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THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
THE LOWER NIGER
AND ITS TRIBES
BY
Major ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD

LATE 2XD SATT. EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
AUTHOR OF 'the CAMEL, ITS USES AND MANAGEMENT,' AND
'HOW WE MADE RHODESIA '
UNIVERSITY 1
OF
ILontion
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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All rights reserved

P^-
{^^^-t^
dedicatio:n^
To the Natives of Southern Nigeria in particular, and of West

Africa in general, this Work is dedicated, in all true sincerity
and sympathy, not only as a small memento of ten years' per-
sonal touch, but in the best and truest interests of themselves,
and of Humanity, by one who has always endeavoured to labour
on their behalf with the strenuous and untiring energy of a

sincere and heartfelt sympathy.
Further, as one who voluntarily and unselfishly devoted some
of the best years of her life in the same good cause, it is in
all esteem and respect dedicated to the memory of Miss Mary

KiNGSLEY, and to the African Society that emanated therefrom,
the object and motive of which is to advance the glorious cause
of civilisation and progress.
isffiri:
.'«'^^f
PREFACE
Major A. G. Leonard has all his life been deeply interested
in comparative religion, and having paid especial attention to
Aryan and Hindu mythology, as well as to natives of parts
of Asia and Africa, he had prepared himself for the detailed
study of a particular people. The opportunity came when he

went to West Africa, and for ten years he patiently studied
native life and thought, never losing a chance of getting into
touch with the natives, even at the risk of his life, for some
of the tribes he visited were not then amenable to British
rule.
But knowledge acquired elsewhere and opportunity for
research are of little avail unless an investigator be endowed

with sympathy, the master-key that unlocks all hearts. An
inevitable gulf separates the culture and thought of the black
man from the culture and thought of the white man, nor is
this lessened when the latter acts the part of ruler over the
former, for then other considerations come into play, and mis-
conception and prejudice accentuate the differences between
barbarism and civilisation. From the first, Major Leonard
determined to attempt, as far as in him lay, to remove this
misconception, but there was only one way to accomplish this
effectually, and that was to study the natives first hand and to
endeavour to see everything from theii point of view — in other
words, to " think black," as Miss Kingsley tersely put it.
This is by no means easy to do, as it necessitates much

physical hardship, prolonged patient inquiry, and an exercise
viii THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
of tolerance towards weakness, crime, and brutality. Natives
are extremely sensitive, and any exhibition of superciliousness

or disgust causes them to be most reticent. For an observer
to gain their confidence sufficiently to induce them to give
expression to their inmost thoughts, their aspirations, and their

sacred beliefs, it is necessary to have that charity that thinketh
no evil. It should be remembered that it is by the merits of
others that we are what we are, and if our forefathers had
lived under conditions similar to those that obtain in the
jîger delta, it is improbable that we would have been

appreciably better than are the present inhabitants of that
reeking district.
One great merit of Major Leonard's method of in-
vestigation is his appreciation of the fact that the social and

religious expression of the Xature-folk is as much the direct
result of their environment as is their material culture. No

longer is it possible to dissociate religion from geography.
Again and again he rightly insists that religion is a natural
result of human evolution, having its ultimate sources in pre-

human conditions. Eeligion originated as the response of the
emotions and dawning intelligence of man to the world around
and within him, and as in the past it served to satisfy certain
human needs, so it has continued to do : sometimes widening,

but at other times narrowing its scope ; in some instances
deepening its experience, in others becoming more and more
superficial; occasionally it is stilled by convention and
strangled by ritual, only to break away under the guidance
of a reformer — the eternal conflict between the priest and the

prophet. But the ebb and flow, periods of growth and
resting stages, gradual evolution, and departure along new
lines of emotion and interpretation, are all ultimately the
outcome of the conditions of existence and the interactions
of the human environment. Thus no phase of religious
development can be understood apart from the social history

of the people. The study of religion by itself is as barren
PREFACE IX
of real significance as is the study of animals formally

arranged in a museum, or of plants in a herbarium.
Appreciating these facts, Major Leonard made it his
business to consult at first hand the great book of nature as
it is manifest in Southern Nigeria, and to see the people as

they actually are, as they live, as they do, and as they think
and speak. The more he looked, and the deeper he studied,
the more evident it became to him that never has the
European understood the Negro ; and the present volume is his
interpretation of Negro thought and expression.

Major Leonard draws a vivid picture of the wonderful
Niger delta, and he traces its effects upon the mind and
nature of its inhabitants, — a country of moisture, marsh, and
malaria in the rainy season, but a land baked and parched^
with shrivelled foliage, in the dry season ; to this dramatic
change between these contrasted seasons the author traces
one of the manifold sources of the inherent dualism of native
character and social life.
Colonel Ellis has proved in a masterly manner the gradual

evolution that has taken place from west to east in the
religion of the natives of the Guinea Coast, and with this is
associated an analogous progress in the laws of descent and

succession to property, and in the rise of government. He
has also suggested that differences in the physical character
of each country in question have played a great part in this
progressive evolution. The conditions of existence in the

Niger delta appear to be more similar to those that obtain in
the country of the Tshi-speaking peoples than those of their
more advanced neighbours to the east.
The environment of steamy tropical West Africa is very

different from that of the dry steppes and scrub of Central
Australia, so it is not surprising that there is a marked
contrast in social life and religion between Negroes and
Australians. The latter have to contend against a niggard
earth, and, not being cultivators of the soil, they depend
entirely for their sustenance upon collecting and hunting

but even among these wandering hunters the religious
sense is not lacking. The admirable investigations of Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen have shown that these social savages

have also developed a large number of ceremonies (which
we term " magical ") for the purpose of the increase of
plant and animal life for human food or for the production
of rain. Still greater is the difference between West African
conditions and those obtaining in the arid deserts of Arizona
and Xew Mexico, and as marked are the ways in which the
religious impulse expresses itself among the Pueblo Indians ;
perhaps more clearly here than elsewhere is seen the direct

influence of physical environment upon religion, where the
numerous intricate ceremonies and the rich symbolism are all
the expression of the urgent need for the vitalising rain.

Major Leonard also emphasises the close relation that
exists between the social condition of the people and their
religion. The Niger delta natives have simply transferred

human conditions to the unseen world.
The main idea of the family centres in several grades of
persons : (1) The Father or Fertiliser, who holds in his hand
the power of life and death ; (2) The Mother, who fills
a position of great trust and reverence, as the nourisher and

as the producer of the Eldest Son ; (3) The Eldest Son, who
has the confidence of both parents and is the mediator
between them and the rest of the household ; (4) The Elders
of the various branches of the household, who are respected
as being counsellors and heads of departments.

The evolution of the gods of a community is synchronous
with the actual development and expansion of the community
itself. The "primeval adoration of the father in the flesh,"
we are told, " combining, as it subsequently did, with a belief
in the existence of the soul or spirit, developed first into the
worship of the father in the spirit, and later on into that of
certain deified ancestors, which, co-operating with a belief in
PREFACE XI
the phallic principle, eventually arrived at a worship of the

Supreme God, from whom the origin of all life was traced."
The god of each household or town is but the emblem of
some former ancestor, and " it is from and through deified
parents and personalities that the communal and departmental
gods can be traced ; it was through them that the god-idea
arose, and in this way the origin of the human ancestors,
connected and associated as they were with the gods, was
traced back to the Supreme Generator or Creator."
The importance of the father, mother, and son in the
human family has naturally led to the adoration of analogous
family gods ; thus there is recognised " the fatherhood of the
governing and fertilising god; the motherhood of the pro-
ducing and nourishing goddess, his co-operator and spouse
and the son, as the result of their co-operation." For example,
among the Ibani, Adum was the father of all gods, who
espoused Okoba, the principal goddess and mother of Eberebo,
the son-god, a very intelligent, subtle, and brave deity, to whom
children are dedicated, who thereby partake of his good qualities,
and especially of his courage. In the Ju-Ju houses of every
community in the delta the same trio are to be seen under
their own local cognomens.
Of late years evidence has been accumulating to prove the
spirituality of many savage and barbaric peoples. Because the
outward symbolism is usually crude, the observer assumed that
the ideas that lie behind it are equally elementary and ignoble.
The investigator has frequently been ignorant or wrongly
trained, almost invariably he has been prejudiced, rarely has
he been sympathetic, and, as a consequence, the ideals and
aspirations of natives have remained unknown, and, being un-
recognised, their existence has been denied. But the more
excellent way of certain investigators has demonstrated in this,
as in so many other matters, that negative evidence is not
evidence of negation ; and we now know that our brethren
most backward in material culture are imbued with ethical
Xll THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
and religious ideas which do not materially differ from those

inculcated by the teachers of the religions of civilised peoples.
We learn that the religion of the Niger delta natives is
based on the adoration of ancestral spirits, materially repre-

sented by emblems, the latter being notliing more nor less than
convenient forms of embodiment which can be altered or
transferred according to circumstances. These objects, rude

and senseless as they may be, are regarded as vehicles of
spiritual influence, as something sacred because of their direct
association with some familiar and powerful spirit, and not as
objects which in themselves have, or carry with them, any so-
called supernatural powers. It is not the object itself, but
what is in the object, that is the power for good or for

evil. Hence, though they may venerate the object itself, they
do so only because of the spirit which resides in or is
associated with it. The object accordingly becomes nothing

more nor less than a sacred receptacle, and its holiness is
merely a question of association. The thing itself is helpless
and powerless ; it cannot do harm, just as it cannot do good ;
the spirit, which is invariably ancestral, even when deified,
alone does the mischief and wreaks the vengeance in the case
of neglect or impiety, or confers the benefits and the blessings
when the ancestral rites are performed with due piety by the
household. The insignificance of the object is of no con-
sequence, nay, rather, the greater is its insignificance, the
greater the reflected glory and power of the spirit. This is
the essence of fetichism.

Worship consists mainly of homage and adoration. It is
in the act, in the offering up of a substantial sacrifice, that the

efficacy of propitiation lies. In native opinion prayer is of
little avail, and what is said must be short and to the point
action is the only remedy. The following is given as a

sample of their prayers :
" Preserve our lives, Spirit Father
who hast gone before, and make thy house fruitful, so that we,
thy children, shall increase, multiply, and so grow rich and
PREFACE XI 11
powerful." They act on the principle of, " Do unto your

ancestors as you would they should do unto you."
Eeligion, even in a symbolical sense, is not a public or
national affair, but entirely a personal and family matter, or,
at most, communal. Usually priests act as go-betweens when

the petitioners are supposed not to be on good terms with the
spirits, since the former, as is their wont, have imposed upon
the people their belief that their intervention is necessary to
appease the offended spirits. On the other hand, all in-
fluential or powerful families dispense with priests, as in these
cases the ancestral spirits possess a power that can make

itself felt to some purpose, and the head of the house can
appeal directly to the household manes.
The interrelation of mortals and spirits, deified or other-
wise, is seen in the belief that, as human existence is de-
pendent on the spiritual essence supplied by the gods, so the

existence of the gods depends on the spirit of human and
other sacrifices. Even the good spirit of a benevolent chief,
unless he is propitiated by his people and pleased with their

behaviour towards himself, is quite capable of not only
neglecting, but actually of injuring their interests. As are
men, so are gods.

A. C. HADDOK
xii THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
and religious ideas which do not materially differ from those

inculcated by the teachers of the religions of civilised peoples.
We learn that the religion of the Niger delta natives is
based on the adoration of ancestral spirits, materially repre-

sented by emblems, the latter being nothing more nor less than
convenient forms of embodiment which can be altered or
transferred according to circumstances. These objects, rude

and senseless as they may be, are regarded as vehicles of
spiritual influence, as something sacred because of their direct

association with some familiar and powerful spirit, and not as
objects which in themselves have, or carry with them, any so-
called supernatural powers. It is not the object itself, but
what is in the object, that is the power for good or for
evil. Hence, though they may venerate the object itself, they
do so only because of the spirit which resides in or is
associated with it. The object accordingly becomes nothing

more nor less than a sacred receptacle, and its holiness is
merely a question of association. The thing itself is helpless
and powerless ; it cannot do harm, just as it cannot do good ;
the spirit, which is invariably ancestral, even when deified,
alone does the mischief and wreaks the vengeance in the case
of neglect or impiety, or confers the benefits and the blessings
when the ancestral rites are performed with due piety by the
household. The insignificance of the object is of no con-
sequence, nay, rather, the greater is its insignificance, the
greater the reflected glory and power of the spirit. This is
the essence of fetichism.

Worship consists mainly of homage and adoration. It is
in the act, in the offering up of a substantial sacrifice, that the

efficacy of propitiation lies. In native opinion prayer is of
little avail, and what is said must be short and to the point
action is the only remedy. The following is given as a

sample of their prayers :
" Preserve our lives, Spirit Father
who hast gone before, and make thy house fruitful, so that we,
thy children, shall increase, multiply, and so grow rich and
PREFACE XI 11
powerful." They act on the principle of, " Do unto your

ancestors as you would they should do unto you."
national affair, but entirely a personal and family matter, or,
at most, communal. Usually priests act as go-betweens when

the petitioners are supposed not to be on good terms with the
spirits, since the former, as is their wont, have imposed upon
the people their belief that their intervention is necessary to
appease the offended spirits. On the other hand, all in-
fluential or powerful families dispense with priests, as in these
cases the ancestral spirits possess a power that can make

itself felt to some purpose, and the head of the house can
appeal directly to the household manes.
The interrelation of mortals and spirits, deified or other-
wise, is seen in the belief that, as human existence is de-
pendent on the spiritual essence supplied by the gods, so the

existence of the gods depends on the spirit of human and
other sacrifices. Even the good spirit of a benevolent chief,
unless he is propitiated by his people and pleased with their

behaviour towards himself, is quite capable of not only
neglecting, but actually of injuring their interests. As are
men, so are gods.

A. C. HADDOK
CONTENTS
PREFACE ....... PAGE

vii
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . l
SECTION I
PAET I
A GEOGRAPHICAL AND TRADITIONAL OUTLINE
CHAPTER I
A Description of the Physical Features of the Country . 11
CHAPTER II
A Classification of the Principal Tribes . . .17
CHAPTER III
Traditions . . . . . . .20
CHAPTER IV
A General Analysis of Existing Data . . .40

PAET II
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PEOPLE AS EXPRESSED IN

AVORDS, NAMES, PROVERBS, AND FABLES
CHAPTER I
PAGE
A Preparatory Character Sketch . . . .51
CHAPTER II
A Preliminary Survey of Native Philosophy : Its Natural

Methods and Characteristics . . . .57
CHAPTER III
The Essential Significance of Certain Basic Instincts . 65
CHAPTER IV
Proverbs and Fables . . . . . .69
PART III
THE NATURAL RELIGION OF THE VARIOUS TRIBES
CHAPTER I
A Definition of Religion : Its Source and Origin . .79
CHAPTER II
A Sketch of Primitive Man's Early Development . . 90

CONTENTS XVI
CHAPTEE III
PAGE
The Development of Natural Instincts . . .98
SECTION II
THE NATURISM OF THE DELTA
CHAPTER I
Natural Religion defined and the Term Naturism justified 113
CHAPTER II
The Physical Environment : Its Mental and Moral Effects

ON the People . . . . • .121
SECTION III
THE DUALISM OF THE NATIVES • 129
SECTION IV
SPIRIT LAND AND SPIRITUALISM
PRELUDE . . . . . . 137
•CHAPTER I
An Explanation of the Soul: Its Translation to Spirit . 139
CHAPTER II
The Sacrament of Burial . . . • .154

XVI 11 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
CHAPTEK III
PAOE
SriRiT Land and the Spiritual Existence . . .184
CHAPTEE IV
The Retranslation of the Spirit into Soul and Return

its
TO Material Existence : (a) into Human Animal

; (6) ;
(c)Vegetable Bodies ;
((i) Objects. A General Aspect
OF THE Question . . . . . .197
SECTION V
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE PHYSICAL
CHAPTEE I
A. Obsession and Possession . . . . .227
CHAPTEE II
A. Obsession and Possession — Continued. . . . 239
CHAPTEE III
B. Exorcism and Exorcists . . . . ,247
C. Diseases ....... CHAPTEE IV
253
D. Medicines ....... CHAPTEE V

262
CONTENTS XIX
SECTION VI
EMBLEMISM, OR THE EMBODIMENT OF THE SPIRIT
CHAPTER I
PAGE
A General Explanation of Emblemism . . .275
CHAPTER II
A Further and Specific Exposition, especially with Regard

TO THE Terms Fetichism, Idolatry, and Totemism . 284
CHAPTER
Embodiment in Trees ...... III
298
CHAPTER IV
Embodiment in Stones . • . • .306
CHAPTER V
Embodiment in Animals and Reptiles . . .313
CHAPTER VI
Embodiment in Snakes . . . • .327
CHAPTER VII
Embodiment in Natural Elements and Phenomena . .

336
CHAPTER VIII
The Earth : The Spirit and Adoration of it . .342

XVI ii THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
CHAPTEE III
PAOE
Spirit Land and the Spiritual Existence . . .184
CHAPTER IV
The Retranslation op the Spirit into Soul and Return
its
TO Material Existence : (a) into Human ; Animal
(6) ;
(c)Vegetable Bodies ;
{d) Objects. A General Aspect
OF the Question . . . . . .197
SECTION V
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE PHYSICAL
CHAPTER I
A. Obsession and Possession . . . . .227
CHAPTER II
A. Obsession and Possession— Oon^w^ncf? . . .239
CHAPTER III
B. Exorcism and Exorcists . . . . .247
C Diseases ....... CHAPTER IV
253
D. Medicines ••..... CHAPTER V

262
CONTENTS xix
SECTION VI
EMBLEMISM, OR THE EMBODIMENT OF THE SPIRIT
CHAPTER I
PAGE
A General Explanation of Emblemism . . .275
CHAPTER II
A Further and Specific Exposition, especially with Regard

TO the Terms Fetichism, Idolatry, and Totemism . 284
CHAPTER III
Embodiment in Trees . . . . . .298
CHAPTER IV
Embodiment in Stones . . . . .306
CHAPTER V
ExMBOdiment in Animals and Reptiles . . .313
CHAPTER VI
Embodiment in Snakes . . . . .327
CHAPTER VII
Embodiment in Natural Elements and Phenomena . .336
CHAPTER VIII
The Earth : The Spirit and Adoration of it . .342

XX THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
CHAPTEE IX
PAGE
Water : the Spirits of the Sea or Estuaries . .353
CHAPTER X
Fresh-Water Genii . . . . . .362
CHAPTER XI
Tabu, or the Prohibitive Aspect of Protection . .370
CHAPTER XII
The Spiritual and Deified Aspect of Phenomena . . 376
CHAPTER XIII
The Intellectual Capacity of the Natives in its Rela-

tion TO Emblemism . . . , 383
SECTION VII
THE CEREMONIALS AND PRACTICES OF NATURISM
CHAPTER I
The Priesthood in Relation to the- People and to the

Gods . . . . . . .391
CHAPTER II
The Gods of the Priests and People . . . 406

CONTEJSTTS xxi
CHAPTEK III
An
.......
Investigation into
THE Gods
the Attributes and Functions of
PAGE
423
CHAPTEE IV
The Annual and Ancestral Ceremonials . . .434
CHAPTEE V
A Description and Explanation of the Sacrificial System 441
CHAPTEE VI
Sanctuaries or Sacred Places of Refuge . . .464
CHAPTEE VII
A General Analysis of the Whole . . . .469
SECTION VIII
THE DEMONOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE

AS PRACTISED IN WITCHCRAFT
CHAPTEE I
Witchcraft as it Exists : A General Estimate of it . 479
CHAPTEE II
An Ibo Aspect of Witchcraft , . . .488
CHAPTEE III
Witch Doctors : {a) Their Methods, (s) Their Poisons . 496

CHAPTEE IX
PAOE
Water : the Spirits of the Sea or Estuaries . . 353
CHAPTER X
Fresh-Water Genii ...... 362
CHAPTEE XI
Tabu, or the Prohibitive Aspect of Protection . .370
CHAPTEE XII
The Spiritual and Deified Aspect of Phenomena . .376
CHAPTEE XIII
The Intellectual Capacity of the Natives in its Rela-

tion to Emblemism . . . . 383
SECTION VII
THE CEREMONIALS AND PEACTICES OF NATUEISM
CHAPTER I
The Priesthood in Eelation to the* People and to the

Gods . . . . . . .391
CHAPTER 11
The Gods of the Priests and People . . . 406

CONTENTS
CHAPTEK III
An
.......
Investigation into
THE Gods
the Attributes and Functions of
PAGE
423
CHAPTEE IV
The Annual and Ancestral Ceremonials . . .434
CHAPTEE V
A Description and Explanation of the Sacrificial System 441
CHAPTEE VI
Sanctuaries or Sacred Places of Refuge . . .464
CHAPTEE VII
A General Analysis of the Whole . . . .469
SECTION VIII

CHAPTEE I
Witchcraft as it Exists : A General Estimate of it . 479
CHAPTEE
An Ibo Aspect of Witchcraft ....
II
488
CHAPTEE III
Witch Doctors : {a) Their Methods, (b) Their Poisons . 496

APPENDIX A
A
.......
Glimpse into the Grammatical Construction of the Various
Tongues
PAGE
505
APPENDIX B
The Primitive Philosophy of Words . . .520
APPENDIX C
The Further Mentality and the Deeper Humanity of Names 548
INDEX . . . . . . .561
MAP
Southern Nigeria • . . .At end of volume
INTRODUCTION
This work was undertaken eleven years ago with a twofold
object. The first of these was to get the truth regarding
the faith of their ancestors direct from the natives of
Southern Nigeria themselves, and, in the second place, to
place on record the truth as it was given to me by word of
mouth and through personal contact with the people them-
selves. Whether I have carried out my original
or not
intention in its and whether I have fulfilled the
entirety,
trust which was reposed in me by those who appreciated the
sincerity of my efforts, remains, of course, to be seen.
But in that deepest and inmost psychology, which aims at
disclosing the internal consciousness of the ego, even the
ostensible object must have its underlying motive. While
not for a moment professing to be a Negrophile, nor yet
again a philanthropist, I must admit that my sympathies for
these despised and down -trodden people are of the very

deepest and sincerest description. So that the principle
which moved me and the sentiment that inspired me to
action was one of sheer and simple sympathy for a race
who, from the beginning until now, have had the misfortune
to be tyrannised over by the inevitable and the inexorable in
Nature, and who have never had even an opportunity of
emerging from the grip of an environment that has arrested
development and kept them in the same backward condition
of their forefathers. To effect my object, however, it appeared
to me that certain primary conditions were as imperative as
they were essential, and these, needless to say, were truth
and sincerity.
Qualified as Iwas at the outset, by virtue of a consider-

able and varied experience, which had been gathered in other
parts of Africa and in the fervid East, it was quite evident
to me, on my first contact with these natives of the Niger

Delta, that they were altogether misunderstood by the
European. Indeed, this knowledge, added to the abject
slavishness of their position, was sufficient stimulus, apart
from any personal sympathy, to spur my energies and in-
crease my efforts to the utmost, in order to make them

understood.
For if it is true, as it unquestionably is, that all the crime
and misery in the world is fundamentally traceable to ignor-
ance, itequally true that misconception
is its first-born —
is —
also in a great measure responsible for a condition of vain
and needless offence, therefore of injustice, that would never

otherwise exist, were it not for the unmistakable fatherhood
of a potential energy, which in the direction of evil that is —
of an uneven balance is greater —
even than the force of
knowledge.
Working on these broad lines, which were based absolutely
and entirely on the actual and personal experience of touch
and action,' the book, containing as it does, the religion, i.e.
the philosophy of the people, is the result of a systematic
course of investigation which extended over a period of ten
years, in addition to the knowledge gained by my official
work, which was arranged and organised on scientific principles,
and conducted on the spot among the people. The people as
they are, how they live, what they do and say, and how they
do and say it —
the book of Nature in fact has been the only —
book which has been consulted by me. For even in those side
issues or comparisons, which from the nature of the work are
to some extent inevitable, and in which other people, authors,
and books are referred to, the references made, although neces-
sary, and in some few cases perhaps unavoidable, are merely
casual and subsidiary, and in no sense essential to the real and
true significance around which they have been centred and woven.
Eather have they been made as the general result of a course
of reading which has extended over twenty years, and which,
althouo-h it is in relation to the subject, was not in any aspect
INTRODUCTION
a deliberate or premeditated study of the peoples, authors, or

books in question.
My methods of gaining information and of getting into
sympathetic touch with the Delta natives may not have been,
from an European standpoint at least, either conventional
or constitutional, but they were in every sense natural, and,
as the result I trust will demonstrate, most effective and
satisfactory from the dual aspect of barbarism and civilisation.
For in dealing with a natural people with the object of
gaining their confidence, so as to dive beneath the outer surface
of their shrinking suspiciousness and timorous reserve, into
the inner consciousness of their simple yet subtle existence, it
is absolutely impossible to do so on themore highly organised

and educated lines of any artificial system. But from the
native or natural aspect my methods were strictly legitimate,
and, what is more, appreciable, because sincere and sympathetic,
and as being thoroughly and agreeably in accord with their
own native laws and customs, which I had learnt, and, what is
more, not been above learning from the people themselves.
Eeasonably and justifiably so, when the fact alone is taken
into consideration, that in no locality in the world does cir-
cumstance alter the case more than it does in these torpid
and enervating latitudes. So that in dealing with them every
contingency had to be met, every fluctuation of opposing
interests to be studied, every approach or loophole of offence
and defence to be safeguarded, and every change, in fact, in
the mental compass of their personal attitude, not merely
provided for, but if possible anticipated. But, above all,
remember it was my personal inclination, more than any
ambition on my part, to master if possible the psychology of
these natural people, so as to represent them to the world of
civilisation in their own true colours.
But this natural method of administration was not my
only method. This does not fully and comprehensively ex-
plain the secret of my success in getting, as I did, into so
close a touch with these people. All through life I have
possessed the power of living a life which was positively dual
in existence, of having within my own entity the capacity of
absolute detachment, from either internal or external surround-
ings, as tlie case might be. And

it was this power that I
utilised to its fullest extent when

was in contact with these
I
sons of Nature, whicli enabled me to meet them, not merely
more than lialf way, but, in reality, on their own ground or
dunghill. For as their condition had from the very outset
elicited my sympathy, I threw myself heart and soul into
their cause so much so that I became oblivious to outside
;
matters, and came in time to look at their own customs from

their own point of view. And in this way only is it possible
for the European to understand the African for if he thinks ;
white and writes black, or mce versa, writes white and thinks
black, the result attained is bound to be an abortion, or only
a hybrid.
The fact of the matter is, that the civilised European has
never been able to detach himself from his own very different
intellectualities when studying the barbaric environment.
Therefore in constituting himself a critic of barbaric methods,
he has not in the true spirit of criticism been at all justified
in doing so. For he has looked at the barbarian, or savage,
from his own European standpoint, and in doing so has taken
him much too literally, at the same time that he has not
given these sons of Nature credit for the intelligence, the
morality, and the knowledge wliich they in reality possess,
quite forgetful of the fact that where religion is concerned
they are naturally silent, and disinclined to part with any
information. Because, in fact, his picture of them, based as it
is on erroneous data and deductions, is altogether a mis-

conception, inasmuch as it is drawn from a conception that
is his own, and in no sense that of the people whom he is
attempting to portray. So, unconsciously though it may be,

he lends himself to the perpetration of an act of moral
injustice, and in this conflicting way defeats his own good
purpose in bringing the savage nearer to civilisation. Apart
from all other moral considerations this is a serious blunder,
for it goes without saying that where misunderstanding
prevails between two human units that are unknown to and
dissimilar to each other, in their moods and modes of thought,
advancement, that is civilisation, is simply impossible. And
the cause of this is most painfully apparent. To the ordinary
INTRODUCTION 5
English official of mediocrity, possessing little or no individu-

ality and a proportionate sense of responsibility, tied \\\k
thwarted, and sealed as he is at every step l)y red tape,
regulations, and sealing-wax, these natural methods do not
commend themselves. So that confronted as he is by con-
stantly varying circumstances and fluctuating conditions, wliich
are new to him, with the unexpected, that is newer and
stranger, thrown in every now and then, it is not in the least
astonishing to find that as between the rulers and the ruled,
except in rare and exceptional cases, there is no bond of
sympathy whatever. And the fault of this, and I say so un-
hesitatingly, lies entirely with the
Englishman himself, i.e. with
his own
unlovable personality, more so even tlian with his cold
and calculating methods. An intense egoist, like the Hebrew
own surroundings, which
of old, absorbed in himself and in his
savour principally of the money market, and his own island
belongings, the Englishman is unsociable, not to say selfish.
Charity — as regards the sentiments and sympathies of feeling
— home with him. His own personal affairs
begins at first of
all demand his own individual attention, and outside affairs,
except in so far as they touch upon liis own, come next, and
are seen to, on this principle only, and in no sense as possess-
ing any individuality or personal interest of their own.
Ordinarily calm, deliberate, and even-minded, he differ-
entiates between extremes, religion excepted, and arrives at a
correct balance (jr adjustment of them, dispensing justice
accordingly with an even hand. But living in a state of
constant suppression of the emotions, as Englishmen for
centuries have done, what was formerly an education has
developed into a tendency, and the modern Englishman is a
human machine of suppressed emotions, devoid of outside
sympathy, yet believing in the mission of his race, although
forgetful of the fact that the greater the race the greater the
faults,presumably as well as comparatively.
Thus it is that in administering the negroid races he views
matters from his own very exalted yet peculiarly insular
standpoint, and judges them by his own inmiaculate standard.
Looking at the question from the deepest sense of imperialism,
the Mission, it seems to me, if conducted on these lines.
can never be the success it ought otherwise to be were it
administered on a policy of sympathy, with a rational base.

There is, in fact, but one road that in dealino- with the
Oriental or African leads to success, and that road lies first
of all tlirough their own ancestral religion and customs, and

then through the heart. For rationalism, although it sub-
ordinates the emotions to reason, is full of human sympathies
of the very highest and most intellectual order.

As an educated and one of the best informed Frenchmen
of his time, Monsieur Emile Boutmy, in a study of the political
psychology of the English people, says " The Englishman is
:
less social than men of any other nationality. I mean that

he is less conscious of the ties which bind humanity together,
his moral formation owes little to his relations with other men,
he scarcely troubles himself about what they think, and if he
ever considers the matter at all, it makes no difference in his
sentiments and actions. In short, the Englishman is, to a
large extent, a recluse he is more aloof from the world in
;
which he lives and the neighbours whom he elbows than the

men of any other nation."
This analysis of Mr. Boutmy's explains the situation most
explicitly and comprehensively, for the Englishman's peculiarly
unsociable and unhappy egoism, due, as it has mainly been, to
the insularity of his environment, also to the possibilities and
potentialities of his position, is entirely responsible for the
existence of that most indispensable deficit of which we have
been speaking. But for the present, at all events, enough has
been said on this very deplorable and unfortunate circumstance.
To conclude, however, not only am I personally and avowedly
insympathy with my subject, but it has been my sincere and
strenuous endeavour, in writing these pages, to put the reader
in sympathy with it also. on my part can effect
But no effort
this unless he himself approaches it from that most Catholic
standpoint of all, which sees the good and not only the evil
that is in everything, that tolerant standpoint which sees eye
to eye, and soul to soul, i.e. without bias and partiality, but
with sympathy as well as reason, and which recognises in
barbarism a lower and undeveloped phase of natural evolution,
with the same human instincts as those of civilisation, but in
INTROD UCTION
no sense a condition of Nature outside or apart from it, — the

standpoint, in fact, of the true and sincere humanitarian, who
would work to diminish the evils and miseries of those
unfortunate sections of humanity which have never had the
opportunity to enable them to rise to the sublimer heights
that have been attained by the greater expansion and develop-
ment of civilisation.
SECTION I
PART I
A GEOGRAPHICAL AND TRADITIONAL

OUTLINE
CHAPTEK I
A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE

COUNTRY
Before attempting in any way to arrive at a conclusion, or,

speaking more accurately, in the absence of all history to
formulate a theory regarding the origin of a medley of tribes
so singularly alike in their sociology, yet differing from each
other in language and dialect, it is my intention to deal first
of allwith a geographical description of the whole country,

then with the tribes inhabiting the various divisions, and
lastly with the local traditions, which unfortunately are not
only meagre but more or less confused, therefore, to a great
extent, unreliable.
The tract of country now known as Southern Nigeria is a
delta, formed by the historic river which, rising behind Sierra
Leone, flows in a course so erratic as to have baffled the
curiosity and the skill of the keenest geographers, ancient and
modern.
Taking the Lower Niger, from its junction with the Benue
at Lokoja, as the handle of a huge gridiron, the body would be
represented by the countless streams and creeks which radiate
from the main river at a point some 200 miles below the con-
fluence and 120 miles from the sea. At this point the river
bifurcates into its two principal branches, the one to the east,
which empties itself over a shallow bar at Akassa, being called
the Nun, and the western branch, that joins the Warri stream,
below Burutu, and enters the sea as the Forcados, being known
as the Gana-Gana.
The actual depth of the body of the grid is 120 miles,
THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part i
with a width at its widest part of not more than 270 miles,
and a length of handle of 200 miles.
Delimited, however, as Nigeria has been by the British

Government into t^vo great divisions, the north and the south,
with an utter disregard of racial and political considerations,
the northern limit of the latter ends at Idah, curtailing the
length by some 60 miles.
In a total coast-line of 330 miles there are some nineteen
rivers —
the Benin and the Escravos to the west of the For-
cados the Eamos, Dodo, Pennington, and Middleton between
;
it and the between this and the Cross river the Brass,
Nun ;
St. Nicholas, St. Barbara, St. Bartholomew, Sombrero, New
Calabar, Bonny, Andoni, Opobo, and Kwa Ibo rivers and to ;
of the Cross river and running into it, below Duke

the east
Town, are the Old Calabar, the Kwa, the Akpayafe, and the
Ofa or Ndiani rivers. Between the Kwâ Ibo and Benin
river there is a connection right through by creek, which
extends in reality from the latter right into the lagoon at
Lagos, the creeks, however, being small and much obstructed
by snags and vegetable growths.
The Cross river and its affluents are altogether distinct,
forming, as they do, a small and separate delta. The Benin,
Opobo or Imo, and Kwa Ibo rivers, although connected with
the Niger, are also quite separate streams, and the two latter,
which either rise from the same source or very close to one
another, I have myself traced up to the near vicinity of
Bende.
Out of all these rivers, however, only the Forcados, Bonny,
and Cross rivers are navigable for large, ocean-going steamers,
although vessels with a shallower draught trade regularly in
the Nun, Brass, Opobo, Benin, and New Calabar rivers by side
creeks. In all of these, factories, belonging principally to the
African Association and Miller Bros. & Co., are established
at Duke Town and Creek Town in the Old Calabar district
at Eket on the Kwa Ibo river at Opobo and Egwanga in the
;
Opobo district ; at Bonny in the district bearing that name

at Bakana, Bugama, and Abonaraa in the Degama or New
Calabar district at Brass on the Brass river
;
at Akassa on ;
the Nun at Burutu

; on the Forcados at Warri on the Warri
;
CHAP. I
THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY 13
river, at the mouth of the Benin river, and at Sapele, 50

miles higher up ; while the Niger Company have factories all
the way up the Niger, from Burutu and Akassa, right on into
Northern Nigeria.
Guarding the entrance to each river is the inevitable
sandbar, which decides irrevocably the utility or otherwise of
the streams over which it presides, like an evil genius, and in
every instance where the decision has been favourable, flourish-
ing towns belonging to the middleman, i.e.. those who trade
between the white traders and the native producers, and
extensive, well-stocked factories which carry on an excellent
trade, chiefly in palm oil and kernels, in English goods
chiefly gin, tobacco, cottons, hardware, — are an absolute
certainty.
But as it is not in this direction that the interest of this
work lies, I will now proceed to give as good a description as
I can of what the country in general is like, so that the reader
may form a tolerably accurate idea of the environment by
which the people are surrounded, in order to enable him to
arrive at a still more faithful conception of their ordinary
characteristics, as well as of their special idiosyncrasies.
Let the reader imagine a network of waterways, a huge
web of mud and water, shaded by the stately but never-changing
evergreen mangrove, through which the muddy waters of the
Niger, like a main artery, flow, with a swish and a swirl, over
the treacherous sandbars into the foam-covered breakers of
the grey Atlantic.
But it is not possible for any picture, whether drawn by
the hand or conjured by the mind, to portray the painful
monotony mangrove which Nature has smirched in her
of the
dullest green, the muddy dinginess of the grey-brown turgid
waters, the foetid evil- smelling swamps of slime and ooze,
reeking with malaria and with a life that is repulsive, and
strangely suggestive of its surroundings the loathsome : —
churchyard crabs, recalling hideous memories the slimy mud- ;
fish, linking the prehistoric past with the ever -advancing

present the crafty crocodiles sunning themselves on snags and
;
sandbanks, the huge, ungainly hippos, the hideous iguanas,

and the gorgeously painted pythons lurking in the forests for
14 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part i
unwary victims the i)resuming mangrove Hies, who have the

;
audacity to deposit their larv^ beneath the human skin, the

pestilential sand-flies, and the equally pestiferous
mosquitoes,
the harmless culex and the much-discussed anopheles,

with
their fever —
germs all of them much too ubiquitous and last ;
and the musical frogs, whose

of all the organ-grinding crickets
chorus at nights, when the bush is lit up by the fireflies in
their myriads, adds to the liveliness and gives a
distinct
solidity to the hum of the insect life which simply

teems all
round one.
These, which are some of the living realities of the Delta,
are as a rule to be seen, and without fail to be felt, but
regard-
ing the picturesqueness of the one and the intensity of the

other, I must again refer to the imagination but even those ;
readers who possess unusually daring and fertile powers will

them as they actually exist.
fail to realise
This mangrove swamp, however, is merely a belt, averaging

30 miles in width from the sea inland, and extending from
one extremity of the Protectorate to the other; but even
within this belt are numerous tracts of good but low-lying
land. At this point inland the mangrove disappears altogether,
and the waterways are defined by low banks of solid ground,
draped in the luxuriant foliage of various tints and graced by
splendid trees of different kinds.
Prominent among other varieties, and nearly always denot-
ing the presence of farms and towns, are the plantains and
palms " oil " and " wine " chiefly, — the towering cotton tree,
the African oak, iroko, sasswood, mahogany, and a kind of teak,

which, with their different shades of green and the occasional
colouring of certain flowers —
the bright red of the cotton trees,
a crimson blossom like that of mountain ash, and the ordinary
convolvukis being among the commonest, —
blend into a beautiful
harmony.
From this point, too, the mainland virtually commences,
and as one walks away from the Niger into the interior, either
to east or west, it rises very gradually and with a gentle slope
up to an elevation of about 200', that covers a width of some
7 miles. Then the country assumes a broken and undulating
aspect, which in the locaUty of Bende, to the east, and Uronii,
CHAP. I THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY 15
westward, swells into hills that north of Idah rise to the dignity
of mountains.
Looking at Southern Nigeria from a purely geographical
standpoint, it is naturally divided by the Niger into two
distinct sections, the eastern and the western.
Both these divisions, as far as can be estimated, are
populous, while the country, a very considerable area of which
I have walked over, is, as I will point out later on, undoubtedly
rich in natural and economic products. It is well intersected
by numerous rivers and streams in the eastern division, flow-
ing either towards and into the Cross river or the Niger, and
in the western running to east and west in the same way —
more or less demonstration of the existence of a
practical
watershed midway in each division.
Most of these streams are fringed by swamps on both
banks, varying in width from a hundred yards to a mile,
according to the size of the stream.
From whatever point of view it may be looked at, whether
from the practical standard of navigation or from the less
useful but more ornamental one of artistic effect, the Niger, to
be understood and appreciated, must be seen in two distinct
phases, which it has to undergo within the year during the :
dry season, for instance, when the river is and at its lowest
sandbanks and islands appear everywhere, making the naviga-
tion ever so much more intricate and difficult and in the rainy
;
season, when it is at its highest, rising from 40' to 60' in

different localities, until it overflows its banks below Onitsha,
where the country on both sides is flat.
These inundations, accordine^ to native reckonino' in other —
words, experience, — are unusually high every seventh year.
Then the riverside towns are swamped, and the people sit on
raised platforms inside their huts, paddling from one to the
other in canoes, and in no way annoyed by the vagaries or
rude attentions of tlie Eor they are essentially
river god.
fatalists, believing firmly in the principle that the evil which
cannot be prevented or cured has to be endured with patience,

and as their ancestors lived on the river bank and faced the
swollen floods, they feel bound to do the same thing. So they
are patient to a degree, neither thwarting nor offending the
1
'
THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part i
demons of the devastating waters, although in the interior the

people invariably desert their homes when smitten by disease.
But if the river, averaging 1000 yards in width —
a width
that in places increases to 2000 yards and over, is, —
from a
spectacular aspect, an interesting sight in the dry season with ;
its grass-clad islands and banks, most certainly a

it is splendid
spectacle in the rains, as it rushes down from Lokoja to
Onitsha, a mighty muddy torrent, so far kept in bounds by
the greater elevation of the country but below this point
;
pouring over the unprotected banks, and spreading itself all

over the low-lying swamps and into the countless creeks of its
still lower delta. A scene in every way worth seeing, although,
when considered from the practical standpoint of utility, it is
sad to see so much power and so many possibilities running
year by year to sheer waste.
The villages and towns, all throughout the whole Protec-
torate, are very numerous, while isolated homesteads are
unknown, except occasionally, on farms and plantations but ;
there are no cities of any great size or importance, certainly

not one that can be compared to Ilorin or Abeokuto in the
country behind Lagos, or to Bida, Sokoto, and Kano in Northern
Nigeria; for even Benin city, previous to its capture, was
neither extensive nor populous, and certainly of no importance
from either a civilised or architectural standpoint.
CHAPTEE II
A CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEINCIPAL TKIBES
It will be absolutely impossible for nie, so numerous are the

tribes and clans in Southern Mgeria, to do more than describe
the largest and most important.
Going from east to west, and beginning with the Old
Calabar district, we have the Efik, an offshoot of the Ibibio,
who occupy the country from the mouth of the Cross river
60 miles up to Itu, with Duke Town their capital and the
headquarters of the Southern Nigerian Administration, a large
and prosperous town of over 20,000 inhabitants.
To the east of Old Calabar are the Akwa, generally
known as Kwa, living on the Akwa and Akpayafe rivers to ;
the north-east are the Ekoi, practically the same as the Akwa
northward, on the east bank of the Cross river, are the Uwet,
Okoyong, and Union tribes while on the east bank, above
;
Itu, are various sections of the Ibo race, chief of whom are the
Aro, who were until quite recently so celebrated for having
in their possession the great and supreme divinity of the
universe.
Between the Cross and Opobo rivers, to a distance of 60
miles from the coast, is the Ibibio country; while at the
mouth of the Kwa Ibo river are the Ibeno, a miserable
mixture of the Ibibio and the Efik and along the coast, up to
;
the Opobo river, are a few more Kwa settlements.

At Opobo is a colony of the Bonny or Ibani ^
people, w^ho
many years ago left Bonny and settled there. The town, con-
1 The vowel U is more frequently used than not in the use of this word
Ibani, but either vowel can be used.
17 C
i8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part i
taining some 15,000 inhabitants, is on the right bank of the

river, two miles from the bar and the people, who are keen
;
traders, trade in all the Ibo and Ibibio markets, some 60

miles up the Opobo and Kwa Ibo rivers.
From Opobo to Bonny, along the coast, are the Andoni,

a small tribe of fishermen said to be connected with the Kwa
and between them and the Ibo to the north, another small
tribe called Ogoni are wedged in.
Bonny, corrupted from Ibani, is a town on an island at the
mouth of its own river but its glory and trade have long since
;
departed, although, with the exception of the Cross river,

it forms, after Forcados, quite the best and safest harbour in
the Protectorate.
Twenty-five miles up the Bonny river is a small tract of
country inhabited by the Okrika, one half of whom are
fishermen and the other half traders.
To the north-west of them is the habitat of the New
Calabar people, a pushing and a progressive tribe,who have
their principaltown at Abonama, 30 miles from the mouth
of the Sombrero river north-west of the New Calabar district,
;
up the Engenni or Oratshi river, are the Abua and Ekpafia.

Westward of Bonny live the Brassmen, fine traders, whose
chief town, Nembe, is also situated at a distance of 30 miles
from the sea.
North of Nembe, and between it and the Engenni, also
towards the Niger, a small tribe called the Ogbayan are
settled.
The Oru occupy the tract of country on each side of the
Nun branch of the Niger, and along the coastline between it
and the Eamos river.
Then, in the triangle formed by the Nun and Gana-Gana,

also outside it, to a small extent, both eastwârd and wêstward,
dwell the Ijo, the most important tribe in the lower Delta,
and indeed, after the Ibo, in the whole of Southern Nigeria.
On the Warri and Benin rivers we find the Jekri middle-
men, who are not only the most intelligent and tractable, but
quite the bestmannered of all the tribes.
To the north of the Jekri are the Sobo, and to the east-
—
ward are the Igabo sliy and timid, no doubt, but treacherous
CHAP. II A CLASSIFICATION OF THE PRINCIPAL TRIBES 19
and rude while to the west are the Bini, belonging to what
;
was once the ancient and powerful kingdom of Ubini or Bini,

i.e. Benin.
Proceeding up the main river, we find at first a mixture of
Ijo, Igabo, and Ibo, as far as Abo, i.e. about 135 miles from
the sea, and from this point pure Ibo up to Asaba then a ;
mixture on the east bank of Ibo and Bini as far as Illushi,

or at least from where the Kukuruku country commences, and
on the west bank up to the boundary of the Igara or Igala,
who at one time owned a large and extensive kingdom, which
has recently, however, very much dwindled both in size and
importance.
But as this work principally concerns only the Ibo and
other tribes already mentioned, further detail regarding any of
the more northern tribes, such as the Kukuruku, will be quite
unnecessary.
Lastly, but first in importance — not only numerically, but
politically — are the Igbo or Ibo, occupying the heart of
Southern Nigeria, i.e. the country between the Niger and
Cross rivers, extending to the south within 60 miles of the
seaboard, and to the north along the Cross river as far as the
sixth parallel of latitude and up to the seventh degree in the
direction of the Niger. Going westward, and crossing over
the Niger from Abo on the right bank up to and beyond
Asaba, we find the Ibo in occupation of a narrow strip of
country that is bordered on the west by the Igabo and Sobo
country, and on the north by the Kukuruku and although it ;
is difficult to speak with any certainty, I think it more than
probable that some of the tribes to the east of the Cross river
are merely sections of the Ibo race, or are at all events of Ibo
CHAPTER III
TRADITIONS
Among a people whose intelligence has not risen to the height

of caligraphy, needless to say that no record, therefore no
it is
history, exists while

;
even tradition, relying solely on the mental
effort of memory, is but a meagre and at times a not too reliable
record of the past —
a past that as a rule, except in the case
of some very special event, such for instance as a migration
from one locality to another or the invasion and occupation
of territory belonging to a different tribe, does not go back for
more than fifteen to twenty generations, or from three to four

himdred years at the most.
This, at all events, is the position of affairs as they exist
in the Niger Delta, and not to be attributed so much to the
is
difficulty of obtaining information as to the fact that the old,

old traditions have long, long ago been forgotten.
It is not in the least surprising, therefore, that there is an
utter absence of all mythology amongst these natives, so
that,with the exception of the myth relative to the creation
of the two primary brothers, the elder of whom was black
and the younger white, which is more or less common to
all negroid tribes {vide Section III.), there are no others
certainly none that it was my good fortune to hear of Yet

in their folklore, or rather beast fables, which deal principally,
almost entirely, with the animal world, and also in their
deities, it is possible to trace the sole surviving relic of a very
ancient mythology.
Commencing with the Efik, now officially and commercially
known as the Old Calabar people, it appears that in the early
TJÂ DITIO^sT
part of the eighteenth century they were a community of the

Ibibio tribe, living close to but on the west side of the Cro^
river. Driven by the other Ibibio, or because of local
pressure of some kind, they abandoned their old homesteads,
and crossing over the Cross and Old Calabar rivers, established
a new settlement on the east bank of the latter river. A few
years later a farther division took place, and the Eyo "'
portion of the community, attracted by the slave trade that

was then l«eing carried on by European vessels, descended the
river and founded Ikorri-tungo, now known as Creek Town,
from its position on a creek which runs off the main
stream.
But amid the wealth and prosperity which trade brought
the canker of dissension soon arose, so that after much bicker-
ing and strife, which resulted in an open weaker
quarrel, the
party, consisting of several households, were expelled, and
proceeding only a few miles farther down the main river they
settled at Obuton or Old Town. The immense advantage of
this position, cutting off the Creek Town community as it did
&t)m the European shippiog, soon made itself apparent But
the latter, stronger as they were, were not to be outdone. A
colony was soon established by them on the eastern bank of
the river, a couple of miles below Obuton, on the slope of the
rising ground that falls away into the belt of mangrove swamp
to the south of it.
The admirably chosen, named Akwa-Akpa, i.e.

site so
" XewTown," now called Duke Town or Old Calabar, was so
advantageous in every way, absolutely commanding as it did
that portion of the river which the European vessels selected
for anchorage, that it succeeded in attracting many familias
who took up their residence there, so much so that in a few
years' time Akwa-Akpa had grown more extensive and powerful
than either Creek Town or Obutom
Thos the people of this latter place, now quite hemmed
in, found it difficult to go either up or down the river in any
safety : but, making a gallant struggle for existence, they held

their own one day treachery laid them low.
for years, until
Invited on some occasion to a friendly conference on board an
English ship, the chiefs of Xew Town waylaid and massacred
them, and in this way they sec-ured practically the whole of

the foreign trade.
Under Efium, in the beginning of the eighteenth century,
New Town was pre-eminently prosperous. A strong personality
and a powerful ruler, he made his power felt both up and
down the river, and as far as to its mouth in the latter direc-
tion. Further than this, he enacted laws by which the persons
and ships of white men were rendered secure in the country
under penalty of death. Yet, fearing aggression from the
white men, he guarded strictly against their establishing
factories or settlements of any kind on shore.
It was this same Efium, christened Duke Ephraim by one
of the masters of the English vessels, who gave to the town its
present name.
There is little more to tell, except that as Duke Town
grew in importance Creek Town diminished, and that while
prior to the British administration of the country the latter
had as rulers eight kings — all of the house of Eyo Honesty
the former has had several Duke Ephraims and an Eyamba
or two.
Passing over theAkwa and the Ibibio, a wild and
truculent race about whom nothing is known and from whom
it was impossible to obtain any information, it is possible
among the Bonny and Opobo people — the original Ibani — to
go back even farther than in the case of the Efik, to about
three or four hundred years.
There seems to be some difference of opinion, however, as
to their origin. One tradition of the elders is that the Ibani
are derived from the ISTgwa section race, one
of the Ibo
Alagba-n-ye, a hunter, having, it is said, come down the
Azumini Creek on a hunting expedition, and settled finally with
his family on Breaker Island —
not the one now in existence,
but another that lay more towards the eastern side of the river,
beyond Ju Ju Town Creek. The original name given to the
first settlement, which was only a small town, was Okuloma
(called Okuloba by the Brassmen), so christened after the
" okulo " or curlews who inhabited the island in large numbers.
Another version has it that the original Ibo settler was one
Opobo or Ogulu, who intermarried with a woman from a
CHAP. Ill TRADITIONS 23
country to the west of New Calabar but as this could only ;
have occurred about 140 years ago it is much too recent, con-
sidering the fact that since the sixteenth century down to 1832
Bonny was in reality probably the greatest slave mart of
West Africa. Barbot, in his Voyage to New Calabar, 1699,
speaks of it as Culebo, and of the king and his brother Pepprell,
evidently referring to Perekule, who afterwards was called King
Pepper, or Pepple, because of his trading in this article with
the Europeans.
Yet strangely enough, according to my informants, there
is one point on which the Bonny people seem to be fairly well
agreed, and that is the relationship existing between them-
selves and the Brassmen. According to this tradition, they
have at all events always been on the very closest terms of
friendship with and have never made war on each other ; and
this they attribute to the fact that their gods are in some
remote ancestral or spiritual way derived from the same stock
— Ogidiga, the Brass, and Ekiba, the Bonny god, having been
somehow related in spiritland.
Both these deities, so the old people say, were gods of war
who a long time ago mutually arranged to go out into the world,
each one to choose a separate country for himself, for the
purpose of creating war so they parted, and it happened that
;
Ogidiga went to Brass and Ekiba to Bonny.

The real fact of the matter, however, after a careful
analysis of all the facts, is that the connection was originally
one of blood brotherhood, which was no doubt cemented all
the closer by marriage ties. Still, it is of course possible that
some of the original Bini following of Alepe may have left

Nembe and thrown in their lot with the Ibani,
and this idea
is to some extent supported by the fact that even at the
beginning of the nineteenth century the latter acknowledged

the suzerainty of the King of Benin, and despatched envoys to
that city annually to tender their allegiance to him although, ;
of course, it is quite possible that the tribute in question was

one of religious supremacy and not of heredity.
Leaving this for future comment, an examination of the
pedigree of the Ibani royal family {vide p. 47) is tolerably
strong evidence in favour of the assertion that Alagba-n-ye
24 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
was its rightful founder ; but, as we shall see later ou, another
foreign element must have been introduced.

Beyond the fact of the division which occurred, that ended
in the separation of Opobo from Bonny, there is nothing of
any further interest in the Ibani traditions. This separation
occurred as follows :
After Kiug Perekule's death, his sons Foubra and Opobo

reigned together. As the former, who was the elder, died
without leaving a son, the head slave Ibmani took charge of
the house. At the time Bonny happened to be at war with
New Calabar, Okrika, and Andoni. Taking each in turn, com-
mencing with the latter, Opobo subdued them all, and not
long after he followed his brother into the land of shadows,
leaving behind him an only son, Dappa by name. This youth,
being a minor at the time, was, in accordance with the laws
of the country, placed under the autliority of Mmadu, who,
although a slave, was, as in the case of Ibmani, also placed in
charge of the household.
The two slaves were at the head of affairs seemed
fact that
to a certain extent to have displeased the other chiefs, and,
a disagreement having taken place over some question of
domestic economy, Mmadu withdrew the whole of his late
master's household eastward across the Andoni flats to the

Imo river, where he founded the settlement now known as
Opobo.
All the Okrika know, or will tell of themselves, is that
their forefathers originally Okrika from Afam, a place
came to
beyond Obu-akpu in the interior Ibo country, which points to,
if it does not determine, an Ibo origin and the fact of their
;
close contact with the Ibani on one side, and to a lesser

deo-ree with the New Calabar on the other, at once accounts
for their dialect being affiliated to both of these as well as to
the Ijo.
Of the Ogoni, all that my agents and myself were able to

find out was that one Ogbe-saku, who was the first founder
and king, lived in a town called Joko, which is situated in
about the centre of the southern half of the country. By this
ruler the latter was divided into four sections or districts,
which were named after the principal towns, viz. Joko,

We-0, Bewa, and Boam ; the first of these being the capital
of the N'galabia Ogoni, the second of the Gogara branch,
the third of the Bewa, and the fourth of the Boam ; the people
of the last-mentioned locality being derived from Joko, while
those of the We-o and Bewa are related. Including the chief
towns, there are some seventeen communities in all ; but of
the northern portion I was unfortunately unable to get any
further information beyond the fact that the Ogoni are con-
sidered by the Ibani to be treacherous and excitable, and, in
these respects especially, similar to the Ibibio in temperament
and character. Unlike them, however, they are bad farmers
and traders, and have the reputation of being the dirtiest
people as well as the greatest cannibals in the Delta.
With regard to New Calabar, tradition is not only meagre
but again at variance, and it is difficult at first either to
reconcile or account for the differences except from the broad
basis of tribal union or minified origins.
One version maintains that the New Calabar people are
an offshoot of the Efik from Old Calabar, from whom they
divided themselves because of civil war. Driven out of their
town, they took refuge, it is said, in the Ibo country, and were
conducted by some Aro down to the locality lying between
Isokpo Market and Bugama.
Here it was that, during one of their fishing excursions
towards the sea, they fell in with a Portuguese ship at the
entrance of the channel now known as the New Calabar
river. The captain of the vessel having made an offer to
trade with them, they were so pleased at the idea that they
left Isokpo and formed a settlement on the right bank of
the river close to its mouth, which resulted in a large slave
trade being carried on between them and the Portuguese or

Spaniards.
According to the New Calabar section, who now live at
Bakana, a portion of their tribe at all events originated from
the Ijo and the tradition is that formerly when the people of
;
a town or community went hunting it was customary to make

an equal division of all the game that had been killed. On
one occasion, however, the division appears to have been
carried out unequallj^, or at all events in such a way as to
have caused serious dissension

community in question split
—
uînto
^s^^^ûch so, in fact, that the
at least three sections,
one migrating to Brass, another to Okrika and Bonny, and the
third combining with the original or at least the then existing
inhabitants of Xew Calabar and Kulu.
There is something more substantial to go upon concerning
Brass. Here one tradition is that a man, by name Alepe,
presumably a chief, and a Bini, of Benin City, left there to go
on a fishing tour accompanied by his family, and after roving
about the creeks and rivers of that part of the Delta lying
between the Benin and Brass rivers, he settled down on the
small tract of land now known as Nembe, but formerly called
Alepe after its founder.
Another, and evidently a more reliable version, states that
a long time ago there was a great king of Benin who sent his
people to war. His eldest son, anxious to go, requested that
he miglit be allowed to join the expedition, but was refused.
In spite of this, however, the son managed to get away
from Benin, attached himself to the force, and, as it appeared,
was the first man killed after the fighting had begun.
Fearing the consequences would be disastrous to them-
selves, a general consultation was held among the leaders of
the expedition, and at the suggestion of Alepe, the commander,
it was agreed that the whole party should migrate to other
parts and found a place for themselves, which was immediately
acted upon ; and there can be little doubt that in choosing the
site they did so because of the security of its position. In
support of this tradition it is well known that formerly, and
indeed until quite recently, it was customary on the death of
the Bini king for certain of the Brass notables to be present
in Benin City to vote in the election of the new king as well
as to take part in the coronation ceremonies.
Here, in course of time, Alepe was joined by a certain
number of people from Ekulema in the New Calabar district,
a place that, according to the tradition of the families who

originally came from there, is also referred to as having supplied
the original inhabitants of the present Brass.
Subsequent to this a further reinforcement was received
in the form of a band of Ijo from Obiama. Pirates and
desperadoes of the very worst description, these people had

been the scourge of the whole neighbourhood in which they
had lived, and the inhabitants, no longer able to tolerate their
depredations, had combined and driven them out of their town.
This is one account but another version, naturally enough
;
from those who have descended from the Obiama section,

maintains that the real cause or origin of the war was a
quarrel over some venison. This tradition, however, is
common to so many localities, particularly in this portion of
the Delta, that it makes the unravelling of the original knot
all the more difficult ; for again a precisely similar story also
prevails among the original inhabitants of Degama, who,
although outnumbered by the New Calabar people,and a
degenerate lot, still same locality and- maintain
cling to the
a miserable existence by fishing. In one sense, these various
traditions, identical as they are in substance, would altogether
simplify this complex question of origin, that is, if we were
prepared to accept them as originating from the same source.
This, however, is scarcely possible, so difficult is it to arrive
at any authentic basis as to the story being purely traditional
or merely mythical. Still, for all that, it would point to the
possibility of a common origin at some remote period, which is
partially corroborated by the existing affinity of their dialects,
and entirely so by the identity of their sociology.
Three different tribal elements then, it will be seen, have
combined together in the formation of the Brass tribe, and it
is interesting to notice that while the religion and the —
tribal god more particularly —
has remained Bini, the language
now in general use is that of the Ijo. From the former
circumstance there is little room for doubt regarding the true
origin of Alepe, while from the latter the evidence of the
domination of the Bini and New Calabar elements by the Ijo
is equally convincing, and, due as it undoubtedly was to inter-
marriage, the extinction of two languages, and the adoption of
a third language entirely different from them both, seemed to
the most intelligent of my Brass informants an altogether in-
explicable matter ; but it is not quite so inscrutable as it
appears, for, as I will endeavour to show later on, was it
not so much a case of adoption, as of absorption, which

28 7 HE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part i
was all the more enhanced through social and commercial

intercourse.
Nenibe, low lying, marshy, and absolutely surrounded by a
network of creeks and mangrove swamps, is, from barl)aric
considerations of secrecy, safety, and convenience, splendidly
situated, commanding the head-waters of various waterways.
In regarding the network as a spider's web, Nembe is the
centre, from which ever so many large channels radiate in all
directions, southward to the Brass and St. Nicholas rivers,
eastwards to the Nun branch of the Niger, northwards towards
the main river itself and the Engenni, a fine stream connecting
this with the Degama river, and westward towards the Santa
Barbara, St. Bartholomew, and the Sombrero rivers. So that
a more ideal spot for a pirate or a slaver in —
both of which
occupations Alepe and his immediate descendants no doubt
engaged —
cannot be well conceived. For it was not only
skilfully concealed, but easily defended, as it commanded the
heads of the converging creeks, which, in case of necessity or
defeat, could be utilised as so many ready-made lines of
retreat.
Of the Jekri also there is much more definite, although to
a certain According to one
extent contradictory, evidence.
account they are said to have been closely connected with the
Yoruba, the Warri kingdom having extended to and embraced
Lagos as well as some of the surrounding territory. To this
day, in fact, Jekri inhabit the strip of country stretching
along the coast from the Benin river westward to Lagos.
Another and undoubtedly the true version, in spite of the
fact that their language is cognate with Yoruba, affirms them
to have been derived from the Bini, although now, on the eastern
side especially, their blood has mingled very much with that
of the Sobo, Igabo, and, in a lesser degree, the Ijo.
According to native tradition, Lagos, or Eko, as it is called
by the natives, was originally founded by a Bini arm 3^, who had
in the first instance been despatched by the King of Benin to
collect tribute from his refractory vassals at " Ogulata," a
place to the north of the island on which the present town is
situated. Having failed in his mission, the commander, fearing
to return, settled on the island with his warriors, and, in sj)ite
of the pardon that was promised and the hopes which were
held out to them, they steadily refused to return to Benin.
Subsequently, however, they and the Ogulata people with —
whom, through intermarriage and other social relations, they
were on good terms —
acknowledged the suzerainty of the Bini
monarch, and became incorporated into a dependency that
paid an annual tribute. In this way the name given to the
islet and the settlement onby these warrior settlers was
it
—
Aonin or Awani^ afterwards corrupted to Oni by European
traders —
as showing its connection with Benin City, and the
stock from which they were descended.
Conflicting as this may appear, it is not in reality so
contradictory, when the fact is taken into consideration that in
olden times the Benin empire, quite apart from its numerous
dependencies, was divided two separate states
into Benin —
proper and Warri. This, it seems, had been a purely amicable
division that had occurred through the excessive growth of the
royal family, by which an arrangement had been effected that
provided for the removal of the younger branch to the latter
place as a tributary vassal to the elder. And from all
accounts it is more than possible, if not evident, that the army
of warriors who founded Lagos proceeded in reality from
Warri, but doubtless by command of the King of Benin. It
is also a matter of certainty that many of these outlying
dependencies or tributaries of the parent kingdom were
established in exactly the same manner as Brass and Lagos
as a result, in the first place, of the failure of some specific
mission, carrying with it the fear of retributive consequences ;
and, in the second, the natural desire for personal independence,

and to shake off the oppression of a yoke which threatened
to consign their spiritual existence to an eternal doom of
disembodiment.
That Warri is the same locality which Barbot and other
under various cognomens
travellers or writers allude to among —
others,Awerri and Oveiro is quite certain —
also the fact that ;
the chief town of the kingdom to which it belonged was Aoni

or Awini,^ i.e. descended from Ini or Bini. Indeed, until quite
1 This, as being traditional, cannot be given as final, for both pronunciations
are quoted by the natives.
recently —and even now among the natives themselves — the

Jekri were certainly known to the Abo as Iwini, and to
the Brassmen as Senama ; and, notwithstanding the fact that

during modern times Warri has been practically independent,
prior to the destruction of Benin City by the English in 1897
the reigning prince and chiefs always paid tribute and
acknowledged the supremacy of the elder branch a fact —
which speaks for itself.
Similarly, it is unquestionable that the Oedo of Barbot

and the older authors was the Idu of the Niger and surround-
ing natives, and the Benin City of the English for not only ;
is this confirmed by tradition, but the name is still in use at

the present day among the Abo tribe, as well as among the
Ibo of the Lower Niger, between Abo and Idah.
Coming now to the Ijo, we are more than ever confronted
with a lack of traditional material, which converts a difficult
matter into a task that is well-nigh impracticable. "Wild,

unruly, and practically inaccessible ; divided, too, into many
different clans and sections, isolated from each other and
speaking several dialects, it was absolutely impossible to obtain
information that was either reliable or authentic. So that it
was only possible by means of other local traditions and cer-
tain lingual affinities to trace the connection that at one time un-
doubtedly must have existed between them and the Bini and in ;
thisway it is tolerably evident that they first of all originated

from the latter, and then, after breaking away from them,
remained under the suzerainty of their king. But it is also
manifest that as time went on, and synchronously with the
dwindling power of the parent monarchy, this connection
loosened and lessened gradually until
it ceased to exist, except
perhaps in a mere nominal and certainly in a religious sense

although even in this latter direction it is quite certain that
the oracle of the Aro Chuku was more often appealed to than
that of the once far-famed and paramount Benin.
That Benin, as the capital of a once famous kingdom, was
firstdiscovered by the Portuguese under Affonso de Arrio in
1485, and sixty-eight years later visited by Captain Thomas
Wyndham, an English seaman, are facts that have long since
passed into history. Ages prior to this comparatively modern
date, however, itis only reasonable to conjecture that this
kingdom, which even in its diminished state was powerful, had

at one time formed a mighty and extensive empire that
covered in all For the origin of the
directions a great area.
Bini, unlike the more civilised races of Chaldea, Assyria,
and
Egypt, who have left behind them records and memorials that
are practically imperishable, must ever remain enshrouded in
mystery. Yet it is just possible, when curiosity is healthy and
directed in the right channel, for speculation to arrive at or
near the truth —
a contingency that it is hoped may have
occurred in this particular instance.
But if the problem that so far has engaged our attention

has been extremely intricate, that which concerns the origin
of the Ibo is still more so, for it is a very maze within a
maze. Here, except from a philological aspect, we are face to
face with an evolution which is practically interminable, for
certain important complexities have to be taken into con-
sideration.
These people form a tribe, but in no sense a nation, with
a population numbering anything
between five and six
millions, scattered over a large area,
and divided into numerous
clans speaking different dialects, and split up again into in-
numerable communities, which not only hold aloof from but
are inimical to each other, as if belonging to entirely separate
nationalities, so that the absolute hopelessness of finding a clue
or of tracing any connected associations to a common source
has no doubt become apparent — all the more so in the face
of a country that was unfortunately disturbed in many portions
and unsettled throughout, with a population who were in con-
sequence either unfriendly or at least suspicious. By way of
illustration,a few instances of local traditions selected at
random will in every way substantiate all that has been advanced
with regard to the insuperable difficulties that, in this specific
direction more particularly, it was my lot to contend against.
Commencing with Ohumbele, a large town of the Ndoki
on a small creek that runs into the Imo river
clan, situated
some 50 miles from the mouth, all that the old people would
or could tell me was this. In the time of their fathers who
lived before those fathers whom they could remember, a hunter,

by name Ebele, was the progenitor to whom they all owed
their origin. Where he himself came from they were not able
to say. All they knew was that he was first of all living at
Ohanko, a town about 8 miles to the north of Ohumbele.
In those days it happened that there were two towns, by name
Intsina and Eberu —
presumably to the south, —
the inhabitants
of which, who were at war with those of Ohanko, were con-
stantly attacking the latter with long spears and poisoned
arrows. In this way many deaths had resulted, when Ebele
appeared upon the scene. He, it appears, was armed with
what at that time was known as " a king's gun," one of the
old liint-locks —
a fact which seems to point to his having
come from the direction of either Old Calabar or Ibani, and —
was present one day when the enemy made one of their
periodical attacks on the friends with whom he was staying.
Going to their assistance with his regal and trusty weapon, he
shot several of the enemy. The others, who had never even
heard of a gun, seeing their comrades fall as if struck by an
invisible hand, came and shook the bodies, but finding them
lifeless, they fled in terror, and never again ventured to attack
Ohanko.
After this remarkable occurrence Ebele, hailed by the
people as tlieir saviour, settled down amongst them, and very
rapidly became a man of great influence, as well as substance.
Many years passed by in peace and quietness, when suddenly
a dispute arose between the two leading factions of the town.
Unable to settle the matter amicably among themselves, they
called him in as mediator. That this unknown hunter was
no less distinguished in the double-tongued art of diplomacy
than he was in the science of war is quite evident, a fact that —
is in no sense surprising for among a natural people the
;
leader invariably is not only a man of action but a man of

words — a thinker and talker, yet a doer as well. So, grasp-
ing the fact that matters were too far gone for settlement, and
in order to avoid an open rupture, Ebele decided on separating
the contending factors. In this way it was arranged that
while one of them remained at Ohanko the other removed
to Obaku, only some three or four miles off. The division,
having been agreed to by both parties, was effected without

any further disagreement or disturbance, and as soon as it
was completed Ebele himself took possession of what is now
called Ohumbele.
At Akwete, only 7 miles distant, the people, like the
former, belong to the Ndoke clan of the Ibo race. Yet their
principal deity is " Nkwu Abasi," which means " the God from
the 'Sea' —
literally 'Bigwater' far away." —
As "Abasi"
among the Ibibio and Efik is also the supreme god the —
Creator, in fact —
this would seem to imply the existence of
a former connection between the Ndoke and Ngwa clans of
the Ibo and the Ibibio, who live contiguous to them.
Nkwu, too, is evidently derived from the same root as
Nkwa or Kwa, i.e. Ibibio, while the fact that the divinity
is believed to have come some distance from the big water
probably a large river or estuary — demonstrates that at an
earlier period of their history these people were all of one
origin and a coast tribe. Yet on looking into the history of
" Oga," the second deity in importance to " ISTkwu Abasi," we
find that the worship common to Obu-akpu,
of him is
Okrika, and Afam ;which is an offshoot of

the former,
Akwete, having introduced him from the latter. But as this
place " Afam," which lies towards the Ibo interior, is pure Ibo,
the question of origin becomes more complicated than ever, for
so continuous have been the expansions, yet so constant the
intermingling of these various units, that it is practically
impossible to trace the end of one or the beginning of the
other.
In the interior the same absence of all except recent
tradition,which even then is extremely meagre, is most
marked. To take just one example. All that the people of
Umudru-onha know with regard to their past is that they are
descended from a family called "Oba," which lived in a country
by name Amadgwio. Subsequently, when the family had
grown too big, an exodus of several of the households took
place, and there was a general scattering of them in all
directions. Ever since then they had remained in their
present location, but they still adhered to the same god
Ogidi, who had always been the god of their ancestors, and
D
who was represented by a pillar of chalk in the water beyond

Umudru-onha.
Going up the Niger, and selecting Asaba on the western
bank, which, by the way, is called Ahaba by its own
inhabitants and Araba by the people in the neighbour-
hood, we find that it originally belonged to a community on
the eastern side of the river, by name N'tege, which lies at
the back of Onitsha the separation having occurred in the time
;
of their forefathers, presumably some two or three hundred

years ago. For a reason they could not divulge, but due no
/doubt to the fact that they believed themselves to be the off-
spring, therefore subject to Nri —
a district some 40 miles
eastward of Ahaba, the kings and chiefs of which had been
the head of the original household, — the privilege of crowning
the kings of the latter place is still possessed by the former.
In addition to this ancient rite the chiefs of Nri, as well as
of Igbuza — a town 7 miles to the west of Ahaba who —
belong to the elder or patriarchal branch, possess the privilege
of both circumcising and ornamenting with indigo the bodies
of their younger kinsmen, the only explanation of this weird
custom being ascribed to the inability of the former to perform
these operations for themselves.
Nri or N'shi — evidently the same place, but a
different pronunciation of it — is a town which is situated
about forty to fifty miles to the east, i.e. behind Onitsha,
on the east bank of the Niger, just below its confluence with
the Anambara, in the district of Isu or Isuama, or the
country of Isu. The inhabitants of this particular town are
known as " king-makers
"
—
in other words, they possess the
sole prerogative of conferring the title of royalty in all the Ibo
country lying on the right bank of the river, the distinguishing
insignia being an anklet made out of pineapple fibre. They
also, it appears, enjoy the privilege of walking untouched or
unharmed through any portion of the same a privilege which —
lower down to the south is extended to the Ama-Ofo, or people
known as Aro or Inokun, just as among the Ibibio all
members of the Idion fraternity are entitled to a similar
privilege within the borders of their own territory. It is in
a certain measure evident that somewhere in this locality of

TRADITIONS 35
Isuama, iu which the purest Ibo is said to be spoken, is to

be found the heart of the Ibo nationality ; consequently it is
quite reasonable to look among its people for the original

fountain-head from which all the other clans have sprung.
This inference too supported not only by the purity of the

is
language, but by this right of dispensing or rather of confer-

ring royalty which is undoubtedly the prerogative of the
Nri or N'shi people.
Once more let us return to the vicinity of the Niger, to a
place called Onitsha-Mili, lying a few miles to the north-
west of Asaba. Here the tradition is that this place, along
with the towns of Onitsha-Olona, Onitsha-Ukwu, Onitsha-
Ugbo, and Onitsha-Ukwuani, migrated or wêre driven out,
presumably between two to three hundred years ago, from
the near vicinityof Benin City, which they speak of as
Ado-n-Idu.
Crossing over the river to the east bank, some four or live
miles below Asaba, is another community, comprising a prin-
cipal town and several outlying villages, which is merely called
Onitsha, that in olden days was undoubtedly the parent
stock from which those now on the western side had been
derived. According to its elders, fourteen generations since
Ado-n-Idu was the capital of an extensive kingdom embrac-
ing many countries, but having religion, customs, and language
in common, over which Oba ruled as king. At the time in
question Onitsha, situated to the westward of Benin, and
between it and the river, was one of these countries. It
happened one day that Asije, the royal mother of this great
monarch, went on to one of the farms belonging to Onitsha-
Mili, for the purpose, it appears, of gathering sticks, for which
she was seized and beaten by the people to whom the farms
belonged. On her return to Benin she reported the matter
of her ill-treatment to tlie king, and he at once ordered his
younger brother Gbunmara, the commander-in-chief of his

forces, to punish the insult which had been offered to his royal
mother. Gbunmara immediately mustered a large army, and
lost no time in invading the territory of Onitsha, the king
of which, with all the available men whom he could collect,
opposed him. After two days' severe fighting, however, the
latter were defeated, and, sooner than surrender, the entire

community retired to the locality on the western bank which
is now occupied by the greater majority of their descendants,
but a small portion made tlieir way southward towards Abo.
Tsima the king, however, with his two sons Ekensu and
Oreze and their households, retreated right across the river,
and same spot that their successors now occupy.

settled in the
But in leaving Ado-n-Idu behind them, these people then
and for ever abandoned their Bini nationality and language.
For even those who have remained on the western bank, and
who are therefore within easy touch of Benin, are Ibo in
every essential, talking pure Ibo, and not a mixed language, or

even a dialect, in which Bini words are to be found. Yet the
spirit of Tsima, their more modern founder and ancestor, is
stillwith them, living and embodied in the same tree which
he planted with his own hand.
In succession to him, the following kings have reigned
over Onitsha :
—
Tsinwukwa, ISTafia, Atasia, Tsimezei, Tsimefi,
Azoli, Tsimedie, Omozele, Ijelakpe, Udogwu, Akazue, Diali,
Anazonwu. With regard to the election to the kingly office,
there are in Onitsha four communal divisions, viz. Ulutu,.
Gbeneke, Ado, and Eke n'ubene, to whom all matters are
referred. To Ugwu n'obamkpa belongs the absolute right of
conferring what is called " Ofo
"
—
the god of truth and justice
— upon the chief or individual who is elected king. This rite
is absolutely indispensable, and without it no one can be
elected to the office — so much so that when a member of
one of the few royal families of Onitsha has been nominated,
his nomination, to be valid, must be ratified and sanctioned by
Ugwu n'obamkpa.
from a practical standpoint, to pursue this
It is useless,
subject of tradition any further, for the same woeful lack of
material and the same hopeless confusion confronts us at
every turn. Even among the Aro section, which is undoubt-
edly the most intelligent of all the Ibo clans, there was
nothing either definite or reliable.
The reverence and precedence which is accorded to the
Nri section by all the other Ibo clans proper in their
vicinity, is evidence in favour of the belief which prevails
CHAP. Ill TRADITIONS
among them,
that the latter are desceuded from the
former. For when all the circumstances in connection with
the matter are inquired into, it is quite evident that the
homage in question has nothing whatever to do with con-
siderations arising from social and commercial intercourse, or
from any question of martial or material supremacy (because
/ the Nri are now not only more or less scattered, but are in
/ no sense either a powerful or a warlike family) but, on the ;
contrary, because it is acknowledged that they are the highest

representatives of sacerdotalism in the Ibo race an office carry- —
ing with it certain sacred attributes, which has undoubtedly
been handed down to them as an ancestral heirloom bv virtue
'
/ of the law of primogeniture. Yet, with the exception of
'
/
/ this proverb, " The street of the Nri family is the street
^
of the gods, through which all who die in other parts of
Iboland pass to the Land of Spirits," there are no traditions __,
x)fany kind in support of this.

