloth, black and white, such as widows wear in\nsome parts; while two deep fringes of palm-leaf were hung before the\nentrance, screening the strange, rude deities within from the glances\nof passers-by.\n\nIt was explained that the cloths were those of barren women, and had\nbeen laid at the feet of Aja and her spouse in the hope that, when\nresumed by their owners, the ban of sterility, imposed through the hate\nof some rival, might be broken by the power of the fertility-bestowing\nEarth Gods.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 31. Ibudu at Digiriga]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara\nquarter of Akpani]\n\nAt Bush Digiriga again, a small town to the east of the Sombreiro River\ninhabited by Abuan people and never before visited by Europeans--a\nJuju \u2018for the obtaining of piccans\u2019 is to be found, which in many ways\nresembles the Ibo Ibudu. About this particular fetish, however, there\nare certain points which we never met elsewhere. In addition to the\nhigh coiffure--a recognised symbol of femininity--the head is provided\nwith a square beard in shape like those false ones worn during certain\ndynasties by Egyptian rulers, especially queens reigning in their own\nright. It is perhaps worth noting that, while the arms of the figure\nare mere stumps, without any attempt to reproduce hands, and the feet\nare so rude as to be almost shapeless, the phallus is modelled with the\nutmost care, showing that in the minds of its makers this detail was\nof very special significance.\n\nOutside the entrance to the Omo Dara quarter of Akpani, an Ibudu of\nunique type may be seen, one looking-glass eye twinkling in the middle\nof its head beneath a ring of feathers set crown-wise in the clay.\nBefore it, to a four-branched post, a medicine-pot was bound.\n\nIn the midst of the quarter, beneath a little palm-leaf hut, stands a\ngroup of Ibudu. The largest of the pillars represents the female, the\nsmaller the male, attributes. They are modelled seated back to back--a\nprostrate leopard lying to the left and a crater-like mound, containing\na pot for Juju medicine, to the right. Chief Woke Abara, head of the\nquarter, gave the following explanation:\n\n\u2018Formerly it was very hard for us to get children. Nearly all our women\nwere barren, so we raised the two Ibudu, one male and the other female.\nSince then we got plenty piccans in our town.\u2019 He added that the\n\u2018leopard spirit\u2019 helps the Juju to prevent the deaths of children. The\nsmall cone in the foreground and the headless animal lying in front of\nthis were the work of the few children then existing.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 33. Ibudu at Akpani]\n\nWith regard to the figure of a leopard, it is perhaps worth remarking\nthat the ancient kings of Benin were wedded, in mystic spousals, with\na leopard bride. Also, among those Ibo dwelling in the group of towns\nround Igrita, the spirits of the righteous dead often take up their\nabode in leopard form while awaiting a new term of earth life, but\nthose who enter into crocodile, ape, or bush cat, are regarded as for\never accursed.\n\nAmid a branch of Kalahari settled at Oguta in Owerri District, a type\nof Ibudu is to be found, not, so far as our knowledge goes, to be met\nwith in other parts. Each of these emblems consists of two sphinx-like\nfigures, one male and the other female, facing different ways but\njoined together by a ridge of clay, which forms, as it were, the back\nof the sphinx.\n\nAt the Ibo town on the far side of the beautiful Oguta lake, we came\nacross another phallic pillar combining the figures of the dual\npersonality, male and female, of the Ibudu Ezum Mezum. As in the case\nof the Ale shrine, described on page 74, the consort was nameless,\nbearing no designation save that of husband of Ezum Mezum. The figure\nrepresenting him held the place of honour at the base of the column\nwhich symbolises the joint attributes of the Juju; while, at a height\nalmost double that of the husband, towers the face of the wife. On\neither side of the pillar, out-topping the male figure from the neck\nupwards, climb two great crocodiles; while placed here and there, at\nirregular intervals, human heads stand out in high relief.\n\nChief Onomonu, the owner of the shrine, told us:\n\n    The Ibudu Ezum Mezum is mostly worshipped at Amaii in Abaw\n    District and priests came thence to build this shrine for us.\n    It was made at a time when a great sickness was raging in our\n    town, in the hope of staying this scourge, granting protection\n    and prosperity in general and especially to help our people in\n    the bearing of piccans.\n\nAt its installation, about twelve years ago, the Abaw doctors held a\ngreat \u2018smelling out,\u2019 and, in consequence, decreed that the epidemic\nwas caused by the witchcraft of the six _richest_ women of the town,\nwho must therefore be put to death and their property be made over to\nthe medicine men! When informed of their doom, the victims refused to\nacquiesce and were therefore beaten to death in the market-place.\nThe number of heads, modelled at irregular intervals over the pillar,\ncorresponds to that of the victims thus slaughtered at the inauguration\nceremonies--four at the back and two in front, between the sacred\ncrocodiles. All are liberally smeared with blood poured upon the heads\nand trickling downward. This is the only example known to us at the\ntime in which an Ibudu is so represented as to show the dual creative\nforces, male and female, combined so as to form a single pillar. Many\nIbudu were later seen among the Abaw Ibo of Kwale District, where this\nparticular type of symbol would seem to have reached its greatest\ndevelopment.\n\nThe phallic figures, above-mentioned, are, however, by no means the\nonly examples met with in West Africa of the mingling, in one object,\nof male and female symbols. For instance, the emblem of the greatest of\nall Ekoi Jujus, Eja, unmistakably combines the two. Here, the phallus,\nrepresented with the uttermost pains and fidelity, is the sign of the\nharvest god himself, while the bowl-like object to which it is attached\nrepresents the womb of his wife Ekumoke. The united symbol stands upon\na base formed of wide-open human jaws.[16]\n\nAmong the Ekoi, both in the South Cameroons and Southern Nigeria, as\nindeed throughout the greater part of the West Coast generally, a pot\nor calabash is regarded as a feminine symbol, and it is of considerable\nsignificance that traces of male semen have been found in no\ninconsiderable number of the pots set before Ibudu images and in other\nJuju shrines throughout the Ibo country. This fact is vouched for by a\nmedical officer.\n\nIn the ritual chant sung by Ekoi at the festival of Eja, which is also\nthe feast of the first fruits, the names of the combined deities are\nalways invoked:\n\n    Man Eja! I am staying with you.\n    O, I am staying with you!\n    Ekumoke! I am staying with you.\n    O, I am staying with you!\n\nOf these two deities it was expressly stated: \u2018Eja is male and the most\nstrong. Ekumoke is less strong than Eja; nevertheless without her help\nhe can do nothing.\u2019\n\nDuring the annual rites a woman was formerly sacrificed and the\ngenital organs cut out and laid in the sacred pot, which contains the\n\u2018medicine\u2019 of the cult. Since the coming of Government it has naturally\nbecome increasingly difficult to obtain this necessary ingredient, and\nit was a matter of grave anxiety on the part of the priest lest the\npower of the Juju should decrease in consequence.\n\nAmidst some of the eastern Ibo sub-tribes and the northern Semi-Bantu,\nthe ancestors are represented by small clay pillars or mounds, clay\nballs or round or pointed stones, before which sacrifices are made and\nprayers offered for the granting of fertility, especially at the two\ngreat festivals of the year, the planting of farms and the harvest.\n\nIn those parts of the country where rock is available, _i.e._ among\nthe northern Yoruba and Semi-Bantu, many stone monoliths may be found,\nsome of which are unmistakably phallic, while others are used not only\nfor this worship but also as ancestral memorials. In fact, the two\ncults are inexplicably mixed, as is natural when it is remembered that\namongst these peoples fruitfulness is, to a large extent, attributed\nto the forefathers. Some of these memorials date back many hundreds of\nyears; a fuller description will be found in Chapter XVII, vol. ii, of\n_The Peoples of Southern Nigeria_.\n\nIn the club-houses of the great Ekkpe secret society the sacrifices\nare made before a phallic monolith, which represents the former\nmembers of the club as also the tutelary deity, while in, or near, its\nbase are generally placed rounded pebbles, the symbol of the Earth\nGoddess. A similar monolith is worshipped amongst many of the Bantu and\nBafumbum-Bansaw as a representation of the supreme deity.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga]\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nEKU\n\n\nAll over the western part of the District a strange rite still obtains\nwhich is obviously only another manifestation of the phallic cult. As\nthere are local differences it will be necessary to describe separately\nthe peculiarities of each centre.\n\nBy the roadside near Umo Abale, a quarter of Omo Dioga, half hidden\namid grass and creepers, we came across a crowd of figures formed of\nsun-baked clay, cone-shaped and painted black. Further on, in front of\nalmost each compound, smaller groups were to be seen, usually arranged\nat the base of some Juju tree, or round a sapling of the sacred Ogrisi\n(_Dolichandrone_ sp.). In several cases circular moulds of baked clay,\nmuch like an old-fashioned spittoon in shape, lay nearby. It was\nexplained that upon these the girls of each compound, after undergoing\nthe initiatory ceremonies preparatory to marriage, set the food cooked\nas an offering to the Eku, as the phallic figures are called. This\nword is also used to designate the cones of baked clay used to support\ncooking-pots. Should any girl, after arriving at the age of puberty and\nbeing inducted into the feminine mysteries, neglect to set up such an\nimage each year, about the time of making new farms, until she becomes\na member of her husband\u2019s house, no babes would bless their union.\nIn one or two cases a slight amount of decoration, formed by lines\ndrawn with the fingers in the soft clay, has been added; while here and\nthere an attempt was made to surmount the cone by what was explained as\na representation of the high head-dress only allowed to Ibo women after\nthe birth of a babe. Mostly, however, the images showed nothing more or\nless than a simple attempt at depicting the phallus.\n\nAbout a month later, at the house of Chief Ugwa in the Oturu quarter\nof Akpani, Eku of a still simpler type were found, together with clay\npot-rests of much the same shape as those already described; while\njust outside, in the bush by the roadside, we came upon some thirty or\nmore phallic figures, the tallest and frankest yet seen. Some stood on\ncircular, some on rectangular, bases; but on each the membrum virile\nwas modelled with especial care.\n\nIt was explained that every year, when making the more elaborate\npillars, each betrothed girl fashions several of the plainer type,\na foot to a foot and a half in height. These are said to be used as\n\u2018strong Juju on which to swear people.\u2019[17] Three of these are borne by\neach maid to her bridegroom\u2019s compound, there to be presented to the\nchief woman of the family, by whom they are set together to support\nthe pot in which food is cooked for the future husband. When ready,\nthis is poured into a native bowl and placed upon the clay ring.\nAfter marriage, the bride comes to the new home and herself cooks her\nhusband\u2019s meals upon the same three pillars prepared by her own hands.\n\nIt is not without significance that the trinity of cone-shaped pillars,\nwith cup-like depressions, raised before the Kalahari Nduen Fobara\n(ancestral shrines), into which libations to the forefathers are poured\nevery eighth day, are of almost identical type. At Oru-Sangama, an\nancient town on a creek leading into the San Bartholomeo River, we came\nacross two of these small cones modelled within a circle, also of clay,\nbeneath the palm-leaf roof of a tiny hut. So like were these to the Eku\nemblems that we took for granted that the little shrine was but another\ndwelling-place of one of the manifold representations of Ibudu Omumu,\n_i.e._ the Ibudu of fertility. Long sojourn in Africa should, however,\nteach caution even to the most careless enquirer, and we therefore, as\nalways, took the precaution to keep our ideas to ourselves and asked\nthe significance of the symbol. As a result we were told that they\nrepresented the Nduen Fobara of a neighbouring house. Our informant\nadded:\n\n    Some men make three, some two, small pillars for the pouring\n    out of libations to the spirits of their dead. Some again make\n    only one such emblem for the reception of drink offerings. Here\n    no carved images are shown as is usual in rich Kalahari towns;\n    the cones themselves represent the ancestors, except in the\n    case of men of distinction.