Chapter IX: Ale and the Ancestors 120 (1)

INDEX 138

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

_Frontispiece_ Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of the Peri play

1. Ikuru drum at Ihie

2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba), Okpala

3. Chief juju at Tema

4. Outside the Mbari House, Omo Dim

5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house

6. Abara, the messenger of Ale and Amad’ongha or Otaminni

7. Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro

8. Humorous figures

9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro

10. The chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni

11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim

12. ‘Little Moon-face’, Omo Dim

13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house

14. Obukere Club head-dresses

15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere Club, Oduaha

16. Figure in Mbari house, Umoyo

17. Wrestling scene (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia and Ale. Shrine drummers on the right

18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari house

19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and Otamelli

20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin

21. The Aroid which grows round about the great Amad’ongha shrine at Ozozo

22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with blood-stained linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the shrine at Ewawfe

23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many piccans

24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo Chuku

25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku

26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle

27. Ite Uru Ibudu

28. Charm

29. Ibudu Nwa

30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada

31. Ibudu at Digiriga

32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara quarter of Akpani

33. Ibudu at Akpani

34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga

35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques. Kalabari shrine of Awome-Ka-So

36. Patterns of the low Eki

37. Group of Eku, near ’Ndelle

38. The Wekwe Eruru

39. The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’

40. Clay figures at the base of a cotton tree near Elele

41. Figures at the base of a cotton tree, near Elele

42. The Eni Awsoku

43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu

44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by the memorial pillar of the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke

45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche’s place, Elele

46. Ancestral tablet

47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji

I

THE GREAT DRUM

The outbreak of war seemed a favourable opportunity for discontented natives to throw off the restraints imposed by Government and return to old customs, and disturbances occurred in various parts of Nigeria. One of these took place in Aba District to the north-east of Degama. We have since learned that the native name for this region is Aba-Ala, _i.e._ Aba of the Earth Goddess Ale or Ala. Here two messengers employed by the Native Courts were seized and dragged before the great drum, described as from 18 to 20 feet in length, which stood in one of the Juju houses. Later, reliable testimony declared this to have been one of the principal shrines of the Earth Mother herself.

According to the account given us, the unfortunate victims were forced to kneel at the end of the long, trough-like base, from the centre of which the rounded portion of the drum was carved, and their heads struck off so that they fell forward into the cavity. The drum was then splashed with blood and the heads, still bearing the uniform caps, were placed thereon amid the skulls of former victims as a defiance to British rule, which, the insurgents hoped, was no longer powerful enough to protect its servants.

Shortly afterwards, a policeman passing through the region with a prisoner, whom he was bringing down to Degama, was also seized and done to death. Vengeance, swift and sure, followed these crimes. By order of the Resident, the blood-stained drum was burnt to ashes and justice meted out to the guilty persons. The destruction of this fetish was an act of necessity, since no other measures would have produced the same effect upon its worshippers; yet the step was taken with great regret, for the drum was of an interesting type and most elaborately carved.

Some weeks later our road led us through the town of Ihie, where we came upon a similar drum, of a kind then new to us. Cleft from an even larger trunk than the Ibibio big drum at Jamestown, to which it showed some points of resemblance, the giant bole extended at both ends in a Noah’s Ark-like base, on which were seated, at either extremity, a male and female figure--the latter holding a babe in her extended arms. (See fig. 1.)

We were informed that the name of the drum, and of the cult, was Ikoro (or Ikuru). One of the chief towns devoted to its worship was Ohambele nearby. ‘This town,’ in the words of Mr. B. M. Pepple,

has a big Ikoro drum which is highly respected. Before
Government came, they gave it human sacrifices, but now only
goats and fowls. They beat this drum during war time. Any human
head cut off in war is brought and placed on the drum with
blood. No man can see the big Ikoro drum unless he has cut
off a human head and presented it to this. It does not matter
whether the head was got by war or not. The Ikoro play falls
twice a year. The first is called Mkpukpu-Chi (thanksgiving)
and falls at harvest time. The second is carried out in the
farming season, and is called Omehie Ogugu (remembrance of
the Juju Ogugu). Any man in the town has the right to dance the
Ikoro. The big Ikoro is beaten in the house, while the dancers
keep outside. Those men, who had cut off a human head, would
come to the front of the big Ikoro house and play their motion
by raising the sword and telling of the brave deeds they have
done; then they would begin to dance again. The Ikoro drum was
never carried to another town. Before the time of Government
small towns did not make an Ikoro drum. If any small town
ventured to do so, the big towns fought them and seized the
drum.

Detailed examination of the drum at Ihie showed that the ornamentation carved in relief was of exceptional interest. In the middle, between the figures of a man and woman rudely enough represented and probably depicting the carver and his wife, who were usually sacrificed on the completion of the work, was the carefully chiselled shape of a great serpent folded round on round. On either side of this, various symbols were to be seen, several of which were easily enough recognised as the crescent moon, the sacred crocodile, a Juju horn, and, what seemed to our eager imagination, a fresh example of the double-headed axe, but which was explained by the natives as a musical instrument called, in Ibo, Igilla. The reason why, on closer investigation, our interpretation rather than theirs seemed to be the right one, will be stated later. For the moment our attention was caught by an object quite new to us, the meaning of which we could not even conjecture. On asking its significance we were told simultaneously and with like positiveness from two different sides, one that it was a representation of the familiar tortoise, while the other volunteered the unexpected statement that it pictured the labia majora, with the clitoris showing between.