But, in addition to this evidence of descent, the fact that
the presence of some of these priests at all of the most import- ^
ant religious functions and ceremonies in Iboland proper is

considered indispensable, is additional evidence in respect to
their origin. Thus, when a chief is about to assume the king-
ship of his community, he is obliged to have a representative
from Nri, who becomes the master of all the necessary cere-
monials for without his presence the whole function becomes
;
irregular, if not invalid.

In connection with this specific ceremonial it is also essen-
/ tial that the budding monarch should receive from the Nri
priest certain requisite ornaments, without which the former
is unable even to offer kola-nuts to the tribal gods. Further
than this, the latter is allowed to have free access to the
person of any king, whose prerogative is practically an empty
sound, so far as he is concerned.
Again, there are certain actions which, as being, in native
opinion, inconsistent with the requirements of the earth, are
regarded as serious offences. Whenever, therefore, auy one
belonging to a community commits an offence of this nature,
the rest of the people take alarm, because it is generally
regarded as an upsetting of the order and harmony of things,
/
both in their spiritual and temporal affairs. At this juncture

the Nri people step into the breach, as peacemakers, to effect
a reconciliation between the offenders and the gods for ;
misconduct of this nature is always considered to be a crime

against the land, or a general pollution of the material earth.
The Nri theocracy, having intervened, at once prescribe
certain essential objects as victims of purgation. In some
cases the shedding of blood is absolutely necessary. This
ceremony is invariably performed by a special representative
from Nri, who, after he has performed the sacrifices at different
shrines or centres belonging to the community, endeavours to
allay the fears of the people by assuring them that the blood
has become a sure and effective ransom.
But with regard to the sanctity of Nri origin, in addition
to the evidence that has been brought forward, it is further
believed that no religious rite is so striking or so effectual as
that which is performed by these priests, who hold their
office merely as a divine and sacred right for by virtue of
;
this priority they are said to be in possession of numerous

attributes that have been imparted to them by their ancestors,
and which are reserved for the use and purpose of the gods
alone. Moreover, they have a special and peculiar method of
utilising or expressing these attributes. Indeed, their manner
of conducting religious ceremonials, more especially with regard
to touch, and to the way in which they handle the various
emblems of worship, is considered to be particularly practical
and effective.
As in some measure supporting these statements, the
following are the communities who, as more or less paying an
annual tribute to the ISTri to this day, acknowledge in the
most direct way of all their ancestral lineage :
1. Abam Uny-agu, occupying the southern district of

Iboland proper, and comprising the communities of Isu-ama,
Aba-mili, Agbaja, Ube, etc.
2. Abum Akpukpa, occupying the western district, and
including the communities of Ada, Isi n'Agidi, Umutsu-

kwu, Enugwu, Ezi-owele, Achala, Okuru, Kteji, Abagana, Ifite,
Urn, etc.
3. Abum Bianko, occupying the northern district, in

TRADITIONS 39
which Adani, Ukpabi, Ukpologwu, Ubulu Odohi, Ikefi, etc.,
are incorporated.
4. Oka and Nne-ogu.
These, it appears, are the principal divisions into which
the Ibo proper are divided, of which the following are said
to be offshoots :
1. Aba teghete, or Agbaja, from which have sprung the

towns of Umu-oji, Nkpo, Ogidi, which still bears the name
Iteghete,and Obosi.
2. Nteje, from which have been derived Umii-dioka,
Asaba, Achala, and Agubri.
3. Nimo also the Nimo on the opposite bank of the
;
Niger.
4. Ukpo, on both banks.
Odumodu, with which
5. are incorporated Umunya,
Mgbakwu, Otobo, Nnewu.
G. Okuzu and Nzam.
7. Obosi, to which have migrated portions of Ezetsima,
XJgamuma, Iruoghulu, Makwum.

But, decisive enough as this evidence appears to be regard-
ing the origin of the Ibo, it brings us no nearer to that of the
Nri, although it certainly confirms the impression that the
latter are distinct from and have never been affiliated with
the Bini.
V
CHAPTEE IV
A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF EXISTING DATA
It now remains for us to examine the data which have been

presented in the previous chapters for the purpose of reducing,
if possible, at least a certain amount of order and coherency
into the conflicting and chaotic elements. Yet, meagre and

disconnected as these data are, they are not, however, entirely
valueless, as I will endeavour to demonstrate ; but before
attempting to do so, a brief capitulation, or summary, is essential
to enable us to arrive at conclusions which are in any way
definite or intelligible.
It has already been seen that the Efik of Old Calabar,
although they claim descent from the Ibo, are most un-
doubtedly derived from the Ibibio but from whom these in
;
turn have sprung, unless they are an offshoot of the former, is

buried in mystery.
That the Ibani, i.e. the Bonny and Opobo people, although
u they trace their origin to an Ibo and can speak that tongue,
also claim connection with Brass.
That the New Calabar natives appear to have been a com-
bination of Efik from Creek Town and of Ijo on the coast, who
divided into three sections —one remaining as the New Calabar,
the other two separating in the direction of Brass and Bonny.
That the Brassmen, while tracing their origin to the Binis,
acknowledge at the same time an influx of Ijo and New Cala-
bar blood.
That nothing is known about the Ijo, except the question
of their Bini descent, which, however, rests on the slenderest
of evidence.
That the Jekri are most undoubtedly of Bini origin, in
with Yoruba.
spite of their language being affiliated
40
CHAP. IV A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF EXISTING DATA 41
That the Bini origin, similar to that of the Ibo, has unfor-
tunately been lost in the oblivion of the past.
This, as has already been remarked, is extremely contra-
dictory, and scanty detail to work upon ; but by throwing
upon it the light of philology it is possible to obtain a clearer
aspect of, if not insight into, the tangled question.
The language of the Efik, Kwa or Akwa, and Ibibio
is practically identical. At Bonny and Opobo the Ibani, while
able to speak Ibo, have a distinct tongue of their own, which
is unknown Quite unlike and different from the
to the Ibo.
Ibibio group, which includes Andoni, it is the same as Okrika,
and different only in dialect from New Calabar, as a reference
to the Appendices will show, while it has many words in
common and a distinct dialectic affinity with Brass more
particularly, and with Ijo in general. Spoken of as Ibani-yen,
it is said by the people to be the tongue of their forefathers, just
as " Ibani " or " Okuloma " is, without doubt, the proper name
of Bonny, which is only a corruption of the native term.
But although the Ibani and Okrika peoples speak the same
dialect, they consider themselves to be of different origin from
each other, as also do theNew Calabar and Brass. Yet the
Okrika are also obviously of Ibo descent, though very prob-
ably from another part of the country to that from which the
founder of the Ibani originally came.
Taking the Ijo language next, a comparison made between it
and the Ibani, Okrika, New Calabar, and Brass dialects reveals
the fact that all four of them, also Oru, are dialects of the Ijo.
Andoni, on the other hand, is connected with and of the
same derivation as the Ibibio or Akwa language. Yet
right in the midst of the Andoni clan is a town called
N'Koro, the inhabitants of which, who are said to have
deserted from Okrika, speak a dialect that is not understood
by their present countrymen.
The Ogoni, again, speak a distinct tongue of their own,
which, so far as I could discover, is quite different from Ibo or
Ijo, and about which I was unfortunately unable to get any
reliable information.
Going to the Ogbayan district, another lingual problem,
more complicated even than that of the Ibani or the Jekri,
confronts us. Tracing their origin, as these people do, to a

Brassman named Olei, who deserted from Oma-mabiri and
settled at Olobiri, the meaning of the word Ogbayan " " is that
of " a country which has been resettled or reconstructed through
misfortune." Comprising as it now does a population number-
ing over 30,000, living in some ten to twelve towns, the people,
in spite of their Brass descent, speak quite a different language,
and, what is more, one which is said by the natives to be
distinct from any of the principal languages in the Delta. But

this is not all, for right in the middle of their district and
mixed up with them are some people calling themselves
Alisa, who belong to a separate tribe with a tongue of its
own, yet who speak Ogbayan.
From what, so far, is known of the Ijo, Jekri, and
Bini languages, the former is said to have but a slight
resemblance to the latter, and again to the Jekri, which
this
resembles more, or rather is cognate with, the Yoruba. This
curious circumstance the more significant and worthy of
is all
remark when the facts are taken into consideration, that the
Ijo and Jekri are direct descendants of the Bini, and
that in spite of their separation, presumably for the last few
centuries at least, they have all the same been more or less in
touch with one another. Yet an examination of the six or
more dialects of Ijo and the five of Bini, of which Sobo
and Igabo are practically one, shows that they are dissimilar
not only to each other, but to the other neighbouring tongues.
The Ibo country, as has already been pointed out, is both
extensive, populous, and divided into numerous clans and
communities, speaking dialects which vary in degree from
slight to considerable. I speak, of course, entirely with regard
to that portion of with which I was associated, and the
it
people with whom came into personal touch. These were

I
the Aro or Ama-Ofo, Abam, N'doke, Ngwa, Omuma, Ohuhu,
Grata, Isuama, N'kweri, Ekwe, Mbeari, Oratshi, Engeni, Abua,
Abaja, Akpam —
all of them situated between the Niger and
Cross rivers, —
Abo and Niger Ibo, i.e. the dialect spoken by
the people on the eastern and western banks.
Comparing the language as it is spoken in all of these
different localities, the dialectical variations are not very
marked, the purest dialect being spoken, as already pointed

out, in Isuania and neighbourhood, while the most pronounced
difference is to be found between the Niger dialect, especially
that which is spoken right on the river or on its western bank,
and that of the more eastern sections, which lie nearer to the
Cross river and in proximity to the Ibibio. It has been
suggested by missionaries and travellers that the languages
spoken by the Ibibio, Efik, Andoni, and others have all been
derived from Ibo at some ancient period ; also that there is a
distinct dialectical affinity between the Ijo dialects of Oru,
Brass, Ibani, and New Calabar, and the Isuama dialect
of Ibo. Indeed, Dr. Baikie, in his Narrative of a Voyage
on the Niger, expresses the opinion that " all the coast
dialects from '
Oru ' to '
Old Calabar ' are either directly or
indirectly connected with '
Igbo '
" {i.e. Ibo), which latter, he
states. Dr. Latham informed him is certainly related to the
" Kafir " and he has but little doubt, when critically
class,
examined, that Mitshi " and " Juku " will prove to be members
"
of the same extensive family.

While not by any means endorsing this statement in its
entirety, it is quite possible that there may be some remote
connection between Ibo and the other tongues of the Delta
as represented by the Ijo and the Ibibio dialects.
To me it seems that there are two distinct tribes, belonging
of course to the same great Negroid race the Ibo in the :
upper portion, and the Bini, as represented by the various

sections of the Ijo, in the lower. Further, it appears that
while the former tribe were pushed westward from the eastern
portion of Central Africa into the apex formed by the confluence
of the rivers, the latter had been driven
Niger and Benue
directly from amore northerly direction.
However these two great African divisions were originally
formed and divided subsequently into races, a study of the
continent from a geographical standpoint suggests the infer-
ence that in its northern half Africa is divided into three
distinct portions or strips ; the northern and southern strips
that is, in theinstance, from Morocco to Egypt, and in
first
the Senegambia and Liberia on the westward

second from
across to Dar Senaar on the east being cut in two by the —
intervening deserts of Sahara and Libya. It is reasonable,

therefore, to infer that the aboriginal inhabitants, when driven
backward by external invasions, retired in two lines southward
—
and to the west the direct pressure coming from the North
African races —
until they were gradually pushed towards the
sea-coast ; among others, those who are now the Ibo coming
in at the angle of the two great rivers, or across the lower
portion of the Benue and the present Bini, higher up on the
Niger, i.e. more from the north-east.
None of these Nigro-Hamitic tongues, so far at least as one
can learn from mere comparison of them, have any, or apparently
very much, affinity with the Nilo-Hamitic or those which are
in existence south of the Equator. That doubtless there is
some connection between them, and that in certain respects
these simple and primitive tongues are of Shemitic character,
is not for me to but to inquire into the nature of
dispute ;
this association is quite outside the scope of the present work.

It is just possible that the influence of Carthage on the
regions of the Niger with its demand for ivory and gold, but
most of all for slaves, was an extremely potential factor of
discord among the tribes engaged, as well as those who occupied
the central portion of the continent towards the west and
south —an element which, resulting as it was bound to do in
war, also resulted in a gradual but eventual shifting of the
weaker tribes across the Joliba and Benue rivers ; while it
is further possible that these tribes may have afterwards

become mixed and incorporated with the aboriginal negroes,
who had no doubt been also pushed down there at a more
temote period.
It is not my intention to do more than merely refer to
this reputed connection ; but, according to missionary research,
both the Efik and Ibo tongues abound in Hebraisms, while
the construction of sentences, the verbal significations, the
mode of comparison, are also typical of the Hebrew ; and in
the same Avay nouns, adverbs, and adjectives are formed from
the single roots of verbs and other elementary parts of speech.
Should this prove to be the case, by supporting the above
theory it might then be quite possible to trace the former
connection of the aboriginal with certain racial units of the

North African family but in no case, however remote, does it

;
seem possible to connect the pure Negroid race with the pure
Shemitic. What to me appears most significant is the fact
that although the Ibo and Efik are now practically different
tongues, this resemblance in the construction of both to the
Hebrew would, point to the deduction that they were
if true,
formerly derived from the same original tongue, that had

bifurcated into different dialects through contact with local
tribes whose tongues were quite distinct from each other.
Under the conditions which have always existed among
these Delta tribes —
conditions of war, of pillage, and of slavery,
of drastic measures and enforced methods —
it is an impossibility
for an altogether personal matter such as language to exist,

much less to endure. So the tongue of the weaker tribe
becomes merged or absorbed into that of the stronger, or, as
frequently occurs, ceases to exist after the birth of an entirely
new In this way we have seen, in more than one
generation.
instance which has come within my own personal experience,
that whole communities of people have, under new or altered
abandoned their mother tongue and adopted the
conditions,
language of the country which either force or circumstance
had compelled them to become inhabitants of.
Commencing with Bonny and its people, if they are of
Ibo origin, as all the evidence obtainable appears to prove,
it is coming as they first of all did into the
also palpable that,
Ijo country unprovided with females of their own race, they
intermarried with the former, so that in course of time their
original tongue was abandoned, or, to be more correct, gradually
assimilated and lost in the speech of the people around them.
And when we take into consideration the fact that a similar
process was evolving in their immediate vicinity with the
Okrika — also of Ibo origin, —and a little farther off, among
the New Calabar people — an Efik offshoot, — with both of whom
they were in touch and as a rule on good terms, — it is not in
the least surprising that, different although the Ibani and New
Calabar were to each other because of varying origins and
local conditions, they evolved for themselves separate yet
affiliated dialects out of the common Ijo tongue.
In exactly the same way that the Ibani, Okrika, and New
V
Calabar people assumed the language of their adopted country

and discarded their own native tongues, the Brassmen changed
their pure Bini into an Ijo dialect, which in more remote days
had at one time itself evolved from the self-same stock.
With regard to the Ibani, however, one fact is deserving
of notice, and that is, that more recently —
say within the last
eighty to a hundred years more particularly, — trading as they
have done in Ibo markets, they have practically become half
Ibo, and once more resumed tlieir ancient tongue, but only in
addition to their own.
Without making any further allusion to the cases of
Nkoro and the Ogbayan, we have in the history of the
Jekri another unmistakable illustration of the uncertainty
of the lingual test when applied to primitive people such as
these Delta natives are. That they were of pure Bini origin
there is not the slightest doubt, and what is equally certain
is that, settling as they did at a comparatively modern date
among the Aku tribe of the Yoruba, their dialect became so
strongly influenced that it is now classed as cognate with the
latter language, which, like the Igara, belongs to the great
North African family.
A still more striking example, however, is that of
Onitsha. For here we find a whole community, number-
ing now, at the lowest computation, 100,000 souls, Ibo in
every respect, who 250 years ago at the most were Bini in
language, as in everything else.
In the broader and deeper sense of the word, not a single

tribe in the Niger Delta —
not even the Ibo, in spite of their
numerical strength and greater unity of language, Le. in con-
trast with the greater differences which exist among the other
tribes and clans —
can be called a nation. For the natural
environment of the whole country, covered over as it is, and
still more was, by an impenetrable forest intersected by streams
forming ready-made places for concealment, is essentially com-
patible with the prevailing spirit of isolation and independence
that is so marked a characteristic of all these natives — a feature
that the narrower instincts of jealousy and self-interest have
helped to intensify a hundredfold, outcome as these are of a
system whose principles are essentially selfish and personal.
Yet from a sociological standpoint there is a marked unity,

with but trifling exceptions, in their general characteristics,
their customs, laws, and religion, that also in a wider sense is
distinctly national ; the variations being nothing more nor less
than petty or insignificant differences in formulas nor habits
that have arisen partly as the outcome of varying conditions,
but in a greater measure out of the self-imposed idiosyncrasies
or individualities of autocratic patriarchs.
In speaking of this sociological unity I do not refer merely
to the Ibo, or for thematter of that to the Ijo and the Bini,
but to one and all of the tribes of the Delta who have been
enumerated in Chapter II. For, looking at the question in the
very broadest sense, if it is true with regard to a moiety, it is
equally true of the whole. What is more to the point is the
fact that the only evidence regarding the identity of these
people is to be looked for in the identity of their social life.
ISTotthat the proximity of the different units to one another,

or even their intercourse and commingling, is absolutely direct
or infallible evidence, but because it is impossible to avoid
taking into consideration the fact that a primitive religion such
as theirs is merely a natural and an independent evolution,
altogether irrespective of tribal divisions and associations.
KINGS OF BONNY
1. Alagbariye.
2. Opkraindole.
3. Opuamakubu.
4. Okpara-Ashimini.
5. Ashmini.
11.
PAET II
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PEOPLE

AS EXPKESSED IN WOEDS, NAMES, PROVERBS,
AND FABLES
CHAPTER I
A PREPARATORY CHARACTER SKETCH
Like Nature, these natives, taken in the mass, are a people of

moods, passive and apathetic on the whole, but active when
aroused, their passions and energies, like an inactive volcano,
lying but dormant, and although intensely and realistically
human, they are at the same time animalistic to the core.
Conservative to a degree, they are moody and variable, in spite
of the fact that they are not only averse but opposed to change
and innovation. It is quite impossible, therefore, to judge of
them from first, or even subsequent impressions, for it is only
possible to know them by a study of the contrasts and
changes that they are subject to, as well as of the underlying
motives which are at the bottom of them.
The country may be described as one in which Nature is
at her worst. From the slime and ooze of the soil up to the
devitalising heat and humidity of the atmosphere, it leaves
its mark on the people an enervating and demoralising
in
influence, which continues unbroken and perpetual, without
any of those compensating or redeeming features that tend in
the direction of vitality or recuperation.
Speaking of these natives as a whole, if there is any
special or leading characteristic which attracts attention more
than any other, it is their simplicity. For in a strictly natural
sense, it is the simplicity of Nature pure and simple, that
frank and open calm that is to be seen on the smooth surface
of a lake or sea, which, while it apparently reflects the pure and
unadulterated truth in the beautiful blue of the sky above,
conceals from mortal gaze all the dross and impurities which
51
52 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part ii
lie beneath in the depths, and are unseen. In a unit such as

I am
endeavouring to describe, it is but natural to expect and
to find a condition of extremes —
of that natural polarity, with
its forces, that attract in one direction, and its energies, which
repel in another; yet a polarity that combines in one firm

cohesion, so that it is difficult under such an aspect to detect
the presence of dualism or opposing factors.

To gauge the matter thoroughly it is necessary to dive
beneath the still surface into the muddy shoals of this gaping
mental abyss. Then when we have done so, we will at once
discover that there is in fact much of the vegetal, so to speak,
in the composition of these people, as well as of the air and
soil out of which this has developed. Most of all is this to be
seen in that dumb but palpable sensitiveness, that shrinking, as
it were from touch, which is so characteristic of certain vegetal
growths, but which under present circumstances, is best
expressed by the sensitive plant. Mimosa pudica, whose leaves
close or shrivel up when touched. For so extremely touchy
and sensitive are these people^— the Ijo particularly so, so —
easily piqued and disturbed, even by the mildest -of cliaff', that
they have no hesitation in taking their own lives or the lives
of others, on the spur of the moment. Yet the prevalent
opinion among Europeans is, that they are a thick-skinned,
insensate lot, without feeling of any kind, and in a certain
direction they are all this, but they are also sensitive to a degree,
and indeed peculiarly so, —
not merely because they are stub-
born and contumacious, therefore resent any form of authority
or control, or, yet again, that they object to be thwarted in
,the merest trifles, but simply and solely because they are
naturally so.
—
But more than the " vegetal " more so, at least, in all that
makes for the mobility and movement of life the animal lives —
in them, most of all in those radical instincts which human
intelligence, unable as it is to detach itself from them, in a
great measure aggravates and electrifies. It is, in fact, this
intelligent, this nature-inspired animalism, which explains the
subtlety of their simplicity, or equally the simplicity of their
subtlety, and in no phase of their temperament is their dualism
seen so much as in this. So, although similar to the domestic
CHAP. I A PREPARATORY CHARACTER SKETCH 53
tabby they are given to domesticity, there are occasions when

the stealth and ferocity of the bush-catis very prominent. So,
too, they possess much of the fierce but steady impetuosity of
the driver ants of their forests, who, once they change their
quarters or get on the move, allow no impediment to stand in
their way, but march on in serried ranks through or over
every obstacle. Yet there is much of the pliant guile of the
serpent in them, which enables them to conceal their intentions,
with all the deadly secrecy and sincerity of a silence and a
nature that takes no one into its confidence, and which bases
much of its philosophy on the movements and habits of the
slow-moving but sure and deliberate tortoise. So to them, this
inoffensive and unobtrusive little animal, with its snake-like
head and shell back, is a man, i.e. has the soul of a man, and
according to this line of thought a man is called and spoken of
as the tortoise.
To make my meaning clearer, however, let us for the
moment utilise the word " slim," which is so familiar an
expression among the Boers and Afrikanders of South Africa.
There is no word, not at least to my knowledge, in any known
language which describes this specific idiosyncrasy of these
people so well. To be slim, then, is to be sly and artful, or, as
I prefer to call it, natural, i.e. to be skilled in all the wiles,
arts, and deceptions which are to be learnt from Nature arts, —
in fact, which are purposely screened from view with the
object of stealing a march round the flanks or to the rear of
an enemy, before he has even had time to suspect any danger.
It will be interesting for a few moments to examine their own
word for subtlety. This, which is " di aghugho," means
literally a state or being of fraud or trickery, " aghugho
being a fraud or trick, and " di " meaning be, or exist.
But this word " aghugho," or its diminutive " gho," also
means cheat, and with " wa " prefixed to it, elude, while,
replacing the initial vowel by an " n," and again borrowing
the prefix " di," it implies to be skilful. And it is exactly
in this primitive aspect,which detects no difference between
the fraud and elusiveness of skill, and the skill of fraud and
elusiveness, that it is quite possible to find the " slimness
of native simplicity.
It is true that most of these natives — the Ijo and Ibibio

particularly — especially among those who have not reached
the years of discretion, are highly excitable, intensely emotional,
and extremely impulsive, fundamentally neurotic, in fact. In
this respect they are natural, like children, betraying their
feelings in the same emotional and impulsive manner. More
so, however, than children, they have moods beside and beyond
the ordinarily serious and reflective, reserved and philosophic
moods, when they retire, like the tortoise, into the outer shell of
this existence, inside which they live another life, a life all their
own and no one else's, in which nothing takes a part but the
spirit or mental shadows of their own selves, a life which, —
although it is a great and magnificent illusion, is to them a
solid reality, because, although it is the shadow of the substance,

it is the life-giving shadow, which vitalises the substance, so
that it becomes an existence, or a being, that can think and
move and act. And it is in this, the most dangerous, as it is
the most delusive aspect, that all the slimness of their whole
nature is centred to meet or anticipate a threatened attack, to
resent an insult, and to retaliate against an injury.
It is only natural to find that suspicion is a feature which
is ever present and active, because, like simplicity, it is of
course inherent. AjDart from this fact, however, there is
nothing really strange For experience teaches us

in this.
that they see in everything an unexpressed but all the more

conscious motive, just as in every act they see and feel design.
So although they recognise " omission " as an offending causa-
tion, they do not acknowledge it as due to pure carelessness
or loss of memory. For an " omission " is quite as much an
" act " as a " commission " it is a something omitted, done
;
with intent and deliberation, possibly — as they look at it

through the obtrusive action of other mischievous antipathies.
So forgetfulness is an effect, whatever the cause may be, that
it is possible to avoid. Chance, coincidence, or accident are
accordingly unknown, while design and premeditation, or pre-
determinism, are the levers that set in motion the entire
machinery of human action. This is in no sense due to any
trait of caution in their temperament, for, as a race, a more
thoughtless and improvident people is not in existence, but
CHAP. I A PREPARATORY CHARACTER SKETCH 55
simply because they leave everything to N'ature, from whom

they get so —
much an inconsistency which is only inexplicable
when we do not take into consideration the basic germ, the
animal instinct, from which the more expressive human charac-
teristic Thus the Ibo have a proverb, " Have
has developed.
a care how you many of them but
deal with your friends, for
seek to get you into their clutches," which is nothing but our
own English maxim over again, but with even a deeper and
more subtle significance attached to it.
Going to the root of the whole matter, it is only possible
to locate this idiosyncrasy in the belief in those instinctive
principles which, as we have seen, attribute a precausation to
all and occurrences in this existence as merely
acts, events,
reacts or recurrences of a former period or existence instincts —
whose divergent principles, although their origin can be traced
to the monism of Nature, have so far remained undiscoverable
because of the absolute simplicity of its inner subtleties.
Looked at, then, in all their bare and naked simplicity,
although from a cultured and sesthetic standpoint there is a
decided natural inferiority, physically in the appearance, and
mentally as regards intelligence, the negroes of Southern
Nigeria, in spite of their dark skins, woolly heads, receding
foreheads, prognathous jaws, and thick protruding lips, are
quite as human as we are. Cultivate their acquaintance, be
sympathetic with them, and gain their confidence, and then it
will be possible to realise that the same nature is in them as
is in the most cultured European —
the same gravity and the
same humour, the same impulses and emotions, the same
dignity and patience, the same reserve and reticence, the same
volubility and imprudence, the same vanities and vexations,
the same sensitiveness and callousness, the same apathy,
indifference, idleness, and ignorance, the same suspiciousness,
fear, confidence, veneration, courage, and cowardice, the same
love of life, of pleasure, and of display looked at and interpreted
in a different manner, the same hates and affections, the same
sympathies and antipathies, the same fierce passions.
Full of the tragedy of life, with its woes and sorrows, its
misfortunes and its deaths, they are equally alive to its
comedies, the joy, the mirth, and the laughter that is, the;
sunshine as opposed to the gloom and darkness. Holding life

as cheap as any palm-nut, and spilling blood as if it were
water, they sacrifice it aimlessly, according to our advanced

ideas, merely to pass on to another existence, according to
it
their own antiquated notions. Yet valuing it as they but do

the coco-nut, because of its substantiality and sanctity, from
the dual aspect of human fertility and spiritual consciousness,
they take it easily, looking with the same simple ease on the
comedy of it and many a coarse jest,
with infiuite relish
although the pathos of existence always open to rude and
is
brutal disruption, and the grim tragedy of death is not merely
an omniscient spirit ready to strike at any moment, but which

lives with, and forms part of, their natural existence.
It is evident, then, that the so-called human nature of these
sons of Nature is identical with that of the more favoured units
of civilisation. It is difficult, in fact, when associating with
them, to realise that we are in contact with people who are in
any way different to or separated from us by a gulf of time,

that not even the chronology of science can span over.
CHAPTER II
A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF NATIVE PHILOSOPHY: ITS

NATURAL METHODS AND CHARACTERISTICS
But in spite of their undoubted subtlety and powers of silent

observation, the philosophy of these natives is Tonot deep.
them the explanation any matter that is beyond their com-
of
prehension is invariably the most obvious, as it often is the
first that occurs to them. Xot that they are exactly too lazy
to think, but because, being purely emotional, they accept the
shallower or simpler reason of the emotions as a feeling which,
in its tangibility, is to them not only a sufficient reason, but a
reason that comes direct to them from the spirit; in other
words, the intelligence. It is not that they are too apathetic
to think, because in religious matters —and philosophy to them
is the very essence of religion —they are essentially all action,
but it is For misconception,
that they are misunderstood.
most of the errors in exist-
like ignorance, is responsible for
ence, and no one has been more misunderstood than these
unfortunate barbarians.
Yet it is impossible to deny that constitutionally they are
lazy, or, to be more accurate, slow to move; and this, after
all, is not in the least surprising when the physical condi-
tions under which they have so long lived are taken into
consideration.
According to European opinion, these natives of West
Africa are essentially lazy, and there is no doubt that from
a civilised aspect they are but in judging them we do so

;
much too hastily and positively, without either taking into

consideration the conflicting yet accommodating nature of
their environment, or making sufficient allowance for the fact
57
58 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES iakt ii
that human action, especially with regard to natural people,

depends entirely on a motive or object. Unfortunately for
them, however, this object, which to a great extent, if not
altogether, is wanting in West Africa, certainly does not obtain
in the same ratio, or apply with the same force, as it does in
Europe. For their wants are few and far between, and after
they have supplied them an —
easy matter when Nature has
been so liberal — there is nothing left for them to do, and
certainly no incentive or inducement that takes the place of an
object, except to brood in silence over the hard problems of a
dual and divided existence. But even in this direction, so
accustomed have they become to the ancient and time-honoured
dogmas of their fathers, so tyrannised over are they by these
same inflexible shadows, that their activity is confined to a
sphere of selfish individualism. Yet give these silent egotists
an incentive, supply them with some object, and their dormant
and undeveloped energies will soon develop and burst into
activity but before this can be done existing conditions will
;
have to be altered, and this can only be effected gradually, i.e.

in its own natural time, for a forcing process is bound to react
detrimentally on itself.
It is a mistake therefore to conclude that these natives of
Southern Nigeria are not thinkers. In this respect they are
children unquestionably, for they are always thinking, but
their thoughts, although subtle in certain directions (in
monetary or political transactions, for example), are not deep,

with reference to that deeper knowledge of Nature that we
have labelled Science and the reason of this, due as it is
;
to arrested brain development, is simple in the extreme.

Thus it is that their curiosity is so soon and so easily
satisfied, not because the desire to go down to the roots or
to search meaning and mystery of problems is
into the
deficient or absent, but because they have not
altogether
sufficient mental stamina or brain power, and further, because
everything outside matter or the substance appears to them
in the form of the spirit or shadow. So instead of looking
into the mechanism of things, they at once jump at spiritual
conclusions, and see in the spirit, which in their belief is
inside matter, the explanation of every natural problem, the

CHAP. 11 PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF NATIVE PHILOSOPHY 59
psychology or motive of which is a mystery to them. It is

this blind animism, then, together with their equally dense
conservatism, that is responsible for the density and arrested
development of a nature that is naturally subtle and profound.
Apart from their aversion to change of any kind, and slaves
as these people from time immemorial have been, and are, to
custom and conservatism, and the iron discipline of their
bogey - ancestors —
who in their belief only depart from the
flesh to continue a much more potential existence and govern-
ment — bulk
in the spirit, the of the people have their thinking
done for them by the priests, doctors, and diviners, who are
de facto the active thinkers and thought-leaders of their com-
munities. Or have their thoughts interpreted, and
rather, they
if necessary transformed into actions. Do not misunderstand
me, however. This does not in any sense imply that they are
not thinkers themselves, for in the mass they are all dreamers
of dreams, i.e. they think in a vague, indefinite, and impulsive
kind of way thoughts that unconsciously become reflected
and 'repeated in their dreams, which to them, however, are
actual and personal interviews and interchanges of conversa-
tion between their ow^n detachable and mobile souls and those
of the departed. But they are passive and silent thinkers,
whose power of thought only goes a short and restricted
distance. For in spite of their marked impulsiveness and
the contumacious, almost aggressive, individualism of their
personalities, in matters mystical, i.e. spiritual, or those which
are beyond their comprehension — and anything outside the
ordinary avocations of a cramped and limited life come as
a rule within this category — they are as powerless as new-
born babes.
In all such questions they are wholly and entirely depen-
dent on and at the mercy of the different fraternities above
mentioned, who by virtue of an excess of egoism and of a
greater as well as a more subtle mental activity, not only do
the active and subtle thinking of the communities, but give a
forcible expression toit, by reducing thoughts and words into
hard and vigorous acts. Indeed, these professed channels of

communication and mediators between the people and the
ancestral deities and spirits, as readers of thought and
6o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part ii
spiritual Utilitarians, represent, as we shall see later on, in

Part III., not merely the active mentality but the real and
virile slimness of the people, utilising as they do the very
ideas of the latter to suit their own personal aims, ends, and
advantages, but with the avowed object of meeting a pressing
need or the requirement of the moment. Not that these
thought leaders can actually see much, if at all, further than
their simpler and blinder dupes, but because they possess to an
abnormal degree the faculty of deceiving their clients by means
of a sincerity which, although it is based on an illusion, appears
to them as real and substantial, because in fact they themselves,
owing to excessive over-concentration, are dupes of their own
emotional abstractions. For even the more subtle thoughts
of these wary leaders, although well weighed, balanced, and
deliberated, are unconsciously based on natural impulses and
emotions, the outcome of tangible yet capricious sensations,
and not the result of a logical train or sequence of ideas.
Yet although in reality their knowledge is not so very
much wider or deeper than that of the mass, they, like the
Jews of old, are wise in their generation, and possess at least
a profounder knowledge of human nature, especially in the
direction of its weaknesses and failings.
In spite of commerce possessing all the elements which
constitute a conflicting energy, it has ever been a civilising
force. For although trade jealousy or rivalry has been the
cause and source of many wars and conflicts, no factor, not
even religion, has contributed more to the advancement and
progress of civilisation. Our own English history, or rather
the wider record of North America and the British Empire, is
a Living illustration of this, while the final victory and ex-

pansion of the Dutch into a great maritime nation, after a
titanic contest with Spain, which lasted for ninety-seven years,
is another equally instructive instance. That it was the
courage of their deepest convictions which first of all raised
the Dutch and the English out of the slough and inertia of
religious dogma, and converted them into a virile people, such
as they are now, is reasonably admissible but the underlying
;
motive of these fundamental convictions was nothing in reality

but that basic instinct for action which marks the boundary-
CHAP. 1 1 PRELIMINAR V SUR VE Y OF NA TI VE PHIL OSOPHY 6
line between the animal and human intelligences ; and thus it
is that commerce and religion have invariably co-operated and

become inextricably mixed up with each other.
It is manifest human experience
throughout the history of
thatwhen the commerce of a country declines in other words, —
when the vigour and energy of its people diminish the civilisa- —
tion of that country either remains at a complete standstill or
suffers a serious set back. The canker of moral dry rot, in
fact, sets in, which, commencing with trade, ends in a stage of
general stagnation or deterioration.
We have before Lower Niger, those
us, in the tribes of the
of the immediate interior more particularly, a state of society
which shows a very early and initial stage of civilisation —
state that consists merely of communities which long ago
emerged from a condition of mere animalism into the higher
and more intelligent one of human savagery, and from this
again to the still more intelligent condition of barbarism,
which has advanced no higher, but remained undeveloped, if
not fossilised, in every way, mental and physical. And the
cause of this stagnation is very evident. Primarily, no doubt,
the natural environment has played an exceedingly prominent
part in thwarting development, because it has inspired and
fostered the narrow, selfish, and fearful spirit of isolation.
Similarly commerce, and therefore been ex-
intercourse, has
cluded, as a consequence development has been nipped in the
bud, and progress (otherwise civilisation) has remained where
it was, possiblysome thousands of years previous to the
Christian era. There has, in fact, been no natural or social
evolution, because of an unconscious, yet at the same time
conscious, opposition on the part of those most con-
to it
cerned, — not so much from

lack of intelligence, but because
the spirit of conservatism and centralisation has altogether
dominated, and so expunged, the broader spirit of decentralisa-
tion and intercourse.
Yet the intelligence of the people, in spite of its present
inferiority, from the dual standpoint of the concrete and
abstract, is right enough, merely arrested in its growth, and
awaiting the natural opportunity of contact and stimulation
from without to make it develop and expand in consonance
with human capabilities. For, as I have endeavoured to

impress upon the reader, and as he will see on reading
through the book, these natives are in no sense of the word
unintelligent.On the contrary, in a natural sense they are
extremely subtle, although exceedingly simple, and in spite of
the non- development and fossilisation of their brain power,
literally tied up as it has been by inside and outside conditions,
of their own and Nature's making, they are decidedly capable
of improvement and expansion. To give but one instance in
proof of this assertion, the most powerful, however, that it is
possible to produce, the commercial instinct is distinctly
inherent them, and not only in a potential but in an
in
intelligent sense. This, however, is not all, for in addition
the instinct of imitation is equally strong with them. So
that ajudicious co-operation between two such powerful
factors,combined with rational treatment on the part of the
British administration, is bound to result in a mental evolution
that would tend to grow outward and upward, because given
the opportunity, brain development must and can only be a
question, or utilisation, of time.
We find the natives of Southern Nigeria living in the
identical nature they lived in thousands of years ago, with
a moral environment unchanged in every aspect.
that is
Nature, i.e. the contiguous and surrounding

earth, with its
elements, as it appears to them, is as it were a vast form or

organism, which lies closed and inert, yet active, and always in
a state of spiritual pregnancy every aspect or creation of
;
which is sealed by the mystery and by the silence of an

animated expression or language, whose character and meaning
is beyond the comprehension, or at least the interpretation, of
the human intellect. Yet a nature which they believe to be

inspired by the spirit or animating principle, good or evil,
according to the adjustment of the balance, that speaks to
them not in mere words but in hard acts, which alone are
intelligible to a limited and literal intelligence such as theirs
and which alone appeals to a moral sense, that although it
places the primary or controlling spirit element on a higher
plane than the secondary or subservient material embodiment,
must first of all be confronted by the substance before it
:hap. II PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF NATIVE PHILOSOPHY 63
can appreciate or acknowledge the supremacy of the soul-

shadow.
Looking around them, as these people have done, and are
stilldoing, they have found themselves confronted by matter
in every single form or aspect of :N'ature, and connecting spirit
with matter and matter with spirit, it is only natural that
they discover in material utility an association and a source
that is purely spiritual. Be the matter what it may, an opaque
stone, a stream of clear and sparkliug water, a quivering leaf,
a glistening dewdrop, a piece of wood, a lump of mud, to them
there is a something indefinite and indefinable, which all the
same imparts to the material organism a taugible consciousness
(possibly in the sap in wood, or the fire they believe to be in
stone, the oscillation and perpetual motion of water, and of the
luxuriant foliage of their surroundings), which is connected in
their minds with the shadow-soul —
in other words, with the
animating principle of all things. Indeed, as we shall see
when we read on, the entire basis of the whole natural con-
ception oflife, i.e. of religion and philosophy, is one of
personal
precedents and associations that are connected together in one
long chain or existence of human generations, the links in
which are purely and entirely ancestral. It is not merely that
in one association they find a blood -flowing or substantial
tragedy, and in another only a mirth-exciting comedy. It is
not simply that the adjustment of the balance is unattainable,
because, in spite of the existence of unity and evenness, dis-
integration or detachment and inequality are inevitable. It
is not only that the right and the wrong, in other words, the
supremely spiritual and the slavishly human, in their own
contradictory compositions are inextricably compounded and
confused, so that at times they find it difficult in practice to
distinguish between the two. But it is that they feel more
than they see —
for mentally they are blinded by a nebula of
spirit, — feel itthrough the sensations and emotions because,
;
unknown to them, these sensations and emotions are but the

reacts of their own forgotten acts, and the conceptions
of
thoughts that have been unconsciously registered by the brain,
therefore unrecognised as their own, and attributed to
the
spiritual. So they live a dual existence, with spirit-inspired
matter in and around them so it is that even the earthen pot,

;
with or without the food and the water that it may hold, and
the wooden paddle, along with the canoe which it propels,
vibrate with the same yet varying animation that in an
ascending scale, through the vegetal and animal, finds its
sublimest expression in the God-like reason and speech of man.

In endeavouring, therefore, to fathom the psychology of
(these people, it not only imperative that the dualism of
is
their nature should be acknowledged, but that the supremacy

of the spiritual over the human, in other words, of illusion or
the subjective, as compared with reality or the objective, be
clearly recognised. For in no other way is it possible to
understand them. This alone will explain why a people who

are literal and natural, acknowledging as they do the burden
of the flesh and the practical value of utility, or the sub-
stantially useful, should live under the entire and absolute
control of the non-existent phantasmal. Further, it will also
explain the seemingly anomalous assertion that while the
supremacy of the them from relapsing
latter has certainly kept
into the depths of decadent savagedom, it has at the same
time prevented them from advancing towards the heights of
expanding civilisation.
CHAPTER III
THE ESSENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CEKTAIN BASIC INSTINCTS
Although the grammatical construction of Efik and of Ibo

are, for practical purposes, at all events, absolutely iden-
tical, a comparison between the two reveals the fact, not so
much of certain differences, as that in both cases, equally
so with regard to the other dialects, the variations are due
not to any real or substantial difference in the method of
construction, but simply because the tongues in question have
grown up or evolved out of a succession, first of all, of local
conditions and associations, and then of personal needs, wants,
and requirements. And this fact will be more than ever
evident when we dip beneath the surface into the original
associations with which their words were without doubt con-
nected.
It is no easy task which confronts us. (For, as Locke
very sapiently remarks, " if we knew the original of all the
words we meet with we should thereby be very much helped
to know the ideas they were first applied to and made to
stand for.") I do not pretend to have solved the original
meaning of these primitive expressions, but at least I have the
hope that my interpretation of them is as near to the original
as it is possible to get with so many solid obstacles in the
way, that of time alone being in itself so absolutely im-
measurable, to say nothing of dissimilar conditions of life and
thought.
One of the first points which impresses itself upon the
mind of the earnest student, after he has made a thorough
investigation of these Delta dialects, is, as is only to be
65 F
66 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part u
expected, with regard to their natural simplicity. The next

point, which is equally impressive, relative to the meagre-
ness of their vocabularies, is a fact that is all the more
prominently thrust into notice by the employment of the
same words to denote not only other phases, features, or
connections of a certain natural condition or element, but in
many instances of phases or features that are absolutely dis-
similar, and which, seemingly at least, have no possible con-
nection, not even in a remote sense, certainly not so far as it
is now possible to discriminate, or at all events to appreciate.
It is in these two aspects of attachment, and, curiously enough

of detachment, more so even than in the systematic evolution
or the accidental construction of words from parent roots or
primitives, that we shall find what we are in search of. For
as we go on we shall see quite plainly how, altogether apart
from any idea or even thought of grammar on the part of the
primitive ancestors of these people, in whose minds no such
conception ever existed, one word evolved or grew out of
another, and how this first word wâs but the delineation or
description, and in this way the emblem, of some natural
object or feature with which the people had been personally or
familiarly associated.
In this way, shall see how it was that association,
too, we
from the very dawn,
earliest first of all of natural instinct, and
then of reason-endowed and expressible thought, became the

sensible expression of a conception, and how this in turn gave
or stimulated further expression to some other thought, which
formed but a link or connection between the two. And follow-
ing up this natural clue, it will then be still more clearly
seen how easily and naturally the abstract or phantasmal idea
grew out of the solid or substantial object, which as a spirit-
containing emblem became to them a type that represented

certain human, or as they, of course, thought, divine, attributes.
How, the impersonal evolved from the personal, or the
too,
so-called spiritual from the human, and the mental state of
activity from the existence of natural and associated energies.
To avoid any possible misconception, it will be as well at
the outset to impress upon the reader the absolute essentiality

of this element of association in its relation to the religion of
CHAP. Ill SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN BASIC INSTINCTS 67
these and all natural people. For, as we shall see, when we

have read to the end, their religion, which, in fact, is
their entire sociology and existence, is nothing from beginning

to end but a long chain of ancestral precedents, every single
link and rivet of which is an association that is now desig-
nated under the general and comprehensive term of custom, as

a law from their spiritual fathers unto themselves in the flesh.
What is more, a searching analysis of these connections makes
it clear to us that the relationship existing between them
is primarily personal, and secondarily impersonal, although
eventually, in the subjection of the human or personal element
to the authority of the spiritual or phantasmal, i.e. of the
substance to the shadow, it is only too glaringly palpable how
the situation became reversed through the ascendancy of
developing but emotionally controlled intelligence.

Before we go any further, however, it will be necessary to
commence with the word religion itself. For the fact alone
that there is no such word or its equivalent in any one of
these languages or dialects, that is, in the sense in which all
civilised nations employ it, is at least extremely significant,

not merely as showing the extreme simplicity and primitive-
ness of these natives, but as very forcibly demonstrating that
no such idea, or even thought tantamount to it, ever occurred
to them. Because, too, the ancestral worship or veneration of
their fathers, which to them was as natural as eating, drink-
ing, sleeping, and procreating, had been derived from Nature,
simultaneously with those other basic instincts of preservation
and rejDroduction, so that from the very commencement the
entire matter was an integral part of their actual existence,
therefore in every sense natural and personal, and one of
associations, pure and simple. Indeed, the entire principle
which was at the root of ancestral worship, so-called, was that
which emanated from the radical and social instincts, more
especially those of suspicion and fear on the destructive, and
confidence and veneration on the constructive side, that
resulted in the very natural and personal desire, on the part
of the individual, to adore and to be adored. That these basic
instincts were primarily responsible for the veneration of the
father in the flesh, i.e. for the first outward expression of man's
6S THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
homage to the generator and begetter of his own person, is
reasonably admissible. Indeed, judged according to the exist-

ing patriarchal conditions of these natives, to whom the father
is a law nnto himself and his people, and the person of the
eldest son, as priest to the family, is sacred, there cannot
possibly be any doubt whatever on tlie subject. It is quite
evident, then, that this primeval adoration of the father in the
flesh, combining, as it subsequently did, with a belief in the
existence of the soul or spirit, developed first into the worship
of the father in the spirit, and, later on, into that of certain
deified ancestors, which, co - operating with a belief in
the phallic principle, eventually arrived at a worship of the
Supreme God, from whom the origin of all life was traced, and
here, so far at least as these natural philosophers are concerned,
it culminated.
ij^
V V
CHAPTER IV
PROVERBS AND FABLES
It is related of a certain Ibo chief, that he was one day talking

to a foreigner, when the latter suddenly told him that his
country was very bad. Pausiiig for a few moments, and
looking as if he was in silent soliloquy with his familiar
spirit, the former in a very decided and deliberate manner
replied :
" Do not say that my country is bad. Can the earth, or

trees, or mud walls speak ?
" No," answered the stranger, " not, at least, that I

know of."
" Very well," continued the chief, " never speak badly of
the country again, but should any of its inhabitants offend
you, accuse them directly."
Some time happened that a great misfortune
after, it
befell this owing to the intrigues of certain

philosopher,
enemies whom he had made, so to commemorate the event he
purchased a slave, to whom he gave the name of " Madu-wu
N'dso ala," which, interpreted literally, means, men are the
wickedness of a country. It is not my intention to do more
than make a passing comment on an example such as this,
which in reality speaks for itself; but apart from the natural
equity and justice that is here expressed, which by the way
has for civilised ears a certain ring of familiarity, from a native
standpoint we are once more face to face with that peculiar
veneration for the land which, as it does in this particular
instance, places it even before the person, on the ground
that while the activity of the former is displayed in regular
69
and ceaseless production, such as is beneficial to the nourish-

ment and maintenance of its inhabitants, the excessive exuber-
ance of the latter leans more in the direction of aggression and
destruction.
^Xo understand thoroughly the morals, tlie innuendoes, and
the realities which are so carefully and artfullx-â]3p_ed up in
the puny compass of these names anoproverbs, the reader
must learn to appreciate the fact that even as children the art
of talking and debating is a natural accomplishment, which
comes almost as readily to these people as the act of eating.
For we must remember that the leaders of these natural
people rise to eminence in their communitfes quite as much
by talking as through the force of arms -j- by, in fact, a
judicious combination of the two —
because one without the
other is ineffectual, if not useless. It is equally natural,
therefore, that under conditions such as they live in,/ their
arguments, and even their ordinary conversations, should
consist practically of metaphor and parable,-âll the more so
when we consider that their languages have evolved out of
natural symbols. So that with them it is not merely a
question of beating about the bush to gain time, that the
people, instead of going direct or straight to a point, always
select the longest way round as being the shortest way home,
but simply and solely because they cannot help themselves,
and more than this, because it is their natural mode of
expressing the very natural and literal thoughts that are
within. Indeed, it is with jthem a second nature, or rather
the outcolneôTTIiiriialural simplicity which finds in metaphOT
^ egress of thouglits_that are thrown out to form a covering,
which conceals tliose deeper and inner subtleties that are"^
'underneath the surface for, as the Ibo proverb says, " Proverb
;
"or parable is the broth of speech." It is not in the leas^T*

'surprising, therefore, that wFen you ask""a native why " so and
so," his inveterate enemy, has come to grief, that the on}^
response jwhich. he vouchsafes, in reply to your query, is, "Do
not give a lame fowl to your neighbour.",^ For, put into plain
Eng^lish, this amounts to, "cheat a strans2[er, but not a friend,"
and the inference to be drawn from it is too manifest to need
any further remark. Similarly, tlie only answer that K's
CHAP. IV PROVERBS AND FABLES 71
/ bosom friend will give regarding the cause that has led up to
the ruin of himself and family, is to quote a well-known Ibo
and Ibani proverb, "Fish that do not feed upon other fish are
unable to get proper nourishment." Here, too, while the
meaning maxim conveyed is much too obvious for
of the I
explanation, we cannot help recalling to memory that sage 1
piece of shrewd common sense philosophy which is enunciated 1
by the fisherman in Pericles, in reply to his comrade's question, I
" Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea ? " " Why,
j
as men do on land the great ones eat up the little ones."
;
So, if we pursue our investigations with infinite care and

patience, and above all in a sympathetic frame of mind, we will
discover that these natives, in spite of their detestably brutal
customs, are in the deepest sense of the word more natural and
religious than we Europeans are also, that although their
;
religion is unfortunately more on the destructive side, they are

notwithstanding neither so black nor so inhuman as they are
painted.
Beggars, as they naturally are, believing, as they do, in the
principle that if you ask you may receive, and at the utmost
can have no bones broken by a refusal, they are as a rule

grateful. Ingratitude, however, is not uncommon, and among
the Ibo one of their favourite methods of illustrating it is by
means of the following maxim " When you invite a tortoise to
:
a meal it is no use giving him water to wash his paws with,

because he will soon walk on the ground and dirty them."
That is, no matter how generously you treat an ungrateful
person, he will not appreciate it, for the more you give him the
more he will expect and ask for. It is, however, by means of
proverbs such as these that it is possible to connect the
mentality of the people with those natural emblems or types
that have become emblematical or typical to them of
certain abstract elements. In support of this assertion, it is
more than possible to see daylight in a maxim such as this,
which declares that "the son of a tortoise cannot confess to a
crime of theft as long as there remains a chance of denial."
For a tortoise, small, unobtrusive, and unoffensive as it is, has
very reasons been to them a mystery, therefore an
for these
emblem, typically representative of that natural simplicity
which is only a cloak to hide the deepest subtleties. So, as

having lirst of all been to them the emblem of patience, wisdom,
sagacity and cunning, in addition to having given its name to
tliese qualities, it is still typical of a morality which, although

it admits there is no gain in lying," and is of opinion
tliat "
that " a liar exposed to the heat of the sun," pronounces

is
judgment on the truth as being only " greater than ten goats,"
and is capable of utilising every loophole that affords a chance
of escape or a safe line of retreat.
It is only natural, too, that with a people such as these the
ever-present personal should make itself felt in their proverbial
subtleties. Wliat is more, human as they are in every radical
sense,it is not surprising to find that they are likewise pervaded
with the same passion for material wealth, power, and influence
(only on a different scale and in another degree), as our own
more civilised brethren. So it is that these human sentiments
have found expression for themselves in certain proverbs, and in
this manner we get to understand why and how it is that, in spite
of those mental subtleties that lie concealed within the duplex
folds of their inner consciousness, they come to the conclusion
that, from the native standpoint, the maxim " a son cannot first
have a son before his father," which upholds the ancestral
discipline and authority, is not only necessary but essential,
dealing as the elders are obliged to do with a youth that is
contumacious and headstrong in the extreme. It is easy to
see, in fact, that this maxim has had its rise in a parental
snub, administered to a son, who has been too much inclined
to take upon himself the government of the household, and
whom it was necessary, for all concerned, to put in his proper
place.
What, indeed, can be more human, or, for the matter of that,
more blatantly modern than this, " Wealth makes the soup
taste nice," being, as it is, a maxim that recognises in its full
significance the benefits, the prosperity, the utility, and above
all the power that can be conferred by riches. So, although
a household may be over-developed as regards tlie sinews which
nourish and maintain it, and in spite of the fact that they
believe, as we have seen, in strength and multiplied counsel

being synonymous, they acknowledge that " a canoe without a
CHAP. IV PROVERBS AND FABLES H
steerer can easily go astray " — in other words, that a house

minus a head is as useless as it is powerless.
So, too, how very human and how
painfully modern is the
principle which recognises that while " money is the cause of
beauty," i.e. utility, " it also
has no end in giving satisfaction."
Again, in these two Ibo proverbs, " Money is the source of
right," and " A rich man is seldom condemned, for the mouth
which eats another man's property is benumbed," it is at once
evident that they see in wealth the factor which makes for
tyranny and oppression. Not only this, however, but they find
in wealth and power a convenient means of intolerance or
of the evasion of what is just and equable a handle that —
not only provides one law for the rich and another for the
poor, but goes even further than this by providing a law for
and unto itself, which acknowledges no other, and, to suit its
own dark purposes, even over-rides the legitimate ancestral

ordinances. For nowhere is might so heavily and so oppres-
sively right, and nowhere do the weak succumb to the stronger,
or do the fittest survive, as they do in this enslaved country.
Having presumably learnt by experience, tliey consider that
" confidence " in a faithless person in time of trouble is like " a
broken tooth." For to trust a tale-bearer or a sneak, especially
during a period when two houses are in dispute over some
family matter, would be, in their estimation, but adding fuel
to the flame, and about as diplomatic as " to expect a goat to
suckle a kid belonging to another flock," or, in other words, " to
ask a woman to nurse the child of her worst enemy." And it
is all the easier to appreciate the meaning of the simile when

"
we know that, in accordance with native law and custom, a
broken tooth " is only apprised at a valuation which differs
from the full and original value according to the amount of
injury that has been inflicted on it. But full of gloom and
weighed down by sorrow as these natives ordinarily are, they
are at times equally brimful of optimism so trouble and mis-
;
fortune, no matter how heavy it is, must be faced boldly, to the

utter exclusion of all trifles. For " is it possible," they ask,
" that a man can carry on his head a basket full of elephant's
meat, yet be searching for snails with his foot ? " A question,
surely, which clearly and convincingly answers itself. It is
74 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part n
frequently the case all over Western Africa that an individual
belonging to a certain tribe and community is forced either to

leave or is driven out of liis own country, and obliged to seek
protection in some other locality. For, as among all natural
people, refugeand protection are always given, and cannot, in
fact,be refused, by their ancestral laws, to any stranger who
claims tliem. Should it happen, as it often does, that this
stranger, as he is always looked upon, settles down, becomes
prosperous, and shows a disposition to interfere in state councils,
or in matters connected witli the government of the com-
munity, the following proverb is very soon thrown in his face,
" Nyagu yana akiri digi, tsi bigba na," the literal trans-
kiri
lation of which is, a plantain tree always takes upon itself
ground which does not belong to it. This practically amounts
to his being told that he is a stranger, i.e. one outside their
ancestral circle, and is presuming on the advantages of his position
by attempting to put his meddlesome fingers into business that
does not concern him. For here, in spite of the humanity of
a community that gives shelter to those who have been deprived
of their own personal rights and privileges, and who have
claimed the ancestral protection of others, it is quite evident
that, as regards the infringement of the patriarchal heritage,
these natives one and all are peculiarly and particularly jealous.
For a heritao-e such as this is an heirloom that has not only
been handed down from father to son in never-failing succession,
but it is also believed to have come direct through the gods,
from the first great ancestor, and, as being under the control of
and dependent on the spirit fathers, it is esteemed as a personal
possession, which on this account is all the more reverently
venerated and jealously guarded. Because, too, the question
of self-interests is paramount even in a conmiunity derived, as
the various families have undoubtedly been, from the same
stem. So it is that one Ibo proverb insists on the principle
that " strangers shall not be rulers," while another maintains
that " the land never void of counsellors."
is
Knowing these people as I do, and appreciating them at

their own valuation, it is quite impossible not to see how
plainly and faitli fully these names, words, and maxims re-echo
the thoughts and inspirations of that inner consciousness we
CHAP. IV PROVERBS AND FABLES 75
call the So that it is all the easier to understand how

mind.
the mere mental effort drew its inspiration from and utilised
these symbols in order to give expression to all that it felt.
No wonder, then, that as these were personal, the words, names,
and proverbs also assumed a realistically personal aspect. No
wonder, too, that pantheistic as was their conception of the
plan of Nature, everything from the earth beneath their feet to

the sky overhead became to them a purely personal matter,
embodiments, sanctified, as they were, by the tenancy of the
spirit element.
Taking some of these proverbs, it is intensely interesting to
follow the trend of native thought as we see it expressed in
such time-honoured observations as this, "Woman never
reigns " The
; " not carried as that of a
corpse of a man is
"
woman " "A bad son enters
; his mother's womb by the back ;
" The rain cannot fall on the teeth as long as the lips cover
them"; "The eyes and the nose are kith and kin"; "A
traveller does not buy raw fish " " Where there is smoke there
;
is the One who is over-cautious of his life is always

fire " ;
"
" A close observer knows the
killed by the fall of a dry leaf" ;
" One who does what he

street that is swept by moonlight " ;
says is not a coward"; "Theis always cold;"

dog's nose
" Everything is with the sick man. If he dies there will be a
great demonstration of grief for him, and if he survives there
will also be a great thanksgiving to God on his behalf."
The fables are disappointing when compared with the

significance of the names and proverbs, except that as throwing
an extremely lurid light on the attitude of these people towards
animals, as well as on the relationship existing between them
they are, on the other hand, decidedly instructive, yet only
illuminating when viewed from a standpoint of all-round know-
ledge and experience regarding the life and habits both of the
animals and the people in question.
NOTE
A discussion of the grammatical construction of the various tongues, and
the philosophy of words and names, will be found in the Appendix,
and this
might be read \AX\ advantage before proceeding further.
PAET III
THE NATURAL EELIGION OF THE VARIOUS

TRIBES
CHAPTER I
A DEFINITION OF RELIGION : ITS SOURCE AND ORIGIN

r
To get a clear and thorough insight into the characteristics and
temperament of a people, it is, I think, essential first to obtain
a comprehensive grasp of their religion, even before attempting
to master their laws and customs.
Not only is it extremely
difficult to define religion, but it
f is also no easy task to trace its origin and development. To

me it seems that all definitions —
all those at least which are
i accepted — are altogether too much involved, if not in many

>
instances beside the mark. The difficulty, so it appears, does
not lie so much in the thing, religion, itself, as in the manifold
human complications which haAê grown up out of and around
it, that of necessity make its definition all the more complicated.
But if we go to work in the right way, by an intimate acquaint-
ance with those barbarians who are still in a natural condition,
we can, I think, go straight to the root of the matter, or, at
all events, as near to it as is possible.
Max was a very able and learned Professor of
Mliller
Sanskrit, yet his theory, founded as it was on a consideration
of the natural necessities of language, and illustrated by the
Vedic hynms of the ancient Aryans, conveys little or no com-
prehensive meaning, while his definition of religion, as " the
perception of the Infinite under such manifestations as are
able to influence the moral conduct of man," explains nothing,
and still leaves us in the dark concerning a question that
requires elucidation. There is about it a ring of artificiality,
of pedantic dogmatism, that seems to be altogether unnatural,
and which certainly makes no appeal to the purely natural.
79
8o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
Had the learned rrofessor ever made

the acquaintance of these
unlettered barbarians Niger Delta, he would have
of the
quickly discovered that grammar and its rules have absolutely
nothing to do with this, the most human, as it is the most
vital problem of all —
more so, if anything, to the savage than
to the highly civilised — namely, the problem of religion.
and a Professor of language, Max
Essentially a scholar
Miiller'swhole line of thought centred in one fixed dogma
the unity of thought and speech. Words, or rather the rules
on and out of which they had been built up, were everything,
and alone appealed to him as conveying the whole mystery of
human life. Nature was forgotten and overlooked, almost as
if she had no existence, and all theories outside his own
ignored.
In criticising all the leading creeds of the world, he con-
cluded, that " is everywhere
the seed from which they spring
the same. That seed is the perception of the Infinite, from
which no one can escape who does not fully shut his eyes."
Here he was quite right, in so far that the seed is identical,
and there is no escape from it. Not, however, because it is
the perception of the Infinite, but because it is a natural, there-
fore a human instinct. But According to him,
to continue.
each race, dimly conscious of the proximity of a power that
demanded adoration, expressed its sense of this in accordance
with its capabilities, but in a sense that was naturally imperfect.
A description of such transcendent ideas as the existence
of God and His attributes was only possible in the form of word
pictures. Words cast a filmy web of metaphor a mysterious —
glamour —
around the truths of which they spoke, so by a very
natural mistake men interpreted the metaphors for facts.
" In the fundamental metaphor is the true key to the riddle
of mythology, and in one sense of theology also. The . . .
same people who had learned to speak of themselves as runners,

now spoke of rivers as runners. The sun darting with his
rays was to them a warrior piercing with his spears. The
cloud carried along by the wind was a sailor, or as a ship
blown across the sea with fiying sails. If man could roar, so
could the storm hence he was called the roarer.
; If man
could smash, so could the thunderbolt hence he was called ;

A DEFINITION OF RELIGION
the smasher. If man could smile, so could the sun ;

hence he
was called the bright. If man could measure, so could the
moon ; hence he was called the measurer of the sky, the maker
or ruler of nights, and fortnights, and months."
As we know, the principal evidence on which these theories
were based was drawn from the Aêdas, in other words, the
earliest known literary efforts of the Aryans, said to have been
composed some 1500 years B.C. But ages prior to this date
the more primitive ancestors of this noble race had feared and
adored these very spirits and their personifications, which, in
after times, theirmore advanced successors, still at a loss for
words, however, had specialised as actual agents. For long
before they had even given the matter a thought, before even
they had developed sufficient intelligence to connect their vague
and hazy ideas, religion had made itself felt, and its develop-
ment had already begun. But it is not in the Vedas, nor yet
again in the history of language, that the history of early man
and his religion are to be found just as it is not in words
;
that science has discovered all her grand secrets, but in the
bowels of the earth, and in the finity of the Infinite. Thus we
find that the Ibo and other Delta tribes to this day have no
written language, and only a limited vocabulary of words
while the grammar by which this is controlled, and for which
no word exists, is extremely rudimentary. Yet who will gain-
say the statement that 4000 years, or, for the matter of that,
8000 years ago, when civilisation in Chalda?a and Egypt was
at its zenith, their ancestors did not hold the same religious
views then as they do now ? So in the antiquity of their
natural religion, and in the almost still greater antiquity
of their innate conservatism, it is a comparatively easy
matter to trace the seemingly lost antiquity of all religious
instinct.
If it is true that religion is not a mere speculation, but a
matter of the deepest personal interest, it is equally true that
much time and thought have been devoted to religious specula-
tion, and it is also a matter of certainty that in spite of this
energy, no definite conclusion has as yet been arrived at. In
fact, with the expansion of thought and culture, humanity is
more divided than ever it was on this, the crucial question,

G
that would speculate on the past, grapple with the present,

and decide as to the future.
Yet, in spite of all this mental activity, we are no nearer
the solution, because we deceive ourselves and will not admit

the fact that religion, as classified by man into so many
denominations and formulas, is a human speculation, that is
based on so-called superstitions, in other words, impressions
received from and implanted in us by Nature. For denomina-
tionalism in religion is practically a question of individual
mental attitude —the line of thought of a personality which —

is nothing more than a question of temperament. And what,
after all, is temperament but the disposition or internal con-
stitution of the individual, which, both in natural and civilised
man, is largely composed of a number of instincts and sensations,

guided and controlled by the emotions and reason, in a greater
or lesser degree, according to the temperament of the individual.
Hence, where emotion prevails we have the theologian, and
where reason the rationalist. Still, the question of religion,
even to the indifferent and seemingly irreligious man, is one
of deeper interest than would outwardly appear. For while

the right of exercising it is purely one of self-interest, a
question that lies between the individual and his ideal,
religion itself is a Catholic tendency, derived from and trans-

mitted by Nature —
her spiritual embodiment in fact. Judged,
therefore, as religion ought to be, by the Catholic standpoint of
the universal, so-called " irreligion

"
—
if it exists at all is —
merely, a question of degree or polarity, dependent entirely on
the egoism of the personality concerned, which to some extent
is influenced by natural and circumstantial environment.
For the nearer man is to Nature, the closer he is to the
unknowable Infinite ; and the greater the growth of civilisa-
tion or artificiality, the further the distance from the Omnipo-

tent Almighty. In his natural state, it was in man's nature
to rise, in spite of the strong animal tendencies that were
dragging him down. Not because of his development being
a purely moral ascent, a natural effort to establish a spiritual

ascendency, but just as his physical evolution was an ascent
from the lowdier attitude of the creature on all fours, to the
erect position he now occupies as man on two legs, so his
CHAP. I A DEFINITION OF RELIGION 83
religious and moral evolution has been a gradual outward and

upward Alone of his kind, and extreme in his egoism,
ascent.
it is only natural that he aspired to a sublimer state, and still
more natural that, in the fine frenzy and vanity of a wild and
disordered but grotesque imagination, he saw reflected in his
own glorified yet characteristically human visage the likeness
of the Great Creator.
In spite, however, of his supreme egoism, man, unhampered
by the restrictions of social necessities, and unfettered by the
restraints and restrictions of creed and dogma, leaned more —
absolutely and entirely, in fact —
upon God, the unconscious
creation of his own supremest effort —
than he did upon himself,
that is to say, that although he was all the time depending on
his own exertions, in imagination he was entirely dependent
on the spiritual element.
But as he grew more civilised, man leaned more on himself
and less on his God, and, to satisfy his own conscience and the
all-absorbing sententiousness of the priests, who required some
compensation for meeting the spiritual demands, the formulas
and ceremonials of religion were brought into existence, monu-
ments which, although they stood for his own increasing
egoism, to some extent at least atoned for the loss of confidence
in the Unseen.
ISTo one can deny that in these days of scientific advance-
ment and of art culture, when we are getting farther and
farther, from the source of all things, notwith-
as it were,
standing every effort to probe into the very heart of them, the
child is nearer to the Unknown than the man, and the savage
than the civilised adult. If this is so, is it not because they
are both nearer to Nature, therefore to the source which so
mysteriously inspires her ?
To start with, we must remember that this word religion,

derived as from the Latin, is but a mere label, which
it is
conveys no meaning beyond the performance of a something

binding. But if we dig beneath the surface in real earnest,
and see for ourselves what this something in reality is, we find
that the performance or binding of it is a purely moral outcome
of human exigences and conditions, while the something itself
is just as purely and simply an entirely personal matter.
Looking at it in this natural light, it will then appear
that religion itself is natural, i.e. it is from Nature, pure

and simple, so that in reckoning with it we are dealing with
a force that is first of all natural, and in a secondary sense
human.
Tor religion is not a mere matter of creed or dogma, but
a personal and spontaneous outpouring and uplifting of the
emotions from the individual to the Infinite. Because it is
one with the sensations — those natural inspirations or impres-
sions — of fear or reverence that so overcome or overawe a man's
judgment, when in the presence of an indefinite something
that reason, if he would only appeal to it, would tell him has
no definite existence. So that whether so-called super-
naturalism or those creeds which are now in existence
disappear or not, religion is bound to remain, i.e. if it is an
inherent instinct, such as I have tried to describe. If it is
not so, however, then before the cult of rationalism the

supernatural will cease to exist. In that case rationalism
will be nothing more or less than a reaction, the return of
man to Nature, and his supremest effort of reason, in contradic-
tion to his earliest and extremest effort of personal egoism.
If, however, Matthew Arnold was right when he said that the
kernel of religion exists in emotionally touched morality, or, as