\n\nConsidering the peculiar powers thought by many tribes to attach to\nthe phalli of the dead, especially those of warriors or others who\nexcelled in strength or power, as also the Egyptian legend of the birth\nof Horus--that seed of life, snatched by the widowed Isis from Death\nhimself--it is perhaps not too far fetched an idea to imagine that the\nlikeness of symbol was intended to signify a connection between the\nphysical body of the new-born and the astral shape or ethereal mould,\nsupplied in most cases according to general belief from the ghost\nrealm, where the ancestral shades await reincarnation--by preference\nin the bodies of those about to be born to the family to which they\nthemselves formerly belonged.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques.\nKalabari Shrine of Awome-Ka-So]\n\nSir James Frazer, in his wonderful _Golden Bough_, tells of sacrificial\nvictims whose phalli were beaten with twigs--not out of cruelty, but\nwith the idea of increasing the powers of virility. Among the Ekkett\nIbibio sacred boughs are drawn over the pudenda of warriors while\nparts are even cut off and buried secretly by the marriage bed, in the\nbyre or on the farm. In this connection it is perhaps worth mentioning\nthat one of the most dreaded of West African tortures, employed upon\ncaptives of distinction, was the continued flagellation of the phalli.\n\nChief Igo, of Omo Nelu, gave the following information:\n\n    We start to make the Eki--as they are locally called--at the\n    time of cutting the undergrowth for the new farms. Then, when\n    we have carried out the images and set them up by the roadside,\n    we begin clearing away the top branches. The ornamented\n    pot-rests are used for cooking chop for the Eki.\n\n    Chief Chuku\u2019s quarter cooks for two weeks (_i.e._ sixteen\n    days). Amadi\u2019s and my quarter cook for thirty days. It is the\n    young girls who make these things--both the cooking ones and\n    the others. For twenty-five days we hold the first festival,\n    that of the low round Eki, which we call Eki Mother. Every\n    evening at about five o\u2019clock time the girls cook. On the\n    twenty-fifth day each girl starts making one of the high Eki,\n    Ada Eki (eldest daughter of Eki), which is worshipped for\n    five days before carrying it out. When my father was alive,\n    the ceremony always started in his compound; for he was the\n    head chief. After he had made festival for eight days, all the\n    other compounds joined in and continued till thirty days were\n    finished. Then all men took notice and said: \u2018It is now time to\n    start the new farms.\u2019\n\n    [Illustration: FIG. 36. Patterns of the low Eki]\n\n    With us also the young girls go and get ant hill earth before\n    they make the Eki, but they do not use it for these, only keep\n    it in their houses for three months and afterwards take it with\n    them to the market-place, where they dance and play round it\n    and then finally throw it away.\n\n    Egu \u2019Nde \u2019Nwayin is a woman\u2019s festival held at the time of\n    digging new yams. It was my father, the priest of Ale, who set\n    the time for this ceremony also. At this time the women dress\n    very finely, wearing many beads round their ankles.\n\nOn another occasion, just after leaving Ndelle en route for Rumoji,\nwe found, by the side of a bush-path beneath the spreading branches\nof a Berlinia, a hut, the long, low, palm-leaf roof of which was\ncovered with the fragrant white-petalled flowers showered down from\nabove. Under this shelter was a platform of clay some twenty feet\nin length, carefully smoothed and with gaily coloured plates set at\nintervals along its edge. Upon this a double row of strangely-shaped\nfinely-decorated figures were to be seen, formed of sun-dried\nclay, much in the style of the Eku already mentioned, but far more\nelaborately modelled and painted. On the bright yellow clay, ridges and\nlines of shining black, vivid blue and white were to be seen, while\neach was surmounted with an attempt to represent the elaborate styles\nof coiffure affected by girls of marriageable age.\n\nEach had been brought thither by a maiden of the neighbourhood after\nundergoing initiatory rites in company with her \u2018age class.\u2019 The\nceremonies are conducted in places set apart, under the leadership of\nelderly women of the town. The time chosen is after the planting of new\nfarms when the seeds first germinate. At this season all little maids\nwho have reached, or are approaching, the age of puberty--for the \u2018age\nclass\u2019 includes those born within three years of one another--come\ntogether to be instructed, by matrons chosen for the purpose, in all\nthat it is thought necessary for them to know as a preparation for\nmarriage. Later, the neophytes return to their parents\u2019 house and there\nmodel the figures shown in the photograph. When all are ready they go,\ntogether with their instructress and a band of relatives, each bearing\none of the Eku upon her head in procession to the spot chosen by\npriest or instructress. Here a platform of clay, decorated with insets\nof plates, pieces of looking-glass, etc., has already been prepared.\nThe celebrants in turn place thereon the queerly shaped image which\nis supposed to be necessary in order to draw down upon the girl, who\noffers it, the blessing of fertility.\n\nBeside those newly initiated, older maidens, to whom the mysteries have\nformerly been revealed but who are as yet unwedded, also take part in\nthe rite, bearing a fresh Eku in the procession, year after year until\nthe whole, or at any rate the main part, of the dowry has been paid,\nand they leave their parents\u2019 house for that of a husband. The elder\ngirls offer images often over a yard in height, while the new initiates\nbring smaller ones, proportionate to their size.\n\nAt a little distance from the places set apart for the principal\nimages, fish racks may occasionally be seen by the roadside and on, or\nbetween them, the smallest figures of all are to be found. These are\nsaid to represent \u2018the slaves of the Eku.\u2019 Each girl, after modelling\nher own symbol, makes at least one such little attendant, so that her\nimage may be well served.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 37. Group of Eku, near \u2019Ndelle]\n\nNear Ndelle waterside a somewhat different arrangement obtains. In\nfront of the long line of Eku, a separate group may usually be found\nset round a sapling of the sacred Ogrisi tree. The central figure is\ndedicated to the principal girl of the town, while the smaller ones\ngrouped round her represent her attendants. Near the centre, springing\nout of the clay base, was a small sprig of the bush which Ale brought\nwith her when she first formed the earth.\n\nAt the same time of year, when the seed corn and yams lie awaiting\nrebirth in the womb of the Earth Mother, the unmarried girls of Elele\ncarry out a ritual similar in many respects but with certain points\nof difference. Here the images are modelled from clay supplied not by\nthe parents, as is usual in other parts, but by the bridegroom. These\nmust be rubbed and smoothed for seven days and each is surmounted by a\nhead, the coiffure of which is carefully copied from that of the girl\nherself. Every evening, food offerings are carried to the place where\nthe Eki are set up, while the girls dance and sing before them. The\nbridegroom must provide from sixty to a hundred Awarawu manillas during\nthis time, which are accepted by the parents as part of the dowry.\n\nOften these strange images are modelled with breasts in addition to\nthe male emblem. Is it an unwarrantable assumption to think that this\nmay possibly be intended as a primitive attempt at picturing the ideal\nmarriage, in which male and female attributes play equal parts? This\npeculiarity is not confined to the Eku but is even more marked in many\nIbudu, as for instance the one already mentioned at the Umo Alipo\ncompound, Omo Chuku (see p. 66).\n\nSome time after all the Eki have been set up in the farms, compounds\nand bush round Elele, preparations are made for the carrying out of a\nfurther ceremony, called Nwan Aja, _i.e._ Child of the Earth, which is\nsaid to be closely related to the festival already described. For this,\nthe unmarried girls of Elele go out to the bush and search round until\neach has found one of the great mounds thrown up by termites. \u2018With\nthe help of relatives she digs down into this until she comes to the\nheart of the cave, named in our speech Wekwe Eruru.\u2019 The floor of this\nlooks like a mountain range in miniature. Breathless with excitement,\nthe little maid counts the number of peaks; for just as many as there\nare of these, so many babes she will bear. With infinite pains, that\nnot one may be broken off, she cuts round, then lifts the flat, roughly\ncircular mass to her head and carries it home. This is a time of great\nanxiety; for, should any part break away during the process, the number\nof fallen points denotes--alas!--the still-born babes which fate will\nsend her.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 38. The Wekwe Eruru]\n\nIn some places all the girls of the quarter join together to seek out\nan ant hill and dig up the part in which dwells the queen ant. \u2018One\nof their number is appointed to carry this thing, which is then borne\nback to the town and set down on the road near some of the principal\ncompounds. All stand watching to see in what direction the ants will\ngo; for the way they take points out the compound in which the girls\nare to live until the time of the new yam harvest. There they must\nstay in seclusion, grinding cam-wood and preparing for the approaching\nfestival. Thither their future husbands come bringing palm-wine, yams\nand fish, together with six Awarawu manillas as dash for the owner of\nthe compound.\u2019\n\nFrom many indications we had long suspected that the magic powers of\nthe ant hill proceeded, in part at least, from its phallic resemblance.\nThis was borne out by the number of Ibudu shrines, avowedly raised for\nthe increase of children, before which these curious structures, known\nin these parts as \u2018Bush-men,\u2019 were found. In several, one of these\nlesser ant hills had been set up amid the special \u2018servants of the\nJuju\u2019 modelled on either hand of the principal image. Such an one is to\nbe seen in the shrine of Ezum Mezum, erected within the compound of the\nAro chief Ogunda of Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. On each side of the pillar\nstand her \u2018servants.\u2019 The nearest, a conventionalised phallic pillar\nsurmounted by a head and with a little doorway in its tower-like base,\nthrough which one of the small elongated chalk cones--offered by every\nwoman of the compound after conception--is seen, half in and half out,\nso as to appear in the act of entering. Next to this, but further from\nthe image, is a natural ant hill, daubed with paint, against which\nleaned several of the lesser symbols.\n\nThese chalk cones or images, though more roughly moulded, bear\nconsiderable resemblance to those carefully modelled in clay and\nsuspended over their father\u2019s shrine by each \u2018true daughter\u2019 of an\nIbibio chief in the Mkpokk region to show that they were the legitimate\noffspring of the dead man, not of slaves, or of \u2018widows\u2019 born to the\nhouse, of whom he was only titular parent.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 39. The \u2018Servants of Ezum Mezum\u2019]\n\nAt the end of their period of seclusion in Nwan Aja\u2019s compound, the\ngirls of Elele put on new cloths and gay ornaments, then sally forth to\nmarket (Eke Oma). This is a sign that the play is ended for the time.\n\nEvery other year a special play is given. According to Mr. D. Braid:\n\n    \u2018This cannot be carried out more often, on account of the great\n    expense incurred therein by the bridegroom. The name of this\n    play is Ajiji\u2019--in some places Adidi or Adadi--\u2018and it is one\n    of the best of all plays for girls and ladies. It looks grand\n    whenever they start same. They dress with brass ornaments,\n    corals, etc., on their feet, all which expenses are run by\n    the husbands, with the exception of the anklets for one foot\n    which the parents are expected to provide. The brass ornaments\n    are prepared by the blacksmiths, from nine Awarawu manillas\n    for growing up ladies and four to five for younger girls. All\n    go in procession round the town until they come to a place in\n    the Omuneta quarter called Ebu, where there is a great tree in\n    which dwells a certain powerful Juju. Here fowls are sacrificed\n    and cut in such a manner that blood falls upon the feet of each\n    girl. After this has been done, they sing all kinds of songs,\n    dancing with great gladness for some hours.