Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX oronn—eket main road (continued) (2) Ikotobo to Eket Ikotobo, the next place of importance on the main road, is the chief Ubium town. To call it ‘ town ” at all is somewhat of a misnomer ; for, like most places throughout the District, it really consists of a collection of isolated compounds, spreading out for miles on either side. It is a strange enough spot and at first sight looks a mere village. Wavering, almost invisible foot-tracks lead to the scattered homesteads, amid which strangers might wander for days without finding more than a tithe of the cunningly hidden dwellings. Yet, for any great event, the place can pour out its inhabitants by the thousand. It is here that the sleeping-sickness camp had been instituted under the guidance of the late Dr. Patrick Foran, who had already made unhoped-for progress in treating this terrible scourge, the existence of which in the region was first reported to Government by Mr. W. W. Eakin. In spite of the difficulty of such a task, alone and unaided, Dr. Foran managed somehow to make time for research work, and had not only found a new tsetse fly and a new trypanosome, but had also discovered that the form of the disease in Eket District is different to that in any other part of the world. It Is probable that the scourge has been endemic here for so long a period that the natives have developed a power of resistance which accounts for so large a percentage of recoveries. It is locally thought to be divided into two well-marked stages, called by separate names, during each 272 I KEE CUI DOWN IN IB1BIO MARKET-PLACE BECAUSE ONE OF THE BRANCHES KELL AND KILLED A WOMAN of which a totally different regime is prescribed by native practitioners. That Dr. Foran was a man of remarkable ability is proved beyond doubt from what he did, with neither facilities nor appliances, in the few months left to him after the ground had been cleared and the camp built. Of his kindness and goodness it is difficult to speak adequately, and the news of his tragic death came with a sense of personal loss. In the sleeping-sickness camp it created utter panic, and the patients were packing up to run away when 1 was sent for to stop the exodus. Only by the assurance that the new medical officer would be exactly like the one who had so thoroughly won their confidence and affection, could they be induced to await the coming of his successor. Ikotobo was also the headquarters of the late Mr. W. W. Eakin, who has done excellent educational work over many square miles of the District, and also made some remarkably accurate route sketches and interesting studies of native customs, as will be noticed from the information kindly supplied by him for incorporation in these pages. At Ikotobo, as everywhere, cotton trees are greatly feared as the homes of powerful and generally evil spirits. Not long ago a woman was sitting in the market-place, when a branch from one of the great trees fell and struck her, so that she became unconscious and soon after died. The people drew away from the corpse in horror, whispering that death had come upon the woman because she had dared to mix with her fellows in the market without having undergone the year’s purification necessary, in their eyes, after the bearing of twins. As a punishment for this disregard of the usual rites, it was thought an evil spirit had entered into the tree and struck her down. On learning of the accident the chiefs gathered together and said : “ What shall we do to drive forth the evil one, lest further misfortune fall upon our people ? ” So they decided to cut down the tree, that its sinister occupant might be forced to find a new home. The fallen trunk still lies across the market-place, but no woman is allowed to sit upon it, “ because it killed a woman.” T There are other points of interest about Ikotobo. The chiefs have always faithfully kept their oath of loyalty to Government, and the town has therefore remained unscathed while others have suffered from punitive expeditions. Hence it is rich in old-time treasures, ancient weapons, and the like ; while scores of elaborately carved tusks are the property of its chiefs. The shrine of one of the household Jujus is enriched by an heirloom, the whereabouts of which it is perhaps well not to define more clearly, lest it should attract the attention of those for whom it would have other than anthropological interest. This is a mud figure with one eye in the middle of its forehead, which is a great Juju, since, according to the statement of natives, it enables the image to see by night and day because it can shine in the dark. This was found long ago by a woman of the owner’s family while digging out the blue clay of the region, from which beautiful funeral jars, as well as the common household pots, are made. She saw it shining, and, picking it up, ran to show it to the