Those who voiced the opinion first given asked contemptuously whether it was not a matter of common knowledge that tortoise played an important part in the greater number of Jujus. On this, the second party subsided for the moment as if abashed by their opponents, but later one came in private to point out that tortoise is depicted with the crossed lines which indicate the cracks in her shell, whereas in this case the small vertical dashes are the conventional representation of hair. He further explained that the opposition party was right to a certain extent, in that tortoise herself symbolises the feminine generative organs, just as the serpent is well known to typify the phallus.

Till then, the presence of the impaled tortoise before most Jujus, even remotely concerned with the granting of fertility, had been more or less of a puzzle; for, although the snake is recognised by anthropologists as the phallic emblem, no widespread feminine symbol of like significance appears to have been known here hitherto.

The supremacy of tortoise in most tales of African origin has often proved puzzling to folklorists. The subject is mentioned in _The Times Literary Supplement_ of 10th December, 1914:

There is one very curious point which these and other stories
of the kind have in common--that though these professional
jokers, so to call them, have the better of all the animals
with whom they ordinarily enter into a contest of wits, there
is one ... who always has the better of them all, even of the
jokers themselves--the tortoise. He appears under that name
in the translation of the bushman’s tales; he is, of course,
Uncle Remus’s Brer Tarrypin and he has no less credit in South
American stories. Why is the tortoise credited with such
wisdom? One wonders.... Is it just this--that the bright little
up-looking head and eyes, when put forth, suggested the idea of
intelligence? It is something of a serpentine head and we have
read a piece of folklore which tells us that the serpent was
the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.

Surely the meaning of the tortoise symbol, stumbled upon thus unexpectedly, goes far to explain the difficulty. To the native mind the ‘serpentine head,’ appearing between the walls of shell, as naturally pictures the clitoris as does the serpent its male counterpart. By a train of thought not difficult to follow, this particular part of the body has grown to symbolise femininity in general. For Africans, therefore, tortoise stands for the feminine qualities of persuasion--sometimes, perhaps, not untinged by guile--as opposed to the more forceful male attributes. It may be remembered that, in Pliny’s day, a powder made of a whole tortoise shell was thought to be an aphrodisiac.

A few days later, in an Mbari house close to Okpala market-place, the two emblems, snake and tortoise, were found modelled side by side in the very centre of the first row of symbolic figures. Further on at Obogwe, where the Mbari house is built in two separate sections--the first, dedicated to the Thunder God Amade Onhia, usually contracted into Amad-ongha, and the second to his spouse, the Earth Goddess Ale or Ala--the phallic serpent was found in a position of great prominence in the shrine of the male deity, while tortoise was seen, modelled alone, in that of the goddess. Another example in which the two symbols were found, this time again in juxtaposition, was upon the main post of the shrine of the Juju Ogboloma at Tema near Degama--one of the principal Kalabari Jujus. Here, as so often, the two are combined with the figure of the sacred crocodile.[1]

With the new suggestion in mind, the detailed drawing of the sacred drum was examined, with the result that the emblems carved thereon seemed to take upon themselves a deeper significance. As already mentioned, at either end of the trough-like base, sits a male or female figure carved from the solid wood and distinct from the drum. To the left, the male, bearing the symbols of manly strength, the sword in the one hand and the horn, typifying plenty and masculine virility, in the other. To the right the Mother--her head adorned with the high coiffure which, among Ibo, designates pride in offspring--a babe in her outstretched arms. In the centre of the drum itself, in the place of honour, carved in bold relief, is shown the phallic serpent. To the left of its pointed head rises the crescent moon--the world-wide symbol of growth--especially connected with childbirth, since expectant mothers count their time by its waxing and waning.

On either side, in the one case above and on the other below, are seen, twice repeated, the disputed signs, in both cases in conjunction with the old Cretan symbol of the union of the sexes--the double-headed axe. That the native explanation of the last-named figure was given in good faith, there is no reason to doubt. It is only another case of the way in which a symbol has survived long after the loss of its meaning. Indeed, a certain similarity exists; but, to those acquainted with native ways, I venture to think that the sharpness of angle marked in the joining of haft to head, instead of the easy curves called for by a representation of the musical instrument, is clear enough indication that the carver was following faithfully, though blindly, in the footsteps of long dead craftsmen whose work once bore another significance. A considerable number of examples of the old Minoan double-headed axe cult were found in other parts of West and Central Africa.