\u2019\n\n    Both on the way there and back those girls who are about to\n    marry rich men are carried in decorated chairs, with a canopy\n    fastened above them. Bearers are hired for this service by the\n    future husbands. During the Ajiji ceremony many ghosts flock\n    into the town. In olden days, these would strike the girls as\n    they were borne by; because spirits are jealous of any mortal\n    whose feet are not set upon the ground. A bride thus struck\n    always sickens and usually dies within the year. That is the\n    reason why, nowadays, each girl holds a picture before her, so\n    that the ghosts may strike at this and let her go by unharmed.\n\n    On reaching home a feast is given by the parents and next\n    morning all the girls take chop to the husbands\u2019 place. This\n    food is distributed to all in his compound, together with\n    rewards of money. The bridegroom is expected to do the same\n    in return and all the expenses incurred by him at this time\n    are counted as dowry. The play generally lasts for seven Ekes,\n    _i.e._ about two months.\n\nIn October 1916, just outside Elele, on the Nkarahia road, a group\nof specially interesting symbolic images was found. It consisted in\nroughly modelled male and female figures, arranged in pairs and lying\noutstretched at the base of a great cotton tree (Akpu). The bays,\nformed by its buttress-like roots, were separated from one another\nby giant snakes moulded in clay, which, arranged in irregular loops,\nusually with the tail of one against the tail of the other, served to\nfence off the sacred enclosure from the wayside. Within the various\nbays thus formed smaller serpents twined and twisted, often placed\nbetween the male and female figures. In one case the phallic serpent\nwas shown in the act of entering the body of a woman.\n\nDotted over the slope, forked sticks were seen driven into the ground\nor raised on little clay mounds. From these depended strings of great\nsnail shells (_Acatina marginata_) or empty fish racks, in shape much\nlike the head of a Badminton racquet.\n\nThis group, the name of which was given as Akpu Ogbe Ajiji, had been\nmodelled by maidens of marriageable age belonging to Chief Woyike\u2019s\ncompound as an additional means of increasing fertility.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 40. Clay figures at base of cotton tree near Elele]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 41. Figures at base of cotton tree near Elele\n\n_See p. 94_]\n\nJust beyond Elele Aliminni, on the Ndelle road, a great tree may be\nfound to the Genius of which the unmarried girls of the neighbourhood\ngo and pray during the Ajiji--locally called Adidi--ceremony. Three\ncircular clay steps are built, one above the other, round the\nbase of the tree and reaching about four feet up its trunk, forming\na rough altar upon which piles of _Acatina marginata_ shells and\nempty fish racks (Paka Eji) were laid. A few yards further, in front\nof the compound of Chief Ofonda, a large terminal bud of the banana\nflower-spike, pierced with four slivers of wood was set up on a tall\npalm stalk. This bud is called Eni Awsoku, _i.e._ navel of plantain or\nbanana. It is natural enough that these two trees should bear special\nsignificance in the fertility rites. The combination of phallic-shaped\nfruit and terminal bud with its oval form offers an obvious symbol of\nthe male and female reproductive organs.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 42. The Eni Awsoku]\n\nAfter building the Adidi altar and setting up Eni Awsoku, the\ncelebrants go in procession round the town, their faces rubbed with\nchalk of a pale caf\u00e9 au lait shade and their hair covered with bright\nyellow paste. From a distance this colouring gives them a curiously\nEuropean look. At the back, hanging round the waist, they wear a kind\nof apron of large glass beads, arranged in alternate squares, usually\ngreen and brown in colour, the whole fringed with little brass balls.\n\nAfter a girl has been given in marriage and has gone to live with her\nhusband, she may never again take part in the Ajiji play. At the end of\nthe series of Eku ceremonies, which last, roughly speaking, from the\nending of farm planting to harvest time, the whole town of Elele goes\nto Chief Eleche\u2019s compound for the feast of new yams which is held in\nhonour of the great Juju Aya-Eke. On this occasion every man, woman\nand child bears a gift to the priest. Even little babes, too small to\nstand alone, are borne before him. The mothers press a gift into the\ntiny hands and then hold them out towards the chief that not even the\nsmallest should fail to make offering.\n\nThe name Ajiji, given by Ibo to the greatest play in the series, would\nseem to be derived from Aja (sacrifice), which is also in some parts\nthe name of the Earth Goddess herself, and Ji (yam).\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nTHE YAM CULT\n\n\nAt the cutting of new farms most Ibo chiefs make sacrifice to Ale and\nagain before harvest. Beside offerings to her, some should also be made\nto the Ajokko-Ji[18] or Njokkoji--the king (or Juju) yam, the biggest\none of all the crop in which the yam spirit is thought to take up its\nabode. This is always set aside from one season to another, and when\nbird or beast is slain in sacrifice to the Genius of the farm, the\nblood is thrown upon the Ajokko-Ji.\n\n    Should a man find that he has more yams one year than in the\n    seasons before, he brings the richest sacrifice in his power\n    and offers it in thanks to the Farm Spirit for giving increase\n    and doing good to him. The word Ajokko means Juju, but it is\n    also used with the signification of \u2018great\u2019 and \u2018mighty.\u2019 This\n    king yam, as it is sometimes called, is kept throughout the\n    whole year until next harvest comes round. Either fowls\u2019 or\n    goats\u2019 blood should be poured out in libation upon it. Formerly\n    a spirit dwelt within, which protected all the yam racks in the\n    farm. Now, owing to the dying out of such beliefs, people are\n    not afraid to steal from these. In olden days they never dared\n    to do such a thing for dread of the yam Juju.\n\nWhile visiting Oppe, a farm settlement just outside Alessa, we were\nshown a \u2018strong Juju\u2019 connected with the worship of Nkike, the Mbolli\nEarth Goddess. This was formed from a collection of skulls, yams and\nother roots, bound round with tie-tie into the form of a gigantic\nyam and then attached to a stout stake, the end of which was sharply\npointed for driving into the ground. This symbol was said to take,\nfor the Mbolli, the place of the giant Ajokko-Ji to which Ibo offer\nsacrifice.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu]\n\nA more elaborate substitute was found at Ogu on the Niger--a town\noccupied by a sub-tribe of Ibo, allied to those of Onitsha. There,\nin the house of one of the secondary chiefs, a row of small pots was\nseen, set in the clay floor, along one side of the verandah. These were\nexplained as the Ife Ajokko--called Ife Ja Okko by some--which for\nthis tribe take the place of the Ajokko-Ji. There were nine pots of\ndifferent shape; the number was explained by saying that, as each chief\nsucceeded to the headship of the house, a new Ife Ajokko was made.\nEight, therefore, were those belonging to the ancestors.\n\nAmong Mbolli the phallic pillars are of a peculiar type mostly carved\nfrom wooden blocks instead of being built in clay. Of these, the one\nin the Juju house at Obudu may be taken as typical. Such bear the name\nObo Esa--the four hundred yams--and are specially raised as a means of\nincreasing the crops.\n\nWhen a fresh farm is cut, a special ceremony is carried out to induce\nthe yam spirit to transfer its abode from the old farm to the new.\nThe basket in which the great yam is contained, or post to which it\nis bound, is usually kept near a sapling of the tree which over the\ngreater part of the West Coast is regarded as most sacred of all.\nThis is a variety of Dolichandrone--strangely named considering the\nfunctions ascribed to it by natives--called by Kalahari Odumdum and by\nIbo Ogrisi.\n\nAmong Ekoi, Efik and Ibibio, this beautiful tree with its glossy\nimparipinnate leaves and great clusters of pinkish-mauve flowers, is\nknown as \u2018The Mother of the Town,\u2019 and a sapling of it is planted in\nnearly every compound. The finest specimen ever seen by us was found in\none of the town playgrounds at Ikotobo in the Eket District.\n\n    Within the hollow trunk stood native pots filled with\n    offerings, for to it come wives, young and old, to pray that\n    \u2018plenty piccans\u2019 may be sent to bless their hearths. Hither,\n    too, come ancient women to beg a like boon for their children\n    and grandchildren. Should lightning shiver the ancient trunk\n    or tornado strike it down, loud would be the wailing of those\n    who had grown up beneath its shadow.[19]\n\nIt is unusual that trees of this species grow to such a size; yet very\nfew compounds in the Ibo country are without a sturdy sapling, for not\nonly its fertility-bestowing but also its purificatory powers are held\nin the utmost reverence. Should a Kalabari woman meet with vexation\nwhich causes her to shed tears while cooking her husband\u2019s food, it is\nthought that this will have ill results upon him unless, before serving\nit, she plucks some of the sacred leaves, draws them over her body and\nthen strikes them upon the ground round about, that the evil effect of\nher tears may be negatived and her husband not suffer therefrom.\n\nNot only is the Ajokko-Ji usually kept beneath the shelter of these\nsacred boughs, unless confided to the care of the ghosts in some\nancestral shrine, but the Ogrisi itself becomes a symbol of the yam\nspirit. It was principally in this capacity, as emblem of the chief\ncrop of the year, that at the death of each chief important enough\nto own an Obiri (reception room)--_i.e._ every head of a family of\nstanding--a slave was killed as a sacrifice to the sacred tree.\n\nSuch unfortunate members of the community were well fed for several\ndays, during which everything was done to cause them to be of good\ncheer and in perfect condition. Then they were robed in gay apparel and\nled forth to the sacred tree, where their throats were cut in such a\nmanner that the blood flowed to the ground, fertilising the earth about\nits roots. No portion of such victims was ever eaten; their bodies\nwere buried near by that thus Mother Ale might be enriched and induced\nto grant plentiful crops to those who brought her the offering.\n\nThe following information concerning the great Elele yam cult, Aya-Eke,\nwas gleaned from Mr. D. Braid, for several years Native Court clerk of\nthis town:\n\nThe compound where the Juju is kept is called Omo-Kpurukpu and there,\nfrom election until death--at most seven years later, even should the\nfull term of office be completed--the priest dwells, carefully guarded\nby all his people and never crossing the threshold unless called forth\nby some grave emergency. The reason for this restriction is that up to\na few years ago any man who succeeded in killing the holder of this\noffice would reign in his stead.\n\nThe whole prosperity of the town, especially the fruitfulness of farm,\nbyre and marriage bed, was linked with his life. Should he fall sick,\nit entailed famine and grave disaster upon the inhabitants, and there\nis reason to believe that, in such a case, facilities were offered to\na successor. Under no circumstances did the term of office last for\nmore than seven full years. This prohibition still holds; but since\nthe coming of Government it is said that another of the same family,\nwho must always be a strong man, may be chosen to take up the position\nin his stead. No sooner is a successor appointed, however, than the\nformer priest is reported to \u2018die for himself.\u2019 It was frankly owned\nthat, before Government came--_i.e._ some dozen years ago--things were\narranged differently in that, at any time during his seven years\u2019 term,\nthe priest might be put to death by one strong and resourceful enough\nto overcome him.\n\nIn answer to the question as to whether, in view of the fate known\nto follow after so short a period, it was not difficult to find men\nwilling to succeed to the office on such terms, Mr. Braid answered in\na somewhat surprised tone: \u2018Oh, no! Many wish for the post, because so\nmuch wealth is brought them at the annual festival that they become\nvery rich--past all others in the town.