head of her house, who decided that so beautiful a thing should belong to the gods. He therefore inserted it in the head of his household fetish, where it gleams to this day. The presence of blue clay in this region is itself somewhat of a mystery, since it has been pointed out to me by my late friend, the distinguished geologist, Mr. John Parkinson, that this is totally absent from the upper regions whence the deposits of the Eket District are mostly drawn. Beyond Ikotobo the main road leads past scattered farm-compounds, before many of which phallic shrines of sun-dried clay are to be seen, rising pillar-like amid the young corn and yam tendrils. The importance of noting every scrap of evidence concerning this ancient cult, which, by sympathetic magic, was supposed to link the fruitfulness of man with that of the vegetation around him, has lately been again urged upon me by no less an authority than Dr. (now Sir) E. Wallis Budge, who, in a most interesting and illuminating letter written early in 1913, said : “ Your remarks in the earlier part of your (former) Type of Ihibio Chief. Phallic Juju—to bring Fertility to Farms. book about the objects worshipped are most important, and had I known of them I should have used them to clinch my argument that the reproductive organs were worshipped by the primitive Egyptians, those of both men and women. I beg of you to keep watch for more facts of this sort, and to put them on record before they disappear from the earth. I feel, with these people, that we are really getting to the bottom of religious ideas. . . A tragic instance of the survival of such beliefs happened last January at Idua Oronn during the new yam planting, when a man, moved by the same mystic urging which drove the frenzied Adonis-Attis-Osiris worshippers to like acts, cut off a part of his body and flung it upon the newly hoed earth. Small pieces of the phallus, removed during circumcision ceremonies, are collected and brought down by Yoruba traders and can be bought at any Juju market, and indeed, according to testimony from reliable sources, at most others, supposing that one keeps one’s eyes open for such things. These are used as fertilising agents in farm and byre as well as by the hearth. From certain indications it would appear that portions of the phalli of warriors, cut off in the full pride of strength and power, are regarded as specially efficacious in this respect. The long vases set in most funeral shrines for the reception of eggs, and offerings of feathers from each bird shot, or killed in sacrifice by the descendants, would also from appearance and tradition seem connected with this ancient cult. In the Ngwumu Ufak1 near Awa a type of votive offering is to be found which, to my knowledge at least, is not customary in other parts of the District. These are small clay models of the phallus, suspended on strings above the line of objects provided for use in the spirit world. The first wife and eldest son and daughter of the dead man fashion such symbols, called Ajak Adaw (marriage dissolved),—the size varying according to the age of the children—as a sign that they claim the deceased as the true husband or father respectively, and were not merely, in the case of the latter, the offspring of some family 1 P. 143- dependant, born to another man of the household, of whom the dead chief was only titular parent. Further along at Akai, to the left of the main road, a little clearing is passed. At the back of this, behind a fragrant Uvariastrum, two huts are to be seen, one full of mud figures of men and animals, elaborately painted, among which a finely modelled snake is noticeable,1 and the other sheltering the conventional “ ghost offerings ” of beautifully shaped bowls and jars. These are broken on the side hidden from the spectators, as is also the case with the delicately tinted pieces of fine old china, among which “ Toby jugs ” are often to be found, chosen out by their owner from his treasure-house many years before death, and set apart for the purpose of adorning his tomb. Opposite to this clearing a narrow path leads to some farm dwellings, and once, near by, my wife and her sister had an unpleasant experience. A sudden call made it necessary to leave Eket for Oyubia late in the day, and, as the matter was pressing, I had ridden on, leaving them to follow more slowly with the unmounted escort. It was early in the year, and we were still ignorant that our lives were in danger through the machinations of ill-wishers. As the little party neared a bend in the road, just before the path above mentioned, two men rushed, with uplifted matchets, round the corner towards them. A policeman and gun-boy, each bearing a rifle, ran forward, and at sight of their weapons, though these were unloaded, the assailants turned and fled, uttering cries of terror. Dusk was falling. Somewhere through the twilight a drum began to