Besides those already discussed, only three other symbols are shown on the front of the great drum: viz. (1) the sacred crocodile--the terrible emblem of West Coast cults such as the Human Alligator Society and the great Ekoi women’s secret cult of the Nature Goddess Nimm. Possibly the crocodile sometimes symbolises another plane of being or the future life; it is a common belief here that many souls live in crocodile form both during the life, and after the death, of the human body. There may also be some connection with the Egyptian worship of this creature. (2) The horn placed beneath the double-headed axe, as the so-called tortoise symbol is above--considered so powerful an emblem of virility that even its representation in bronze is supposed to excite desire, and, held in the hand of a pregnant woman, to assist delivery; and (3) the figure of a dog--regarded among Ibo and Kalabari as the means of first bringing fire to earth--possibly typifying the brute creation in general, or at least that part of it which is friendly to man.

Among some tribes, especially the Ekkett Ibibio, the tortoise shell is looked upon as the symbol of the Earth Deity, the goddess of fertility. The snake is the chief phallic symbol, not only on account of its shape but also because many species live underground and are therefore taken to represent the dead, to whose influence the fruitfulness of the crops is in many places considered mainly due.

II

MBARI HOUSES

From Aba, we passed through Omo Dim, in Owerri District, to visit the Mbari house there.

According to Ababua, priest of Amade Onhia at Ibo near Okomoko, the meaning of the word Mbari is ‘fine’ or ‘decorated.’

The central part of the strange structure at Omo Dim proved to be a rectangular building with steeply pointed roof and overhanging eaves, the latter so wide as to make a broad verandah. The walls, forming the central chamber, were painted with elaborate frescoes, mostly in red and white upon yellow, or red and yellow upon white. On either side of the main entrance to the inner, sacred apartment were here, and in most Mbari houses subsequently visited, figures so strikingly like those of Omogwa and Otamelli, the two strangely elongated guardians of the Thunderer’s shrine at Ibodo (fig. 19), as to make it probable that all had a common origin and were set there for the same purpose, namely to warn trespassers from approaching the shrine.

To others the people had only answered vaguely in reply to questions as to the purpose of the building: ‘We make it for nothing, only to please ourselves.’ The identity of the white figure at the top of the ladder was explained, as a portrait of the District Commissioner!

We were more fortunate, mostly on account of the energy displayed by the interpreter, Chief G. A. Yellow, a man of unusual intelligence, to whom the reason of our enquiries had been explained and who was far-sighted enough to wish to aid them by every means in his power. By his persuasion an old chief was induced to come forward and give somewhat more information. According to his account the name of the structure was Njokku Mbari, and it was erected in honour of a great ancestor, long dead, named Njokku and his wife Mbafor. The white figure at the top of the ladder on the right of the building represented Njokku himself and, as the chief artlessly pointed out, the birds upon the rungs of the ladder showed that this was the road by which the spirit of the dead man had climbed to his place in the sky, whence he now ruled as a great chief. The fact that he was painted white signified that he was no longer an earth child but had passed to the ghost realm, from whence he watched over his descendants who brought offerings at certain times of the year in order that he might be gently disposed towards them and grant plentiful harvests. As mentioned elsewhere, there is little doubt that the word Njokku is the same as that in use on the Nile, where Jok is the Dinka appellation for ancestral spirits and the Lango name for God.

On the testimony of a considerable number of Ibo we learned that no Mbari house is built save at the orders of, and in honour of, one of the great deities worshipped throughout the Etche country and Owerri District, namely Ala, Amade Onhia, Otaminni (the genius of the Otaminni River) called, by the priest of his principal shrine at the Etche town of Opioro, ‘The Lover of Ale,’ and Oloba, a spirit living in the Owerri bush. So far as we could hear, the cult of the latter is quite local.

The more than life-sized figure, facing the principal entrance to the enclosure, was explained by the same chief as that of the ancestress Mbafor, with her small girl-piccan on her knee. It was, he said, the head priest of Ale, the Earth Goddess, whose shrine is close to the Mbari house, who ordered the erection of the building, chose out those who were to raise it and himself directed every detail of decoration. There seemed, however, reason to believe that the figures of the so-called ancestors Mbafor and Njokku really represented Ale and Amade Onhia, regarded, in many parts, as consorts and jointly responsible for the crops. The resemblance between the figures of the deities, as here shown, and those admittedly meant to depict the Earth Goddess and Thunder God in other Mbari houses, is so striking as surely to be more than a mere matter of coincidence.

It is indicative of the position of Ale that only the head chief of a town can aspire to become her priest. This is the case with all dominant Jujus; for instance, Otaminni at Opioro and Amade Onhia at Ozozo, the parent shrine of the Thunder God’s worship, from which all other centres of the cult derive their power. The following was the account given by the Omo Dim chief as to the erection of the Mbari house:

‘At the time of the new yam harvest the building is begun and, throughout the first part of the dry season, men and women, chosen for the purpose by the priest of Ale, work hard at beautifying and adorning it.’ Only those specially designated for this purpose may take part. Should anyone not called thereto by the priest attempt to share in the work, death would fall upon such unauthorised intruders as surely as that which overtook him who, of old, stretched forth a presumptuous hand to the Ark.