\u2019\n\nOur informant also stated that, during his own term of office, Chief\nEleche has only once been known to pass beyond the compound walls. The\noccasion was as follows:\n\nA fellow townsman accused him of making a Juju to kill the complainant.\nThe case came into court and, all unconscious of the excitement which\nsuch a proceeding must cause, the chief was bidden to attend and answer\nthe charge. He arrived, accompanied by nearly all the townsfolk, who\nnot only filled the courtyard, which is a very large enclosed space,\nbut thronged the market-place outside. They came, in a state of great\nanxiety, to watch over the sacred priest and guard him, so far as in\nthem lay, from any misfortune the effects of which, it was believed,\nwould at once react on all the countryside.\n\nDoubtless Mr. Braid would have been less ready to impart information\nof this nature, had it not been that he was about to leave the place,\nin all probability never to return, and had therefore nothing to\nfear from the townspeople. So soon as other official work allowed,\nI returned to Elele to adjust some difficulties which had meantime\narisen, and also with the hope of gleaning further knowledge concerning\nAya-Eke and its priest.\n\nFirst I looked up the case in the course of which Eleche was summoned\nto appear. This was recorded under No. 353 and was heard on 7th\nDecember, 1914. It runs, in substance, as follows:\n\nYenanu, the plaintiff, stated on oath:\n\n    About two years ago I fell sick and the native doctors told me\n    that people of my compound were trying to kill me. I therefore\n    called a family meeting, in which the big men decided that Juju\n    should be sworn for me. Eleche performed the ceremony, calling\n    upon the Juju to slay anyone guilty of trying to bring about\n    my death before new corn time. If this happened, they agreed\n    to pay me four hundred manillas, four demi-johns of tombo, a\n    basket of yams and a bottle of gin. Should no one die, it would\n    prove that the accusation was untrue and I myself must pay the\n    like amount in compensation for bringing a false charge. The\n    time fixed upon had not expired when one of the men died, but I\n    did not ask for payment.\n\n    Nine months after swearing Juju, the accused called me at Oka\u2019s\n    compound and informed me that it was now young corn time; yet\n    no one had died, therefore I must pay the amount agreed upon.\n    This I refused to do since one of them had been slain by the\n    Juju. Then they conspired together and gave orders that I\n    should be killed; also they put Juju in my well to prevent me\n    and my people from getting water. Certain Jujus were also hung\n    on the road to my farm by Eleche and Okuku. On this I went to\n    Chief Chioma and related the whole matter. He advised me not\n    to eat any yams from the farm near which the Juju was placed.\n    After this they ordered me to clean a portion of the road, but\n    seeing that they were seeking to kill me I refused and went to\n    work with Chief Chioma\u2019s people. After the road was finished, I\n    was called before a meeting at Woda\u2019s house, where they ordered\n    me to break down my compound and take all my properties to\n    Chioma\u2019s quarter.\n\nOluene, witness for plaintiff, stated on oath:\n\n    I was present at the family meeting when the accused consulted\n    together and made a rule that anyone who saw Yenanu should kill\n    him; nor did any of our people allow him to take fire, etc.,\n    from their houses.\n\nThe case was dismissed, but the complainant died soon after. Next Eke\nday, Eleche, wearing his Juju hat trimmed with seven eagle\u2019s feathers\nand the tail of a parrot, sallied forth, followed by all his people, to\nhold a progress throughout the town, while his attendants triumphantly\nproclaimed that Aya-Eke had slain the man who dared to summon her\npriest before mortal tribune.\n\nOn arrival at Elele our next step was to seek further information from\nthe head men of the town, when these came to salute us. At first, the\nresult was distinctly disappointing. No one had ever heard of the\nJuju or its priest! In fact, on the authority of all the principal\ninhabitants, no institution even remotely resembling Aya-Eke existed in\nthe neighbourhood. Only after the case above quoted was shown to them\ndid a light dawn upon the chiefs. Ah yes, they said, in very ancient\ndays they believed there was some such Juju in their town, but the\nmemory of it had long since died away. As for Eleche, now they came to\nthink of it, the priesthood had been in his family and possibly even he\nmight hold that the office had descended to him. Since Government came\nto their country however--this with the most ingratiating smile--people\nhad no use for such old superstitions, which had therefore fallen into\nutter neglect and forgetfulness. It was eagerly stated that there were\nother customs in their town much more worthy of the notice of the\nDistrict Commissioner--for instance, Odo\u2019s Juju, the head priest of\nwhich was immediately found and brought forward. It would indeed be a\npity, they added deferentially, should our time be wasted in enquiries\ninto matters of so little account as those with which Eleche was\nconcerned.\n\nIt was quite obvious that one and all were anxious to prevent further\ninvestigations and the result of the interview was naturally to send us\nhot-foot to the Omo-Kpurukpu quarter of the town, which is separated\nfrom the main section by some half mile of road. Here, in a house\nformed of elaborately carved wooden panels--to the best of my belief\nthe only dwelling of its kind throughout the whole Division--lived\nthe priest-king Eleche. Before the house stood a rude figure, formed\nof a stout post bound round with cloth, crowned with a cap and with\ntwo sticks extending arm-wise at right angles from near the top. This\nrepresented the late priest Eyinda, a brother of the present holder of\nthe dignity, said to have died about two years ago.\n\nEleche himself wore a similar hat of office, its crown bound with a\nstrip of white cloth, into which the seven emblematic eagle\u2019s feathers\nand the parrot\u2019s tail were fastened. He explained that he could not yet\nwear the full Juju dress of white baft, because he was not entitled to\ndon this until after the third year of his priesthood, which period\nwould not be ended before next harvest. His predecessors in the office,\nso far as his personal recollection went, had been named Eyinda,\nOmeneyin, Wana and Azunda. He himself had been a small boy when Azunda\ndied. \u2018These,\u2019 said he, \u2018were great men of our house. Now of them all I\nalone am left to carry out the rites of the Juju, which is so powerful\nthat death falls upon every man who offends against its laws.\u2019\n\n    The rule of this Juju is very good, much like the law of\n    the white men. By it, it is decreed, that no fighting or\n    quarrelling, no seizure of property--above all, no shedding of\n    blood--may take place upon Eke day.[20] No priest of Aya-Eke\n    may eat of the new season\u2019s yams. All the harvest must be\n    garnered and the festival held. Then, though others may eat,\n    I may not until all the new farms have been cut and planted.\n    Only when the last of the seed yams has been laid in the ground\n    do the people bring me those which yet remain over in the yam\n    racks. These I eat, calling the first of them \u2018my new season\u2019s\n    yam\u2019 though, in reality, it was garnered at the last harvest\n    about seven moons before.\n\nOur visit chanced to be paid at the beginning of April, and Eleche told\nus that nine days earlier he had eaten his first yam of the year.\n\n    \u2018All the people of Elele bring offerings to me,\u2019 he said. \u2018When\n    the yams finish they bring plantains and I begin to chop those.\n    Also they bring me much tombo. It is a very strong law of the\n    Juju that no yams, save such as are old enough to plant, may be\n    eaten by a priest of Aya-Eke. None has ever broken this rule;\n    for, should it be disobeyed, the seed yams would die in the\n    ground, bearing no increase. All the great men of our family\n    have kept the law faithfully. Now no more big men are left in\n    our house; but I, though but a small boy in comparison with\n    those powerful ones, also hold to this rule.\u2019\n\nHereupon one of our party asked if he himself had power to appoint\na successor, or in what way one was chosen. No sooner was the word\n\u2018successor\u2019 uttered than Eleche raised his arms over his head twice as\nthough to ward off threatened danger, while his head wife, who kept\nclose to him throughout, shrugged her shoulders violently over and over\nagain, repeating in an agitated voice: \u2018Mba! Mba! Che! Che!\u2019 (Let it\nnot be! Let it not be!) Meanwhile the crowd of retainers took up the\ncry, low but angry, like the rumble of distant thunder, waving hands\noutward as if to drive off the ill-effects of such ominous speech.\nEleche answered excitedly, the words tumbling over one another in his\nagitation:\n\n    \u2018No successor is needed; for I shall never die! It is forbidden\n    even to mention such a word! In the beginning of things, when\n    I came out of the world, it was arranged that I should not be\n    as other men but should live very long--looking after my people\n    and bringing them prosperity. The fate of common men is not for\n    me!\u2019 Thereupon, like a Greek chorus, came the response of the\n    crowd: \u2018Oda! Oda! (Forbid it! Forbid it!)\u2019\n\nThe head wife, who had seated herself so soon as her husband did so,\nalthough all the others remained standing at a respectful distance,\nwas a youngish woman evidently holding a position of more than usual\nimportance. Later, we learned that it was customary for this head\nwife to die \u2018about the same time as her husband\u2019; but all attempts\nto extract more definite information were met with professions of\nignorance.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by\nmemorial pillar of the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke]\n\nThe most important ceremonies of the cult are held at the time of\nthe new yam harvest, when a great sacrifice is made and, as already\nmentioned, every man, woman and child of Elele brings a gift to the\nhouse of the priest. Before leaving, we asked whether no other rites\nwere observed in honour of Aya-Eke and were told that early in May,\n_i.e._ at the beginning of the rainy season, all the inhabitants\ngathered to witness a wrestling match held in the open space before\nEleche\u2019s house. This is continued on every big Eke day, _i.e._ each\neighth day, for about three months until the new yam festival, during\nwhich the feast of the ancestral spirits is also celebrated. Later, all\ngo to Chief Woyike\u2019s compound in the Omopo quarter and there wrestle in\nhonour of the new corn Juju, Mbara (Lord of the Town), of which he is\npriest. After his festival is over, all wrestling finishes for the year.\n\nNo sooner had we learned this than we set out for the new shrine.\nHere, at the opposite extremity of the town, lies the compound known\nas Obakere, inhabited by Woyike, priest of the rival Juju. The chief\nreceived us with simple friendliness and seemed willing for a\nvisit to his shrine. Nor, after the first shyness had worn off, did\nhe show any reluctance to speak of the Juju, concerning which a few\ncarefully-careless questions brought out the following information:\n\n    When the wrestling at Eleche\u2019s is finished, all men come here\n    to witness mine; after which the whole town must cease from\n    such contests, which may not be held again till the next\n    season comes round. We think that this ceremony will help the\n    crops to grow strong, overcoming evil influences and bearing\n    much increase. The reason why the wrestling is held first at\n    Eleche\u2019s place and then mine, is that his Juju Aya-Eke is wife\n    to my Juju \u2019Mbara. The first is feminine and looks after the\n    yams; mine is male, the spirit of corn. When the first green\n    shoot pushes through the soil, I make ready and, on the coming\n    of the young cobs, my Juju proclaims a four months\u2019 peace.\n    During this time no one may fight with another nor seize any\n    person or property. Should a man offend against this rule six\n    manillas and a goat must be paid to revoke the Juju for him,\n    otherwise he would die.\n\n    When the time comes round, I go forth and announce that if\n    anyone does anything to annoy the Juju I will not allow him to\n    take part in my ceremony. To me no gifts are brought like those\n    borne every year to Eleche; but when the season comes round I\n    make a great feast for the people, giving them much food and\n    palm-wine in abundance.