I have endeavoured to express it, as being but the natural
germ of reHgion and if Emerson's prediction, that ethics is
;
to be the religion of the future, becomes an accomplished fact,

it seems to me quite as certain that the natural will never
entirely vanish. For the germ of morality is religion, just as
religion itself has in its turn evolved from the basic germ, from
which all Nature is still evolving.
So that there should be no difficulty in tracing the origin
of ethics, or in trying to discover at what stage of evolutional
history it became a religious constituent, and, if there is, it is
but a self-made difficulty, arising from a misconception of the

fundamental principle of religion.
Many ideas have been advanced regarding the beginning
of religion, and among many, Spencer, Tylor, Lang, Frazer,
and Forlong have formulated theories that, although at vari-
ance, verge upon the common centre, with a keen perception of
the merits of the case, yet without in reality touchiug the bed-
rock. Spencer, for instance, who has invested the ancient
speculation of Euhemerus with a scientific meaning, is of
opinion that the evidence furnished by the life and thought of
modern savages is the clearest, as it is the most feasible, guide
to the customs and conceptions of our primitive ancestors, yet

at its best a crude guide only. Measured by this standard, it
is evident to him that primitive man's first conception of a
soul was based on his experience of the world that dreams
and swoons first opened up to him, and from which he formed
the idea that the soul was the life apart, that could roam away
from the body and return. Following up this train of thought,
man's next step was to believe in the temporary existence of
the soul after death, or of its subsequent permanence as a
spirit, so that in time it is not surprising that his imagination
peopled the various natural elements with wandering ghosts,
who acted as the agents of those natural fluctuations that are
in constant evidence, both in natural and in human life. It
was in his endeavour to propitiate these spirits with the
twofold object of either averting their anger, or of securing
their mediation, that the germ of religion was founded. But,
according to the great philosopher, this belief, while supplying
the raw material of religious idea, is not entitled to the name
of religion.
Dr. Tylor, while not confining himself to any specific
system or method, sees a religious idea in animism, i.e. a
belief in the existence of a world of spirits, whose active
energies are responsible for all natural operations, a belief that
embraces three degrees of conception — the conception of human
souls, of spirits similar to but not human, and regarded as the
active and intelligent causes of natural events, and of deities.
Lang's later theory offers a change of front, being, " in brief,

that savages do not, and did not, get their god-idea by way
of their ghost-idea ; that they seem rather to have a god -idea
before they have ghost-ideas ; that they probably got it by
way of their '

supernormal ' perceptions ; and that what has
happened in respect of their spiritism in general, is a process
of intellectual and moral degeneration, though somehow the
higher theistic and moral ideas subsist alongside of the
86 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
degenemte ones — this survival being, in fact, the ground for

the survival of pristine elevation."
Frazer and others see in the universal traditional worship
of trees and plants the most primitive form of religion, while
Forlong inclines, on the whole, to attribute a phallic significance
to all religious formula and ceremonial.
Now, while it is to decide, witli any absolute
diflftcult
certainty, as to whether religious ceremonial commenced with

a worship of ancestral or natural spirits or tree spirits, or yet
again, with the personified powers of procreation, intimately
associated, as all of them were, with the thoughts and actions
of primitive man, there seems to me no difficulty in arriving at
a perfectly sound and legitimate conclusion with regard to the
germ, i.e. the anterior religion from which all posterior cere-
monial has originated, and on which the superstructure we
—
now call religion in other words, creed and dogma has been —
raised and constructed.
This, it seems to me, is a phase of the question which has
in a great measure been overlooked, and, therefore, sufficient
distinction has not been drawn between the actual base of
religion and the superstructure of religious formula. I do not
see, therefore, how it can be said that religion commenced with
the worship of the procreative powers, or of the spirits,
natural, ancestral, or arboreal, although it is quite evident that

religious ceremonial must have had some such commencement.
Granting, however, for sake of argument, that the first impres-
sion of the soul came to man through the medium of a dream,
and that this impression developed itself into a more permanent
spirit ; other thoughts, prompted by instincts and sensations,
must have been at work simultaneously with his ideas concerning
soul and spirit.
For this natural creature was a bundle of sensations as

well as emotions —
sensations that, along with certain animal
instincts,were abnormally developed, simply because they were
in constant use. It seems quite reasonable to infer that, before
the idea of a soul or spirit entered into his mind, his emotions
must, as a matter of course, have been stirred to action directly
through his sensations, and that these came in a no less direct
manner from his instincts.
If this be the case (and therecan be no rational objection

to a connection such as exists between these), we are nearer to,
if not at, the root of the whole matter —
a matter which is purely
instinctive and sensational. Here, at least, we obtain a clue to
man's primal conception of the soul, a clue that enables us to
grasp the reason of his protoplasmic conception — a clue that
is to be traced to sensations, and to the bed-rock of inherent
instincts.
Wehave but to study animals —
wild or domesticated
to ascertain beyond a doubt that they not only think, but, in
a limited sense, think connectedly. This may be due in a
great measure to association, but what, after all, is association
but a development of intelligence, or intelligence in another
form ? But natural man was an evolution decidedly in advance
of this and his mental development, although slow, was, at all
;
events, outward and upward. So that, whether able to express

himself or not, his imagination was at work all the time.
Whether he was able to define a spirit or not, to him it was a
palpable existence, a tangible reality, that he could not see
with his eyes, except in dreams or visions, but that he could
see and feel through his active sensations therefore a some-
;
thing whose intentions he suspected, and whose actions he

feared, because it was an inseparable entity that acted
altogether independently of him, that was, in fact, outside of
and beyond his reach. In this way we arrive at the basis,
from which, through other sensational and emotional agencies,
emanated those thoughts which resulted in primary religious
ceremonial.
fear, then, were the primary instincts, the
Suspicion and
active and motive sensations that stirred man first to thought,
and then to action, but they were not the only two. Two
other causes were at work at the same time, which, although
opposing causes, combined to produce the eftect which, of all
effects in the history of mankind, has in its operations
approached nearer to the laws of Nature than any other,
merely because of its natural origin.
Just as every poison has its antidote, if we only knew
where to find it, so human instincts and energies are equally
balanced ; hence it was that the higher instincts of confidence
THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
and veneration, which were also in man, but lying fallow,

counteracted the antipathetic effects of forces that, had they
been left in undisputed possession of the arena, would have
terminated not merely in disaster, but possibly in the utter
extinction of humanity. For it seems to me quite reasonable to
infer that it is to this dualism, or conflicting principle of natural
unity, that nature, certainly humanity, owes her very existence.
But even supposing, however, for sake of argument, that
suspicion, fear, confidence, and veneration are only mere sen-
sations after all, can it be denied that in them is the well-
spring from which has issued, and still issues, the eternal
stream of what we call religion ? And further, can it be
denied that, while suspicion, on the one hand, exciting fear in
man, prompted a propitiatory ceremonial to avert the wrath
or to secure the support of the avenging or evil spirits ; con-
fidence, on the other hand, inspired in man veneration for his
father, and a still greater awe for the procreative power that
produced them both, and veneration, in turn, actuated him to
a similar adoration ?
There was in the beginning no conscious effort, on man's

part, to develop any religion. On the contrary, his suspicions
and fears, his confidence and veneration, were but the spon-
taneous outcome of his natural instincts —
an outcome of the
emotions that he could no more check than he could cease to
exist or to propagate.
To suspect the underlying motive of those persons whom
he had cause or reason to distrust, therefore all the more of
those spiritual entities whom he could not see, and to fear
them in the same ratio, was but natural. It was also natural
that he should confide in those whom

he had every reason to
trust, and in a much greater degree, in those with whom he
was in association, than in those he could only conjecture
about. And it was only when he developed out of this
passive state of unconsciousness into one of active conscious-
ness that he realised his position of absolute helplessness, beset
as he was on all sides by enemies, human and spiritual. Then
it was that the ancestral veneration grew into adoration, and
that he looked to the spiritual head of the family all the more
for guidance and protection.
CHAP. I ^ DEFINITION OF RELIGION 89
Surrounded on all sides by evil, i.e. by people who were

inimical to him, and spiritual influences, who sought his life
on every opportunity, the family looked to its head for pro-
tection. But he, poor man, was to a greater extent than his
family circumvented by enemies on all sides, and in spite of
his skill, his strength, and his prowess, he felt himself power-
less in the face of So in his misery he turned to
them all.
the spirit of his father, whom during his lifetime he had

honoured and revered, and to whose spiritual aid, when he
was victorious, he at once attributed the victory. But victory
did not always shine upon him, for the race was not always to
the swift, nor was the battle always to the strong. Therefore
it was in these moments that he looked beyond his father to
the first or spirit ancestor who had made every one and every-
thing, good or evil. A moment this of supremest exaltation,
arisingout of the lowest depths of despair. Of supremest
triumph also, for the Supreme One had once more asserted his
power and given to him the victory.
Having recognised the existence and presence of a Creator,
and evoked his aid, the next stage in the process was the
formation of a system by which the victory of the Supreme
One and his great influence were to be commemorated and
kept alive. But in order to trace the origin and early develop-
ment of this^cult, it will be necessary in the following chapters
to glance at the history ofman's social and intellectual pro-
gress,from the dawn of reason through the thoughts and acts
of those whose religious and social history we are now
discussing.
CHAPTER II
A SKETCH OF PRIMITIVE MAN's EARLY DEVELOPMENT
Man, in his primeval state, in the crude chrysalis condition

which lies between the larva of ordinary animalism and the
higher organism of humanity, merging from the shell of the
lower instincts and passions into the higher atmosphere of
sublime intelligence and thought; man, in this embryonic
state, which was still novel to him, was undergoing a natural
process, a mental and moral evolution, unknown to himself,
which was unconsciously revolutionising his entire nature.
The condition of things was still too new and unfamiliar to
make him either realise or appreciate the situation, or to
enable him to feel the ground stable beneath his feet, so that
he was mentally unbalanced and unsettled.
His own new-found intelligence appalled him. The im-
mensity of the situation and the isolation of his own position
made him ponder and reflect, while the duality of it puzzled
him for whereas there had formerly been only one world,
;
now there were two. So thought was born and grew, but
feeling outgrew reason, as it did speech, and predominated.
But the memory of his former condition still unconsciously
threw a shadow, a gruesome glamour, over him, influencing his
thoughts and actions very considerably. In spite of all his
efforts, emotion, being the older, maintained a decided mastery
over thoucrht, so that man could not shake off this domineering
influence, that imbued him with a vague feeling of indefinite-
ness, as well as with the sense of his own shortcomings and
weakness of helplessness too, for he was at the mercy of
;
death in many shapes and forms —

human, animal, and ele-
90
CHAP. II PRIMITIVE MAN'S EARLY DEVELOPMENT 91
mental, — and notwithstanding his increasing intelligence he was

unable to grasp the why and the wherefore of his existence.
Alone of his kind, amid the alternating awe-inspiring
silence and music of Nature, it was only natural that her
omniscience and might made a deep impression on him.
Hence it was that when thought was as primitive as only an
infantile intelligence could make it, superstition, or, as I shall
hereafter call it, naturism i.e. naturalism — was the very

natural outcome of man's primeval environment. For he
himself was a part of Nature, and naturism, derived there-
from, was but a combined product of crude thoughts and
natural phenomena.
His very life, his very thoughts, inspired or fed by Nature,
made man superstitious, i.e. natural. The atmosphere he lived
in, the air he breathed, physically nourished and mentally
encouraged this development in every respeet. For with the

very air he breathed he inhaled the actual germs out of which
his emotional imagination manufactured the tree of naturism.
Intensely impulsive and emotional as primitive man was,
always on the look-out, and seeing in every bush or thicket a
hidden or imexpected enemy —
animal or human his senses —
were ever on the alert and his instinctive faculties aroused.
So he became to a certain extent shy and suspicious, and the
sounds and noises of the forest, the music of the elements, of
animals calling to each other, or the wind whistling and howl-
ing, instilled into his mind the primary elements of a religion
that was evoked through the natural perceptions. To him

Nature was the work of something invisible, or something
human yet not human, that he could not see but that he
could feel, as the wind soughing through the tangled
he felt
foliage —
an invisible presence, as it were a breath or a vapour,
similar to that which he felt filled him, and which, on occasions,
in his sleep, for instance, left him, —
from the natural to the
thing that he felt but could not name was but a step, a long
and tedious one, no doubt, and from this to a spiritual religion,
the third stage in this natural, upward, and outward process of
thought.
But although this process was in every sense emotional, it
was a reasonino- of the emotions. For man was an observer.
With his senses so well developed he could hear and see great
distances. The reason of this is obvious. Much practice had
developed these faculties. He was always listening with his
ears for the approach of animals, upon whom he preyed, also of
those that were dangerous to him, for he could not always see,
owing to the density of the undergrowth. When he could see,
however, he used his eyes to advantage. was only natural,

It
therefore, that as time went on man became an observer, keen

and acute. Nature was his book. Nature, riven by the fiery
lightning, convulsed by the deep-toned thunder, broken up by
towering mountains, torn by mighty rivers, and shut in on all
sides, even at times shut out from the unknown and unapproach-
able country above. And when he heard sounds other than
those he knew, the animal voices that had grown familiar
when he heard the crash and roll of the thunder, the roaring
of the torrents, or the gentle murmuring of the brooks ; when

lie heard the sighing of the breeze and the fierce raging of the
hurricane, — his curiosity was aroused.
For curiosity is not a mere abstraction. It is an instinct,
strongly developed in the animal, much more so, therefore, in

man. It is an instinct that was inherent in man when he was
an animal, and could not speak. It is an instinct as strongly
implanted, not only in those animals who are the most intelli-
gent and who have been longest in contact with man, but in
those who are credited with the dullest of comprehensions.
much the greatness and
It is not the beauty, it is not so
grandness, and not even the immensity of Nature, that appeals
to or impresses the savage. Eather is it her proximity to him
— a proximity fraught with evil, danger, and death —
that fills
him with awe. It is her kinship, her oneness, so to speak,
with him that impresses him with reverence.
It was not only in what he heard but what he saw around
him, that man was an observer. And while in the former,
hidden from him, as were the sources of the various sounds,
there was if anything more mystery, in the latter there was
more of the material. Therefore, it was not only on the face
of the waters, but on a grass or shrub-covered expanse, as
well as over the leafy and uneven surface of the forest, that
he saw stealing, if not as an embodied form, at least in a
materialised if shapeless shape, the wind, or what to him was

some vast and mysterious power, a power that could make the
smooth surface of the waters smile with rippling motion, or
leap and roll like a devouring fury. A shape, formless and
immense, creeping over the tall grass in wavy undulations that
to him looked as if it were crawling and wricrgling, until the
grass bowed downwards to the earth to avoid the pressure. A
shapeless something that for hours at a stretch, sometimes
continually through light and darkness, stealing through the
leafy foliage of the great trees, swayed and bent them with its
pressure, until large branches snapped, and even the trees
themselves fell prone to earth, no longer able to sustain its
oppressive weight.
It was the wind, therefore, almost more than any other
element in Nature, that first gave man not only an idea of
great immensity of power, but that enabled him to conceive
a materialised spiritual embodiment, which was too immense
and too shadowy to have shape, —
therefore, as it were, invisible
to him, i.e. beyond the power of vision,
of
—
yet the actual presence
which was visible to him in its varied actions.
It was the wind searching the foliage from top to bottom,
and turning it inside out, that appeared to him as the motive
—
and mighty spirit of the Creator the subsequent Holy Ghost
of the Christian Creed —
wooing with balmy breezes and
impregnating with rushing tempests the ripe and fecund earth,
until it caused her to fructify and bring forth all that lives
thereon and therein.
Where the wind came from was, of course, a matter of
speculation, the only answer to which was from above. In
this way then i.e. when he had, long after, arrived at the
stage of connecting his thoughts —
he traced the connection
between his own soul or spirit, the soul or spirit of the
universe, and him who came from above and created all
things.
It is evident that man with her own
Nature inspired
attributes, for all through Nature
viewed at least from
herself,
the aspect of primitive man, naturism lived and had its being.
In the thunder and licrhtning, in the fierce, devastating storm-
winds, his mind, awed if not terrified, saw and felt in the
working of the elements the uncontrollable wrath of the angry

spirits of the departed. In the snow and hail, and in the
heavy downfall of torrential rain, which fell when it was
not wanted, and did not when it was, he saw an avenging
motive, and again imputed it to other departed spirits. When
one of his kith or kin was drowned or struck by lightning, he
attributed death to the same spirits, who, in his imagination,
infested these as well as all other phenomena in Nature, and who
in some mysterious way were responsible for all its operations.
So the sun, the moon, and the stars were to him strange,
far-off spirits, while the trees and the groves among which he
lived appealed more to the humanity in him, because of the
closeness of his association with them, supplying him with
food, shelter, and covering. Indeed, if the truth were known,
probably there was not a commanding phase or feature in
Nature that did not leave its impress on his pliant and
impressionable nature.
So it was out of sheer awe and reverence of the mighty
elements of Nature that man became a naturist, and with
increasing intelligence his fear and respect for Nature grew
deeper and stronger. So too it was that, looking upon her as
his first great mother, she became his mentor and friend, his
guide and counsellor, and in this way his religion. For all he
saw in Nature was all he had to see and to reflect upon,
the organic and the inorganic life and dissolution, that which
gave and that which took, the preserving and the destructive
causes, and between these conflicting forces the process of dis-
crimination (in other words, moral evolution) slowly and gradu-
ally developed itself. Thus he saw and felt, mentally and
physically, what to him was right and what to him was
wrong, but in this early stage of his development all the con-
cerns of his narrow life were, as a matter of course, reduced
to personalities. Everything about him, his own human

surroundings, theanimal and vegetable life, the material
objects, and the spiritual elements were all personal. There-
fore, in time, those which were grateful or beneficial to him
were attributed to the intervention of the friendly spirits, and

those which were obnoxious or hurtful to his enemies or the
evil disposed.
CHAP. II PRIMITIVE MAN S EARLY DEVELOPMENT 95
But although many of the surrounding objects in Nature,

most of all, the greater elements, that he was often in touch
with, appealed to early man, it was in the animal world
especially that his powers of observation centred, and this, if
we think of it, was but natural.
True, the trees not only supplied him with food, but
sheltered and clothed him, and in a way, as it were, talked to
him, and were, so to speak, connecting links between himself
and the departed, and between them again and the greater
spirit of Nature. But so too were the animals, for they were
unmistakably nearer to him than the vegetable. In them, as
in the trees, reposed the souls of those who were gone. To
them too he looked for food, but with this difference, that he
had to fight for and first of all to kill them, until there came
a time, long after, when capturing certain of them in their
infancy, he learned to tame and then to subdue them to suit
his own uses and requirements.
And this fact, that in animals there was not only strength but
stealth, and a cunning that frequently got the better of his own,
must have exercised a very considerable influence in the shaping
of those ideas which afterwards developed into transmigration.
For natural man, even after he had become an agriculturist,
was naturally and essentially a hunter, —
not altogether from
choice, but from necessity. Everything combined to make
him so the nature that was in him as well as the nature that
;
was outside him; the conditions and circumstances, the entire

environment that surrounded him, —
all the instincts in him
were animal. He had to exist to do so he had to propagate

;
his species, and in order to propagate he was obliged to

preserve them.
In those days, much more so than now, it was a time of
perpetual warfare, and man was continually engaged in com-
bating with man as well as with animals. It is, however,
with the latter that we have to do at present. To fulfil the
natural conditions of self-existence, propagation, and preserva-
tion, he was always on his own defence and that of his family,
and he became skilful, not only in using his eyes, his ears,
so
and his hands, but in every animal art and wile that he could
practise, by utilising not only his own strongly developed
instincts, but by learning from the animals, with whom he

was in contact, every and stratagem that he found
artifice
in them. Yet, curiously enough, it was not the huge and
terrifying monsters that he studied most, but rather the

smaller and more insignificant creatures, either animal or
reptile, whose and ingenuity most attracted him.
craft
Yet not curious, but only natural after all. For this fact
of cunning being appreciated before size and strength, points
to the fact that early man, when he had begun to realise his
position, had more intelligence and possessed greater powers
of observation than he has ever been given credit for. None
the less was he an animal, though an intelligent and speaking
animal, reason endowed, but overswayed by emotion, which at
times obscured his reason ; and the explanation is simple. For
while emotion was the outcome of an ancient animal organism,
of which it was an advancement and development, reason was
a new-born faculty, a higher development, in a very embryonic
and undeveloped state. But notwithstanding this, reason had
increased his intelligence, had enabled him to apply his animal
knowledge — that up to then had been restricted by the total
absence of intelligent expression.
Thus reason, in these early days, although subordinated to
emotion, played for all that a great though unconscious part
in counselling, but not in controlling the latter. For emotion
was distinctly the controller, yet with reason dimly conscious
close by, feeling its way, in fact, through this extremely
sensitive orsân.
o
It was not, tlierefore, altogether to brute strength but to
extreme secrecy and cunning that man looked. It was not
might that impressed him so much as craft it was not power ;
so much as skill. Strange as this may appear, we have but to

study the savage to find that it is true ; and when the fact is
taken into consideration that it was reason asserting her indis-
putable supremacy, there was nothing singular about it after all.
Hence it was, to quote but one example, that among these
Delta tribes, the tortoise in their folk-lore occupies the pre-
eminent position of king over all animals in the bush, just as
we find it occupying a prominent position in Aryan and other
mythologies.
This in itself speaks for the intelligence of the early

thought leaders, and shows that the germ of science, curiosity,
and its right-hand assistant, observation, were even then at
work, but it also shows even more than this. It was not man
himself — the ego, the individual —who was at work, it was
Nature, or in other words, the cosmic forces and energies which
comprise what we call Iâture, in whose grasp man was but
an unconscious and plastic instrument, working out his own
destiny, i.e. his natural evolution.
So that, if we only look in the right direction, with our
eyes and ears open, and compare the various animal instincts
with the human, we will find there not two chains but one
single chain, each link of which is an instinct, connected right
through, without a missing link a chain that demonstrates, as
;
clearly as do Darwin's structural links, the one connected and

continuous evolution, from the germ plasm up to man, Iâture's
highest effort, i.e. as far as we with our limited human re-
strictions can tell.
It was through the constant contact with animals that

man's already sharpened animal wits became more than ever
sharpened, through the counselling faculty that was invariably
at his disposal when he chose to call upon it. Yet in spite
of his great animal knowledge, emotion, through the spiritual
mists which imagination had conjured up, blinded his reason
to such an extent that he actually saw in them, i.e. in his
imagination, certain characteristics or powers which had no
existence, except in his own mental mechanism. Indeed, if
we can but contrive to look upon the human organism as a

livinsj but mere machine, and look into its mechanism with
the same perspicacity that an expert looks into the works of a
clock, the whole conception of man's physical and mental
structure, more complex though it be, reveals itself almost as
plainly as does the latter.
So, too, if we but possess the patience to trace these
instincts, by one, from the animal up through man,
one
savage, barbaric, and in his most civilised state, we will be
merely writing the psychological aspect of the history of
evolution, which is, as it were, the other aspect of the
physiological.
H
CHAPTER III
THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL INSTINCTS
Haying traced religion, i.e. religious instinct, to its source, and

seen for ourselves the germ out of which it has arisen and
continues to arise, it now remains for us to see how it was
that natural man, acting under the tuition of an improving
reason, expanded and developed these instincts into a
ceremonial.
Natural man was an observer, a hunter at heart and by-
instinct, and an agriculturist only from necessity — the

necessity of increased wants and needs that emanated as
a direct result of increasing observation and intelligence.
Further, this natural state of society, as it long ago existed,
was formed on the patriarchal, or personal and proprietary
system, each family at first, then each community, being ruled
over by the patriarch or proprietor, who, supreme in life,
continued his supremacy in the spirit.
Eeligion i.e. the fundamental instinct as we have seen, —
was in man, and he had already felt, and acutely felt (in spite
of his innate egoism, and of his being the sole possessor of
speech combined with reason) his absolute lielplessness and
dependency on a power that was outside him and stronger
than his own strength. Thus it was that, in the personal and
impersonal objects by which he was surrounded, he had seen
through his imagination, at the same time that he had felt
through every fibre of his body, the outside essence, the
shadow form, the soul, the spirit — in other words, the life that
animated not only himself, but all Nature.
Thus it was that the patriarch had become first the
98
CHAP. Ill THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL INSTINCTS 99
spirit father, and then the ancestral deity, and thus in time
a worship grew up around those shadow spirits, who, in spite
of their enforced departure into the land of the shadows or
spirits, continued to exercise, as they had done in life, their
patriarchal authority over their families, for good or for evil,
as the case Thus propitiation became necessary, in
might be.
order to ensure or to secure a goodly regime. So one need
led to another, and out of imagined necessities grew and uprose
a set of customs and a formula of offerings and sacrifices that
gradually developed into religious ceremonial, and later on ritual.
But as reason developed and thought expanded, fresh
necessities arose and new ideas formed. Of necessity naturally
curious, i.e. as a matter of instinct or nature, the thought
leader was not satisfiedwith this cult alone, and the
question of his origin next became a source of speculation,
the observant and reflective faculties making a further demand
upon the imagination.
It is indeed quite possible to conceive the originator of the
idea, with perception still limited, and constitution essentially
emotional, confronted with the task of unfolding the family
genealogical tree to the various and now numerous members,
retiring into the silence and secrecy of the forest for medita-
tion and contemplation over a question around which mystery
had always reigned. The production of a human entity
example
himself, for —
entailed a certain process of connection
between two individuals of opposite sexes as the result of
separate energies. Humanly speaking, duality of function in
one entity was not possible, at least there was no evidence of
it, therefore he could only explain the fecundity of the earth on
the same principle.

Yet, amid all this wondrous and virile fecundity, dissolu-
tion or death stalked not as a grisly spectre but as a grim
an invisible yet inexorable force, the omnivorous God
reality,
and devourer of human bodies, so that carnal life modified
and vegetable life decayed, only, however, to bloom and to
blossom once more into vital living things. So the process
went on. Death, as it were, gave life, and out of dissolution
came reproduction — one long procession, the links in which
were death and life, and life and death.
lOO THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
If the son was of the father, the fatherwas of the son,

for the son in his turn became father, and the father lived
again in the son, in the spirit as in the flesh. Thus, although
decay was was even more in evidence,
always in evidence, life
and, springing from the very core and centre of decay, it became
in man's eyes continuous.
It was inway, as an outcome of the emotions and
thisi
imaginations, that there arose among the thinking individuals

of these natural communities, from out of the ranks of the
leaders of thought more particularly, " the Foreteller of
Dreams," " the Seer," " the Prophet," " the Talker or Orator,"
" the Story-Teller or Eeciter," and " the Exorcist or Witch
Doctor."
It was in this way too — who at least can doubt that
knows the idiosyncrasies of these Delta peoples ? — that those
shrewd and acute leaders no time in
lost among finding
certain members of their own communities those whose
animal instincts were more fully developed, whose systems were
more nervously organised, and who consequently were more
emotional, therefore more easily swayed and led than others
members, too, who, in most cases, were undoubtedly pre-
disposed to those diseases of hysteria, epilepsy, and maybe
mania, which in their eyes were merely spiritual aftections
or afflictions, i.e. possession by spirits.
Thus it was that, long ages since, this ready-made material,
the agent —
the modern so-called medium was discovered, —
and made use of by the more masterful and calculating men.
As religious ritual developed, these men occupying as they —
did the inferior social position of younger sons or brothers of
the patriarch —
blossomed into the priests of their rapidly
spreading communities, thus assuming the office that had
previously been filled and exercised by the patriarchs them-
selves, not merely by virtue of their own supreme or exalted
positions, but first of all, as the first-born sons of their fathers ;
these new priests in the early, as in the later history of human

progress, were the first and earliest opportunists, seizing, as
the earlier bird does the early wôrm, every opportunity, and
taking advantage of every thought or act that could raise them
to supremacy, and the position of their office to pre-eminence.
CHAP. Ill THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL INSTINCTS loi
Amongst the people whose sociology I am endeavouring

to describe in this book, the principle of the dual existence of
the real and the shadow life is quite evident, not only in
their religion, their laws, their customs, and their charac-
but in every phase and action of their
teristics, lives. It is
from them that I have traced what appears to have me to
been the evolution of primitive thought and religious develop-
ment. Still in a state of Nature, the process which is now
under discussion has advanced them no further than to the

second stage of religious evolution, viz. phallic worship, which,
however, has been practically discontinued in favour of the
ancestral cult.
With the progress from a hunting life to agriculture an
improvement and development had taken place in the social
scale. The families, or first social units, had increased and
multiplied, and necessitated a further extension of premises
and a greater area for cultivation. This expansion of the
units, as in the previous stage of development, but in increas-
ing ratio, had developed into communities which necessitated
greater demands, among which religious and moral principles
figured most prominently.
We have already seen how the fundamental instincts,
working on man's imagination, through the sensations and
emotions, had originated first of all in the belief of a spiritual
life, outside and beyond his own material existence, around
which he had gradually woven another belief in the spirit

control of the departed father, that was begun and continued
after death. And we have seen that, as time went on, pro-
gressive man had gathered around this article of his faith a
ceremonial of sacrifice and propitation which, in one word,
became what we now know as ancestral worship.
But while the instincts and ideas that prompted this
belief were developing, other ideas were simultaneously at work,
and other principles were formmg, first and foremost of which
was the principle of procreation.
Here, as near as it is possible to judge, we have the first
appearance on the scene of the appointed priest, as sole
human guardian of the worship and ceremonial with which
he himself had surrounded the procreative principle.
THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
Looking farther ahead, it was in his own likeness
although he did not think so or know it — that he saw the
good and great spirit who had created him, and from whom
he The explanation of this is
afterwards traced his origin.
simple. Mystified by his own utter impotence, and terrified
by the destructive powers he saw in Nature, man saw in
himself a reproduction, a living image of the great spirit, the
first father, who had made or produced him. In this great
spirit, the creator of all things, "he who came down from
above," he saw in his descent to earth a combination of the
male and female energies, which resulted in the production of
the first man and woman. For by this time certain
the first
powers had made themselves felt more than others, and above
all were the powers of death and life. Naturally with the
former he connected night, i.e. darkness, and with the latter
day, i.e. light, and the sun who gave that light. So that to
connect light with what is good, and death with what is evil,
was in no sense a difficult matter.

But just as in his own family there was only one head,
so the idea of one creator seems to have originated, but as
reproduction was not possible without a combination of two
different and varying was a natural conception to
energies, it
conceive the idea of the earth as the offspring of light and
darkness —
the latter settling down upon the former and the —
constant mastery of death or darkness, yet the equally con-
stant recovery or eventual supremacy of light or life. Death
and life, or evil and good, alternating, or keeping the balance,
in other words.
This exactly represents the principle on which the whole
fabric of Delta religion and society is firmly established.
Hence it is that the first spiritual ancestor, long since deified,

holds the position of God the Creator. Hence it is also that
the earth to this day is considered sacred, and offerings of
food and libations are made to her as the original mother.
Hence too, the fact that father or ancestor worship prevails

to this day, and the origin of the expression "father and
mother "
— now in use to the head of a house or a great per-
sonality — but which originally implied the duality of the
male and female energies in the person of the father, just as
CHAP. Ill THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL INSTINCTS 103
in the Aryan religion Siva, under the name of Eudra or

Maha-Kala, is the great destroying or dissolving power, but
as destruction in their belief implied reproduction, so as
" Sankara," the auspicious, he is the reproductive power, which
is perpetually restoring that which has been dissolved.
Having with such apparent ease and facility satisfied his
moral conscience, such as it was, with these two cults of the
ancestor and the Linga, it is only reasonable to infer that
man ought to have remained satisfied. Yet in face of what is
known of the ceaseless activity and interminable continuity of
mental evolution, this, it must be admitted, was not possible.
Nature from the very beginning has never ceased to evolve,
but even in her very fixity of purpose there is much diversity
of variations, not only in the organic world, but in that
extremely variable quantity, human nature. So thought went
on developing, and with its development new ideas and fresh
aspirations sprang into existence. For although he was now^
an agriculturist, living under more improved conditions than
he had formerly done as a hunter, pure and simple, man was
still of Nature, and it would have been impossible for him to
have lived so long without making a practical exemplification

of those objects which most appealed to him. Imagination,
excited by the emotions and inspired by the surroundings,
was still responsible —
as it now is —
for his thoughts and acts,
because the seat and source of imagination was merely an

evolution from Nature herself
Thus it was that his own environment not only made but
educated him, not only supplied him with a vivid impression
of the reality, but with the reality itself. Thus impressions
became convictions, and he saw everywhere, in the objects of
Nature, personal objects that appealed to his very emotional
nature, because endowed with the self-same spirit that had
quickened him into life.
In vegetable, animal, and human life, in the perpetual

cycle of birth and re-birth, religious ideas were instilled into
him, and moral seed was sown.
In the various movements and changes of sun and planets,
in the fluctuations and contrasts of climate the rigour of —
cold and the ardour of heat in the ebb and flow of seas and
;
rivers, inthe mysterious hush and silence, in sonorous music,

varying from the sweet warbling of feathered songsters, or the
soft sougliing of the zephyrs amid the leafy labyrinths, to the
deep-toned tliunder of the sky and the fierce raging of the
storm winds, enhanced as both of them usually are by the
splendid illuminations of the arching firmament in the down- ;
pour of blinding rain, and in the beautiful colouring of the

suspended bow (phallic symbol as it became), the religious
idea long since originated, grew, and expanded.
In these and other natural phenomena are to be seen,
as we already know, not only the beginnings of natural
religion, but its later developments, and if eventually these
developed into deities and sects without number, into the
three hundred and thirty millions of the Hindus, and
gods innumerable of other nations, it is but a living and
practical illustration of the variations that human nature is
capable of
Intense spiritualists as were — and as still are — these
natural people, religion was not, as I have all along pointed
out, merely an independent idea or conception of the brain,
but the result of instinct —
an outcome of Nature itself, of
the ideal inspired by her.
To natural man, everything about him was personal and
proprietary. In his father he not only recognised his pro-
genitor, but being of and from him, his father was his owner and
the master of his fate, as he was the owner and lord of house,
land, and all therein and thereon. So, among the Ibo,
Tsineke, i.e. God His name implies, the

the Creator, is, as
owner of heaven, i.e. the sky and same way, among
; in the
the Ibani, Tamuno occupied exactly the same position, just
as Olorun does among the Yoruba. And as it is in India,
among the Hindu, so these people believe that the existence

of human beings, although the direct and practical result of
two different energies, is all the same an act of creation, on

the part of the Creator, in whose hands they are but instru-
ments or agents.
In the same way, the powers of Nature presented them-
selves to him as so many personal objects, just as a child of
our own day personifies a rag doll into a companion, and talks
CHAP. Ill THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL LNSTLNCTS 105
to it as such, or individualises a stone or stick that has hurt it

into an offending personality.
Commencing, therefore, as he had originally done, with the
personal objects nearest to and dearest or deadliest to him,
as the case might be, he continued to select the impersonal
objects, those first of all with which his associations or con-
nections had been most intimate. In this way, for instance,
he selected trees, stones, and certain reptiles or animals, snakes,
for example, all of which, as we shall see later on, became
closely associated with the ceremonials of the two worships, of
the ancestor and the Linga —
trees being, as it were, assigned
to the former, while stones and serpents were utilised as
symbols for the latter.
Having once commenced, thought, essentially a motive
power, went on moving and evolving. So out of the awe and
reverence that man had inherited for the immediate elements,
which were one with him in the spirit but above him in the
scale of creation and power, he personified them into gods and
spirits. Thus the various physical features of the earth, the
mountains, rocks, ravines, glens, groves, woods, forests, rivers,

pools, lakes, etc. became alive with divinities and demons of
all kinds, that soon extended their dominions into the utter-
most parts of the earth, the air, and the waters. From this it
was but a step to a similar personification of the distant
phenomena that surrounded him, but which, being at a distance
and seemingly harmless in themselves, excited no awe and
little if any admiration. For in the natural man admiration
was only extended to those things or objects which to him
were serviceable, useful, and satisfying on the one hand, or
inimical, destructive, and terrifying on the other. Thus it
was that sun, moon, and stars were only taken into a
graduated sort of account in his very realistic imagination, in
accordance with the degree of intelligence that was engendered

in him —
which of course depended almost entirely on the
nature of his environment. Hence it is that, while among the
Aryans and other imaginative peoples speculation soared aloft
and ran riot among the starry nebula of the Infinite, these
matter-of-fact spiritualists of the Delta whose mental—
vision has ever been limited and confined, were obliged
io6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
and content to remain nearer to the earth upon which they

lived.
That the veneration of the father, and through him of the
ancestor, is but a part of the natural process of Nature, is evi-
dent to the scientist who lias made a special study of animal
life. For apart from the affection of the offspring for the
parents, even among the wildest varieties, there is also
especially among the higher and domesticated species —
distinct attitude of fear and respect that sometimes remains
even when adolescence has been attained. Here, however,
the difference between the animal and human kingdoms is
most marked, adolescence in no sense diminishing but, on the
contrary, increasing the existing veneration of the children for
their parents.
It is but natural to infer that the lower the scale of intel-
ligence the less refined and intellectual in comparison is the
ancestral veneration. In other words, the more natural the
people, i.e. the nearer to Nature, the more sensual and
animalistic will their worship be.
But that this must exist, even to some limited degree, is
self-evident, if we admit — a truth which in reality is undeni-
able — that this veneration takes its rise, or is at least closely

connected with and related to those basic instincts of exist-
ence, propagation, and self-preservation that are inherent in
every being.
If this be the case, as assuredly it seems to be, ancestral
worship in some form or shape must at one time or other, in
the history of human evolution, have formed the religion of all
primitive and natural people. Indeed, apart from any animistic
belief, inevitably woven up as this is with the ancestral, this
veneration of the father — merging into hero-worship — is an
innate principle, at this very moment in existence, in a greater
or lesser degree, in every individual of the human race, irre-
spective of colour, condition, and environment.
If it be true, as stated, that among the Juangs, a wild
tribe in Bengal, no definite worship of ancestors is visible
a statement the truth of which I am inclined to doubt —
total absence of religion might with a very strong show of
evidence be affirmed. For if this cult is not universal —
CHAP. Ill THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL INSTLNCTS 107
question that is also open to doubt —

it is at least natural.
ISTay more, it is but the deepest, purest, and truest expression

of Nature in her normal state of evolution, which in the
direction of the vegetable and the animal reaches the
culminating point in her highest effort, the human being.
An expression, which, although it is not recognised as such,
prevails, even to this day, in a form that is equivalent to a
religious instinct among the Christianised and most cultured
races of Europe.
It is the fashion of the civilised unit to talk lightly and
airily of customs and superstitions as relics of barbarism.
Substitute " naturism " for the latter word, as the more
accurate and expressive definition of the meaning to be con-
veyed, and we will find that even among our cultured selves
there are many of these self-same relics which are as strongly
implanted in us as they were in our primitive ancestors. Not
only implanted, indeed, but ineradicable, being as they are
inherent principles belonging to the mystic and all-containing
protoplasm. But veneration for ancestry and antiquity is
nothing surprising when we reflect that the same reverence
for old customs, for country, and for ancestry prevail among
civilised nations. Is there, for instance, not in existence, even
among the lowliest of families in Europe, some relic, a glove,
or piece of ribbon, that has been worn, a pipe that has been
smoked with, a glass cup that has been drunk out of, a coat
that has been worn, a button which has been worn on that
coat, a stick that has been walked with, and a thousand other
relics too numerous to mention once belonging to and used by
the dead, cherished by the most highly civilised and even
intellectual people with almost as much reverence and affection
as the savage shows for his beloved symbol ?
True, the relic is to the former a mere keepsake, and
nothing more, and, unlike that of the latter, spiritless, but in
the sense that it is a memento of the departed, in the existence
of whose the owner in nine cases out of ten believes,
spirit
it is scarcely any the less a spiritual relic than the
symbol of
the savage. Indeed, apart from the fact that it is not the
receptacle of a mediator, and so not appealed to, it is quite as
spiritual, and in many instances as often looked at, in mute

io8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES part hi
but pathetic appeal, under circumstances that are abnormally

distressing yet intensely human.
Chiefest of these relics, however, is the respect and
veneration that is paid to men of genius and commanding
personality. There is nothing strange in this, however.
It is, in a few words, the nature which is in us — one
of the strongest links that connect the present with the
past, civilisation with barbarism, the animal with humanity,
and the lowly germ of life with Nature's highest effort.
In this veneration for great and good personalities it is
quite possible to trace the original principle that was

embodied when the cult of ancestor worship first came into
being.
In other words, this ancient cult was the parent stem,
from which phallic worship was but an offshoot. A venera-
tion for those powers of generation which, to natural man's
intelligence, very forcibly and practically represented the con-
tinuity of life in its two principal stages of dissolution and
reproduction as the act of the creative spirit ancestor, by means
of human agents. Hence the honour and reverence that was
paid to parents — to the fathers more particularly by children, —
as living embodiments of a vital principle, embodiments that
were carried on from father to son, along with the eternal and
unalterable principle.
When we consider that the family is the social unit, is
in fact the fundamental basis of all society, there is nothing

either strange or wonderful in the idea of ancestral worship,
or in the veneration of personality in modern humanity. For
apart from all the sublimer, ethical, and aesthetic considera-
tions which are an outcome of civilisation, the principle which,
as we have seen, is born in and cemented, a
us, is ratified
hundred times over, by the ever-present and attractive bond of

magnetic association.
Here, again, in this feature is to be seen the intense
humanity of all religions. For it is not only the mild Hindu
or the down-trodden negro —
upon whom theologians look with
an ineffable pity that is merely disguised superciliousness
whose gods are ancestral, i.e. fashioned in their own human
image, who are guilty of hero-worship, but equally with them
CHAP. Ill THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL INSTLNCTS 109
the Christian, the entire fabric of whose religion hangs together

on the personality of its founder.
The whole fact of the matter is that this cult of the
ancestor is in us all, regardless of creed or nationality, because
it is natural, is no avoiding or getting away from it.
and there
Indeed even the Christian, say what he will, not only looks
forward to meeting those who have brought him into this
world, and who have gone before him into the next, but he
believes as firmly as does the barbarian that these ancestral
spirits are, so to speak, watching over him and his worldly
concerns from their spiritual eminence, with a certain amount
of spiritual benefit.
SECTION II
THE NATURISM OF THE DELTA

AN EXPLANATORY INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I
NATURAL RELIGION DEFINED AND THE TERM NATURISM JUSTIFIED
To define this natural evolution of religion accurately and

truthfully, there is but one word in the English language
that appears to me to meet the case, with all its varied radia-
tions, and that word is naturism, embracing, absorbing, and
including, as it does, the minutest of details within a compass
that is as expansive as it is comprehensive. For not only is
it self-containing, but inasmuch as it implies, as it is meant to
imply, that nature is the fountain-head and germ from which

this natural religion has grown and developed, it is as perfect
as any human combines the probable

definition can be ; for it
with the possible, the substance with the shadow, the reality
with the imitation, and the internal with the external.
And if ever naturism had, as it were, a cradle, the Niger
Delta, with its unique environment, physical and climatic, is
that cradle. Not that for a moment do I mean to infer that
was in any sense the home of naturism but what
this locality ;
I do mean to imply is that there is not in existence on the

whole surface of the globe a more fitting environment for the
centre of natural religion than this pestiferous and malarial
region.
But this is not the only justification of this evident
definition ; for on looking into the matter we will find that
practically all the creeds which have radiated from naturism

certainly all those of the greatest importance flourish among —
these Delta natives with a wealth of self-contained fervour
that can only be equalled by the rank luxuriance of the
vegetation. For, driven into a corner, as it were, physically
113 I
114 '^HE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, ii
and mentally, — and such a pestilential corner too, — they have

literally stewed in their own stagnant juice, and so remained
and prehistoric humanity amid the
standing, a type of natural
advanced and progressive civilisation of the twentieth century.
While naturism, as it exists in the various beliefs of the
Delta people, stands for Nature pure and simple, as represented
first of all by her four great divisions of the human, animal,
vegetable, and mineral, and then by the elements, forces, and

energies her, including even the minutest material
within
objects, animism is its animating principle. In other words,
it is the principle which endows naturism with soul or spirit,
— its internal aspect as represented in fetichism by objects,
in idolatry by idols, and in totemism by emblems, living or —

otherwise. Let me select as an illustration of this great
stream of religious evolution, with its numerous radiations,
the great river of the Delta to represent the cult of naturism,
its main channel standing for ancestral worship, its two main
branches for fetichism and idolatry, and its network of creeks
for the various creeds, which are known as the worships of
trees, stones, animals, serpents, earth, fire, water, etc.
This number of creeds, representing as it does a variety of
divinities and deities who, like the gods of the Hindus, are
practically beyond calculation, perplexing as it may at first
sight appear, is not nearly so confusing when the matter is
in reality looked into with every care and attention. For,

notwithstanding the fact that formulas and ceremonials, guided
and controlled by conditions and circumstances, have radiated
in all directions, the original religious instincts of ancestral
fear and veneration still remain, founded and established, as
they are, on a basis that is absolutely enduring. And the
explanation of this is simple enough.
For the radiations, local and superficial as they have been,
that have taken place have been merely the result of
independent and individual thought —
an outcome of a system,
patriarchal and egoistic as it was, that was based on the will
and egoism of the individual. And it was this self-same
principle that, in spite of ceremonial radiations, could not tear
itself away from the ancestral — in other words, from the
inevitable.
CHAP. I NATURISM 115
Hence internally we have the same main idea, externally

housed in different tenements and clothed in a variety of
garbs, —
the same gods, spirits, and dogmas, vîth different
names and varying degrees of prominence, due in some
measure to occupied by the various localities
the position
and the and rivalries that had existed among them,
jealousies
as a result of which it is possible, amid this prolific polytheism,
to trace in naturism a distinct species of henotheiem in the
universal prevalence and predominance of ancestral worship
over all other so-called cults. Indeed, irrespective of the
fact that the cult is of the tree, the stone, the animal, or
other object, the spirit or deity so symbolised is practically
in every case the personification of an ancestor. It is there-
fore not by any means an easy matter to describe in one word
these various so-called worships, which are in reality merely
branches symbolical of the one central belief. Indeed, only
three words appear to me to fulfil the requisite conditions.
The first formed from a local word,
of these, "ju-juism,"
"egugu," which has been corrupted into "ju-ju," meaning an
idol, that is, a sacred emblem, is neither adequate nor expres-
sive enough to define and express in one word the various

formulas of Delta religion. For, strictly speaking, although it
defines the animistic element by which, in the form of some

dead man's spirit, certain emblems are inspired, it is as a rule
used to represent merely the emblem of deceased ancestors,
who have not even been necessarily deified.
Animism, on the other hand, while to a great extent
defining the animistic and essential element, is much too
exclusive, inasmuch as it does not in any sense include the
extravagant emblemism which, although it is, as its name
implies, a mere external and material figurism, occupies an
important position as an inspired agency or medium of
mediation.
To extricate myself, therefore, from such an awkward
predicament I have had recourse to the one word that, for
want of a better, most expressively and comprehensively
defines the entire situation. For if these natives have any
religion at all, it is, as I have endeavoured to describe it, a
purely natural evolution — in other words, the religion of
ii6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, ii
nature : a perception of those natural instincts and sensa-

tions that are never at rest, requiring, as they do, some outlet
for their emotional energies an outlet that, suspicious of
;
motive and intent, and fearful of consequences, yet confident,

therefore hopeful, of preservation, possibly salvation, propitiates
by oblations and sacrifices in one direction, while it venerates
by the same ceremonial in another.
That first of all a silent then an expressed adoration,
combined with the fear of the father or ancestor, was the first,
as it seems to be the natural, basis of all worship, and that
man's earliest religious instincts developed from this into a
reverence for the mystic power of procreation that was so
practically evidenced in their own organisms, and that out of
these grew the ceremonials since called ancestral and phallic,
is at least admissible. And it is on this same basis that
naturism has for ages existed, although at present the former
cult, more than the latter, is now in evidence. For it cannot
be denied that early spiritualism, just as we find it in exist-
ence among the Delta natives to this day, was an anthropo-
morphic or purely personal matter and as natural man always
;
felt the ills and stings of life more than its benefits and
advantages, seems only natural to infer that, connecting

it
as he did the spiritual with the human, he first of all

venerated and propitiated those personal entities whom he
believed had within them the possibilities of doing and
working him harm, then mere objects, such as trees, stones,
etc., although these of course afterwards also became objects

of personal association as resting-places for the spirits of the
departed. Certainly, as far as the Delta people are concerned,
every single link in their sociology seems to point to this
absolutely natural order of events and the worship or propitia-
;
tion of animals or objects as being the recipients, also the

symbols, of spirits, who were as liable to be inimical as to be
friendly, was but the multiplication or extension of individual
ideas. These fetiches and idols were, in merely emblem-
iact,
atical religious adjuncts that grew out of the one main

ancestral idea, which has as strong a hold now on these still
natural people as it had on their still more primitive ancestors.
To fêt at the germ of naturism, however, it is necessary
NATURISM 117
first Nature in all her many moods and varying

of all to get at
aspects and in order to do this and to see her as she is, we
;
must go to the Delta and look at it as the birthplace of these

natural men, who, as a unit of Nature, live in and exist on her,
as their prehistoric ancestors did before them. And when we
have done so, we are bound to recognise and acknowledge that,
from a mental and moral standpoint, the savage first and then
the barbarian are the two first links in the chain of human
existence as it has evolved out of the animal, as this and the
vegetable evolved out of the same common protoplasm, up to
the present culminating point of the highest civilisation.
Yet it is not in man alone, as we find him at this moment,
nor is it in his religion, his customs, his laws, and in all his
various idiosyncrasies that the true and perfect exposition of
naturism will be found. To get this we must go even deeper
—we must go to the root of the matter, and the root of the
matter lies in his instincts, and these, to be understood, must
in their turn be traced to the Nature in which he lives, and
which, not merely by analogy or association, but in visible
and tangible reality, lives in him.
To accomplish a result such as this, to see and to under-
stand these natives, we must first of all study animal life as
it also exists in the numerous streams and the densely forested
swamps and uplands of their native country.
But to get into touch with these natives it is absolutely
essential, first of all, to get into sympathy with them, and this
can only be done by living in their midst inside their huts —
—
and in their towns and in this way being in actual contact
with the life that is lived by all classes.
Mix freely with the people, see and hear them in the
domestic and political concerns of their everyday life, more
especially in counsel and debate, — then the student will
realise how the moods and aspects of physical nature live
and express themselves in all their thoughts and actions.
Dilatory to excess in their normal condition, they will put
off a palaver or await an event with that peculiarly tenacious
patience which believes that there is a time for everything,
and that this time or thing will come eventually if only the
philosopher waits long enough. But if either the palaver or
ii8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, ir
the event one which is distasteful to them, or for whicli

is
they have no relish, they will wait until the hearing of the
one or the acceptance of the other is actually forced upon
them.
Sedate, dignified, and self-possessed, they will discuss the
question at issue with much and
perspicacity and acumen,
with an intelligence that displays a shrewd knowledge of
human nature. For, simple as they are, with the simplicity

of all natural people, as excellently depicted and demonstrated
in the humid hazel eyes and the gentle demeanour of the
graceful hush deer, mingling with their naweU is the suhtlety
of the snake which crawls and the leopard that creeps on
the unsuspecting prey with a noiseless, velvety stealth that
deadens every sound and defies all detection.
Let, however, a disturbing or antipathetic element enter
into the arena of the slumbering discussion, let but some
discordant note disturb the harmony of the proceedings,
which are being conducted with the gravity, composure, and
—
decorum of the House of Commons, and if ever the student
has seen a tornado burst upon an atmosphere of abnormal
stillness, he will have seen as apt an illustration of a quick
and sudden transformation in the human passions as it is

any portion of the universe.
possible to see in For a change
of temperature in these barometric people is quite as sudden
and as unexpected as the thunder -tongued and lightning
illumined tornado. To apply a modern expression which is
distinctly applicable to them, they are lightning artists who
jump from the quiet and impressive dignity of decorum to
the fierce impetuosity and excitement of pent-up emotions in
one single bound. Indeed it is extremely difficult at times
for a critic to reconcile himself to the idea that he is not
dealing with two absolutely different races of beings who are
apparently as diametrically opposite to each other as the two
great elements of water and fire. Association, however, soon
disabuses the mind of any such idea, and the critic finds that
they are in reality one people, who are perfectly natural, but
extreme dualists —
not only as living a dual existence, in the
flesh and in the spirit, but as being double in every sense and
characteristic — that is, human as well as animal.
CHAP. I NATURISM 119
But the student must see them in the dense, dark forests
of their native soil, hunters and bushmen to the backbone.
Then he will find it also possible to understand how natural
itwas that man became a hunter and so got into immediate

touch with animal life, and that having, as he had in the
primitive prehistoric days, only the crudest of weapons his —
own eyes and hands, a sapling, and some stones to begin with
— he learnt to fight with all the snare and artifice of an
expanding intelligence. Living at constant warfare with the
animal and reptile round him in the dense bush
life all
and in the treacherousquagmires and streams, pitting his

craft, as he did, against their cunning, man's own natural wits
and senses were sharpened and quickened. So that, among

these Delta natives, analogy and environment have but
strengthened or developed those inherent animal instincts
which, in their concentrated and abstract form, we speak of
as the wisdom of the serpent and the gentleness of the lamb.
There is little or no transition from the chase to the
sterner conditions of war, for whether these natives are
fighting against the animal or their own species, they do

so on identically the same lines of stealth and cunning, the
only difference being in degree, and a greater exercise of
intelligence and consequent sharpening of the subtleties of
the faculties when opposed to a higher form of intelligence
than that of the animal.
To see these people, as I have seen them, both in tlie
chase and in war, is to see the man transformed into the
animal and the reptile, creeping and crawling through the
bush, at times like the agile leopard on all fours, at others
wriggling on the stomach snake-like, and yet again climbing
trees with the agility of monkeys, or shuffling along after the
fashion of the active but ungainly gorilla, intent on one
thought only, and that to accomplish the death of the enemies
against whom they are contending.
It is only in the possession of animal or natural instincts
that it is rationally possible to explain such inhuman but
not unnatural customs as human sacrifice, which in its literal
sense is purely and absolutely a religious ceremonial that

arose in the first instance as an act of grace and submission
on the part of the human being to the ancestral spirit as

meeting the demand of a spiritual requirement — the menial
and servile offices of the personal attendant and the com-
panionship of a kinsman — by sacrificing the body to release
the soul
CHAPTEE II
THE PHYSICAL ENVIKONMENT ITS MENTAL AND MORAL

:
EFFECTS ON THE PEOPLE
The reader will have already gathered from my previous

description of the physical features, that it is not in any sense
of the word an environment that tends to exhilarate and
elevate the physical and the moral standard of its people, but,
on the contrary, that the effect produced is rather to demoralise
and devitalise.
To understand this it is essential to experience the
climate, so as to watch its effects upon the country. This,
which along the coast-line is only a narrow strip of alluvial
mud swamp, riven into a network of creeks and channels,
merges, as we have seen, first of all into a low-lying flat of
swamp and virgin forest, intersected by streams and rivers, and
higher up again breaks into hills, still clothed with forests and
well watered — moisture, marsh, and malaria,
a country of
and typical of that moral malaria,
inviting a torrential rainfall,
that devitalising force of Nature, which saps the physical and
the mental organism. That the life, vegetal, animal, and
human, of a locality so intimately bound up and associated
together, as all three of them are, must be, and is, very con-
siderably influenced by the physical characteristics and
features of its environment, and that this in turn is altogether
under the influence or control of atmospheric conditions, no
one can doubt who has watched the effects of the latter upon
the region of the Niger Delta, as well as upon the different
varieties of life which it sustains.
Watching all these closely, two facts which will make a
122 THE LOWER NICER AND ITS TRIBES sect, ii
very great impression on the student are ( 1 ) the ceaseless and :
eternal activity of the forces of dissolution and reproduction ;
(2) the experience that one of the chief agents in existence, of

either variation or change, is climate.
Looking at the whole matter through the focus of these
two main elements, it will be evident to him that while dis-
solution is accountable for, or at least assisted by, reproduction,
the climate, as a destructive factor, is in a great measure
responsible for dissolution.
Divided, as the climate practically is, into two seasons, the
dry and the wet, the one an extreme contrast to the other, it
is possible in this contrast, apart from deeper and more meta-
physical considerations, to trace an influence so remote that it

has long since passed into an inherited tendency. For it is an
influence which makes itself felt not merely in a physical
sense, but it is a dominating factor in the mental and moral
arena of delta life. Indeed, this element of contrast divides
the yearly routine of the people with the same marked effect
as it does the natural surroundings. Thus it is, that while the
rainy season is to the agriculturist the benefactor in the form
of the god of crops, the giver to them of good harvests, the
dry season,when water in the interiorbecomes scarce, is the
inconsumable demon of drought, who would if he could prevail
over the rain god — this order being just the reverse to those
tribes who live by fishing.
For during the dries everything of utility and beneficence
is, away, and Nature and the sacred mother
as it were, taken
earth are at their worst. This, of course, is due to the count-
less and thirsty drought demons, who, with a thirst which is
inconsumable, drink up all the moisture, so that the streams
run low, the rain-fed water holes shrink to puddles, the green
juicy foliage shrivels, and the earth herself gets baked, and
parched, and hot. So hot indeed, that the very animals and
reptiles slink before it, while the natives, half-drowned
away
and steamed, as they have been, in the vapour bath of Nature
during the rains, absolutely shrink within themselves under
the natural baking process, hiding themselves away underneath
the shade of the largest trees from the all-searching sun. So
it is too, that, looking as they do on this season as a period of
CHAP. II THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 123
repose and entertainment, they rest by day, and acting, as it

were, on the rebound, fling themselves with all the energy and
abandon that they are capable of into the entertainment of
dancing and feasting during the cooler hours of the night.
It is not only the sun that is responsible for the intense
dryness, but (in addition to the ordinary mists which prevail
in the morning and at night) the harmattan (smokes is the
local name), a dry cool wind that blows from the north,
presumably off the great Sahara desert, prevails for a period of
two or three months, or practically during the dry season.
Pervading the atmosphere with fine dust, giving it an appear-
ance of haze and gloom, these smokes, extending steadily from
one direction, without any apparent movement or cessation, parch
up the human skin, wither vegetation, and in fact dry up
everything that they come into contact with.
But bad enough as this is, it produces effects that are even
worse. For while rendering all surrounding objects obscure, it
dulls not only the eyes but to some extent the senses, and
acting through these with a distinctly conscious sensibility, it
most indubitably affects the emotions and the temperament.
It is not, however, the intense dryness and the unnatural
coldness of this atmosphere which are so trying as its per-
petual stagnation and absence of all movement, as well as the
aching feeling of obscurity and the sensible pressure which it
produces on the human system, physically and mentally, both
of them factors that are unmistakably agents of that ceaseless
element of unrest and change which we see in the countless
variations of natural evolution.
Then, with dramatic suddenness, in the month of April or
at the end of March, perhaps, see a tornado, like a fiery
thunderbolt let loose, fall fiat into the very midst of all this
strange silence and stagnation. Look out upon the scenery,
dry with fine dust and almost obscure because of the smoke
like haze of this erratic air-current, and watch (with a heart
awed by the might and majesty of a power unseen but felt)
the mysterious approach of the death-dealing but life-giving
tornado god, concealed by an avalanche of clouds, that look as
if they were about to fall and crush the fragile earth below.
Watch his oncoming onslaught, as the sky gradually deepens

in gloom, and before you have even realised it a change has

taken place.Silence and stagnation no longer exist; for
before the impetuous rush of the deity, whose voice is thunder,
whose deadly weapon is the lightning, and whose most dreaded
and destructive element is the wind, that drives all before it,
these impotent or rather passive forces, which have had it
their own way for so long, have tied in ignominy from whence
they came.
Silence and stagnation have indeed departed, and in their
place themad and tierce usurping wind is blowing in furious
and uncontrollable gusts through the gloom - laden forests,
swaying to its mad wild will the hoary giant trees as if they
were merely weeds or puny blades of grass, lashing at the
same time the turbid waters of the rivers into a fury almost as
indescribable as its own.
But now this great storm god is to be seen in all the glory
of riotous elements let loose, the electric element overhead
running riot in vivid streaks of living fire, like fiery sky
serpents, over the cloud - covered vault, to the magnificent
accompaniment of his own sonorous thunder.
To understand this grand and glorious display of the
stored-up power of natural forces, so as to realise the effect
that in process of time it has gradually and unconsciously
produced upon the nature of the natives, it is necessary for the
student to watch the storm up to the climax when the aerial
reservoir overhead bursts, and falls in one vast delusje on the
cowering, shrinking earth below, and her still more naked and
helpless humanity. And if he watches further, until the storm
has spent which it generally does in from half an hour
its fury,
to an hour or sometimes longer, he will find that the storm

god takes his departure as suddenly as he makes his appear-
ance, and that, although he is succeeded by a calm, it is not
that of the stagnant demon, whose unrelaxing grip leaves a
mark upon the people which only death can efface.
Let the student wâit two or three months longer, until
June, and from then into October, and experience a rainy
season in the Delta. Then he will see the ground, which had
been baked as hard and as dry as the inside of an oven, resem-
bling as it does a dried-up sponge, drink in the rain-water,
CHAP. II THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 125
which descends in one immense steady downpour and in one
long stretch of hours, that pay no heed to time, until the

almost dried-up streams swell into foaming, rushing torrents,
which carry all before them, while the surface of the country
becomes not only sodden, but satiated, by the continuous
and humid embrace of the clammy rain -god. Here, in a
personal sense, it is possible to trace to one of its manifold
sources the inherent dualism that is to be seen in every
element connected with their inmost and outmost sociology.
Before concluding this chapter, however, it is essential
that the reader, in order to lay the foundation for a subsequent
comprehension of the entire question of their religion, should
previously learn to understand the conception of the people
regarding beauty and the beautiful.
It is in no sense surprising that, from a civilised standard,
they have no refined conception and very little perception of

the beautiful. For with them, brutally literal as they are, a
thing of enjoyment rather than of beauty is a joy that is only
a joy so long as it lasts, yet before it can be an enjoyment
it must necessarily combine utility with substantiality. The

mere abstract pleasure must, in fact, be the result of association
or contact with some object that is useful as well as satisfying.
For it is an abstraction which, even though it may apply
wholly to the spiritual and religious, is derived essentially from
those instincts of Nature which are fundamental and purely
physical in their sensations and operations, and which, even in
the highest flight of conception, natural as this is, cannot
throw off the grosser materialism of Nature, pure and simple.
Not that I mean to imply that they cannot discriminate
between the refinement and spirituality of pure beauty and

the dross and bestiality of sheer ugliness, for they can and do,
after a fashion that is crude and degenerate; but their
standard of the beautiful, either from a physical or moral
standpoint, is not only not elevated, but in every sense on
the dead level of mediocrity.
So it is that, judged by the standard of civilisation, these
natives are distinctly wanting in a keen sense and appreciation

of the beautiful or sublime, and in the same way, too, it is
because their existence has been one perpetual conflict with
126 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, ii
Nature that they have in so marked a manner developed the

appreciation of the useful and the substantial. Hence only
utility appeals to them in the sense of beauty. Not only is
their standard of beauty, however, considerably lower than
that of civilisation, but altogether different. Thus, for
instance, while the European admires grace, suppleness, and
carriatre in thefemale form divine, a native of the Delta has
no eye for curves, but only for a figure that is solid and sub-
stantial, and which has, in fact, been gorged with food almost
to the bursting point.The beauty of youthfulness in a
woman them in a greater measure than the beauty
appeals to
of a maturity which has done its work or is past its prime,
but this again is from the standpoint of utility. For the
woman who is a mother is highly respected and honoured, and
valued accordingly but the woman who is barren or who ceases
;
to reproduce except by virtue of wealth, influence, or personality,

holds no place in their esteem. Indeed, in the extremely old
and aged they see no beauty, and with certain patriarchal or
influential exceptions, they often lose all feeling for them,
because they consider them to be a burden and no longer of
any use.
But these sons of Nature, living as they do a self-
to
imposed life of dual existences, there is in their outlook on
beauty a deeper significance even than there is in the satis-
factionwhich is derived from mere association with what is
useful and substantial for to them it is in rest and restful-
;
ness that most beauty lies, because there is also a sense of

utility in it, of sacrificial offerings that are, as a matter of
course, attached to the cult of adoration, which as much an is
ancestral right and an essential

privilege as to the state
it is
of rest, that is more keenly appreciated than anything else in
existence. For although inaction, and not action, which is due
primarily to climate and environment, is the distinguishing

idiosyncrasy of these Delta natives, a factor which, like their
conservatism, is not a mere growth of centuries but of the
everlasting ages, this desire for rest represents all that is
highest and best in their conflicting temperaments.

SECTION III
THE DUALISM OF THE NATIVES
127
THE DUALISM OF THE NATIVES
Before proceeding to discuss the animating principle of
naturism, looking at the question, in fact, from its own native
standpoint, and taking each successive link in its natural
order, it will be necessary to discuss that element of dualism
which enters so largely into the temperament of these natural
people.
In the first place, there is no such word as, or even
synonym for, dualism in existence in any one of the Delta
languages and in the second place, it is quite a certainty that,
;
except parabolically or by way of illustration, it would be a

matter of difficulty to explain its meaning in a metaphysical
sense to the natives.
Yet, although unconscious of the fact or of the very
existence of dualism, they are dualists to the core, and their
polarity is a conscientious, inevitable, and conscious effect or
practice of ancient and time-honoured beliefs and this;
inevitable antagonism of separate and counteracting powers is

to be seen, not only in their thoughts and actions, but in every
phase of an existence which, divided as it is into the human
and the and positively dual.
spiritual, is absolutely
One point, resting although it does on a mere tradition, is
deserving of attention, and that is the fable of the two sons of
the first divine ancestor, one black and the other white, whose
interests at the outset appear to have been opposed to one
another. For, in spite of the fact that it is different in most
respects from the Egyptian myth of Osiris the Bright and Set
the Dark, who were constantly at war with each other, and
the Huron myth of the two brothers, white and black, rivals
(as they were) struggling for supremacy, it is identical in
129 K
130 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, hi
principle. Impossible as it is to get any information on the

subject, or to induce any intelligent deduction from the
natives, there is more in this myth than meets the eye.
Indeed, apart from any implication of far-fetched or abstruse
moral principles regarding good and evil in particular or
polarity in general, my belief is that, if it were only possible
to arrive at the source and origin of the myth, it would
also
be possible to explain the otherwise inexplicable and inherent

antipathy between the white and black races. rehearsal of A
the myth in full will, however, explain this feeling better than
mere hypothetical deductions, and as the Yoruba version is

the most elaborate of all those which were related to me, I
,â>have chosen it in preference to the Ibo, which, however, is
,^^ very similar to it.

"^
supreme God of heaven made a small
It is said that the
spot below the sky, which he covered with clay. On this
spot he brought forth a man and a woman, who begat two sons,
the elder a black man, the younger a white man. One day
the Creator let down two bags or parcels, one large and the
other small, as presents to these two sons, the choice of which
was to decide their future destinies. The elder having the
first choice, naturally selected the large one,which on opening

was found to contain agricultural implements. The younger,
having no alternative, took the small bag, which on being
opened contained money. Hence it was that ever since then
the black man has been destined to earn his living by the
sweat of his brow, while the white man was blessed right
away with money and with wîsdom.

It is not, however, in their laws, any more than it is in
their customs and religion, that we are to look for duahsm in
these Delta natives. It is not in any one particular phase of

their characteristics, but in them all, that we will find the
dual nature of these natural people. Glancing at their religion,
for instance, they have, as we shall see, neither a heaven nor

a hell. The next world to them is but a continuation of this
one, to which good or bad, rich or poor, high or low, all go,
without favour or distinction, irrespective of conduct, class,
kind, or degree. Eank demagogues and Socialists, in a certain
limited sense, it is a question of equilibrium — the evil have

SECT. Ill THE DUALISM OF THE NATIVES 131
as much right to the next world as they have to this, or as

the good have. In the same way the poor have the same
right to it as the rich, just aspeople live in this world, so they
live in the next. Good, of course, as a moral principle, is
good, but is no better, certainly no stronger, than evil, which
is from the same natural source, for it can neither outlive nor
suppress even in the spiritual world or the natural element;

it,
and as it exists in man, in his thoughts and in his acts, there

is no getting away from it, inevitable and incomprehensible as
it is, therefore all the more to go unquestioned and to be

tolerated.
This very important fact of the non-existence of a heaven
or a hell, showing as it does that the natives make no striking
contrast between the good and the evil, contradictory though
it may appear, is evidence of their dualism, while it does not
either detract from or diminish the moral sense, which is con-
trolled —
as we shall also see —
more by present than by future
fears. For, apart from the other considerations, it shows that
they accept —
as without a doubt they do the unavoidable —
experience that in spite of all individual or combined efforts
there are always two sides to every question, two ways of
doing a thing, or two directions in which a man's energy
expends itself, namely, the right and the wrong, the latter
being quite as inevitable as the former.
Indeed, looked at from their standpoint, no matter how
much a man may try to do the right, the right in the opinion
of others is certainly not the absolute, irrefutable right that
can stand its ground, without either question or argument.
Circumstances may prove too strong for the individual, and
lead him into the wrong channel, because, although there is
much of the element which is called good in the world, it
seems as ifwere more active, certainly more in

the evil
evidence, leading men astray with an energy that is simply
irresistible, and giving them no choice in the matter.
Yet, according to their ideas, the only explanation of all
this incomprehensibility is that every question has two sides
to it, just as every level has two balances, which are seldom
if ever even. To begin with, weighed in the universal scale
of adjustment, life has death, present existence has this world,
132 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, hi
the human, and the next, the spiritual. To every positive
there is a negative, and every force has its energy. If two

men try to get the same thing, the first pulls it in one direc-
tionand the second in exactly the opposite, therefore if one is

in the right the other must be in the wrong, although both
have started with equal rights or claims.
In the same way it appears to them that a truth and a
lie balance each other. Indeed, a lie at times is just as neces-
sary as the truth i.e. it serves a purpose, and as such is in
fact the truth, just as the truth is equally a necessity. For

they are merely the extremes of the same element, which run
in opposite directions from one common base or level a dead —
level of negation, in fact, limited at one end by truth, and at
the other by what appears to be its exact antithesis, but which
is only the counterfoil which preserves the balance.
Balance (in other words, polarity) is in fact the pith of
their philosophy, and it lies in a nutshell. All life, and all
that makes for life, is good, and all death, or dissolution, as
well as all that makes for dissolution, is evil ; but as life pro-
ceeds out of and cannot exist without dissolution, just as light

emerges from darkness, so good cannot do without evil, and
right cannot exist without wrong.
So too as regards their deities and their spirits. Good
and evil are, to all appearances, hopelessly and irretrievably
mixed, but in reality no more so than they find all acti^'e
elements to be in nature, human and animal. Taking a few
of the latter for example, the dog, and perhaps the goat, will
on one occasion lick the hand that feeds them, while on another
day both of them will, without hesitation, show^ marked and
undisguised hostility towards it.
Among the human elements, a man's mother has affection
for him, and his father is possibly in sympathy with him, but
his brother and his nearest friend he has good reasons to
suspect ; while one of his wives, upon whom he has lavished
all his affection and much of his substance, has been found
guilty of infidelity.
Evil has the upper hand perceptibly, and weighty circum-
stances altogether out of his control have tilted the balance in
the downward direction. His most heartfelt wash is to be at
SECT. Ill THE DUALISM OF THE NATIVES 133
peace with all men; but they

not be at peace with him,
will
for their hearts as well as theirhands are against his, so acting
purely and simply in self-defence, his heart and his hands are
of necessity against theirs. Indeed, frequently he is compelled
to take the law into his own hands and do evil, to prevent or
to forestall the evil that would be done to him.
To sum up the whole question, it is evident that one of the
earliest results of naturism, as regards these natives, i.e. of the
many which the ever-present and all-embracing cause,
effects
Nature, with its operating elements, exercised on the minds
of natural men, was to make of them, working although it
did in an unconscious manner, conscious balancers or dualists.
For just as Kature to them is quite incapable of unity or of
one sustained effort, as light, for example, is unable to main-
tain an uninterrupted supremacy over darkness, so they find
themselves equally incapable of a prolonged effort in one direc-
tion, because of the inability or incapacity of their mental and
moral emotions to sustain the strain of an uneven balance.
According to their very natural ideas, these operating
factors of Nature were brought into existence by God the
Creator, as counter-balances, as it were, of certain attracting
powers, such as rain and light, for example, against the repel-
ling energies of drought and darkness. But it is in their own
personalities most of all that they see and feel this dualism.
For in the production of one human or animal entity —one
life, in other words — two factors of opposite yet attracting
forces are essential; for neither of these energies representing
a so-called unit, which is in itself powerless to reproduce its
own species without the co-operation of the other,
is even in
all its other physical and mental characteristics

merely an
organism, in which these different features either oppose or
balance each other.
Measuring up the question in its entirety, from every
possible standpoint, this conception, resulting, as we have seen
it did, in phallic worship, is all the more plainly evident
among these Delta natives, in the entire absence of any exist-
ing worship on their part of those higher natural objects, such
as the sun, the moon, and the stars, or any ceremonial con-
nected with them. This in itself points to the deduction that
the idea of dualism was inspired by a knowledge of the
opposing or balancing principles of procreation, in preference

to the absolutely impersonal inspirations that may have been
suggested by light and darkness.
So that we can safely conclude that even in such an
abstract question as this, personal association occupied a
(rreater share of natural man's attention than the more distant
and less known factors of the impersonal.
SECTION IV
SPIRIT LAND AND SPIRITUALISM
135
PRELUDE
Befoke proceeding to examine the various forms and channels
into which the naturism of these Delta people has flowed, it
will be necessary to obtain a thorough and comprehensive
grasp of that spiritualism which is the vital principle, as it is
the distinguishing feature of all Delta religion.
In using this word " spiritualism," I do so advisedly and

in its most comprehensive sense i.e. a belief in the existence
of a world outside of and as opposed to the material, to which

the souls of people who have lived in this world are bound to
go, but not entirely irrespective of circumstances or conditions.

That, in connection with these natives, I am justified in
using this broader and more catholic signification in preference
to the narrower and contracted term of demonism, the follow-
ing pages will in themselves bear sufficiently conclusive testi-
mony. Even animism, which is undoubtedly an expressive
word, not sufficiently comprehensive, or at least does not
is
altogether express the full and literal conception of these

natives regarding their belief. For, as we shall see, to them
the whole conception of this animating or vitalising principle
rests entirely on the question of embodiment, which, when
human, is known as the soul, or when confined to other forms
of matter, or to the natural elements, as the spirit, disembodi-
ment still implying the animating principle, but a unified and
entirely evil aspect of it.
From the very outset this unfortunate dualist, living as

he does a twofold existence — in the flesh and in the spirit,
harassed in his own person in this world, and also tortured
in his mind by his anticipations of the next, is a living con-
tradiction, and not so much a human being as a natural
137
138 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
organism of conflicting principles and characteristics. For while

he is first of all a humanist, he is equally so a spiritualist,
because although to the individual the human existence pre-

cedes the spiritual, the latter, proceeding, as he believes it does,
from the Creator, or First Father, has always been taken for
a precedent ; therefore it exercises an incontestable j)Tecedenct
over the former, in addition to which it possesses the virtue of
mystery, all the more so of unknown and greater powers. So,
as we shall see when we read on through the book, the natural

order of 'precedence is to these Delta natives the first, as it is
the divinest, law, for no other reason but because it has pro-
ceeded direct from God Himself in His own person; and
further, because they believe that no other power in Nature
can either alter or upset it.
Yet to and according to

himself, his own line of thought,
he is not an anomaly but a man, just as the Creator made him

— irresponsible for his actions, because he is a product of
energies that are not his own
and as a natural consequence
;
of this, because of his domination by the spiritual element, a

principle that is to some extent seen in the word "Atonghoyefa,"
a name which in Brass is given to men, and which, interpreted
literally, means, everything was ordained by God. Accord-
ing to their ideas in fact, life is the growth of one existence
inside another —
the inner or vital existence within the outer
material, the greater and immortal element animating the lesser
and perishable embodiment. Hence it is impossible to under-
stand them unless these facts are taken into consideration, and
unless the opposing forces of this very natural energy are
clearly recognised. These are (1) an explanation of the soul
:
— translation to spirit; (2) the sacrament of burial; (3)

its
a description of spirit land and of the spiritual existence (4) ;
the re-translation of the spirit into soul, and its return to

material existence {a) into the human body, (h) into animal
bodies, (c) into vegetable bodies, (r?) into objects.
CHAPTER I
AN EXPLANATION OF THE SOUL : ITS TRANSLATION TO SPIRIT
Among the Ibo and other Delta tribes the belief in the exist-
ence of the human soul is universal. To them it is an active
principle that is awake and about when the body is asleep.
Further, appears as a something indefinite and indefinable,

it
an invisible yet to some extent tangible essence apart from,

and of different texture to the material body, which leaves the
latter during sleep, or for good at dissolution, and returns for
disposal to the Creator, who, as such, also as master and owner
of all that He creates, has the first claim on every soul.
In reality, to these natural people the terms " soul " and
synonymous, in spite of the fact that they have a
" spirit " are
separate word for each

—
" Nkpulobe " for the former, and " Moa
Moa" for the latter; for although they recognise a differ-

ence between the two, merely a difference without a
it is
distinction. This difference is best defined by the position

occupied, being the soul when confined in the human body,
and the spirit w^hen at large, or when confined to an object or
an organism outside the human, the actual texture of the
essence being the same, irrespective of its situation. The
meaning attached to the word is, in fact, that of the living or
life-giving essence, i.e. the essence which not only gives but
which is life, and which also gives a man that intelligence and
reason which raises him above the brutes.
Applied to the rest of creation, this self-same airy-breath
essence pervades animals and plants, differing, however, in
degree. For just as God is higher than man, man is above
the animal, and distinguished from him by virtue of his expres-
139
sive intellect; and the animal is also above the vegetable.

Similarly, the latter is distinguished from the material, which
is absolutely soulless or spiritless, unless specially spiritualised
by the presence of some human spirit-soul. But even matter
is animated by an animism which is common to all Nature
that, however, merely imbues it with a state of unconscious
and passive torpidity, a state which is best illustrated by the

condition of the human body in good health, when the soul
leaves it for some spiritual purpose.
True, these definitions cannot always be explained or even
communicated by barbarians, but in their own dense way they
can appreciate and discriminate between them all the same.
In order, however, to give a clearer and more faithful
description of this belief, and the idea of its conception as it
prevails among these duplex sons of Nature, I will endeavour
to describe it as nearly as possible in the language of one
Odinaka Olisa, an Ibo of the whose name, by the
interior,
way, meaning, as it does, the hand of God, is, to say the least
of it, suggestive.
" We Ibo, living in these parts, all believe that inside the
body of every man is a soul, which we call '
Nkpulobe,' and
that without this soul a man cannot live. This soul is a thing
that people cannot see or touch, but a thing which they can
feel. It is without form or substance, such as a man or animal
has and we believe that all souls are of one kind, and that
;
each person has not more than one soul. This, our forefathers
and the priests have told us, does not die, and it seems to us
to resemble something like a shadow, or the wind, or perhaps
the breath. What we speak of as Ndu or life implies every-
'
'
thing connected with our being, in a state of existence, such,

e.g., as growing, moving, seeing, touching, and speaking. In
the same way or sense, the soul, we think, is the fruit of the
body, or of that organ which is said or thought to feed or
supply the body ; while the spirit is the living or vital energy
of a person, in other words the soul, whose material body has
deceased or decayed.
" The reason that the soul does not perish with the body is
because the only thing which the great Spirit wants from
it is
each person individually, so that as soon as the body dies the

CHAP. I AN EXPLANATION OF THE SOUL 141
soul naturally goes back to God, except in certain cases, where

it is claimed by evil spirits. We believe, too, that all souls
survive after death, and that none perish, and that when the
soul leaves the body and goes to its destination in spirit land
it becomes a spirit. As to there being any difference between
the soul and the spirit, we do not know of any except that we
speak of the former as a soul when it is confined to the body
of a man or animal, or transferred to a plant or object and ;
the latter as spirit when it is not so confined.