beat, and, as the party rounded the corner, an armed group was seen hurriedly disappearing down the little farm path. Incidents of violence are constantly happening here. Twice in one fortnight we were stopped on this same main road—once by a boy who was running to the station with news that his father had just been murdered in cold blood, and another time by one who rushed up to me for protec- 1 Among the Ibo shrines somewhat similar but far more elaborate have come to light. These seem to be erected primarily in honour of deified ancestors, but are mysteriously linked with the worship of the thunder-god Amadeonha, the earth-goddess Ale, and also the forces of fertility in farm, byre, and marriage-bed. tion against a man who was following to kill him with a cap-gun because he had tried to prevent the latter’s two sons from bathing in the spring set apart for the village drinking water ! In both cases the offender was brought to justice, but, as regards the first-mentioned crime, with great difficulty, and in spite of the utmost vigilance the cause of the murder could never be discovered. It was in all probability one of those mysterious ritual murders which have been so well described by my kind critic, G. D. H., in the African Mail review already mentioned, that I venture to make a further quotation : “ This Juju power is a very terrible thing when abused, and it is very liable to abuse. Any way, it must not be despised, and it must be accepted as a fact for good or evil, and learned and controlled. It is the real power in the land. Think of it! A man has been guilty of some offence against the unwritten law of the community. He has been tried and condemned without his knowledge by those in authority. One day he is sitting in his home at his accustomed work, or play, or meal, or rest. There is a noise outside his compound ; the Juju image with its attendants has stopped. He is called by name. He gets up, and, leaving the half-empty calabash, his women, his children, his carefully gathered household goods, his ripening crops, everything man lives for on earth, obeys the beckoning hand and goes to death. He knows he is going to his doom. He has from his youth up peeped out and seen others go just the same. He has known the reason why, and he has known the fate of the transgressor. He walks out to his death, and he knows it; but he does not hesitate, he does not flinch ; he has no idea of resistance ; the law has for him the fascination of the snake ; his soul is struck down, just as with us our coiners and anarchists blanch at the tramp on the stair, the knock at the door, and the summons, ‘ Open in the name of the king.’ ” Half a mile further, on the same side of the road, beneath a little shed, stands a clay figure—surely one of the most primitive possible attempts at modelling the human form divine ! A little to the right, just before Eket itself is reached, the town of Idua Eket is passed—the chief market of which was founded under the following circumstances, recounted to us by a relation of the head chief : “ Many years ago, Iduans and Eket fought together, with the result that the former were defeated and driven into the bush. Now, when they fled, one man, ’Nkwa by name, could not follow because he was a cripple ; so, not knowing what else to do, he took refuge in a deep hole from which clay had been dug for mudding the houses. Over the top of this shelter he dragged branches and lay hidden beneath, subsisting on the small amount of food he had been able to take with him ; but still holding the little drum which alone had been saved from all his possessions. When the ‘ war ’ was quite finished the Eket left the town, and no sooner did the lame man see their departure, from his hiding-place, than he crept out and began beating his drum to call back the Iduans. When these arrived, they thought it very wonderful that a cripple should have managed to save his life in the midst of enemies whom he could neither fight nor flee from ; so they said : ‘ This man has shown such wisdom that he deserves to be made a chief.’ “ After this had been done, the people said further : ‘ Let us make a market-place and call it by the name of the new chief, that all the countryside may know that he is indeed a great man.’ That is the way that ’Nkwa market came to be founded.” In the bush near by a great tree is said to have stood in olden days. This was named Abe Eket, and was an object of worship to all the neighbourhood. At the new yam harvest Iduans always went to offer sacrifice beneath its shadow, and by its power many piccans were born to the town. Within it dwelt the spirit of a leopard, while coiled around its base, at certain seasons of the year, a great python was said to have been seen. Now the tree has died, and with its fall fell also, so legend asserts, the prosperity of Idua Eket, which has now declined into a place of but little importance.