\n\nThe priest was old and somewhat worn-looking. Round his shrunken ankles\nwere bound little bones, pierced through at either end and fastened\nby black cord in three rows. These, he said, were a powerful medicine\nto keep off rheumatics and other ills which beset the aged, but had\nnothing to do with his Juju.\n\n\u2018How indeed could such a thing be possible,\u2019 he queried,\n\n    since \u2019Mbara is a male Juju and the bones are those of\n    Tortoise, who, as is well known, is proper only to feminine\n    cults? By the place where I usually sit a tortoise was impaled\n    years ago for protection; then, when it was decayed enough, I\n    took the little bones out from the shell and, after they had\n    been cleaned, strung them into these anklets, as you see. There\n    are three Ale shrines in our town, by each of which Tortoise\n    is impaled. Also before the shrine of Aya-Eke a shell may\n    naturally be seen.\n\nTowards the middle of May we found ourselves back again in Elele and\nenquiries brought out the fact that the first wrestling of Aya-Eke was\nto be held about noon on the morrow. The hour seemed a strange one to\nchoose for such a purpose, under a tropical sun; but before mid-day\ndrums began to beat in the distance, summoning the people with the\nunmistakable rhythm only used for such occasions. So soon therefore as\ncourt was over, we set out to follow the call.\n\nIt was 15th May and a day of blazing sunshine; yet crowds had already\ncollected and sat, the elect in a circle many deep round the compound,\nwhile the rest almost blocked the road along its front. Three sets\nof drums were playing; first Eleche\u2019s household band, secondly one\nsupplied by a neighbouring quarter, and thirdly, just before the\nshrine, that which bore the proud name of \u2018The Juju\u2019s Own.\u2019 This\nconsisted of six drums, three tall and upright, three long and oval.\n\nOpposite the door of the principal shrine a little group of offerings\nwas to be seen, backed by the branched sticks of the Thunder God.\nQuestioned as to this, Eleche said:\n\n    Amade Onhia is kin to my Juju. In many towns the biggest Jujus\n    have the habit of sending to request him to come and stay by\n    them. Aya-Eke did this and ordered that his shrine should be\n    placed opposite to her own, saying that when ceremonies were\n    made in her honour they should be performed for him also.\n    On being asked as to when the wrestling would begin, Eleche\n    answered, with true African placidity, that this depended upon\n    the arrival of the combatants, who would probably not appear\n    until the sun sank lower in the heavens. He explained that\n    he had told us the play began at mid-day, because by ancient\n    custom the summoning drums must start at that time.\n\nNow, according to widespread West Coast belief, noon and midnight are\nthe special times at which ghosts walk abroad. Among Ibo and Kalahari\nlittle children are warned never to throw sticks or stones when the sun\nis high overhead, lest they should inadvertently injure one of these\nwandering spirits and thus draw down its wrath upon themselves. With\nMbolli and Etche Ibo--as usually in the Ikwerri country--seed yams and\ncorn are stored in the shrine of the ancestors, _i.e._ beneath the\nguardianship of these beneficent friends, much as was the seed-grain\nof ancient Rome within the sacred Mundus. Chief Eleche also told us\nthat the Egu Nda Madu, the festival of the forefathers, is always\nheld at the same time as that of the new yams and, were these rites\nneglected, the ghosts would cease to exert a protective influence upon\nthe next season\u2019s crops. It is probable, therefore, that the reason\nthe drums must start to play at noonday is to call the attention of\nthe ancestral shades to the fact that the ritual wrestling is about to\nbegin.\n\nFirst, one or two youths stepped out, at long intervals, from the ranks\nof patient spectators, to dance round in wide circles, always from left\nto right--in the contrary direction to the hands of a clock. Later, as\nthe shadows lengthened, more and more joined in the pastime, till from\ntwenty to thirty were dancing almost continuously. Nearly all raised\neyes and hands to heaven at a point, roughly speaking, halfway round\nthe circle. Most of the performers wore necklets of knotted palm, while\na considerable number bore in addition a single vivid bloom of the\nscarlet Akpane Besin--the old Ekoi wrestlers\u2019 challenge--stuck in their\nblack locks.\n\nIn the midst of the circle danced a strange figure, wearing a tail of\nskin behind and a long strip of blue native cloth falling before. Round\nhis waist was a girdle of brass bells; a band of cowries, three deep,\nwas fastened beneath the knee, while a cloth of leaf-green silk was\ntightly bound round the loins. In his right hand he bore a horn, black\nand twisted like that of a bushbuck, the open end filled with a tassel\nof long fur. This, when stationary, he sometimes drove point downwards\ninto the earth or, while circling round with the other dancers, bore\nit raised over his head. Chief Yellow explained that such was the\ntraditional wrestlers\u2019 costume.\n\nDuring the dances several \u2018masters of ceremonies,\u2019 bearing bunches of\npalm-leaves, went up and down, keeping a clear space--driving back the\ncircle of spectators by striking these on legs and feet. Suddenly\nthe performers scattered, leaving two of their number alone in the\ncentre. These bent and touched the ground with their fingers, then\nalmost immediately gripped and after a struggle, which caused the\nwildest excitement among the spectators, the taller and slighter of\nthe two flung the other to earth and seated himself firmly astride the\nprostrate form--to be lifted upon the shoulders of a friend and thus\nborne round amid the plaudits of the multitude.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche\u2019s\nplace, Elele]\n\nSo it went on, couple after couple struggling till one was overthrown.\nOccasionally, if they were deemed ill matched or thought to be growing\nangry, friends rushed in, as is usual in such contests, to separate the\ncombatants. What struck us as unusual was the short time allowed to\neach pair. Should one not succeed in throwing the other after the first\nfew minutes the spectators flung themselves between and bore them apart\nby force. This was explained to be \u2018lest they should become exhausted,\u2019\nand was possibly done with the idea that such a result might, by\nsympathetic magic, have an ill effect upon the crops.\n\nThese wrestling rites are carried out amongst nearly all the Ibo in the\nDivision, though held in greatest importance among the Ikwerri. The\nsame ceremony is customary with the Mbolli, whose head chief told us:\n\u2018When the season comes round for the festival of Mbiencha,[21] we make\nsacrifice to her of fowls and goats. After the sacrifice has been made,\nwe start wrestling. We do this for children, farms and health.\u2019\n\nOne evening, during our stay at Elele, we heard the sound of a far-off\ntom-tom, beaten with a queer insistent call. The method of playing was\nnew to us, so without a word to any one we set out to investigate.\nThere was no need to ask the way, since it was easy enough to follow\nthe beat of the drum. This led through the market-place along the Omo\nDioga road; then, after a sharp turn to the right, we found ourselves\nin an open space, upon one side of which trees tossed dark branches\nagainst a sky of scuttling cloud.\n\nThe moon, nearing her third quarter, was climbing up the heavens,\nshedding a cloud of misty silver radiance upon the scene beneath. By a\nfortunate chance our shoes fell soundlessly upon the soft sand; so we\nstole in unnoticed, shadows amid a multitude of shadows which flitted\nto and fro \u2018now in glimmer and now in gloom\u2019--in swaying, everchanging\nlines of a dance impossible to describe.\n\nMy companions were wearing white, as was nearly every woman and\nmost of the men present. The latter mostly wore long flowing Hausa\nrobes, bought or imitated from the fashion set by Chief Ododo,\nthe enterprising Hausa who, following in the steps of a mighty\nelephant-hunter of his race, settled here and made himself chief of the\ntown.\n\nAt once, on realising what was going forward, we slipped into a pool of\nshadow, cast, it seemed, expressly for our convenience in a spot where\nwe could see everything but ourselves passed for a while unnoticed.\n\nMen and women danced in separate lines, approaching and retreating.\nTo our surprise we saw that many of the latter wore not only white\nrobes but white coiffures as well; for their crisp, dark wool was\ncovered with a dressing of native chalk or pale-tinted clay, while the\nfaces were often streaked with white lines, giving them an appearance\nindescribably ghost-like. To and fro, backward and forward, co-mingling\nat one moment and the next in clearly defined lines, moved the dancers\nto the monotonous tom-toming of their strange orchestra, which somehow\nmanaged to suggest things beyond the power of words--the fall of the\nfirst rains upon the parched earth; the enfolding of soft mists, from\nwhose gentle embrace springs a stirring and quickening, changing her\nbarrenness into fruition; the swelling of grain and root crops in the\ndark ground; the first feeble upward striving of young shoots, later\nto spring into radiant verdure in the free air above; the passion of\npride, of life and strength and love--all that is poignantly felt but\ncan seldom be expressed save perhaps by the monotonous beat of the\ntom-tom, the strange soughing of elephant horns and thrumming of savage\nlyres on such a night as this.\n\nOnly one air evolved by a northern musician gives any idea of the\neffect of these weird African melodies--that is the Braut March in\n_Lohengrin_, which, written on so few notes, yet beats with a strange\npersistence on certain fibres of the human instrument. In this, too,\nthe theme is much the same--the bringing of the Earth Bride to the arms\nof her mystic bridegroom. Each thema, monotonous in itself, changed\nimperceptibly into another equally monotonous but built on different\nnotes and shadowing forth a very infinitude of meaning.\n\nIn and out among the dancers crept strange shapes, elaborately\ncoiffured and with whitened faces, much in the style of some Ibo masks,\nat the time of unknown origin, which wandered into our collection\nseveral years ago. These have since been explained as typifying the\nmoon, much after the manner of the so-called Isis masks of the Pangwe\nMoon Goddess So; or again as representing those strange wanderers from\nthe ghost realm, the spirits of beneficent ancestors who watch over the\nharvests of their descendants.\n\nHardly daring to breathe, we watched the strange phantasmagoric figures\npass to and fro in the intricate mazes of the dance--the lines merging\nand separating in oozy triangles, squares and circles such as those\nwoven by Ka for the perdition of the Banda Log.\n\nSuddenly a change came over the scene. The tom-toms sounded a series\nof sharp insistent strokes. The moon, emerging from friendly clouds,\nshed a brilliant light upon the place where we had hitherto remained\nhidden in shadow, and the crowd, grown aware of our presence, began\nto scatter. We withdrew with all possible speed since nothing further\nwas to be learnt by delay. After our departure the mystic dance began\nonce more and continued, as could be heard from the far-away drumming,\nalmost till the first rays of dawn.\n\nOn 26th July chance led us to pass by Chief Eleche\u2019s compound while a\nceremony connected with the Aya-Eke cult was in progress. Under the\nObiri shed, a band of various drums, together with a particularly\nsweet-toned xylophone formed of cork-wood slabs laid upon fresh-cut\nplantain stems, was playing. To the sound of this music danced the\nchief of Elele Aliminni (Ale by the water) with his three principal\nwives. Two points were specially noticeable in the performance; first,\nthe intense solemnity of the dancers, and, secondly, the way in which\ntheir oneness of purpose was emphasised by gesture. This is the only\nWest African dance witnessed by us in which the performers continually\nlinked arms, or twined these round one another\u2019s shoulders and waists.\n\nWhen Chief Eleche was questioned as to the meaning of the ceremony,\nhe said that it was performed in order to draw down the blessing of\nthe great Juju Aya-Eke on the chief of Elele Aliminni, his family and\ncrops, before beginning to dig the first yams of the year.\n\nA few weeks later came one of the greatest disappointments of our\ntour. By means of much planning it had been made possible, though with\nconsiderable difficulty, to arrive at Elele on the day before that\nfixed for the great yam festival, which we were anxious to witness.\nAs ill fortune would have it, however, a runner came in in the late\nafternoon to bring tidings of trouble which was thought likely to break\nout in a far-off corner and to prevent which the presence of the white\nman was needed. To hesitate under such circumstances was of course\nnaturally impossible. So the crowning ceremony of the year, the Aya-Eke\nharvest festival, was perforce missed.