" Further, we consider that when the soul leaves the body
it is finished with this world, as far as its original body is con-
cerned, and nothing can be done to bring it back again to the
same body, although it may be and is reborn again in children.
After death there is a certain place in which souls foregather,
and where they remain until the second funeral ceremony to

the dead has been performed, and while so detained they exist
on a kind of leaf called Okazi.' '
" When the burial rites are concluded the soul then goes
into the presence of the Creator, and after it has been con-
sulted or interviewed by him it is permitted, according to the
wish it remain for ever in the land of
expresses, either to
spirits or to return once to the world. Even should it,
more
however, select the latter, it must as a temporary measure,
that is, until a suitable opportunity arises, remain in the former
region, which is thought to be not underground, but in the air,
or space, so to speak.
'
In spirit land every country or locality is marked out or
defined just as it is in this wôrld, so that each town, com-
munity, or household has its own allotted portion, to which as
people die they go. Thus it happens that when people die in
a strange or far-off country, the soul is believed to return to
itsplace of nativity, except in those exceptional cases when,
through death by violence, or through omission of the burial
sacrament,it becomes an outcast and a demon. According to
what we believe, in fact, each departed soul hopes and expects
to meet the spirits of those relations who have gone before
him. By some the meeting-place is called Agbala Agbori,' '
and by others Ama Mi,' the street, town, or country of

'
'Nri' —
the family from whom all pure Ibo believe them-
selves to be descended — and yet again, it is spoken of in a

general sense as '
Ama Muo/ or the land of spirits."
All Ibo place great faith in the due and proper observ-
ance of the funeral ceremony, for they are of opinion that it
enables the soul to go to God, and to its final destination, and
that without this sacred rite the soul is prevented by the other
spirits from eating, or in any way associating with them, and,

in this manner, from entering into the Creator's presence. So
in this way it becomes an outcast and a wanderer on the face
of the earth, haunting houses and frequenting burial-grounds,
or is forced perhaps to return to this world in the form or
body of some animal. Among the souls who are obliged to

return to this world are those belonging to men who have
died unnatural or violent deaths, and whose bodies have not
therefore received the funeral obsequies. A man who com- |
mits suicide, for instance, irrespective of the manner or the

means, is denied these rites, and his body is either thrown into
the river, if one is convenient, or into the bush adjacent to the
town ; and the reason given in defence of this action, is to
prevent a recurrence in their midst of a manner of death which,
in their opinion, is unnatural, as being caused by the inter-
vention of some malignant spirit ; it being popularly supposed,
that if the corpse were buried in the house, or usual graveyard,
the spirit of the deceased would most certainly influence the
living members in the same direction, besides being, in a
general sense, an evil and malignant factor. Apart from the
question of any specific ancestral authority, we have in this
belief further evidence of the supremacy of the spirit life over
the weaker human element.
In the same way, men who are killed by animals, or who
are drowned, or in any way meet their death by misadventure,
receive similar treatment, as also do men who die from gripe,
in contortions, or from any form of malignant or disfiguring
disease, such as smallpox, for example, or in fact any one
whose body at the time of death is marked with sores, or
which is in a state of putrefaction.
In all such cases, those more especially which have been due
to unnatural or accidental causes, it is customary to use the
expression, that "the deceased died a bad or unnatural death."
CHAP. 1 AN EXPLANATION OF THE SOUL 143
Souls, as a rule, do not appear either to individuals or to

a company of people. Apart from witch doctors, only two
instances, that were related to me regarding the appearance of
ghosts, occurred at Onitsha, both of which, curious to say,
were seen in the afternoon. Indeed the belief concerning
these ghostly visitants is, that it is only at midday or midnight
that they appear, and it is only special doctors who are able
to drive them away.
If races, as Dr. Tylor seems to think, there
among savage
is no clear distinction made between ghosts and demons, it is
not because they cannot differentiate between them, certainly
not among these Delta tribes, but it is in reality, or in a
great measure, to be accounted for in two ways, viz.: (1) the
meagreness of the language, and the limited nature of ideas
and words; (2) the fact that they are extreme but subtle
dreamers, who are not in the habit of expressing all their
thoughts.
Thus while all ghosts are spirits, and only those who make
it a point or business to work evil exclusively are demons,
any spirit, ancestral or otherwise, may be in turn a good or
an evil spirit.
Indeed, so intensely human are these sons of Nature, even
in their very spiritualism, that the evil and the good, the
human and the divine, mingle together like the ingredients in
a hotchpotch. It is not strictly correct, therefore, to speak of
the souls of the dead as demons, unless we include in the
same category all those who and although these
are living,
from a civilised standpoint are bloodthirsty and brutal, they
are not so much demoniacal as simply natural. The departed
spirits are not all bad, as they are not all good, and even those
who are so disposed, do not commit evil unless provoked
thereto by the living. So that the individual spirit rings the
changes or the forces of good and evil, according to the treat-

ment accorded to him by his earthly successors.
"
As far as the Ibo, however, are concerned, the distinction
iseven more marked, for to them the ghost is invariably a
demon, although they do not call him so, i.e. he is a wandering
spirit, who not having received the burial sacrament, and
thus denied admittance into the Creator's presence and spirit
land, becomes an outcast, and a frequenter of houses and

cemeteries.
There is another way of looking at this question of out-
casts and demons that is deserving of attention. Natural
man, believing as he did in the equilibrium of all things, but
of good and evil more especially, also believing in Karma, and
finding it difficult to account for the persistent continuity of
unity from one direction, looked on it very naturally as an
evil or antipathetic element, upsetting, as it did, a balance
that would otherwise have been perfectly even.
Thus it was that the outcast and disembodied soul, pre-
vented from returning to spirit land, in other words, from
resuming his natural functions, became transformed into the
demon, because of some uneven act previously performed that,
reacting on his own head, prevented his participation in the
indispensable sacrament, wliich had deprived him first of all
of his embodiment, and then of his lawful ancestral rights.
A deprivation that transformed a dual element, capable of
good and evil, into a unit, or repelling energy, i.e. an energy
that is all evil, and so made him an outcast, outside the
personal or ancestral pale.
Two Tamil proverbs, " To the timid the sky is full of
demons," and Demons strike the timid," that I came across
"
years ago, when I was in the Madras Presidency, have always

impressed me as being extremely applicable to the Delta folk.
For if these people doi not actually go in bodily fear of ghosts,
they are at all events most certainly oppressed by ghostly
fears, are afraid of the dark, will not, as a rule, unless in
company, go outside their houses at night, or walk through the
bush, which to them swarms with ghostly marauders, but above
all, it is the machinations of witchcraft that they go most in
fear of. This which represents, as we shall see in Section IX.,

a diabolical combination of the powers of evil, is to the ordinary
Ibo an unholy terror —
for every natural man is, as a matter of
course, timid, and darkness does not merely afford a legitimate
cover for the deeds of evil, but is in itself the power for evil.
As regards the ghosts of deceased relatives or friends who
have been known to them, the question of fears depends on
the degree and condition of the previously existing social
relationship. Naturally, if this has been indifferent, there is

good reason to fear them ; but if it has been inimical, the
survivors are always on tenterhooks, because there is every
possibility of a combination between the ghosts and the
malignant spirits — in one word, the active intervention of
sorcery. When, as in a case of this kind, the ghosts prove
obnoxious or dangerous, the Dibia or witch-doctor is invariably
at hand, and if the applicant can satisfy him with a good fee
— which, commencing with a few manillas or cowries, ends in
a goat or bullock or an individual, according to the locality
and the nature of the service rendered a remedy is immedi- —
ately provided, which either keeps the ghostly offenders at a
respectful distance, merely as a temporary measure, or that
taboos them altogether.
The doctor, in fact, is a very bulwark of refuge to these
deluded simpletons, possessing as he does the confidence of
the spirits and — only his clients do not recognise it — a greater
share of subtlety and craft.
It is, as a rule, only in dreams, and not when a person is
awake, that the souls of the departed appear to the living.

For dreams occupy a very prominent place in the philosophy,
the religion, and the life of these emotional people. Dream-
land, in fact — although it is, as it were, a land of shadows or
spirits, — is a veritable reality, and the figures of the dead which
appear therein are looked on exclusively as souls, and in no
sense as outside apparitions.
Once more, in the words of Odinaka Olisa, " apart from
what our fathers have told us, the way in which we believe in
the existence of the soul or the spirit is mostly through dreams,
those which are good and those which are bad, i.e. nightmares.
So we think that when a man
whether at night or in
is asleep,
the day, his soul leaves the body and goes away and speaks,
sometimes with the dead and sometimes with the living. So
it is that on these occasions, or when a man projects his soul
into the body of an animal, his own body remains altogether

inactive and slothful, and as it is in a trance or during
sleep, and it remains in this condition until the return of
the soul.
" In this way we compare dreams, prophetic visions, death,
L
and sleep together, and always in connection with the sonl,

because it seems to us that one and all of them have the same
meaning, i.e. that one is related to the other. For in sleep,
just as in death, the soul leaves the body, and seeing, as we
do in dreams, the souls of those who are living and those who
are dead makes us believe this to be really the case. But not
only do we see them, but in sleep we are able to talk to a
spirit inthe same language that it spoke when it was on earth.

Why it is we see souls only when wê are asleep, and not when
we are awake, we cannot tell. All we can say is that our
fathers have told us so, and wê know such to be the case. The
reason of it all i.e. the explanation and the mystery — is with
the great Spirit that rules over all, and with the spirit fathers.
The figures of the dead which are seen in dreams are regarded
as human because of their human shape and appearance
but ;
as we cannot touch them, and one appears to be exactly the
same as another, we say that they are souls or spirits. For

men, although made by the same Creator, are outwardly of
different aspect, but inwardly all men are alike — that is, their
souls assume but one form."

It is also the popular belief that the spirits of those who
are dead visit the living in dreams and sometimes in visions,
and the interpretation placed on these visitations, as they are
looked upon, is the anxiety of the spirits in question to return
to this world in the form of new creatures.
Dreams do not always have the same meaning to different
people, but there are certain matters that, when dreamt of, are
always interpreted in the same way.
Thus, for example, if a man sees red cloth in a dream, it
means that one either of his own immediate household or near
connections will shortly die.
he dreams about a sword or a hatchet, and one of the

If
women in his family happens at the time to be pregnant, the
child, when born, is certain to be a male.
A dream as to animal excrement implies that the dreamer
will become extremely wêalthy.
If food is the subject-matter of the dream, the result is
poverty.
When a man dreams that he has been sick or unwell, his
life is sure to turn out a long one ; but if he dreams of health,

it means that he will no longer live.
A snake seen in a dream implies a host of enemies seeking

to destroy the Nightmare is caused by the
dreamer's life.
visitation of an may
be antipathetic spirit.
evil or it
Erotic dreams are sometimes caused by a good, sometimes
by a malignant, spirit. No stories are current as to women
becoming pregnant in this way among the Ibo or other tribes.
In discussing this question of the soul, the whole Ibo
conception regarding animals and plants must be taken into
consideration and understood.
Animals, according to the belief of all the Delta tribes,
have souls as well as, but quite different from, men, which go
away in a similar manner, but to a spiritland that is also
separate from that which is reserved for human beings only.
Animals are, in fact, a lower creation altogether, lacking as
they do the power of speech, therefore it is that they are not
treated as if human and for the same reason, with the excep-
;
tion of the dog, to whom they communicate by signs, and

perhaps the familiar goat, they deny the existence of any
understanding between the two creations i.e. in a natural
sense, as they exist in this wôrld, — the spiritual aspect of the
mediums being quite another question that will be fully
discussed later.
In the same wây plants have lives and souls, also a land
of spirits exclusively their own, to which the soul departs with
the decay of the plant ; but the vegetable is a degree lower in
the scale of creation than the animal, having neither mind nor
thought. The soul," says Chukuma (a Niger Ibo whose name
"
means " God knows "), " being invisible, it is impossible to say
whether it can be shut into a hole or a confined space as you
would shut a dog or a snake. We do not think such a thing,
which is like the air, can be driven away by beating or by
noise, because we think that it is always moving like the wind.
—
Some of us all those of my country, Aboh, for example
believe that evil spirits are not to be frightened away by the
firing of guns or by any great noise, for we find that, in spite
of firing many big cannon, the evil spirits still remain in our
country in force."
[48 THE LOWER NICER AND ITS TRIBES sfxt. iv
This scepticism of the Aboh people —a section of the Ibo

who, through marriage, are to a great extent intermixed with
Igabo and Ijo —
regarding the efficacy of noise in driving
away spirits is interesting, because it is more or less a solitary
exception. For, go where we will all over the Delta, the
strongest evidence in favour of the existence of the contrary
belief is to be seen in the very practical demonstration of it
in almost every community.

The only seemingly evident explanation of this scepticism
in the Aboh section is that of association with the more
sceptical element of civilisation, as evidenced by the fact that
numbers of these people have for many years past been asso-
ciated in trade and as labourers with Europeans belonging
to various commercial firms, and more recently to the Xiger
Company.
Yet, powerful factor as is association, it can scarcely in
so short a time have effected a change so radical as this,
opposed as it would also have been by an association the origin

of which is lost in prehistoric antiquity, although it has no
doubt exercised a certain indirect influence, as being the
stronger factor in the direction mentioned.
So that it would appear as if, amid the universal unity
regarding religion which prevails throughout the Delta, this
one little tangent of divergence, like the isolated exception to
the general rule, has crept in through the personality of some
exceptionally morbid and melancholic old patriarch, who found
to his cost that evil and myrmidons existed, and were not
its
to be frightened away by mere noise. This attempted explana-

tion carries with it all the greater significance when the fact
is taken into consideration that these Nigerians of the lower
reaches are born bouncers, who practise the art of bluff as
sincerely as they do their religion.
Analysing the matter carefully, as I have done, it is from
their own standpoint more easy to comprehend the belief than
it is the scepticism. For the very reason that Chukuma has
given in support of the Aboh theory — because it is in this self-
same mobility, in the fact that wind and mist come and go,
that the popular beliefis founded, —
so in the elastic airiness of
spirits they see an opportunity of driving them away on the
AN EXPLANATION OF THE SOUL 149
wings of the wind, as on the wings of an element that is
similar to the soul.

So we find among the Efik, for instance, that this driving
out of devils assumes the form of a public ceremonial of specific
importance, and that at Old Calabar the purgation of the town
from all ghosts and demons is a biennial event which is called
"Ndok," a description and explanation of which will be given
later on.
Eegarding the immortality of the soul, the popular con-
ception is vague, indefinite, and to a certain extent indefinable,
not so much because these natural people have no definite

ideas on the subject, but because, from a European standpoint,
they are not in the habit of drawing up logical definitions on
questions that they have accepted from their fatliers, and the
genuineness or accuracy of which they have neither inquired
into nor questioned. Judging, however, from their practice,
which is the strongest as it is the clearest evidence of their
beliefs, they undoubtedly believe in the immortality of the
soul. To quote two notable instances of this. In lienin City,
for example, prior to 1897, the popular tradition to the effect
that the king was immortal was a secret which was fostered
and guarded by the priests with great jealousy. At JSTembe,
too, among the Brassmen, who, as we have seen, are descendants
of the former, the same fiction prevailed up to the dethrone-
ment King Koko in 1895. In their case, however, the
of
deception was kept up not only as regards the king, but the
high priest as well, whose position was regarded as practically
on an equality with that of the former and in the event of;
death it was strictly forbidden on the part of any one to say

that either of them was dead, but that they had gone to Benin
on a journey.
The custom which prevails among the Ibo and in most
parts of the iJelta —
as it did in Benin —
of confining the king
to his own premises, must have originated in the first instance
from this idea, which, of course, not only added to the regal
dignity and importance, but impressed the people, as it wa?
meant to do, with the sense of a power that was divine, and
therefore out of the common.
This immortality has, however, certain indefinite limitations
that are, so to speak, merely local or individual. Among the

Ibo, e.g., a man, although he is bound to venerate his deceased
parents, need only do so unto the sixth generation, when a
renewal is made in favour of those recently deceased. Or
again, it is possible for a certain family or clan to die out.
This implies practical extinction, for so close is the connection

between the human and the spiritual, interdependent as they
are, that in the native estimation it means that the supply
of human bodies has failed, through the malevolence of the
powers of evil, to meet the demands of the spirit -souls, or,
vice versa, that the spirit-souls, having become absorbed, or

dispersed and devitalised, from the same malevolent or opposing
causes, have been unable to prolong the reproductive principle
of that particular clan or family. Further than this, as we
shall see in Chapter IV., there appears to be a greater vitality
in the spirit-matter tliat is confined to the human element
than that which is relegated to the animal, and also presumably
to the vegetable.
This, however, in no way affects the general principle of
reproduction, which is believed to be, as it were, self- existent
or eternal.
There is no belief in a second death of the surviving soul,
but the idea is prevalent that a certain proportion of spirits,
after a short recuperation in spiritland, are obliged to return

to this world in another reincarnation, and that these are
always reborn in the same family. In this way some persons
live successive lives in this world and some do not. This
rests with and depends entirely on the Creator, and according
to the different bodies which he gives to the various person-
alities. So that it is palpable that the continuous existence of
an individual or family is dependent on three contingencies,
viz. the will and activity of the Creator or personal power,
the destructive action of the destroying power, and the vitality
and energy of the family spirits.
As an excellent illustration of European inability to see
matters, especially those that concern religion, in the same
light as the barbarian does, I quote an extract from a report
on a journey in the Ibibio country, which was made in 1894,
to Sir Claude Macdonald by Mr. Koger Casement. Having
concluded some remarks about funeral customs, the latter
relates an incident which had occurred to him. " To prove

that entire confidence as to the nature of the next world does
not exist, I may mention the strange request of an Ibibio
chief who came to my tent one day, and, after much embarrass-
ment, finally asked would not give or tell him of some
if T
medicine that would prevent him from ever dying. He went
away greatly disappointed at my confession of utter inability
to help him That the powers of birth and of death were
here.
alike beyond the white man's control, these simple folk did not
think possible."
As Mr. Casement is an officer who has the reputation of
getting on very well with the natives, and deservedly so, I

believe, because of his sympathy towards and the intelligent
interest which he takes in them, any remarks of his ought
to be accepted as of all the greater value for consideration.
Yet, as we shall see, notwithstanding these two indispensable
and essential qualities in connection with the handling of
natives — all the more invaluable because of their rarity among
our West African administrators, — them
his comprehension of
was merely the outlook of the average Englishman, who has

formed his opinion of the barbarian in complete ignorance of
his true faiths and formulas.
Looking into this simple matter, as Mr. Casement did, from
the standpoint of the accepted theological future, and in
evident ignorance of the doctrines of naturism, especially of
the principles of metempsychosis, it is in no sense surprising
that it appeared to him, of all, as a strange request on
first
the part of the Ibibio chief, and, secondly, as a proof of his lack
of confidence as to the nature of the next world.
Approached, however, from the native standpoint, the
request was neither as strange as it seemed, nor was it in any
sense evidence of deficient faith. For, in the first place,
the belief of these natives in the immortality of the soul,
if not universal, is, as we have just seen, certainly general.
In the second place, no doubt whatever exists in the minds of

these natives regarding the nature of the next or spirit world,
i.e., of course, according to their own principles
and beliefs on
the subject. The doubt, if any, applied not to the existence.
but to the ultimate destination of the soul after the demise

of the human body. Here the ground is dangerous honey- —
combed, in fact, with snares and pitfalls ; for in drawing
up a balance-sheet certain contingencies have to be taken
into consideration and reckoned with.
(1) and foremost among these, the everlasting and
First
inevitable Karma, with its perpetual recurrence of reacts in
just and moral payment of previous acts that memory has no
record of; (2) next, the acts that he has committed in his
current existence, which are also certain of their reacts (3) ;
then the fact that between the present and the future any
one of these may fall in such a manner as to deprive him of
his life— the human first, and after it, by depriving him of the
burial sacrament, the spiritual.
And if there is one thing in this world or in the next
that natural man dreads with the same holy horror that he
has of witchcraft, disembodiment
it is for, in his crude esti-
;
mation, the disembodied soul is not merely an outcast and a
wanderer, but lost for ever and aye in every conceivable sense
of the word. Deprived of embodiment, it at once loses its
individuality, and, being thus incapable of good, becomes a
thing of evil, an eternal horror, and a malignant demon, lost
— except in a demoniacal sense —
to its ancestral household,
i.e. to its own personality as it were, and to the Creator
and creative principle. And just as disembodiment is a
haunting fear that lives with them always, embodiment after
dissolution is an intense satisfaction to them and a joy for ever,
and is absolutely essential to preserve the spirit continuity and to
protect it from evil. What is more, without this indispensable
embodiment there can be no rest and no adoration, and to
these savages rest and adoration form the two principal prizes
or attractions of their future or spirit existence.
Here in a few words, then, is the explanation of the anxiety
displayed by this Ibibio chief for the possession of immortality.
For underneath his embarrassment, due to the pricks of a
conscience no doubt full of offence and to the fear of the con-
sequences of actual contact with a white wizard, he foresaw
for himself a disembodied soul and entire disconnection and
severance from his household in the flesh and in the spirit.
The only strange part of the whole incident was in reality the
application of the chief to an individual who was not only of
another colour and nationality, but who, in the estimation of
himself and countrymen, belonged to an order of fiends
incarnate, inimical in every sense to their welfare and interests
— all the more so because the elixir of life, if not obtainable
locally, is at all events purchasable in the Ibo country.
Yet, simple as he appeared to be in the eyes of Mr.
Casement, and as he no doubt was from the standpoint of
civilisation, this natural man was just as subtle as he was
simple, and in nothing did he show his subtlety so much as
in coming to the white man. For, remember that he came in
good faith and all sincerity, believing that he was on the
brink of dissolution and face to face with the inevitable
—
doom of perdition a fate from which there was only one
escape, and that immortality. Apart, too, from the presump-
tion that he may himself have been a doctor, it is more
than possible that he had good cause to distrust the local

medicos, :or it may of course have been that he did not
feel inclined to pay the price asked, and hoped to avoid it
by throwing himself on the white devil's generosity, and in

this way obtaining a much more efficacious remedy. Thus
he bearded the devil in his den with one set purpose in his
mind, and that was to cheat the devils he knew and feared by
pitting against them a devil that neither he nor they knew,
except by reputation.
Small wonder, then, that at the outset he showed embarrass-
ment, standing, as he thought he did, between a local Scylla
of devouring demons and an imported Charybdis whose
devilries, for all he knew, were even more to be feared.
CHAPTEE II
THE SACRAMENT OF BURIAL
The importance of this ceremony in the ritual of these

people cannot in any sense be overrated or overestimated,
for it is notmerely a sacrament, but an absolutely indispen-
sableand vital sacrament. It is, in fact, the connecting link
between this world and the next, as well as the passport, so
to speak, of the soul, first of all into the land of the dead,
and then through the hands of the Creator into the land of
spirits. Without it, for a reason they cannot fathom, beyond
the opposition of pre-existing spirits, the soul, when it leaves
the dead body that has been its tenement for so long, cannot
pass along the road that leads to its destination.
All that an Ibo or other Delta native can tell you is,
that a man who has not been properly, i.e. twice, buried, the
first time actually and materially, the second time spiritually,
and as a memorial service, is looked on as an outcast and

unworthy to eat or to associate with those who have received
the rites, i.e. whose bodies have been washed, tended, and
clothed, and to whom due honour has been paid by lamenta-
tions, the firing of guns, and the unlimited hospitahty of one
continuous feast. Indeed, both in principle and in practice
the whole ceremony is identical with the " Shraddha " of
the Hindus.
Further, it is popularly believed that souls recently re-
leased are invariably divided into two parties, namely, those
who have been buried and those who have not, between whom
there no association of any kind; and it is the latter,
is
prevented as they are from going to spiritland, who as ghosts

154
CHAP. II THE SACRAMENT OF BURIAL 155
haunt houses and burial-grounds. This omission of a sacrament

so evidently binding is apparently accountable for much of
the duality that exists, —outcome of duality, as it has been

in the first instance, — for it leads to the formation of two
bodies who are constantly in opposition to each other. Much
evil is in consequence attributed to the marplots of these
unhallowed ghosts. They are, in fact, the disturbing elements
of what might otherwise be a harmony between the living and
their ancestors. Hence it is that while the natives live in
fear of all spirits, judging them to be equally capable of
good or evil, they are much more afraid of these goblins,
because they consider them to act in a mad and foolish
manner, and believe them to be irresponsible, yet vicious and

malignant. For this reason they live in perpetual fear of
death or at least of injury from them.
Finding it utterly impossible to get rid of or even to keep
off these objectionable ghosts, the natives do all in their
power to humour and appease their inveterate hate and

insatiable greed. For this reason, sacrifices both human and
animal, and in case of poor people the latter only, are an
absolute necessity. These sacrifices have certainly a dual
aspect, for, in the first place, they are performed at all funerals
in honour of the departed souls, to enable them to be attended
on with due ceremony by their slaves, and to eat as they had
been accustomed to and, in the second place, they are thrown as
;
a sop to the malignant element, or are mere acts of veneration

towards their In connection with this, another
ancestors.
idea is prevalent, to the effect that animals are sacrificed at
funerals in order to prevent the spirits from coming to this
world to kill people. Thus animals so sacrificed are said
to belong to all the spirits of that community in common, who,
when they gather together to feast and entertain each other,
divide them equally among themselves. So that in this
direction it is quite evident that well-disposed spirits require
the requisite attention to prevent any disagreeable alteration
in their attitude.
Eegarding this very serious question there is another and,
from a human standpoint, no less serious aspect, which is the
disgrace and ignominy attaching to a family that either scants
a full and elaborate ceremony or which altogether ignores the

all-important in memoriam service.
Here again we see the dual characteristic of the people
in the twofold nature of the disgrace. For the disgrace is not
merely a human affair that excites the wrath and execration
of the human community, but a spiritual palaver that condemns
the souls of its own people to the perpetual degradation
of animal world, and that brings down upon itself
the
the anger and retribution of the gods. Needless for me to
remark that the exception to the general rule is of extreme
rarity.
In other respects, particularly those of principle and of
expenditure, these rites are more than ever like the Hindu
ceremonial no matter how absolutely poverty-stricken a
; for,
family may be, all its relations and connections will scrape
together every cowry they can get hold of, even to the extent
of impoverishing or ruining themselves, so as to make an
imposing show. For by so doing they first of all avoid the
execration of their own kind, but, what is more to the purpose,
they in every way strengthen and improve their spiritual
position in gaining over the esteem and goodwill of the
ancestral divinities.
Onepeculiar custom that prevails among the Ibo particu-
larly shows how marked is the importance of these rites in
the eyes of the people. It is customary when two chiefs or
heads of houses have been on very intimate terms of friend-
ship, on the death of one, for the survivor to contribute a
goodly share towards the expenses incurred over his deceased
friend's funeral ceremonies. And when he in turn is buried,
the family of the first departed invariably contribute a similar
amount towards his obsequies, in return for that which had
been expended by him ; but if this is not done, the former
family is at liberty to claim the sum in question. The
significance attaching to this custom is not to be gauged by
the mere friendship of the act. That this is no mere friend-
ship, but an intimacy, the intensity of which is so real and so
enduring that it cannot be measured by human limits, is the
direct and manifest interpretation of these mutual courtesies,
implying the continuation of a human association in the
spiritual world — another striking illustration of the absolutely

inseparable nature of the two existences.
To comprehend the exact position that this vital sacrament
occupies in the minds of these people, I cannot do better than
to give a full, sense for sense, if not word for word, and
extremely vivid picture of it as described to me by Ephraini
Agha, an Ibo of Onitsha.
The Brealdng-iqj or First Burial. —
On the death of any
member of a family no time is lost in making the necessary
preparations for the burial rites. These are of two kinds
the first is called the " Breaking-up," in which the expense
involved is not so great as in the second, known as the
" Lamentation."
All the nearest relatives meet at once at the house of the
deceased to discuss the arrangements, and a notice to the
published amongst the community.
effect is In the meantime
the corpse has been washed and enshrouded in white cloth.
The death of a man or woman of young up to middle age is

announced either on the same day or at the latest on the day
following.
In the event of a king or chief, however, the announce-
ment of his death is deferred for an indefinite period, during
which time the body is undergoing a process of desiccation by
smoke, the relatives in the meantime making every effort to
collect all property of any value that can be turned to account,
with the object of making as grand a ceremonial as their
means will allow.
Every relative, or even connection by marriage, is bound
by custom and law to contribute a share towards the funeral
expenses, consisting principally of eatables, drinkables, the
sacrificial and white or other cloth,
offerings, which varies
with The share of a son-in-law, for instance,
locality. is
usually a goat and ten strings of cowries, valued at 2 s. 6d.

Although the death of a man is in reality a great loss to
his household or even to the community, the occasion of his

obsequies regarded as an event of great entertainment to
is
the community at large. It is looked upon as a circumstance

in which the family honour is concerned in a distinctly two-
fold sense, affecting its reputation in this world as well as in
the next. For the reception of the soul of the deceased in

spiritlandand his final prestige are altogether dependent on
the grandeur and liberality of the human entertainment.
!N'ot only are goats or human beings killed at all the
different placeswhich the deceased had been a regular
in
visitor, but they are sacrificed in all the various rooms of
his own house —

bath, kitchen, dining, sleeping, and sitting or
state rooms —
that he had been in the habit of always using.
Food, goats, fowls, yams, fish, plantains, palm oil, and
palm wine, in lavish abundance, are provided for all visitors
and strangers, but particularly for the women, whose office is
to lament i.e. to weep and to wail, —
to sing, and to dance.
Duriug the interval between death and burial all the
relatives of the deceased gather together to mourn for him.
These form the chief mourners, and the signs of grief on
these occasions are intense and impressive. Copious tears
are shed the mourners, throwing themselves upon the
;
ground, feill upon each other's necks, keep up a continual

and tremendous noise and an altogether vociferous demonstra-
tion of grief. The personal appearance, also the ordinary
ablutions, are entirely neglected, and the oldest and dirtiest
clothes are donned. Among the female portion of the house-
hold, particularly among the wives of the deceased, and
especially in the case of a king or chief, the lamentation
is even more vociferous and demonstrative. The women are
not permitted to go outside or to show themselves to people
duration of which does not exceed
for a definite period, the
a year. Clad only in a kirtle made of plaited grass, they
usually sit together in one room, with dismal faces, and mourn
either as described, or at times in deep and dejected silence.
But just as their nature is varied by striking contrasts, so is
their lamentation — indeed, the latter is but a reflection of the

former, and the supreme dejection are always
intervals of
succeeded by outbursts of movement and hilarity. For, no
longer able to sustain the agony of extreme tension, a sudden
revulsion of feeling takes place. The grief that has altogether
overwhelmed them first of all with its outpoured passions,
suddenly transforms itself into a wild tornado of seeming joy
'
— the frenzy of overpowering sorrow, as it were, changing
into an ecstasy of unfeigned delight. Forming into a ring,
they dance round and round the corpse, varying their move-
ments to the chant of one who stands in the centre. But the
joy is not so much feigned as a reaction, and, mingling with it,
the real element finds a vent in singing and a loud wailing,
not unlike the keening that is heard at an Irish wake.
Most conspicuous of all in this household of mourners are
the eldest son and the eldest daughter. Walking about the
house, they sing and cry alternately, the burden of their
lament being as follows :
" Welcome, my father ; welcome,
my father ! My father is a big man ! My father is a big
man ! This is the right hand of my father ! My father, the
son of a great man ! My father, the highest !

" In answer to
each of these encomiums on the part of the son and
" So
daughter, the other mourners chime in with the response :
"
it happened So it is ! !
The body is always wrapped in a mat and buried, for
coffins are not used — only a king or big chief is entitled to
them as a special mark of respect, and then only in those

places which have come into touch with the outskirts of
civilisation. The body of a chief or head of a house is buried
inside the house, that of an ordinary person in the burial-
ground. The graves are generally dug by a class of young
men who are known in every town as the street -cleaners,
whose of&ce it also is to carry the corpse to the grave.
The afternoon of the day on which the corpse is to be
interred is passed in dancing and the firing of guns, followed
by the burial in the evening.

likTlu Lamentation or Second Burial. — This is conducted
on much the same lines as the first, except that a greater
entertainment is provided and the expenses incurred are
heavier.
In a spiritual sense, however, the rite is one of infinitely
greater importance, because it is a special memorial service
held over the deceased in order to release him from the
thraldom of the region of the dead in which all souls are
confined, where they exist on leaves or grass just like the
brute beasts, and to usher him triumphantly, as befits his
birth, into the abode of his fathers in the world of spirits.
l6o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
For the universal belief on this point is that no human

soul can attain to the peaceful ancestral habitations without
this rite of second burial. Hence the great aversion shown
by a community towards those who fail to observe this holy
sacrament.
There are, however, two exceptions to this general rule.
One is in the case of kings, who are buried but once, and
whose souls, by virtue of the office and position they occupied
on earth, pass into the Creator's presence without any longer
detention than is entailed by the funeral obsequies, which
generally last for about two weeks. The other is in the case
of infants or very young children, for whom, because of their
immaturity apparently, the necessity does not exist.
Human sacrifice was, and where civilisation has not yet
reached still is, an indispensable feature of this ceremony, the
number sacrificed varying from one up to a hundred or more
according to the locality and the rank or wealth of the
deceased, twelve being considered the ordinary number for
a chief of some standing
or a king.-^ These, always slaves,
purchased specifically for the purpose from other localities,
are generally killed, but sometimes buried promiscuously
whether alive or dead. Formerly, within fifty years ago,
this inhuman practice was carried on to a much greater
extent, and, including even free-borns, hundreds were in this
way sacrificed. Eecently, i.e. down to the present day, the
Aro have been the principal offenders in this direction, a
hundred slaves and a horse or two being sacrificed on the
death of an elder.
In where this custom has either been abolished
localities
or dropped, men
of rank and wealth are expected to contribute
a bullock at least, and also towards the proper provisioning
with food and drink of three or four companies of dancers,
besides the firing of as many cannon as they can afford.
It is the custom in some districts, only those that are
more in touch with civilisation, to dress the corpse of a king
richly and thus expose it to view.
It is believed that after the second burial tlie spirits first
^ In the case of a king tliese sacrifices are made at the first burial, and
also at annual memorial services.
CHAP. II THE SACRAMENT OF BURIAL i6l
of all weep for the departed soul, who, after a short ceremony
of feasting, drinking, and dancing, is once more raised into the
life of the spirit world.
When the memorial service, i.e. the sacrifices and the
entertainment, has terminated, one of the male members of the
household appears on the scene, masked, and dressed in a long
robe, and all present declare unanimously that from henceforth
(this {i.e. the robe) shall be revered as the true spirit of the
departed. Subsequently the robe is taken off and kept as a
sacred relic.
Among the Ndoke and JSTgwa sections of the Ibo, the

ceremony called " Okuku," or memorial service, which is
celebrated in honour of the dead, was formerly practised
on a much more extensive scale, and with a much greater
sacrifice of human life than now prevails. It is practically
identical with the second burial or lamentation ceremony that
has just been described, and may take place any time after six
months up to within a year, the interval, it seems, depending
entirely on the resources of the household and their ability to
collect a sufficient revenue to meet the necessary outlay.

After the usual human and animal sacrifices have taken
place, including, of course, the inevitable entertainment, the
final Okuku," or ceremony in memory of the departed, is
"
performed in the house in which the late chief has been

buried —
its most important feature being the sacrifice and
the eating of a male or female slave. This unfortunate

creature is generally bought after the chiefs death, and is
fattened and well treated, and no one inside or outside the
house is allowed to offend the victim in any way, for fear he
might learn the secret of his fate and either commit suicide or
run away.
The day chosen for the ceremony is always on Eke, the
first day of the Ibo week, and especially on market day.
While all the men and women of the deceased chiefs house-
hold are engaged in singing and dancing all over the town,
the doomed wretch is taken to the centre of the market-place
and obliged to partake of food and drink, whether willing to
do so or not.
At dawn the next morning, in the presence of all the old
M
1 62 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
men and women of the house, who assemble in the late chiefs
burial-room, the slave is beheaded by the eldest son, and the

body is shared and eaten by all present.
This form of cannibalism is confined in some localities to

the old only, while in others young as well as old participate
in the disgusting rite.
In Nkwerri, which is almost in the heart of the Ibo
country, the wives of a dead chief mourn for three to four
years, and the children one year. Human sacrifice is not
performed to any great extent, but in a chief's case a woman
is usually killed and buried with him, in the belief that in
this act the eyes of the departed soul, which were shut when
he died, will be opened in spirit land.
Everywhere among the Ibo, as well as among the other

tribes, the same practices, therefore the same beliefs, as I have
found, prevail as to this period of enslaved probation and the
existing necessity for the funeral sacrament in order to liberate
the dormant soul from the clutch of the death god, and trans-
port it from the regions of the dead to the land of the living
spirits. And it is quite evident that without this sacrificial
entertainment the soul would either remain for ever dormant,
or, being in the power of the death god, be liable to absorption
or to be utilised as a malignant force.

Among the New Calabar people the external or ceremonial
aspect of this ancient rite is much more elaborate than it is
among most of the other tribes, and as it was formerly prac-

tised by the Ibani, prior to the introduction of Christianity.
One year after the death of a chief or consequential person,
who had been the head of a household, his son or elected suc-
cessor will secure the " Duen-fubara," i.e. an image representing
the head and shoulders of the late deceased or his figure, in a
sitting position. This, which is carved out of wood and
painted with different dyes, in imitation of the face and head,
surmounts a large wooden base or tray that, as a rule, is
placed in a recess. It is also usual to place not more than
two smaller images, one on either side, representing sons or
near relations of the late deceased who may have died subse-
quently to him. On this tray, and surrounding the heads,
horns, glasses, pots, chairs, and as many articles of this
description as can be crammed on to it, are arranged for the

very evident use of the spirit father.
In front of this pedestal three rudely made altars of mud
are erected, with a hole in the middle of each, for the purpose
of throwing the food and libations that are constantly offered to
the presiding spirits, who, it is believed, eat and drink of them ;
while on the top of the altars it is usual to place from six to

nine of the old manillas, which are large, twisted, and made of
copper — a metal that is very highly prized by these people.
As showing how great and sincere is the reverence with
which they regard these " Duen-fubara " or wooden images,
the inhabitants of Fuchea —
a small town belonging to the
tribe —possess and exercise the sole right and monopoly of
carving and constructing these images for the rest of the com-
munity, —
a privilege the significance of which can only be
measured and appreciated after a thorough comprehension of
the ancestral creed and the indispensable importance of these
sacred emblems as necessary embodiments for the household
spirits. The day on which the image is finished, or rather
delivered, is regarded as a public holiday and festival, when
a grand installation ceremony is commenced. All the chiefs
from the different towns attend in their largest and finest gig-
canoes, and accompany the " Duen-fubara " from Fuchea to its
destination. This is done at night, for custom forbids the
landing of the sacred emblem by day, and as soon as this
has been accomplished it is deposited for safe -keeping in
the quarters of one of the other chiefs, usually the greatest
personal friend of the late departed. Here it remains for
a week, i.e. eight days, and on the eighth day a great sacrifice
of goats and fowls is offered up by the late chief's household,
as well as by all those intimate friends who hold his memory

in remembrance. The eldest son, or elected successor by virtue
of his office acts as master of the ceremonies, and personally
performs the sacrifice in the presence of the people and the
" Duen-fubara," over which, as he cuts the neck of each separate
victim, he throws or sprinkles the blood and when this ;
portion of the ceremony has been performed, the flesh is

cut up and evenly distributed among all those who are in
attendance.
i64 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
Following next in order, but prior to its removal to its

own proper and final resting-place, the most interesting
feature of the whole ceremony takes place.
up as priests, their faces
Tlie sons of the deceased, dressed
marked all over with the sacred chalk, on their heads the
large and exceedingly high native -made straw hats, and a
fathom of white baft tied round their waists, put themselves
at the head of the entire male portion of their household, who
are attired in full war dress, and proceed in a body to the
chief's quarter, in which the " Duen-fubara " has been deposited.
Here, however, they are met by the men of the house, who,
also prepared for war, oppose their entrance. For some three
to four hours a mimic battle rages round the premises, the
invaders trying to get possession of the image, and the
defenders making a brave show of resistance.
At the end of this time the defence begins to slacken,
and the battle ceasing by mutual consent, the invaders are
allowed to take over the now blood-stained and consecrated
image. This is done in a formal manner, only the sons of the
late departed or the elected freeborns of the house being per-
mitted to touch or handle it. A procession is then formed,
and the emblem conveyed in state to the quarter which has
been prepared for it. The ceremony of this sham-fight seems
to indicate the idea that if a thing is worth having it is worth
fighting for. For as the spirit of the late liberated, in his
present dual capacity of spiritual head and mediator or com-
municator, is absolutely indispensable to the household, the
struggle to get possession of him is practical and vigorous
evidence of the anxiety of itsmembers to retain a power,
without which the house is helpless and uncontrollable.
On mausoleum the " Duen-fubara " is placed

arrival at the
in the hall or outer room of a house which has been specially
built for the purpose, and a watchman is appointed to remain
in charge of it. This trusty individual is held responsible
that the place, i.e. the embryo house chapel —now consecrated
by the spiritual presence, which has been previously invoked
and conjured into this special emblem is daily swept and —
kept clean.
A further festival of sacrifice and feastincj, or ceremony
of signalising the consecration, takes place as the culminating

act of a sacrament which, as forming the inevitable link
or bridge that connects the human with the spiritual, is
indispensable.
In this long and very elaborate ceremony that we have
landmarks which must
just discussed there are three prominent
be taken special notice of. The first is, that the ceremony
itself is nothing but the identical memorial service in honour
of the dead which is common to one and all of these different
tribes, only modified in this case with regard to human
sacrifices, owing to the deterrent effect of civilised rule.
The second is, that as such, it is the purely spiritual
function of securing the passage of the soul from the land
of death to the land of the spirits — not of the living, be
it remarked, for death as used here does not imply finality.
And the third is, that it is the consecration of the now

released, redeemed — in a twofold sense, as we shall see later
on — and sanctified spirit, in his new position as spirit father
and mediator of the household, a position which, apart from
his own personality, entitles him to a daily adoration and a
still more important weekly worship, accompanied by sacrifice,
the details of which are discussed in Section AÎL

Thus is formed a regular and systematic gradation of
steps, by which the human succession is continued in the eldest
or sacred son and the spiritual supervision in the father,
whose existence in the flesh has recently terminated. And
this is a point which, as we s-hall see in Chapter III., and
indeed throughout the whole part, cannot in any sense be over-
rated. For this spiritual supremacy is not only responsible
for the morality and discipline of these people, but, as we shall
see in Chapter IV., it preserves the continuity of the human
household by maintaining and keeping intact the necessary
supply of the ever -indispensable without which the spirit,
existence of the former would be merely one of perpetual

torpidity, possessing neither vitality nor intelligence, very
similar to the condition of animals or reptiles when hybernating.
Indeed, not in the least dif&cult to recognise in this state
it is
of dormant inaction, which is so graphically pictured among

certain species of the animal world, one of the principal
experiences encountered by natural man, which engendered

in him the belief thatthe spirit, whether human, animal, or
vegetal, is alone and entirely responsible for a life of action
and motion, and what is of still greater moment as regards the

two former, of intelligence.
Among the Ibani it was formerly customary, and no doubt
still is, in spite of professed Christianity, on the death of a
chief or big person, to pour a couple of casks of rum or palm

wine on the ground or over his grave, the idea being to pro-
vide the departed soul with a sufficient supply of spirit for the
entertainment of his ghostly visitors. This custom, which, in
a greater or lesser degree, is universal to the Delta, is, however,
much more by the coast tribes, as well as
elaborately practised
by the different sections of the Ijo race. In Brass, for instance,
there is no special funeral ceremony when an ordinary person
dies beyond the regulation lamentation and dancing, but in the
event of the death of a king or high priest, a chief, or individual
who has accomplished Peri during his lifetime, the play of
Peri is always performed. Peri, it appears, is the act of an
individual who has killed a man with his own hands personally,
either as an enemy during a state of war between two tribes
or clans, or even towns of the same clan, or who has taken the
life of a member of the same community who has offendeil
against its laws, and which has approved of his death. All
men who are so distinguished are held high in the public
esteem, and, irrespective become members of an
of rank,
organised fraternity which, on the death of one ofits members,
at once assembles to do honour to him in the spirit. Marking

the upper part of their bodies with the sacred chalk, and
headed by the son or nearest relative of the departed as master
of the ceremonies, they first form themselves into a procession.
A performance, imitative of the act of killing a man, is then
given — the performers, armed with matchets, gesticulating in
a peculiar kind of way, sing a well-known song, and subse-

quently wind up this act of the funeral drama by dancing all
over the place in a state of suppressed frenzy.
Kamo then appears on the scene. This is an in\dtation
of all the notables, i.e. the kings, high priests, chiefs, warriors,
etc., of the community to a grand banquet in spirit land, the
material counterpart of which is held ia the burial-ground.

Food of every description having been prepared, is consumed
by all present, a certain proportion being allotted to the
spirits, who are pictured as enjoying the feast along with
the newcomer, whose advent is thus practically welcomed.
When all the food has been consumed, liquor, usually rum,
is produced, and drunk first of all by the living, and afterwards
distributed among the spirits for their especial delectation.

This done by the master of the ceremonies, who walks
is
round the graves, and, with a trembling hand, pours a quantity

of rum on each tomb. Then, as a final act, prior to the inter-
ment of the deceased, the spirit in large quantities is
poured into the newly dug grave. Indeed, in this way two or
three casks are literally wasted in what
esteemed as an
is
exceedingly joyous celebration. In these two ceremonies the

connection that exists between the flesh and the spirit is once
more plainly For having honoured the entity in his
evident.
human form, the honour is further extended to his spirit after
it has taken its departure from the now defunct body. Here,
as we shall see more fully later on, it is in the substantiality
of the offering that the honour lies. So the generous liquor is
poured out ad lib., and the satisfying meat of bullocks and
goats, along with the rich and sirupy oil of the palm, is con-
sumed in lavish abundance. For it is meet that the spirits
also should in a spiritual sense partake of both, and so enjoy
the pleasure and satisfaction of eating and drinking, as they
did when in the flesh, or as they do when they return to it.
Eeferring to the peculiar distinction with which a person is
regarded who has slain a man either in battle or justifiably
and legally, the undoubted significance of the act
lies not in
the valour of the performance, but almost entirely in the fact
that it is the shedding of 'blood in a righteous or patriarchal
cause, i.e. in defence of the household, and with the full
ancestral sanction and authority, which at once renders it
sacred — a sacrament, in fact, in their eyes. For, believing,

just as did the Jews, that the blood is the life, they also
believe that while, from a legitimate standpoint, it purifies and
sanctifies, from the opposite aspect it pollutes and desecrates.
Among these same people this sacrament of burial is also
very religiously observed, but although not conducted exactly

on the same lines as those laid down by the Ibo, the under-
lying principle regarding the condition and liberation of the
spirit is practically identical. The body of a king or high
priest is kept for three days, and buried in the presence of all
the chiefs ; the corpse of a king is forbidden to be seen by the

high priest, as well as by his son and heir or successor, and
that of a high priest is never looked on by a king. For, as
we have seen, the prohibition was a fostering of the belief in
immortality.
Youths are buried on the same day, but men and women
of riper years are kept overnight, for the observance of
" Noinkoru," i.e. a watch over the dead, and dancing in honour
of the departed soul is kept up until daylight.
Apart from the ordinary burial-ground, special places are
selected and reserved for the following, who are buried without
the funeral rites: (1) children; (2) those who have met
their death by accident or misadventure, or whose end has
been violent and unnatural (3) all witches or those suspected
;
of witchcraft, the bodies being placed on the branches of

mangrove trees (4) those who have died with unhealed sores
;
on the body, regardless of their rank or importance, the place

being well removed from the town.
These same rules are observed by the Ibo, and, in fact, by
all the Delta tribes, only it is general to throw the bodies of
children into any bush except that specially reserved for

burial, while those who have met violent deaths are buried
close to the scene of their occurrence.
Among the Brassmen, however, in the instance mentioned
in No. 4, especially in the case of a notable or influential
member of the community, it is possible sometimes after the
interment to remove the still incarcerated soul to the proper
burial-ground. This must, however, be done by means of a
special ceremony,which is performed by a priest or doctor.
Having prepared a native-made coffin and placed it quite open
in a canoe, the priest paddles over to the special burial-ground.
When he arrives there he calls aloud the name of the deceased
three times. The canoe is then seen to vibrate by means of
a process that is invisible, but the cause of which is imputed
to the invoked spirit, who has by this time entered not only
into the coffin, but also into the diminutive figure that is
carved out of mangrove wood, rubbed all over with red cam-
wood, and meant to represent him. The priest then returns
to the town,and conveys the figure and coffin to the house
to whom the spirit belongs. A second full-dress funeral
ceremony takes place, and the carved image of the deceased,
containing his soul, is then buried in the ordinary cemetery.
This act of transferring the spirit-soul from one resting-
place to another is called " Fengu,"
and the officiating priest
the "
Duwe-fengu-owo," i.e. the recaller of departed spirits.
Another of my numerous informants, one Epe, himself a
native of Nembe, educated and intelligent, says " It is usual :
to perform the ceremony of transferring and reburying the

spirit-souls of those who had been buried as outcasts to the
proper burial-ground at such intervals when the number of
the latter have amounted to something like about forty souls.
It is also usual for all those families who are interested in the
matter to see that the requisite number of coffins and figures
are prepared, and when done the latter are tied to the
this is
lids of the former, arrangement is made by all
and an
concerned with the priest regarding the appointment and
performance of the actual ceremony."
A dark night is usually selected, and about an hour after
midnight " the recaller of departed spirits " sets out for the
special burying-ground, accompanied by a representative from
each house carrying a coffin. They make their way in canoes,
and on arriving the priest calls out in a loud voice the
name of each spirit-soul to come forth. When he has finished
calling the roll, the priest informs the representatives that the
spirits, in answer to his summons, have informed him that they
are unable to burst or break through the tenement in which
they are confined, and that they cannot move therefrom until
their debts have been paid for them. Each of the represen-
tatives —who come provided for emergencies —now produces a
piece of cloth, which is handed to the priest. Armed with
the various pieces, also with a supply of raw plantains, chopped
up, and a cockle-shell full of rum, he leaves the assembly, and,
advancing still farther into the bush among the graves, deposits
these articles upon the ground, and in a loud voice informs the
spirits that they are to arrange theiraffairs with them. All
this time he keeps on blowing a horn, in a low and subdued
tone. Then on a sudden he calls out to one of the re-
presentatives open his coffin, and soon after to close it
to
down, as the spirit has gone inside. Continuing this operation
in the same way, all the spirits are conjured into the figures
that are in the coffins. These are only about five inches in
length, and half that number in thickness, clearly demon-
strating the elastic and contractile qualities of the spiritual
element in the minds of the natives.
On the completion of this extremely delicate operation
great joy is at once manifested, and the whole assembly return
to the town, accompanied by the recalled and recaller, who

beguiles the way by discoursing music on a horn, to convey
merriment and sympathy to the released and now joyous souls.
The remainder of the night is devoted to a watch over the
rescued spirits, who later on in the morning are interred with
honours in the proper burial-ground.
Among the Efik and Ibibio, to announce the death of a
king or chief either very suddenly or too soon is considered
a great dishonour, especially in the case of a son, who must
only be informed indirectly by an allusion or a hint. The
body is preserved by desiccation —
a custom that is prevalent
throughout the Delta, including even the Igarra, and at the
end of four or six months the funeral rites begin. Drums are
beaten, guns are fired, and at a fixed hour the lamentation is
renewed with great ardour. Should the deceased have been a
member of Egbo, a grand procession of all its members is
formed from the palaver house to his residence, in which any
emblems of office which may have belonged to him are carried.
The inevitable entertainment is organised, at which feasting,
drinking, and dancing are carried on to an unlimited excess
for a period of two weeks, at the end of which time the body
is interred, and the ceremony terminates.
On the death of a chief or big person in the Ogoni country,

the household at once contribute 200 manillas, in order to
hire special drummers to play in honour of the deceased. The
first and second sons are then obligjed to sacrifice a goat each.
The ceremony, which is very similar in all respects to those

that have been described, lasts, as a rule, for a period of eight
days, on the last day of which the chief is buried.
In the event of a rich woman dying, the eldest son is
obliged to kill a bullock and three goats, and to spend eighty

manillas for tombo. With this a large feast is prepared, to
which only the family and intimate friends are invited. Drums
are then beaten and guns fired, the interment taking place on
the eighth day.
The burial customs of the Andoni are, however, somewhat
different from those of the other tribes. Irrespective of rank or
wealth, when a person dies the body is wrapped up in fishing
mats and placed upon a mud altar, about two feet high, which
is built in the " Oroang-Ekuku," or bush for the dead. The
bodies are washed, and treated in a similar way to that which
prevails among the Ibani, and they are then decked out in
many cloths, beads, etc., and in the case of chiefs or big persons,
sacrifices of goats and fowls are offered up, the blood of which
is purposely thrown on and towards the feet of the deceased.
The parents or wives and nearest relatives fire off many guns
in the burial-ground, where, for the first four days, the food is
cooked and eaten once a day only, a certain portion of it being

first of all placed on the ground, close to the altar, on which
deceased is lying in state.

Another condition peculiar to these people is that the
funeral ceremonies are only performed by the companions, or
the members of the Ofiokpo, or any of the other tribal societies
to which the deceased may have belonged.
The ISTatural Aspect of Death

Death is not only accepted and looked on as a spiritual
causation, but death itself is personified and dealt with as a
powerful spirit, who — subsequent to a struggle for supremacy
that alternates very considerably, and altogether variably and
unevenly —
by depriving the
gains the mastery over the
soul of the body, i.e.
life of the human
ejecting the former, so
ego
that dissolution supervenes in the latter. Indeed, the native

conception of death is that of a relentless and inexorable
demon, wlio, although omnivorous, and a glutton who is always

gorging himself, is not so much a devourer of souls as a carrier
away of them.
Death, under certain conditions and circumstances, is recog-
nised by these natives as an effect which has been perpetrated
or put into execution by this spiritual soul-snatcher, the cause
of which assigned to some former act of omission or com-
is
mission on the part of the defunct. Under this heading would

be classed all deaths which are due, from the European stand-
point, to accident, design, or violence ; while those which, in a
civilised sense, are attributed to senile decay or to natural
causes, are considered to be the legitimate work of the death
spirit, pure and simple, especially in the case of infants or very
young children.
is, however, impossible to discuss this matter of death
It
without taking into consideration the question of witchcraft
but as this is being fully and specifically dealt with in its
proper place, it is only necessary at this stage of the inquiry
to remark that, according to popular estimation, nearly every
death is, in the first instance, at all events, attributed to or
associated with the accursed maîc.
Following immediately upon the opinion that has just been
expressed, an element of decided contradiction appears to be
here implied in this latter statement. There is, however, in
reality no contradiction. Tor the intervention of witchcraft is
but a human adjunct, that in no way interferes with the acts
of the death spirit on the contrary, that is believed either to
;
assistor to act independently of the latter by co-operating

with certain forces that lie outside the domain of Mature, the
result arrived at being exactly the same, however, viz. capture
and expulsion, possibly extinction, of the soul and dissolution
of the body. But thoroughly dissected and analysed, from the
standpoint of native philosophy, the fact still remains that
death is the severance of the spirit-soul from the human,
corporeal body.
Although death is the resiilt of the enforced expulsion of
the soul from the body, in other words, the dissolution of the
body consequent on its deprivation of the animating principle,
it is quite as essential and inevitable in the scheme of creation
as reproduction is. Indeed, to these natives, without repro-

duction there can be no death, just as without death there can
be no reproduction. For, as we shall see in Chapter IV.,
under headings (a) to (c), the principles that are involved in
transmigration are as essential to their mode of thought and
wellbeing as life itself, the dissolution and reproduction of
human, animal, and vegetal bodies being necessary to provide
new and suitable tenements for the ever mobile and exchang-
insj souls.
Let us take, for example, the death of the head of a house-

hold. During the illness which proves to be his last, all those
who are nearest and dearest to —
him his sons, wives, daughters,
brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and confidential slaves, including
also his most intimate friends —
are in the habit of attending
on him until his death and it is not considered unlucky to
;
be present at the supreme moment. Indeed, it is the universal

custom for all the members of a family to be present, with the
exception of any one who is specially prohibited by order of the
dying man. Apart, of course, from the ties of affection, one,
if not the chief, reason for this assembly of the family is that
of hearing by word of mouth the final and particular instruc-

tions that the dying patriarch may have to give as to the dis-
posal of certain property, or regarding any particular members.
To those who are assembled the moment is not only one
of the intensest anxiety, because of the departing member, but
on the on the attitude of his
fate of the master, as well as
successor towards them (plus the intrigue fomented by secret
jealousies, envies, and animosities of contending rivals and
factions), their own fate hangs, and the supreme moment of
severance that awaits every ego threatens to overtake them
out of its turn, and long before the allotted time. Because
the fear of the unhallowed and immoral cancer of witchcraft
is as much an heirloom in every family of the Delta as the
more precious heritage who govern them. An

of the spirits
heirloom which, although hated and dreaded, has so strong
it is
a hold on the nerves of these emotional and neurotic people

that they bend their necks submissively, and submit to its
enormities as to the inevitable, from which there is no escape.
Attached as they are to the dying man, some of them
sincerely and genuinely so, and believing firmly in the spiritual

life, is no desire, all the same, on their part to he
there
sacrificed in order to accompany his departing spirit, or to
undergo the poison ordeal, so as to prove and establish their
innocence.
From this crucial test, this expected doom of sudden death
that confronts them, and the dread not only of horrible uncer-
tainty but of agonising suspense, it is not in the least sur-
prising, fatalistic though these natives are, that they shrink as
from a fate that is uncanny, and in their opinion undeserved.
Tor the sting of it lies, not in the doom itself so much as in
the terrible anticipation of an act of spiritual seizure, that
under normal circumstances might have been postponed for
ever so long.
Thus, one of the customs which appertains to the Ibibio
and Efik is that which rules that all widows must be flogged
by Egbo, in accordance with their deserts. They are also fined
to pay Egbo, and have their clothes torn, their faces defiled,
and all their household utensils broken. This peculiarly
drastic treatment, particularly the flogging, if not too severe,
is not feared, however ; on the contrary it is, curious though it
may seem, rather liked and looked forward to, because looked
upon as a clearing away of old scores, which relieves the
widows at least of fear for the future, being, as it is, in a few
words, the happy release that removes the uncertainty of the
dreaded doom that has been up till then hanging over them
in the spectral, but none the less substantial shape of death,
the inveterate foe of human life.
A Descriptiox of the Funeral Kites and Ceremonial
Immediately after death any cloth which the deceased

was wearing is taken away, the corpse is washed, the limbs
are straightened and dresssed in the best cloth, the household

supplying the want in the event of poverty or a scanty ward-
robe. The persons wdio perform this office are regarded as
unclean, and obliged to purify themselves before they can
become clean again. For to touch a dead body, or have any-
thing to do with a grave, is considered a pollution, and it is
CHAP. II THE SACRAMENT OF BURIAL i^S
unlucky for a man to come into a house with the dirt of the
grave upon his person.

The corpse is generally left in its own house, but in
cases where the house is either too small or too poor in which
to receive friends, it is moved to a better or more com-
modious residence.
The elaborate manner of embalming, as it was practised
by the ancient Egyptians, is not, of course, known but in the ;
cases of kings or chiefs, where the obsequies are prolonged and

conducted on a grand scale, and it is essential to keep the
corpse above ground, a rude method of embalming is carried
out. Having first smeared the body with a decoction made
from certain plants, which are boiled down, it is rubbed all
over with camwood, and if it is to be preserved for some
time, a quantity of spirit, usually rum, is poured over it, and
it is then wrapped up in large mats. The favourite method,
however, which prevails among one and all of these tribes is
to smoke-dry the corpse. This, as a rule, especially among

the Igara, Efik, and other coast natives, is confined to pre-
serving the bodies of men of note and distinction only. But

among the Aro and Ibo from the interior, when any of
their members die away from their homes, it is customary

always to desiccate and to convey the corpse to the family
of the deceased, and they immediately summon all distant
relatives, and make an inquiry into the cause of death.
Among all those tribes with whom

came into contact I
cremation is not practised, for this custom would be opposed
in principle to their belief in the destructive powers and
finality of fire, which, although it is unable to destroy the
soul or spirit, is considered infallible in its operations as
regards the material. There are, however, certain exceptions,

as, for instance, when the Efik and Andoni mothers burn the
bodies of their infants' vide Chapter IV. — as a warning to

the spirits to desist from depriving them of the life and
society of their infants.

When the body is about to be buried, a funeral procession
isformed of the family and friends, and others of the com-
munity who are in sympathy with the deceased, and the body
is carried to the grave in a lying posture. After burial,
salutes are fired, the numberof guns depending on the rank

and wealth of deceased. In the case of a chief or king these
salutes are continued for eight days, the guns being fired at
intervals throughout the day and night and in the event of
;
his having been a grandfather they are kept up for just

double that period, and the adjacent towns are notified to that
effect, a memorial service being observed annually in honour
of such local celebrities only. This doubling of the salute to

a grandfather is. in fact, a bestowal of that honour to whom
honour is not only due as an ancestral right and privilege,
but which is the meed of him who, prior to his departure
to the rest or strife of spirit land, left behind him a double

reminder in two generations of the flesh — a solid memorial,
which entitles him to an increased spiritual control.
For ordinary people only three or four guns are fired,
according to the means of the household, and the firing is
limited to four days, and on the evening of the last day the
eldest son or brother gives a feast to the whole family, includ-
ing friends. In this firing of guns, both large and small, the
object is not merely to honour the departed, or to announce
his departure to spirit land, but to clear the road of malevolent
demons, so as to ensure him a safe conduct and a journey free
from molestation.
In connection with the funeral ceremony of big men, the
-vvake — as we have seen —
takes a prominent part in the form
of dancing, singing, entertainment of strangers, and, among the
coast tribes, of racing war canoes; and, iiv^many instances,
the dancing and singing is kept up for a month, and even two,
i.e. as long as the stamina of the performers and the resources
of the household hold out.

While this festival is progressing, but during an early
phase of the proceedings, the daughters and grand-daughters of
any notable, dressed and ornamented in their best, and accom-
panied by a party of female singers, walk through the town
and notify to the people the virtues and wealth of their late
father. Mourners are never hired, and self-mutilation by the
mourners is not practised, but signs of mourning are worn.
It is customary on these occasions, more especially in the
event of the death of some powerful or influential personage.
to make speeches or to deliver eulogies in his honour; but

these, as a rule, are made by friends, and seldom, if ever, by
public orators.
The ordinary mode of burial is in the earth, although mud
altars and platforms in trees are used by the Andoni, as they
also were, until quite recently, by the Okrika and Efik. In
the event of death from smallpox, however, it is still usual
for the Okrika and others to wrap the corpses in mats and
place them in the branches of trees, while the majority of the
tribes, especially on or near the coast, merely throw
those
them into the bush, as they do all those which, as we have
seen in the preceding chapters, are looked on as corrupt and
unclean.
The body is on the ground when the grave has
laid flat
been dug, the head being placed in no particular direction, and
beyond those which have been already described no other
ceremonies are observed. Once a grave has been filled in it
is never reopened, even for the interment of any one who was
very dear to the deceased.

