Chapter 2

CHAPTER II JUJUS Contrary to general opinion, the religion of the West African negro does not seem to me to be animism in the sense that all the forces of nature are personified and the universe is a congeries of uncorrelated and independent entities. To him the world is a vast organisation and all phenomena are set in motion, and controlled, by hierarchies of beings, ranging in power and responsibility from the highest conceivable God down to the lowest rock elemental, each in strict subordination to its superior. Those nature spirits, with whom the Ibibio are brought into contact, are called by them Ndeinm,1 and dwell in or near rivers, pools, and springs, in trees, rocks, and sacred stones—fairies, gnomes, salamanders, naiads, dryads, etc. They are male and female, their bodies built somewhat on the human model, but of more ethereal texture, varying in height from about six inches to four feet. Each race has its own particular work ; they are principally concerned with the growth of vegetation, while some—especially the Anandum among the Anang, like the Animm of the Ekoi— are regarded as the givers of babes and all young things, since it is they who, under the guidance of Eka Abassi, at conception place the body of the child in the mother’s womb and superintend its development. As a rule, however, Jujus mix little with mankind, though, in answer to prayers and sacrifices, some constitute themselves guardians over particular towns or families— especially the earth spirits, who are thought to be about 1 The term appears to be derived from the word meaning fresh water. thirty inches in height, and to have their feet turned backward. The most powerful of all Ndemm live in the water, where they sometimes assume the form of crocodiles, though ]the kind called ’Mbiam are perhaps the most feared since they are quick to bring down vengeance on all who have falsely invoked their name. By some the latter are accounted to be an entirely different tribe. The Ndemm are quite distinct from Ibokk, which is sometimes translated by “ Juju ” as well as by “ medicine ” —the latter not to be confounded with ordinary herbal decoctions. The Ibokk are natural or elemental forces which do not affect, or come into contact with, human beings—or in some cases do not even exist—until “ made ” by a native doctor or some other wise man. They are formed by the mixture of certain leaves and roots, sometimes with the addition of ingredients, such as, for instance, where a powerful entity is required, it has been said, by the pounded-up body of a child. An incantation is chanted over the mixture, and certain sacrifices, generally of blood, offered up before it. The forces thus produced are not immortal like the Ndemm, but will fade away after the owner’s death if the proper rites are not continued. If it is desired to destroy the power of an Ibokk, the best way is to keep on breaking its laws—for example, that no one must pass before it in the daytime, etc. If a “ medicine,” however, is neglected by its owner, it will send sickness or accident to him. Sacrifices, generally of a goat or fowl, are offered at least once a year, usually at harvest time. Ibokk are, for the most part, made for defensive purposes, for protection against ill-wishers or evil messengers, but are sometimes procured from “ doctors ” to harm an enemy. Most Ibibio, like the majority of peoples hereabouts, have a firm belief in the justice of the government of the world. Ordinarily no evil spirit or person is deemed to have the power of harming an innocent man. Those who suffer misfortunes or ill-treatment are thought to have deserved them in some way or at some time ; and therefore evil entities are allowed up to a certain point to wreak their will, though, in the instance of a child born lame or blind, the wrong deed now punished may have been committed in a previous incarnation. According to the late Chief Daniel Henshaw : “ Ndemm is uncreated, eternal, dwelling in springs, pools, or rivers, within the boles of great trees, in rocks, and places where our ancestors have offered sacrifices for centuries beyond centuries : where tall many-sided stones stand, or copper rods are to be seen pushing forth from the earth. Such spots are to be found in the depths of the bush, and are very holy on account of the indwelling spirit. Ndemm cannot be materialised, and very rarely is an attempt ever made to represent him.1 Mats of plaited palm leaf are often hung round his dwelling-place, but only as an intimation that the ground is holy. He is the giver of fertility, one of the beneficent forces of nature.” From