Before the making of new farms the house must be finished and ready for the celebration of its strange rites. Later, when the germs of the new season’s crop--corn-grains, sections of yam-tubers and seeds of pumpkins, great and small--have been confided to the dark bosom of Mother Earth, men and maids of the region gather together bringing gifts, ‘rack upon rack of dried fish, goats, sheep and fowls without stint, palm-wine in plenty and all else needed for a great feast.’ Of the maids, who have undergone initiatory ceremonies, a certain number are chosen by the Ezale (head priest of Ale) to act as priestesses for the rites about to be held in and around the Mbari shrine.

As to the nature of the ceremonies, the natives were naturally reluctant to speak; but Mr. Whitehouse, a former District Commissioner, in a short account published in the _Journal of the African Society_,[2] declares them to have been of licentious character. Subsequent enquiries confirmed this, and the nature of the rites is borne out by the groups of clay figures set both round the central shrine and beneath the roof depending from the inner side of the wall, which encircles the whole erection cloister-wise. These images represent, with remarkable fidelity, the life-cycle of bird, beast and human being, from the act of procreation--depicted with astounding naïveté--to the lying down, when life is done, for a last long rest in the arms of the Earth Mother.

It is noticeable that, though beasts of prey play a great part in the series, as is only natural under the conditions here prevalent--such, for instance, as leopard or hippopotamus devouring human beings--these fierce beasts are shown either as destroyers or as falling beneath the weapons of the hunters, never in the propagation of their kind. Harmless or useful creatures, on the other hand, such as fowls, both wild and domesticated, dogs, sheep,[3] etc., together with human beings, are depicted first in the act of procreation, secondly that of giving birth, thirdly suckling their young and later in every conceivable scene of life. Men are modelled as engaged in hunting, fishing, canoeing--as police, court messengers, clerks or musicians. Women are shown grinding cam-wood, arranging elaborate coiffures, undergoing operations of extreme delicacy from native doctors--every act of life indeed from cradle to grave, and even beyond, here finds itself reproduced.

The following account of the raising of an Mbari shrine was given by Amuneke of Umo Yekki quarter, Owerri:

There are many such houses in our part, and they are starting
to make a new one, in honour of Ala, this month (October 1915)
in my own quarter. First of all, when she, Amad’ongha or
Otaminni, wish for a new house, they send a messenger called
Abara.[4] This is a sort of devil, very dreadful to see! In his
hand he carries a sword, because he is not only the messenger
but also the executioner of Ala. The image at Omo Dim is made
with birds perched upon the four horns on his head to show that
he is of the Sky People and is often sent by Amad’ongha. The
grasses in his hand show that he is also a servant of Ala.

He goes straight to the compound of the head chief (who
is always priest of one of the four great cults already
mentioned). Ordinary people are not able to see him; only
Juju people can do this, but all hear the place shake as he
enters. So soon as the chief knows, from this shaking, that the
messenger has come, he sends to a native doctor who goes into
the little shrine, where he talks to the spirits, and starts
to beat drum. This is a sign to Abara that he is ready to hear
the message. When the devil appears, the Juju man sees him
clearly, listens to the commands he brings and reports them to
the people, saying: ‘The Juju asks for an Mbari house to be
begun on such and such a day.’ Then the head chief chooses out
those who are to do the work, four men and three women from
each compound. These go out secretly at night time so that no
man may see them. If a strong Juju orders an Mbari house to be
built and the people do not obey at once, then at least twenty
men from that quarter will die.

Before beginning to build, they make a high fence round the
place so as to hide up the work they are going to do. Then they
start to make a long house, called Eki-Wari,[5] in which to
sleep. Across the middle of this a line is drawn. Men sleep on
the one side and women on the other. It would be regarded as a
very bad thing should a woman permit a man to approach her at
this time.

From the moment of starting the work till it is quite finished,
even if it lasts for a year, no one may go home again, save the
one man chosen from each compound to fetch food every day. That
is why four men are always chosen to every three women; because
one is needed to go backwards and forwards on ‘chop palaver.’

During all the time that the workers live inside the fence,
they are forbidden to eat coconut, palm-nuts or cassava. Only
cooked yams and soup may be eaten. Also, they may never sleep
at night time, only by day. This rule is made because no one
must see them when they go out to get the clay from which the
figures are formed. This must be taken from the centre of a
white ant hill, softened with water and carefully kneaded. No
other clay is permitted to be used. So soon as darkness falls,
they must begin to work and keep on till just after sunrise.

When the building is finished, on a day appointed by the Juju,
all people, whose sons or daughters have been working, make
ready for a great feast. After nightfall, they go to the Mbari
house bearing a new-made pot. This must be one never before
used, filled to the brim with clear water. Also they carry
a cock for every son and a hen for each daughter. All their
kinsfolk follow them up to the fence which hides the workers.
Only the fathers and mothers may go inside, while the rest
of the people wait without. Each couple steps, one after the
other, in order of rank, together with the priest, before the
big Juju set in front of the main doors. There the Juju priest
kills a fowl and mixes its blood with water in the new bowl.
Then, with a small wooden spoon, he throws some upon the head
of son or daughter and pours the rest upon the great image to
whom manillas are also offered. At this point the father says:

‘Ubu anyi abiala. Bia ikpe ogu. Anyi
‘Now we are coming. Come judge matter. We (_i.e._ between us)

agi oku awsaw ade pa. Anyi emena nhie icheri.
you words again are no(t). We have done things thought your.