It is also customary to bury implements, weapons, insignia
of office, ornaments, and other articles, such as cloth, wearing
apparel, plates, furniture, powder, pottery, wooden or clay
imao-es, in addition to the sacrificial victims, human and
animal. The reason given in explanation of this custom is,
as has already been pointed out, that while the former are for
the use of the departed soul in spiritland, the latter are his
personal attendants.
Although in no way very particular regarding the safety
of those articles of value which are buried with the corpse,
and in spite of the fact that no special precautions are taken
to guard against it, cases of sacrilege are of very rare occur-
rence. This, however, is accounted for by the belief that the
spirits take them into spiritland.
Fishermen and dwellers on rivers and creeks who are in
the habit of using canoes never utilise them as a means of
interment.
The heads of kindred or friends are never preserved or
kept, as to do so would be opposed to tradition and custom,
according to which only enemies who have been killed in war
N
are decapitated, and, after a great display of pomp and

ceremonial, the heads are preserved as trophies, which are not
infrequently converted into symbols. There are, of course,
exceptions to this general rule, when, the heads of relatives
e.g.,
or friends who have been killed in war are subsequently

recovered, or, in such instances, when friends have become
converted into enemies, or yet again, when members of the
same community are condemned to death and beheaded in
expiation of crimes committed against the state.
I have already, in the previous chapter, alluded to and
partially described the custom universal all over the Delta,
but known in Xembe as Peri. To understand it, however, in
all its significance it will be well, at this stage of the proceed-
ings, to give a description of the ceremony in full.
On the return from war the captives are beheaded on a
special slaughter -ground, which is usually situated about a
mile from the town. The performance of this office is con-
sidered a high honour, which, in the first instance, is always
specially conferredon a chief or person of some rank or stand-
ing, while it is open to men of lesser mark who have
also
greatly distinguished themselves by some special act of valour.
On the arrival of the executioners at the entrance of the
town, they are met and escorted, each to his own home, by
their own female relatives. It is, as a rule, customary for the
—
which are now looked on
eldest sisters to receive the heads
as trophies, or somewhat in a similar light to medals from —
their brothers, and to carry them to the family residence,
primarily to be prepared as food, and eventually to be
installed in the place of honour.
On the way a demonstration takes place in the person of
each of these which in the singular and ferocious out-
sisters,
burst of joy evinced is but an outer manifestation of those
inner human emotions that, although set in motion by the

so-called spiritual, become an absolutely uncontrollable factor
when the lower instincts are aroused. Throwing^ the head
about, as well as on the ground, when they jump over it, each
one of these now, as it were, frenzied women performs all sorts
of extraordinary antics and cuts every kind of caper which is
curious and imimaginable, and they go through a variety of
gestures and contortions resembling those of animals more

than of human beings. These, which are said to be indicative
and in a certain sense of religious fervour,
of internal pleasure,
are varied by frequent announcements relative to the fraternal
prowess. In this way, until the homesteads are reached, they
keep on gesticulating, capering, and crying out in loud and
excited voices " My brother's victim
: —
his honour-conferring
trophy — slaughtered by my brother," or words to the same
effect. Each head is then clean shaven, prepared, and cooked,
for the delectation of the elder sister in particular, but in
those communities on the coast which are in touch with
civilisation, when there is any compunction on her part to
partake of this repast, some one belonging to the household is
hired for the purpose, and paid by the sister out of the
remuneration she receives as her share of the booty that has
been captured.
The skulls in each case are religiously preserved and con-
verted into trophies, which, dyed on one side with camwood
and on the other with chalk, are placed either on an altar,
along with similar household trophies or symbols, or on trees that
are sacred and symbolical of ancestral spirits or deities. The
bodies too, which at first are always hung upon trees, are in
the end invariably eaten for, ; in regard to prisoners of war, one

and all of these tribes are, or until quite recently were, essen-
tially cannibalistic.
During the period of these feasts the orgies which take
place are positively disgusting and repulsive, men and
women rushing, dancing, or reeling through the town, carry-
ing in their hands pieces of cooked or smoked human flesh,
which they eat and revel in with absolute pleasure and enjoy-
ment from a sheer sense of satisfaction in the solid and
substantial. Brutal and loathsome as it all is, there is in this
hideous carnival of the carnal lusts and passions a spiritual
significance — a satisfying sacrifice to the ancestral spirits who
have given them the victory and delivered the enemy into
their hands.
The act of decapitation, as we have seen, is esteemed a
very high honour, conferred by the king on notables and
important personages only but when the person appointed
;
i8o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
lacks the courage to sever the head from the body, he

touches the sword, and then hands it to a substitute pro-
vided by him at a handsome remuneration, who performs the
operation for customary and necessary for the
him. It is
executioner to lick the blood that is on the blade the reason —

for which we shall soon inquire into also to remain in the —
house for three days. During this period he sleeps on the
bare floor, eats off broken platters, and drinks out of calabashes
or mugs which are also damaged. On the fourth day, dressed
in his best clothes and ornamented with a number of ease's
feathers and any fineries that he may possess, he sallies forth
and walks round the town, paying visits to all his most
intimate friends.
These feathers, which are stuck into the hair, are obtained
from a species of fish eagle, or large white and brown kite,
and each white feather represents the destruction in this
manner, or under the circumstances already mentioned, of a
human life.
The sword which is used on these occasions is specially

reserved for this particular purpose, and in Brass is called
" Isene-Ogidi." It is greatly reverenced by all, and is not
spoken of even in jest. A person who in a contention with
another is desirous of hurting, or rather injuring, his feelings to
the utmost usually swears by it. Apart from the usual
sanctity that in the eyes of every owner, maker, or person is
ordinarily attached to weapons, instruments, implements, tools,

and all articles in fact which are in common or daily use, or
in any way utilised outside the occupations and routine of
everyday life, there is a special significance associated with
the sword in question. Connected as it is with a sacrifice
that human, therefore all the more sacred because of its
is
greater and sublimer significance, this instrument of death

and outward emblem of the life-taker or spirit -snatcher is
anctified of all on account of its association with a
first
and secondly because of its practical utility in

.acred sacrifice,
obeying the behests and fulfilling the command of its spiritual
mentor or possessor with unfailing skill, keenness, and pre-
cision. Judging from its name alone, it is legitimately reason-
able to infer that as a lawful instrument of justice there was
CHAP. II THE SACRAMENT OF BURIAL
a distinct association between the tribal god " Ogidiga " and
the sword " Isene Ogidi " ; and it is further possible that in
more remote days some connection may have existed with the
god " Ogidi," who was the ancestral divinity of the Ibo clan
Obo, who lived in the country of Amadgwio. This in-
evitable spiritualism of the material, which is universal not
only in the Delta area but outside of it, has been touched
upon generally in various but more particularly and
sections,
specifically in Section V. Thus (as among the Hindus), every
domestic utensil as well as tool or implement by which people
earn their living or get their food is endowed with a spirit of
its own, that in its deepest essence is the animator and mover
of the article in question, giving force and propulsion to a
paddle, accuracy and precision to an arrow in its flight, a keen
edge and unerring aim to a sword or an axe. Tor this reason
it is that the Yorubas say of the axe itself that it enters the
forest, cuts the tree, and is not afraid —implying that it is the
familiar spirit who is in the axe that gives it courage and
moves it accordingly to enter and to cut.
This natural cult, as in fact every custom and ceremonial
which is connected with their sociology, is essentially a question
of personal association. In this way it is that even the most
impersonal and material object or substance has in the first
instance been associated with a personality and then spiritualised

by the spirit contained therein — a fact wliich at once implies
its ancestral origin, every single formula or ceremonial having
at one time formed, as it still forms, an association with some

particular or pre-eminent ancestor. So what we Europeans
call the past is linked to the present, and this in its turn is
connected with the future. For, believing as these people do in
a life two existences which are continuous, merging one into
of
the other as the human does into the spiritual, and back again
as the latter does in the former, time for them has ill reality
no divisions as it has for us. Equally so, it has neither value
nor object, and for this reason is treated with an indifference
and a contempt that is altogether inexplicable to the European.
The custom of licking the blood off the blade of a sword by
which a man has been killed in war is common to all these
tribes, and the explanation given me by the Ibo, which is
i82 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
generally accepted, is, that if this was not done, the act of
killing would so affect the strikers as to cause them to run

amok among their own people because the sight and smell of
;
blood render them absolutely senseless as well as regardless

of all consequences. And this licking the blood is the only
sure remedy, and the only way in which they can recover
themselves.
It is on this principle too, as we shall see in Section VII.,
that all sacrifices, human and animal, are performed. For just
as it is essential to kill a woman when a chief dies in order
that his eyes should open in spiritland, or to slaughter slaves,
who are his hands and feet, with a view to a continuity on
their part of personal attendance on their master in the same
abode, so it is an obligation as well as a virtue for the
shedder of any human blood in a righteous cause to drink of
the blood and eat of the flesh.
This principle and the belief in the extreme efficacy of a

sacrifice that was not only substantial, but which, as far as
the blood was concerned, contained an element equivalent
to if not life itself, were most indubitably at the bottom of
cannibalism, which in the beginning was a custom that, as an
offering to the ancestral spirits, was in every sense sanctified.
Yet it was not merely the which was believed to
vitality
be in the blood, but the additional vigour which it was able

to impart to the drinker of it, that in the first instance
strengthened the belief in the efficacy of a practice that had
always appealed to natural man.
It is not, as a general rule, customary among any of the
Delta tribes to erect memorials or mounds above the graves of

the dead, the house in which the individual resided in the
case of prominent chiefs and notables being the usual and only
"
memorial while the cemetery, or " bush for the dead
utilised,
as it is called by these people, is reserved for the rank and
file. There are, of course, exceptions to this, when, e.g., the New
Calabar natives erect a new house over the remains of the
late departed, the hall of which becomes an ancestral chapel
in which is also deposited the " Duen fubara " or image of
deceased, to whom offerings and petitions are weekly off'ered up.
The Ibibio, however, erect large monuments in prominent
positions, to market-places or cross-roads, and some-

close
times on roadways that are close to towns and
actually
in constant use, but only in honour of chiefs and very dis-
tinguished persons. These structures are made of a wooden
framework, draped and ornamented with cloths of bright and
brilliant hues, and decorated with hardware plates and
domestic utensils. Frequently, however, two small mud
chambers with wooden doors that are always kept securely
locked or fastened are built at the sides for the sole use of
the dead man's spirit.
The Aro or Inoku too bury their notables in prominent

places inside their towns or villages, the monument consisting
of a plain and unadorned mound of hardened clay, dyed or
stained black, which is raised over the grave. This invariably
stands under the shelter of a well-constructed shed, open at
the sides, which is always swept and kept clean, and offerings
of food and medicines are regularly placed in two holes which
are made in front of the mound.
Small figures and images, such as are mentioned above,
purporting and believed by the natives to contain the spirits
of the defunct, and occupying exactly the same status as the
Aryan " Pitris " or " Fathers " and the Eoman Lares and
Penates, are also made and venerated by all the Delta tribes.
Food and liquid offerings are regularly placed on graves or at
the monuments erected, or the symbols that have just been
referred to, for the use of the departed spirits {vide Section VI.,
in which this question is discussed in all its details).
CHAPTER III
SPIRITLAND AND THE SPIRITUAL EXISTENCE
The spirit, as we have already seen, is merely the soul or airy

essence after its liberation from bodily confinement. It is, in
fact, life without the material organism, which is but a suitable
or convenient form for this earthly existence. So the Ibo or
Delta spiritland is, except for this loss, merely a continuity
of the present, and thus, in the strictest sense of the word,
there is in reality no future.
No reason is assigned by the natives for the separation of
the imperishable from the perishable beyond the fact that their
fathers and the priests have so instructed them.
According to these spiritual mentors there are two distinct
worlds, this one and the next, to which latter all who have
lived in the former go, without respect of persons or conduct.
For the line of demarcation is not too sharply defined between
good and evil, both forces being recognised as inevitable and
natural conditions of existence, whether earthly or spiritual.
Yet, curiously enough, the boundary line between this world
and the next is much more explicitly defined, the vital dis-
tinction that demarcates them beincf the entire absence of
death or dissolution in the next world, spiritland being a
region in which only the spirit essence or life is in existence.
So it is that they have neither a heaven nor a hell, spirit-
land being merely a continuance of this life on exactly the
same conditions, each country and community having its
allotted portion, and each individual resuming the exact
position that was occupied when in this existence.
There is, however, as we have just seen, one general
184
CHAP. Ill SPIRITLAND AND THE SPIRITUAL EXISTENCE 185
exception to this rule, which relegates the souls of all those

who have not received the sacred burial rites no matter in —
what form they have met their death to a ghostly life of —
perpetual wandering, or it may be of return to this world in
the form or body of an animal, and which confines to certain
localities in spiritland all those who have committed murder,
suicide, or other violent acts.
This, in spite of the fact that no specified locality is defined,
constitutes tosome extent the idea of moral punishment, and

is not by any means quite so uneven as it appears, because
the fact is taken into consideration that any untoward or
untimely death necessitating absence of the funeral rites,
although the work of some spirit (malignant or perhaps merely

inimical) has been incurred by the absentee's own act in
bringing its vengeance upon himself. In other words, these
people, while not in any way understanding the doctrine of
predestination, are to a great extent fatalists and although at
;
the same time they believe in the possibility of dodging Fate

and securing salvation by means of sacrificial propitiation, when
Fate comes in the form of death they accept it with all the
philosophy that a belief such as theirs is bound to excite, for
powerful as the spirit Death may be, his dominion extends
only to the body. This he may slay, but not the soul.
Life is held cheap, for on balancing matters in their own

minds these sons of [N'ature find it hard to decide whether the
terrors they know bad as, or worse than, the terrors
are as
they do not know, but which they presume to be on a similar
scale. Therefore it is that future terrors do not terrorise
them any more than the possibility of present calamities, which
are ubiquitous, and only awaiting the chance or opportunity
to fall upon and overwhelm them. So, while the bolder and
more pugnaciously inclined look forward to taking their sub-
sequent share in the control of worldly affairs, others of a
milder disposition, imbued with the restful principle that
Buddha taught, prefer to seek refuge among the trees of their
forests or stones and such material objects, in which they hope
to remain for ever in rest perpetual.
But let us hear once more what friend Izikewe has to say
on the subject of spiritland. " We Ibo look forward to the
l86 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
next world as being much the same as this, the only great
difference being that we will not have our fleshy bodies, and
that it will be one of perpetual gloom, for there will be no day
there. we know from dreams, in which it seems to us
This
that, while we on this earth are in light, the spirits with whom
we converse are always in darkness. In all other ways,
however, we picture life there to be exactly as it is in this
world. The ground there is just the same as it is here, the
earth is There are forests and hills and valleys, with
similar.
rivers flowing, and roads leading from one town to another as
well as to houses and farms. Roads also exist from this
world to the next, by which the souls of men who have died
travel, just as tliey do in this world, to their own towns and
houses. But the land of the dead has no connection with the
land that swallows up the sun, for it is always in darkness,
while the land where the sun is has always a light. People
in spiritland have their ordinary occupations the farmer :
his farm, and the fisherman his nets and canoes. The king
remains king, the chief a chief, the rich man is always rich,
the poor are poor, slaves continue to be slaves, and people speak
their own languages, just as we know them
to do in dreams.
The same trouble and undergone in this world
evil that is
we will undergo in the next, for these things have to be taken

as they come, being as they are unavoidable and as much a
part of our existence as goodness and joy. There is, in
fact, no difference of any kind, so far as we can see,
except that certain places are set apart in this land of
men who have been murderers, or who took
spirits for those
their own lives, or who committed other acts of violence.
Regarding those who have been killed by violence, we cannot
say what happens to them, beyond the fact that they are
obliged to wander about and are never at rest, but we make
no distinction between the good and the evil.
" However good or however bad people are when they die,
if they receive proper burial their souls will go up to the land

is no allotted locality of any kind.
of spirits, for there For
with us there is no very great difference between people at —
least we do not see it if there is —
and good and evil seem to
us to be more or less very evenly distributed.
In the same way too the souls of those who are dead are,
"
as a rule, regarded as spirits who are capable of doing good or

doing evil but it is usual to look on those who have received
;
much respect in this and their wealth,

life for their greatness
and also those who have been correctly buried, as good spirits,
w^hile those who have been criminals and outcasts we look on
as demons.
" Every departed spirit, but more especially those who in
this world occupied leading positions, and particularly a head
of a house and a chief, is believed to claim and to exercise
authority over the fate of his own household, whom he has left
behind him. Therefore his people consider it incumbent on
them keep in touch with him through the mediation of
to
various gifts, offerings, and sacrifices, in order that they might
so secure their own future welfare."
And it is in this article of their belief that it is easy to
recognise the duality of their plastic and pliant natures and of
their religious conceptions. For, no matter how well-disposed
a person has been in this existence, and in spite of the fact
that he has been on excelleut terms with his family and that
he is regarded as a good spirit, it is recognised that unless on
the one hand he is propitiated by his people, and on the other
pleased with the behaviour or attitude of his people towards
himself, he is quite capable not only of neglecting but of injur-
ing their interests.
It is not therefore demons only who are to be propitiated,
but all human spirits — spirits, Lc. wlio have lived in this world.
In other words, it is not so much propitiation that is required
for the good spirits, but ancestral veneration, the neglect of
which on the part of the living children is considered a sin by
the spirit fathers or elders.
It is in this self-imposed authority that the key of the
spiritual riddle is to be discovered. The two existences,
material and spiritual, are in reality, so far as the people are
concerned, one life the former a probation of the latter, death
:
being merely a necessary ordeal in order to effect the transition,

or rather a connecting link between the two phases. So we
have seen in Chapter II. the actual and successive steps by
which the succession of a household falls to the son, and at
the same time, that by means of the burial sacrament the

departed soul of the father assumes the immediate spiritual
reins of government under the control of the ancestral deities,
^.e. the more ancient fathers.
still
In this natural way the act of death came in time to form

a connection which —
although it was one of separation, show-
ing as it did that the human life was an existence which
depended entirely on the spirit —
grew or developed into an
association the significance of which could only be measured
by the supremacy of the spiritual. It was this dependence of
the human existence on the spiritual that originally constituted
the supremacy of the latter and it is this supremacy which
;
explains the fear, the subservience, the obedience, and the

rigid discipline of the household in the flesh to the household
in the spirit. To show how closely these two apparently
opposite phases are associated, connected, but altogether con-
fused in the turbid minds of these natives, it is believed that
if an animal into whose body the spirit soul of a man has
transmigrated is wounded or killed, the human spirit soul will
also receive the injury in the same ratio. So mutual is the
sympathy, so united are the two entities, so bound up in one
affinity is the life of the one with tlie life of the other, that
whatever befalls the animal at once affects the human spirit
soul. Thus it is that all life, animal and vegetable, has within
it the spiritual or living essence, varying in form and character
— all, like the human, continuing their spiritual existence in
the next world.
Between the spiritual element of the three kingdoms, how-
ever, there is, in their opinion, a marked difference that is
evidently suggested as much by the difference in external form

and appearance as it is by the internal faculties of reason and
speech which make so distinctive a line of demarcation. Thus,
in spite of the sagacity and intelligence of animals, whom they
look on as the same order of creation as themselves, but on a
lower scale, they rate the soul to be on a similar low level.
While vegetables, although they have life and soul, having
neither mind nor intelligence, cannot in any sense even be
compared with animals.
That they hold, however, a still more distinctive difference
between the animal and vegetable organisation is to be seen,

not so much in their belief in metempsychosis as in a cult
called " Ehelie," which signifies the power that in this world
exists among certain individuals only of transforming the
human body into that of an animal, and met versa, also the
possession by human beings of animal souls. A comprehension

of this weird and extraordinary idea enables one to grasp more
readily the actual distinction between the two spiritual
elements ; for, while the human body does

soul in the animal
not in any sense alter the character of the animal, the animal
soul in the human body at once reduces the infected being into
a position of inferiority, i.e. it changes the higher human
characteristics into the lower animal instincts.
This recognition of the interchange of souls before as well
as after death to a great extent contradicts the received native
opinion as to the superiority of the human soul over the animal,
because an admission of this power of projection or transference
is an admission of spiritual equality but the fact that the
;
power is confined to a very select minority, and that while the

human soul in the animal body does not elevate the animal
(except under certain special conditions and circumstances) the
possession of the animal soul distinctly degenerates the human
being, considerably modifies the supposed admission.
The soul, according to the ideas of these Delta people,' is
quite invisible except to those select few, such as the doctors

and priests, who possess the power of looking beyond the
material into the spiritual —a power that to some extent is
equivalent to what we call second sight ; but not more than
one person at a time is able to see the figures of the departed,
and spirits cannot be summoned to be conversed with except
by witch-doctors. In other words, the spirits, as possessing
the greater power, have it all their own way, and are in no
sense under the sway of human beings, even the privileged
doctors being merely mediums who possess a privilege, and
in no sense any right to control over them.
But in spiritlandand among the spirits themselves,
itself,
matters wear quite a different aspect. Here spirits not only

summon each other for the purpose of holding friendly converse^
but have assemblies and palavers in order to discuss the more
public affairs of the community, arguing, wrangling, and even

quarrelling as they did in this world unlike humanity, how-
;
ever, they keep their own counsel and their quarrels to

themselves, imparting neither information nor counsel to those
below. So that, from this point of view, they are inquisitors
pure and simple. And it is to this fact, and in this article of
their belief, that the ancestor is a grand spiritual inquisitor,

who can and does inflict injury and evil, that the whole idea
of moral punishment can be traced.
The Dibias or doctors are the only people who can see or
hold communication with and then only when they are
spirits,
specially skilled in the mysteries of the magic art, and of charms

in particular, through means of which they are alone enabled
to do so. Those ghosts which haunt burial-grounds are said
to shout and blow horns, and can be driven away from houses
or cemeteries which they haunt by these Dibias, but even
then only by means of certain ceremonies, during which they
are of course invisible to all onlookers.
These doctors are always accompanied by familiar spirits,
to whom they are said to be in the habit of talking. It is
believed, too, that every ordinary individual, male or female, is
attended by a guardian spirit, who is looked on as a protector,

invariably of the same household, and with whom when alive
personal friendship or attachment has existed.
Every freeman is attended by a guardian spirit, usually the
spirit of his own immediate father, especially in such cases
where the been an influential chief or a man of
latter has
substance. Indeed, the father and grandfather appear to
have the strongest hold on the memory and the most direct,
because personal, claim, consequently they are more commonly
reverenced or consulted than the far-off deities.
When a freeman, however, by people of another

is seized
community and enslaved, he not only loses the more material
and personal enjoyment of his domestic circle, but he is
deprived of his protecting spirit, for the very act of seizure
implies that his guardian has been unable to protect him, and
that he is suffering for some former act, possibly in a previous
existence. This means that unless he can once more regain
his freedom he has lost everything, not only in this life but
in the life to come. Wife, children, and connections — his

eldest son alone excepted —he might learn to bear the loss of
in time and to replace, but to deprive him of his familiar
shadow, of the protection of the ancestral shades, and of the
family reproducer is to aim a blow at his hereafter by upset-
ting the even balance of things and turning his spirit into a
vagrant and wanderer in the waste places of the earth. This
is a thought he cannot endure, the very prospect of which
makes him shudder, but when it becomes a reality it literally
crushes all the spirit out of him and turns him into a callous
and abject creature.

There are, of course, exceptions among them men who do —
not lose all hope, and who look forward to regaining their homes
and reclaiming the protection of their guardian spirits. But
escape is not always easy, hedged in by the system of isolation
in which these people live, and knowing little of the country
outside their own environment. Besides, reserved as they
invariably are for human sacrifice, especially 1902 when
up to
they fell into the hands of the Aro, who made it their
business to traffic in slaves for this especial purpose, little time
and less opportunity is given them for escape.
A common custom among all the Delta tribes is for the
women bury their infants close to or in the vicinity of the
to
path which leads to the watering-place of the town. This is
done so that the mothers, either on their way to or from the
spring, may keep in touch with the departed spirit and women ;
who were especially attached to their infants during their life

will frequently go and keep up an imaginary conversation with
them for quite a long time.
The gift of seeing spirits is not only confined to individuals,
but among the coast tribes, i.e. those who are in touch with civili-
sation, it is extremely rare. Indeed, it is confined almost
exclusively to the tribes of the interior, but especially to the
Ibo. This shows how potent a factor is civilisation.
This in itself shows that these Delta natives recognise

instinctively that the Ju-Juism of the white man is too
powerful to be reckoned with, while in no way admitting that
their own is not efficacious, or that it has lost its mystic
efficacy. To these curiously conflicting thinkers this acknow-
ledgment does not convey any loss of prestige, for the white
men, although of the same creation, are a distinct and separate
feature of it. It only means a judicious retirement and a
more effectual concealment, therefore a greater isolation and

mystery than ever.
The gift of seeing spirits is not confined to human beings
only, for certain animals possess not only this abnormal faculty,
but also the power of rendering themselves entirely invisible.

One of these, called the Ogo-mogu presumably the —
chameleon —
is said to live close to a river or stream of water
in forests where the bush is big and thick. So gifted is this
creature with miraculous powers that it can make itself in-
visible to a hunter, although he may be standing alongside of

it. When it is looking for food, which it does by means of a
charm it possesses, it can detect the presence of an enemy.
Just as sorcerers do, the Ogo-mogu deposits this charm on the
ground, and through its agency it is able to tell whether any
human beings or animals are in its immediate vicinity. Hence

it is named " the doctor of animals."
Certain varieties of snakes, according to popular belief,
also possess a very similar form of charm, a kind of stone
which they carry inside of them, and which they have the
power to vomit out when it suits their purpose. One of
these species in particular, called "ajwani" presumably —
the horned Cerastes — is so gifted, but the stone is either so
small or so illusory that it has never yet been found in any of
the specimens which have been killed. Eesembling a brilliant
from all accounts, the charm is able to shed a strong light,
and being deposited by the snake in the bush, attracts certain
small reptiles, such as frogs, rats, etc., which the snake eats,
returning and secreting it when his hunger has been satisfied.
This stone is round and smooth, blue in appearance by
day, and is like fire by night. It possesses no healing virtue
from the bite of a snake, but if put into food soup especially —
— will keep off other poisons. It is in consequence in much
request among hunters, who place great value on it, and wear
it as a charm for although it loses its power of shedding
;
light, it still retains the power of attracting animals to any
one wearing it. Hence for this reason hunters are invariably
on the look-out to kill the snake before it has had time to

reswallow the stone.
Going into this question as deeply as I have done, it is
quite evident that native observation of the snake has over-

looked the powers of fascination that this reptile can exercise
over its victims by means of its eyes. The power which, for
instance, is possessed by the Ogo-mogu is a power the
conception of which can be traced first of all to the principle
that the animal creation is so much in actual touch with
spirits, being employed by the latter as repositories, agents,
symbols, and mediums, and then to the pantheistic nature
and in this way to its ancestral source.
of their religion,
Undoubtedly it was this principle of a spirit element which,
though differing in degree, was common to all N'ature, that
paved the way to the doctrine of transmigration. For here
we do not find, as among the Hindus, a highly elaborate state
of development, but simply a system in which a natural
transfer of souls takes place, or, as it may so happen, a mere
exchange, appropriate or not, according to circumstances.
Interested as I have all my life been in the study of this
cult, I have gone very minutely into this question, and have
come to the conclusion that here also equilibrium is involved.
For while transfer implies punishment, exchange is either an
imposed or purely optional condition. So that the question
of good or evil is in no sense an obligation in the latter con-
dition, although in the former, as a rule, the transfer of the
soul to an animal is reserved for people who are obnoxious to
the community. This exchanging or projection of the human
soul during actual existence into that of the animal,and that
of the animal into the body of the human being, is but an
emphatic accentuation of the pantheistic doctrine, the central
principle of which is this that the spirit is the paramount
:
feature of ISTature, dominating all Iâture, including of course

humanity, to such an extent that it is free to choose as its own
external symbol any body or object, irrespective of kind or
degree. Thus, as we shall see in the chapters that follow, it
returns to earth from spirit land, either as a reincarnation in

human or animal bodies, or as an embodiment in vegetable
and material objects.
One of the principal peculiarities of the weird belief above

mentioned is that when the human being is possessed by the
spirit of an animal it is altogether against the will or the
inclination of the former, possibly at the instigation of an
inimical spirit, but due more likely to pure sympathy on the
part of an affinity. On the other hand, when the animal is
possessed, the human being, who is usually a doctor or a

sorcerer, has the power of projecting his own soul, or that of
some one else, into the animal, against its will presumably,
with the object of effecting some particular purpose often to —
bring about the death of a person who is hostile either to
himself, or to some one else who has hired his services for
the occasion.
In this way it was that the old woman of Utshi was
accused of the death of Oru, by projecting her spirit-soul into
the crocodile that devoured him, and not, as might be supposed,
by converting herself, body and all. For the impossibility
of this, in this particular instance, at all events, was clearly
demonstrated by the fact that five other women were similarly
accused. From the native standpoint it is possible for a
number of spirits to be attached to one object, or to project
themselves into the body of one animal, although it is, as a
rule, unusual for them to do so.

The following story — as one of several which were related
to me — will serve to illustrate that conversion is also quite
possible ; but it is limited only to those few who possess out-

side powers.
There were living in Oguta, not so very many years ago,
a man and woman, the latter being lame. The house which
a
they occupied, and which contained some kegs of gunpowder,
caught fire. As it occurred during the night the fact was not
discovered until the fire had spread and communicated itself
to the explosive. As soon as the occupants had discovered
this, the woman, transforming herself into a leopard, clambered
up the rafters, sprang through the roof, and got clear away
but the man, unable to do so, or to escape in human form, was
blown up b)^ the explosion which took place.
Another instance, which occurred at Duke Town, is of
infinitely greater psychological interest than this, as it embraces
side issues,which assist materially in throwing a clearer light

on those inner intricacies of the idiosyncrasies of these natural
people. It appears that an Efik, by name Itare, was accused
along with his wife of murdering their child. Speaking for
them both, the former in defence said " The child in question
:
was our son, always sickly and ailing from his birth. Some
time after he had reached the age at which children invariably
walk he was unable, like other children, to do so, but crawled
about on his stomach or on all fours, and during the night,
when my wife and I were lying down, with the object of
going to sleep, he used to lick us both, just like a serpent.
Then I went all by myself and consulted Eban, the witch doctor,
who has since died, and he told me that the child was in
reality a water serpent and he advised me very strongly to
;
take it to the waterside and put it into the water, when it
would once more assume its natural shape. Eeturning home,

I talked the matter over with my
and on giving her the
wife,
decision arrived at by Eban she comply with
at once agreed to
it. So we went together along with him to the waterside, and
there in our presence the boy changed himself into a serpent,
and rolled into the river."
Lookedat from the standpoint of a European, the case,
adjudged on the evidence given, would resolve itself into a pre-
meditated affair on the part of the parents to dispose of a child
that was useless, and a burden to them —
a premeditation that,
carried into effect through the connivance of the witch doctor,
amounted crime of murder on the part of all three.
to the
Let however, look at the matter out of the eyes of the
us,
natives themselves, and three points must be noted. In the
first place, the fact that the child was a male, and as the only
son the father's successor and future reproducer of the family,

enhanced his value to an extent that has neither limit nor
measure, embracing the dual scope of the human and spiritual
branches.
Secondly, the fact that the continued inability of the boy
to walk came to be interpreted as an obsession on the part of an
animal or reptile spirit, which diagnosis was emphasised by his
habits of crawling and licking the bodies of his parents.
In the third and last place, the fact that this interpretation
of the matter on the part of Itare and his spouse was at once
confirmed by the local diviner, who seeing into all its inner
intricacies by virtue of his outside powers, divined that the
spirit in question was that of a wâter snake, which was anxious
to return to its native element, in order to resume its own
shape.
It is evident that the diviner's explanation not only tallied
in every particular with their own convictions, but confirmed
them absolutely and entirely. It is also quite manifest that
here in this child the parents believed themselves to be victims
either of a gross miscarriage of ancestral justice, or that for a
former evil act, either of omission or commission on the part
of one of them, this malignant animal spirit had either inter-
posed, or had been obliged to interpose its own soul in place
of the legitimate ancestral spirit, which ought to have been
reincarnated in the body of their child.
Looked at, therefore, from this aspect, one course alone was
open to them, and that was to get rid of the evil spirit who had
brought so dread a blight into their life, and who by deranging
the natural order of the spiritual succession of the family, had
laid upon their house the wrath of their ancestors.
From the very beginning to the end these two persons
acted throughout according to their lights in all good faitli and
sincerity. Indeed even that portion of their statement, in
which they affirm that the boy in their presence exchanged
himself into a serpent, is to be taken in earnest, and when
analysed is in every sense comprehensible. For, as far as the
witch doctor was concerned in the business, it was no doubt a
simple matter of that manipulation which is able to deceive even
the wide awake and alert senses of those who are always quick to
see, and on the wâtch to detectany trick or stratagem, so that
it required on his
little effort part to mystify slow and simple
creatures, such as Itare and his spouse.
Thus, it must at least be evident to the European that it
is quite impossible for him to judge and condemn people such
as these are, by a system of law and ethics that is unable to

cope with conditions and circumstances which lie outside the
limit of civilised experience, and which in consequence are
absolutely incomprehensible to him.
CHAPTEE IV
THE RETRANSLATION OF THE SPIRIT INTO SOUL AND ITS RETURN

TO MATERIAL EXISTENCE (ci) INTO HUMAN
: (h) ANIMAL ; ;
(c) VEGETABLE BODIES (d) ;OBJECTS. A GENERAL ASPECT

OF THE QUESTION
Here, in several words and under four headings, we have the

identical principles that are contained and expressed in either
of the words, metempsychosis or transmigration.
To get a comprehensive grasp of the whole, it is essential
that we should dissect and analyse the spiritualism, which is
not only the heart of the matter, but which, so far as I can see,
has never yet been either accurately described or properly
understood. Putting aside all outside knowledge of the cult,
the point that strikes the intelligent observer with regard
first
to it, in connection with these Delta people, is that as believed

in and practised by them it is, so to speak, a mixture of
totemism and transmigration, in other words, as we shall see later
on, a compound of two seeminglyjdifferent cults, that are, how-
ever, in reality merely links of the one main ancestral creed.
For while transmigration is simply the belief in the continuity
and rebirth of the soul into other bodies, so-called totemism
is but the selection by a clan, community, or household of a
symbol, living or otherwise, to represent the ancestral soul,

in three words, "specific ancestral symbolism," or in one,
" symbolism."
Having recognised that in these people the fundamental
instincts which form the basis of their character are essentially
confiicting in principle, it will next be advisable also to
recognise that the principle on which their sociological system

197
is constructed is purely patriarchal or proprietory, an admission

in so many words of the divine or supreme right of the
proprietor or owner to do as it pleases him with regard to the
disposal of his own property.

With this knowledge at our command, let us now proceed
to examine the attitude of the mass, in connection, first of
all,with the philosophical outlook on life in general, and
secondly on animal life in particular.
It has been my endeavour throughout these pages to
convince the reader that life, so far as these people are con-
cerned, although naturally and intensely appreciated, is valued
cheaply, or at least that it is not rated so highly as it is in
civilised communities. This, when the absolutely precarious
nature of an existence, governed by inexorable and unexpected
conditions is comprehended, will be easily understood. ISTot
only this, however, but the principle that and life is spiritual,
as such continuous bound to decrease the

and recurring, is
value of an essence which, although mobile and fleeting, is all

the same vital and immortal.
But, apart from these wêighty and practical considerations,
there is another and equally weighty reason that accounts for
a philosophy which is indicative, not only of a lack of moral
fibre, but of a supreme indifference and contempt for life, which
in a natural people is not altogether easy to reconcile.

The explanation, however, is simple. Spiritualism, in a
word, is responsible for this morbid and seemingly inexplicable
philosophy, and the fact that this belief is not, as we call it,
supernatural, but a going outside of, a departure from Mature,
i.e. a revolution or something unnatural, explains with sufficient
and explicit clearness its otherwise extremely incomprehensible
characteristic. Not that in any sense is it inexplicable to
these barbarians, looking as they do on life as the continuit}'
of the human existence in that animated and undying essence
which to them is the soul-spirit or the spirit-soul. A life that,
although spiritual (representing as it does the ancestral type,

the Spirit Father), so closely connects the human with the
spiritual, that in spite of the dissolution of the corporeal body
of the former, it is distinctlv recosjnisable from o-eneration to
generation in the external features and form of the descendants.
TRANSMIGRA TION 1 99
This is their explanation of the transmission of those inherent,
mental, and physical tendencies which we define as atavism or

heredity. It is noticeable, however, that although to them the
question is principally spiritual, much less notice is taken by
them of the moral and intellectual tendencies than of the
merely physical, the external, in fact, predominates over the
internal. Due, not, as we think, altogether to a lack of intelligent
and metaphysical appreciation, but in a certain measure to those
glaring and conflicting inconsistencies that are so distinguishing
a feature in their general characteristics. For, notwithstanding
all their imagination in respect to the outside world, and in
spite of a certain leaning towards the mere abstract, these
people are too practical to indulge in over - speculation
regarding mental or moral abstractions. It follows that
the life animal world, as being on a lower scale than
of the
our own, is regarded with even more contempt, and that an
accordingly diminished value is placed on it than is placed on
human life.
The importance of this extremely salient feature

vital
relative to the comprehension of the question at issue cannot
in any sense be over-estimated, for balancing on it, as upon a
pivot, is the whole doctrine of transmigration, while it estab-
lishes,without a doubt, the fact of their descent being in their
opinion directly traceable to the Creator-Father, and not to, or
through, the animal creation.
Yet, although life is held so cheaply, and in spite of the
popular belief in transmigration, while domestic animals are
ignored, and the wild killed whenever the opportunity presents
itself, the general attitude towards all animal life is one not
so much of contempt as of absolute indifference. There are
exceptions, as, for example, when certain wild varieties, as
holding the ancestral spirit, stand for living emblems of their

ancient faith; and in their conduct towards domestic cattle,
goats, and sheep. That these animals were undoubtedly sacred,
and are even to this day looked on as such, is to be inferred
from their treatment of them. Anomalous as this may appear,
from a European standpoint, these creatures, though allowed to
run practically wild, are in a sense jealously guarded. For
while the milk of cows and goats is never used by the people,
being considered in their opinion necessary for the preservation

of the offspring, the male animals only are, as an invariable
rule, reserved for sacrificial purposes, and killed and eaten
particularly the bullocks — at religious ceremonials alone. So
that while nothing is, so to speak, too good for those animals,
who, as carrying within their bodies the direct line of ancestry,
have, as it were, every indulgence and due respect from the entire
community, nothing is too bad for all outside the pale, who, in
spite of the spirits they may carry, are at the mercy of all. So,
too, on the same identical principle, it is usual to find even
among domestic animals certain forms — sheep, e.g. prized in
one community and tabooed in another. This is entirely due
to an old-time custom observed by their fathers, most of whom
died at some remote period because of or through these
animals and it is still believed that any person belonging to
;
the community who even treads on the place that a sheep has
previously trodden on, will die. So out of honour to their
ancestors these animals are forbidden.
Formerly, in the Brass country, a man wlio killed a bullock
wâs tiedby his and arms on to two sticks, which were
legs
erected on the river bank, until life was extinct, while the
slayer of a sheep forfeited his whole family to the king in
expiation of the offence. Indeed these customs, which were
also common to the Ijo, have not died out altogether as yet.
Among the Andoni likewise bullocks are contributed by
the various towns as a sacrificial offering to Yor Obulo, their
governing god ;also towards the maintenance of the high
priest and his chief assistant. Indeed as such they are
deemed sacred, and on no account to be molested molestation —
or injury carrying with them a heavy penalty.
From this standpoint it would most certainly appear that
the central idea is based on a retributive, or perhaps fatalistic,
more than a redistributive principle although the mere fact
;
that an inferior creation has been selected as representing a

superior type would seem to contradict this. But when we
recognise that the choice of the superior type was out of the
question, and when we see in this, as we do all throughout
their religion, the imperative necessity of propitiation, and the
recognition that on it alone salvation depends owing to the —
TRA NSMIGRA TION 20
inactivity of the power and the ever- watchful activity

for good,
of the powers of evil — and only then, can we appreciate

then,
the original idea and principle upon which certain animals and
objects were chosen as ancestral emblems, i.e. emblems upon
which symbolism was established.
It is necessary therefore, before proceeding any further,
to register this equally important fact that the totem, certainly
with these Delta people, is been repre-
not, as it has hitherto
sented, a signification that its followers are descended from any
particular animal or object, but that it is, as already pointed
out, merely the symbol of the protecting deity, holding as it
does the ancestral spirit. If it be the case, however, that the
central idea of transmigration is based on the retributive
principle, the conclusion, reasonable enough in itself, points
to the inference that the people have deteriorated from a
standard of morality and intelligence, which at some very
remote period was higher than it is now. Eeasoning from
the deductive process, there certainly is not the general con-
scientiousness and intelligence regarding their religious beliefs,
as must have been displayed by those who in the first instance
initiated them.
For although they are still tenacious of their religion, it is
only among the doctors and priests that any knowledge or

intelligence concerning its motive principles and philosophy
can be obtained, and even this is comparatively limited and
curtailed. This is not due entirely to the fact that they are
excessively secretive and reserved, and therefore unwilling to
communicate, but that what they have to communicate is a
purely personal matter, associated only with themselves, and
in no sense concerning outsiders.
There are, however, still two other specific phases that
must be examined before any general inference or conclusion
can be arrived at. Taking the first, the fact that these people
look on the animal creation from a divided standpoint, 1st,
of veneration as symbolising the sacred manes 2nd, as of ;
a lower and altogether su.bservient creation, is worthy of

consideration.
Eor while it argues on the one hand a common origin,
indicating as it does in one given direction all that to them is

religious and moral, on the other hand, and in another direction,

it points to an origin thatis separate and divided from them
by the inseparable barrier of speech and reason.

In these two, not so much conflicting as divergent channels,
it is again quite possible to trace the dualistic element in the
conglomerate character of these people. So we find, in a

creation that is distinctly inferior to the human, a spiritual
element that raisesit to a higher and sacred level, not because
of any sacred attributes belonging to the animal itself, but

because of the attachment to it of the sacred ancestral manes,
transforming the mere animal or object into an emblem which
represents the protecting deity of the community or household.
That the whole conception of the question, from its initia-
tion, is purely and simply an offshoot of the main ancestral
trunk of religion, is quite evident.
It is not only conceivable, but it is reasonable to infer
that when primitive society found it necessary to act up to
its convictions, which were that the spirit fathers must be
revered and propitiated, its members naturally looked about

them for the nearest objectswhich they could see or find, in
which the souls, might repose
or rather reconverted spirits,
in a position that was convenient, yet at the same time com-
patible with protection, therefore safety. That trees and stones
were, no doubt, the objects that were most in evidence in these
primitive days, as being more closely associated with its society,
we may and reasonably conclude.

safely
In the same way animals, as higher in the scale of creation
than either the vegetable or material, were a rather later
selection, and an upward development in the religious evolu-
tion —
the selection again being due to environment, and in
many cases, where an increasing clan was breaking up into
separate communities, to the spirit of emulation, jealousy, or
rivalry.
So emblems came into existence, one clan or community
choosing trees of various kinds, another rocks, and others again
animals, and so on, according to circumstances and conditions.
Thus, although the above divergences would seem to imply a
glaring inconsistency and instability in primitive man, it proves
in reality that with a still developing intelligence, through the
TRANSMIGRATION 203
force of a limited bub arbitrary environment, which confined his

expanding scope and left him little choice in the matter, he very
naturally selected the nearest and the most convenient objects,
those in fact with which he was most intimately associated.
It is also admissible to infer that in certain other cases the
original association that had connected the soul of an ancestor
with some specific animal or reptile — a leopard or a saurian,
for example —had been
due to a certain amount of fear and
respect, which had been caused by the voracity and the ravages
committed amongst their ranks by the ferocious beasts in
question. While the explanation in regard to more inoffensive
creatures, such as a tortoise or a pigeon, for example, would point
to the deduction that the former had always been looked on
as an emblem of sagacity and cunning, and the latter was
suggestive of peace and the mobility of the soul ; these two
selections indicating temperaments on the part of the com-
munities that were either of a more peaceful or more intelligent
disposition, or due merely, as already pointed out, to a spirit
of clannish rivalries. That this was the origin of the idea,
and that natural man or his later successors did not conceive
themselves to be descended from the animals or objects in
question, is to be seen in the whole attitude of these exceed-
ingly primitive Delta people towards the brute and material
creation.
This, in their opinion, although of the same creation, is
distinctly inferior in grade, in spite of the fact that it was the
work of the same creator from whom
they are lineally descended.
Indeed, as we have already seen, they recognise a very decided
and distinctive difference between the human, animal, and veget-
able kingdoms, which leaves no room for doubt on this point.
Apart from however, the European who asserts to the
this,
contrary betrays at once that he not only does not appreciate

in its true motive sense this belief in metempsychosis, but that
he has altogether failed to grasp the essential principle from
which it has arisen and evolved, namely, that the animal,
similarly to the object, but in a double sense, combining as
it does the primitive with the symbolical, is a mere external
symbol of association that connects certain human remainders
with their spiritual progenitors. The fact, too, that a separate
spiritland is allotted to each kingdom is proof incontestable,

according to the belief of these natives, in the existing inequality
and difference not only between them, but between the spiritual
and this material existence, in which all three are associated.
More than this, the fact, as we have seen it in Chapter II.,
that all human souls, until rescued from the land of the dead
by means of the burial sacrament, and passed on to the land
of spirits, are dealt with as having fallen to the same level as
the animal creation, speaks for itself.
So that, deteriorate as they no doubt are, from an intelli-

gence which at one time was on a relatively higher scale, it is
not possible, I think —
since they derive all the little knowledge
they possess from their fathers — that the ancestors who origin-
ally chose these symbols did so in the belief that they had
been descended from the animals or objects in question.
Much rather did they believe that their ancestors had
selected them to reside in, because of certain near associations,
that, fitting in with their own very natural ideas on the subject,
made them at the time the most likely and desirable arks of
refuge, or, as afterwards happened, of covenants as well. For
do or say what we will we cannot get away from the fact that
association, commencing with the first idea of the dream-soul
in this, as in everydevelopment of human, or it wôuld be more
correct to say of natural life, has occupied, and still occupies,
a prominent position in its history. So it is that among the

religious ideas of these Delta peoples we find the emblems
varying in kind from mere stones and simple lumps of clay up
to trees and animals.
The second phase, which must now be considered, is the
fact that the soul of a person killed by an animal becomes
outcast at once, and the remains, if recovered, do not receive
the burial sacrament, although they are buried anywhere
outside the precincts of the proper burial - ground. This
seems to argue that the act of death caused by an animal
belonging to a lower form of creation, in other words,
of a spirit naturally malignant (as having on redistribution
been relegated by the power of evil to a lower form of creation),
is looked on as an act which places the deceased on the same
level as the spirit who slew his body. For in cases that have
CHAP. IV TRANSMIGRATION 205
come under my own notice, had this not been the case, the
body or remains would have received the funeral rites that,
under normal conditions, they would have been entitled to.
Yet, strange anomaly, the crocodile that killed Oru at Utshi,
evidently a spiritless creature in the first instance, was subse-
quently credited with containing the souls of no less a number
than seven old women.
There is, however, yet another side to the question, which
places the matter in rather a different light. For it so happens
that a person killed by one of the sacred or symbolical creatures
of a community is regarded as having richly deserved his death,
in having, by neglect or misconduct, incurred the anger of the
ancestral deity, whose myrmidons these sacred creatures are
and immediate sacrifices have to be made to the ancestral
deity by the household to which deceased had belonged, and
in the event of a recurrence of such deaths by the community
at large. Indeed the popular belief is that animals or reptiles
which are sacred never needlessly kill a member of the com-
munity, so that supposing a crocodile, e.g. to be the sacred
emblem, these various reptiles do not kill even the domestic
animals, much less the human beings of that community, and
when they do kill the former, if common to the community,
the offence committed against the deity is public, and in the
latter case that of the individual. This applies equally to all
cases of murder, witchcraft, or similar offences against the

public weal, when the offender has to submit to either the
ordeal of suicide, or thrown into a river that is
of being
infested,and with these monsters.
literally alive, For in the
event, which is practically a certainty, of his being eaten by
them, or of drowning, he is adjudged guilty, and not guilty

should he manage to escape. So that to be killed by an
ordinary animal constitutes a mere act of vengeance on the
part of the ever ubiquitous power of evil, while to be killed
by one of these sacred creatures is a distinct act of retribution
on the part of the ancestral manes.
Certainly no metaphysical explanation is forthcoming
regarding these apparently arbitrary awards, beyond the fact
that in the former existence such a death, being outside the
ordinary course of events, is deemed unnatural, and attributed,
not to the normal act of the legitimate death spirit, but as

that of a more malignant spirit, which would imply a further
display of activity on his part among the household of the
deceased, unless prevented or frustated by immediate pro-
on the part of the household.
pitiatory action For in the
eyes of these people there is no cure but prevention is
;
recognised as the one unfailing remedy. Thus in every

household throughout the Delta not only is a preventative to
be found in the form of a spirit medicine vide Section V.,
Chapter V. —
who is venerated as a household deity, but also
a special god of prevention. So should a single sacrifice to
the latter fail others must be made until the desired result is
effected.
In this case, however, by refusing or denying to the
deceased the sacred burial rites, his spirit is at one stroke
handed over to the malignant spirit, who is thus propitiated.
While the Creator, whether cognisant of the act or not, implies
by his self-imposed neutrality, if not satisfaction, at least an

unconscious compliance.
Here we have a distinct and striking instance of the
spiritual i.e. the fear of it — overcoming the humanity of the
believers, because it often happens that a man so killed may
be a special favourite with his family. Yet rather than incur
the further wrath of the spirits, his soul is sacrificed as the
only hope of salvation to the living.
In criticising them, however, it must be remembered that,
in their opinion, the soul of their beloved, once in the clutch of
the evil beyond all chance of recovery, to say nothing
spirit, is
of the ever-present and recurring ancestral wrath. Looking at

the other instance, it is possible to see once more the veneration
towards the ancestral manes which characterises practically
every thought or act of those peculiarly patriarchal people, as
being not merely one of intense sincerity and deadly earnest,
but as a fearful reverence, that not only makes light of death,
but which enforces it as an act of equity. And if we look
closely into the matter we also see the marked difference
between the two instances. For in the latter, the offence
being distinctly immoral and unfilial, and therefore worthy of
punishment, death is but a moral and obligatory act of
TRANSMIGRA TION 207
justice,which is approved of by the community at large as ;
compared with the former, an act of mere vengeance or evil,

which, whether deserved or not, is regretted as a deplorable
incident by the people, who were known to and friendly with
deceased.
Looking at the whole question from their own peculiarly
conflicting standpoint, there is only one explanation to this,
and this is the law of " like for like," in other words, the
Hindu Karma, which their human and
entirely pervades
spiritual systems,and which in an attempted comprehension
of their idiosyncrasies, must be carefully studied to be
appreciated. For this principle, essentially fatalistic as it is,
is as much a part of their dual natures as is the duality for
good and evil of that human energy which we classify as
moral. So that to apply one without the other is to arrive at
only a partial or half, therefore imperfect, conception of their
manifestly conflicting character.
(«) The Eeincarnation of the Spirit into the Human

Body
We have already seen that, according to popular belief, a
certain proportion of spirits, who have recuperated their

evidently diminishing energy during their stay in spiritland,
are obliged to be reborn again into their own family.
This article of faith, resting as it does on the frailest
support, the mere external testimony of the senses and of the

internal evidence of the emotions, must be carefully analysed,
when it will bring out certain salient features that ought, however,
first of all, to be considered in the natural order in which
they occur.
1. The first of these is, that this reincarnation of certain
spirits into human souls — this reversion to the ancestral type,
from a scientific standpoint — is evidently one of the few
questions in which the dormant or self- existent Creator
exercises his spiritual authority, though even here, as in
every aspect of their cult, a certain amount of latitude is
implied in the expression of individual desires, as expressed in

dreams.
2o8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
2. The second feature is, that the spirit souls chosen for
this purpose are invariably those of strong and
particular
pugnacious character or moral stamina, especially those who
had been excellent domestic managers, traders, farmers, or
hunters, according to the occupation of the house, but not
necessarily men of commanding ability or marked individuality.
For, as we shall see hereafter in more than one instance, this
selection or determination of a resting-place after death is as
much an article of their faith as is the faith itself, implying,

as it does, an implicit conviction of its principles, as well as
in the existenceand exposition of its two main aspects,
animism and emblemism. For it is, as it were, not merely the

confession but the practical expression of their religion, because
if ever a people in this world have obliquity of vision, these
Delta tribes, in the blind faith and conservatism they

manifest in all their actions, display it to the fullest measure.
And in none of their actions is their density more evinced
than it is in this determination of the future. For although
an absolutely personal matter of human arrangement, it is
looked upon as a purely spiritual process, altogether outside
the scope of human limitations, resting either in the power
of the Creator or in that of other natural forces.
So that in their visionless eyes there is as close a bond of
union between animism and emblemism as there is between the
human and the spiritual. And, strangely enough, it is in this
singular article of their faith that we have the key which
opens out the whole question of naturism. Just as in the
human life, so in the life spiritual, the individual soul is
rated according to its intelligence. Thus although it seems

only natural that the stronger individualities would be chosen
as reincarnations, so as to secure positively, for a second time,
the services of a capable personality who had been a masterful
ruler, a powerful doctor, a successful mediator, or a long-
headed trader, the issue in reality resolves itself into a
question of certain unavoidable considerations. These con-
siderations are: (1) the will of the ego expressed before his
departure, or corporeal death; (2) the consent of the Creator;
(3) the contention whether the services in question will have
greater effect in spiritual or human form. As a general rule
the first of these considerations decides the question, the

second simply a mere matter of form or ceremonial, and
is
the third is only brought into effect when the departed ego
has purposely, or by mischance, omitted to make the
selection.
In any case it is extremely doubtful that, if left to the
family (as it would be in this instance), the family would
select a human reincarnation in preference to spiritual

mediation. Tor as the spiritual life undoubtedly holds or
occupies a stronger, therefore a superior position, it is more
likely that the spirit control would be held in greater esteem,

as being of more value to the house than when reincarnated
in the entity of some living member of the family, unless it
so happened that the returned spirit-soul is reincarnated in
the son or elected successor. But this, besides being a most un-
likely contingency in itself, is, when all the personal issues are
taken into consideration, a most improbable if not impracticable
event. It is possible, of course, even after death for the spirit of

the ego to communicate with members of his household through
the very common and convenient medium of a dream. Indeed
it obviously probable that, thinking over such matters as
is
deeply as these natives do, the wish in such an instance is

often thus conveyed. But even in a case of this kind the
more powerful the personality the more likely is it that the
choice will alight on the spiritual.
For the masterful ego, especially if he has occupied the
position of head of the house, is practicallybound to return
and remain in the self-selected family symbol as mediator
all the more so if he has been self-made and the maker of his
own house — because veneration paid to the spirit of the

departed is the greatest honour that the human ego can
attain to ; therefore the greater the personality the greater the
honour, amounting, as it may do, to deification.
Examining the third feature of this question, we
3. find
that the principle on which this conversion of the soul into
spirit and its reincarnation into soul takes place is on five
separate grounds, viz. : («) that life is continuous under certain
human and spiritual limitations ; (&) that the supply of the
spirit essence, being apparently limited, necessitates these
P
2IO THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
constant changes — that in fact the question is one in which

the supply is only equal to the demand ;
(c) that it is pre-
sumahly on this ground that the spirit has to return as soul

to this world ;
{d) that on the same principle it is an actual
necessity for the soul to revitalise in spirit land, so as to
maintain intact its spiritual vigour and vitality ;

{e) that on a
similar line of reasoning it isequally vital for the sustenance

of the human body to have the soul, as in this existence
seemingly it is for the soul to have the body. For although
in spirit land the spiritual essence can do without the
corporeal, so closely connected are the two in the popular
philosophy, cannot on any account do without it in this
it
world, or when connected with humanity in any shape or

form, while in no sense can the corporeal do without the
spiritual. Hence the reason that the body is obliged to have
the spirit, just as the spirit has to be accommodated with a
body of some kind, regardless of exterior or material. Dis-
embodiment, in fact, implies the partition of the soul from the
body, and from participation in all that is good or ancestral
{i.e. all that is spiritual and human), and its consignment
for all eternity to all that is evil, in other words, to a
power without ancestry or embodiment and the means of
detachment.
That the human-spiritual element is out of all proportion
to the human-corporeal is not a matter that enters into the
region of speculation, for emblemism offers them too excellent
an opportunity of dispensing with the surplus. Eeflecting on

this brings us to the root as well as to the head of the matter,
being, in a word, the main spring from which have radiated
animism, transmigration, emblemism, and all the other religious
channels that are embraced in naturism.
4. We
have now arrived at the fourth and last of the
salient features of this question of the reincarnation of the
spirit into the human body. This, which is that the spirit
when it is reborn into a human ego, as the soul of such, at
once loses the natural powers that it had attained to when in

a state of Nature, is self-evident and accepted as a matter of
course. Presumably because its operations are confined and
limited to a narrower scope, merely as a result of association
with the human or animal body, but in no sense with the

material.
This differentiation, so emphatically accentuated as it is,
is worthy of notice. For while the powers and operations of
the spirit-soul have practically no limitations when confined
in a tree, a stone, or even in an artificial object of the meanest
insignificance, during its incarceration in the human body,
notwithstanding this is gifted with reason and speech, its
powers are limited to the strictly human. In a few words,

because when allied to or associated with the material the
spiritual scope is of necessity more powerful, owing to the
greater and expansion it obtains than it does in
liberty
—
human and animal bodies the existence of the latter being
absolutely dependent on the spirit, while that of the former
is utterly independent of it, a condition whicli also applies to
the vegetable. Yet this, which to the civilised mind is an

incongruity, in no sense strikes the natives as such. For in
their estimation it is the will and the way of the Creator, both
of which are mysterious, that are past finding out. In the
same way all projections, exchanges, transformations, etc.,
between the human and animal forms, as operations that
occur outside the scheme of creation, are miraculous, therefore
unnatural or evil.
To refer once more to the actual dogma that is under

discussion, this rebirth of the soul into the human body is not
merely a belief, in the ordinary sense of the word, but a con-
viction, that neither argument, satire, nor ridicule will uproot
or even shake. This dogged obstinacy in clinging to old-time
opinions however, only due to conservatism, that is, in
is not,
the sense in which we employ the word. For, as applied to

these natural people, conservatism is not simply an inherited
tendency but a natural instinct — a relic of naturism — that is
to be seen in the Obea and Mayalism of the West Indian

negroes, after centuries of Christianity ; also in the belief of
the people of Nine, or Savage Island, in the existence and
malevolence of evil spirits, in spite of their having embraced
the same faith. this is not all, for what in reality is
But
so-called superstition which even civilisation, in combination
with Christianity, has not yet eradicated in European com-
munities, if not naturism — a relic, in fact, of wliat we call
barbarism Yet the strangest part of it all is that the

?
foundations on which the belief is based are as slender as

possible, even when measured or adjudged by a low standard
of intelligence, which in itself is indirect evidence in favour
of its antiquity. For, as pointed out in the previous chapter,
these are dependent principally on the physical and external
similarities of appearance between the living or human and
the departed or spirit elements, and in making these com-
parisons particular attention is paid to the existence of birth-
marks, scars, cicatrices, defects, deformities, or distinguishing

features of any kind.
In addition to this external evidence, the expression of the
intelligenceand individuality is taken into consideration, while
much reliance (as shown in Chapter III.) is placed on the
testimony of the dream-soul communications, in which the
departed spirits make known to the corporeal their intention
of returning to this existence, as well as on the determination

expressed previous to departure by the individuals themselves.
Over and above this, however, the feeling which weighs with
them most of all is the absolute immutability of the creative
principle, no other conception or solution offering itself to
their conservative and patriarchal minds. So inflexible, indeed,

is this conviction, handed down as it has been in uninterrupted
succession for thousands and thousands of years, from father to

son and from mother to daughter, that when an infant having
a mark some kind on its body dies, and another happens to
of
be born with a mark in any way similar, or bearing the
slightest resemblance to it, it is at once said to be the same
child born over again. Indeed in a case of this nature it is
the custom among the various tribes all over the Delta to give
the child a name which implies reborn, or the return of the

first-born, the Ibani, in the event of its being a son, calling him
Di-ibo.
There is, however, another phase of this principle that will
repay research. It is customary for these same Ibani, after
several children of the one mother have died in rapid succes-

sion, to call the last born, if a son, Kia, i.e. countless, or
perhaps he may die also, a name that seemingly carries
with it an implication of doubt regarding the tenure of his

life. The Etik and the Andoni, who are distinctly connected
with each other, take the matter much more seriously, how-
ever, for under the same circumstances among the former,
the mother, after consulting and by direction of the Abia
Idiong, burns the dead body of the last infant with a view
of putting a stop to the mortality. Among the Andoni the
woman, acting more or less independently, takes the corpse in
a canoe and conveys some out-of-the-way spot, usually to
it to
one of the many islands which are in their locality. There,
having collected sufficient wood, she makes a fire, in which she
burns it. The idea, of course, as in the case of the Efik, is
the same, i.e. to prevent a recurrence of early dissolution in
the event of other children being born to her. But mark

well the principle also —
identical in both cases upon which —
this act is based. In no sense does the fire destroy the soul of
the child, for this essence, according to their belief, is apparently
invulnerable when confined to the human organism, but it is
presumed that the soul, when it arrives in spirit land — children

being exempted from the burial rites —
will communicate the
fact of the treatment accorded to by the woman to the spirit

it
elders of the family. The object of this communication is

meant be a warning to the spirit members of the household,
to
especially to those who intend to return to this world through
the agency of the woman in question, to be prepared to live,
and in this way to avoid a similar disagreeable experience.
Indeed an analysis of the whole matter reveals more than
one point of interest, which throws much light on the psychology
of these people.
First of all, it shows that the act on the part of the woman
is a rejoinder to the act of the death spirit.
Secondly, that the act of the latter is but a react of some

former act of the woman's.
That the act of the death spirit occurs at the instigation
of the ancestral manes, also that the liberated soul was an
unconscious instrument, is quite evident, because of the death
being natural, i.e. not through violence or mishap.
It is, of course, also possible that the cause of death may
be due to the death of some spirit affinity, or yet again,
antipathy, the former denoting ancestral wrath, and the latter

that of the power of evil. In either case, however, it is an
elaborate and practical illustration of the Karma doctrine.
But the most incomprehensible feature of the whole matter,
from a psychological aspect, lies in the act of the woman. Here
is no act of propitiation, but one of distinct and undoubted
defiance of the ancestral deities. Here is no timorous oblation

oft'ered by a cowed and abject creature fearful of incurring the
vengeance of the gods. Or yet again, here is no appeal, as
when the Ibo mother, still smarting under the loss of her
beloved offspring, confers upon her last born the name of
Onwu-che-kwa, i.e. Death, wait a moment a prayer, an —
invocation, and a petition all in one to the merciless spirit of
death to spare but this one, and allow it to live. Or when, in
a still greater agony of spirit, and abasing herself still further
before the inexorable deity, she calls this Omega of her hopes
Onwu-biko — Death, pardon or have mercy.
Yet, on making a still deeper analysis of the question, this
seemingly defiant act is in reality a kicking against the pricks
in the thin disguise of a burnt-offering or sacrifice to the offended
deities of thebody of her child, which on so many previous
occasions they had taken pains to destroy. What is more,
it is as it were a reminder to them that in returning to the
human state, as a certain proportion of the family spirits are

practically bound to do, they are, notwithstanding their greater
authority and power, to some limited extent in the hands of
its corporeal members while on earth, in consequence of which
a graceful concession from them is all the more necessary.

Accepting the act as a sacrifice, as presumably the manes
are expected to, there is all the same a dual irony in its
execution which is certainly suggestive first, because of its
;
being made after death, and secondly, because of its being

made at all, especially with the object of discomfiting the
spirit.
As the only permanent instance of a practice of this
nature, involving, as it does — to use the mildest expression

a tacit disregard of ancestral authority among a people who
are so morally and spiritually timorous, so palpably dominated
by the autocracy of the spirit element, it is all the more
suggestive and all the more remarkable that the act in question
iscommitted by a female. True, as with the Efik, it is at the
by the direction of the witch doctor, who, as
instigation or
being in touch with the spirit world, might justifiably be
regarded as accepting all responsibility. This is not so,
however, for besides being much too clever in his own

generation to saddle himself needlessly with the indiscretions or
misfortunes of his clients, the witch doctoris in all such cases
merely an adviser, a mediator, or a convenient medium, so that

the woman has to abide entirely by the consequences of her
own act.
Looking at the question from their own standpoint, it
may be that as women are on an inferior level to men, no
serious notice of the act is taken by the spirits. But this, it
is as well to remember, would make the audacity of it all the
greater in their eyes, because it would be regarded as unlawful

— an infringement, if not a usurpation, of patriarchal rights.
The position of women, however, among nearly all these
tribes,among the Ibo and Ijo particularly, is not by any
means so degraded as it is generally represented. For a
mother, by virtue of her natural rights as a reproducer of the
ancestral type, is, as such, entitled to and has a claim that
at once perceptibly raises her to a higher position than that
occupied by the unmarried woman or the childless wife. A
position, in fact, that not only throws around her a halo of
dignity, but gives her an increased value in the affections of
her lord and master, as well as in the traditions and prestige
of the household.
It is as an aggrieved and outraged mother, then, that she
approaches the ancestral ones, and it is in this position, as
one of the two human agents by means of which the creative
principle and process of creation is operated, that she is accord-
ingly dealt with.
This question regarding the position of women reveals
more completely in the religious
itself practices of the people
than it does in any other way. This, in a few words, consists
of the worship of goddesses, who
to be seen in every
are
household or town in the form of deities who preside over the
maternity of women, the ailments of children, and kitchens
2i6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sfxt. iv
utensils as well as inmates. In every town in the Delta, but

especially among the Ibo, Ibibio, and Ijo tribes, the goddess
mother is always conspicuous. She is generally placed on the
left of God the Father, either holding her son in her hands
or having him on the left of her all three of tliem are made
;
in the form of clay or wooden idols —

emblems.
in other words,
In the same way, in nearly community,
every prosperous
among the interior tribes particularly, where the women do all
the marketing and trading, it is no uncommon thing to see an
idol representing the spirit of some woman who, on her de-
parture to the other world, has been elevated to the position
of a deity by her household, and in some cases by the
community.
The mere fact that spirits return as souls to female
bodies is of course nothing in itself, recognising, as these
people do, the necessity of co-operation on the part of both

male and female energies in reproduction but the deification ;
of wômen on the other hand, sufficient testimony in disproof

is,
of degradation. In considering the question, however, the

later idea of natural man, i.e. during the period when cere-
monial and ritual were evolving, must be taken into considera-
tion, namely, the possession, in a spiritual or animated sense,
of both these energies in the form
and person of the creating
god. For it was on this principle, and not entirely because
of man's greater courage and brute strength, that ancestral
worship evolved out of the patriarchal system of personal
proprietorship and property.
That women at the present day are looked upon as inferior
to man is undoubted, but that their position is in no sense
degraded, even when viewed from a rationally civilised stand-
point,on the contrary, that in a social sense it is regarded with
respect and honour, is equally admissible. This, however,
depends to a great extent on the practical utility of women in
a household —
in a word, on the question of their maternity.
For it is noticeable that only those women who are sterile, or
who have passed the age limit of procreation, are ever accused
of witchcraft.
The fact of the matter is that the patriarchal polygamy of
natural man and the monogamic system of civilisation, based
CHAP. IV TRANSMIGRATION . 217
as they are on the social principles of two opposite extremes

and conditions of thought, are be divergent in this
bound to
as in all other directions outside the sphere of those natural
basic instincts that are unalterable.
(&) The Keincarnation of the Spieit into Animal Bodies
Beyond the bare statement that the ancestral spirits have
from the very beginning resided in animal bodies, either as

emblems or as a retributive and possibly redistributive measure,
no advanced in support of the
definite reasons are theory.
Yet the conviction is to be seen all over the country :

on the
one hand, in the number and variety of animals that, as
bearers of the ancestral shades, are venerated as sacred ;

on
the other, in the much greater number and variety that
are regarded as incarnations of malicious and malignant

spirits.
To show the depth and intensity of their feelings with

regard to this particular feature, when Efik or waterside Ibo
see a dead fish floating in the water of the kind called
" Edidim " by the former and " Elili " by the latter — a variety
of the electric species —
they believe it to be a bad omen,
generally signifying that some one belonging to the house will
die, the man who first sees it becoming the victim according
to Ibo belief. The only reason that is assigned for this
lugubrious forecast the fact that one of the souls of the

is
departed is in the dead fish —

that, in fact, the relationship or
affinity existing between the soul essence that had animated the
fishand that of one of the members of the household was so
intimate that the death of one was bound to effect the death
of the other.
This death of a creature emblematical to a fishing com-
munity, or a community that has in its possession a stream in
which the fish are sacred, denoting, as it does, the death of a
member of the household, implies retribution on the part of
the ancestral deity against the particular member who was
unfortunate enough to witness the event. He is not considered
as being necessarily an offending member, but as an affinity so
closely allied as to be unable to avoid the consequences of any

2i8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, iv
act which affects the well-bemg or existence of the injured

animal.
Every ego, apart from his acts, has a soul affinity whose
every phase of existence is reflected in himself. In spite of
the nature of the external body, any offence committed
against the body in its sacred capacity constitutes an offence
against the ancestral manes, for no doubt whatever exists on
the point that the spirit sanctifies the flesh.
In the event of a death taking place in the household

(a very probable contingency from natural or accidental causes),
the deceased would be regarded as the undoubted offender but ;
if, in the ordinary course of events, this does not happen, there
is never any difficulty in arranging the matter either with the
doctor or priest. Indeed, it would be more correct to say that
the matter arranges itself, for it is imperative in the interests
of the public morality to uphold the dignity and the infalli-
bility of the life-giving and the life-taking spirit father.
But do not misconstrue the meaning that these words are
intended to convey. Do not in any sense regard this as a
cold-blooded or diabolical murder, not even as a judicial
iniquity, but simply and entirely as a sacrifice, offered in
all sincerity, and in the name of natural religion, with the
strongest conviction of its absolute imperativeness and efficacy.

It is the occasion that demands the sacrifice, and not the
sacrifice the occasion —
in other words, the ancestral one, who,
in the name of the balance of equity, requires but a life for
a life.
In the interior, among the Ibo and all the other tribes,
it is in most localities customary to place a strict taboo on all
fish and reptiles that exist in the various streams and rivers.
This is done in strict conformance with the principles of trans-
migration, and the water is accordingly committed to the care

of these sacred spirits, who, if the fish or reptiles are in any
way molested or destroyed, are apt to retaliate by drying up
the stream and as usual demanding the life of the offender.
An instance of this outrageous impiety was pointed out to
me at a place called Akano, when I was on my way to Bende
in 1896. It appears, so the people told me, that many years
before a stream had flowed at the foot of the slope to the right
of the road close to their town. In this was a certain pool

that had been inhabited by a crocodile. Unfortunately this
sacred monster was one day killed by some impious fool, so
the stream had gradually dried up and had never again filled,
because the spirits were incensed that their peaceful tran-

quillity had been so rudely disturbed. Without making any
specific investigation on the spot, a rapid survey of the locality
made it appear that the depletion of the water was attributable
to the diversion of its head-waters into another channel.
But there is yet another feature attaching to this animal
phase of reincarnation which presents it in a still more
lurid and realistic light, and that is the offerings which are
made to these sacred creatures of human sacrificial victims.
Formerly, and until quite recently, both at Ibani and New
Calabar, the shark and the iguana as well were preserved and
committed to the care of special priests, whose office it was
to see that all criminals and sacrificial victims not otherwise
required were offered to the voracious monsters. Even to this
day, among the Ibo, Igabo, Ijo, and other tribes, among
certain communities of whom the crocodile is symbolical, the
same practices are observed in full and sincere faith that such
offerings belong as a right to the exacting deities.
So in Brass, the pampered pythons, who were tended and
fed with zealous and jealous care by their own specially
appointed priests, were never molested or in any way inter-
fered with, death being the penalty inflicted on any person
found injuring them even unintentionally, while a heavy fine
is imposed on those who cut down piridigi, a creeper that
grows in the bush, which, from its resemblance to the python, is

considered sacred. For such is the power and the grip of
naturism that everything within its own embrace, even the
nearest and most sacred ties of the flesh, have to give way
before the demands of the spirit.
In dissecting this second phase we are at once struck with
certain differences between it and the first phase in respect to
supreme arbitration and individual option a difference that we—
will find even more noticeable when discussing the next two
aspects.
1. On making a comparison, the first differentiation appears
in the fact that with regard to this particular phase of

reincarnation the Creator does not appear to exercise any
active jurisdiction. Indeed, with the exception of those
animals which are chosen as emblems of the ancestral shades,
animals are not, as a rule, selected as a matter of choice by the
returning or recuperated spirit. On the contrary, reincarna-
tion in this particular form is undoubtedly one of the dis-
tinctive but self- abrogated prerogatives of the destructive
power.
2. A further comparison between this and the previous
phase makes it evident that while there is a partial expression
of will on the part of the spirits to return to the human
existence, there is practically none whatever with regard to
animal reincarnation —
the clearest and strongest proof in
evidence of its unpopularity from every standpoint, but more
especially from those of the punitive and derogatory. This is
all the more confirmed by the fact that plants and objects are
eagerly pre-selected by the living, and subsequently occupied
by their spirits, as arks of rest and refuge.
3. Making yet another com]3arison,
it is noticeable that
the reincarnation of the spirit into animal bodies appears in

some measure to affect the substance and vitality of the
soul as compared with its reincarnation into the human
body, w^hich is expressed in the belief that it can be
wounded or even killed through the wound inflicted on the
animal.
4. Finally, that the vitality of the soul essence, or the
continuity of life in the human body, is of a more assured and
stable character, as it is of longer duration,
A careful analysis of these four distinctive features leaves
no room for doubt that this animal reincarnation is a self-
imposed penance that was inflicted by prehistoric ancestors, who
were possibly alive to the moral necessities of the situation, but
with a less elastic conscience than their successors, yet with an
equally firm belief in their convictions, while the recognition
by them was repellent and degrading
of the fact that animal life
made the punishment all the heavier. For we must not lose
sight of the very significant fact that this dogma came to them
from their still more natural forebears and this moral system ;
r.
^^
J
CHAP. IV TRANSMIGRATION
of justice upon whicli it is based is the most important feature

of the whole belief. For although, unlike the Hindu creed,
there is no elaborate scale of punishments and rewards laid
down, yet it is quite certain that the later idea upon which
the whole fabric was constructed was undoubtedly one of even
measure, i.e. of retribution. So it was that the omission and
commission of every act was, by the authority and command
of the ancestral divinities, paid back in coin of its own value
to the emitter and committer of the act in question, but not
necessarily in the same existence, and certainly not always in
the same embodiment. So it is too that the present or
human existence is quite as much feared as the spiritual.
For the oblivion of ignorance, like the darkness of night, and

the doom of the unexpected in myriad forms, hang over,
ready to fall on and disembody them at any moment.
Many of the more intelligent natives whom I have
questioned on this subject have one and all briefly answered
my queries somewhat in the following words " The reason :
that many among us have for wishing that their souls
may be allowed to pass into trees or objects made of clay,

wood, or stone, is that they have experienced a very hard and
troublous life. Dreading therefore that they may be reborn
again only to undergo perhaps another life of woe and misery,
they endeavour to obtain, by a rigid course of offering and
sacrifice, and eventually to secure through the mediation of
their ancestors, a spiritual transfer to those bodies which they
have selected for themselves." For there is yet another
important consideration that we must not lose sight of which
altogether weighs against the disadvantages of confinement in
a lower organism or in some inorganic substance, and that is
the future prospect of being sacrificed and venerated as an
ancestral spirit. This, in their eyes, constitutes practically the
greatest honour that they can attain to. Not of course that
every man of a household can hope to become its head or a

patriarch on his own account, always the hope
still there is
that by becoming rich and influential, or that by having

behaved worthily in this life towards his ancestors, their
intercession on his behalf may secure him the coveted

distinction.
The Reincarnation of the Spirit into (c) Vegetable

Bodies : {d) Objects
We have now arrived at a consideration of the two remain-

ing phases, which, because of the unanimity of their principles,
will be discussed toGêther.
It is, of course, needless to remark that popular opinion
does not in any sense assume any connection or similarity
between vegetable bodies and material objects. For while on
the one hand it recognises that the former is one of the three
units into which animated nature is divided, the latter belongs
exclusively and entirely to the region of torpid, i.e. practically
lifeless, matter — living and animated only in the form of some
particular and specific object when entered by some human
spirit-soul.
Here, however, there is one distinction that we must at
once take notice of, and this is that it is only the human spirit-
soul and not the animal which animates the material objects
a distinction that carries with it more weight than at first
sight appears, since it shows how clear is the line of demarca-

tion between the quality of the spirit essence that respectively
animates the human, animal, and vegetable, in spite of the fact
that it is common to all. For while the liuman spirit-soul is
at liberty to pervade all the different parts of nature, the
animal essence only can interchange with the human, and
then only in special cases and in a manner that is miraculous
or outside the common or regular operations of nature. But
the line of demarcation even more clear between the animal
is
and the vegetable than it is between the former and the

human.
I have already called attention to the intense longing for
rest which is so marked a characteristic in the nature of these
people. I cannot, therefore, do better than give you the words
of one Izikewe, an Ibo of the Xiger and one of my very
numerous informants, which illustrate his own opinion and that
of his fellow-countrymen, and which reveal their inmost feel-
ings on a point that is so near and so dear to them. " The
people of Onitsha and its vicinity believe that spirits enter into
or attach themselves to various objects, such as trees, stones,

blocks of wood, and pieces of mud or clay, and the reason of
our belief is this. There are many men amongst
us whose
troubles and and
sorrows are so painfulexcessive that they
openly express their determination never on any account to
return to this existence where men do nothing but seize and

kill each other, but to enter into some immovable object in
which they will secure to themselves ease, rest, and respect.

When these people die, having made certain beforehand of the
mediation of their fathers, they are allowed to return to this
world and to enter into the particular thing which they had
previously selected. The fact of these departed souls having
passed into certain objects renders them sacred at once, and
they are immediately venerated and worshipped by the people
because of the spirit which In this way many trees
is inside.
are chosen, and our custom is that any one breaks a twig or
if
cuts a branch off he so dishonours the spirit and is certain to

lose his life. We know that at Oko, and in other places where
the people make large canoes out of the trees, they are frequently
killed by the spirits who inhabit them. For the witch-doctors
to whom the appear and converse tell us that the
spirits
spirits complain bitterly of the annoyances they are subjected

to by interfering busybodies. For although they have chosen
these trees as places of refuge to get away from the quarrels
of this world, the people in it disturb the peace that they
have not only fought hard to obtain but which they had vainly
hoped would never have been disturbed by the offensive
aggressiveness of those two-legged cacklers, who are always
minding other people's business instead of their own."
SECTION V
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE PHYSICAL, AS
SHOWN IN
A, OBSESSION AND POSSESSION ; B, EXORCISM ;
a DISEASES ; D, MEDICINES
225
CHAPTER I
a. obsession and possession
Possession by Spirits of Anthropomorphic Character
Diseases in general, that is, the causes of them, are all
practically attributed to the agency of inimical or malignant

spirits, but especially mania, epilepsy, hysteria, fever, delirium,
or that kind of ailment which is responsible for any form of
mental derangement, including the trance.
But while some of the various forms that disease assumes
are the work of demons, others again are the work of the gods,
which means to say that while in the former instance the
infliction is one of pure malignancy, in the latter it is entirely
a question of ancestral retribution or sympathy.
According to popular belief, although it is customary for
the spirit of disease to afflict his victim internally, that is, by
entering into him, it is also possible to afflict him externally

from within, as in smallpox or skin disease, for example.
This possession by spirits, although not confined to any
particular tribe or tribes in the Delta, is said to be much more
common among the Ijo and Brassmen, and women are afflicted
in a considerably greater proportion than men. These
— which
possessions made by
are invariably the Own or
water —may
spirit any any
occur at time, or in place, and as
soon woman jumps up and
as a begins to talk a strange
language — Okrika Kula —
usually either or it is the first as it
is a sure indication that she has become possessed. The fact
that in many instances the obsessed person in her normal state
is unable to speak the tongue which, when possessed, she speaks
227
228 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, v
quite fluently, is naturally looked upon as direct evidence that

it is who speaks and not the woman her-
the investing spirit
self. wôman
So, too, a girl or who through excessive shyness
is too coy to dance in public, develops, when under the inliuence
of the Owu, an excess of boldness, which enables her to do
things that under ordinary conditions she would not dream of
doing. This boldness is to these natives merely the confirma-
tion of a pre-existing conviction that it is not the person that
is doing these things but the spirit who has invaded and
obsessed her.
It is further believed that persons so afflicted are possessed
of physical strength whicli is altogether superhuman, so that
when they become violent and uncontrollable they are scarcely
to be overcome by half a dozen or more able-bodied men.
On one occasion it appears that one of these women, w^ho
was of a particularly quiet and retiring disposition, and who
had become a convert to Christianity, was present in Brass at
a service which was being conducted by representatives of the
Church Missionary Society. Suddenly, right in the middle of
the service, she sprang up and began jabbering away as fast as
she could in some strange dialect. Finding it impossible to
pacify her, an attempt was made to remove her. So strenuous,
however, was her objection to this proceeding, that it was not
until after a great deal of difficulty, and with the co-operation
of no less than six men, that her removal was effected. It is
worthy of notice that while in this obsessed condition, married
women are kept away from their husbands, and cohabitation is
strictly forbidden, as being likely, in expert opinion, to prove

altogether fatal to the former. It is also noticeable that water,
and constipation are evidently encouraged, if
or starvation diet,
not enforced, by the individuals themselves, as well as by the
force of custom.
These wômen are invariably selected by the priests in their
early infancy and pronounced by them to be the descendants
of the water spirits called Owu. These Owu in a certain
measure correspond to our mermaids, and the idea seems to be
in some way connected with the existence in the mouths of
these rivers of the Maniti, which is held sacred by the Efik
and other of these coast tribes.
CHAP. I OBSESSION AND POSSESSION 229
A very curious feature of this belief is that women who

are so possessed are said to have husbands or male affinities in
spirit land. What is more, the explanation which is given
regarding their possession at certain on special
periods, or
occasions only, is that it is a question of sympathetic affinity,

so that when the husbands in spirit land are either celebrating
a festival or prophesying, the wives on earth are similarly
affected.
Compatible with this strange belief these women are
divided into two classes, viz. : (1) those who are possessed for
purely festal purposes ; (2) and those who have within them
the prophetic power. As soon as possession takes place, or as
the natives describe it, Owu-Koro the advent — of Owu or
the water spirit — it is customary for the Owu to take up her

abode in a plate of yellow or golden colour, or a stool, or in a
carved paddle, an old manilla, or an iron pot. Whatever the
article, it is said to have originally come up out of the water,
together with the spirit that is inside it. When this has taken
place the priest of the household or locality at once prophesies
that the spirit intends to transfer herself from the object to a
certain woman, who is mentioned by name. One of the mani-
festations by which the medium in question is usually detected
appears to be the fact that her mere presence in a canoe, for
instance, animates it to such an extent that it is made to
tremble all over visibly — so violently in fact at times as almost
to upset it. At this stage of the proceedings it is usual to
refer the matter to a council of the village elders. No sooner
done than the old men, accompanied by the priest and a single
steersman, but no paddlers, put the supposed medium in a
canoe and take her on the river. No movement is allowed,
the steersman merely guiding the vessel, while the priest and
elders discuss the point at issue ; if a further vibration of the
canoe takes place the water spirit is proved to have taken
possession of the woman. This knotty question decided, the
latter is taken home, and it is found, as a rule, that for at least
three days she is so affected as to remain in a state of torpor
or insensibility. It is the duty of the parents —
or if a married
woman, her husband — to go to the high priest, carrying the
following sacrificial articles, 7 eggs, 7 small balls of native
salt, or potash, made out of mangrove suckers called koonu,

7 alligator peppers, 7 small lumps of Ibo chalk, and 7 small
lumps of yellow dye, to beg him to release the woman from
the spirit and drive it away.
Taking these articles with him, the priest goes in a canoe
to a certain spot on the river —
generally an island and on —
arriving there he proceeds to carry, one at a time, each set of
the sacrificial articles from the canoe to the shore. Placing
these on the ground, set by set, he invokes the spirit, and then
lays before it the petition of the woman's relatives. This per-
formance over, he returns with a certain amount of sand and
water from the island to the town. Mixing the two together
the woman is made to wash herself all over with the mixture,
after which, as a general rule, she recovers her normal state in
the course of a few days. During the period of insensibility
neither food nor drink passes her lips, and even after this stage
the diet is light, consisting of sugar-cane, alligator peppers, and
water. This convalescent interval generally lasts for a period
of from four to seven days, until the release of the woman from
the spirit has been finally effected.
During the whole of this time the medium takes up her
residence in the outer hall or ancestral chapel of her father's
or husband's residence, where she is joined by others of this
peculiar Own who, according to the class they
fraternity,
belong to, either prophesy or sing and dance with her, talking
all the time to each other in a dialect which is not generally
understood. On these occasions the usual dress is discarded,

and a piece of white baft is tied very tight and worn round
the waist, along with strings of small bells, which are put on
the wrists and ankles as well.
Among men these obsessions are confined as a rule
to priests, prophets, and diviners, and in these cases the
obsessing spirit is invariably the special deity whose human
mouthpiece or representatives the priests and prophets happen
to be.
One of the most notable of these, and an excellent illustra-
tion of the entire principle, is that of the high priests of

Ogidiga, the Brass tribal god, who, as soon as ever the spirit of
his deity takes possession of him, begins to speak a very
different language from Brass or Ijo, but one that is similar to
the New Calabar or Okrika dialects.