Ndemm it is that fruit and grain are sent to nourish the children of men ; but Adonis-Attis-Osiris-like, he demands terrible sacrifices at certain seasons of the year : such for instance as the planting of new yams and the feast of the first-fruits. There is, however, this great difference between the victims of most Ndemm and those of ’Mbiam. The former demand offerings, not from motives of vengeance, but purely as fecundative agents. ’Mbiam, on the contrary, represents the Ahriman of Zoroaster—the forces of terror and dread. By his aid vengeance, swift and sure, may be wrought upon an enemy. He is a terrible avenger of broken vows sworn upon his name, or of wrong done to any for whom his help has been invoked. 'Mbiam is the personification of hatred and revenge—“ the spirit which denies ” ; but of which it is impossible to say with Mephis- topheles : Ein Theil von dieser Macht, Welch stets das Bose will, und stets das Gute schafft— for to him has been given not only the will, but also, alas ! the power to do evil. With this dread cult it will, however, be necessary to deal in a separate chapter. Of the Ndemm of this region the most celebrated is, without doubt, the so-called “ Lake of Life ” at Ikotobo— 1 Here spoken of as of the masculine gender for the sake of convenience. the holy pool in which dwells the spirit of the Great Mother Abassi Isu Ma (Goddess of the Face of Love). A chance mention of the “ Lake of the Dead,” discovered by me a few years ago in the Oban District, brought to light the existence of a mysterious sheet of water in the neighbourhood of Ikotobo, a rumour of which had already reached the ears of Mr. Eakin. Its whereabouts had hitherto been kept, a jealously-guarded secret, from the knowledge of Europeans ; while, with the exception of the reigning high priest, even the natives themselves are not allowed to penetrate beyond the Place of Sacrifice, which lies some distance below the sanctuary. This stretch of water is the “ Pool of Life,” and on its safeguarding depends the very existence of the Ubium and Nsitt Ibibio—about 30,000 people in all. It is but another proof of the extraordinary tact of Mr. Eakin, and the influence which he has acquired over the natives, that he was able to persuade a guide to lead us to what is, in their opinion, the holiest spot on earth. One afternoon, early in January, we set out, and for a considerable distance kept along a path already known to us. At first this was broad and easy to follow ; but soon narrowed, and led, through scattered compounds, past a little forge where spear-heads are still beaten out. Later, turning sharply behind a high fence of plaited reeds, the way suddenly degenerated into a track so narrow that it was impossible, in places, to plant the feet side by side after the manner of Europeans, and we were forced to set them carefully, one before the other, in a deep rut, worn in the course of years by bare brown feet. On and on we went. The “ bush ” grew wilder, while the track became so faint as almost to disappear. So jealously indeed is the secret hidden, that a stranger might pass within a few yards of the sacred water, yet never suspect its existence. Suddenly the path took a downward bend and led, through mud several inches deep, to the edge of a shallow pool, in the midst of which, raised on a little mound, a palm tree straight and splendid spread its crown of leaves between us and the vivid blue of the sky. However used one may be to the sight of these trees, called by Linnaeus the princes of the vegetable kingdom, the beauty of each upon which one happens unexpectedly, seems to gather a new significance. Involuntarily one finds oneself repeating over and over again Odysseus’ beautiful comparison of Nausicaa— 8'lj 7TOTE TOIOV ’A7TOAA.COPOS TTOLpa /3w/JU?) (ftOLViKOs vfov epvos avepxppLtvov kvor](ra‘ Once in Delos, such an one I saw : a young sapling of a palm, springing straight by the altar of Apollo. The charm of the spot was undeniable, yet a slight chill fell upon us at the sight ; for we had been expecting something vast and mysterious, or at least capable of impressing us with its uncanny atmosphere, and the sunny, everyday aspect of the quiet pool was distinctly disappointing. After a few minutes’ hesitation, however, our guide waded across the water, and held back some boughs of the hedge-like “ bush ” which encircled it. Beneath these he disappeared saying that he would make a path for us, and after awhile we heard him calling. Retracing our steps a little, we turned into the bush on the right-hand side, and soon started climbing down a deep narrow