Ubu anyi abiala bia ekpaw nwa anyi. Oku
Now we are coming come to take son our. Words

awsaw adr pa.’
again are no(t) (_i.e._ all is finished).’

After this the mother says (for a son):

‘Ubu-laka nhie oma ka ega enyi anyi na nwam
‘Now things good you are going to give us and son my

makana ihie oma onu oma onu nagi. Nam na
because (he has done) things good work good work for you. I and

dim na ji unwenne na omu umonu na ewu
husband (my) and yam I have and children I born and goats

mwenne nhie oma ka anyi ega anhu afor anhua.’
I have things good make (for) us go see year this coming.’

For a daughter the mother says:

‘Aborolam nwam obi oma. Mejiea na mejieadia
‘I am taking my child (with) mind good. Give gifts to her and gifts to her
husband (for)

onu-ma ka. Aronona ge anyi. Mfu ga ezi ubu-laka
work good your. Have worked for you we. If (I) go out now

afu na nam nhie ojo.’
finished for me things bad.’

So soon as the last word ‘ojo’ has been spoken, the priest
seizes son or daughter and pushes him, or her, towards the
parents who at once catch hold on either hand. All three _walk
backwards_ towards the gate. As the first foot strikes the
threshold, they face round and the relatives waiting outside
catch up the worker without an instant’s delay and bear him
back to his home. No foot of any such may be set to ground,
lest Ala should be vexed.

When they reach the house all join in a great feast, with fish
of every kind, plenty beef and tombo too much! That night the
people tear down the fences, which were put up to hide the
work, and burn them in a very great fire.

Those years, in which a new house is built, the yams grow
bigger in our farms, goats and sheep have more piccans, while
nearly always the girls chosen by the Juju for her work bear
babes fine past those of other mothers. Usually they conceive
soon after the work is finished--often within one or two moons
of the play.

About every five or six years a new Mbari house is raised to
Ala. She has more than any other god. Next in number come
those built for Amade Onhia and still less for Otaminni and
Oloba. I have never heard of any such house being made for the
ancestors, as was said to be the case at Omo Dim. This may be
true for that part; only I know nothing of it.

It is in the little inner room that the god lives. In each of
these a tall stone, shaped like an Ibudu, is set. After making
its face smooth and clean all about, they cover it with a piece
of white cloth. It is into this stone that the spirit enters.

Suppose one man charges another with doing bad things. Then
they bring the accused for night time and lock him up alone in
the small inner room. Next morning, if he be innocent, he walks
forth unharmed; suppose he be guilty, then Juju kills him and
his dead body is carried out at dawn. Perhaps Juju beat him to
death, perhaps kill him other way; but always he die. No help
for such man.

When a big pointed stone is found in our bush, an Mbari house
is always built for it. In places where such things are, the
knives, with which the old people made them, may be dug up out
of the earth. I myself found one such knife at Baro. It was of
very strong stone, hard past iron and curved over in a sharp
point.

At Olakwaw near Owerri one very big stone was found. They
carved it into an Ala figure and built a house for it. This
they put in the place of honour, facing the big door. Also at
Ne-Ewu and Ihuara in Owerri District there are stone figures
of Ala, Amad’ongha, Okpara Ala (the first born son of the Earth
Goddess) and Eke, the great snake. This is the kind of big
snake which lives for bush and always has a shining stone in
its head, such as white people call diamond. It is because of
these serpents that Eke day is said to take its name.

Images of Ale and Amad’ongha may be carved out of stone or
moulded in clay, but must never be cut from wood like the Agu
Isi (_i.e._ wooden images consulted by native doctors): for so
the Juju orders. Ala has other sons beside Okpara Ala.[6] Among
Etche Ibos and those of Owerri the younger sons are worshipped
every month, four days after the coming of the new moon. They
are represented under the shape of small cut stones such as
were taken from the bad Onye Dibia (medicine man) at Awka.
These stones are always kept in one of the round box stools,
rubbed with cam-wood. The medicine man sits upon the box, then
rises and shows the stones to the people who throw themselves
upon the ground before these, praying for piccans, kids, lambs
and yams. These sons are never represented in any other shape.
No figures of them are to be found in Mbari houses.

Sometimes we call these buildings Mbari, sometimes ’Mgbe. This
last word means a small boy or girl orphan. There are two kinds
of ’Mgbe--those who have relatives to look after them and those
who have none. We call the latter Osu ’Mgbe, _i.e._ the worst
’Mgbe. He is so very poor he can only get food by searching
round the bush for palm-nuts. For this reason his image is
nearly always made with palm-nuts in hand.