The first indication of the possession is said to be a feeling
of nervousness, the cause ofwhich is assigned entirely to the
entrance of the and the next is the desire for immersion
spirit,
in water. When the event takes place it is customary for the

high priest to starve himself for seven days, during which
period he drinks nothing but water and enforces constipation.
The immersion lasts as a rule from four to seven days, depen-
dent altogether, it appears, on the will of the spiritual obsessor,
and when this imperious and importunate divinity moves him
to leave the water —
usually that of the river he is said to —
walk underneath it until he comes to a certain beach in the
ISTembe creek. Here he emerges, and lies flat on his stomach
in the mud, like a crocodile. The chiefs of ISTembe now appear
on the scene, and have him carried to the Ju-Ju house, where
he washes himself clean with water that is brought to him.
He is then left entirely alone for a whole day, and neither
sees nor speaks to any one, remaining practically in a state of
torpor. On the second day all the people of the community,
headed by the chiefs and headmen, come to consult him
regarding the future of the country, bringing with them small
offerings of spirits —
generally a bottle or two of rum or gin.
His tongue being now loosed, the high priest, once more
moved to action by the spirit of Ogidiga, prophesies to them
concerning certain events of importance that are to occur
during the current year as, for example, the fighting that
;
will take place between themselves and other tribes, the period
occupied, and the ultimate result, also any accidents or mis-
fortunes, individual or collective.
The object of this prophecy is to forewarn and so prepare
the chiefs and people, also to give them the opportunity of
performing the requisite sacrifice in order to secure the active
co-operation of the gods, and so prevent the occurrence of the

misfortunes. Before offering them, it is usual for the prophet
to announce what the sacrificial articles in question are to be,
for this is a matter which is left entirely to the judgment of

the great and all-powerful Ogidiga.
During these possessions there are occasions when the
obsessing deity moves the high priest to disappear into the

bush, instead of into the water, and this is explained on the
principle that Ogidiga is an amphibious spirit in other words, ;
that the symbolic python is in the habit of living both on land

and in water.
It is to be noted that in these specific instances the
obsession is not that of demons or evil spirits, but of spiritual
affinities, who merely affect their human partners with the
same symptoms that are manifested in them.

This manifestation undoubtedly opens up for reflection
certain issues that we must look into, which will be found to
confirm the assertions previously made, that the spiritualism

of these people is a feature quite apart from their demonology,
which, strictly speaking, is confined to the domain of witch-
craft.
These issues are (1) the certainty that in their estimation
—
:
the spirit world —

reflection as it is of the human is not all
evil ;(2) that apart from the duality of all embodied spirits,
also putting aside the close connection existing between this
and the spirit world, there is a distinct affinity between the

(4) also that tends
two (3) that this affinity is ancestral it
in
;
two directions {a) for purposes

;
—
;
as we have seen — of
festival and prophecy {h) towards ;

diseases, bodily injury, or
even death, as we are about to see.

Eegarding the connection of these affinities with the
ancestral, even if sufficient had not already been said to
convince the veriest sceptic, the admission of the natives that
the persons so possessed are descendants of the water spirits
— who are represented synibolically by Maniti and other living
water animals —
ought to be sufficient. For it is only possible
to place one other construction on this assertion, which is,
that they must be the off'spring of an immaculate or spiritual

'
conception. But as this principle does not obtain among any

of these tribes, and as these Owu, under various forms, figure
as local and household deities, there is, as has just been
pointed out, but one explanation.
In no aspect of this belief is the ancestral more evident
than in the regular and systematic obsession of the priests, on
the part of the tribal or domestic deities, as well as in the
belief that in many instances the diseases by which people are

affected are due wholly and entirely to the invasion of their
bodies by the spirits of connections and near relatives who

have already departed this life. Not necessarily through
malevolence, but from a natural fellow-feeling — out of sheer
cussedness, as we would say — and a desire to afflict those
with whom they had been associated, but between whom and
themselves no love had been lost, in the same way that they
had been, afflicted.
Invariably then, when a person falls ill of some complaint
from which a late member of the household had previously
died, the malady is traced to the act of the deceased, more
especially so if the disease is looked on as unclean i.e. evil in
its worst form and —

one that as a matter of sequence forcibly
compels the ejected spirit to become a disembodied outcast.
Possession by spirits of either a sympathetic or anti-

pathetic nature is not, however, any more confined to the coast
tribes and water deities than it is to the interior natives and
spirits of the air or forest. an instance of a case
I will quote
of so-called possession which came under my own notice to
show how closely bound up is the life of these people with
their home life, and how this in turn is simply a reflection of
the spiritual.
I happened at the time, along with the late Captain
Bartwell, the District Commissioner, to be staying for some
days at a town called Nkara-hia, a locality that was much
disaffected and opposed to the Government, and the people of
which were very unruly and turbulent. With us as interpreter
was Dappa Alison, who in my search for knowledge of native
customs was always on the look-out for me. Attached to our
entourage was a young woman, by name iSTaneta, belonging to
—
Mkporobi a town near Akwete. Complaining one afternoon
that she was not feeling very well, she was brought before
Bartwell and myself for treatment. Usually very bright and
cheerful, Naneta on this occasion looked dull and listless, but
beyond a heaviness in her humid eyes, and a rise in tempera-
ture slightly above the normal, she did not show any fever or
other symptoms. Giving instructions that she was to have
a dose of that live-giving elixir called Eno, to be followed by
quinine, I had forgotten all about the circumstance when some

hours afterwards, while Bartwell and myself were engaged in
conversation, Alison came in and asked us both to take a look
at Naneta, as she was acting in a very strange manner, and in
his opinion was possessed by a spirit of some kind.
Following him out of our hut we soon arrived at his,
which was close by. The room in which we found the girl
was not very large, and in the middle of it, on the floor, a
bright fire was burning, so that although it was dark there
was light enough to see by.
The entrance of three able-bodied men into a small and
confined space did not, however, have the slightest effect on
the girl, who, quite unconscious of our entrance and then of
our presence, was standing in one corner moaning, crying, and
talking, as it were, to herself; and although Alison spoke to
her several times, and informed her that we were in the room,
she neither answered him nor took the slightest notice, but
went on moaning and talking. So evidently absorbed was she
by contact with some element that made her dead to all
around her, that even Alison, who was experienced in such
matters, was altogether puzzled, and acknowledged that he
was quite astray, for Xaneta was not suffering, as he had
first thought she was, from Ehehe, or possession by an animal
spirit.
As I was standing quite close to the girl I could not help

noticing that in the intervals of the imaginary conversation
that she was holding she cried, and appeared all the time — so
Alison informed us — to be begging and imploring some one
called Tata and Atah not to flog her any more, and
suiting her actions to her words she kept on writhing, wincing,
and cowering in the corner, as if she was actually undergoing
the infliction of a lash.
Instantly struck l.)y this curious coincidence, I told Alison
to ask her what was the matter, but Naneta continued deaf
and dumb to the outside world, and the whole of her mind
and personality seemed to be absorbed by that sphere of the
great illusion in which the figures of Atah and Tata were the
central attraction. Such concentrated self- absorption I had
never witnessed.
This had been gomg on for some time when Alison's boy
came quite unexpectedly into the room with a lighted candle.
No sooner had the light made its presence felt than, without
a moment's warning, Naneta sprang at the boy and endeavoured
to throw him down and to wrest the candle from him. On
Alison interfering, she said in her normal voice, and as if
nothing unusual had happened, that the boy had no business
to bring in the light, as it had disturbed her. The boy was
sent out of the hut, and the candle extinguished, and as
soon as this was done Naneta at once returned to the same
corner and relapsed into the attitude that she had so hurriedly
abandoned.
That the appearance of light upon a scene of gloom had
quite broken the mystic spell under which Naneta had been
labouring was quite evident, and what was equally evident
was the fact that darkness or gloom altogether favoured and
fostered the alluring illusion which had thrown its tenacious
glamour over her. So tenacious was the hold, that Xaneta
continued to groan, to entreat, and to squirm for a matter of
from two to three hours, at the end of which time, throwing
herself upon the ground in an evident state of exhaustion, she
fell where she lay, and slept there until the next
asleep
morning. When she awoke, beyond wearing a still heavy
and somewhat listless and dejected appearance, Naneta was
just the same as usual, but absolutely oblivious to the occur-
rence of the previous evening. In my presence, however,
Alison gave her an exact account of all that had occurred,
repeating word for word all that she had said, and describing
everything that she had done.
Becoming, as it were, all of a sudden conscious of some-
thing that had hitherto been inexplicable to her, she informed
us that Tata was her grandfather and Atah her grandmother,
who had both been dead for some years now. Previous to
had been sent
their death, however, about ten years ago, she
by the latter to Only a child of eight or
gather firewood.
nine at the time, she had played truant, and on her return
home Atah, assisted by Tata, had given her a good birching;
and although she had begged and prayed them for mercy,
saying that she would never do so again, they had paid no
lieed to her appeals, but had flogged her

all the same. It was
curious, she added, that she had no recollection of the affair

last night, but she presumed that Atah and Tata must still be
angry with her, and had therefore chastised her again. Nothing
further, however, could we elicit from her beyond the fact that
although Tata and Atah had been invisible to all of us, herself
included, the fact of their spirit presence was indubitable, for
her back ached and pained as if she had received a flogging,
and she felt very tired and weary.
What impressed me at the very outset of my contact
with these natives, and what impressed me all the time that
I was in touch with them, was, as I have so often pointed
out, the deadly sincerity of their beliefs, and the actual and
positive reality — to them — of this inside and outside shadow
existence. Three such powerful factors as time, association,
and sincerity are bound in the ordinary course of evolution to
have produced some strong and permanent effect, that has left
its mark on the nature of these primitive people. Not that
for a moment do I infer or even hint that the effect or
tendency is spiritual, or anything in the form of a spirit.
It is quite needless at this stage to discuss either the im-
portance of time or association with regard to the transmission
of human tendencies, but without taking into consideration the
scientific antiquity of man, let us be satisfied with a period of
say, 10,000 years. This period is enough to have
at least long
given association and sincerity suflicient scope to have developed
out of a religious idea, first of all, an actual conviction, then an
inherited tendency, so as to make it possible for the organism to
feel, if it cannot see, the phantom or conception of its own
imagination. It may not perhaps be strictly accurate to say that
time and association can accomplish anything, but it is at least
safe to assert that they can accomplish a great deal that is real
and practical, more especially when the persistent and continuous
influences of physical conditions, acting on the mental organ-
isation, or vice versa, are taken into account and estimated at
their full value.
In the same way, from a purely realistic aspect sincerity
is a factor of great and undoubted power, which must be
reckoned with, for it is not possible that sincerity and insin-
cerity can exist together. It is true, however, that sincerity

is liable to be deceived, and that even self-deception is possible
to the sincere; but among these natives, as regards the duality of
their existence and the reality of the spirit life, it is not a ques-
tion of self-deception but of self-detachmeut. For although, with
the exception of the diviners and priests, who are the professional
spirit mediums, admitted that the people cannot see the
it is
spirits (conclusive testimony in itself of their genuine attitude),

so dual is their existence, and so detachable is the one from
the other, that these shadow spirits of the imagination are ever
present with them — to the exclusion almost of the human life
—and they become a tangible yet invisible reality. Thus

it was, in the illustration I have given, that ]âneta's other or
outside self was not only in the presence of, but in communi-
cation with, the — to her —

and tangible spirits of Tata and
real
Atah, and that this circumstance, and this alone, made her
utterly oblivious of all that was going on around her; and
although this mental concentration was unexpectedly and
suddenly suspended or diverted by the influx of light upon the
scene, it is very noticeable that the influence was by no means
dispelled, but resumed immediately the light was removed.
This tense concentration was due to a certain fixed con-
sciousness of an event which, when it had originally occurred,
had left a deep and lasting impression on a mind that was
emotionally sensitive and impressionable, and it had at length
developed into a constitutional tendency, through a repetition
— such as I had witnessed —
of the original occurrence. What
is more, the death of Atah and Tata, far from reducing the
impression, had only strengthened and confirmed it. For in
their spirit existence they were to Naneta a much more
tangible and dreaded reality than they had been in the flesh,
and this reality was through the
intensified a thousandfold
feeling of uncertainty and
knowledge that, except on
the
special occasions, these dread bogies were never visible. If it
is possible for photography, with the isolated aid of the camera,
in conjunction with the magnetic emanations thrown off by

the artist, to obtain phantasmal impressions, which, from the
practical experiments of Mr. Traill Taylor, and others, there
is no reason to doubt, it is of course equally possible, among a
people such as these, Uviiig all the time in a state of spirit

consciousness, to concentrate their thoughts during certain
periods or occasions on certain specific objects with such real
effect — as far as they themselves are concerned — as to receive
a distinct mental impression of the phantasma in question.
In other words, Naneta, possessing a dual and detachable
shadow existence — which is as much a part of natural man
as his own very substantial organism is —had merely detached
herself from her immediate surroundings into a purely imagin-
ary environment, in which the scene that had long ago been
enacted between Tata, Atah, and herself was so prominent that
all her faculties were centred and concentrated on it, to the
oblivion of all other things.
CHAPTER II
A. OBSESSION, AND POSSESSION Continued
Possession by Animal Spirits —A General Aspect
But in discussing this question in its entirety, it is advisable

to include the other faculty of animal which is so
obsession,
marked a feature in the spiritualism of these natives and in ;
doing so we must recollect that, although the power of con-

version frum the human to the animal is uncommon, the
possession of the former by the latter is much more common.

Ihave with my own eyes witnessed several cases of this
infliction,and on two occasions introduced them to the notice
of a medical officer, but unfortunately to no purpose, and
without in any way effecting my object. I say unfortunately,
because they were golden opportunities, that no doctor should

have thrown away. But where the spirit of science is wanting
in the medical or other personality, merely technical knowledge

is of no avail. Mere hysteria was the opinion pronounced by
the doctors, on the cases in question both— of them young
females, who, to all outward appearance, were normally in a
wholesome state of body and mind.
In one of these the medical officer, without any investiga-
tion or diagnosis of any kind, merely took a casual glance at
the patient, who was said to be victimised by the soul of a
leopard, and then had the audacity to pronounce judgment.
It was not by any means the first of the kind that I had
seen, yet, having the opportunity, I watched it very closely
and with breathless interest. I was not disgusted at this
so-called man of science, for I saw that outside the technical

239
knowledge of his profession he was soulless, science being to

him not merely as dry but as dead as dust but I was bitterly
;
disappointed, I must confess, for, alas technical knowledge

!
which to my spirit of inquiry would have been an invaluable

addition —
was what I lacked. Still, I observed keenly the
movements and contortions of the sufferer, who, although she

was not an epileptic subject, appeared at times to be more
under the influence of epilepsy than hysteria.
Whatever it was, the conclusion I came to was that, apart
from the organic cause, there was traceable in the actions and
—
movements of this child ordinarily an extremely docile and
gentle creature —
a distinct and independent mental influence,
which transformed this rational, well-behaved being into a
wild and irrational animal. But not only in her actions was
this influence visible, for her groans and gestures unmistak-
ably betrayed anxiety, internal woe, or sorrow.
I that I am treading on dangerous ground, but I do
know
so with due and becoming deference to medical science, yet
with all the confidence that is bred from sincere conviction.
It may be and no doubt is the fact, that both epilepsy and
hysteria have something, perhaps a great deal, to say to the
movements of these so-called possessions by human and animal
spirits. Or, to put the matter in another way, that hysterical
and epileptic subjects are more subject to such possessions,
but that epilepsy and hysteria are solely responsible for the
temporary displacement of the mental balance, and the disturb-
ance of the normal physical condition, I do not for one moment
believe.
For underlying these organic conditions, if they exist at
all,there is a disturbing and deranging mental factor an —
inherent tendency in fact —
which is nothing more or less than
the result of long ages of belief in the doctrine of possession,
which aggravates the organic disease. Indeed, just as epilepsy
is a physical convulsion, this mental tendency is a prolepsis or
anticipation of a much-dreaded event, that in the conviction of
the people cannot be avoided, and has to be endured. How-
ever or whatever its source from a scientific standpoint, to
them it is but one of the many spiritual ills that the flesh is
heir to, so that around the physical ailment this imaginary
CHAP. II OBSESSION AND POSSESSION 241
emanation of human conception has twined and intertwined

itselfwith such persistent tenacity, until it has developed into
a hereditary tendency, which only time and a clean sweeping
away of the phantoms of naturism can ever effectually remedy.
Or, there is yet another aspect to the question that is worthy
of consideration. The fact of it is that with these natives, who
are nearer Mature, i.e. to the animal or lower evolution, it is
a case of atavism — of returning to a former state. This seems

to me to be the true explanation of the matter, together with
the fact that underlying the external phlegm of their nature,
which is but superficial, there is a strong neurotic tendency
that breaks out into a frenzy of excitement on certain special
occasions, such as festivals, funerals, etc. Whatever the
medical scientist may no new and modern
say, neurosthenia is
development ; merely the
but, as seen in these natives, it is
relic of certain animal tendencies, the transmission of which
has not been checked or retarded by the possession of increased
intelligence.
Since writing this I have quite recently had the good
fortune to read Basil Thomson's book on Savage Island, and it
was with the greatest possible interest in the world that I
read the following passage :
" Close beneath the phlegmatic
surface of the Polynesian, runs a strong current of
there
neurotic hysteria, often unsuspected by the Europeans that
know them best. The early missionaries were startled at the
frequent disturbance of their services by an outburst of frenzy
on the part of their most promising converts, who professed to
be possessed by the Holy Spirit, as at Pentecost. They gabbled
in an unknown tongue, while their neighbours patted them
soothingly on the back to bring them back to their senses.
It was nothing else than the inspired frenzy of the heathen
priests, who shivered and foamed at the mouth, and squeaked
in shrill falsettowhen possessed by their god. ... To the
same neurotic quality are to be ascribed that curious seizure
described by Mr. Piathbone among the Malays, known as Late,
where, at the utterance of some simple word, as Cut,' a man '
will spring to his feet and leap about in a frenzy, shouting,

'
Cut cut
! cut !
!
in endless repetition
' and the curious ;
affection known in Fiji as Dongai, whereby two young

people of a race not naturally amorous, being separated after

a first cohabitation, will pine away and die from purely
physical debility, or, as say, of a broken heart
we should and ;
that strange surrender whereby a man who thinks himself

bewitched will give up all hope of life, and will take to his
mat and foretell correctly the hour of his death."
In more senses than one is this extract of deep and
powerful interest, containing as it does so many elements
that are identical with those which are so common a feature in
the Niger Delta —
which indeed, taken as a whole, with the
exception of a few trifling differences, looks as if it was a
picture from Delta life.
Taking each of the different points in this extract in
rotation, similar disturbances have been known to occur among
the Christianised natives at the services of the missions that
are established in various parts of the Delta. In these instances,
however, the frenzy and the jabbering in a strange tongue have
not been glossed over and explained by the natives as a
possession by the Holy Ghost, but as being due to obsession
on the part of some local spirit, an explanation that, if applied
to the Nieue islanders, would without doubt prove to be the
actual and true solution. This is all the more possible because
these people of the Pacific, like the Delta natives, believe in
possession by spirits, evil and mixed.
Withregard to the idiosyncrasy referred to as Late, and
peculiar to the Malays, I have on more than one occasion
experienced a similar element, principally among the Ibo and
Ibibio, accompanied, however, with violence, and cutting about
with a matchet or a sword. But acts of this particular nature
as witnessed by me, although certainly indirectly due to this
neurotic tendency, always impressed me more as acts of impulse
that were committed on the spur of the moment, and not
necessarily allied to, or in any way connected with, the belief in
spirit possession. On the other hand, the emotion spoken of as
Dongai, or the mutual sympathy or attraction of two aflinities
of opposite energies, as I should call it, is most certainly associ-
ated with it and although this emotion is not in evidence
;
in the Delta in quite the same form as it is in Fiji, it is to be

seen definitely and distinctly in " the blood alliance " between
individuals of the two sexes, spoken of in Section VII., to

wliich the reader is referred. While the question of the ego
abandoning all hope, and practically willing himself to death,
is also fully dealt with farther on.
When we take into account the fact that among most of
these Delta natives —but the Ibo, as far as I know, in particular
— the children of both sexes, as soon as ever they are able to
prattle, are told as an article of their faith that they are repre-
sentative of certain animals, it is not in the least surprising
that the bare belief is sufficient cause in itself to produce the
effect which the natives themselves attribute to animal obses-
sion. For in analysing this matter we must be guided in
forming our judgment of it by certain prevailing conditions,
that must be duly weighed and considered.
1. First of all, then, it is not until the children have grown
old enough to think and act for themselves that this Ehehe,
i.e. possession of the human organism by an animal spirit,
begins to make itself felt.
2. The infliction is not general, but confined as a rule («)

to people who display a highly neurotic and excitable tem-
perament ; if not, to those who are subject to hysteria and
epileptic fits ; (5) to members of the female sex rather than
the male.
3. The taken as a whole, these natives, by virtue
fact that,
of certain specific inherent tendencies, acting on a naturally
neurosthenic and inconsistent disposition, are predisposed to
contract certain maladies that affect either the mental or the
nervous systems, or yet again, both in conjunction.
That the infliction in question is primarily a derangement,
and secondarily an arrangement of these two systems, and
that it commences with the mental, is a matter that seems to
admit of little or no doubt.
For it is not until the individual possessed has developed
the powers of self-analysis and reflection that the obsession
first of all takes place, but before this happens the nervous
organisation is in meantime subjected to a process of

the
subordination, if not subjection by the mental, that soon
reduces it to a condition of prostration or exhaustion. This
mastery of the mental over the nervous is no sooner complete
than followed by a process of assimilation that is produc-

it is
tive of co-operation. In this state the subject is only too

ready to receive those particular phantasmal impressions which
are uppermost in its mind. No wonder then that the impres-
sion of obsession by an animal spirit becomes to one and all
of these peculiarly susceptible people a reality as tangible as
their own corporeal existence.
No wonder too, that the individual so possessed conducts
and behaves such an outrageously animalistic manner
itself in
as to lead the native onlooker to infer that it is merely acting

in obedience to the behest of the obsessing animal spirit.
Thus it is that the human entity temporarily becomes not only
in its movements and actions, but in its disposition, a perfect
specimen of a wild beast or reptile, climbing or crawling
accordingly, biting, tearing, scratching, foaming, grimacing,
gibbering, and committiug destruction everywhere. On these
occasions strong men are told off to take care of all such
victims, and the natives have found by experience that the
only certain way of keeping them quiet is by giving them raw
meat to eat or a bone to gnaw, and water to drink. This
treatment results in sleep on the part of the victim, and on
waking there is no mental record whatever of the events which
have taken place; a general lassitude is, however, always
complained of.
Any scratches or bruises that are discovered on the body
of the victim during the period of obsession are attributed to
the fact that the organism of the obsessing animal has received
similar wounds in the bush when fighting with other animals.
According to popular estimation, obsession of the human
entity is invariably due either to a derangement of the natural
order of things or a disturbance in the animal element, which

implies the existence of affinity between the human and the
animal organisms in question. What is more, it demonstrates
that the animal, as symbolical of the household to which the
victim belongs,is itself in possession of the ancestral spirit-
soul ; and this dual possession on the animal's part at once

explains the native conception of its ability to obsess with its
own animal soul one of the human members of the family, at

the same time that in its own animal form, animated as it is
by a human soul, it can contend against its own species in

the bush.
It is also believed that among those members who are so
predisposed obsession produced either from the
is rapidly
shock of receiving a slap on the back or of having tombo
thrown upon them and from many sources I have been
;
informed that in the latter case especially twenty minutes is

sufficient to bring on an attack, —
facts that go a long way to
prove the nervous origin of the disorder.

According to native ideas, it is considered wiser to allow
the infection to run its natural course, i.e. until the obsessing
spirit withdraws himself from the body of the victim, as they
have learned from experience that if preventative measures are
applied too soon the attacks recur more frequently and at shorter
intervals. Speaking from my own personal and varied experi-
ences in the matter, if, as I have already remarked, this obsession
isnot a question of heredity, then the process which I have just
endeavoured to describe of the subjugation of the nervous system
by the mental, and their subsequent cohesion and combined
operation, is the only other rational explanation that I can
think of regarding this decidedly interesting phase of barbaric
nature. But if there is no objection to it (and in the face of
the unity of the human and animal mechanism I fail to see
how any such objection can be rationally advanced, or at least

supported) this very lucid exposition of a seemingly ambiguous
matter makes it so much the more easy to comprehend. For,
taking into consideration the facts that are included in con-
ditions 2 and 3, it is very evident to the close observer that in
the contest which supervenes in organisms such as have been
described, the physical altogether gives way, and succumbs
to the mental; and the fact that the physical organisms
are organically affected or diseased only makes the combined
supremacy of the mental and nervous systems over the physical
all the more complete.
Associated with animal obsession there still remains for

analysis the very important feature of cannibalism, and I will
endeavour to show the connection which in remote days un-
doubtedly must have existed between the two. It goes without
saying, that although in a still remoter period this was origin-
ally a purely animal custom, subsequent to the conception of

the spirit became an entirely spiritual relationship, which
life it
resulted from the same principle and conception as obsession

by the animal spirit, of which cult cannibalism was the outer
or symbolical exposition in other words, cannibalism became
;
a substantial and praiseworthy sacrifice or practice, indicative

of the inner or spiritual idea.
The spiritual and sacrificial significance of this hideous
custom has already been alluded to, but to gauge fully the
peculiar tendency which, so to speak, led up to cannibalism,
it is necessary to gain a thorough comprehension of this
principle of their belief regarding the possession and domina-
tion of the human organism by the animal for not only is it ;
possible to see in this belief a blind faith, that in co-opera-

tion with time and certain mental characteristics has produced
a specific idiosyncrasy, which although subjective to all out-
wârd seeming is distinctly objective ; but it is further possible
to see in the treatment which is accorded to those inflicted a
decided acknowledgment of subjection, or at least a temporary
concession on the part of the human or higher form of being
to the lower or animal element. So that it became natural
for men to eat the flesh of their own kind in exactly the same
fashion as the animals whom they had symbolised as material
embodiments for certain ancestral spirits. For although those
obsessed still preserved the human form externally, internally
they were dominated by the animal spirit.
CHAPTEE III
B. EXORCISM AND EXORCISTS
Walking one day through IsTcloni, an Ijo town, on the eastern

bank of the Nun branch of the Niger, I witnessed what to
the uninitiated was a weird and fantastic ceremony, but which
was nothing more or less than the exorcism of a malignant
spirit who had incontinently taken possession of an unfortu-

nate woman. In Biblical language, an attempt at casting out
a devil.
Seated under a shady tree, for the afternoon was still
young and intensely hot, were the chiefs of the town, with a
large jar of the inevitable tombo (palm wine) at their feet,
for devil driving is thirsty work. In front of them was dis-
posed a small circle of sympathetic relations and friends,
among whom, looking woebegone and miserable, sat the
victim, an emaciated and attenuated Between the
creature.
two groups, supporting on their shoulders a slight framework
of wood, stood four stalwart young men who, when they grew
tired, were relieved by others. This, it was quite evident, was
the object into which the doctor was endeavouring to entice
the vindictive spirit.
Sitting on the ground, to one side of the assembly, his

eyes sometimes on the ground and sometimes on the woman,
but taking no notice whatever of what was going on around
him, the doctor passed his time in muttering incantations and
invocations, as well as in directing operations generally. He
wore the usual paraphernalia of his profession, and bags
gourds containing his medicines and charms suspended from a
string which was fastened round his waist, a necklet of claws
247
and teeth round his neck. What heightened an otherwise

ordinary appearance, were certain incongruous chalk marks on
the face, and especially encircling the eyes, closely resembling
a pair of spectacles. AVhat was still more noticeable, however,
was the concentration of his thoughts on the object that he
had in hand, for, as in Naneta's case, this absorbed him soul
and body, and for the time being this man lived for nothing
else. But although the chalk marks gave him a fantastic yet
subtle look, that, no doubt with a covert purpose, conveyed
conviction to his audience at the same time that it distracted
attention from his inner personality, it was the intense absorp-
tion of the man in the task which he had in hand that
enveloped the otherwise paltry affair with a dignity and
reality that excited reflection.
Questioning chief Danda, an urbane and pleasant old
gentleman, on the subject, he informed me that the spirit had
been troubling the woman for a long time past. So much so
that she could not and was gradually growing thinner,
eat,
owing to the ravages of the hungry and malicious spirit. It

was quite evident that she was wasting away from general
debility, brought on by a total collapse of the digestive organs,
but as I never returned to this locality again, I am unable
to speak as to her ultimate fate. Judging by her appearance
at the time, however, I am very much afraid that the spirit
got the best of the doctors in the end.
The process
of exorcism all throughout the Delta is very
much have described it, the only difference perhaps being
as I
in the objects that are utilised for the purpose of invoking
the spirit into. These of course vary according to the people
and the locality, but they are generally confined to articles of
common or domestic use. For although the actual texture
and size of the object is immaterial, it is absolutely essential
for the spirit to be encased in a material body of some kind.
The motive of the doctor in enacting the ceremony publicly
is to gain the public confidence, and so enhance his reputation
for honesty and plain dealing ; but in the ordinary course of
events publicity is not courted, except in those cases where
the unholy influence of wîtchcraft is suspected. Naturally
enough, our plausible friend the doctor carries his deceptions
CHAP. Ill EXORCISM AND EXORCISTS 249
to the extreme limit, and professes his ability to conjure

the infecting spirit out of the patient into some sympathetic
animal which is readily convenient or it may be, if it better
;
suits his purpose, that he selects a suitable object as a quickly

absorbing and convenient ark of refuge.
In this way —
for no bush cat is readier to pounce upon
its unsuspecting prey than the doctor is to watch for and

seize his opportunity, when Nature in her own inflexible,
at times unreasonable way, brings relief, —he claims it as his
own victory over the vanquished.

That the existence of hysteria and epilepsy among the
people is taken advantage of by the priests and doctors is
undoubtedly the case, as we have seen in Chapter I., with

regard to the women possessed by Owu, but that the
maladies in question are encouraged, accelerated, or in any
way artificially produced, in order to obtain oracles from
certain deities, through possessed mediums, is a point on
which I cannot speak wifcli the definite certainty of personal
experience. That it is possible, however, and even probable,
admits of no doubt whatever.
That the deadly sincerity of which I have spoken is not
so deeply rooted in the priests and doctors as it is in the
people, perhaps admissible.
is Further, that these wily go-
betweens, possessing as they do a greater share of intelligent
subtlety, are quite capable of practising every wile or stratagem
in the art of deception that is possible to them, is equally a
matter of certainty. Yet full of deceit as they are, these slim

personalities, anomalous though it may seem, are, as has already
been pointed out, themselves sincere and very much in earnest,
oppressed as they are by their spirit beliefs. Like all such
fraternities throughout the range of humanity, they are, how-
ever, liable to self-deception, and surcharged with a greater
intellectual audacity, which makes them impervious to the
pricks of conscience, as well as to the actual unrealities of the
situation. What is more, we must, up to a certain point, look
leniently on their self-deception, and give them credit in full,
or at least make due allowance for the fact, that living as

they do in a constant state of mental concentration, as also
under the habitual yoke of phantasmal impressions, it is not
ill the least surprising — as we have seen in Naneta's case

that they actually believe themselves to be in the presence of,
and in communication with, certain For by making a

spirits.
practice of the profession, and, sincere as they are in their

convictions, their powers of concentration naturally and as a
matter of course are productive of greater or at least of more
pronounced results.
Eemember too, that freemasonry is not more exclusive or
secret over its rites and rules than are these priestly autocrats
in connection with their religion. Intensely suspicious as
they are, especially so of the white man, whose domineering or
patronising ways and silent contempt they inwardly resent,
and the disinterestedness of whose motives they do not believe
in (and not without reason), they keep their religion to them-
selves, looking on any earnest inquiry in that direction as
mere rude and designing was only by
curiosity. So that it
gaining the confidence of those who worked for me, and in

this way convincing them of my sincerity, that I was enabled
to gather all the information that I did.
It is of course quite admissible, however, that in times
past, and down even to the present day, these convenient
diseases, suggestive in themselves, have been and are made
use of by both doctors and priests, and so purposely fostered
and encouraged with the object of attaining power and
working out their own ends.
If this be so, it is perfectly easy to understand how time
and environment, working hand in hand on a rankly luxuriant
soil, have engrafted on the original diseases of hysteria and
epilepsy a mental tendency, and so produced a form of

spiritual neurosthenia, altogether peculiar to these children
of weird ideals and gruesome imaginations.
In the same manner, people of morbid constitutions, or
those possessed of dispositions more pessimistic or highly
coloured than their compeers, have been selected or draw^n
into the priestly vortex, either as prophets or priests, while
individuals who combine with the art of deception a masterful
and melancholic disposition take the initiative on their own
account and carve out their own careers. In this way, the
careers of many eminent local Dibias are clearly traceable, and
CHAP. Ill EXORCISM AND EXORCISTS
on the same principle the origin of the great Aro oracle is

unmistakably to be traced.
One fact is quite certain, and that is, that only those who
have the gift i.e. in whom there are signs or tendencies — can
become prophets, seers, or spiritualmediums. For if we
inquire into the matter, it is, as we have seen at the beginning
of this section, a question practically of affinity. But the
fact must not be lost sight of, that between this class and
those who are possessed of spirits —
of the animal degree more
especially there is—a certain specific difference, namely, that
the latter do not possess either prophetic or magic power.

For while the former is recognised as a distinct force, the
latter, although also due to affinity, is an infliction that comes
more under the heading either of a disease spirit, pure and

simple, or in connection with the symbolism of the ancestral.
As far as personal experience goes, I am also unable to
speak with any authority on the subject of trance, no single
instance of which occurred to my
knowledge in any of the
numerous localities that were by me. This is all the
visited
more extraordinary, because not only climatically and psycho-
logically, but from every human and natural standpoint, the
soil is peculiarly favourable. It is not, however, within the
scope of this work to offer any explanation regarding so

abstruse and intricate a question.
But if catalepsy is not prevalent, the condition in which
the body has all the appearance of having been temporarily
deprived of its mentality, or, in other words, a state in which
the mind is withdrawn from observation of things immedi-
ately external, to a rapt concentration of objects that are
distantly external or seemingly internal, is common enough, i.e.
of course among a prescribed class, such as has been described.

That this is a question of the individual soul, in contact, how-
ever,with outside influences, is generally allowed. For even
contemplation, so all-absorbing and centred as this, is looked
upon as a disturbance or displacement of the mental equili-
brium, caused by the influence or actual presence of some
intrusive spirit.
Delirium, or mania any kind, on the other hand,
of is
resjarded, not as the raving of the individual, but as due to

the energy of the familiarly malignant spirit — malignant with

the malignancy of familiarity which, among these people,
vindictive as they naturally are, breeds a spirit of revenge
that, according to the mental faculty of the individual, is
quickly transformed into active spirit forms, who wreak their

vengeance by afflicting the objects of their hate. So ordinary
madness is looked npon as solely and entirely the action of
the spirit in possession, and a man so afflicted is avoided with
considerable alacrity, and, should he be violent, with absolute
terror.
On more than one occasion I have been present when
persons have unfortunately been afflicted with mania, and
judging merely from the conduct of the people concerned, it
was quite palpable that in public estimation such unfortu-
nates — especially if any violence is mingled with their mad-
ness — are avoided and absolutely left alone, as being possessed
by demons of the most malignant type and description. Here,
in fact, we have an excellent illustration of entire and absolute
obsession by a disembodied spirit — hence the avoidance and
the abject dread in which they are held.
CHAPTER IV
c. diseases
The Spiritual Aspect of Disease
The ordinary malarial fever, which is so common a feature in

Delta life, is nothing but the active presence of an inimical
spirit, who reminds one to some extent of the Aryan Tri-
siras or Tri-pada, the three -headed or three - footed, fever
being personified as a demon with three heads in the former
case and three feet in the latter, symbolising the three stages
of heat, cold, and sweating.
The word for fever in Ibo is Ahii-oku, and in Efik
Ufitip-idem, meaning flesh - fire or heat of the body,
which shows the close connection existing in the minds of
these Delta natives between the spirits that animate fire and
those which take possession of the bodies of human beings,
whom they are thus able to strike down by means of their
own abnormal and specific heat.
Disease in any shape and form is naturally looked upon

as work of
the active spirit aggressors, and where it leaves
external marks of any kind, such as those left by smallpox,
for example, it is not only loathed but feared.
Here again, if we look into it, we will find that the under-
lying principle of much of the spiritualism of naturism is an
unreasoning and terrifying fear of consequences and of disfigure-
ment, present and future. For much that is material is blended
with the actual and purely spiritual, and a disfigurement that
may be carried into the darker side of spirit life is almost as
much dreaded as death, since it is a bar sinister to the ancestral
253
spirit land. So various diseases have been personified in the

form of malignant demons that not only feed upon and eat
away the flesh, but who would destroy the soul, or at least
transform it into a demon as vicious as themselves. "When,
therefore, smallpox first breaks out in a town, a special doctor
with a local reputation for medicine, i.e. a preparation which is
spiritualised and that is proof against its ravages, is at once

called in.
If in reality his medicine is of no consequence (that is,
from a European standpoint), the doctor, as far as the natives
are concerned, is at least a specialist as regards the inmost
appetites and idiosyncrasies of the local gods. So with his eyes
— markedly be-ringed with the sacred chalk —
fixed on the in-
evitable, as soon as ever he arrives in the town he asks for the
sacrificial articles to be brought to him. In this particular
case these as a rule consist of white baft, chalk, yellow wood,
a goat, and some fowls. Offering the former and sacrificing
the latter (for, be it remembered, every medicine to be of
any use must have within it a spiritual essence to defeat the
operations of the aggressive invader), he then issues to every
individual inhabitant a circlet, which is made by twisting
or plaiting together certain fibres from the tombo palm or
other fibrous plants, and these circlets are religiously worn
round the head, the neck, the wrists, and the ankles, in the
firm belief that the spirit of the medicine will keep the spirit
of the disease from attacking and infecting the wearers.
When, however, it fails to do this, the latter spirit has simply
vanquished the former the spirit of the disease has been too
;
strong for the spirit of the doctor's medicine.

Early in the year 1900 I happened to be paying a visit to
the Brass river, and among other topics was discussing trade
prospects with some of the chiefs. These, according to James
Spiff, a well-informed and intelligent man, did not promise to
be favourable, because, he informed me, the producers — in
this case Ijo — instead of cutting down the nuts from the oil
palms, as they ought long since to have done, were busy all
over the country making great plays and feasts in honour of

the Long Ju-Ju (the Aro Chuku, or god of the Aro) for having
prevailed over the smallpox.
CHAP. IV THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF DISEASE 255
On proceeding up the Niger river a few days afterwards

I made further inquiry into the matter among the Ijo them-
selves, and found his statement to be perfectly correct. Some
sporadic, or, what is more likely, suspicious cases of smallpox
having occurred in certain localities, and the popular faith in
local medicines having evidently been shaken through previous
experience, the aid of the celebrated divining god had been
invoked, with such excellent effect that the smallpox fiend had
been driven headlong out of the field.
To show how ingrained is the naturism of these natives,

and how ineradicable it is, on another occasion, many
further,
years now, I believe, an epidemic of smallpox swept
ago
through the Brass country, causing great havoc and consterna-
tion among the people. Just previous to this, one of the
chiefs (a man who had received a certain amount of education,
and who had then recently embraced Christianity) had, con-
trary to the Brass laws, planted one of his farms with
yams. This, it appears, was in direct opposition to their
ancestral traditions, which prohibited the cultivation of cer-

tain articles of food. Yams (which were usually supplied
from Onitsha, on the Niger, and neighbourhood) were specially
forbidden, for the natives believed that it was their destiny to
be buyers of food and not planters —
a belief that of late
years has been considerably modified owing to the force of
circumstances.
The high priest and his assistants, unable to stem the
spread of the disease, and having, it is presumed, no better
solution to offer regarding the cause of it, divined that the
chief in question, by planting yams, had so transgressed the
laws of the gods that they in return for his offence, and the
almost equivalent offence of the king and chiefs in permitting
it, had punished the entire tribe. No time was lost in compel-
ling the offender on pain of death to comply with the necessary
ceremonial of propitiation to the outraged deities. Escaping
eventually, however, from Nembe, he claimed protection from
the EnglishConsul through the European agents, whose
factorieswere at the mouth of the Brass river. All the same,
he was obliged to give up all ideas of farming on the scale
that he had originally intended, until the administration of the
Niger coast was taken over by the British Government some

twenty years afterwards.
But while in connection with this question of disease there
are no further individual features of importance demanding
the reader's notice, I would, however, here call his attention
to one particular experience, which is most certainly worth
registering. This is the extraordinary tenacity of purpose that
characterises these natural people under certain physical condi-
tions that affect the health or well-being of the ego, and it is
of special interest in connection with the question under

discussion regarding the spirituality of the material.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine Europeans out of a thousand
would define this special characteristic as due to pure obstinacy
or sheer superstition; but the European, as invariably wliere
natural man is concerned, is mistaken. What to his artificial
mind appears mere obstinacy

as — the result of sheer stupid
ignorance — is any special fixity of opinion or un-
due, not to
yielding resolution, but to a mental tendency that is constantly
producing and reproducing itself in phantasmal impressions,
which, although they are subjective, convey to the mind of
natural man an objective reality.
That the origin of this tendency is purely neurotic, and
that it dates far back into the antiquity of the ages, is quite a
reasonable suggestion. For with them it can be traced back
to the subjection of the human by the spiritual, and the im-
possibility of separating one from the other. And this at once
explains the otherwise incomprehensible attitude of these
natives, when, from the standpoint of the onlooker, they fall
ill all of a sudden, and with no seeming reason, and suffer from
debility or other ailments without obtaining relief from local

doctors and medicines. Many cases, very similar to that of
the Ijo woman mentioned in the previous chapter, have come
under my notice, in which the patients, some of whom were
attended by European physicians, have wasted away and died,
to all appearancefrom no radical cause.
Although it is not for me to say that in none of these
instances was death due to any specific ailment, from which it
was supposed that they were suffering, I must state it as
my deliberate opinion that had it not been for the tendency
referred to, one and all of them would most certainly have
recovered. The individual cause of death, in other words, was
due to nothing more or less than the will of the ego to die,
made up with a fixity of purpose tliat was unalterable. Indeed
it was evident, i.&. at least as far as one could judge, that this
devitalising force, acting on constitutions that were seemingly

run down or debilitated, but in which, according to the dia-
gnosis of European doctors, there were no symptoms of organic
disease, combined with want of nourishment, was the cause
from which they eventually succumbed.
The only explanation of what we would call sheer stubborn-
ness is the fact that in the minds of the natives the disease in
question is attributed to the influence and active operations of
some malignant demon. So rooted indeed is this belief that
cases are of an everyday occurrence in which persons who, up
to a certain point, were in a perfectly sound state of health,
have developed an unknown malady (quite apart from slow or
other forms of poison), and gone from bad to worse, and finally
to death, believing themselves to be under the spell of some
malign influence.
That this neurotic tendency, if not a developed instinct, is
practically one and the same thing, by virtue of a time associa-
tion, is to be seen in the fact of its imperviousness to change
of any kind, even to that of religious conversion, which strikes
down to the very roots of human nature. So we find that the
fiery and fanatical religion of Mohammed has no more effect on
it than the milder formulas of Christianity. For the Yoruba
and the Haussa, who are much older Mohammedans than the
former, are quite as natural or superstitious as any of the Delta
natives. Indeed I have seen more than one hardened old
Haussa soldier dying steadily and by inches, because he believed
himself to be bewitched so that no nourishment or medicines
;
that were given to him had the slightest effect either to check
the mischief or to improve his condition in any way, and
nothing was able to divert him from a fate which he considered
inevitable.
In the same way, and under very similar conditions, I have
seenKru-men and others die, in spite of every effort that was
made to save them, simply because they had made up their
s
minds, not (as we thought at the time) to die, but that being
in the clutch of malignant demons they were bound to die.
For the most distinctive, as it is the most significant, feature
about this peculiar malady is the utter extinction of hope,

which not only disproves the old adage that " while there's
life there's hope," but which is a standing testimony as to the
hopeless and incurable nature of such cases.
One case, that of a young Ibo, which at the time made a
great impression on me, is perhaps worth recording. Syama
was the two nice
father of little children, to whom
he was
exceedingly attached, but he lost first one and then, not very
long after, the other, in spite of the fact that every effort to
save them was made by a doctor more than local reputation.
of
The loss of the first him beyond measure, and
child affected
from a cheerful man he grew disconsolate and brooded over
his loss but when the second died all hope and pleasure in
;
life seemed to die with it, for he became to all appearance not
only broken-hearted, as we term it, but as if he had given up

all interest in life. Evil, in the guise of witchcraft, had got
him into its clutches, and having robbed him of his sons, i.e.
the successors and reproducers of the family in the flesh, and
the reincarnations of the spirits ancestral, had made a break in
the circle, and not content with this was bent upon enlarging the
gap by robbing him of his own life. So this now hopeless
unfortunate, who had once been full of hope and promise, took
to consulting diviners and deities whose powers were celebrated
beyond the narrow confines of their ancestral limitations but ;
even the great and infallible god of the wily Aro was unable
to comfort or console him. For the demon of despair to —
those people a living cannibalistic reality had got hold of —
him with a vengeance. So much so, that he gradually wasted
away and shrank visibly into a living skeleton, and from this
again to the void and seeming nothingness of nature, to fulfil
in his turn the behests of that inscrutable and inflexible

principle which preserves the balance in one continuous cycle
of act and react.
In the Brass district suicide is quite a common occurrence,
and one of the commonest forms in use is that which is known
as holding the breath, the literal translation of the native
term. This is done with so much determination and so

effectually as invariably to result in death. Looked upon, as
this form of death is by some few of the more intelligent and
educated chiefs, as a deliberate act of self-murder, it is on
analysis unquestionably identical with the derangement which

originates from the impression that the personality is afflicted
by malign influences. For it generally occurs either among

Brass people who have been sold or turned out of their country,
or, in many cases, among slaves who as freeborns in their own
country have been acquired by Brass chiefs. Several instances
of this nature (an aggravated form of nostalgia, from a European
standpoint) have come under my own notice in which people
have refused to eat, drink, or to stir from one position (usually
prone on the flat of the stomach), until they have literally pined
or fretted themselves to death, i.e. in the native estimation died
by enforced suffocation. One case of the violent type occurs
to me, of a Brass man who was well known to me.
called Undi,
An exemplary character, a hard and steady worker as a canoe-
builder, by which he made quite a good livelihood, he was
always unhappy because he was not allowed to return to his
home, from which it appears he had been exiled an unhappi- —
ness which culminated at last in an attempt to shoot himself.
Proving unsuccessful, as it did, owing to the able medical
treatment he received from Dr. Meeke, the Medical Officer at
Opobo, Undi informed me in a quiet, but none the less pathetic

manner, that as he could not get back to his people he had no
wish whatever to live, all the more so because the tree spirits
who where he made his canoes were hostile
lived in the bush
to him, and he feared that they would take his life. Inter-
preted from the native aspect, it is clear that the poor fellow
thought himself possessed by one of these wood spirits, who
were angry with him because he had cut down some trees and
disturbed them —
an idea that was fostered by the fact that
they belonged to another tribe, and the hope that if he could
not go back to Brass in the flesh he might get back to it in
the spirit, and so pay off old scores.
Among the Ijo suicide of the violent kind is also very
common. A very excitable, passionate, and quarrelsome race,
not only with strangers, but among themselves, they will
26o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, v
commit self - murder ou the even

slightest provocation,
when they have been only abused or chaffed. So on one
occasion, while I was at a place called Utshi on the
Niger, a labourer working for the Niger Company, simply
because of something his wife had said to him in the
morning, promptly set to work and drank two bottles of gin,
and by the evening his body was found hanging to a beam

in the hut, quite dead.
In another case that an Ijo Court
occurred at Eket,
messenger, or policeman, in the service of the Government,
by name Apolli, had formed, so it seems, an attachment to
an Ibibio woman called Asam, living in the twin -town

close by. This was quite in accordance with the local laws,
which, however, recognises the mother and the offspring
resulting from such intercourse as the property of the
husband. Notwithstanding this, however, Apolli was most
anxious to take Asam back with him to his own country, and
made strenuous efforts to persuade her to that effect; but on
her refusing to contract a blood alliance i.e. a covenant which
is for ever binding, that consists in reciprocal blood-letting and
licking from the arm —he first of all deliberately shot the
woman with his rifle, and then put an end to his own
existence.
Another distinctly luminous occurrence that also came
within my jurisdiction — exemplifying as it does the sensitive
and phenomenally impulsive nature of these natural people
deserves notice. This took place at Old Calabar, where an
Efik youth belonging to one of the big chiefs quietly retired
into the bush and took his own life, because he had been
accused of theft from one of the factories.
Among the Ibo particularly the act of suicide is looked
on with manifest deprecation and horror. It is not of common
occurrence, and when it does happen there is invariably a

difference of opinion among the people — the minority
exonerating it an act of bravery and large -heartedness,
as
the majority condemning it as a piece of folly. It is gener-
ally spoken of as a devilish or evil death, which shows

clearly and unmistakably the true trend of popular opinion.
It is also regarded as the retributive justice of God, upon what
they call land-pollution, i.e. of those people who are not at

peace with themselves or their neighbours, and who, maintain-
ing a persistent attitude of evil, avail themselves of every
opportunity by which they can commit an offence against the
land and their fellow-men.
CHAPTER V
d. medicines
The Spiritual Aspect of Medicines and the Material

Dispensation of it by the Doctors
Just as disease is simply a question of spirit obsession, so

medicine, evidently an invention of the faculty that doctors
and divines, is entirely spirit-possessed matter.
Medicines vary with diseases and the purposes for which
they are prepared. Among a people who are essentially
natural, whose naturism is their religion and their life,
medicines, all of which are derived from Nature, are in some
measure regarded and reverenced as objects of worship, very
much in the light of household deities, in fact. It is
universally acknowledged that they have been ordained as a

means of alleviating, preventing, or curing diseases. From
this it is inferred that as medicines taken internally or
applied externally are capable of such good effects in their
natural state, they are also capable of altogether counter-
acting a disease, or preventing itsrecurrence, if human, i.e.
spiritual, intelligence and skill are employed in the manufacture
and application of them.
In consequence of this belief there is a great variety of
medicines in existence, and much rivalry between the various
and numerous medicine men. This latter class have an
exceedingly difficult part to play in endeavouring to establish
their socialand professional status in the community. For
among the mass of the people they are more an object of
dread than respect, because they are believed to be dispensers
262
MEDICINES 263
of injurious poisons as well as of curative medicines. They

invariably dress shabbily, with the evident purpose of appear-
ing fantastical, also possibly to cultivate a resemblance to the
spirits whose human manifestations they presumably are, or
whose influence at least they are believed to represent.
The nonchalance and complacence of these remarkable
men is only equalled by their egoism and self-importance,
which is magnified a hundredfold because of the universal fear
their presence excites among the people. So that it is not
in the least surprising that they have assumed the position
of dictators and arbitrators in general regarding the various
means by which they can prevent, alleviate, and cure
diseases.
According to popular estimation, medicines are divided
into two classes (1) j)reventive, and (2) curative.
:
1. Preventive
These with very few exceptions are considered throughout

the length and breadth of Southern Nigeria as the most
generally useful and the most efficacious, and they are in
consequence used by all classes. They are usually prepared
from a variety of natural objects, according to the wishes of
the operator, and deposited in a large calabash, or earthen pot,
and placed at the entrance of the house. The decoction,
made in liquid form, is generally sprinkled by the individual
over his body previous to attending any public function or
entertainment ; in other words, when leaving the precincts of
his own domain to enter those belonging to some one else out-
side his own household. Kept for years in the same place,
the decoction renewed, but the vessel never cleaned out, in a
climate where putrefaction is the work of a few rapid hours,
its condition can be better imagined than described. Yet in
the eyes of these devotees the filthy mass is a spiritualised
element that has the power to withstand and keep off the
onslaught of any or all demons of disease.
Other preparations again are composed of tendrils, palm
leaves, fruit, leaves, and roots of various descriptions. These
are mashed into a pulp or paste, out of which is constructed
the rude figure of a man standing in a defensive attitude, with

sword in one hand and a bow and arrow or spear and shield
in the other, and this is placed either in the middle or in one
of the corners of the house.
Various other concoctions of this kind are made, hardened,
and worn in the shape of charms by all classes of people,
parts of which are eaten, or, as the natives express it,
buried in their bodies. One of these, called Ulugbe, is the

lucky medicine, which is said to make the person wearing
it fortunate in every respect, and in everything that he does
or undertakes.
Orruna, on the other hand, is quite another form of
charm, which has the power to blind the enemies of those
who possess it, or the people who go to a town with hostile
intent, while to friends or the well-disposed it is quite
inoperative.
In the event of an abnormal increase in the mortality, or
of an epidemic of disease breaking out in a town, the inhabi-
tants combine as one man and prepare a general medicine
for the purpose of either staying or driving away the disease.
The services of every able-bodied female is enlisted for the
occasion, and all are expected to contribute towards its pre-
paration. This, medicine, however, is not placed inside the
houses, but always on the public paths, especially on all
approaches leading into the town. At the same time public

sacrifices are offered to the medicine spirit at every new or
full moon.
Here, again, it is plain to see in this act of sacrifice not
merely the religious but the spiritual nature of the preventa-
tive. For believing, as these natives do, that the disease is
the malicious act of certain malignant spirits, and recognising
their own human helplessness in the matter, they immediately
invoke the aid of ancestral or other spirits, who are favourably
disposed towards them, to counteract and to defeat the active
demonstrations of their relentless enemies.
When, however, all the efforts of the doctors and their
medicine spirits fail to suppress a disease, the town is com-
pletely abandoned and a new site is no great

selected at
distance from the old. Many instances of this desertion have
CHAP. V MEDICINES 265
come under my notice in the centre of the Ibo country and

elsewhere. From this leaving the field in the possession of
the disease spirits, very evident that the ancestral deities,
it is
as well as the medicine spirits, have failed to obtain the

desired supremacy.
In no case, however, does it argue more than a temporary
loss of confidence in the ef&cacy of either one or the other.
For many eventualities have to be taken into consideration.
In the first place, the fact that so many of their numbers have
been struck down by the disease spirits shows that they, one
and all, have been offenders in some former scene, upon whom
retaliation has in consequence fallen. Secondly, this being the
case, the matter is outside the jurisdiction of the ancestral
deities,and the offenders have likewise incurred the ancestral
wrath, which explains their non - intercession in the case.
Thirdly, they recognise that the disease spirits have been in
former possession of, and have a prior claim to, the ground
upon which their town has been built, a fact that at once and
in itself accounts for their aggressiveness.
So in spite of the labour, trouble, and expense that a move
entails, no time is lost in deserting a town. And should more
than one move be necessary, as sometimes happens, the con-
struction still put upon the matter is not altogether attributed
to the aggressiveness of the spirits, but also to the settlement

of old scores —an account, in fact, that has long been out-
standing.
Another recognised method of prevention is to smear the
medicine all over the body, as a rule around the waist. Such
preparations be classed with others that are prepared for
may
the following purposes: (1) to prevent rain from falling or to
cause it to fall (2) to prevent fire from burning or destroying
;
the person or the house (3) to prevent a dying man from

;
losing his speech in the event of sudden and unlooked-for

death (4) to prevent the
;
spells of witchcraft (5) to prevent ;
women from becoming barren, also to protect those who are

pregnant; (6) to protect the person from evil spirits or spirits
of the dead, particularly in the case of an individual who is
said to have taken the natural oath of the world. This
curious and extraordinary vow is ascribed only to those persons
who are subject to sudden and serious fits of raving and

delirium, during which it is popularly believed that they
appeal in terror to the spirits of former relations or com-
panions who have died from this malady, not to torment or to
claim them. Many varieties of these medicines are prepared
and deposited in great secrecy, and there is no common method
of using or applying them, as it is in secrecy that much of
their virtue and efficacy appears to lie.
It is in those medicines which are mentioned in paragraphs
(3) and (4) that we are confronted, however, with the deeper
subtleties of this obvious spiritualism.
Taking the former in its deepest significance, it is at once
plainly manifest that the importance, prior to the event of a
sudden death, of preventing a dying man from losing his speech
{i.e. reason), lies in the belief that the loss in question is spiritual
and eternal. For, as death is but the separation of the spirit-
soul from the human embodiment on the dissolution of the
latter, any injury or deprivation that is effected before the
separation naturally affects the spirit, and so becomes a
permanent loss.
To make my meaning still clearer, it will be as well, how-
ever, to explain that speech is considered to be an entirely
spiritual faculty, which in native opinion is derived through
the animating principle received direct from the Creator, an
exactly similar process presumably to that of reproduction.
The evidence in support of this conception is to be seen in
certain practical demonstrations of their belief: (1) that it is
the spirits in possessed persons who speak, and not the persons
themselves (2) that the spirits of the departed talk to one
;
another in spirit land, and in dreams to the souls of those in

human form.
2. Curative Medicines
These usually consist of extracts from animals (the gall of

poisonous snakes and leopards more particularly), vegetable,
and mineral matters. There are a great many diseases among
the people which are not properly treated, and it is really
astonishing — according to my informants — to see the enormous
MEDICINES 267
quantities of boiled decoctions which are swallowed by patients,

in conformity to the doctor's instructions.
There are various methods by which medicines are pre-
pared for use, the method being entirely regulated by the
nature of the disease and the treatment required to meet the
demands of the case. As a rule, however, it is usual to boil
them with a large proportion of water and administer them to
the patient in the form of infusions, except in the case of
stomach-ache, when cold water infusions are used. Others
again are made and employed as liniments, and applied with
the object of alleviating pain in different parts of the body.
"Women who are pregnant have special medicines prepared for
them, which, as a rule, are parched over the fire.
JSTo medicine of any kind or form is ever made without
some superstitious provision or injunction being placed upon it,
prohibitive of certain conditions — restrictions that necessarily

curtail and counteract the interference of anxious relatives,
and which leave open the doctor's line of retreat in the event
of failure. For any negligence in the due observance of these
injunctions immediately nullifies a medicine and renders it
altogether ineffectual. Hence it is that all medicines more or
less, but particularly those which are notorious as protecting
or preserving influences, are worshipped with due observance

of rites and ceremonies as household gods.
Especially characteristic in this respect are war medicines,
i.e.medicines which form part of a warrior's equipment, to
protect him from the effects of arrows, bullets, swords, or any
form of weapon. For not only do these all -potent charms
make him invisible or invulnerable in case of attack, but if,
taken unawares, he is killed in a fight, they have the capacity

of resuscitatinghim and rendering him practically immortal.
They are used ways they are worn or carried on
in various :
the person in the form of charms, amulets, or potions among

many of the tribes, including Haussa and Yoruba they are ;
also eaten, or smeared all over the body, and some of the tribes,
the Abam, for example, apply them in both ways, making the
warriors quite impervious to bullets and all weapons.
Hunters also provide themselves with similar medicines,
which enable them to escape the attacks of wild and ravenous
beasts by deadening their sensibilities, or by converting them-

selves for the time being, or until the threatened danger is
over, into a tree or plant.

Thieves too are supposed to provide themselves with
an exceedingly powerful medicine, which is called Inyima.
This is so soporific in its effects, and so extremely rapid and
effective in its operation, that no person can refrain from
sleeping on the mere approach of a thief who is armed with it.
It is popularly supposed that no single element in the human,
animal, and vegetable kingdoms is excepted in its preparation.
Other medicines again are supposed to have an absolutely
magnetic influence over the hearts of individuals, making them
kindly disposed towards those who desire their friendship.
These, in all qualities, are practically equivalent to another
form which is used in trading, and which is said to make a
trader prosperous in all his trade undertakings and affairs.
Among the coast middlemen these spirits of trade medi-
cines, as we shall see in the next section, are exalted to the
position of local deities ; and in Brass, for instance, Amgbag-
bayai — an Owu or water spirit — is popularly believed to
trade in the factories in oil and other produce, for the good or
otherwise of the person whom he wishes either to benefit or to
harm.
Very similar to this Brass god, but displaying greater
avarice and less general forbearance, is Agaru, an I bo spirit,
who confers on those individuals who get into touch with him,
the power by which they can conveniently acquire the property
of others during their lifetime.
Social and medical etiquette, as we regard it, is neither
understood nor practised. Indeed, where anxiety prevails
regarding the condition of a patient, scant ceremony is used
towards the doctor who, if he fails to give relief to or to cure
his charge within a few days, is supplemented or ousted by
another, and the new arrival, if not successful, has in his turn
to make room for a third or even So that it is not
a fourth.
at all an uncommon occurrence to on occasions as many as
see
three or four kinds of medicine being applied by different
doctors at the same time to the same patient.
For, according to popular estimation, in choosing between
two opinions, there is in a multitude of counsellors more

spiritual strength to resist the attack of the disease demon
than there is weakness in the difference of treatment accorded
by a plethora of doctors. True, the doctors may — as we say
differ, but the spirits of the medicines as a combination are
three or four to one, and that in itself is argument, if not odds
enough, in their favour.
Most of these medicine men, the most intelligent of my
informants have told me, are, as far as the healing art is con-
cerned, impostors, many of them professing to a knowledge of
medicines, while they are all the time profoundly ignorant of
the nature of the diseases that they endeavour to remedy.
Naturally enough, they do not expose their ignorance, but con-
tinue to make experiments on the sick person in the hope
of making a cure. If, however, they notice symptoms that
betoken a serious change for the worse in the condition of their
patient, they make themselves scarce at once, without even
demanding their fees, in case they should be compulsorily
detained pending the result. Hence it is an Ibo saying that
the Dibia never foretell the death of a sick person.
The following is a good illustration of one of the methods
employed by the doctor and diviner in the case of a man who
was seriously ill, and whose illness had baffled all the local
medicine men. The doctor in attendance (quite a celebrity,
in his way, as a diviner, from the far interior anything —
over two days' journey or fifty miles being reckoned far) first,
of all placed a certain medicine in the patient's hand, in the
belief that it would cure him by producing nausea, and causing
him to vomit. As it did not produce the desired result, he
promptly abandoned the role of doctor and assumed that of
diviner, informing those present that he would
very soon
determine whether recovery were possible or not.
Proceeding outside into the open compound attached to
the house, he placed a basin of water on the ground, compelling
all the onlookers to retire to some distance, while he sat him-
self down close by and watched what appeared to be the lights

and shadows that were thrown on its surface by the movements
of the sun's rays, or, as he expressed it, the shadow i.e. soul
— of the sick man.

Like the exorcist of Ndoni, he sat tailor fashion, his face a

mask daubed all over with chalk marks, that had been laid on
with much care to conceal expression, his eyes fixed on the
basin, and his thoughts also concentrated on the soul shadow.
This insisted, so he said, in flitting all round the basin, as if in
a state of utter indecision, but it would not enter, as it ought
to have done.
Then, after some time, when
the sun had retired and left
the basin all was evident that the sick man's
in shadow, it
chance, in the opinion of the diviner, was altogether hopeless.

His shadow had gone away —
therefore it was certain beyond
all doubt that his body would die also.
A few words regarding the thought readers and masters of

divination will not here be out of place. For they are held in
great repute, as possessing the spiritual power of seeing under-
neath the surface of Nature with such effect that they can
reveal hidden secrets and unearth mysteries that lie beyond
the limit of human comprehension. In consequence of this
belief the people place unlimited confidence in them and their
art, wdiich, in their estimation, is capable not only of unearthing
the cause of every evil, but of presenting the remedy that will
defeat its purpose and remove it altogether. These men, more
than the priests and doctors, are the real philosophers, carrying
within their crafty brain all that is deepest, yet, as is natural,
all that is shallowest in the nature and character of their own
humanity. But surrounded by a ring fence of reticence, they
are quite inaccessible in the direction of philosophy, though
not as regards the practice of it when this brings them in an
appreciable revenue. For in no sense of the word are they

philanthropists, but they are quick and ready opportunists.
Opportunism is, in fact, cultivated by priests and doctors as
well as diviners, and all three classes make use of every avail-
able opportunity to get a footing into the domestic concerns of
any and every household.
There are certain points which are worthy of notice, as well
as of registration. These are as follows (1) The fact that:
—
medicine spirits are venerated and treated in the same light
as household deities. (2) That in classifying them the natives
themselves exclude poisons as being spirit objects that are one
with the canker of witchcraft, consequently altogether outside

the domain of the ordinary human and spiritual life. Yet
poison has to be reckoned with and tolerated, along with doctors
and diviners, as an inevitable curse —hence a specific medicine
is necessary to keep off its accursed (3) The fact that
spells.
a distinctive difference is recognised between evil spirits and

the spirits of the departed, i.e. those who are awaiting the final
burial sacrament prior to proceeding to spirit land. (4) That
when all contrivances — spiritual or otherwise — fail them, a
change of place and scene is considered not only advisable but
judicious, presumably with the idea of throwing the demons
off the scent, on the assumption that they adhere to certain
localities. (5) That while the preventive medicines are practi-
cally passive in their operation, there is more power and
efficacy, consequent on a greater activity, in those which
protect and preserve. (6) That to ensure efficacy secrecy is
indispensable as regards their manipulation. (7) That although
doctors and diviners are dreaded because they are believed to
be dispensers of poisons, and therefore connected with witch-
craft, they are always employed and trusted, merely because
they are as inevitable a factor in Delta society as spiritualism
they are the mediums and mediators who bring the
itself, for
people and the spirits into touch with one another when
the ancestral medicine has run down or got out of order.
(8) Again, a point which is very significant is, that instead
of these mediums appealing direct to the spirit element when
consulted by these people, they prefer to do so through these
medicines. And herein they show their subtlety. For
medicine is but another and more convenient form of spirit
medium, which conceals their art so effectively behind a veil
of secrecy that it not only makes assurance doubly sure but
enhances their reputation, while it also reduces the chances of

detection to a minimum. (9) Finally, the fact that animals
also possess spiritual powers, i.e. medicines or charms, which
are spiritual in their scope and operations. This has already
been referred to and an explanation of its conception offered
in Chaper III. Section IV., so that it is unnecessary to make
any further comment on the subject.
SECTION VI
EMBLEMISM, OE THE EMBODIMENT

OF THE SPIEIT
AS SEEN IN THE UTILISATION OF YAPJOUS MATTER
A. TREES ; B. ANIMALS D. SNAKES

STONES ; C. ; ;
E. NATURAL ELEMENTS AND PHENOMENA
273
CHAPTER I
A GENERAL EXPLANATION OF EMBLEMISM
Dealing, as I have all along done, with this subject of
Delta religion from the native standpoint, it is justifiable on

my part, after a personal experience of ten years, to arrive at
certain definite conclusions regarding the groups into which it
is divided, the grounds for which consist of ancient and still
existing practices.
We have already seen in Section II. that while in a collective
sense naturism stands for their religion as a whole, spiritualism
and emblemism divide it into two phases, —
the former, as the
internal or animating principle, giving it life and soul, the
latter, asthe external aspect, expressing itself in certain out-

ward forms or emblems, which are simply material and sub-
stantial images embodying the invisible spirits, who to natural
man, however, are none the less real and existing entities.
For the principle of embodiment, as we have seen, is the
line of demarcation between the normal human spirit and the
abnormal human demon, —
in other words, between the unit
of the divided energies of good and evil and the indivisible

unit of evil only.
simple and natural statement such as this ought to be
A
immediately palpable to any intelligent inquirer who has gone
to work in the true direction but notwithstanding the fact that
;
so many Europeans have essayed to define this natural cult,
which is practically common to all barbarians, few, if any, of

the inquirers, seems to me, have got to the root, therefore to
it
the truth of the matter, for the very simple reason, as I have
-elsewhere shown, that they have not gone to work in the right
275
276 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vi
way they have

;
therefore — although acting in all conscientious-
ness — arrived at a wrong estimate of natural religion, through
a misconception of the real nature of the people, formed
principally on preconceived opinions and to some extent on
erroneous data. Thus it is that from the accepted European
point of view, emblemism, as typified by fetichism and idolatry,
and in an imperfect sense by totemism, is by no means properly
or thoroughly understood. For every so-called worship of
animals, trees, stones, or other natural and artificial objects,
whatever they might be, is included under this one compre-
hensive term, and the spirits, practically in every case ancestral,
and not the objects, form the real and the ultimate aim or goal
of the various worshippers.
Animals and material objects of every description are not so
much selected as utilised for the convenience of familiar or family
spirits, who possess or attach themselves to the animal or object,
be it elephant, or snail, a feather, a skull, a stone, a stick, a broken
potsherd or piece of jagged glass, or a rusty nail. But as I am
dealing with the animal, and other phases of symbolism, under
specific headings, we will confine ourselves in this chapter to
the still more material aspect of the question.
These household spirits, it must be remembered, who have
in every instance originally lived in the flesh, have in their
time been naturists, pure and simple, and in no sense artists.
Consequently they have had no delicacy of mental perception,
—
no nicety of thought have had nothing at all, in fact, of the
aesthetic, the artistic, or the fastidious about them, otherwise it
is presumed they would not have attached themselves to such
undignified, hideous, and insignificant looking objects.
Before proceeding any farther, however, it will be advisable
for me at the outset to explain that in selecting the word

emblemism, in preference to symbolism, as representing the
outer and material expression of the spiritual inwardness or
tenancy, I was guided in my choice by the relative analogy
and suitability of the former to the actual meaning which
was intended to be conveyed. For taking both words
literally, symbolism implies a throwing, or bringing
while
together, at the most, —
an apt enough phrase in a general
or ordinary sense, —
emblemism, expressing, as it does, that
CHAP. I A GENERAL EXPLANATION OF EMBLEMISM 277
which is put in, is in every particular the more applicable as

it is the most exact. Because the emblem is the house, and
the spirit is the tenant in pe^jKtiiO — in a word, the emblem is
the god or spirit-house. For it is not in the object, the dead

and senseless emblem, that the efficacy lies, but in the spirit,
in the God-like and animating principle which gives life, but at

the same time is endowed with the capacity of taking it. The
belief in spiritualism is not only still present, unimpaired and
unaltered, but it is present in all the greater force, concentrated
in these hideous externals.
The object, in fact, is merely a reminder. It may be an
introduction, possibly an innovation, still for all that it is only
a something material added to stimulate the jaded memory,

and to symbolise the existence of the unseen world around.
Unseen, yet known because felt, not merely through the
sensations, but tangibly and in a decided material sense, as, for
instance, in physical infirmities and calamities, which are the
work of inimical spirits.
Not that these illiterate people, with their tenacious
memories, require much stimulus in this direction, but they
are unable to concentrate their mental faculties without a
substantial reminder, and also it is essential that the mediator
advocate — the position invariably occupied by the spiritual
tenant of the emblem —

should be near at hand, and available
in some tangible shape or form, which can contain him while
concealing him from outside interference. For intensely
spiritualistic as and the inherited
concentrated reflection
acquisition of successive aeons of mental effort has made
them, these people are just as intensely materialistic, and it is
this fact which explains why in popular estimation a material
body of some shape or form is considered essential for all
ancestral spirits whose services are utilised or whose memories
are revered. For this in reality in their eyes constitutes the
great and radical difference between those spirits from whom
human {i.e. dual) treatment may be expected, and the malignant
demons who wander about formless, always ready to perpetrate
evil, and evil only. jSTor must it be forgotten that with a great
proportion of these symbolised spirits rest and adoration have

been the objects of retirement into many of these emblems,
and that a still greater proportion have been relegated to

animal embodiment, in accordance with their time-honoured
and sacred system of ancestral supervision.
Thus it was that in the very early stages of naturism,
before human intelligence became capable of the imitative art,
fetichism, or the natural emblem, evolved earlier than idolatry,
or artificial symbolism, which, as the first step in art, was an
indirect advance in religious ceremonial.
It is in the act and purpose of this materialisation, in
other words, of this emblemism of spirits, which we speak of as
fetichism and idolatry, that much misconstruction has been
placed, principally by missionaries and travellers, who, although
their Christian religion has been evolved from the same
own
identical serm, and on somewhat similar lines, have been the
greatest offenders in this respect.
But emblemism, even to the
deteriorate as they are, this
natives of the present day, merely an external formula of an
is
inner cult of worship. Of the truth of this there is no question

to any one who has lived amongst and followed them, as I have
done, in all their social and religious customs, with a sympathy
that was sincere, an interest which was earnestly intelligent,
and an observation that was keen and close.
Looking into this question, as I have done, in all sincerity,
through their deepest feelings, as expressed in all their religious
practices and in their purest philosophies, there can be no doubt
that emblemism in the earlier days, and emblemism as it now
stands, were two very different matters. Xot because it has in
any way departed from the original conception with regard to
its principles and formulas, but because there was an import-
ance attaching to it in the former state which has to a great
extent, if not entirely, lost its significance in these later days.

For it seems to me that emblemism in the early days repre-
sented a distinct condition of social advancement, development,
and expansion, expressing in various natural forms and embodi-
ments a ritual of adoration towards the unseen and unknown
Creator, through the seen and known fathers and spirit fathers,
that hitherto had been felt but unexpressed.

More than this, moving in co-operation, as the physical
and mental have always done, an expansion of intelligence
CHAP. I A GENERAL EXPLANATION OF EMBLEMISM 279
implied a corresponding expansion of the social units, who,

synchronous with their increase, broke off and away from the
parent stocks. An experience that made the existence of the
emblem a still greater necessity, and essential, in fact, to their
very existence. Because, although separation from the patri-
archal stem did not immediately affect the human propagation
of the branch detached, separation from the spiritual fathers
most certainly did, affecting its future vitality, or, to be more
correct, spirituality, which latter was altogether dependent on
a continuance of the spirit -supply. For, as we have seen,
according to their doctrine of the continuity of the spirit-soul,
and its numerous soul existences, in varied material bodies,
the spiritual was no less needful for the human than, to a more
confined extent, the latter was for the former.
It is quite evident then that symbols became all the more
necessary on expansion and separation to enable the detaching
portions to take away with them those ancestral spirits who,
as they believed, were absolutely essential to their very
existence and perpetuation as a social unit. What is more,
this placing themselves under the protection of their fathers
which in way about was in
reality wâs of course the other —
those days the most convenient, as it was the safest and surest,
method of perpetuating the ancestral faith, in other words, the
spirits of their fathers, and in this way of course of themselves.
These expansions and detachments are to be seen all over
the Delta, first of all in the mere emblems from one
transfer of
locality to another; secondly, in the exchange of emblems by
the same community and, thirdly, in the variation in different
;
localities of names and emblems representing the same god.