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nALE AND THE ANCESTORS\n\n\nAnother link between Ale and her human children may be found at Ogu, a\ntown inhabited by Okrikans, in the extreme east of the District. Here\nmarriage is only solemnised once a year, immediately before the making\nof new farms. The Earth Goddess, locally called Amakiri (Earth of the\ntown) is the principal deity, and not far to the rear of her shrine\nstands that of Ababa, the protectress of marriage. The spot sacred to\nthe latter is an oval enclosure, fenced round by a wall of rough logs.\nWithin this grow many Odumdum--the tree which, as previously mentioned,\nis looked upon almost all over the West Coast as bestower of babes,\nprotector against evil influences and purifying agent, as well as in\nsome cases the symbol of the yam spirit and that of the Earth Goddess\nherself.\n\nThither, before the cutting of new farms, go all the brides of the year\nto take the vow of faithfulness to their new-made lords. Libations of\nrum and palm-wine are poured out, while the blessing of the indwelling\nGenius, Tenye Te\u2019en, is invoked upon the faithful and her vengeance\ncalled down upon any woman who should prove false to her wedded vows.\n\nIn the local shrine of Obaji (or Obazi) the god of the sea, we came\nacross a representation of multiplied, or limitless, birth--eight\nfrogs carved from a solid strip of wood. Several other slabs showed\ndesigns of the sacred crocodile with human beings laid out before it in\nsacrifice.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 46. Ancestral Tablet]\n\nA frog is often depicted--with probably the same reason--in the carved\ntablets known as Nyama Ahia or sometimes Ahia Osimiri (the river\nmarket), which are hung up as ghost-offerings in Ikwerri Ibo houses in\norder to remind the ancestral spirits of the need for constant activity\nin increasing the prosperity of their descendants. In one found at\nElele, the sacred crocodile and the phallic serpent are shown together\nwith the hoe, the symbol of fruitful Ale. Again, the central figure has\nits tail joined to another hoe, while the tail of the serpent touches\nthat of the crocodile and is thereby linked with the hoe.\n\nDuring the making and planting of farms among Mbolli and Abuan--both\ntribes of particular interest and distinct type--the rule of strict\nchastity must be observed. No man may approach his wife until his share\nof the work is over. The labour apportioned to the males of the tribe\nat this season consists, first, in cutting and firing bush, after\nwhich women clear away the charred branches. Men again usually dig\nthe holes into which it is the task of maids and matrons to lay the\nyam-tubers. Nowadays, however, both the last mentioned duties fall to\nthe lot of women. Till every \u2018seed of Proserpine\u2019 has been laid in the\ndark ground, however, neither wife nor maid may yield to the prayer\nof husband or lover; for should the strictest chastity fail to be\npractised during this period, the farm of the frail one would yield but\nscanty increase.\n\nAmong Mbolli, in the words of the Chief Igwe of Ogali:\n\n    We worship our ancestors (Okwenji). We sacrifice to them fowl\n    and fish. Rich men give goats at such times. The sacrifices are\n    made three times a year--at the harvests; first at the new corn\n    month, next one month later again and then five months later,\n    when we start digging yams. We hold this festival in the tenth\n    month (November) and go to cut farm again two months later. We\n    start to count months from putting the crops in the ground till\n    we begin to dig--_i.e._ ten moons.\n\n    At the feast of the ancestors we pour out drink, saying:\n\n      \u2018Ebe    atena   \u2019mgbom  ami,     ami   \u2019mgbo   nan    mwi.\u2019\n      \u2018As  (my) father  got   me,  (let) me   get   other  child.\u2019\n\n    We have already lived two moons in the farm--October and\n    November. We shall stop another five. While we stay in the\n    farms, we may not have connection with our wives; for such a\n    thing we must come back to the town, sleep for a night and then\n    go back. Otherwise we should offend \u2019Nkike, who would not let\n    our crops grow well or send plenty children.\n\nAmong the Ale Nsaw Ibo a strict rule as to chastity was imposed by the\ndirect command of the Earth Goddess. On this point Chief Osu of Obiakpo\nstated:\n\n    Our people are generally known by the name of Ale \u2019Nsaw (Ale\u2019s\n    tabu or the land of the tabu) because in our ancestors\u2019 time\n    there were many forbidden things in our part. All our women\n    were sacred to Ale, therefore in olden days no man might reach\n    out a hand to touch a woman\u2019s leg or foot. Should a man meet a\n    woman going to bush, he must at once hide his eyes or pass by\n    another way. In those days it was a very terrible sin for any\n    man to commit adultery. Should one fall into this crime, he was\n    not only heavily fined but at once made outcast. Never again\n    was he permitted to join any \u2018company.\u2019 Never again might he\n    drink or eat with others. As regarded his own family, because\n    he was of their kin they would help to collect the fine, but\n    after this was paid off they would have nothing further to do\n    with him.\n\nAmong the Abuan, who live to the west of the Sombreiro River, the law\nof the Earth Mother as to chastity is even more strictly enforced. Like\nthe Mbolli, this people on starting the new season\u2019s farms early in\nJanuary, take up their abode in little huts built on their plantations.\nThere they spend the space of three months, after which they return to\ntheir town for about four weeks, and then go back for another three\nmonths, weeding the crops and tending them till they grow strong for\nharvest.\n\nDuring all that time strict continence obtains. It is absolutely\nforbidden for any man to approach a woman, _even his own wife_. Should\ndesire prove too strong, the pair must leave their farm and seek their\ntown dwelling for the purpose. Any breach of this law is thought to\nhave disastrous effect upon the crops.\n\nAgain, while, as already mentioned, it is regarded throughout the whole\nof the region as a grave sin against the Earth Mother for a woman to\nyield to the embraces of any man, whether lover or husband, while lying\nupon the ground, the crime is of yet deeper dye if committed upon farm\nland than in the depth of the bush. In olden days a couple convicted\nof such an offence would have little chance of surviving the wrath of\ntheir outraged townsfolk. Even now such a charge would bring down upon\nthe accused the invocation of some reputedly fatal Juju. For instance,\nin a case heard at Abua Court (No. 116/14), a woman named Ugenni stated\nas follows:\n\n    All our townspeople laughed at me, saying that I was having\n    connections with men under plantains. So I said, whoever\n    accused me of having connections under plantains, the Juju\n    Obuku of Amingbokko must kill that person.\n\nThe same law against intercourse in the bush--and in some parts in a\ncanoe--prevails throughout almost the entire Niger Delta. Among the\nJekri it is so strong that in a recent murder case (Rex versus Iyeabor)\nit came out that the dead woman had such belief in the strength of\nthis tabu--and an additional one which enjoined chastity during\npregnancy--that she had no hesitation in going into the bush with her\nmurderer, a man whom she knew to be desirous of her.\n\nCase No. 297 tried in the Ijaw Native Court of Nembe in January, 1925,\ngives the procedure which was adopted in order to convert a \u2018bush\u2019\nplace, where cohabitation was not allowed, into a village, where this\ncould take place with impunity.\n\n    Igoin and his people sometimes stayed at this newly discovered\n    place for two months, but no cohabitation was to be conducted\n    there. One of the main reasons why they used to return to Nembe\n    was because no husband was allowed to use his wife as regards\n    sexual intercourse there.\n\nFinally an envoy was sent to the Long Juju (that of Aro Chuku)--a\njourney which would have taken at least several weeks--to ask for the\nnecessary ceremony to be performed on the village, so that one can\nhave connection with his own wife. Alegi returned from the Long Juju\nand told Ogede the rites which should be carried out. Ogede performed\nthe necessary ceremony. The ceremony he performed was first he let a\ncock and hen cohabit at Ewelesuo. He brought one thing called \u2018Ovo\u2019\n(Covenant) from Long Juju, one \u2018Odo\u2019 (a red round stuff) and a round\nwhite lime and gave these to the juju to appease the jujus and prayed\nthat the village should become an inhabitable town and that one can\nhave connection with his wife. Before this ceremony was performed it\nwas forbidden for a woman to urinate in the village (Ewelesuo). On this\naccount one place was chosen and called \u2018Sanpogu\u2019 _i.e._ (Waterside for\nurine).\n\nEgula and Ogede were friends. After the ceremony had been performed\nEgula went after his friend and settled at Ewelesuo. Egula was dancing\na juju called \u2018Akpana.\u2019 This juju Akpana and those at Ewelesuo made a\ncovenant and Egula then \u2018danced\u2019 juju at Ewelesuo. Eugla is a native\ndoctor. Ogede asked the juju, when Egula was dancing it, why they are\nnot allowed to remain at Ewelesuo in November month. The juju asked\nwhether he will be able to do so. He said \u2018Yes.\u2019 The juju then told\nhim that, if people wanted to remain at Ewelesuo in November month,\nthe people should keep a watch-night in the town and when the water\nebb, they (the people) should take all jujus to the water edge and let\nthe water soak them--which signifies that all the juju has gone out of\nthe town (Oru iderimo). Then when December came the whole inhabitants\nshould man one canoe, beat the tom-tom and sing a song and go to a\ncreek called \u2018Orumokolo.\u2019 A prophet native doctor was to be in the\ncanoe who will say to the people in the canoe that the jujus had come\nin. Then the canoe is to return to the town (Oru iwomo) and a juju\ncalled Ogoni is to be danced. Ogede agreed to perform all these. They\n(the people) were then to dance on three consecutive days after these\njujus have been performed.\n\nIn many parts of the country there is likewise a strong tabu against\nthe commission of adultery, particularly in the husband\u2019s or\nadulterer\u2019s house, and against a woman cooking food for her husband\nwhen she has just returned from her lover.\n\nNo sooner is farm work finished, however, than, as already stated,\nscenes of licence are not only permitted over the greater portion\nof this region, but even enforced in certain parts; for, just as\nthe priestesses of some temples of old Greece were obliged to offer\nthemselves to strangers, so excesses, regarded as most reprehensible\nat other periods, are encouraged at this.\n\nAmong certain of the Brass Ijaw adultery is openly condoned under\ncertain conditions. It is the custom, for some towns that are friendly\ntogether, to make an agreement that no man will take an action in Court\nagainst any other of their inhabitants and claim damages or punishment\nfor adultery.\n\nThis plea was raised in case No. 253/25 before Amassama Native Court\nand an action for damages was dismissed in view of a covenant to this\neffect between the towns of Amassama and Agoro.\n\nThe cult, in which religious prostitution was perhaps most openly and\nextensively practised throughout the Ibo country, was that of Ife-Ala\n(literally \u2018thing of Ala\u2019 or \u2018that which concerns Ala\u2019).\n\nTo those few Europeans, who have hitherto had knowledge of this\ncult, it appears to have been known as the Ifallum Juju. All natives\nquestioned on the subject, however, including Chief Gabriel Yellow,\nstated that the real name was as above given. The headquarters of this\nparticular cult of the Earth Goddess were at Nguru, a town to the North\nof Okpala in Owerri Division:\n\n    All people from neighbouring lands went there and lodges were\n    also set up in nearly all important towns throughout Degama\n    District. Many men and women, who could not be cured from\n    trouble by native doctors, went there to pray for help, but\n    the priest refused to invoke the aid of the Juju unless the\n    suppliant brought him a virgin as gift. The priest then took\n    her as handmaid and she was kept in the temple and hired out by\n    him to worshippers--especially to sterile men who came to pray\n    for increased virility. Such \u2018slaves of the Juju\u2019 were marked\n    out by a shaven patch at the top of the head.