In olden days such a boy was always bought by one or other of
the quarters and presented as a slave to the Juju. Afterwards
he might never enter the compound which bought him, but could
go to beg food from others. Sometimes, when he has grown big
enough, he makes himself a little house in one of the corners
of the Mbari. Then people bring yams to him. Sometimes too the
Juju asks for chop for him. If the Juju loves him very much, it
will also ask one of the chiefs to give him a slave wife; but
such a boy may never marry any free-born girl of the town. The
same rule holds for girl orphans bought with money and given
to the Juju. They may take slave husbands, but never marry a
free-born man.

Another figure to be seen in every Mbari house is that of the
ape Ogbango. This is the kind into which the souls of bad Ibo
go after death.

In the Western Etche country these temples are generally called ’Mgbe houses. Umoyo, the principal place hereabouts, is a queer little town--or rather two towns--through which runs a single long street, fenced in on either side by a palisade of posts and palm-leaves. The houses lie well back, often out of sight from the main road, in gardens which bear luxuriant crops. At the end of the street stretches a line of cacti to keep out evil influences.

The head chief Wobilo was friendly to Government, and we had hoped to gain from him a considerable amount of information regarding the origin and rites of this singular cult. By an unfortunate accident, however, some of the principal men of the town had lately been drowned in the Juju water formed by the sacred Otaminni River just below its junction with the Ogochi. No sooner were the sad tidings made known to relatives and friends than the whole town turned against the head chief, saying that the deaths lay at his door, because he had induced them to undertake the journey which resulted in their untimely end. In consequence, Wobilo found himself outcast in his own town and, when on our next visit we asked a few questions concerning the figures in the local ’Mgbe house, the chief refused to run the risk of increasing his unpopularity by giving away information, and we were everywhere met by the answer: ‘I do not know. We did it for no reason. Perhaps our ancestors may have had knowledge of these things; but, as for us, we have long since forgotten, and only copy the customs taught by our fathers because we believe that by so doing we shall draw prosperity upon our town.’

The only information we could get ran as follows:

Mbari or ’Mgbe is our Chineke, also our Juju. People from Orata
built the house. At certain seasons girls dress themselves and
come before the shrine, there to dance, eat and drink.

Amad’ongha is a great Juju, but our people do not worship him
much. His proper country is over the other side of the Otaminni
River.

When an Mbari house was to be erected in Etche country, a medicine man was consulted as to time and place of building. Thereupon he brought out a human skull--in the old days that of a slaughtered victim, but since the coming of white rule one sought amid the ‘bad bush’ near his town. Round this were set out the Agu images--always, be it remembered those typifying fatherhood and motherhood, together with representatives of the animal kingdom, including ‘dog’ who brought fire to earth. A cock was killed and its blood sprinkled over the skull and the little images. Then the magician gave utterance to the supposed wish of the Earth Mother or Sky Father with regard to the building to be erected in their honour, by means of which, it was thought, prosperity of farm, byre and marriage bed might be secured to the town.

At Opioro stands an Mbari house built in honour of the spirit of the Otaminni River--the only one known to us throughout the Division. The image of Otaminni is set in the centre of the front side, with his ‘big relation’ Ala to his right and his three wives Ogori, Ocham and Wujere in a row on his left.

On the opposite side of the house, in the seat of honour, sits the Earth Mother again; while, near her, groups of women are engaged in pursuits set apart by custom as purely feminine. For instance, a midwife ushers a babe into the world; cam-wood is ground, etc. All the characters, with which one had grown familiar in other houses of this type, were here reproduced with one exception, that of ape. An enquiry into the cause of his absence brought the surprised reply: ‘Ogbango is here, sir! He stand for middle place at other side of house.’

A visit to the spot indicated revealed no sign of what we were seeking--only an unseemly group such as is to be found in nearly all such buildings, the woman bending forward at right angles from the waist, her head resting upon the square base of one of the roof pillars, while the male figure behind her was unmistakably engaged in the Geschlechts Akt. The present head priest of Otaminni, Amade Onyeche, was at the moment anxious to be appointed to the post of warrant chief in the place of his late brother. This made him not only willing but eager to impart information. His disclosures were, indeed, on certain points rather embarrassingly full. He stated, and his account was afterwards borne out by those of other Ibo, that the male figure was not that of a man but of the very Ogbango whom we had thought absent. In proof of this statement the priest pointed out that, in its right hand, on the left shoulder and beneath the left arm, the ape held a round ball, representing those hard fruits which, according to widespread native testimony, it is his habit to fling at passers-by, thereby stunning, or even killing, them. This we had already heard from many parts of the country. At Obogwe it was added that so heavy were the fruits and so great the strength of this ape that it was thought he might even succeed in stunning an elephant therewith! Amade Onyeche continued:

It is customary among our people to take up the position of
this couple for such a purpose, when there is no bed near at
hand. It is forbidden to lie upon the ground, lest Ale should
be defiled thereby. There are many of these great apes in our
bush who, if they meet a woman alone, force her to bear a child
to them.