To give two or three examples, not so much in evidence of
this assertion as merely by way of illustration, we will take
Onitsha, on the Niger, as the first instance. Here is still to
be found in the emblem or tree selected, and indeed planted,
by himself, the spirit of the king Tsima, under whose charge
the people migrated or were driven, fourteen generations ago,
from the vicinity of Benin city.
Thus in Brass, too, the tradition is that the tribal god
Ogidiga, symbolised by a python, as he also was in Benin city,
was originally brought from that place by Alepe, a chief, when
28o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
the exodus of himself and army took place some twelve genera-
tions since. At the time in question there were in existence
in Benin, so it appears, a male and a female deity. An imita-
tion of the latter was made by Alepe, and by means of a special
ceremony it was believed that the spirit of the original was
conjured into the imitation.
In the same way the Akwete people still cling to Nkwu
Abasi, the god from the distant sea, in the form of a stone kept
in a small stream.
The Ibani, who came from the Ibo interior and settled in
Bonny over 300 years ago, had as their original ancestral
emblem a monkey, which afterwards was altered to the iguana,
an alteration that merely implied the transfer of the ancestral
spirits to a new and more suitable emblem. The transfer was
also made to apply to their deities who, through a change in
conditions, in other words, through the force of circumstances,
were obliged to adapt themselves to the water and to trade, not
in lieu of farming and hunting, but merely in addition to their
other functions.
by no means an uncommon instance, as also evidenced,
This,
e.g. by the New Calabar people, who were originally Efik, or
the Adoni, who came from the Ibibio country, brings us to

quite another and no less significant feature of emblemism, for
it shows that the whole significance of natural religion is based
and built up on the adoration of the ancestral spirits, and that

the emblems encasing them are nothing more or less than a
convenient form of external embodiment, which can be altered
or transferred according to circumstances. This transfer is
made to meet local requirements, and to suit contingencies that
have arisen out of a new mode of life, such as a change from

the interior to the sea, or mcc versa, would necessitate, bringing
with it incorporation, through inter-marriage and the slave
system, with other tribes and other ancestral gods. Apart,
however, from this aspect of the question, there is another side
to it which is of quite as much importance. For practically in
every community one finds the same gods, possessing in each
separate locality not only a different name, but invariably a
differentemblem. If this fact in itself does not establish
beyond a doubt that emblemism is, as I have described it, the

CHAP.! A GENERAL EXPLANATION OF EMBLEMISM 281
mere outer shell or covering of the real and inner spiritualism

that would otherwise be naked, as it were, and condemned, as
are the outcast demons, to a of restlessness and exposure,
life
then it is back upon the word of the

only possible to fall
people themselves, whose sincerity in this respect I have no

reason whatever to doubt.
These objects, material and senseless although they be,
are looked on by these Delta natives as vehicles of spiritual
influence, as something sacred, as relics or mementoes to
be venerated, because of their actual association with some
familiar and powerful and not as objects which in
spirit,
themselves have, or carry with them, any so-called supernatural

powers. It is not the object itself, but what is in the object,
that is the power for good or for evil. Hence it is, that although
they venerate the object itself, they do so only because of the
spirit which resides in or is associated with it. The object,
accordingly, becomes nothing more or less than a sacred recep-
tacle, and its holiness is merely a question of association.
Association, in fact, combined with practice, as we have seen,
from beginning to end of this natural religion of a natural
people, is and the connecting element.
the principal The
thing itself is helpless and powerless, it can do no harm, just
as it can do no good. The spirit it is (invariably ancestral
even when deified) that does the mischief, and wreaks the
vengeance in the event of neglect and impiety, or which
confers the benefits and the blessings when the ancestral rites
are performed with due piety by the household. The object is
inspired, therefore, because of the possessing spirit which
sanctifies it, and thus reverence and homage are paid to it, and
sacrifices, generally propitiatory, are laid before it.
Collective or general wôrship, with ritual and formulas,

is not practised, except in the daily and weekly ancestral
services and regular annual festivals, but individual prayer is
offered in the form of a petition, always accompanied by an
offering or sacrifice of fruit or meat, according to the nature
of the boon requested and the means of the worshipper and, ;
as a general rule, the adoration is one of propitiation, combined
with a request.
But although this conciliatory worship is paid, to all out-
282 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sfxt. vi
ward appearance, to the external object, it is in reality made

to the indwelling spirit, who by its shadow presence or
attachment to so insignificant a vehicle accentuates its own
greatness.
In this practical way the insignificance of the object is
of no consequence. Indeed, the greater its insignificance
the greater the reflected glory or power of the elastic spirit.
Comparison not only calls attention to but magnifies, so to

speak, the external defect of the object through the reflected
greatness of the sanctifier. Tor it is absolutely certain that
to these natives the insignificance or grotesqueness of the
object does not, even in the most trifling sense, detract from
the significance and power of the spirit. In other words,
embodiment, although essential to the character and sacredness
of the spirit, is entirely a secondary element in comparison with
the spirit. Because, while the former is liable to dissolution
or death, the latter is practically eternal under normal con-
ditions, to say nothing of its infinitely greater scope and
power.
Worship, in the accepted European sense of the word, does
not so much prevail as homage and adoration. It is in the act,
ii'. the offering up of substantial sacrifice, that the efficacy of
propitiation lies. In their opinion prayer is of little avail
and what is said must be short and to the point — action the
only remedy.
national affair, but entirely a personal and family, or at the

most, communal, matter. It is a question of individual or
united self-interests, with the priest or doctor as go-between
in all abnormal cases, in which the petitioners are not on good
terms with the spiritual medium. For without securing the
intervention of the former it is frequently not possible for the
individual or the family to appease the offended or aggressive
spirit.
The doctor and the priest are dispensed with in all influen-
tial or powerful families, for in these the ancestral spirits
possess a power that can make itself felt to some purpose with
regard to outside politics and the general direction of affairs.
But even the most powerful chiefs make it a point, more or
CHAP. I A GENERAL EXPLANA TION OF EMBLEMISM 283
less varying with their individualities, to keep in with both,

utilising them as they do on all occasions that are suitable to
their own purposes, especially in personal matters.
Needless to say, that households such as these are powerful
in a strictly temporal and worldly sense, having at their disposal
numerical strength, wealth in kind, and all that in the Delta
world constitutes a power that can strike a blow, or deal out
an injury to its numerous enemies. For inseparable as is the
human from the spiritual, the temporal lends all its weight to
the latter, and the spiritual in its turn represents and vitalises
the temporal.
In cases such as these religion ismore than ever merged
in the personality of the ancestral, and the head of the house
takes the place of the doctor or priest, especially in such cases
w^here he is a man of striking individuality, when the house-
hold manes may be directly appealed to without intervention
of any one.
CHAPTEE II
A FUKTHER AND SPECIFIC EXPOSITION, ESPECIALLY WITH

REGARD TO THE TERMS FETICHISM, IDOLATRY, AND
TOTEMISM
Although I have already said enough in the last chapter to

make it evident that fetichism and idolatry are not terms
which thoroughly and completely express either the native
idea or principle upon which animals and objects are set up as
convenient receptacles for the worship of certain natural or
ancestral spirits, 1 have reserved this chapter for these anti-
quated and imperfect terms, as they appear to me to be, with
the object of making the true meaning of the whole cult of
emblemism still more evident.
The spirits that are found in these objects are of various
natural kinds, principally and primarily ancestral, of a nature
similar to the Eoman lares and penates, or the Hindu pitris or
family deities, gods and spirits of protection and preservation
to households or communities, such as are seen, in fact, all over
the world, irrespective of race or locality.
The method in use to induce them to occupy the objects
in question is simple in the extreme, for it is not necessary, as
a rule, to allure, entice, or conjure the departed spirits by
means of any subtle process of flattery, adulation, or suppli-
cation, since they enter within voluntarily, and in many
instances with a purpose that has been previously expressed
during their lifetime.
The ancestral shades, in the natural order of things, during
a certain ceremonial which is accompanied by the inevitable
sacrifice, take possession of the symbol that has been previ-
284
CHAP. II FETICHISM, IDOLATRY, AND TOTE MISM 285
ously selected by themselves (or in the event of a departed

member having omitted to do so, by the head of the house),
and require no special inducement of any kind to make them
do so. This, in fact, is a custom that goes back, like all their
customs, beyond the memory of tradition, having been handed
down from father to son in regular succession. In specific
cases, however, similar to the one mentioned in the last
chapter, with reference to the removal by Alepe of the spirit
of the Benin Ju-Ju to Nembe, a special ceremony, always
sacrificial, is indispensable, not merely to conjure with, but in
order to obtain the consent of the spirit. This is doubly

necessary in an instance of this kind, because the transfer is
not only one of emblems but of localities, and the spirits of
the Delta, oblivious to the truism that variety is the spice of
life, are quite as averse to a change of scene as are its dusky
inhabitants. Whatever the object selected, it is an under-
stood thing that the soul of the departed, after all earthly
ceremonials have been enacted and the prescribed probation
has been undergone, returns from spirit land, and without any
special ceremonial takes up its residence in the selected
symbol.
This applies more particularly to the house in which the
head of the family has himself lived, and in which, when
death comes, he is buried. Then it is, that after the burial
sacrament has been finally concluded, the occupation becomes
a spiritual continuation of the material life which has endured,
as it were, for a season, and ended so abruptly. Hence it is,
too, that when a member of a family or community was seized
by another and outside household, the Delta law of a life for a
lifegrew to be an absolute necessity.
It was not, as we wrongly interpret it, the mere loss of
the body and of his services —
the man's mere marketable
value, in other words —
that were felt by his family. It was
the irreparable loss to them of the soul, with its ability to
contribute its iota of spirituality towards the maintenance of
the human circle, as well as to fight for and uphold their
temporal interests, that primarily prompted this severe but
equable law. Hence, it was not merely a body for a body,
but, as in human sacrifice, a soul for a soul. To rob the body
was bad enough, but to steal its vital essence was an offence
that could only be wiped out by the seizure and death of the
perpetrator of the outrage, or at least of one of his household,
so as to secure a body and a soul in exchange for these so
ruthlessly snatched away.
It was exactly on the same principle that the Bini
offered up human sacrifice both before and during the march
of the punitive expedition to Benin City, not merely to pro-
pitiate the gods, but materially to aid them in a spiritual
sense.
However much the original significance of this law may
have been recently materialised, the law itself holds good to
this day where civilisation has not yet stepped in, and to those
who can get to the root of the matter the underlying principle
still remains.
Relics of the departed, if not always specialised as holding
the spirit, are invariably looked upon with respect and venera-
tion, because of their connection and associations, and in the
case of a chief whose house has been left intact, his effects
occupy the exact places which they did during his lifetime.
In those cases, however, where a new house is built over the
remains, as, for example, among the Efik, Ibibio, and New
Calabar people, certain things are removed to the new tene-
ment, and placed along with the Duen-fubara in the ancestral
chapel, and a special and elaborate ceremony is indulged in
(as we saw in Section IV.), simply because of the spiritual
aversion to change of scene and premises. For the whole
essence of this so-called cult of fetichism revolves round this
central idea, the belief that spirit life is but a continuity of
the present existence in another phase. Conditions do not
change. Fresh conditions are not imposed. Merely a transfer
has been effected from this sphere to the other — the where-
abouts of whicli is, however, more or less of a mystery, but
presumably in the air.
Although inspired, because of the spiritual presence, objects,
be they relics or not, have neither life nor movement. They
are, in fact, lifeless in spite of the spirit contained, and in no
sense are they able to hold any communication with the
outside world. The lowliest person has the right and privilege
CHAP. II FETICHISM, IDOLATRY, AND TOTEMISM 287
to consult an oracle, the efficacy of which depends entirely

on the value of the oblation but it is the animated oracle
;
they consult, and not the senseless object, although in holding

converse tliey apparently do so with the emblem. This, how-
ever, is in every sense comprehensible, for senseless though

the object may be to all external appearances, for them it
contains a spirit tenant who has the power of conferring

undiminished prosperity or of dealing out injury, even death,
to them.
In this way not only is the emblem a reminder of this
spiritual existence and power, but it is an object that is in

every sense a familiar, and if judiciously manipulated, a friend,
with the ability to strike the worst enemies of all, namely,
those who, like the snakes of their jungles, lie concealed
awaiting the opportunity to attack.
And here the humanity of this spiritualism, although
hidden from the believers by the dense profundity and oblivion
of time and ignorance, is glaringly apparent, for spirits, and
even divinities, are pliant and plastic enough to be manipulated
by that inferior and insignificant being called man.
The actual process of conjuring or rather enticing spirits
into certain specific objects is not, as I have previously men-
tioned, practised to any extent, because the necessity for it

does not in reality exist ; but when the occasion arises the
ubiquitous doctor, who is equally qualified either to drive in
arts and wiles.
or cast out, is always ready to apply his On
no account, however, does he interfere with the ancestral
spirits, because it is only in the case of continuous calamity
that a diviner possessing special powers and a more than local
reputation is called in. In cases also where something out of
the common has occurred, or when misfortune or calamity may
be anticipated, when, for instance, a spirit has been seized or
led astray by subtle machination, or, owing to negligence on
the part of a household towards the ancestral one, his anger
and vengeance may be expected, a special appeal is made to
the stronger oracle. In this way it was that the Aro Chuku
— the god of the Aro, or rather the god of the universe,
whose chosen people or children the Aro were was recog- —
nised and resorted to as a court of appeal by all the tribes
of the Lower Niger and Cross river, which acknowledged its
spiritual ethcacy.
If feitiq-o be taken as the word from which fetichism is
derived, and a charm as its literal meaning — a fact there

seems to be no doubt about —
all that can be said regarding
the matter is that the interpretation placed upon the word by

the Portuguese navigators was much too literal and there can
;
be no doubt that it is this universal literality in the inter-

pretation of savage customs which accounts for the prevailing
misconception that has been formed with regard to barbaric
reli^îons.
This, in connection with the word that we are discussing,

can easily be explained by the fact that, taking into considera-
tion the veneration which all devout Catholics have for relics
and charms, they looked upon the various objects revered by
the natives from exactly the same standpoint, and in doing so
they looked no farther. To them the people who adored such
monstrous objects, in which there was no artistic skill, were
monsters, cannibals, savages, and heathens, whose gods were
made of wood and stone, therefore senseless, because the name
of Christ and the sign of the were unknown.
cross
were wanting, and that from the
It is true that the latter
Portuguese aspect these wretched beings were in utter darkness
in consequence, but as regards the true significance of the
charmed objects, these hardy navigators were certainly quite at
sea. For although many portable things, such as claws, teeth,
bones, feathers, pebbles, etc., are carried about and used as
charms to keep off evil, in the same sense that amulets are
used by various European and Mohammedan nations, other
material objects, not meant to be moved about, are utilised for
the specific purpose of protecting farms, paths, avenues of
approach, entrances to towns or houses, water, rivers, etc., one
and all of these being only useful because inspired.
The fact of the matter is that, so far as these Delta natives
are concerned, the terms fetich and idol would be, if they were
in use, synonymous, but as the one word is employed to explain
both, the fact speaks for itself.
Looking at the question even from an European stand-

point, between fetichism and idolatry there is little, if any.
serious difference; and if there is, it is a difference not in

kind but of degree —
a step upward, perhaps, in the ladder of
evolution, certainly a step farther removed from material
nature, although the earliest and the crudest attempt in
primitive art.
easy to discriminate between the two
It is not in reality
as they appear to the native mind, but inasmuch as fetichism
was an earlier development, when man's intelligence was in a
lower state, it is a lower form, for it was but the materialisa-
tion of certain ancestral spirits and spirits of Nature, who,
in order that they might be centralised or within his reach,
were placed in natural objects, not only as the most convenient
receptacles, but because he had not yet arrived at the higher
development of rude carving or moulding. Idolatry, then, was
nothing more or less than a higher form of development of
exactly the same belief, in the sense that it was the utilisation
of artificial or humanly constructed in place of material or
natural objects as emblems, and possibly rude likenesses of

certain spirits now raised to or accepted as deities.
For so-called fetichism, as it is practised by the Delta
tribes, is the homage, through material objects, of spirits of a
personal or domestic nature, while idolatry is a similar homage
through material objects tliat have, however, been fashioned by
human hands, paid to deities belonging as a rule more to the
community than to the individual or household, but common
to both. The difference, then, lies, as we can see, in two very
minor details of technique, for the principle of the two supposed
cults is and the same thing, a propitiatory adora-
practically one
tion of ancestral, also active and aggressive nature spirits, through
natural objects in one case, and artificial in the other, but in
either case the objects are merely and purely symbolical. Thus
it is that any insignificant object answers the purpose, because
it is the god or spirit who is revered, and not the material
emblem.
Nor does the fact of one set of objects being artificial and
the other natural convey any real difference to the native
mind, as might from an European standpoint be inferred.
Indeed the spirit contained in an insignificant charm or
natural object may be, and is, far more powerful and dreaded
U
than he who resides in state in an idol, be it ever so large or

ever so gorgeously painted. The great difference in bulk
between their various emblems is explained by the fact that
in native estimation the spirit is an elastic and mobile element,
like wind, which, as soul, can compress itself into the tiniest
space. In this way it is that it can enter into the body of the
smallest infant, and yet be capable of possessing the frame of
the biggest man. More than this, it is open to a number of
spirits, as we have seen in Section IV. Chapter III., to enter
into the same object or emblem, which shows at least that the
spirit element is adaptable to every kind of circumstance or
condition.
Curiously enough, however, in spite of their own personal
love of finery and riches, so intensely practical and unartistic
are these natives in the conduct of their religious ceremonials
that, as regards their gods at all events, they are exceedingly
niggardly with respect to clothing or ornamentation, neither
being employed beyond cloth in small quantities and coats
made out of local dyes.
In the same way that the word feitiô does not convey
fully and entirely a true expression of the cult that it is meant
to define as well as represent, the term Ju-Ju, so largely
used by all Europeans who have been to any portion of West
Africa, as well as by educated natives, also implies an accepta-
tion which is exceedingly vague and indefinite. It is, as a
rule, employed when reference or allusion is made to idols,
fetiches, or other sacred objects connected with local religion,
and was presumably introduced into the Niger Delta from some
other portion of the coast, and adopted by the natives as the
white man's name for religion and all sacred objects belonging
to it.
But unlike feitiô, the word Ju-Ju, as pointed out in Sec-
tion II., is probably of native and not of European derivation.

For although it is possible that, as an outcome of their early
commercially adventurous intercourse with the coast natives, it
might be of French extraction, it is a word that is quite as
well understood by the interior as the coast natives, and applied
in a broad and general sense to anything sacred, or in the form
of an emblem, be it idol or fetich. Yet, as I have already
shown, the word Egugu is used in a more specific sense, as

the spirit of a dead man, for even the very coast tribes, who,
as being altogether more in touch with white men, use Ju-Ju
when conversing with, or interpreting for, the former, have
their own word which they always use among themselves.
The Brass term Oru, which is common to all tribes of Ijo
origin or extraction, the Efik Ebok, and the various Ibo and
Ibibio terms, are all to be interpreted by the word medicine,
i.t. a spiritual means for gaining ends that are superhuman
beyond or outside the scope of humanity, in other words. In

the same manner that objects are in every sense material, Ju-
Jus have none of the human powers which denote life attrib-
uted to them, and the customs which prevail among the Hindus
of treating their idols in every respect as if they were human
beings does not obtain, except that they are talked to as con-
taining spirits of divine intelligence and comprehension.
These Ju-Jus are used for various purposes, e.g. (1) for
the protection or preservation of a household or town from
witchcraft or from any outside or inside evil or danger (2) as ;
a preventative against, or to obtain recovery from, sickness
(3) to give success in trade, farming, hunting, and fishing, as

the case may be. Various objects are utilised for the purpose
in those cases where idols are not employed. Human and
animal skulls, besides teeth and bones of every variety,
eggs, plantains, and chickens, often staked to the ground, are

used at cross roads to ward off an anticipated evil, or to check
or break the spell which has produced disease. But these
latter articles, although spoken of as Ju-Jus to white men,
are in reality only so in the sense that they are sacred, for in
the case of all things vegetal or animal, the object is not a
symbol, but an offering or sacrifice.
The adoration and homage paid to idols is also in every

respect similar to that which is shown to natural objects, but
while, as a rule, the former have a priesthood and Ju-Ju houses
or temples, as a still more emphatic and monumental demon-
stration of their existence, the latter are confined to natural
haunts and certain defined localities, which are more in evidence
in the daily life and associations of the people, and which, out-
side ancestral limitations, and in special emergencies, come
more within the province of the inevitable witch doctors, but

not of course necessarily so. To all intents and purposes the
natives do not see, and certainly do not make or express, any
difference between the cult of the natural and the artificial
emblems. But it is evident enough that fetichism is the
earlier and the more ancient form of emblemism, out of which
idolatry or artificial emblemism has naturally evolved.
Among the Ibo the figures of ancestors rudely carved,
that are placed at the houses or at the tombs in the burial-
grounds, or which are carried on the person, are for the object
of worship, and in some localities the skulls which have been
preserved as trophies {vide Chapter II. Section IV.) are also
utilised for the same purpose. This is notably the case among
the Sobo, the Ibibio, the Kwa, and the Efik, the latter of
whom adorn the skull with feathers and daub it over with
dye —
generally yellow —
and mount it on a stick to this they ;
pay the greatest reverence, as all alike do to the emblem of

the ancestral mediator.
In Brass a similar kind of stick —
used, however, as a
staff, or carried in the hand, surmounted by a carved image of
the ancestor — is valued as a life preserver or protector of the
lives of the household. Before eating and drinking it is usual
to offer a little of both food and liquid to this household deity.
Worship is rendered to these various emblems, as containing
the of their more immediate ancestors, by sacrifice,,
spirits
which is accompanied by prayer. This, which from a Euro-

pean standpoint is more in the form of a petition or request,
is usually worded in the following few and simple words:
" Preserve our lives, spirit father who hast gone before, and
make thy house fruitful, so that we thy children shall increase,

multiply, and so grow rich and powerful.''
Before making this direct and practical petition, it is
usual to place the fruit or flesh offerings on or sometimes
at the foot of the figure, and on the conclusion of the ceremony
to eat them. These figures or objects, in other cases, are
merely emblematical mediums, personal links of association,
that connect the human with the spiritual, or the visible with
the invisible, which are used by these people as a means of
communication with the ancestral deity, and, just as we talk
CHAP. II FETICmSM, IDOLATRY, AND TOTEMISM 293
into a telephone, they converse with one of these figures or

objects, firmly convinced that the indwelling spirit mediator
will listen, receive, and then convey their messages to their
ancestral destination.
This act of communication may be made by any member
of a household desirous of cultivating his own individual
welfare, and not necessarily by the family or other priest,
whose services in this direction are never requisitioned except

on certain very special and public occasions of festival or
sacrifice, which concern the welfare of the community at large.
Virtually, indeed, every household has its own priest in the

person of the eldest son.
This, as it were, first qualification of the ancestral faith,
" Do unto your ancestors as you would they should do unto
you," is vigorously applied, because the faith which prompts
it is strenuously sincere, and the principle from which it has

germinated is that of like equivalents. Figures, images, or
objects do not consume the food which is set before them, but
the popular idea is, that when this consists of vegetables or
animal substance, the soul of the food goes straight to the land
of spirits, to those spirits who are being appealed to. Figures
and other objects neither speak nor walk about, but as they
are animated they serve as mediators and communicators
between the people and their ancestors. But although they
are voiceless and immobile, all objects that are possessed by
spirits are capable of vibration and of giving utterance to
sounds of various kinds. Consequently more respect and
greater fear is entertained of these, who are treated as gods,
and who, in giving expression to their various emotions, cause
the objects which encase them to shake and tremble.
In exactly the same manner idols are also regarded as
mere representations of spiritual beings, automatons that act
as convenient figureheads and channels of communication to
their ancestors, without which these autocratic spirits would
neither listen to nor regard their communications.
It is usual, for example, when a member of some house-
hold is sick — or in other special cases, of course — to consult
the This wily individual, after a certain

Dibia or doctor.
ceremony, by means of which he gets into touch with the
spirit world, and especially which is

that portion of it
apportioned off to the to com-

house in question, is able
municate the desires of the idol medium. These are in-
variably and practically to the effect that, because of duty
neglected or offence committed against the tutelary deities,
they are grievously displeased, possibly with the individual,
or it may be with the family, which displeasure has taken
practical form in the illness of one particular individual — the
offending member, or probably the unfortunate affinity of one
of the ancestral spirits who has been likewise afflicted. On
the advice of the all -wise doctor, the usual propitiatory
sacrifices are offered to the symbolised mediator spirit, who,
carrying the soul of the offering to the aggrieved or afflicted
deities, pleads for the afflicted household.
The sequel is easily told. Should the afflicted member
recover, the offence has been condoned or the affinity has
recovered. Should he, on the other hand, grow worse or
collapse altogether and die, the explanation is just the
reverse. Then offering follows offering, and other oracles
and doctors are consulted, until some change is effected in
the order or course of events — for the spell of the diabolical
witches has fallen upon the house.
Idols, figures, images, or objects of any sort are never
abused or beaten, for according to popular philosophy, per-
vaded as it is by this dualistic principle of tit for tat i.e. of
act and react and — the inevitable dread of consequences,
it is surmised that the mediators would refuse to listen,
or to convey their messages, or to representwants their

to the ancestral deities. Indeed their wilful misrepresentation
is more than probable.
AVeighing the situation, and reviewing the possibilities and
advantages from both sides, universal opinion is in favour of
good treatment ; therefore cajolery and persuasion are employed,
and good treatment in general is accordingly meted out to the
indispensable.
Indeed this feature of mediation is as much a part of the
lives of these natural people as propitiation. For if it takes
two to make a quarrel it requires a third party to settle it.
And if natural life is divided into two phases, the human

and the spiritual, it is the indispensable mediator, and the

mediator only (for the doctor, priest, or oracle, when consulted,
occupies the same position), who connects the two and makes
them into one. For mediation, associating or joining as it
does two divided factors, is a principle very similar or akin

to that which adjusts the balance or reduces disintegration to
unity.
In placing food and water before their idols, it is not to the
mere idol that the offering is made, but to the spirit it professes
to represent. Looking on the matter in this light, therefore,
and timorous as the Ibo are of the power for evil, which
seemingly is even more entirely at the disposal of the spirits
than the power for good, or which at all events is an infinitely

more active element, the images are invariably treated well,
and, as far as it is possible to learn, never beaten, and not
often abused. But even patient, long-suffering, and spirit-
ridden as these natives are, they are human after all, so that
notwithstanding their natural timidity, when matters have not
turned out well or to their liking, they lose their heads and
become abusive. It is on occasions such as this that their
unequal tempers give way and get the better of their dis-
cretion, and their natural love of talk and the instinct of
litigation lures them on to a flow of strong and reproachful
language.
Then that they discourse with the familiar spirit, and
it is
finding that the conversation is absolutely one-sided, and that

they have failed to get the satisfaction which they consider
their due, they forget themselves, and descend to the common-
place and vulgar.
But to do so the occasion must be important and the
necessity imperative, for in their normal condition the terror
inspired by the spirits is extremely effective, acting as it does
in the arbitrary sense of moral and physical restraint. A
restraint that, to a very great extent, as we have seen, is a
moral factor in the self-government of the people. For

although the power which is thus available, in the hands
of unscrupulous persons is often abused, or turned to account
in their own interests, as well as in the direction of evil, it is
greatly limited by being confined to a small minority.
It is impossible to conclude this chapter without at least

a casual reference to totemism.
For I have already indicated the fact that fetichism,
idolatry, and totemism are merely expressions, conferred at
various times of the world's history by certain more advanced
sections of the human backward
race on the beliefs of other
sections, as definitions of specific religious formulas, which in
reality represent a single formula, defined by the one word
emblemism, as externally indicative of internal, ancestral
spiritualism.
If the term totem, said to be of Chippeway origin, denotes
an object, usually but not invariably an animal, between which
and his tribe the savage believes that there exists a close kin-
ship — as according to Dr. J. G. Frazer it does —then totemism
expresses in one word the cult as it prevails among one and
all of these Delta tribes.
This is all the more evident if the fact is taken into con-
sideration that totemism is not a religion in but merely
itself,
the assumption of a religious aspect. For the analysis that

has already been made regarding emblemism has shown us
very clearly that it also is only a phase of a certain cult, and
no more the religion of these natives than are the pictures,
eikons, and images of the Greek and Eomish Churches the
religion of those various nations who profess these faiths, these
symbols being merely the emblems and tenements of their
various deities and spirits.
But, however, if totemism implies that the savage in the
kinship alluded to traces his descent from the totem in question,
irrespective of the fact that it is an animal, vegetable, or
material object, then totemism, as it is now accepted, and the
emblemism of the Delta are two separate or at least different
features. For, as I have more than once explained, it is not to
the emblem itself, i.e. it is not to the actual animal or object, but
to the ancestral spirit inside it — in other words, to the human
father with whom the spirit had been associated — that the
Delta natives trace their descent. Their belief is that these
symbols were chosen by their ancestors as suitable and con-
venient objects to reside in, with a view to repose and adoration,
or in accordance with the ruling jurisdiction, and that it is
in consequence of this spirit-residence that the emblems are
treated as sacred, and not by any means on their own account.

Touching upon this subject, as I have done, consciously and
directly, as well as unconsciously and iu directly, in so many
different sections and chapters, it is not my intention to enlarge
upon it further, especially in the direction of totemism but ;
speaking merely from general knowledge and a wide experience

of Oriental and African nationalities, I have no hesitation in
stating that, in my humble estimation, totemism, regardless of
locality or race, is nothing more or less than emblemism pure
and simple, as it now exists among the tribes of the Niger
Delta.
at the whole question from the natural stand-
Looking
point, the reader will observe that while fetichism is most
accurately described as natural, idolatry as artificial, or at least
imitative,and totemism as tribal or ancestral emblemism, it is
but reasonable and rational to apply the term as applicable to
and covering all three, because in the native mind there is in
reality no such distinctive difference between them as that
which ethnology has laid down.
With this conclusive remark, it will now be my endeavour
in the following pages to discuss the so-called worship of trees,
stones, animals, and other natural elements, in order to prove
that in practically each case, irrespective of the form or exterior
of the emblem, the adoration is not paid to the object or
element itself, but to the object or element as being the symbol
containing and representing the ancestral deities of households,
communities, and tribes, and in the latter aspect as being in
this capacity the operators of the elements in question.
CHAPTER HI
EMBODIMENT IN TREES
Trees have always occupied, and to a certain limited extent

still occupy, a very prominent part, not only in the evolution
of Nature, but in the history, and more particularly in the

religions, of the human races.
As we have seen in Section IV., according to the Ibo and
other tribes in the Delta, trees and plants have souls and a
life which are peculiar on a scale
to the vegetable world, but
lower than that of the animal. Apart from
however,
this,
certain trees have been and are selected as the haunts or

residences of human spirits, who have elected (that is, with the
consent of the ancestral authorities) not to go either to the
land of spirits or to this world of strife, but to remain for ever
in perpetual rest.
These trees, naturally, are held in very great reverence, and
the people of the household or community pray to them, offer
them sacrifices, and in some cases build Ju-Ju houses, and
have priests for them. The priest is generally selected from
the family to whom the tree belongs, but is not necessarily
the eldest son of the house, though frequently the eldest
member of it.
In every Ibo community such sacred trees and tree deities

and spirits are also to be found.
Groves and woods, and those portions of the bush close to
every town which are reserved as burial-grounds, are con-
sidered sacred, and worship is paid to either the spirits or the
deities who inhabit or preside over them.
A spirit is not necessarily assigned to each tree or kind of
29S
CHAP. Ill EMBODIMENT IN TREES 299
tree, nor there any special form of spirit either for trees in
is
general or for any one tree in particular, but every grove or

forest belonging to a community has its own guardian deity.
The idea with regard to this especial aspect of spirit life
is one that in its principle is practically Buddhistic, and to
paraphrase the Hindu maxim, there can be no doubt whatever

that as is the man in the flesh, so is the spirit in the tree. To
make my meaning clearer, the wish is father to the thought,
and the wish of a man, often expressed during his lifetime,
that after death, in preference to remaining in spirit land or

returning to this world, he intends to select a tree as his
spiritual residence, is acted upon by the son or family when
the event takes place. This remark, of course, applies with
equal force to other objects — animal, vegetal, or material.
In this way, too, the actual object is chosen by the old man
himself in the compound of the ancestral house or on the
farm, and if he happens to have been a hunter, or of a retiring
disposition, in some out of the way secluded spot in the thickest
part of the ancestral forest. In this manner trees or other
symbols have most undoubtedly been chosen by former ancestors.
Indeed, they are being chosen down to this very day, and
incessant offerings are made to them, as for countless generations
preceding they have been made, not to the objects, but to the
spirits who are believed to reside in them.
By way example of this is to
of illustration, an excellent
be seen at Onitsha, in a tree said to have been planted fourteen
generations —
presumably about 200 years ago by Tsima, the —
first king, whose deified spirit still resides therein, and to
whom great honour and reverence are paid by the whole

community.
over the Delta sacred trees are to be found
Similarly all
in every town and in every household, so much so that if they

could but relate merely their own experiences they would
unfold a history of the people which, if not complete, ought at
least to prove instructive. it is because of an association
So
and precedent they know, began with the very
that, as far as
first of their fathers, trees representing spirits and powers of
the departed stand in every part of the country, as sacred and
giant sentinels, keeping watch and ward over all below. For,
as I have previously pointed out, they are nothing more or less

than the resting-places of these spirits and as a proof of how
;
earnest is the observance of these people with regard to them,

the ground in their vicinity is not tilled, nor is even the bush
cut down or cleared, for fear of disturbing their rest, and so
incurring their wrath.
In the same way, on every farm or plantation it is
customary to have a protecting spirit or deity, usually the
spirit of some prominent former member of the household, who
has selected a tree for his resting-place. Among the Efik the
tree which is most often chosen is called parando. Once a
year a goat and fowl are sacrificed and offered to the spirit,
along with yams, plantains, and nimbo-palm wine, with the
usual petition for a year of good crops and prosperity. This,
in a word, is the purely local representation of the god of
crops, who is common to every community.
In the Ibibio and also in the Efik country, Akwabibio
(the second day of the week) is set apart and observed for the
worship of a plant of a special kind, which is grown in the
yard or compound of every house. At the foot of this one or
two earthen pots are placed, containing some bitter water or
medicine. On the shrub itself is hung the shell of a tortoise,
and alongside of it human skulls are generally to be seen.
The medicine is never emptied, but the pots are always refilled
on this day of weekly ceremonial, when the usual petition
for preservation, protection, prosperity, and safety for the
household and its members is always offered by the head or
the eldest son to the ancestral deities through the spirit-father
or medium.
At same shrine (which in certain ways reminds me of
this
the tulasi plant, the Hindu woman's favourite divinity), on
every occasion that members of the family or intimate friends
either arrive at or leave the house on an important occasion, a
special sacrifice of a goat and fowl is made to ensure safety
and success in the journey or venture, or as a thanksgiving
offering. Indeed, the more we look into the religion of these
naturally religious people, as we shall do later on when
examining the ritual and ceremonial of their faith, the more
struck we shall be with the exceedingly close resemblance
that exists between their strict observauce of rehgious rites

and ceremonies in connection with all affairs of state and
household and the official piety which so distinguished the
early Eomans.
Ani, the ancestral manes of Ogbe-abri, a town near Onitsha,
is a tree god, who is satisfied with the sacrifice of a fowl and
the offering of a piece of white cloth. At Isiokme there is a
sacred grove, inside which is built a mud temple to Ede-mili,
the god of crops, who himself resides in a stone, and who, in

addition to the crops, confers on his devotees the power of
making or withholding rain.
Ofo, the god of justice and truth on the Niger, also resides
in a tree of the same name, and is appealed to by those who,
having a grievance, consider that right is on their side.
Osisi, an enlarged form of Ofo, also a tree, is an aristocratic
edition of a democratic god, who is reserved exclusively for
chiefs of the first rank and upwards. A man, however, is
permitted to keep his ancestral Osisi after he has become a
chief. In Brass, a creeper or liana, wdiich grows in the bush,
and which is considered by the natives to bear a striking re-
semblance to Ogidiga, the python, the living emblem of their
national god, is worshipped by the natives, and a severe punish-
— —
ment usually a fine is inflicted on any one who cuts it
down or burns it. Indeed, even if this is done unintentionally
when clearing the bush, the performance of certain ceremonies
and sacrifices is obligatory in expiation of what is considered
a very grievous offence. So, too, the African oak is considered
sacred, and as such is used for building purposes only. Also
the leaf of the mangrove, which is used for wrapping round the
toe-nails of deceased persons, which are kept as relics.
There is in existence a tree that is not only found in
Southern Nigeria, but which is, I believe, common to West
Africa, that bears a red fruit, called blood -plum {Hmmato-
staphis harteri). Whether it is universally worshipped or not
I cannot say, but that in under an outside
some sense it is
influence is illustrated by the tradition which is prevalent
among many of the coast tribes, that persons who commit

adultery under its shade can come to no harm.
It is a curious and immoral belief, to say the least of it,
from a civilised standpoint, but when the sociology of these

people understood, and their customs are taken into account,
is
the immorality does not appear in quite so glaring a light as

it does at first sight. Indeed, polygamy, when overdone, as it
is at times, is to a great extent responsible for the offence of
adultery. I'or it is a common occurrence for wealthy men, in

spite of age, to keep on marrying young girls, whose affections,
in nine cases out of ten, are bestowed on younger but less
elio-ible suitors and as in cases of this kind it is possible for
;
the number of wives to amount up to four or five scores, the
result can be better imagined than described. Yet the natural

result follows,and is in no sense deterred by the fear of the
usually severe punishments inflicted, which consist in fines as
a general rule but in the case of the adultery being committed
;
with the wife of a big chief, in a public flogging and exposure

of both offenders, with mutilation of the ears, and in some
cases death.
It is evident, then, that the blood-plum is looked on as a
tree of refuge, within the protection of some powerful and
amorous spirit, who so extends his influence that those who
offend against the moral law within his shady precincts can do
so with impunity.
In other words, it is no doubt a loophole, in some wây
connected with the system, which allows certain places the —
altar in Ju-Ju houses, for example, and in some cases a particular
bush or a tree —
to be kept as sanctuary for those persons who
have been condemned to death, practically on the same

principle as the Levitical Cities of Eefuge.
Although the Yoruba are quite outside the Delta limit
and in other respects, among those sections of them
racially
which have not embraced Mohammedanism there is little real
difference sociologically, certainly not as regards religion.
Trees are held by them in great esteem and veneration.
Of Aluki, a slender prickly plant which grows in the bush,
it is believed that, when the surrounding forest gets on fire, out

of respect for the indwelling spirit it escapes without so much
as being singed. Asorin, called the Father of trees," is
'•'
a large tree, reverently worshipped, and of which they say that

it never crowds in a grove, but always
in a position that com-
mands the stream. From the hard wood of ayan, the club of
Sango, the god of thunder and lightning, also of fire, is made.
They have a proverb to the effect that " Ayan resists an axe,"
implying the resistance of the animating spirit of the tree
against the spirit of the weapon. Of the apa, presumably the
African mahogany, it is said, " If a child treat the Apa tree
insolently it wounds his head," i.e. as a S3^mbol of vengeance,
^'
but he treats the Troko "
if —— a tree with hard reddish
wood, also a kind of mahogany " civilly, it welcomes him,"
i.e. as an emblem of refuge. Both these trees, or rather the
spirits in them, are reverently worshipped. Two other Yoruba
proverbs run, " An axe enters a forest, we hear a sound ; the
axe that cuts the tree is not afraid, but the woodsman performs
charms for his defence." " One cannot bless the gods without
using the word Akisale," a running creeper with a pod rather
like the pea.
The offerings and sacrifices made to tree spirits are practically
the same as those made to other deities, connected and associ-
ated as the ceremonial is with the main ancestral cult ; but that
in recent years these have been to some extent modified there
can be no doubt, fruits, fowls, goats, dogs, and cloth forming as
a rule the chief sacrificial items, and in smaller matters eggs
and gin, or rum. The use of cloth is no doubft comparatively
modern, and is easily explained by the facility with which it
can be fastened or festooned on to the branches, while the
other offerings are invariably placed on the small altars or
inside the toy temples, which are built at the foot of the tree,
generally within the buttresses or against the trunk.
It is worthy of remark that while white baft is much
esteemed by the sylvan gods of Onitsha and other Ibo deities,
it is just the reverse with the Yoruba divinities, as is well

illustrated by the following proverb, " Ala fumfun ota' Orisa,"
- — a white cloth is (as) an object of hatred to the gods, because
it is worn out in their service.
In consequence of this, while in some parts of the Delta
black is taken exception to, in other localities other colours are
forbidden or objected to. So it was that when I was at
—
Azagba Ogwashi a town on the western bank of the Niger,
behind Asaba —
unaware of local prejudices, I gave the king,
an old man, a cloth with dark blue spots, which he at first

declined to accept, thinking these were black, because, as he
solemnly informed me, this colour was not allowed by Olissa
—
Ebulu Usa, God, the maker of the world.
The fact of the matter is, that these various local prejudices
regarding different colours resolve themselves into a question
of social emulations and rivalries between neighbouring com-
munities, that in the first instance have been utilised by the
priests, to their own personal advantage, in only permitting
certain colours and placing tabu on all others, a restriction that
is, of course, prescribed by the convenient and inevitable
divinity
whose mouth -pieces they are.
Colour, however, is not by any means the only human

article or concern in which these very anthropomorphic gods
take an interest or put a tabu, for it applies with equal force
to all descriptions of goodsand every phase of life. Indeed,
there can be no doubt that it was on this same principle, out-
come as it was of the ancestral system and of expanding com-

munities, that, as I have elsewhere pointed out, all the local
deities, whose number is countless, came into existence.
Although among the Delta natives tombo, or palm wine, is
not glorified as a deity to the exaggerated extent that soma
was by the Aryans, this identical idea of spirituality pervades
it, as it does everything material in their life and the act of ;
intoxication, and the frenzy of the priests, prophets, and

diviners during possession, as in the case of hysteria and
madness, looked on in a similar light.
is No reservations,
however, are made regarding tombo, or imported spirits, which
are drunk by all alike but it is needless for me to remark that
;
the Delta priesthood in reserving to themselves the sacrificial

perquisites that are offered to the deities, do so strictly within
their rights. For as representing the latter, and as having the
sole privilege of carrying within their bodies at certain periods

the divine spirits, they are from the accepted standpoint in
every sense entitled to them.
The Delta natives, in addition to their belief in the animat-
ing principle of the vegetable world, believe that plants, like
men and animals, have their own spiritland, where their
souls go to when the plants wither and die — an excellent
illustration of the fact that emblemism, although an absolute

necessity, is altogether a subordinate adjunct of the spiritual
pith, the basis and structure of which, as we have seen all
through, is entirely and essentially ancestral.

The custom alluded to is in connection with coco-nut trees,
up which all people are forbidden to climb on Eke, the first
day of the week, which is a day of rest, and a market day.

This prohibition is in honour of the protecting deity, also, so
that every one in the town should be present in case of any
accident or disturbance occurring in the market-place.
Further, with regard to these trees it is ruled that when
the fruit falls of its own accord, or is blown down, it is not on
any account to be eaten until it has been cut into two equal
halves, and the milk poured out on the ground as an offering
to and in honour of the same ancestral god of protection.
For here, as in every similar instance, apart from all other
considerations, irrespective of the fact that the emblem is a
tree or an animal of substantial utility — an
element that
especially appeals to these natives — the precautionary measures
that are adopted are not taken so much out of deference to,
or for the good of the tree or the animal, as out of respect

for the ancestral gods.
CHAPTER IV
EMBODIMENT IN STONES
Of this very ancient cnlt there is little if any evidence in the

Delta, especially along the coast-line, for the very simple reason
that no stones of any kind are to be found among the swamps
of the alluvial mud deposits. Indeed, it is only at some
distance from the sea, where the country breaks into a more
elevated and rockier formation, that traces of them are to be
seen in various parts.
of this, however, right down at Bonny, on the sea,
In spite
the Ibani formerly had as one of their departmental deities
one Tolofari, who was represented by a stone which had
evidently been brought down from the Ibo interior by one of
their Ibo ancestors. as Eket also, on the Kwa
As low down
Ibo river, some 30 miles from mouth,
its right in the middle
of the Ikot Ibon coffee x^lantation belonging to Mr. George Watts
of Liverpool, there is a small clump of bush which the natives

have never allowed the manager to cut down or clear away.
The reason of this is simple. Tlie bush in question is sacred

to them, as containing the ''King of the Bush," who lives
right in the heart of it, and the popular belief is that if the
foliage was destroyed they too would all perish. The king is
an egg-shaped slab of white granite, weighing about 10 lbs.,
with a vein like a blush of pink running through its length.
The natives are altogether ignorant of its history. How it,
the only stone in the vicinity, got there, or where it came

from, is a blank and a mystery, which renders it all the more
sacred. For the spirit it eyes all the

contains is in their
more powerful and malignant, consequently has to be taken
306
CHAP. IV EMBODIMENT IN STONES 307
all the more care of and propitiated, so as to leave no loophole

for him to vent his destructive powers upon them.
As the geological formation all around Eket is a top-soil of
black loam, 5 feet in thickness, mixed with sand, underneath
which is a strata of clay, the inference is that if the stone is
not an aerolite itmust have been carried a long distance, for

right up to Bende, some 80 miles from here, neither granite
nor quartz is to be seen.
Unfortunately, during the period of my association with
them, the natives of this locality, like all the Ibibio, were
men in general, and to the
openly and avowedly hostile to white
Government was never able to obtain,
in particular, so that I
even from the few who were seemingly friendly, any reliable
information regarding the esoteric mysticism of their faith.
This is all the more a pity, as it more than once occurred to
me that there was just the possibility of tracing a connection
indirect —
and remote beyond doubt between the principle and
the conception which were associated with the mysterious
Ibibio spirit, who, entering into this piece of adamant, had
ensconced himself in the bush, and those which resulted in
Sara-bhu, —
he who was born in the thicket, one of the
epithets of Karttikeya, or Skanda, who in the Aryan myth-
ology was god and the planet Mars.
of war, For though
I came among any of these Delta
across no traces of astrology
tribes, the war god is common to one and all of them.
In Uwet —
a town of the Cross river, higher up than Eket
— is a stone, probably an aerolite, of considerable weight,
which, the natives aver, fell from the sky during a tornado
many years ago, presumably in the early part of the nineteenth
century, and which they say was so hot when it fell that those
who saw it could not touch it for a long time. It is about
16 inches in length and a foot in thickness and breadth, of
irregular shape, without any edges or angles, but smooth and
lustrous in appearance, of metallic sound, and of dense wêight.
As among the Ibibio of Eket, this stone is a sacred object,
which is preserved by the people of Uwet with strict and
jealous care.
Among the Ibo of the Ndoke clan, who live at Akwete,
i^kwu Abasi, the principal god, is represented as residing in
3o8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vi
a slab of stone which stands in the middle of a small stream

that supplies the people with water.
At Ogbanika (a district in the Ibo interior behind Onitsha
on the Niger) is a cave in which the god Ogba resides, right
inside the heart of a large stone. This divinity, in spite of the
opaque density of his stony environment, is an all-seeing spirit,
who can detect crime, but especially theft. In other words,
Ogba is a spiritual personification of the town diviner or
detective, whose external appearance is a striking illustration
of the proverb. For it is even more impassive and unreadable
than the "inscrutable Sphinx," yet as penetrating as it is
deceptive, allowing no thief to escape out of a clutch that is
all-embracing. Indeed, this acute diviner, whose simplicity is
an outcome of the deepest natural subtlety, works on the very
certain and practical principle that the crime itself is the
surest and safest detector. So when suspicion falls on a man
the god instantly demands his presence in the cave, and there
he is detained, at the divine will and pleasure, until a fine
commensurate with his offence has been paid by his family.
Previous to his release, however, the priest, in whose charge
the deity is, smears the body of the culprit all over with mud,
as evidence and proof of his guilt, also as an act and token
of purification and release while his family, to prevent the
;
miscreant from further disgracing himself by committing

suicide, from very shame act the part of consoler towards him
so as to distract his thoughts.
At Onitsha itself, Olinri, the goddess mother of all, the
nourisher of her children and the protector of her people from
all evil and danger, is symbolised by some pieces of rock on
the banks of the Niger. This presumably is the spot at which
these people landed, when they migrated — over some two
hundred years previously — somewhere from the neighbourhood
of the city of Benin.
The Aro or Omo-Chuku, i.e. sons or children of God,
from whom they trace their descent, are known among them-
selves asOno-na-kum, i.e. the sitters on the stones. This
name appears to have originated from the fact that the elders
were, and always have been, in the habit of sitting on some
large stones in front of their Ju-Ju house, w^hen strangers
from afar came to consult their divining spirit on various

religious or domestic questions, or to appeal to him in matters
requiring mediation or arbitration.

That the stones in question, closely connected as they were
with the service and the ritual of the deity, were esteemed as
sacred, I have no doubt but as their sacred town was hedged
;
in by a tabu that was only approachable by force of arms, and

as the Aro were our inveterate enemies, threatening with
death any individual who dared to guide us into their locality,
it was quite impossible to obtain any information regarding
them.
Close to the town of Azagba Igwashi, on the western
bank of the Niger, in the near vicinity of Asaba, is a stream
called by the natives Ngbiligba, which means a bell, because

the water makes a tinkling noise just like the sound of
a bell. To the people of Igbouza, however, another town
in the neighbourhood, it is known as Atakpo, after a big
god of that name who lives inside the stream, and who has the
power of conferring the gift of prophecy on those whom he
selects.
The man chosen for this honour is obliged to live in the
bush, close to the stream, for a certain period on probation, as it
were, and when Atakpo finally makes a selection of him, he is
obliged to carry four stones —
one on his head, one on each
shoulder, and one on his chest — without allowing them to fall,
as far as the town. On his arrival there, these stones are

deposited on a certain spot, and a house is built over them,
and they then become the emblem of the god Atakpo, while
the man so significantly selected becomes his Amuma or
prophet.
Indeed, as far as the Delta is concerned, the question of
this particular worship, as it is called, depends absolutely and
entirely on environment. Therefore, as stones are scarce in
the Delta, the utilisation of emblems is also scarce.
them as
But as the stone is merely symbolical like any other object, it
is, as we have seen under the heading of Emblemism, a
technical error to speak of it as a specific worship.
In India, the town or village deity is often represented by
a simple stone. Indeed all over the great peninsula stones,
usually smeared with red lead as an offering, are worshipped,

or rather the spirit mediums which they contain. Of these
Shasti, protectress of children, who
is a prime favourite, and
the recipient of vows, oblations, and worship, especially from

women, is, as a rule, a stone about the size of a man's head,
which is placed at the foot of a sacred tree.
A goddess similar to, if not identical with Shasti, is found
among all these Delta tribes, usually fashioned, however, in
mud or wooden idols, or to be found in various objects.
Eepresented as a full-grown woman, sometimes with two or

three children, she is looked upon with great regard as a
doctor, possessing great virtues as a healer. Families in which
there has been undue mortality among the children always
patronise this motherly goddess, in the hope of checking the
ravages of the death spirit.
Among the Delta natives implements are treated with

great care, and as fully entitled to respect, altogether apart
from their various domestic or outside uses. In this way the
farmer has the greatest veneration for his farm implements, as
the fisherman has for his nets, the trader for his measures and
goods, both of them for their paddles, and the hunter for his
bows and arrows and guns. For no matter how insignificant
the objects may be, and despite the fact that they are only of
use when manipulated or utilised by their own hands, to these
natives each individual one of them possesses a soul of its
own that in their eyes gives it a special and a peculiar
significance.
Indeed, to such an extent do they carry this veneration
that, as regards the defilement of all kitchen utensils, the
strictestrules are always observed, a woman, e.g. not being
allowed to handle them with her left hand,^ or when she is
unclean because of her menstruation and on the birth of ;
1 It is obvious that with regard to the hands, the right has always been
looked upon as an instrument for good, as the left was for evil, and in this
way the right hand came to betoken friendship and the left hand enmity. So
the law among the Ijo and natives of Brass is that women are on no account to
touch the faces of their husbands with the left hand, neither are they permitted
to eat food or handle it in any way when cooking with any other hand but the
right while among the Ibo and other tribes the privilege of drinking with
;
the left hand is only extended to experienced warriors who have killed men in
war-time with their own hands.
twins — looked on as this is as unnatural and monstrous all—

domestic utensils in use are at once destroyed. In addition
to all these precautions, however, spiritual supervision is con-
sidered necessary, and it is usual, as a rule, for the women to
keep a kitchen god, in the capacity of domestic overseer, to
watch over the food, as well as over the pots and pans in
which this is cooked.
The Delta people, in the same way, only look on and then
worship an object as sacred when the spirit of some local or
other divinity, or of some revered ancestor, has occupied and
thus sanctified it. Other similar objects have no attraction of
any kind them, and these selected ones only because of
for
their spiritual sanctifications. But in ordinary boundary-
stones, unless erected with some such specific purpose, which
is, of course, not unlikely, it is not exactly easy to see any
reason why any divine associations should be attached to them.
Many instances of this nature fell within my province
when was out in Southern Nigeria, and on more than one
I
occasion I have been the means of settling, to the satisfaction
of all concerned, cases that had been in dispute for several
generations, and in this way the cause of a standing feud
between two communities, resulting in many fights and deaths
on both sides.
This question of boundaries, in a country where land is
as sacred and as personal a matter as the individual, more so
if anything, and in which, in place of unity and nationality,
there only exists isolation and discord, is a question that, un-

fortunately, is always in evidence, as the larger and more
aggressive communities are invariably encroaching on the
weaker and smaller.
In such cases there is most undoubtedly a significance
attaching to the objects —
trees, as being more in evidence and
available on the spot, being utilised more frequently than
stones, or, as sometimes happens, both together —
which are set
up to mark and define certain boundaries. Not because
these are specially the recipients of any particular deities or
spirits, but on account of the fact that when the boundaries
between the two contending parties have been fixed, the com-
pact is ratified by a religious ceremony. This consists of each
party swearing an oath, on one of its own ancestral emblems,

to abide faithfully by all the terms of the agreement, the
result of which is everlasting prosperity and peace, the breakers
of the oath, on either side, being consigned to eternal perdition
and the torments of disembodied evil. It is customary, in
fact, in all cases and on all occasions on which compacts,
agreements, or treaties are made between two communities, to

ratify the bond by a religious ceremony which, as just ex-
plained, consists of a sacred covenant mutually sworn on the
respective deities of protection, accompanied, as a rule, by a
sacrifice, which, according to the nature of the business, rises
in an ascending scale, from a fowl to a human being if, after
having been at war with each other, the contending parties
have agreed to terms of peace. It is probable, too, that on
such occasions the boundary symbols are tenanted by spirits
who have been requisitioned by both sides, sacrificially or
otherwise, to watch over their mutual interests.
That human and animal sacrifices were offered to stone
deities,i.e. deities who were symbolised by stones, in exactly
the same way and on the same lines and principle, is quite
evident from the fact that among these Delta tribes they are
still offered. For, as in Jacob's case, the stone emblem is but
the god's house, i.e. the house in which the god resides. A
selection, that was most undoubtedly one of convenience and
association, more so, in fact, than of environment, synchronising,
as these did, with certain personalities, events, and localities.
So among these natives, irrespective of tribe or locality,
whether their remote ancestors ever worshipped trees or stones
on their own account, and not because of the tenant spirit, they
themselves adore the spirit and not the mere emblem, although,
of course, in doing sothey do so through the latter. It must
be acknowledged, however, that from a really practical stand-
point thisis immaterial to the question at issue. What is
ever so much more material to it, from every natural aspect, is
the fact that originally a tree or a stone, for instance, as a

something —
a piece of personal property with which natural
man was associated —
excited in him the same feeling of awe
and mystery that any object did, which to him wâs incompre-
hensible, all the more so because of its ^rreat utility to him.
CHAFTEE Y
EMBODIMENT IN ANIMALS AND REPTILES
It must have long ago been obvious to the reader that the
so-called worship of animals was nothing more or less than
the worship of ancestors. For, as I have shown, the belief of
these natives as regards animals merely symbolised, so that
is
it is quite feasible to connect them as mere repositories of the
souls of certain ancestors ;the animals were regarded as

sacred, and were worshipped, not for any special characteristics
of their own, but as containing the essence of those who had

ruled, and who had been feared on account of their ferocious
qualities, or unusual power and prowess, or unique subtlety, all
of which had been inspired by the spirits of certain specific
animals or reptiles who had obsessed them.
The fact that it was not so much the size and the strength
of animals as their cunning, sagacity, and agility which
impressed natural man has been commented on in the early
chapters on religion, and instances were then adduced to show
how closely connected were animal and human instincts. Let
us, however, take an instance in which the characteristics
now
of the former appear to have impressed the latter in such a
marked manner, as to have influenced man's opinion regarding
an intelligence that he was almost inclined to place on a level
with his own, simply because it was an absolute mystery to
him. It is not so difficult a matter as it may at first sight
appear to trace out from its very source the original conception
of the tortoise, which culminated in a belief concerning its
attributes that, in the eyes of these Delta natives, elevated it
to the sovereignty of the beasts of the forest. But to do so

313
we must first of all acquaint ourselves with the habits of the

animal in question.
Absolutely harmless and inoffensive in himself, the tortoise
does not prey on even the smallest of insects, but subsists
entirely on the fallen fruits of the forest. On the approach of
an enemy he makes no attempt even to move, but withdraws
his projecting limbs inside the outer shell and quietly awaits
results.
In the gloomy forests of the Delta there are only two
enemies who are capable of doing him any serious injury.
The one is man, who is able to lift him up and carry him
bodily away, which, however, he does not do, except in those
instances in which the animal is regarded as sacred and
required in connection with certain religious ceremonies.
His other and most dangerous enemy is the who
python,
having first of all crushed him by means of the enormous
power of constriction which it can apply, swallows him alive,
shell and all. But pythons large enough to do tliis (unless
the tortoise happens to be very young and small) are very
scarce, so that he has not much to apprehend in that quarter.
— —
To the elephant herbivorous like himself- he is too in-
significant, for unlike the mosquito or the sandfly he has no
sting ; and although they meet in fable, in real life the hippo-
potamus and himself are not much thrown together. From
the leopard or the bush-cat (one of the genet species) he has
nothing to fear, for their teeth cannot penetrate his hard shell,
nor can a stroke from the paws of the former or the claws of
the latter do him any damage. Thus it is that, thanks to
the impenetrable shell-back armour with which Nature has
provided him, the tortoise has been practically immune from
attack and destruction, which fact in a great measure explains
the reason of his longevity.
There is yet another physical characteristic, however, that
has most undoubtedly influenced these natives very consider-
ably in arriving at an opinion that, to the European, appears
to be so preposterously exaggerated, even from the phantasmal
glamour of a fairy tale or beast fable. This is the fact that the
animal in question can exist longer without food than perhaps
any other animal of its own gloomy forests, or indeed of other
CHAP. V EMBODIMENT IN ANIMALS AND REPTILES 315
countries, the ant-bear of Brazil alone excepted. For although

the solid and the substantial appeals directly and forcibly to
natural man, even in the spiritual aspect of life this long
abstinence and ability to exist without food also appeals to

the mystic side of his nature, which assigns a spirit origin or
influence to everything that is a mystery to him, no matter
how material or lifeless it may be ; because, according to his
idea, there is no matter in existence that cannot be spiritualised,
i.e. animated by a spirit. Add to this immunity his habitual
silence, the sedentariness of his habits, the extreme and de-
liberate slowness of hismovements, and his natural instinct of
keeping himself out of sight, and the observer begins to under-
stand the reasons that have actuated the Delta natives in
regarding him as a peculiarly mysterious, therefore intelligent
creature. So, also, is it easy to understand how, in process of
time, the word which stood for tortoise became a synonym
for cunning and craft, and a man of exceptional intelli-
gence was in this way known among the Ibo as Mbai,
and among the Ibani as Ekake, meaning a tortoise. For
although he of the shell back was slow he was sure, as the
old Greek J^sop tells in his fable of the tortoise and the hare.
This sureness in the native mind in itself implied doggedness

and a fixed determination of purpose, while silence and secrecy
implied mystery and a veiled purpose. This, surely, was a
sufficiently logical reason for mystery.

Asa perfect illustration of all these characteristics I can-
not do better here than give in full the Efik fable.
" Many, many moons since, in the days when the world was
young, a great tree grew in the world. So tall and strong did
itgrow that it grew beyond the strength of all the different
creatures and powers on earth either to injure or destroy it.
So one day Abasi, —god the creator, —
who feared that the tree
might grow too powerful, called together all the men, the animals,
and the birds who were in the world, and proclaimed to them
that to him who overturned and humbled the tree he would give
his daughter in marriage. No sooner had this announcement
been made than all who heard it —
men, animals, and birds of
every kind —commenced at once to make the attempt. But
desperate though these were they were quite fruitless, one and
3l6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vi
all of them ending without in any way making

in failure,
the slightest impression on the tree. For it took no more

notice of them than the elephant does of the mosquito, but
waved its branches about as if in evident pleasure, as it shook
with a laughter that was at times as sonorous as the deep-
toned thunder, and at others as silent as the great forest when
the hush of the slumbering spirits falls upon it. Even the Ikpun
Kpun Kpun Ine — a fabulous mammoth infinitely larger than
the elephant — had hurled his enormous strength against it,
but in vain, and had been obliged to retire, baffled and enraged.
"
AVhen one and all of them had expended their energies,
the tortoise, who had all this time waited very patiently,
at length declared his intention of levelling the mighty
tree to the earth. At this all the great ones laughed aloud
at his presumption. So great indeed was their laughter
that it shook the world, including the great tree, to its very
foundations, just as if it were a raging tornado. Without
saying a word, however, the tortoise went to work with great
tenacity and infinite secrecy, and engaging the assistance of
the ground (white) ants he burrowed underneath the tree.
Then when had been done, together between them they
this
cut all the roots that were young and soft, until the tree was
so weakened that a very small effort turned it over."
However the European may attempt to interpret this
legend, even if it is to the extent of proving the unmistakable
pantheism of the and the very evident oneness to
people,
them of all Nature, the exception —
if this were the interpreta-
tion — but proves the rule.

Looking, however, into the antecedents of this matter, as
these natural people have done, these three salient charac-
teristics of silence, mystery, and determination implied origin-
ally a much greater significance to these primitive and
emotional thinkers than we, in spite of our boasted acumen,
can now comprehend with any degree of facility for while ;
the virtue of silence was, so to speak, more than golden, con-

nected as it was with the divine in nature, mystery, certainty,
and immutability —
such as they saw in the fixity of purpose
which underlay and prevented dissolution from detaching itself
from reproduction —
appealed to them as the divine itself.
Therefore, iiisigiiiticant as he was from an external aspect,

the tortoise was regarded by these natives as possessing the
human, in other words divine attributes of truth, justice,
and wisdom. No wonder, then, that the animals chose him to
be a king and a judge over them and still less cause for
;
surprise is it when we find him figuring among certain of

these tribes as an object of veneration and a sacred emblem.
Eeading between the lines, it is at once discernible that in this,
as in every other instance, the connection was entirely one of

ancestral association, which affords the explanation of the
tortoise's unique intelligence, for in native belief the higher
or human intelligence is derived entirely from spiritual action.
And even the fable, when looked at from the native
standpoint, supports this idea, connecting the tortoise as it
does with the deity through his matrimonial alliance with
the creator's daughter; because stripped of its symbolism, as
originally it undoubtedly was, the principle involved is spiritual,
pure and simple.

Examining, as I have done, numbers of their fables and
anecdotes — which concern the animal world it is at
all of —
once evident that these natives have inherited from their
prehistoric ancestors the same disregard for size and strength
as they had regard for cunning and adroitness. For animals
like the elephant, the hippopotamus, and the leopard, for
instance, do not figure so extensively or so frequently as the
tortoise or the mosquito, though the leopard, among the
interior tribes, the Ibo particularly, is a strong favourite.
Eeptiles, and crocodiles particularly are much
snakes,
more emblems, simply, it is to be presumed, because
utilised as
they are more in evidence in the forests and rivers of the
Delta than any other species of animals, consequently must
have appealed to the natives as the most convenient and suit-
able repositories for the ancestral manes. On the same
principle the coast tribes the shark, until recent years,
among
was held as sacred and among the Ibani the iguana occupied
the same exalted position. But with the exception of the
shark, Dema, a deity to whom
were made, which was
sacrifices
selected for its voracious ferocity, evident that most of

it is
these emblems were chosen because of the craft and subtlety

3i8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
that distinguished them — for the crocodile, e.g. is cowardly and

cunning, and even the leopard and stealthy.
is sly
Among the interior tribes, as we have already seen, right

throughout Southern Nigeria, all fish and reptiles that inhabit
the streams are, along with the water, looked on as sacred, the
penalty of death being inflicted on any person who either kills
or eats them. It is almost needless to remind the reader that
it isnot on account of the animal that the life of the delinquent

is demanded, but on account of the
ancestral spirit contained
in the body of the animal. So, to reduce this question to its
native basis, a human life is considered equal to a spiritual
because of the soul-spirit that it contains.

Yet although in many localities animals and reptiles re-
present the ancestral or protecting deities of the clan or com-
munity, no tribe or clan that I know of is named after any
particular animal or reptile indeed, in all my varied experi-
;
ence, I only came across one small district which was called
Ama Ago, or the country of the leopard, and this distinctly
applied as much to the locality as to the people ;
although, as
in Mbeari, so in many parts of the Ibo country, the leopard

is a sacred emblem which, as a rule, is
roughly modelled out
of clay or mud.
With the immense mass of material at my disposal it is
quite impossible, in a work of this nature, to say all that I
should like to on a subject so deeply interesting, still, before
concluding this chapter, there are two or three features which

it is necessary to bring to the reader's notice.
1. Birds. —
The first of these is with regard to the attitude
of the people towards birds. Not because from an emblematic
standpoint they make any specific difference between them and
other animals, but because they are rather more inclined to
connect them with the element of air or wind than with that
of earth and of water, therefore in a vague and mysterious
way with the sky and the divinities, including the Creator
connected therewith. This attitude is to be specially seen in
their fables, from which also it is possible to infer that in this
sense birds are regarded with less fear and more in the light
of friendly affinities than animals are. One of these, although
it is relative principally to the amour of one of the many
CHAP. V EMBODIMENT IN ANIMAIS AND REPTILES 319
wives of the wizard king of a nameless country, is exceedingly

interesting as well as instructive in that respect.
This woman, by name Toru - ibi, i.e. of a fair counte-
nance, becomes greatly enamoured with the son of a great
chief of the same country, whose name, Sobie-owi, a person —
descended from the sky, is, to say the least of it, suggestive of
the native belief in divine descent. Toru-ibi, in the most
determined way, tastes not merely the coco-nut and the milk
that is in it, but cultivates and cherishes, in fact, the whole
tree of temptation in the manly form of her heaven-born lover,
until the passion consuming her is promptly recipro-
which is
cated by the comely youth. The king, with his magic powers,
soon discovers the intrigue, and during the night, when they
are sleeping peacefully and dreaming of love, he comes into the
room and chains them both together. In the morning when
they awake the queen, who, if she is not gifted with super-
natural powers, certainly possesses a will and a way of her
own, nothing daunted at the unlooked-for dilemma, manages
with the assistance of her three sisters to unfasten the offend-
ing chain but before parting from her lover she gives him
;
certain instructions which he is to carry out to the letter.