gorge, at the bottom of which flowed a small stream, which we followed to another rivulet hardly more impressive. After crossing this, we found ourselves on a point of land looking down steep banks on to a narrow channel. Opposite the place where we stood rose a high slope covered by thick undergrowth, between the roots of which multitudes of pots of varying size were to be seen. A low post, round which white feathers were fastened crown-wise, was driven deep into the mud at the brink, and beneath lay small frames such as those which are used for carrying smoked fish to market. This spot is the farthest limit to which ordinary mortals may attain. Only the head priest is allowed to go farther in order to carry special offerings into the “ Holy of Holies.” We followed upstream, and at length arrived at the sacred pool itself, a spot unsurpassed in fascination by the many interesting places to which good fortune had hitherto led our feet. That it was not one-tenth the size we had pictured made no difference to the glamour of the scene. Indeed, its very smallness seemed but to add to its strangeness and mystery. It lay as if at the bottom of a well ; for on all sides high banks towered above us, save for the narrow neck by which we had entered. The sides were so steep as to offer no foothold, but from one of them jutted the gnarled elbow of a great branch, and to this point of vantage my wife and her sister were safely hoisted. Over them a Napoleona, allied to the “ Gascoignei ” discovered on our last tour, shed its sweet- scented blossoms. The water was very deep and covered in parts by innumerable water-lily leaves, which formed a mosaic of vivid green, deep copper, or dull red, on the surface and at varying depths below. Here and there showed a milk-white flower with heart of gold, while between the long stems swam hundreds of sacred fish, so secure in their reputation for sanctity that they eat fearlessly from the hands of the priest. In olden days, should a man have been convicted of attempting to harm one of these, he was led down to the place of sacrifice and beheaded, that his blood might flow into the sacred water and make atonement for the sacrilege. In the deep places of the pool dwell deadly water-snakes ; while its grim guardians, a leopard and python, are said to lower ceaselessly, ready to destroy any one rash enough to seek to penetrate its mysteries. Most strange of all, the side exactly facing the entrance was sheer rock, and this in a land of alluvial soil, where, save in a few stream-beds, scarce a pebble is to be found. Low down on the face of the stone, beneath its veil of moss, and about a foot above the surface of the water, looms a circular hole, partially filled by offerings laid there by the chief priest. The rock is the earthly manifestation of Isu Ma, “ The Face of Love,” or—since by a beautiful turn of thought the words are identical in meaning—the Face of “ The Mother,” Eka Abbassi. A strange superstition has grown up round this rock. To it, or rather to the place of sacrifice just below—for, as has already been mentioned, the spot itself is too sacred for the near approach of ordinary mortals—come wedded couples to pray that babes may be born to them. Barrenness is looked upon as a sign that the bride was a disobedient daughter. When a maid refuses to obey her mother, the latter has the power to draw down punishment upon her. “ You have been a bad daughter to me,” she says, “ therefore to you no child shall be born, that atonement may be made me for your undutiful behaviour.” When such a misfortune has befallen, the husband leads his wife to the place appointed, near the shores of the sacred pool. Here they tell their trouble to the priest, who advises them to bring a goat, fish, yams, and plantains as an offering to the goddess. When the gifts have been brought, they go down together to the place of sacrifice. From thence the woman wades upstream a little towards the entrance of the sacred pool, then makes obeisance and prays : “ O Abassi Ma! keeper of souls ! What have I done to anger thee ? Look upon me, for from the time I left the ‘ fatting room ’ in my mother’s house I have never conceived, and am a reproach before all women. Behold ! I bring gifts, and beg thee to have pity upon me and give me a child. Grant but this prayer, and all my life I will be thy servant.” The priest then takes a bowl never before used, dips it into the water, and pours some over the woman, who bends down so that face, arms, and body may be laved in the stream. When she rises again, the little party climb up the steep bank, to the place