\n\nThere were about three hundred of these girls at Nguru but to none of\nthem was it permitted to rear a babe, because by native custom they\nwould have been obliged to refrain from the company of men for the two\nyears during which they were suckling their offspring--and this would\nnaturally have greatly diminished their earnings. So soon as a babe was\nborn, therefore, the law of the Juju ordained that it must be disposed\nof in one of two ways; either must it be clubbed on the head and flung\naway, or laid in one of the big earthen jars and deposited in the bush\nbeyond the town.\n\nThe Nguru lodge was suppressed about 1913 by Mr. J. M. Binny, District\nCommissioner. Great was the joy of the three hundred women thus set\nfree to rear the babes born to them, instead of being forced to slay\nthese at the harsh behest of the covetous priest of Ale.\n\nA belief in the efficacy of sacrificial blood in order to purchase the\nfavour of the powers of fertility is world-wide; but perhaps nowhere\nin past days did this dread libation flow in such streams as in West\nAfrica. It is true that now the vigilance of Government and missionary\neffort have succeeded, to a great extent, in substituting that of\nslaughtered fowls, sheep and goats, for the costly ichor drawn from\nmortal veins; but in many a hidden shrine on the banks of unexplored\ncreeks or in the depths of the silent bush--wherever indeed a chance\noccurred to do so in secret--human victims were till lately offered\nup. Especially was this practised at the season when the yam vines\nfirst send forth tender shoots to clothe the poles with green--as a\nmeans towards strengthening the new crops--and at harvest, in gratitude\nto Ale for her bountiful gifts of garnered grain. At such times it\nwas dangerous for any unprotected wayfarer to venture forth beyond\nthe borders of his own country, since strangers were very liable to\nseizure for such a purpose. Kula, the centre of many strange and\nterrible cults, bore an ominous reputation in this respect, until its\nevil practices drew the attention of Government and, as a result, the\nprincipal shrines were destroyed.\n\n    In May of one year, a chief stated, they chanced to sacrifice\n    a Brass woman. I do not know how she managed to disappear from\n    her own town, but the Kula people caught her for their Juju.\n    Always they made sacrifice when the new yams were coming up\n    from the ground. Every Juju of every nation demands a victim at\n    that time of year. News of the sacrifice of this Brass woman\n    was brought to Mr. Binny when he was D.C. of Degama; so he went\n    down and destroyed that Juju house. Word went forth that it\n    was to be burnt to the ground, whereon the people came to him\n    and said: \u2018May we not take the sticks of which it is made to\n    mend our own compounds?\u2019 Therefore he gave permission and the\n    townsfolk pulled it down themselves. In the shrine were found\n    many skulls carved from wood in exact imitation of real human\n    skulls. There too were human figures, finely painted; some like\n    those modelled in clay in the \u2019Mbari houses and others like the\n    \u2019Nduen Fobara (ancestral images) in Kalahari shrines.\n\nYet another link between ancestor worship and that of the Earth\nMother Ala is to be found at Omo-Ala (children of Ala)--a town in the\nsouth-eastern part of the Division which proved to be a great centre\nboth of the cult of the Earth Goddess and of the forefathers.\n\nHere, as in most other Ibo towns, nearly every compound has its sacred\ntree which is usually a specimen either of Ojji (_Chlorophora excelsa_)\nor Oil Bean (_Pentaclethra macrophylla_). In this the souls of the\ndeparted are thought to dwell while awaiting reincarnation. So long as\nthe least fragment of the tree lasts, the faithful shades cling to its\nancient trunk or branches or even retire into the furthermost rootlets.\nFor this reason, when one of these giants falls beneath Time\u2019s axe, the\nfamily to which it belongs marks the place where it formerly stood and\nno farm may be made thereon again. Were this not done, it is thought\nthat the ghosts might be imprisoned for ever since they could not break\nthrough the earth to return to the light of day, lest, by so doing,\nthey might injure the sown crops of Ale.\n\nBefore the last rootlets of the \u2018ghost trees\u2019 return to the dust\nof Mother Ale, the spirits announce to their family through the\nmouth of some medicine man that a new tree must be chosen for their\ndwelling-place. The homes of such ancestral shades are obvious, even to\nthe most careless passer-by, from the earthen pots or bowls and the\nfreshly-offered plantains, etc., which may always be found amid the\nroots.\n\nAt the planting of new farms the members of each compound assemble\nbeneath the family tree and give a great play. At such times they bring\ngifts and dance and sing, robed in their best, praying the ancestral\nshades to guard the seeds laid in the bosom of Mother Earth and help\nthem to come to fruition. Again, at harvest time, another play is\nheld to thank the ghosts for their share of the crops. A part of the\nincrease is always set aside in gratitude to these beneficent spirits.\n\nThere is an interesting point to be noted about such \u2018ghost trees.\u2019\nIn this part of the District only the souls of good men are thought\nto await reincarnation in these peaceful dwelling-places, gladdened\nby sunshine, quickened by gentle dews or warm fertilising rain and\nrefreshed by soft breezes. It is a matter of firm belief that, however\nfiercely tornados may rage around, these are spared. The branches\nof such trees are never rudely torn nor dashed together, while no\nthunderbolt has ever been hurled against their sacred trunks.\n\nThe ghost of an evil man would in vain seek admittance within the\nshelter of the family tree, but would be driven forth by the shades of\nhis blameless kin to await, in animal form, a new term of earth life.\n\nYoung brides, therefore, often linger beneath those trees in which\ndwell the souls of gentle ancestors, in the hope that one such may\nchoose her as his Janua terrae. Among Owerri Ibo, however, a different\nbelief is held; only the ghosts of those foully slain, whether by\nforce or witchcraft, are thought to seek refuge in the tree tops, there\nto wail and cry throughout the hours of darkness and in time of storms\nwith a pitiful sound \u2018like a small chick or a piccan but a few days\nold,\u2019 until the guilty cause of their untimely death has been brought\nto justice.\n\nIt has already been mentioned that ghosts, who have taken on brute form\nwhile awaiting reincarnation, sometimes fall upon women who chance to\npass through their haunts. By means of the animal body, which they\ntemporarily inhabit, these evil spirits force their unfortunate victims\nto bear a babe, into which the sinful soul may enter--thus procuring an\nearlier return to mortal state.\n\nFrom a case heard in Degama Native Court it also transpired that, among\nsome Kalabari at least, the belief is held that the spirits of dead\nhusbands are not altogether cut off from earthly joys but, when bound\nby specially ardent affection for the wives they have left behind, may\non occasion return for the purpose of once more embracing the object\nof their desire. That such a proceeding is supposed to be not without\ndanger to the woman thus visited will be seen from the statement of\nOgoloba H. Horsfall, who summoned her brother-in-law, Charlie H.\nHorsfall, for accusing her of witchcraft. Complainant stated on oath:\n\n    Three months ago the defendant accused me of witchcraft. This\n    was on the Government beach. He stated that several people\n    had died in the house owing to my having bewitched them.\n    My husband was defendant\u2019s brother. He died, and since his\n    death has appeared to me in the night time and tried to have\n    connection with me. I had to make medicine to stop this, as\n    otherwise I might have died.\n\nHow deeply the longing for offspring is ingrained in the hearts of\nthese people may be gauged to a certain extent by the horror of\nthe means to which they will sometimes resort in order to overcome\nsterility or increase fruitfulness. For such an end no crime is too\ncruel; no magic rite too dark or revolting. For example, a case was\nreported from the Ogoni country on unimpeachable authority but seven\nyears ago, in which the foetus was removed from a pregnant woman in\norder to be shared out among, and devoured by, others who believed this\nto be a sure way of increasing fertility.\n\nIn a land case, which had arisen between the Okrikans and the Mbolli\ntribe and came before me in April 1915, it was stated by Daniel Kalio,\nhead chief of the former, that the disputed territory had been seized\nby his people in punishment for the terrible crime committed by their\nopponents.\n\n    In the old days, he said, the river formed the boundary between\n    our land; but our women were in the habit of crossing over to\n    attend the markets. One day, while thus peacefully buying and\n    selling, the \u2019Mbolli rose and slew seventy-two of them at one\n    time--forty-one at one place and thirty-one at another. Their\n    heads were struck off and borne before the Juju; while the\n    bodies of those who had been about to bear babes were slashed\n    open and the small, small piccans removed and carried away.\n\nIt was suggested from another source that this last outrage was\npromoted by the same idea as that recorded among their neighbours the\nOgoni and that the Mbolli sought, by this terrible means, to procure\nunprecedented fruitfulness to their own women. The suggestion, however,\nhas never been substantiated.\n\nThe story of the coming of Ale was told by an Ibo named Obi Amara. It\ndiffers from the usual southern Ikwerri Ibo idea that Chi, or Chineke,\nthe creatrix, was the great first cause from which all mortal men have\nsprung. He explained seeming contradictions by saying that to Ale the\nbodies alone were due, into which Chi sent down souls from the Spirit\nRealm.\n\n    They make Ale play for this country at the feast of new\n    yams and also give food to Ale when they want plenty yams,\n    especially at the sowing of farms. Ale is the mother of all Ibo\n    people. Her husband is called \u2019Ndiche.\n\nPerhaps it is worth mentioning here that this was the only occasion on\nwhich any such appellation was given among the many local names for\nthe spouse of Ale. Ndiche, or Ndichie, itself is the ordinary Ibo word\nfor the forefathers, and the relationship here mentioned between the\nEarth Goddess and these beneficent shades is significant in view of the\nco-operation thought to exist between them, not only as regards seed\ncorn and harvest but also fertility of the hearth. Further it may be\nnoticed that the primary cause of the coming of Ale, as here given, was\nnot to provide a home for the living but a resting-place for the dead.\nTo continue:\n\n    There is a big bird in our country named Ogbughu (hornbill).\n    Its mother died. In those days Ale was not, so that the bird\n    could find no place to bury his mother. He went round and\n    round and at last had to bury her on his own head. That is why\n    he bears upon his head a mound the shape of a grave to the\n    present day. After a while, as he flew over the water, seeking\n    a resting-place but finding none, he saw one fine woman and\n    one man swimming in the water. As he watched, he saw they were\n    making something and, in a short time, the first land began to\n    appear. When it had grown quite big, Ale cried: \u2018When any man\n    dies, let him be brought and buried here.\u2019 Her own body she\n    stretched over the land; she it is who made all, both the earth\n    and the earth-folk, whom she bore from her womb. When the dead\n    are buried they turn to earth, so that our people say: \u2018We are\n    of one body with Ale.\u2019 The trees too she brought. Ojji tree was\n    the first that ever grew upon earth. The second was Agbo (or\n    Akpu, the silk cotton tree) and the third Odala. Food is still\n    given to this tree for every child which is born to a house\n    and, if a woman wants a piccan, she brings a fowl to the Odala\n    tree.\n\n    When a woman wants to become a mother, she lies down to sleep\n    for night time after prayer to Ale. She dreams that Odala\n    brings a piccan and lays it upon her breast. At daybreak she\n    wakes and cries: \u2018Where is the piccan that was over my heart?\u2019\n    Then she takes a long piece of chalk,[22] called \u2019Nsu by Ibos,\n    and lays it before the Odala tree, praying: \u2018Make my dream come\n    true.\u2019\n\n    The fourth tree which Ale brought was the Kola Ojji, the fruit\n    of which is often set out in offering to the ghosts. At an\n    Ale feast the women bring food and the oldest man of the town\n    offers it up. After a man has eaten of such a feast, should he\n    do any evil thing that day, Ale would surely kill him.