The same belief, according to Amuneke of Umo Yekki, is held in the neighbourhood of Owerri. It is probably connected with the idea that the souls of bad men pass into ape form at death. It appears that the evil human spirit, confined in the animal body, is thought to take this means of providing a new form in which to re-incarnate.

III

MBARI HOUSES (_continued_)

In Mbari houses built in honour of Amade Onhia it is made perfectly clear, as is natural, that the Thunderer himself holds first place, while his consort is of secondary importance. In the shrine at Omo Dim, as previously mentioned, the place of honour, facing the entrance, was occupied by the figure of the so-called deified ancestress Mbafor--a bowl for offerings sunk into the ground at her feet and her daughter upon her knee. The face and form of the mother are bright yellow, the colour of the clay from which she is modelled as are those of Ala in all shrines yet visited; while the whole body of the child is dead white, like that of the Thunderer himself, the deified ancestor Njokku seated above his sky ladder, or indeed ghosts and ‘sky people’ in general.

On the white of her body five coal-black crescent moons had been painted; one just above the shoulder, one on the top of the arm and three down the flank. All, save that on the arm, showed a protuberance in the centre, exactly in the place where the nose would come when children draw the face of the man in the moon. The point would not have been worth mentioning but for the fact that in each Mbari house visited a peculiar decoration was noticeable, only to be described as a screen of lattice-work, formed of interlacing human figures. This was explained as representing the slaves sacrificed and flung into the grave--or laid there still living, but with broken arms and thigh bones--to form carpet and bier for the body of the dead chief. It may well have borne some such interpretation, but this would hardly explain the fact that, in each case which we came across, one row of figures, usually the centre one, bore faces the shape of a crescent moon, mostly dead white and outlined by a deep black rim. At Omo Dim, Okpala and Obogwe too there is a figure--which is duplicated with more or less fidelity in several other shrines and which for obvious enough reasons was named, by my companions, ‘little moon-face’--of the same type as those in the human trellis work.

Now the crescent moon is a sign of growth the world over. Ekoi women come together, beneath her faint beams, to carry out the rites which, according to their belief, will ensure fruitfulness. Ibibio and Ibo also hold that her rays are endued with fecundative powers, while pregnant women count the time to their delivery by her waxing and waning.

Some few weeks later, in passing through the town of Ebubu in the extreme east of Degama District inhabited by that strange and hitherto unstudied tribe, the Mbolli, we came across a shrine of a type such as we had never before seen. It is carved from a solid block of wood some four feet high, set in a carefully smoothed clay base, swathed round the bottom by folds of white cloth and surmounted by an inverted crescent. The name of this Juju is Obo Esa, _i.e._ in Mbolli dialect four hundred yams. The reason given for this name is that only full chiefs have the right to erect such a fetish, to which they must sacrifice each harvest time baskets containing the given number of yams. It was explained that Obo Esa is a male Juju--a statement borne out by the appearance of the symbolic pillar--and to him, at the cutting of new farms and digging of fresh yams, living sacrifices must be brought and slain so that their blood is shed upon the clay base, whence it trickles down over the seven little moon-shaped depressions to the thirsty earth beneath. These small half moons may well typify the period during which the yams are confided to the bosom of Mother Ale--called Nkike by the Mbolli--while the great crescent, surmounting the pillar, probably represents that of the month of September during which the harvest festival is usually held.

Considering the close connection between the waxing moon and the powers of fertility, it is not without significance that personified representations of the crescent are to be found in each Mbari house, especially when it is remembered that the shrine of the Earth Goddess is always close by and that only after consultation with her priest is the building begun and carried through.

Again, although we were expressly told, as already related, that the chief figure at Omo Dim did not represent either of the principal deities, but only a deified ancestress, yet a man present volunteered the information--it is true, in a highly superior manner--that some old and very ignorant people held them to be those of Amad’ongha and Ale. So stupid, however, were such that they even believed the white child, on the knee of the Earth Mother, to be the moon! As if any but the most foolish could look upon the moon as a daughter of Earth!

In the Obogwe Mbari house--the only one which we have yet found built in two separate edifices--the first building was dedicated to Amad’ongha and the second to Ale, locally called Ala. Our informant, Omere Madu, was the son of the late head chief who therefore, _ipso facto_, was priest of Ale. He told us that this goddess was the dominant power in the town, and that she ordered her priest to have the two houses built in that place and form--one for herself and one for her spouse Amad’ongha. In both buildings he sits in the seat of honour, but in the first alone, while in the second she is seen on his left, in the same position as that of the figure at Obodo to which her name was first given, but which was later called Omu Ngwaw, the fruitful mother (see p. 40).