where the rest of the offerings lie. These are cooked, and eaten by all three, after which the suppliant returns home, strong in the hope that Abassi Isu Ma will take away her reproach. Should the goddess grant a child which dies in infancy, the soft little curls are carefully dipt from its head and brought by the weeping mother to the place of sacrifice. Here they are laid upon the palms of the priest, who passes alone upstream, and, entering the sacred pool, deposits them within the hole in the stone, praying : “ Behold, O Isu Ma ! Thou hast granted a child whom thou also hast taken away. We bring thee the locks from his head that these may move thee to pity, and, in whatsoever realm his soul may wander, thou shouldst relent Pots of Offerings at Place of Sacrifice. The Rock of Abassi Isu Ma. (Showing hole in rock in which offerings are laid.) and send him back to the parents from whom thou hast taken him.” When a child is granted as a direct answer to such a prayer, custom ordains that he, or she, should be called “ Ma.” The present “ Oku,” or high priest, an old man of venerable appearance, in whose family the office is hereditary, gave the following account of the sacred water : “ In the old, old days, long ago, Abassi Obumo, the Thunderer, greatest of all gods, called our fathers together and showed them the holy lake, saying : ‘ This place have I set to be the guardian of your children, of your fathers and mothers, and your strength for all time. It will be to you a great god. The god of Idiong, Isong, the Earth Goddess, the small things given you to worship which are seen in the houses of Idiong men—of all these Abassi Isu Ma is the greatest. She is the fount of fruitfulness, a tender mother, who will surely hear when ye call upon her name.’ “ Abassi Obumo said further : ‘ I will put your souls in the keeping of the fish which dwell in the lake. These ye must neither kill nor eat, for they will be to you as the guardians of your town. I will also set apart a great serpent, who shall dwell by the shore, to be the keeper of the lake, and a leopard to dwell with him. Should trouble come upon your town or tribe, bring sacrifices to the Sacred Grove, and pray that the evil may be removed. Then Isu Ma will listen and hear, and save you from all ill.’ “ Thus spoke Obumo the Thunderer, greatest of all gods, and from that time the lake has been worshipped by us, and also the fish that are within it, for we believe all that our fathers have handed down to us.” It is indicative of the supremacy of Isu Ma that, when a man wishes to join the Idiong Society—one of the chief secret cults of the District—he must first bring a fowl to the priest of the sacred water, and, in company with the latter, walk to the place of sacrifice, “ For Abassi Isu Ma is great beyond the other gods, and only after prayer to her should lesser deities be invoked.” When the wife of an Idiong man first learns that she is about to become a mother, she is brought by her husband to the priest of his cult, who says : “ Abassi Isu Ma calls for your child. Go, take a fowl, yams and plantains. Make sacrifice to her, and your trouble will easily pass from you." The couple then repair to the house of the priest of the pool, bearing a small bowl never before used, a cock, dried fish, yams and plantains. Together the three celebrants go to the place of sacrifice, where the priest offers up the following prayer : “ O Abassi Ma ! Greatest of all ! Look upon this woman and take away her trouble. Should you grant her a child, she will dedicate it to you, and it shall bear your name. Bless her, together with her husband and all his cattle, and make the child strong and well." He then takes the new bowl from the hands of the woman, dips it into the water and mixes clay therein, with which he smears the supplicant’s face, arms and body. This rite is called “ Mem.” In connection with the use of a “ new vessel," it is not without significance that we learn from the Utukki Limnuti that, among ancient Babylonians, offerings might only be made in “ a clean vessel of the gods.” 1 After this the Oku (priest) takes the fowl, and, with a sharp matchet, cuts off its head, which he lets fall into the bowl. In like manner he strikes off the heads of the fishes and ends of the yams and plantains. Then he sets the bowl at the place of sacrifice among a multitude of others already there. The woman next holds up the remaining offerings in both hands, passing them round her head, and saying : “ O Abassi Ma ! Look favourably upon these gifts brought in your honour. Should you give me a child, he shall be yours also, and will come every year to bring you offerings.” After this the Oku goes, with husband and wife, to a place near the edge of the pool, where friends have already assembled. A fire is lighted, and the sacrificial gifts are cooked and eaten with much rejoicing. Should the child sent in answer to this prayer grow up 1 R. C. Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, p. in. Tablet 16, line 298. to be a thief, murderer, or indeed a bad character in anyway, it is said that the goddess causes her waters to wash up the bowl brought by the parents, and casts it high on the farther bank as a sign of her displeasure against him. Every year after the granting of such a prayer, at the beginning of the cutting of new farms, gifts must be brought by father, mother and child. The Oku bears these to the entrance of the pool and says : “ Abassi Isu Ma ! Here comes your child with gifts. Draw near, therefore, and accept, for both mother and child have obeyed your voice.” This ceremony is among those which seemed, to us at least, a refutation of the reproach cast by many, among them the Rev. R. H. Nassau, on the West African negro : “ The reason for his appeal is simply fear ; there is no confession, no love, rarely thanksgiving.” 1 After the sacrifices have been laid within the hole in the rock, the Oku takes strips of young palm leaf and binds them round the neck of the boy and his mother, to whom he also gives one such necklace for every child at home. Round the head of the father a circlet of the same material is bound. These ornaments are bestowed as a visible sign of blessing from the Great Mother. We left the pool by another route, following the course of the stream for some distance, and, soon after again striking the path, met a youth, a girl and a small boy. These were “ children of Ma,” going down to draw water from the place which we had first visited. On her head the girl bore one of the heavy earthen jars, to be bought for a few pence, and from the manner of the two elders it looked as if another couple might go, hand in hand, down to the place of sacrifice to beg a gift from Isu Ma at no very distant date. Unfortunately the photographs taken on this first visit were not successful. Light and shade seem to have played strange tricks with the camera, and formed a group of figures which certainly had no origin in reality, yet which appeared to rise from the foreground of the sacred pool. So clear, indeed, were they, that, to the imaginative, they 1 Fetishism in West Africa, p. 77. might well pass for shadow-portraits of victims whose blood had dyed the waters in bygone days. It was not till three months after our first visit that time could be found for a second, and, on the latter occasion, the son of the head priest acted as our guide. Summer was now at its height, and the first pool had all but dried away, while the beautiful palm which once shaded it now stood shorn of its crown. The water, too, had fallen, till hardly more than a shimmer showed between fringing reeds and marsh-flowers, which had sprung into sudden life on the space thus left bare. Where we had waded knee-deep upstream, we now walked almost dry-shod. Black mud surrounded the “ Place of Sacrifice,” and the sacred pool itself had shrunk till it lay as if a mere drop at the bottom of a deep goblet. Our followers gazed fearfully around, and one man whispered that none could now set foot in the water, since its denizens, which during the rains were free to roam over so much greater space, were now crowded together in the one small pool, and would certainly attack any man rash enough to venture among them. This time we were determined to get good photographs of the “ Face of Love,” so the camera was set, over and over again, for a time exposure. Perhaps the spell of the place was not without its effect : at any rate no one had spoken for quite a long while, when suddenly, in the silence, a black cobra was seen to glide down the rock. It slipped soundlessly into the water and began to cross in our direction. A few minutes later a fish sprang above the surface, right into the tiny cave in the stone. I was bending over the camera, putting in a new film, and did not see it, but my two companions cried out to draw my attention. The sound of their voices startled the fish, which turned and sprang back into the water. It was one which, had such a thing not been forbidden, I would gladly have captured for Monsieur Boulenger of the Natural History Museum, for it was different from any we had as yet seen, coal black, with huge head and slender tail, in shape much like a giant tadpole.