\n\n    When a bad sickness comes upon a town, the old priest of Ale,\n    who is always the head chief, beats upon the long drum to call\n    all the people together in order to find out the cause of the\n    trouble. Then Kola nuts are laid upon the place set apart for\n    offerings. Each man in turn kneels down and picks up the kola\n    with his lips, eats it and goes away. This is done until the\n    guilty one comes. When a wizard bends down to take Ale\u2019s kola,\n    the Earth Spirit catches him and he is forced by her power to\n    confess how he spread the pestilence. Before all the people he\n    must speak out, saying: \u2018I killed this man. I killed that man.\n    That woman also I slew!\u2019--until all his crimes are known. When\n    everything has been told, his belly swells up and he dies. No\n    man touches him. It is by Ale\u2019s power alone that he is slain.\n\nThis aversion to witchcraft is characteristic not only of the Earth\nMother but also of her spouse the Thunder God; for, though certain\nmagicians can raise a tempest by their spells, it is held to be\nextremely dangerous for witch or wizard to practise magic rites during\nthe time of storms. When a man is struck by lightning, it is thought\nthat Amade Onhia slew him on account of his crimes. Such men are never\nburied, lest the evil within them should defile Ale. The corpses are\ntherefore flung away into the bush of the unblest dead. Similarly\namong Aro and some other Ibo tribes no tree struck by lightning can be\nused for firewood; since food cooked upon this would be accursed and\neven the light and heat given out by such logs would have a sinister\ninfluence on all whom it might reach.\n\nWith these peoples the bed-rock of religious ideas has perhaps been\nattained in this direction; and, unless the fascination of the subject\nhas misled one with will-o\u2019-the-wisp-like glamour, then surely in the\ncult of the Earth Mother, of the Sky Father, by whose fecundative\nshowers her fruition is brought about, of the kindly ancestors, whose\nspirits still watch over their descendants and aid in the sending of\nrich harvests--lastly, and most intimately of all, by sympathetic magic\nthrough that mysterious link thought to lie between the generative\norgans, both male and female, and the fruitfulness of the animal and\nvegetable kingdoms--the innermost workings of primitive minds may, in a\nmeasure, be reached at last.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] See also figures on the ancestral tablet described on p. 121.\n\n[2] 1904, pp. 134, 135.\n\n[3] In the Mbari houses of the neighbourhood of Omo Akani, Owerri\nDistrict, where the Juju Ogugu holds sway, monkeys also are shown in\nthe act of procreation.\n\n[4] A different word to Abara \u2018Juju.\u2019\n\n[5] Our informant did not know of any link, yet it seems not without\nsignificance that the phallic pillars, raised by maidens before\nmarriage to ensure plentiful offspring, also bear the name of Eki. See\nchapter vii.\n\n[6] At the Etche town of Okudu Mba there was an Mbari house erected in\nhonour of Ajala (Aja ground or mud), \u2018a brother of Ale.\u2019\n\n[7] In this neighbourhood are the principal shrines of Adumu, the head\nand father of all the snake cults of the region. The little village of\nAdum-Ama is its chief centre, while at \u2019Ngeri-Baw-Ama it was stated\nthat \u2018only men may talk with him; for with his cult some of the most\nimportant of the male secrets are said to be connected.\u2019\n\n[8] The wrestling scene depicted in every Mbari house generally\nrepresents the ceremonial wrestling \u2018to help the crops grow\u2019 described\non p. 112 _et seq._\n\n[9] Cf. The Bird and Pillar Cult of old Crete.\n\n[10] See _Life in Southern Nigeria_.\n\n[11] No information could be obtained as to whether the priest \u2018died\u2019\nat the end of the seventh year of his office, like the priest of the\nAya-Eke cult at Elele, _vide_ p. 103 _et seq._\n\n[12] The tabu among Okoba and Ale Nsaw Ibo against climbing palm trees\nis probably due to the same idea.\n\n[13] _Zeus: A Study of Ancient Religion_, by A. B. Cook.\n\n[14] Vide _In the Shadow of the Bush_, p. 14.\n\n[15] Many of these would now be classified by me as symbols of\n\u2018medicines\u2019 or charms, not \u2018jujus.\u2019 Vide _The Peoples of Southern\nNigeria_, vol. ii. p. 153.\n\n[16] _In the Shadow of the Bush_, p. 76.\n\n[17] It is perhaps worth remarking that among Mbolli all fire brick is\nused for the same purpose.\n\n[18] The Ajokko-Ji, the Yam Spirit, is further described in _The\nPeoples of Southern Nigeria_.\n\n[19] _Woman\u2019s Mysteries of a Primitive People_ (Cassell), p. 81.\n\n[20] Eke day is one of the four days of the Ibo week. It is market day\nat Elele. Eke is also the name of the great python. See p. 7.\n\n[21] Mbiencha is the child of Nkike, the Mbolli Earth Goddess.\n\n[22] This offering is of the same shape, though apparently slightly\nlarger than the small phallic symbols found before the Juju Ezum Mezum\ndepicted on p. 92.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n  A\n\n  Abara, messenger of the Earth Goddess, represented in Mbari Houses,\n        16-7.\n\n  Abaw, clan of Ika sub-tribe of Ibo, 79.\n\n  Abuan, Semi-Bantu tribe, 75, 121, 123.\n\n  Adultery:\n    Tabus, 126-7;\n    condonation of, 127.\n\n  Ajiji, \u2018play\u2019, 93-4.\n\n  Ajokko-ji, or Njokku:\n    Yam cult, 99 _et seq._;\n    among Mbolli, 29.\n\n  Ala, or Ale, or Ana. _See_ Earth Goddess.\n\n  Ale Nsaw, sub-tribe of Ibo, 122-3.\n\n  Amade Onhia, or Amad\u2019ongha. _See_ God of Lightning.\n\n  Ancestors:\n    and Fertility, 9, 60, 113, 120;\n    and Ale, 120 _et seq._ esp. 134;\n    accursed, 64;\n    shrines and phallic figures, 84;\n    symbols, 80-1;\n    between reincarnations, 77, 130-2.\n\n  Ant hill, and phallic cults, 90-2.\n\n  Ape, represented in Mbari Houses, 22, 24-5.\n\n  Aro, sub-tribe of Ibo; and worship of Thunder God, 46.\n\n  Art, clay figures in Mbari Houses, 15, 41.\n\n  Axe, double-headed, depicted on Ikoro drum, 4, 8.\n\n\n  B\n\n  Binny, Mr. J. M., former District Commissioner, 108-9.\n\n  Bird and Pillar worship, 43.\n\n  Birth:\n    representation in Mbari Houses, 15, 24, 51;\n    due to Jujus, 60.\n\n  Blood and Fertility, 102, 128-9.\n\n  Burial. _See_ Death.\n\n\n  C\n\n  Chief of town, must be priest of Ale, 12.\n\n  Child birth, tabus re, 63.\n\n  Coiffure, representations in Mbari Houses, 15, 41.\n\n  Cooking cones. _See_ Eku, 82 _et seq._\n\n  Copulation:\n    method of, 24-5;\n    with the dead, 132;\n    unnatural, 33-6;\n    tabus re, 32-3, 121 _et seq._;\n    and cults of Earth Goddess and Thunder God, 15, 48.\n\n  Crocodile, depicted on Ikoro drum etc., 4, 7, 9.\n\n  Cult, yam, 99 _et seq._ _See_ Fertility.\n\n\n  D\n\n  Dance, at Elele, 116 _et seq._\n\n  Death, tabus re, 62-4.\n\n  Drum, the Great, 1 _et seq._\n\n\n  E\n\n  Earth. _See_ Goddess.\n    Spousals with Sky, 61.\n\n  Egyptians, Ancient, 75;\n    Legend re Horus, 85.\n\n  Ekkpahian, sub-tribe of, Ibo, and unnatural copulation, 34-6.\n\n  Ekoi, Semi-Bantu tribe, 65, 79.\n\n  Eku, phallic figures, 82 _et seq._\n\n  Eleche, Priest of Aya-Eke yam cult, 104 _et seq._\n\n  Elele, Ikwerri Ibo town, home of Aya-Eke Yam cult, 103.\n\n  Etche, sub-tribe of Ibo, builders of Mbari Houses, 12, 20, 23, 40 _et\n        seq._\n\n  Ethnological Sketch by P. Amaury Talbot, v.\n\n\n  F\n\n  Farms, 99. _See_ Fertility.\n\n  Fertility:\n    of farms, 50, 99 _et seq._;\n    of farms and flocks, 36, 113;\n    and Jujus, _see_ Ibudu, 65 _et seq._;\n    linked with priest, 103;\n    desire for, 133;\n    and blood, 128-9.\n    _See_ Ancestors, also Earth Goddess, esp. 40-1, 48, 60.\n\n  Frazer, Sir James, 85.\n\n  Fruitfulness. _See_ Fertility.\n\n\n  G\n\n  Genital Organs, 65-6, 70, 5-6.\n    _See_ Phallic, Symbols.\n\n  Ghosts. _See_ Ancestors.\n\n  Girls, and initiatory ceremonies, 14, 82 _et seq._\n\n  God, of Lightning and Thunder, Amade Onhia or Amad\u2019ongha, 52 _et\n        seq._;\n    and Mbari shrine, 12, 20-1, 27, 30-1, 40, 43;\n    symbols, 47;\n    signs of, 57;\n    his \u2018Palms\u2019, 46;\n    his Priest, 49, 56;\n    and witchcraft, 57, 136.\n\n  God, Sky, 52 _et seq._, 61.\n\n  Goddess, Earth, 9, 52 _et seq._;\n    the coming of, 135;\n    and Mbari shrines, 12, 16, 21, 26, 30, 40;\n    and Ancestors, 120 _et seq._;\n    and witchcraft, 136.\n\n\n  H\n\n  Head-Dresses:\n    of Obukere Society, 37-8;\n    representation in Mbari Houses, _see_ Coiffure.\n\n  Horn of Plenty, 9.\n\n\n  I\n\n  Ibibio Tribe, 64-5, 85.\n\n  Ibo Tribe: v.\n\n  Ibodo, Etche Ibo town, 42, 44.\n\n  Ibudu, phallic pillars, 65 _et seq._\n\n  Ikoro Drum, 2 _et seq._\n\n  Initiatory ceremonies, feminine. _See_ Girls.\n\n  Intercourse. _See_ Copulation.\n\n\n  J\n\n  Jekri, sub-tribe of Yoruba, Tabus re copulation, 124.\n\n  Johnston, Sir Harry, 56.\n\n  Jujus, and Fertility of human beings, 60, 65.\n\n\n  K\n\n  Kalabari, sub-tribe of Ijaw, v, 56;\n    and double Ibudu, 77-8.\n\n\n  L\n\n  Lightning:\n    and trees, 58;\n    God of, _see_ God.\n\n\n  M\n\n  Marriage:\n    among Okrikans, 120;\n    ideal, 89;\n    betrothed girls, 82 _et seq._\n\n  Mbari Houses: Chs. 2, 3 and 4;\n    at Omo Dim, 10 _et seq._;\n    at Ibodo, 44;\n    construction of, 14 _et seq._;\n    ceremonies at, 14;\n    in Etche country, 40 _et seq._;\n    license depicted in, 32-3.\n\n  Mbolli, tribe:\n    and yam cult, 29, 115;\n    and farms, 121-2.\n\n  Medicine man, and construction of Mbari House, 21, 23.\n\n  Mgbe, and temples, 21, 23.\n\n  Moon:\n    depicted on Ikoro drum, 4;\n    on figures in Mbari Houses, 26 _et seq._, 31;\n    and fertility, 28-30.\n\n\n  N\n\n  Njokku, figure in Mbari House, 11.\n    _See also_ Ajokko-Ji, 99 _et seq._\n\n\n  O\n\n  Obogwe, Ibo town, Mbari House at, 30.\n\n  Obukere Club: 36-9;\n    and unnatural copulation, 36.\n\n  Ohambele, Ibo town, where Ikoro drum is worshipped, 2.\n\n  Okrikans, clan of Kalabari sub-tribe of Ibo, and Death Tabus, 63.\n\n  Omo Dim, Ibo town, Mbari House at, 26 _et seq._\n\n  Opioro, Etche Ibo town, Mbari House at, 24-5.\n\n  Otaminni, River Deity, and Mbari Houses, 12, 20, 24.\n\n\n  P\n\n  Peoples of Southern Nigeria, by P. Amaury Talbot, v.\n\n  Pepple, Mr. B. M., 2\n\n  Phallic Cult, 65 _et seq._, 84-5.\n    _See_ Procreation, Fertility, Symbols, Genital organs.\n\n  Pillar, Bird and Pillar worship, 43-4.\n\n  Pliny, 6.\n\n  Priest:\n    of Earth Goddess, 12, 16, 30;\n    of Yam cult, Fertility linked with his life, 103;\n    of Thunder God, 49.\n\n  Procreation, represented in Mbari Houses, 15, 32.\n\n  Prostitution, religious, 127-8.\n\n  Puberty, girls\u2019 initiatory ceremonies, 82 _et seq._\n\n\n  R\n\n  Rainbow, sign of Lightning God, 57\n\n  Romans, and seed-grain, 113.\n\n\n  S\n\n  Seed Yams, and corn, 49, 59, 113.\n\n  Sekapu Society, 39.\n\n  Sex, Male and Female combined, 89.\n\n  Sky God. _See_ God.\n\n  Slaves:\n    of Juju, 56, 59;\n    in Mbari Houses, 42;\n    sanctuary in shrines, 59.\n\n  Snake:\n    depicted on Ikoro Drum, etc., 4, 6-7;\n    symbol of male organ, 5 _et seq._;\n    cults, 34.\n\n  Stone, worship of, 80-1.\n\n  Symbols: 65, 79-81, 84-5, 94;\n    on Ikoro drum, 4;\n    of tortoise and snake, 4-9;\n    of lightning, 47.\n\n\n  T\n\n  Tabus:\n    re copulation, 25, 32-3, 121, 123-6;\n    food, 49, 102;\n    climbing, 58;\n    picking leaves, etc., 58;\n    death, 62-4;\n    revocation of, 125.\n\n  Thunder, God of. _See_ God of Lightning.\n\n  _Times Literary Supplement_, quotation from, 4-5.\n\n  Tortoise:\n    symbol of female generative organs, 5-9;\n    and Folklore, 5.\n\n  Tree, sacred, 101-2, 130-1.\n\n\n  U\n\n  Umoyo, Etche town, 22.\n\n  Unnatural copulation, 33-6.\n\n\n  W\n\n  Whitehouse, Mr., former District Commissioner, 14.\n\n  Witchcraft, and Earth Goddess and Thunder God, 136.\n\n  Wobilo, Chief of Umoyo, 22-3.\n\n  Wrestling:\n    depicted in Mbari Houses, 41;\n    in connection with yam and corn cults, 110 _et seq._\n\n\n  Y\n\n  Yam Cult: 99 _et seq._;\n    among Mbolli, 29;\n    Aya-Eke cult, 103 _et seq._\n\n  Yellow, Mr. G. A., 11.\n\n\n  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.\n  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes.\n\nItalic text is indicated with _underscores_, bold text with =equals=.\nSmall/mixed capitals have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS.\n\nEvident typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected\nsilently. Inconsistent spelling/hyphenation has been normalised.\n\nA half-title page has been discarded.\n\nInternal references treated as footnotes have been inserted into the\ntext. Remaining footnotes have been relocated to the end of the text.\n\nTo improve text flow, illustrations have been relocated between\nparagraphs. Page numbers in the list of illustrations have been\ndiscarded.\n\nNew original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the\npublic domain.","title":"Some Nigerian fertility cults","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":35837}