In the temple dedicated to the Thunderer, on the left of the central figure is seen one, the name of which was said to be Eku Nechi--_i.e._ ‘the big woman who cooks,’ or more fully ‘who gathers the children of others around her and cooks for them.’ The figure is seated, supporting a boy and a girl against her sides; while another pair sits, one upon each of her outstretched legs. The most singular thing about this group is that each of the male children bears a crescent moon for face, while from the necks of the two girls is painted a cloth thickly covered with white dots. On the wall of the Ale shrine, a fresco may be seen on which a moon-faced boy is depicted climbing up the right hand side of a rainbow, painted in black, yellow and red stripes. In such a position he is supposed to be an envoy from the Earth Goddess, climbing the sky with a message from Amade Onhia, or, when descending, bringing word from the latter to the children of men. Beneath, on a black ground, a crescent moon and stars are shown--the stars represented by white dots exactly like those painted round the necks of the girl piccans of Eku Nechi. It is not impossible therefore that here again, in ‘the big woman who feeds the children of others,’ we have another forgotten picturing of Ale, the Earth Mother, with her starry progeny.

A singular fact about all the Mbari shrines hitherto visited is that, in each, figures may be seen, obviously modelled with the express intention of depicting licence in its most blatant form. Primitive peoples the world over, however frank in picturing or mentioning facts treated with the greatest reticence by civilised races, are usually ignorant of real vulgarity or indecency, since the very simplicity of manner and treatment robs their statements of offence. The Ibo of this region, especially, have a code with regard to sexual matters which, however lax according to our ideas, is yet strangely strict in some directions. According to them four of the most evil things are:

(1) For man and woman to lie together on the earth, since this is thought to defile Ale. Among Kalabari indeed the idea is carried so far that no woman is allowed, under any circumstances, to seat herself upon the ground. In the absence of stool or convenient tree-trunk she must stand. As already mentioned, according to chief Amade Onyeche, the position adopted by Etche Ibo, when no bed, mat or cloth is available, is for the woman to stand bending forward at right angles from the waist, while her lover stands immediately behind.

(2) Connection is absolutely forbidden during the hours of daylight, or even at night time when a light is burning in the room; also at any time in the bush or in a farm, where there is no house.

(3) It is the height of impropriety for a man to have relations with a woman who is not clothed in the prescribed custom.

(4) For a husband to attempt to view the genital organs of his wife is regarded as so serious an offence as to be considered valid ground for divorce. In a case brought before me in the Degama Native Court, the claim ran: ‘To demand freedom of marriage on account of peeping.’

In every Mbari house yet visited, however, figures were seen modelled with the obvious purpose of expressing a breach of one or other of these rules. In most of the buildings groups were found in which the feminine figure was shown partially lying on the ground--in a position impossible to any human anatomy and therefore, it would seem, so posed as intentionally to express direct rebellion against the generally accepted rules of decency.

An official of high rank, who was the first Government representative to visit this region, described to me a shrine which he saw about twelve years ago, near Ingaw in Owerri District, where certain points were even more naïvely depicted than by those erected in the present day. Among the more noticeable groups were men in the act of copulating with a sheep and antelope respectively. As regards the latter animal, it is not without interest to recall that, according to several accounts from well-informed sources, ancient Yoruba custom ordained that, after the kill of his first antelope, a young hunter must have connection with the still warm form. Possibly some such rule obtained, or maybe even yet exists, in these regions.

The group of men and sheep seems to point to the existence of a like custom among Ibo as one learns, on good authority, prevails among the neighbouring Ijaw, with whom the chief feature of male initiatory rites consists in each boy proving his manhood, before a circle of elders, upon a specially selected sheep. Should he be unsuccessful, he must wait until the following year and is prevented from marriage until after having passed the test. From certain information it would appear that one of the principal centres, where this rite is carried out, may be found on a southern creek in the neighbourhood of Kula.[7] It was naïvely added that the sheep ‘never go ’gree to this and always vex too much’ when the rite was carried out. Later, a similar custom was reported from among the Ekkpahians of Ahoada District.

It is true that every Ibo or Kalabari who mentioned the subject was eager to state that Ekkpahians perform this rite ‘merely out of badness; for no proper reason at all.’ Yet, though it is unfortunately not permitted me to give a single name as authority, it would appear, after very careful weighing of evidence, that the practice has been exacted from time immemorial as a test of manhood. Both Ibo and Kalabari also asserted that unnatural vice is extensively practised among this people, though rare with other races of the Division; but it is only just to state that the practice appears to be carried on not for the purpose of sensual indulgence, but, in some cases at least, from the idea, held among certain Australian tribes, that such customs increase the race by magical means.

That the practice is not held in as great detestation throughout Ekkpahian and neighbouring territory as among other tribes is proved by the more or less casual manner in which the matter was mentioned as well as from one or two Court cases. It will be enough to quote that heard at Omokku on January 20th, 1913, in which Atoma of Erema charged Okereke of Idu with indecent assault. In the course of her evidence plaintiff stated on oath:

About three months ago accused came to my father’s house to
have connection with him. At that time I went to bed....

_Question by Court._ When he came to your house, where did he
stay with your father to have connection?

_Answer._ Outside the house.

_Question by Accused._ What date did I come to your house?

_Answer._ Orie day.

_Question by Court_ (_to father_). Was accused your friend?

_Answer._ No.

_Question by Court._ Did accused ever come to your house and
have connection with you at night?

_Answer._ Yes. He always come to my house and prosecutor saw
him.