These are to the effect that as soon as ever the king summons
his wives to undergo the ordeal of swearing the oath on the
ancestral gods with regard to their chastity, he is to appear on
the scene with two short sticks in each hand, and just as she
is about to take the vow he is to step over the feet of herself
and three sisters, who will be sitting on the ground alongside
of her.
These behests are carried out most faithfully by Sobie-owi,
down even to the smallest detail, and in spite of the fact that
it is contrary to custom for a man other than the husband to
step across or in any way to touch the person of a married

woman, —an act which is open to the construction of adultery
being put upon it, — Toru-ibi, having vowed her innocence, and
thrown the implication on to her convenient sisters, is of course
acquitted.
The second act of this natural drama unfolds itself in the
courtyard of the palace. Previous to this, however, a dress
rehearsal has taken place between she of the fair countenance
320 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect.
and he of heaven, in which the arch temptress again carefully

instructs her lover in the course that he is to pursue. For
Toru-ibi is ambitious, and aspires to become the first wife of
Sobie-owi instead of, as she is, the second in importance of the

wizard king, and she knows that the latter has told his elders
in strict confidence that the kingdom is to be conferred by

them on the person who can kill his Ijird-affinity (a feat that
he apparently regards as impossible without the use of his
own specific medicine), in the certain event of his own death
following close on that of the bird.
The day arrives. The king has given a grand banquet, to
which all the notables of his country have been invited, among
them Sobie-owi. Most of his guests are seated in the court-
yard, underneath the shade of the sacred ancestral tree. A
dance has just been concluded. The king is standing alone,
apart from the rest, unconscious — despite his magic — of the
tragedy that is about to commence. Close to him is Toru-ibi,
looking as if on the tip-toe of expectation to fulfil her

lord's commands. On the top of the tall apa tree that
grows close to the gateway a small brown bird is sitting.
In this feathered object dwells the soul-afhnity of his holiness
the king, to kill which is to kill him. Through this tiny
entrance lies the road to a fine kingdom and a great queen.
All is exactly as she has predicted. The occasion and the

omen are favourable, and the man is there, ready to rise to
and seize it.
Saluting the king with becoming dignity, Sobie-owi in a

deferential voice asks his father to give him a bow, three
arrows, and permission to shoot the bird on the apa tree. His
majesty, confident that he has put medicine, i.e. a spiritual
spell on the which wdll turn aside the flight of the

bird,
straightest and swiftest arrow, graciously and readily grants

permission, but warns the youth that he will be unsuccessful.
Toru-ibi, as if sublimely unconscious of the dark plot which
she has woven around her royal spouse, but desirous only to
do as her master bids her, has edged a little nearer to him.
Commanding her to bring the weapons she walks into the
house with a slow and deliberate step, and returns in the same
dicrnified manner with a bow and three arrows. Holding the
arrows in her left hand, she hands Sobie-owi the bow wdth her
right, and after a short pause she takes one of the arrows
and gives it to him, still retaining possession of the two
others.
Fitting it in the bow, and looking like an alert and
experienced warrior, he now takes careful aim at the bird and
pulls the cord, but the arrow flies past it to the right.
A certain measure of suppressed and dignified excitement
now prevails among the elders, knowing, as they do, the
relationship existing between the bird and the king, but his
majesty, confident in his own powers, appears serenely and
supremely indifferent.
But when the second arrow also misses, flying this time
to the left of the target, even the monarch is scarcely a]>le
to suppress his triumphant feelings. Indeed, out of those
present, the two principal actors in the drama are least of
all unmoved.
There is but one arrow left now in Toru-ibi's hand,
one chance more for the sky-born youth, and this she hands
to him with even greater solemnity than before. He too looks
at and almost caresses it, for in this last arrow is centred
the twofold hope of a great achievement. In the accuracy
of its flight the fate of four lives are concerned two to —
sink and two to rise. Dipped as this particular weapon
has been in the special medicine pot of the king, in other —
wôrds, spiritualised, — the spirit of the arrow, conscious as
it were of its mission, and pregnant with the potentiality of
its ability to decide the fate of two spirits in one stroke,
poises itself in the air when released by Sobie-owi from
the bow, and to the intense astonishment of the elders,
most of all of the king, it pierces the bird through the
heart.
But here in the third act, with the death of the king
and the accession of Toru-ibi and her lover to the throne^
the drama suddenly ends.
There is much to be learned from this exceedingly com-
prehensive story with reference to the spiritual beliefs and
customs of these natives, which confirms in every way all
that has been said in the preceding sections regarding the
/ or THF ^\
connection between human beings and animals and the ;
inspiration more especially of all matter that is utilised

for domestic and other purposes. If, however, any doubt
should still exist as to the question of affinity, the following
custom, seems in itself, demonstrates it in perhaps
trifling as it
even a more forcible manner. This is the fact, that a man on

his way to fight, or proceeding on a perilous mission, at once
turns back if it so happens that a bird lets fall its droppings
upon him. For the interpretation placed upon this act is
that it is one of design, the friendly warning of some soul-
affinity that danger or death is in store for him if he proceeds,
and in no sense is it ascribed to a mere accident, or looked
upon as simply a bad omen. Accident, in fact, with these
fate-infatuated people is not taken into account, because in
their philosophy there is no such thing, and motive or design
is always imputed (due invariably to spirit intervention), in all
cases where human agency is not actually visible or palpable.
Yet within my own experience there are not that I am —
—
aware of many important bird deities or emblems in the
Delta. The fish-hawk, Igo, as the Brassites call it, is held
sacred by all the coast tribes, among whom there is, if
anything, more veneration paid to birds than among the interior
people. These hawks, equally with the python, monkeys, and
other emblematic animals, are almost tame, allowing the
natives to go close up to them, and the same laws exactly
are observed towards them as exist for all sacred animals. In
no sense is greater veneration shown to them than in the value
placed upon their feathers, w^hich, as we saw in Chapter II.,
Section IV., are worn on the head, not merely as an ornament,
but as indicative of a life that has been taken in a righteous
cause. Further, it customary among the Ibibio and
is also
others for the two envoys, who as men of mark and prominence
have been selected by one community to announce the declara-
tion of war upon another, to wear a long feather in their head-
dress as indicative of their office and the sanctity of their
persons.
To the Okrika — a wild and turbulent lot until quite
recently — the small and inoffensive green pigeon is typical of
some deified ancestor who watches over their best interests
while formerly Finima was a bird deity greatly reverenced

by the word being, the
Ibaui, the literal interpretation of the
place or country of birds —
presumably curlew and seagulls
a locality, or rather mud swamp, close to, but seaward of
Bonny, which in olden days was a favourite resort of these
birds. This has since been called Ju - Ju Town, and was
esteemed sacred because it had been dedicated to the spirits
of those ancestors who had chosen these birds as their soul
affinities or embodiments.
2. Becrd Animal Societies. —

With reference to this other
question a vast amount of matter also remains to be
examined, for there is not in existence in any portion of
the Delta a single community in which some form of
secret society does not obtain. Although in many cases
these are associated with the ancestral emblems, they
are for the most part institutions which are responsible
for the the country, but more
administration of often
than not they combine with this the purpose of popular
recreation and amusement such e.g. are the Okonko of the
;
Ibo the Epe and highly exclusive Mborko of the Aro

;
the Idion and Ekpe of the Ibibio ; the Egbo of the Efik
the Ekene of the New Calabar : the Owu-Ogbo — purely
for play — of the Ibani ; the Ofiokpo of the Andoui,
and others too numerous to mention. Yet although these
societies connected with their religion, as is only to be
are
expected from the natural constitution of Delta society,
they are evidently of a later and more modern development
that has arisen out of certain pressing necessities, the most
formidable of which has been to provide a countercheck to
witchcraft. This, however, as a subject in itself, and as
having nothing in common with the question at issue, will be
dealt with on some future occasion under the heading of Law
and Custom.
Contrary to expectation, and in face of their extraordinary
animalistic beliefs, there is but little evidence regarding the
existence of secret animal societies, i.e. societies in which the
members represent themselves as animals, with the object of
committing outrages on life and property. This is all the
more a psychological puzzle when the existence of sorcery is
taken into consideration as a presumably monopolising factor

the only satisfactory explanation appears to be based on the
assumption that greater secrecy, and therefore a corresponding
security, is obtainable by operating in poisons. For in these
sure and certain specifics — animated although they are by
—
demons reposes the priceless virtue of a voiceless silence,
which in the end is able to exercise a greater spirit of terror
among the timorous people than tlie wildest depredations of
the most ferocious animals.
Connected, however, as this question indubitably is, with
that of cannibalism, a feature which, as I have shown, is
still practised under certain conditions by all these tribes, it
would be only reasonable to infer the existence of such

societies with the sole object of indulging this appetite for
human food. But here also we are confronted by the fact
that cannibalism as it now exists among them is purely a
religious relic, with, as a natural sequence, its irreligious
counterblast in the form of witchcraft, that is exercised only,

or, as a on the following occasions legitimately ( 1
rule, :
on captives taken in war; (2) in all cases of human sacrifice,

made in connection with the burial sacrament illegitimately, :
(3) by the members of the most secret and hated society of

sorcerers and (4) as a measure of retaliation legal and in —
—
;
self-defence presumably undertaken by the mutual protec-

tion societies.
These be seen, clearly and unmistakably
facts, it will
explain the absence of the leopard societies, such as those
which prevail among the Temne and Mende tribes at the back
of Sierra Leone. There is, however, among the Ibibio and
interior Ibo a leopard secret society, not so much to kill
people — except, of course, when they make any resistance — as

to frighten and convince them, and under cover of this and
the darkness of night, to steal yams and other property. The
members dress in skins of animals, but principally in those of
leopards —hence
the name, and have a call which it is said is
so excellent an imitation of the owl's that it is difficult to
distinguish between them. Further, these men, who are known
as " leopard men," have a system of calls among themselves, by
which they can communicate with each other. In addition to
CHAP. V EMBODIMENT IN ANIMAIS AND REPTILES 325
this, there are in every community regularly organised play

clubs, which, like the administrative institutions, are confined
exclusively to the wealthier classes through the imposition of
heavy entrance fees and subscriptions, but these are merely
an outlet for those milder and more human energies of joy and
mirth which are invariably indulged in by the coast tribes
when the seasons of fishing and trading in produce are over
and in the interior, after the gathering in of the harvest.
These plays are more or less practised on the same lines as
the Owu or mermaid plays, and are representative of various
kinds of animals, such e.g. as leopards, hippopotamus, bush-
cats, crocodiles, snakes, sharks, sword-fish, etc. and there can ;
be little doubt that they are a crude but dramatic effort which
has resulted, first of all, from the natural instinct for an active
manifestation of pleasure, and equally so, as a direct outcome
of the life and occupation which has brought these people into
personal touch with these creatures there is also an evident
;
association between these animal plays and the soul or kernel

of that religious fabric which cannot detach itself from the
inevitable naturism, not only of its surroundings, but of its
own organisation, — and connection, in fact, of those

a relic
animal instincts which, evolving as they have done out of
the soil and atmosphere of their own environment, have, as we
have seen all through, made of them beings such as I have
endeavoured to describe.
From a psychological standpoint there are only two more
customs of importance — so far, at least, as my experience goes
— that deserve mention here. The first of these is that, in the
opinion of the natives, a poisonous fluid — the gall, presumably
— is obtained from the viscera of the leopard and the python.
Consequently, when one of these animals has been killed by a
hunter belonging to some community in which neither is held
sacred, the legitimate procedureon his part is to announce the
fact publicly. A time is then appointed by the elders and
chiefs, and, in the presence of the whole town, the carcase is
cut open and the offending fluid there and then destroyed.
Any individual, however, who is discovered offending against
thislaw is at once classified as a sorcerer, and his society is
shunned and dreaded in consequence and should he be ;
suspected and found guilty of poisoning any one through this

or any other means, he is promptly killed.
The other custom is, that when a hunter kills a large
animal, an elephant or hippopotamus, for instance, he is
obliged to present it to the oldest man in the town as a
special sacritice to the ancestral deities, before whom the
animal is to be eaten.
CHAPTEK VI
EMBODIMENT IN SNAKES
If I have as yet made no special reference to this phase of

naturism, or so-called animal worship, it is not on account
of its non-existence in the Delta, but because of the standpoint
from which the subject has been approached. For as far as
the actual cult itself concerned, quite apart from the specific
is
aspect of emblemism, there is no difference whatever in the

adoration that is accorded through the serpent and that which
has for its medium any other reptile or animal, and indeed
to complete the comparison — any material object.
Yet in Benin city, at Nembe, Nkwerri, and in various
localities allover the Delta, ophiolatry, so-called, exists and

flourishes, as it has always done ever since natural man taught
himself to associate the spirits of his ancestors with the more
personal and immediate objects of his surroundings. And as
snakes — living as they did in the olden days in caves and trees,
and as they now do, not only in the towns, but inside the
houses, underground as well as in the thatched roofs were —
very closely associated with man, it is no wonder that they
were early chosen to represent certain ancestral embodiments.
Further, there can be little or no doubt that the fact of their
attachment to the haunts and domiciles of human beings

(attracted as they were, in the first instance, by the incentive
of food, and subsequently by the regular provision which was
systematicallymade for them) knit the bond of association
between the reptile and the man still closer, looked at as the
matter was from a spiritual and ancestral aspect. But although
to this day he has not succeeded in domesticating even those
327
species which are harmless, these Delta folk, it must be con-

ceded, have at least to some extent tamed the python, as well
as other types of wild animals, such e.g. as crocodiles, iguanas,
monkeys, etc.
Irrespective of tribe or locality, one fact in connection with

these natives impressed me very forcibly, and that was that
in every case, with regard to snakes, the emblem revered is
the python, and not one of the poisonous varieties, such e.g. as
the cobra or horned viper.
This is all the more remarkable because it is a practical
demonstration of the existence in their ancestors of a distinct
sense of moral appreciation and discrimination, which evolved,
as we have seen, into an ethical system of adjustment. Thus
it is that among their successors, while the snakes whose bite
means death are looked on as representing the spirits of evil,
the python — which, though non-poisonous, possesses the power
of constriction, and unusual if not mysterious strength — is
regarded, apart from ancestral or spiritual connections, as

typical of the eternal element and the bifurcating energy that
preserves the balance. This shown not simply in the venera-
is
tion which is paid to them as ancestral emblems but from ;
the standpoint of utility and substance it is seen in their treat-

ment of the creatures in question, which are fed and tolerated
tosuch an extent that in those towns in which they are sacred,
although they become a pest and even a danger to the people,
they are all the more pampered and spoilt.
An excellent illustration of this extraordinary fatuity, as it
appears to the European, is to be seen in the case of Fishtown,

a town belonging to the Brass tribe. The condition of this
place previous to 1894 was, it seems, very similar to that of
Bonny in the eighties, when
was infested by the sacred
it
iguanas, only a great the whole town was

deal worse, for
literally alive and overrun with pythons. In that year, how-
ever — fortunately for the people, although they did not look
at the matter in this light — a fire broke out, which not only
demolished all the houses, but destroyed so great a number of
these sacred creatures that the new town, which was rebuilt
on the same site, has been comparatively free ever since.
It is impossible to produce better or more conclusive
CHAP. VI EMBODIMENT IN SNAKES
evidence with regard to the cult in question, than by placing

before the reader the following description of the treatment
accorded to pythons by the Brass and other natives, which is
the result of information collected for me, in addition to that
of personal experience.
In many of the various districts of Southern Nigeria the
python is the principal object of ancestral adoration. Known
in Brass under the name of Ogidiga, it represents the tribal,
and like Ekiba of the Ibani, the war god of the people. As
I have already in this section, as well as in Part I., described
his origin, it is unnecessary to say anything further on this
point. It is, in the eyes of my native informants, extraordinary
how tame and harmless these reptiles have become, all the
more so because the art of snake-charming is unknown to the
priests and diviners. feed principally on the fowls

As they
and vermin which they have driven out,
goats, in lieu of the
it is quite a common event of a morning to find in one hut as
many as four, five, or even more pythons lying in a semi-

comatose condition, after having swallowed some of the live-
stock which they had secured on the premises. Unwelcome
as the sacred visitors are on this account, so great is the
veneration in which they are held on account of the associa-
tions that are connected with them, so strict are the rules, and
so severe are the penalties regarding them, that they are left
unmolested, and the priests in the meantime are informed of
their presence. Even then it is only after a certain ceremony
has been performed by the latter that the snakes can be
removed. After the due observance of this custom, the priests
take up the pythons and carry them, either in their arms or
coiled round their bodies, and deposit them in a certain part
of the hush which is set apart for them. When, however, as
it sometimes happens, these reptiles are of enormous size, they
are carried on special stretchers, which are made for the pur-
pose. The greatest care is taken in handling them, so that
they should neither be hurt nor in any way disturbed or
annoyed. What is more, any victim which has been strangled,
but not eaten by them, is also taken into the bush and made
over to them.
What appears to have astonished my native informants
is the occasional iinruliness of these pampered creatures in

attempting to swallow infants and young children, in other
words, the youngest members of the ancestral circle. "WTiat,
however, is even more enigmatical to the European mind than

this ingratitude, is the fact that even in an emergency of this
personal nature, when human being in whom is
the life of a —
centred all the love of a mother, and who may perhaps be to
the father the last and only hope of perpetuating his own
personality — is at stake, a priest, the High Priest if available,
must be appealed to to rescue the child. Apart from religious
considerations, or from those arising from social etiquette, it is
obvious that the priests are called in because they possess the
personal magnetism and art of manipulation to a much greater
degree than the ordinary citizen. Not only this, however, but
because of the mutuality of the magnetism which is established
between themselves and their charges.
Looked at, however, from a wider standpoint, this mastery
of the priests over the reptiles is in no sense surprising. For
once more wê are face to face with the sincerity of these
sacerdotal diplomats with regard to the practice of their
religion. And it is and practice of ages which
this sincerity
has given them, first of all, confidence and then courage, w^hich
has made them fearless, and enables them to handle these
creatures with ease and impunity. No charming is therefore
necessary, for here we have in association an infinitely closer
bond, and a sounder and more magnetic training. Here wê
see the familiarity which, in place of breeding contempt, estab-
lishes an association between two varieties of natural evolution
that have widely diverged from each other, or rather from
the germ that is common to them both. An association of
masterful sympathy on the part of the human being, and of
appreciation and reciprocity on the part of the animal, —which
lapses, however, in the case of the infants, whose insignificance
and helplessness breaks the reciprocity, and acts also as an
incentive to the animal lust for food.
Any person who by accident or design destroys the life of
one of these reptiles is obliged to report the circumstance to

the High Priest ; and in the event of his failing to do so, he
at once accepts allrisk and responsibility, and brings upon
CHAP. VI EMBODIMENT IN SNAKES 331
himself the react form of ancestral retribution, i.e.

in the
disease or death, which is which it is possible
inevitable, but
to prevent or forestall (although not with any measure of cer-
tainty) by procuring absolution through the priests. Should,
for example, the accident have occurred while the offender was
clearing some portion of the surrounding bush, the act is
expressly forbidden to be spoken of as " one of killing," be-
cause, according to the opinion of the priestly experts, a deity
or spirit does not die, even when the symbolic body has
been destroyed. The Brass word to express this is " bogote,"
meaning literally missed or passed, i.e. an unintentional
wrong. Another term in use is " ocebimote," the interpretation
of which is, done him good, that applies to the penalty
meted out to the destroyer of the sacred reptile. In present-
ing himself before the priests the offender is required to pay,
as a preliminary fee, a bottle of rum or its equivalent in value
of some other kind. The High Priest and priests then sit in
solemn conclave and decide the case on its merits, death or the
imposition of a fine forming the usual penalties which are
inflicted the former decision is imposed in the event of design
;
or wilful intent being proven against the culprit. The death

sentence, however, is remitted and absolution obtained on
payment of a fine amounting from £10 to £12, in addition to
the formula of a special purification ceremony, which consists

in offering a substantial sacrifice, and in having a bath of the
sacred chalk or mud, that is subsequently washed off with
water. In accidental cases the fine imposed amounts, as a
general rule, to the payment of six pieces of cloth and a bottle
of spirits, equal in English money to about a guinea, or accord-
ing to Brass reckoning to seven plates. This curious expres-
sion, " sonoma efere," in the vernacular, is only used in
this particular case, and the explanation of it is that seven
articles — invariably in goods of some description — are to be
paid, and the value of these is expressed in plates, so that
six pieces of cloth and a bottle of rum are considered as an
equivalent for seven plates.
That there some ancient and mysterious association
is
attached to the number seven, and that it is on this account

that the payment in question —
connected with an outrage
against ancestral and sacerdotal emblemism — is reckoned, is a

self-evident inference. For this number, in the eyes of these
natives, has most undoubtedly a sacred significance, although
their weeks consist either of eight days or of four. These rules
and regulations, however, are, so to speak, quite modern, and con-
siderably more relaxed than they were prior to the establish-
ment For formerly the penalty
of the British administration.
for killing python (or, as it still holds good among the
a
interior tribes, of any sacred animal) was death, even in the
case of big chiefs, and in spite of personal wealth, power, or
influence. Further, it was the custom, as it is now in other
parts of the country with regard to all sacred animals, that
when one of these reptiles died from natural causes, contribu-
tions were generally levied, and it was buried with the same
funeral rites and honours that a chief is entitled to.
What proof can be plainer, and what evidence can be
stronger than this, that the rites in question are not made to
the mere animal, or even soul of the animal, but that they are
offered on behalf of the ancestral spirits, who are believed to
be incarcerated in the animal embodiment ?
None, indeed for here, in the very act itself, the proof is
;
absolute and conclusive. So all animals outside the sacred

radius, even when feared, are killed, and if eatable, are eaten
with impunity —
treated, that is, with contempt. So too, as
we have seen, the burial sacrament indispensable —
passport as
it is to the spiritual regions — is considered essential to release
the human soul that has been temporarily degraded to the
level of the animal, in order to elevate it to its legitimate
position of spiritual pre-eminence. It is in fact in this, to a
European, senseless and degrading ceremony, that the key is
to be found which unlocks the whole doctrine of transmigra-
tion. What is more, it confirms in every sense the truth that
the mere animal, or other embodiment, is in every emblematic
instance but the material covering of some human spirit.
The fact of a creeper called piridigi, which is common

to the Delta or West African forests, being venerated as an
emblem because of its resemblance to the python, has already
been alluded to, the offence of injuring it being referred to
as "irite nyanabo," i.e. missed the master, or the king of
snakes. On these occasions the punishment is invariably in

the nature of a fine, accompanied by a ceremony of absolution,
partaking of a sacrifice and offering to the offended deities.

It is unmistakably to fear, primarily of the animal, but
subsequently, and in a much more pronounced sense, of the
abiding ancestral spirit, germ of animal emblemism

that the
can be traced. For natural man saw and felt a power not
only in the elements of Nature, but in the animal world around
him, which, as forming part of his own personal environment,
was altogether unavoidable ;and he had taught himself to
believe that this mysterious and omniscient power, whether it
made itself felt in the lightning, in the water, or in the serpent,
was derived entirely from the vitality and force of spirits who
at one time had been human like himself; and he learned to
fear it all the more as being a power that, because of the
divinity of its descent and its connection with the Supreme,
was infinitely greater, and more of a mystery than it would
otherwise have been. For of course to him animals had a
lower but inferior power of their own, while as regards this
question of divine descent, it must be remembered that even
disembodiment implied a pre-existing state of embodiment, so
that disembodied spirits, whom he looked on as entirely evil,
had once, according to his own belief, lived as human beings

in possession of human bodies. In other words, that in spite
of existing disembodiment they were primarily and essentially
human spirits, who in losing their dualism had lost their
humanity.
Nowhere is the unseen power which we have been speaking
of felt so much as in the antipathy, amounting to repulsion
and even dread, that is, as a general rule, entertained for snakes,
a feeling which is not confined to the human element, but that
extends to the animal. No more practical illustration of the
assertion that it is to the instinct of fear that one of the
primary sources of religion is to be traced, and no better or

more convincing example of the intensity and sincerity of
natural man's religion can be adduced than the faith which is
to be seen both in India and Southern Nigeria, which forbids
its devotees from killing the snake that has bitten or crushed
a man to death. Here is to be found not only the origin of

the ancestral cult, but the germ of that naturalism from which
all religion has proceeded, a process or channel that has since
radiated into the numerous creeds which are now in existence.

For the fear of killing the snake is in no sense attached to
a dread of the reptile itself, or to the reptilian soul (which, once

it is killed, cannot kill again), but to the fact that the snake
is not only symbolical of the ancestral deities, but that it
actually carries within body one of the spirits whose legions

its
are beyond all computation. So that the offence committed

is an outrage against the divine ancestors, in anticipation of
whose retribution — in other words, retributive react for the
act of commission — fear is at once generated. What in their
eyes makes the matter worse and the fear greater is the fact
that it has to be looked at from the standpoint of vengeance,
which implies either an uninterrupted course of vindictive

action on the part of the ancestral deities or death with dis-
embodiment. For where the emblem chosen has been a
venomous or treacherous reptile, such as a snake or a crocodile,
e.g. it is reasonable to trace the selection back to some ancestor
who was especially vindictive and crafty in his nature, therefore

all the more to be hated and feared.
One important feature, which may have escaped the notice

of the reader, must here be pointed out. This is the fact that
on the death of a snake, or other ancestral emblem, it is purely
for reasons of dogma that the priests do not allow the matter
to be spoken of as one of killing, and further, that they do not
admit the death of the indwelling ancestral spirit. For, as we
have seen in Section IV. Ch. iv. (&), a death of this nature is en-
tirely a question of mutual affinities, so that if the animal dies
the human spirit inside it dies also. On the same principle,
therefore, the doom of the man who designedly, or even acci-
dentally, kills an ancestral emblem (for these natives, with regard
to the effect produced, do not discriminate between design and
accident), or who when that emblem is a tree lops off even a
single twig, is death, and eventually disembodiment.
So it is that out of deference to this inevitable judgment
of a relentless and inexorable Karma, the Hindu and Delta
natives — those to whom the snake is symbolical — avoid killing
snakes. It is quite evident, therefore, that an attitude such as
this of combined respect and fear for a reptile or animal on

account of its ancestral emblemism must have originated, as we
sa\Y in Section V., in the first and exceedingly remote instance,
from the fear of the animal, and then from the fear inspired
by the ancestor in a double sense
; first of all, in his own
person, and subsequently in the spirit. For having within him

the divine or spiritual power of reproducing his own species,
and of living again in. his own offspring, both in the flesh, and
from time to time in the spirit, as well as of having possessed
the power of life and death, which the offices of patriarch and
spirit father had each conferred on him, it was only natural
that a dual feeling of fear and veneration for him should have
evolved, first of all, from personal association, and then from
spiritual control. Going still farther, down to the very root
of this dual association, it is (as we have already seen in
Sections I. and II.) easy to trace it to those instincts of fear
and veneration which in the lower or animal stage had only
lain dormant because of the defect of that further and higher
development which, when it did evolve, inspired them with
that power of intelligence and expression which at once raised
the animal into a conscious and reasoning being.
The deeper I have gone the more conclusive has it appeared
to me that the entire question of animal emblemism is ancestral,
the connection that existed between the animal and the human
phases being utilised and converted into an association of
convenience, to suit human needs and exigencies.
CHAPTER VII
EMBODIMENT IN NATURAL ELEMENTS AND PHENOMENA
It now remains for us to examine briefly the attitude of these
natives towards those features of Nature that we regard as

either elements or phenomena. Looking at this question from
their standpoint there are but two divisions in Nature as it
appears to them (1)

: The ordinary elements of earth, water,
fire, and air,which as being in actual contact with them are
distinctive and integral units of their own personal environ-
ment. (2) The ordinary and visible phenomena, which, however,
are subdivided as follows : first, into those such as lightning,
thunder, rain, wind, etc., which, although out of their own

reach, have the ability to make their power felt to some purpose
and effect, which, in their language, can strike to injure or to
kill in the form of drought, as well as of fire and, secondly, ;
those like the sky, the sun, the moon, stars, which are
and the
so far removed and
as to be seen even felt, but without injury
or danger —
on the contrary, with more or less advantage to
themselves.
In nothing is this classification seen so clearly as in the
differentiation of their attitude towards these various natural
objects. The elements of earth, fire, and water, with which

their associations are not merely personal, but proprietary, are
in evidence in every part of the Delta, irrespective of tribe
or locality, as symbols of especial reverential and universal
adoration.
Next in importance to these from a symbolical aspect are
those which, while more to be feared than the contagious
elements, on account of the unexpected suddenness of their
336
CHAP. VII EMBODIMENT IN NATURAL ELEMENTS 337
actions, are less dreaded because of the distance, infrequency,

and inconstancy of their associations, and which in consequence
are by no means either so universally or so respectfully
venerated. For while earth, water, fire, and air are ever with
them in their everyday lives, even in their homes and house-
holds, thunder, lightning, rain, and wind are only perceptible
at intervals, and then not always as a baneful influence.
The most distant phenomena of all, except in very rare
and specific cases, are entirely ignored. Indeed, during my
long and varied experience of these natives the only exception
to this rule was that of the Ibo clan, to the north of Nkwerri,
whose name for the Supreme Being was Egwe, the Sky, a name
which synchronises with their conception of the original father-
hood, in the same sense that the earth is recognised as the
first and great mother. Yet the fact remains that in many of
the Ju-Ju houses in the Ibo interior I myself saw rude clay
images, purporting to be emblems of the sun, moon, rainbow,
and stars. This in itself is evidence of the existence among
these people of a worship or adoration of the phenomena, as
well as of the Phallic principle, but with regard to the former
more particularly, it is not an adoration that is prominent.
Like all their worship of natural objects, it is more specific
than general.
More than once it has been pointed out
in these pages
with regard to animals, and more particularly objects, that it
is neither the size nor yet the appearance which impresses

these natives. The material insignificance of embodiments is
of no significance to them, because the embodiments of them-

selves are incapable of either effort or result, and they judge a
matter entirely by the consequences which are to be expected.
The cause, too, is a matter of indifference as compared with the
effect it can produce, which must be considered and check-
mated, for with them the cause, as a rule, is not very far to
seek. It is the spirit power which is inside the object that
carries all the weight and all the significance. So a harmless
pill or potion may in ever so small a compass conceal a power
that in a few short hours is able to strike the strongest man a
mortal blow. In exactly the same sense it is in the proximity
of the object to the person which, in their eyes, constitutes all
z
the greater danger, in spite of the fact that, according to their

belief, distance is enchantment of that power
no obstacle to the
which lies outside the natural, but if in any sense an impediment

it is certainly a more mysterious and dangerous one than in
the case of the ordinary natural operations. It is this seeming

disconnection which can be bridged over by a power that can
effect its purpose without either association or connection,
which, as the all potent element of witchcraft, is in consequence
the most dreaded of any. In this sense, therefore, i.e. in the

inscrutable mystery which envelops a power so far-reaching
yet so deadly, the outside powers are more to be feared than
the natural. For with regard to the latter, in spite of the
distance that separates the operator from his victims, there is
in their estimation a distinct connection between them ; as, e.g.,
when lightning strikes a man or a tree, an act which, even in

its relation to the latter object, is purely spiritual, i.e. the act
of the lightning spirit towards the spirit in the tree ; or when
the wind disturbs the waters, so as to upset the canoe and cause
loss of life ; or yet again, when rain is responsible for the
inundation that submerges a homestead with some of its inmates.
It is in this unmistakable evidence of contact that the real
differentiation between the natural and the extra-natural is to
be traced. fact, is the line of demarcation which
This, in
divides the natural or personal from the unnatural or impersonal,
in other wôrds, all those units of nature which are connected
by personal association with the ancestral spirits of humanity
on the one hand, and all those units that lie outside and
beyond this natural state of spiritualised embodiment, on the
other.
But even this potential factor, which despises the in-
superable obstacle of distance, cannot in reality do without
association of some sort, so at least their own experience
teaches us. For it is not only obliged to employ human
agents, but actually utilises certain persons in every household
in the Delta — a fact which exactly doubles the intensity of
its potentialities, because it is this combination of outside and
inside forces, this connection of the impersonal with the
personal, which is as irresistible as it is inexorable. For
within the restricted limits of their philosophy it is seemingly
impossible to operate in the direction of either reproduction or

dissolution without the utilisation of those factors which either
connect and associate, or, vice versa, disconnect and dissociate
the spiritual and the material.
It has alreadybeen pointed out that every matter which
lies beyond the range of native comprehension at once becomes
a mystery. It is not surprising, therefore, that these people
live in an atmosphere which is thick and impenetrable with
mysticism, so that the very atmosphere itself has grown into a
mystery so much so, in fact, that the ordinary air they breathe,
;
and even the flitting shadows, have been spiritualised and

made intelligent at the same time that they are materialised
and tangible. It is only to be expected that to them the
occultis not merely a region of shadows and illusions, but a
world of substance, of matter, and of realities, each one of

which is a separate conundrum in itself. In this irrational
and emotional manner it is that the incomprehensible and the
mystical go hand in hand, so that the greater the incompre-
hensibility the greater of course the mystery, and as such
more a matter for silent and reverential awe than one for
active speculation and hypothesis. Not that these natural
philosophers are devoid of intelligence and the power of
speculation. For, as before remarked, they are still observant,
curious, and imitative, so that conjecture cannot be altogether
wanting, but keeping their thoughts to themselves, and looking
on inquisitiveness as bad form, they are practically silent,
especially where the European, whose ridicule they fear, is
concerned, so that their philosophy is absolutely lost in the
humid air of their tropical environment. Yet no matter how
great the mystery, it is of much less significance to these
timorous creatures, of little or no consequence, in fact, if in
their experience removed to work them mischief.
it is too far
For although the measurement of time and distance is merely
a vague and limited conception, which altogether lies within
the realm of the known in arriving at certain conclusions, they
very naturally do so by their own limited standard, which is
entirely one of associations, a something definite, which to
them comprehensible, by connecting together actual persons,
is
events, and places with their own personal experiences of them.

So that in weighing up the value or significance of a

mystery, that is, when they have first of all satisfied them-
selves regarding its possession by a spirit, these practical yet

ignorant people do so, as a rule, from only two directions
(1) its attitude and proximity towards themselves (2) the ;
range, compass, and capacity of its powers. In a few words,

then, the nearer and more personal the contiguity or associa-
tion, the greater is the suspicion and the fear inspired against
the object. So that it is quite possible for the merest trifle of
matter — a tiny feather, e/j., which can be blown away as easily
as an air bubble, — if spiritualised, to inspire greater fear among

them than the deep-toned thunder, the raging tornado of wind,
and the fiery lightning. In consequence of this, the counter-
move, or compromise of sacrifice, is essential in exactly the
same increasing and comparative ratio. For it is in sacrifice
that the true efficacy of propitiation lies, and the more substan-
tial this is with regard both to the quality and the quantity
of the flesh offered, the greater is its spiritual potentiality.

Needless to remark, therefore, that when there is no need for
propitiation in any given direction, the evidence is entirely in
favour of the assumption that the spirits, on that side at least,
are temporarily favourable. Nowhere, for instance, is this idea

seen to such perfection that is worked out in actual practice,
as we have seen it in their use of medicines vide Chapter
v.. Section V. —
which are carried on the person and kept
in every household, in order to prevent those more immediate
dangers that persons are exposed to, which vary with their
calling or occupations, or in the event of failure in this direc-
tion, to preserve or restore them. Indeed, the universal
adoration which is given to these medicines is the most prac-
tical, as it is the most incontestable, proof of the virtue and
significance inwhich they are held and the same remarks
;
apply with equal force in regard to the natural elements and

phenomena. So that it is only possible to value the signifi-
cance of the veneration in which these are esteemed by
comparing them with the emblemism which prevails. For as
practice is irrefutable evidence of the existence of belief,
emblemism is the tangible expression of existing practice. And

as I have more than once pointed out with regard to these
natives, emblems are not venerated unless they have an in-
dwelling spirit who sanctifies them, and to whom the adoration

is addressed. So that if it is true that the proof of a pudding
is in the eating, it is still more true of emblemism, that it is
direct evidence relative to the adoration of certain spirits.

But as enough has been said on this matter to make it
thoroughly intelligible and explicit to the reader, we will pass
on to a closer and more detailed examination.
CHAPTEE VIII
THE EARTH : THE SPIRIT AND ADORATION OF IT
Commencing first of all with the earth, it is quite evident that

in every single household or community in the Delta, be the
tribe what it may, this familiar element inspires in these
people a feeling that is almost indescribable from the European
standpoint. Because it is not merely a feeling of reverence, com-
bined with a deep sense of their own exclusively personal and
proprietary right, for this applies also to water, for which they
have not the same affection or regard nor is it merely that ;
feeling which makes the non-alienation of land an impossibility.

It is an inherited tendency, in which all the emotion and
reason that they are capable of has joined issue, in the firm
conviction that while on the one hand they receive their
spiritual existence direct from the Sky-God, or Spirit-Father,
the human or material part of them is of the earth, earthy.
In this way they regard her as the great mother god, whose
first conception by the great He, or Fertiliser, who came down
from above, made her conceive and produce all those natural
forms that are still in evidence all round them and the con- ;
tinuity of whose existence is dependent on the continuance of

spiritual animation or reconception, which means that, according
to them, reproduction is a dual process of association between

two energies, the higher spiritual and the lower material.
Traced to its source, it is not surprising that they place
the spiritual before the human, as the higher and the more
essential energy, because to them it is the animating, or, so to
speak, life- and intelligence-giving principle. Here, then, we
have the true explanation of the superiority of man, or the
342
CHAP. VIII THE EARTH : SPIRIT AND ADORATION OF IT 343
energy over woman as tlie conceiving energy. From

fertilising
this idea we
get the master and owner, on the one hand, and
the bearer or producer, and later slave or property, on the
other. This idea, subsequent, as it was of course, to the original
reason of physical considerations, easily explains the subservi-
ency of the female position, even under religions such as
Mohammedanism and Christianity. Yet, strange to say,
although in the opinion of the natural forbear of these people,

the sky, or the Supreme Being who lived there, was, as the
distant and inaccessible animator and life-giver of all nature,
the highest and supremest of all beings, he first of all
looked downward to the earth, as to the first great mother of
his kind and of all the things which dwelt thereon and were
contained therein and
; it was not until sometime afterwards,
when his intelligence had expanded, and observation, combined

with curiosity, had excited speculation, that he began to look
upwards for an explanation of the life mystery. Looked at
from his own restricted aspect, everything he possessed out-
side his own person, everything which preserved and prolonged
his own precious existence —
shelter, food, and drink were all —
products of that earth on which he lived. So that it required
no great stretch of imagination on his part for him to surmise
and believe that even his own person belonged to her. And
just as he saw plants, and trees, and hills, and stones growing
out of the earth, so he conceived of his own kind and of
animals that they had also at some former period proceeded
from the same great source. But how ? was a question which
puzzled, and is still puzzling many generations of natural
people, as it has mystified all the great thinkers of modern
civilisation. For natural man had neither precedent nor
association by which he could bridge over the hiatus that
existed between his own and the animal species who repro- —
duced themselves —
and the vegetal and material creation
which was reproduced by the earth, so that it is in no sense
surprising that he was at a loss how to arrive at a satisfactory
explanation of the mystery. Yet, this unbridgable gap, that
eventually led him to place the human and the animal species
above the rest of creation, was but another step upward in the
ladder of speculation.
It may be, it is at least possible, that seeing, as natural

man so often did, the reflection of his own image on the sun-
burnished mirror of some sheet of water —
that appeared to
him, as it were, to between the earth that he was on
lie
and the sky which hung above him —

made him ponder and
reflect. For in addition to his own image he saw the sky
reflected, and when he looked upwards and saw the actual
thing itself, " eye to sky," as he himself would express it, it
occurred to him that there was little or no difference between
the reality and the reflection. It is more than probable,
in fact, that the latter to him was as much a reality as
the former. This was not all, however. For having looked
downward and then upward, he discovered in time a distinct
connection —which afterwards developed into a close and
personal association —
not only between the two skies, as they
appeared to him, but also between the sky and the earth.
Because in the real sky he saw the substance, and in the
reflection the shadow, in other words, the spirit a picture ;
which, the more often he looked at it, grew through his most
sentient perceptions, out of much unconscious thought, followed
by conscious speculation into a real experience first of all, and
then into a firm conviction that rooted itself in his inmost
consciousness. Indeed, taking the egotistic nature of the man
into consideration, it is possible to conjecture that the reflec-
tion of his own image, along with the sky-soul, ended, after
intense concentration regarding the shape or form of the Sky
Being, in a phantasmal conception of him in his own human
image. Or yetagain, possibly it may be that, led by the
reflection, he cast his eyes upwards and saw through the
darkening shadows of approaching night a phantasmal picture
of his first great Father in the descending gloom, which ap-
peared to him as the shadow or soul of the sky.
And when we consider that to these excessively natural
people a shadow and a picture are one and the same thing,
presenting, as they do, a similar perception and idea, it is
all the more easy to trace the connection of this idea right
through from beginning to end. Further, when we find that
in this word, Onyinyo, which stands both for shadow and
picture, there is a distinct affinity between it and Ihinye,
CHAP. VIII THE EARTH: SPIRIT AND ADORATION OF IT 345
which means a thing or property, and that Ihinye implies

equally mystery or wisdom, it enables us to trace the
association of ideas that in the mind of natural man led up to
the formation of the Creator merely from the contemplation of
a shadow picture of the sky-soul. When we take into con-
sideration the dense ignorance and the egregious vanity of
these and all natural people, it is not in the least surprising
that human comprehension wâs altogether unable to soar above

the conception of a divine image that was in every respect a
likeness of its own form. Because, apart from the very reason-
able and rational consideration that any phase of N'ature which
is higher in its moral or intellectual scope than the human we
know^ but do not thoroughly comprehend, is a phase that is abso-
lutely unintelligible, because it is unknown and unknowable, it
is all the more surprising when we analyse the spiritual, i.e. the
highest conception it has attained to, to find that it is based
on the bare evidence of a mere mental phantasm, which has
emanated or been thrown out of his thoughts by an excess of
concentration on a subject that was in every sense a personal
desire or interest —
when, in fact, we discover that the spiritual
is simply a detachment from a shadow picture of the human
substance or reality. For at the period we speak of human

intelligence was still undeveloped and practically under the
sway of the emotions but as the; gift of speech and the use
of hands were faculties that were confined to the two-legged
and talking animal, the knowledge of this experience undoubt-

edly accentuated his egoism to such a considerable extent that
it eventually culminated in the creation by himself or rather —
in a personal evolution — of the Creator, from whom he after-
wards traced his own descent — a divine egoism which, in a

word, was merely the result of mental obliquity.
The present attitude of these Delta natives, except that
it lacksthe philosophical data in support of its beliefs, is
exactly as it has been here described. Indeed, gathered, as
these experiences have been, simply and solely from the customs,
practices, fables, and conversations of the more intelligent
minority, it is feasible to follow, step by step, as I have

endeavoured to do in these pages, the entire religious concep-
tion, as it originated in the dream and shadow soul, and ends
at least as a temporary measure in the spiritual preserves.

For with regard to these natural elements or phenomena,
emblemism is peculiarly significant, insomuch that the emblem
— idol of clay, or wood, or natural object, as it may be — is not
by any means either invariably or necessarily inspired by,
although it is representative of, the specific deity ; but it may
be inspired by one of the countless spirit myrmidons who are
at his beck and call, and who co-operate with him in his
natural operations. Indeed, according to popular belief, the
deities in question, without in any sense interfering with their
own especial operations, are in a position to detach numerous
spirits in various directions in connection with all outlying
functions that appertain to their own specific department. In
other words, they are but heads of certain departments, just as
the patriarchs in the flesh are heads of their own households,
which association undoubtedly inspired the spiritual conception.
In this personal and connected sense the wind god of these
people is said to control the winds and breezes that are at his
command the tornado deity, the combined storm forces of
;
licfhtninc^, thunder, wind, and rain the sun o'od, the li^^ht and
;
other various fire elements, and so on. In the same literal

and natural wây do they trace a connection between the sun,
or light-giver, and the fire which burns on their hearths, and
which they find in trees and stones the fire which to them —
at once becomes a sun spirit, connected with the lightning
which strikes the tree as well as the stone.
—
Thus it is that Anwuru smoke is, as it has been for —
ages, the sun-burning, or, as it is in another Ibo dialect,
Awunroku, or sun-fire, and so, for exactly the same reason,
to his modern successors a European rocket is Oku-mo,
or fire spirit. On the same lines, there is little or no
practical difference between the wind, the breath of the
nostrils, and the spirit essence that animates all Xature,
while Ofufu, destruction, undoubtedly derived from the
is
same root as on the principle that it is a

Ufufe, wind,
destructive agent. Hence, again, that connection which
explains the kinship of man to the animal, and the animal to
the vegetal, as being one with the animating principle that
proceeds from the Generator or Supreme Creator. It is
CHAP. VIII THE EARTH : SPIRIT AND ADORATION OF IT 347
possible to connect this term, which in their tongues represents

wind and breath, and which is affiliated with the spirit, to the
actual sky, and in this way to the sky-soul or Creator himself.
The whole question, looked at in a natural, therefore limited
sense, resolves itself into one of attachment and relativeness.
In this rational way only is it possible to trace the
meanino' of the Ibo term lo'wi-kala, or he who came down
from above, as the sky god, or maker and owner of the
entire world, that is, all of it which is visible to the eye of
natural man. For the fact that the sky was ever present,
by night as well as by day, embracing all other phenomena,
including his own mother earth, which in comparison was puny
and insignificant, most assuredly gave him the idea of its omni-
presence and omnipotence, which resulted in the absolute and
unapproachable supremacy of the infinite.
Whatever their ancestors may have thought with regard
to the attitude of the supreme god in relation to themselves,
it isquite certain that his relegation to a position of benefi-
cent passivity has not been the result of any modern innovation
or reform. This, like every item of their religion, has been
handed down to them through countless ages. For just as
their ancestors found it unnecessary to propitiate the Creator
— except once annually, and in crises or emergencies, when
all other mediators had failed, —
and the worship of the lesser
sun, moon, and star deities appeared to them a mere waste of
the substance and spirit of sacrifice, so the natives of the
present day ignored them, and have also left them to their
fate as harmless and beneficent operators, of whom they have
no dread.
But in spite of natural man's patriarchal ideas, and his
regard of the female energy as the lesser, that innate feeling of
awe and reverence which the incomprehensible always excites
in an impulsive, emotional temperament, produced in him a
veneration for the earth that, as we have seen from a
European aspect, is indefinable, and which to this day is, as it
were, a religion in itself. Yet a comparative and inductive
analysis of the cult as it once existed, and as it now exists,
leads us to the conclusion that not so much the ideal, or the
ardour, as the original significance and practice of this cult
has most certainly fallen into abeyance. For it is not exactly

to the earth as one gigantic emblem, and yet again not
entirely to the vast spirit which animates her that these
natives offer adoration, but to the household gods ; in other
words, to the deified ancestral spirits whose human embodi-
ments have long since returned into her ample bowels.
Indeed, as far as she, the mother of these gods, is concerned,
their adoration, although sincere and reverential, is silent and
unexpressed. Not, however, because their belief in the
mother god has diminished, but because, as in the case of the
father god, the necessity for propitiation has ceased to exist
on account of her general goodness and beneficence, her
inexhaustible and luxuriant fertility, and because other de-
partmental and domestic deities, such, e/j., as the crop or
agriculture supervisor, the and
superintendent of hunting
fishing, the forest and water agents, receive as myrmidons and
mediums a meed of the adoration that in olden times was no
doubt made to her direct.
It is in this inscrutable, therefore spiritual, and all the
more mysterious, fecundity, which to them is the acme, and
still more the practical personification of the true beauty and
motive of existence, that while it inspires them with a

reverence for the universal mother, enables them to recognise
in the maternity of women all that ismost beautiful in them.
Yet, as we have seen, while giving them credit for their share
of the transaction, and while respecting them, as they do the
greater mother, for the fruits of their labours, they only do so
in a secondary sense, as being the result of a higher and
seminal co-operation, a principle which at bottom is most
undoubtedly responsible for the present undignified position
that even civilised women still occupy.
Thus it is that while the passive goodness of the father
is annually acknowledged by a special ceremony and feast,
and his favour invoked for the year to come, the more active
and prolific beneficence of the mother is only indirectly
recognised in two yearly formulas that are made to the crop
god — the first a harvest festival of thanksgiving for the new
crops, i.e. the supply received and the second a similar cere-
;
mony at the close of the year, as an invocation of blessing and

prosperity on the crops about to be planted, i.e. the supply

expected. For in no rational sense do these natives recog-
nise their own manual efforts, but they believe themselves to
be merely agents at the mercy of the agricultural spirits and ;
as the commissariat or supply branch is one with agriculture,

and the meteorological aspect of the question is also under
spiritual control, their position is one of constant jeopardy,
that all the year round at various intervals necessitates the
preventive and infallible remedy of sacrifice.
Yet at Nsugbe — a farming district in the interior behind

Onitsha — the earth herself, as I found, is not only held in
great veneration, but worshipped prior to the second of the
festivals above alluded to ; this custom, however, is practically
confined to agricultural districts. But if no greater or more
special offerings are made to the goddess, the veneration
apart from the personal feeling of inseparable attachment
which these people have for the earth, is demonstrated daily,
almost hourly, in many smaller ways, e.g. by formulas which,
interpreted in a literal sense, are seemingly trivial in them-
selves, but the spirit of which involves a hidden meaning and
a deeper significance than is associated with the mainspring of
their religion.
So it is that in connection with their various ancestral
emblems which are to be found in every household, town, or
community in the Delta, it is usual either before eating or
drinking to place on the ground, as the Ibani do, to throw
or,
in the air a small portion of food and water, and as this is

being done a petition in the following or similar words is
addressed to the manes on behalf of their descendants, " Eat,
drink, and live, ," here the name or names of the
departed spirits are mentioned, " for the welfare and prosperity
of thy children and household, and be pleased to protect them
from all malign influences, and prevent them from falling on
any of its members."
This offering, which is the practical rendering of the
Christian grace before and after meals (unquestionably an
evolution from the more ancient custom), is also addressed in
practically the same strain, but of course in the specific
directions of friendship or patronage, either by men to the

shades of their most intimate friends, or by slaves towards

their late masters.
In addition to this, however, in every community through-
out the Delta, but especially among the interior tribes, food
offerings and libations are also offered to the divinities who,
under different names, are worshipped as the town protector
or preserver —
and who as it happens are in some instances
goddesses —
an adoration which in the same sense most un-
doubtedly applies and includes the great mother.
to This
custom, as I have seen it in hundreds of Ibo and other towns,
is performed religiously and without shrinking, even in the

presence of white strangers, particularly with regard to Lhe
presentation of the kola nut and palm wine, as a mark of
welcome and friendship on all special occasions, in addition to
the regular routine, as a tribute of reverence and gratitude to
the town protector —who by the way in many instances com-
bines with preservation the role of diviner — for protecting
them from all harm. What is more, no meal is ever eaten
and no liquid is ever drunk until this act of grace has been
fulfilled. In the same way, no native of Southern Nigeria will
leave his household premises to go merely outside his own
confines, even amongst the people of his own community, with-
out a practical appeal to the household medicine or protective
spirit,which consists of dipping the hand into the bitter water
and rubbing it on the body —
an appeal that, in the event of a
contemplated journey, or equally on the return from one,
assumes the importance of a sacrificial offering, which is
invariably a goat. This is done to obtain the propitiation of
the bush or water genii through ancestral mediation, and in
the latter instance it is a thanksgiving for a safe return.
When the family is poor the offering generally takes the form
of a few eggs or plantains and palm nuts placed at the shrine,
and possibly a bottle of spirits to the local priest or diviner.
Ordinarily speaking, the dangers of a journey by land or
water are more or less even, except when existing conditions
are reversed, as, e.g., when an interior native is obliged to
travel in a canoe on roughand big water near the sea or if ;
the coaster has to make a walk through the bush at some

distance from his town. In either case, however, the idea and
the result expected are the same, and the act of propitiation
is merely a natural form of insurance against all risks ; for, as
we have seen, there is in their estimation no such thing as
accident. And just as among some of the tribes — the Efik
and Ibibio, e.g. — an elephant's tusk may
a tortoise-shell or
constitute an Imbiam emblem, upon which the
or sacred
insurance can be effected, so among the Oru or Ijo an
empty gin bottle or the tooth of a hippopotamus embodies a
symbol of intrinsic significance to them, forming a reminder, a
bond, or an honourable pledge. It is regarded, in fact, as a
compact, with the head of the house or priest as witness,
between their ancestors and themselves on the one side, and
the aggressive spirits on the other, that they should not be
molested.
Finally, as an excellent because thoroughly practical
illustration of what means for
this feeling of earth veneration
them, it is usual, when two communities are going to war with
each other, for the people belonging to them to take an oath
of allegiance to the land and to the persons of their fathers
to fight valiantly for the common cause. This is done in the
following manner. Collecting together before the emblem of
the earth — Ani, as the Ibo call it — under and
their leaders,
the Odogu war captain, all
or the members of the community,
including the women, take a small piece of the earth of the
emblem and mix it either with water or tombo, which,
administered to them by the Okpara or priests, they are then
and there obliged to drink as evidence that they are of one
mind. This custom is identical in principle with that which
enforces the drinking of the blood of a legitimate victim, or
captive taken in war, and is connected also with the ceremony
of blood brotherhood ; for there is a bond of association in the
blood of the human being with the person of the being him-
self, as he in turn is connected with the earth, and the earth
again with the spirit of the great generator. This oneness of
mind is nothing after all but a unity, not so much of purpose
and of the common interests, as a oneness of the animating
spirit, which, as having in their belief been generated and
imparted by the creator to the ancestral spirit fathers, is a
purely family matter, from which there can be no legitimate
dissent or detachment ; because outside this ancestral oneness

all isunnatural and uneven.
It is not possible, however, to conclude this chapter with-
out one more reference to the allegory quoted in Chapter iv.
of Part II., in which an Ibo chief impresses upon his visitor
that it is not tlie land that is responsible for the wickedness
of a country, but the ijeople in it, who, animated and encouraged
by various antipathetic spirits, work in such a way as to dis-
turb the harmony that would otherwise prevail. For it is evident
that in the philosophy which is here enunciated, there is
indicated a natural reverence for the earth as the first great
mother and producer of all that is in being," but especially
''
of food, and all which nourishes and makes for increase :
therefore, as that of a bountiful and gracious goddess, who was

selected as such by the first great father to be his co-partner
or co-operator.
CHAPTER IX
WATER : THE SPIRITS OF THE SEA OR ESTUARIES
Although water is also venerated, it is in every respect a

veneration not of confidence but of fear of the unknown, so
that essentially it is a distinctly inferior form of veneration to
that offered to the earth, which is venerated with gratitude as
a protector, preserver, and provider of food, and also of water
For the benefit of this very needful quencher of thirst, washer
down of food, and cleanser of the body is looked on as more
in the light of an earth product, whose source, though spiritual,
is yet a mystery to them, and in no sense the work of the
water spirits, in spite of the fact that it comes within the

scope of their department —
whose head is the spirit principle
of water —
if aggravated or injured by human actions, to stop
the supply a matter that was alluded to in Chapter IV.,

:
Section IV.
It is not so much the water itself that is feared as the
spirits of various kinds, usually in the forms of animals, of
the fish and reptile class more particularly, who are believed
to live in water, and who are responsible for any malicious
activity that it displays, and who as a class are put down to be evil
and inimical. This latter phase — curiously enough, as it may
appear to the European — more especially to the
applies spirits
of fresh water than to those of the sea. For among all the
coast tribes who live in touch with the Atlantic, or the rough
water of the open estuaries, not only are certain good spirits
to be found, but, with the exception of the Creator, some at
least of their tutelary deities are connected with or of the sea.
So if we examine their traditions, but above all their
353 2 A
emblemism, we find that although some of these are to do with

water, others again are connected with and of the land. Yet
both again are so unmistakably associated wdth or related
to each other, that it is quite possible to explain this other-

wise inscrutable affinity through the spiritual connection or
oneness which in their minds exists between the two great

elements. In other words, that the divinities in question are
of ancestral origin. So that after all there is nothing curious
in the dualism of their character, as contrasted with the one-
sided inimicality of the purely fresh-water spirits.
This is entirely in agreement with the fact that one and
all of these tribes — Jekri, Ijo, Oru, Brass, New Calabar, Ibani,
Andoni, and Efik — came originally from the interior.
Thus, for example, some years ago — prior to the intro-
duction of Christianity — among the Ibani the following were,
as they still are to the Opobo section, the principal gods of
the community, viz.:
Adum, the father of all gods, but not of the creator
Tamuno, who is of the water, and espoused to Okoba, the

principal and mother of Eberebo, all
goddess, three being
symbolised by wooden figures of a man, a woman, and a boy,
the latter a very intelligent, subtle, and brave deity, whom
children were and are dedicated to and named after, the act con-
ferring on them the precious inheritance of his good qualities

in general, and of his courage in particular.
Simingi, literally the bad water, recognised as an evil
or inimical deity, inasmuch as he is only and purely a sacri-
ficial god, ix. a god whom it is essential to propitiate by
sacrifice, to avert the wrath and destruction which he is
capable of exerting.
Nvimkpo, like Okoba and Eberebo, is a land god, whose
emblem is a snake, which is forbidden to be killed, and
formerly in Bonny was considered most sacred by the Alison
household ; a fact that may possibly explain the association
which has existed between the Ibani and Brass, although of
course it points equally to a connection with the nearer Ijo

tribes, or the more distant Ibo of the interior.
Ekulowi, a goddess with her own priestesses, upon whose
emblem of wood it is the custom to swear all men who
CHAP. IX WATER: SPIRITS OF THE SEA OR ESTUARIES 355
bring cliarges or accusations against women — in a word, the

champion and protectress of female interests.
Lastly, Oluburu, a god about whom I could get no
information beyond the fact that he had been derived from
the Andoni, and evidently an introduction, presumably through
intermarriaf^ê, which has been forgotten. Besides these there
are, of course, the deities belonging toand representing the
interests of every household, as being not merely peculiar but
personal to it, its own hereditary and exclusively private
property —spiritual heirlooms, in a word —
^just as, and because
in fact, the household is related to and possessed by the

deities in question. Similar to if not identical with the
Aryan and Yastosh Pati, these ancestral spirits of the
Pitris
Delta are but a lesser and more recent edition of the cjreater
— yet not exactly more important and certainly less personal
— gods belonging to the community, who, at some remote
period, had occupied the same position of domestic guardians,
prior to the exjânsion of the community, and when it was but
a household itself
It is advisable for the reader tomaster this very distinct
and lucid idea and connection between the gods
of association
of the household and those of the community. For as he
reads on he will see that, irrespective of tribe or locality, this
personal or ancestral relationship is the governing principle
and that the paternal, maternal, and filial deities, in addition
to certain deified departmental heads, varying with and de-
pendent on local conditions, are common to all. Among the
coast tribes the veneration in which the paternal god is held
expresses itself most expansively in the reverence which is
offered to the spirits of the sea and rivers, whose number is
legion. This is best seen in the numberless shrines, or toy

Ju-Ju houses, that exist on the banks of the streams and creeks
innumerable of the entire Delta, and which are usually placed
in the most conspicuous positions in the vicinity of towns,
farms, habitations, landing-places, and at dangerous corners or
angles where tidal influences are more felt, or cross currents
are experienced, or where fatal accidents have occurred and
lives have been lost. Built of palm branches in a rectangular
form, these miniature temples are open at the sides, but in the
middle of them a fathom of cloth, generally white, though
sometimes hung in the form of a curtain, behind which

red, is
is a small wooden figure, that is supposed

to represent some
particular water spirit, and also some plates, manillas, and
bottles. Fruit and also meat offerings are often made to

them;êspecially on the part of those whose intention it is to
make a journey by water, or who have just returned from one

the former being a sacrifice of propitiation, and the latter a
thanksgiving service for a safe and sound return. Some of
these shrines, however, are specially erected, more particularly

by the Kula people —
a small fishing community of mixed
origin, Oru presumably —
in honour of Adumu, the mother
of all water deities, who has a yearly festival all to herself.

Verysuggestive, with regard to these spiritual water babies,
is the play or celebration of Own, which
in Brass as it is —
among all the other coast tribes —
is the representation of
certain specific spirits who and belong only to

are familiar,
their own people and localities. These Owu, who are of
course very numerous, are believed to come up the river out
of the depths of the sea, either to sport or rest themselves on
land. So these doll's houses have been constructed to enable
them to carry out their intentions. So too, by anticipating
the wants of the spirits, they fulfil equally the purpose of
their devotees in currying — say rather in palm -oiling and
peppering — the favour that is so indispensable to their well-
being and existence, as places in which nourishment is pro-

vided, as well as shelter.
So likewise in the plays which have just been referred to
— ^that are, by the way, said to have neither religious signifi-
cance nor any kind of connection with the ritual of tbeir

faith —
it is possible to find traces of the same spirit of
adula-
tion and of subservience to an idea, the same fear of con-

sequences, that must of necessity be put off, from month to
month and from year to year. More than this, it is the
application of this principle in a popular form of exposition
a form, in fact, by which the government of these people has
been at least supported, if not maintained, in a way that
mingles and distributes punishment with pleasure, affording as
it does pain to some few ne'er-do-weels and recalcitrants,
and
amusement to the and law-

majority of the well-behaved
abiding. Further, an experience which enables the
it is
observer to see in these festal but instructive exhibitions a

decided religious formula, that, if it has lost its original signifi-
cance, retains at least a certain flavour of that moral correction

which is so distinct a feature of their social administration,
that most unquestionably betrays its ancestral origin.
Itworth while to examine these Owu plays, for there
is
are certain characteristics associated with them which, from

the standpoint of naturism, are unquestionably significant.
First of all, then, each Owu has its own way of celebrating its
own play, which
an expression of independence.
is Next, it
is noticeable that while some of these water spirits are
dangerous, carrying as they do whips and swords, the former
of which are freely used by the impersonator of the spirit,
whose privilege this is, others are practically harmless and
inoffensive, dancing and singing being their only motive a ;
tolerably significant interpretation, as in the previous instance,

of self-will and interest, of the character and personality of
the spirit, i.e, of the household, or community, to whom it
belongs.
Another circumstance, in spite of its seeming triviality,
is deserving of record. This is the fact that although the

majority of the spirits are said, as we saw in the previous
section, to possess females rather than males, and presumably
to belong, or rather to attach themselves to that sex, in the
plays they are only impersonated by men. This is explain-
able by the contempt, on the part of natural man, for every-
thing which he considers inferior to himself, yet belonging to
him as lord or owner of the soil, including the weaker sex,
which, in his opinion, has been distinguished by the creative
agency, with an infinitely greater scope for intrigue and
deception. So the men have associated women with these
spirits of the ever changeable and unstable element. For in
their eyes there is in water, in its various moods and aspects,
but especially in that dubious and suspicious calm which
betokens the storm, a spirit element seething with damnable
deceit and cruel treachery, which lurks beneath the glossy
surface, only awaiting the golden opportunity of snatching and
358 THE LOWER NIGER A AW ITS TRIBES sect, vi
conveying its victim into the depths of darkness. A philo-
sophical, if pessimistic, contemplation, which recalls those lines
of Virgil
Mene sahs placidi vultum, fluctusque quietos.
Ignorare jubes ? mene hiiic confidere monstro 1
that are so splendidly typical of the myriad -mooded sea:

"Do you desire that I should distrust the appearance of the
placid sea, and of the waves which are now quiet ? Do you
wish that I should confide in such a monster ? " Or, as these
natives would add, Do you for a
" moment imagine that we are
not on our guard against those attractive but deceitful appear-
ances which are the sure and certain forerunners of danger, or
perhaps destruction, that only await the opportunity to com-
pletely overwhelm us."
Lastly, there is the fact that while the man representing
the Owu appears wîth a human mask on his face, he carries
on his head the figure, rudely carved in wood and painted, of
a fish, or some curious -looking reptile. A similar feature
occurs in the plays that prevail among the interior people, the
only difference in the head-gear being the substitution of land
in place of water animals.
Selecting the Brass Owu as an excellent example of the
water spirits of the names of
other coast tribes, these are the
a few of the most familiar, if not most important Nyana- —
boperemo, Kondu, Sukuta, Adumuta, Akpana, Owu Ebi, Ebi-
erewo, and last but by no means least, as far not only as his
name, but fame, is concerned, Amgbagbayai.
The first mentioned of these, who is " the God," or literally,
" Master of Wealth," belongs to Twon, a small town near the
mouth of the Brass river. Of recent years, however, it appears

that he has retired from active participation in the duties and
responsibilities of his office, which he has handed over to his
son Kondu. But in spite of this fact, it is still believed
that during his regime he was in the habit of personating his
spiritual entity, and of, as my informants put it, impersonating
himself; a power of embodiment, it seems, that attaches to
most of the principal Owu, which, from their own aspect, is in
no sense wonderful, considering that a somewhat similar process
of reincarnation is daily going on in their own persons. In
this way, Nyanaboperemo brought up wealth in the shape of

goods to the house of the individual upon whom his favour
had fallen. Appearing in the form of an ordinary man, he
gave his protege to understand, by means of some mysterious,
presumably magnetic, process, which he was on no account to
divulge, that hewas thoroughly satisfied with him, subsequent
to which communication everything undertaken by the latter
became prosperous and turned into wealth. Sukuta, who is
the wife of Kondu, is seemingly more a favourite with women
than with men, who in addition to devoting their time and
attention to her husband, also endeavour to secure the
patronage of Amgbagbayai. This spirit, whose name is not
merely a mouthful, but whose deeds and misdeeds are certainly
proportional, a personality of decidedly dual propensities, with
is
strong personal likes and dislikes. What is more, he is

essentially a middleman among these middlemen, and a trader to
the backbone, trading, as he is popularly believed to do, in oil
and other produce with the agents in charge of the European

factories. Unlike the master or Kondu, however, Amgbagbayai
the Duplex is a born diplomatist, therefore thorough in his
duplicity, foron no account does he impersonate himself. On
the contrary, when he is desirous of conferring his ghostly
favours, which, by the way, are in substance, he assumes the
form of the particular person, usually a chief, — for his proclivities,
to say nothing of his lineage, are aristocratic, — provides himself

with canoes and paddlers, and leaves the produce at the factory
beaches. Everything this Owu does, in fact, is carried out in
a perfectly workmanlike and systematic manner, down even to
the question of receipts, which he obtains from the agents
concerned, but which he takes good care are left in charge of
the latter, so that his protege may receive in full the credit of
his transactions.
When Amgbagbayai is desirous of doing some one a bad
turn, he at once impersonates him, and obtains large trusts
from the agents, in his name and person, debts which involve
him in difficulties that ultimately prove his ruin.
As far as the coast natives — the Jekri, Brass, New Calabar,
Ibani, and Efik — are concerned, it is quite clear that all these
spirits who are in any way connected with European trade
36o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vi
are of comparatively modern origin. But this fact, affecting
as it does the external aspect of their religion, is, as we

have seen, of no essential significance. On the contrary, it but
emphasises the fact that emblemism is in every vital sense an
adjunct to spiritualism. What, however, is of still greater
importance with regard to the question at issue, is that it is
a very practical demonstration of the fact that emblemism, i.e.
the installation of spirits in selected emblems, is still going on.
An experience which unmistakably proves that the adoration
of the more immediate spirit fathers not only appeals more
directly to these literal people, but that this course, apart from
the ordinary feelings which are excited by family ties and
associations, is absolutely essential and inevitable in order to
preserve unbroken the continuity of the ancestral line, by
holding on to the actual connection between the household
in the flesh, and that portion of it which has but recently
detached itself to the spirit.
Before passing on to a contemplation of the fresh-water

spirits, it is advisable to call attention to two points which
may have escaped the reader's notice, or regarding the com-
prehension of which he may have felt doubtful. These are
the transfer of certain ancestral deities from the land to the
water ; and, in fact, of the " bad water " being personified
into an evil god or devil, under different names, among the
various tribes.
The question of transfer, which naturally took place when
certain communities from the interior first came into touch
with the sea, is easily disposed of, as merely a transfer of
emblems, and not even of that in the case of the Brass tribal
god, under changed or altogether new conditions therefore, as ;
the Ijo appear to have been first in possession all along the
coast-line from Benin river to Bonny, the Ibibio or Akwa
continuing the line to the Cross river, and presumably to the
Cameroons, it is reasonable to infer that the later comers
adapted themselves to meet the exigencies and requirements
of the case, either by pouring old wine into new bottles, Le,
transferring the ancestral deities into fresh emblems, as we
know they did, or by creating new deities altogether; a simple pro-
cess of deifying certain great or virulent personalities, according
CHAP. IX WATER : SP/RITS OF THE SEA OR ESTUARIES 361
to the nature of the case, and installing them into applicable

and selected emblems. This explanation applies equally to the
personification of the troublesome and dangerous, therefore evil-
intentioned water. For these natives do not believe in any
specific Satan who was thrown out of heaven, distinctly natural
as the idea must have originally been. For evil to them is
a personification which possesses the innate energy or power
to keep on reproducing, a power which is diffused and
disseminated, not only in their own and animal natures, but even
in the very attributes of the gods.
CHAPTER X
FRESH-AVATER GENII
Passing on into the interior, the spirits of the fresh -water

rivers and streams are similarly constructed they are human ;
spirits who have been embodied in various ways, but usually

in the form of fish and reptilia. But in spite of their varying
emblems, there is absolutely no essential difference between
them and those of the coast, as regards their spiritual character
and potentialities, except perhaps —
ancestral emblemism apart
— that in the former, as previously remarked, there is rather
more vindictiveness or virulence, although of course, as is
only to be expected, the latter make up the deficiency in

other directions, and so keep the balance even. Incompre-
hensible as this may appear, it is not really so when the
idiosyncrasies of these natives are weighed in the balance and
imderstood.
The explanation is one entirely of condition. For con-
dition, as we have long since seen, is, equally with association,
to which it is related, an essential factor, due in this' specific
instance to the fact that to the interior people a very small

percentage, if any at all, are able to swim. As a natural sequence
of this, water to them is naturally an element of greater dread
than land, consequently the spirits belonging to, or in any
way connected with it, except when purely ancestral, are
regarded with special fear and aversion. On the same grounds
the coast natives, having learnt to swim, have grown accustomed
to an element which they now recognise as not only personal
but beneficent, providing them with fish and trade and to whom ;
formerly a human sacrifice was made annually, with the object of

362
CHAP. X FRESH-WATER GENII 363
securing the latter by ensuring the safe return of the European

merchant vessels.
Analysing this matter to its roots, it is in fact nothing but
the old question of the basic instincts — in this instance, of

confidence or its antithesis over again —
the existence of which
has developed in these coast natives a form of personal venera-
tion for water similar to that which the interior people have
for the earth, and which they themselves still retain, only as
being ever so much younger, it is not by any means either so
confirmed or so consistent. For the very fact of the fickleness
and unstability of the element explains their own inconsistency
towards it, the culminating example of which we have seen in
the creation of a special sacrificial deity.
In the same ratio exactly, while the confidence of the
interior natives is rooted in the earth as their typical benefactor,
their suspicion is centred in the direction of water ; i.e. from
which they expect and anticipate danger or destruction, not so
much from a hidden snake or lurking crocodile, as from
animals obsessed by outcast or disembodied spirits, besides the
countless cramp and similar demons, wdio, wary and unseen,
are always on the look-out for unwary victims. It is these
voracious monsters whose vengeance they most fear, and whose

capacity they measure, both from the material sense of hunger
and from the spiritual aspect of revenge, the abstract being to
them in every way the shadow or soul, as it were, of the
substance. For the spirits of the air are not always in
evidence or tangible,while those of the forest are in some

measure familiar, and to some extent combatable besides the ;
feeling that they are, so to speak, on their own ground, upon

which they have an upright position and a firm footing, an
erectness and a stability which they lose as soon as ever they put
foot on water. And this taking of the ground from under
their very feet, this substitution of an insecure and uncertain
posture for a secure and tangible foothold, this changing from
an element they know, and which is able and willing to
support them, to one that they do not know, and whose sole idea
is to make a shuttlecock of them, by altogether throwing them
off their balance, is a mystery outside the reach of their

philosophy, an unfathomable enigma, the thought of whicli
most certainly upsets their mental gravity in the same propor-

tion as the element does their physical equilibrium. Because
the fact that it toys with them as it does with the fallen leaves
that it swirls away, inspires these people with the conscious-
ness of their own abject helplessness and utter inability to
cope with a power that is beyond their control and it is this ;
extraordinary potentiality, which to themselves they have

exaggerated, that has more than any other feature magnified
their natural fears. So they have come to look on water as on
an element not merely teeming with spirits, but as being in
itself alive, with an ever-conscious and active instinct of greedy
malice, which instinct is communicated to the indwelling
spirits. But this sensation of awe is not so much a con-
stitutional tendency as it is a hereditary instinct, which like so
many other instincts that they are possessed of, is a relic of
animalism, so strongly developed in fact as to be identical with
it ; and it is in these instincts that the existence of that
unconscious antipathy can be traced, which is responsible for
and explains their attitude.
Yet turn the water into a god-house, make it but the abode
of the ancestral animal, and even though it be swarming with
lean and hungry crocodiles, the overmastering sensation of fear
ceases to exist, but only with regard to the place in question,
and the contempt that is born of confidence reigns in its stead.
Or let the animal be herbivorous and comparatively inoffensive,
or, at all events, not dangerous when unmolested, as in the
hippopotamus of this locality, and the same fearlessness or
absolute indifference as to its existence characterises these sons
of Nature. So it is that the people paddle about, mothers with
suckling infants, in mere cockle-shells, or astride of logs
with their legs dangling in the water, which is swarming with
crocodiles and hippos, showing the utmost sang-froid and
unconcern.
Thus in many localities water is sacred on this account.
Taking Oguta as an example, the water of the Oratshi river,
or lake as it has been miscalled, is venerated, and the law
forbids the killing of the emblematic crocodiles. The recog-
nised belief with respect to these reptiles is, as we have seen
ill Section IV., that they never take human life except in retalia-
CHAP. X FRESH-WATER GENII 365
tion an offence which has been committed against the

for
ancestral deities. Being, as this is, a moral law from their
unwritten judicial code that arose, as we saw in Section IV., out
of social necessities, an offence under this heading i.e. within
the meaning of the principle and of the act de facto applies —

not only to any injury committed against one of the sacred
reptiles, but also to a charge such, e.g., as murder or
breaking an oath sworn on the ancestral emblem, which
formerly was punishable by human sacrifice, and now, owing
to the fear of the British Government, merely by the sacrifice
of a goat.
Curiously enough, the ancestral spirit in this specific
instance is described as the spirit of the water that is
symbolised by the crocodile. This in itself is an interesting

fact, demonstrating the old-time association of their ancestors
with the water in question, who by connecting it, that is, the
spirit principle, with these animals which were most in
evidence, had recognised in them the subsidiary spirits, or
active and retributive agents of the possessive and controlling
element. Eegarding the connection between this great and
powerful spirit and the ancestral —
even supposing, e.g., that
the people of Oguta had only settled in this locality a hundred
or even twenty years ago —
there is no difficulty. Tor, as we
have seen, the question of the installation, transfer, or conjura-
tion of a sj)irit not only into an emblem, but from one locality
to another, is an easy matter to the priest or diviner, in other
words, to the medium. So on the same lines and principle,
deification in quite recent times, down even to the present
day, is also a simple question of time, seven generations at
the most, if inmuch, which rests entirely on the
fact so
personality of and the concurrence of the
the individual
household or community. In like manner, as a later opera-
tion, the crocodiles as well, occupying as they did the position
of satellites, became emblems of a lesser order.
ancestral
This principle any means confined or peculiar
is not by
to the Oratshi at Oguta, or to any particular waters, but
holds good in most, if not all places in which the water
as an element in itself, i.e. as a deep, broad, swift river,
or, again, as a treacherous and formidable body, is to be
feared on its own account. For in no sense does it inter-
fere with the articles of transmigration, i.e. detract from

the importance of the emblem or embodiment. On the con-
trary, it isbut an accentuation of it, and when looked into
is nothing but a mere question of co-operation between the
greater or elemental spirit and those subordinate agents who
do his bidding. Viewed from another aspect, there is about
it which seeks to ensnare
a strong suspicion of that subtle art
two objects in the same net. AYhile a further examination
reveals the same line of action or development on which the
later departmental deities have usurped and occupied the
positions that in more remote times were filled by the earth
and sky gods so in precisely the same way the water spirit,
;
although not necessarily inactive, has been placed on the shelf,

with possibly an annual festival, but no special sacrifices made
to it, because the more active reptile spirits have supplanted
it in the favour or self-interests of the people, representing
its activity, as they do, in a more active and destructive
form.
Eegarding this specific emblemism, there is one extremely
significant featurewhich must here be noticed, and this is the
fact that at Oguta and elsewhere crocodiles have been selected
in preference to the hippopotamus, which also abounds in the
Oratshi and other rivers. For not merely does the selection
prove that oft-repeated assertion as to the predilection of these
natives for those animals whose sagacity is greater or whose
powers are more devilish, as compared with mere bulk and a
less offensive nature, but it is clearly a practical demonstration
that the destructive potentiality of animals constitutes in their
eyes a necessary qualification as well as a distinct gain, i.e. a
moral or substantial, but, equally so, a spiritual gain. ISTot
only in fact did their ancestors, in the original instance of

selection, find the carnivorous crocodile a more serviceable
myrmidon than the huge but more timorous hippopotamus,
but the very fact that the latter was herbivorous at once
turned the scale in favour of the former.
It is in this particular direction that the significance of
the matter lies. For, although the tribal clan or communal
ancestor be only represented by a harmless emblem, as is the
FRESH-WATER GENII 367
case in many parts of the Delta, the moral or retributive

system is in no sense wanting, filled as it is by judicial deities,
such, e.g., as the gods of justice and of proof or divination. In
other words, the chief justice or superintendent of the criminal
investigation department is always in evidence. More than
this, an analysis into the deepest principles of their faith,
especially of their own cannibalistic propensities, confirms this.
Because in the eating of flesh there seems to be, according to
their own ideas, an eating, as it were, of the substance and the
shadow, i.e. of the soul —
a case of dual satisfaction the sub- —
stance or flesh of the victim satisfying the animal, as the soul
does the ancestral spirit it is believed to carry.
There are many other water divinities in connection with
the numerous streams that intersect the higher and more solid
ground north of, but immediately contiguous to, the actual
Delta. Some at least, if not many of these, directed as they
have been by men of greater force and subtlety of character,
have obtained for themselves a more than local reputation, not
only as diviners, but as punishers of crime. Worse than this,
as I discovered in more than one instance, these particular
places, which are practically death-traps, swarming as the
water iswith human -fed crocodiles, are purposely kept and
utilised as a test by which the innocence of accused or
suspected persons may be established — similar in principle,
ifnot in every respect, to the poison ordeal of the Esere or
Calabar bean, which is so much in vogue among the Efik
and Ibibio, and that of sasswood, practised by the interior
Ibo.
As far as the water test is concerned, it is simple, yet all
the more revolting in its brutality. The victims, whether they
are criminals or only accused persons, are taken in a canoe to
the middle of the stream or pool, as the case may be, which is
generally wide enough to nullify all chances of escape. The
priestly escort then either make them jump or, as is more
often the case, throw them into the water. Unable to swim,
as many, most of them, in fact, doubly
are, their doom is
sealed, but even those who are able to do so have no chance of
reaching the bank alive, for the cruel and hideous monsters
are always hungry and always expectant. But the sequel is
better left untold, so we will pass over the gruesome details

and the awful death agonies. That many people, women more
especially, who, as being old or barren, are looked on with dis-
favour, or, still worse, as witches, are got rid of in this horrible
manner, is an unfortunate fact, judging at least from the
evidence which I collected. But althougli this extension of
the ancestral jurisdiction beyond its own limits is most un-
doubtedly a departure from the original moral idea of domestic
or tribal administration, making every allowance, as I personally
and sincerely do, for the adverse conditions under which these
natives have always lived, it is impossible not to reflect on the
intensely animalistic nature of their humanity.
It is refreshing to turn from the brutal and destructive
side of a religion to its more humane and constructive aspect,
even although this partakes of the material. So if we look in
other directions we find other water deities, who, as confined
within the narrower circle of personal or protective limits, are
less cruel and obnoxious. A
good example of these is the
maternal divinity of Ewulu —
a large town in the Asaba
hinterland —
who is regarded by the people as their mother
and protectress. This is nothing unusual, and instances are
to be seen all over the country of communities whose
(ûardian oenius is a goddess, usuallv, liowever, in connection
with the earth, and the explanation is simple, for it means that
the communities in question were founded by strong and in-
fluential women, the entire history of which is being dealt
with in the following section. As I was unable to pursue my
investigations in this direction, I am unfortunately not in a
position to unfold either tale or tradition regarding her origin
or her idiosyncrasies.
One very curious feature, however, in connection with this
river goddess the fact that on the banks of the stream over
is
which she presides grows a tree called Ukwa, which is so

very highly prized by all natives on account of the flavour
and succulence of its leaves, that these are usually cooked
with the daily food, and eaten with a peculiar relisli and
gusto. And now comes the curious part of it all, for the
prevailing tradition is that the leaves always fall on to
the ground, and never into the water, a circumstance which.
CHAP. X FRESH- WATER GENII 369
however else it may be interpreted, is attributed by the

13eople of Ewnlu to the great beneficence of the water spirit.
Under the circumstances, it is impossible for me to offer
any further explanation from the popular standpoint, for mere
speculation without some form of data to go upon is but
waste of time. It is just possible, however, that the leaf in
question is believed by the natives to possess the same aphro-
disiacal properties as the Okro. In this case, connected as
this idea is with the principles of procreation, it is easy to
comprehend their appreciation of beneficence; while associating
it as they do with a deity belonging to water instead of to the
tree itself, can only be explained by the one fact, which has
so often been reiterated, thatemblemism, although necessary, is
supplementary, so that the former, as being the more ancient
emblem of the ancestral, is revered more than the latter. This
inference is confirmed by the position of the goddess as the
protector of the town, and this position is doubly significant
when we consider the fact that the actual river is, in every
physical sense of the word, a distinct protection to the town,
and is rendered allthe more so by the deification, especially
if it places, as in most cases it does, a prohibition or tabu on
the passage of its waters.
2 B
CHAPTEK XI
TABU, OR THE PROHIBITIVE ASPECT OF PROTECTION
This brings iis to that question of tabu just referred to,

which is one of such marked prominence in connection with
water.
But, first of all, a digression as to the peculiar significance
which conveyed by this term from the local outlook.
is This
is, in the first place, a moral restraint in a spiritual form that
in old time was imposed by the patriarchal rulers, primarily

for the purpose of protection, and of placing an effectual barrier
where none existed between their own community and the
world outside. was palpably the case of the
Or yet again, as
Bini, it was from within for the purpose of
also a restriction
keeping the people inside the boundaries, with the object of
preventing or putting a stop to migrations or expansions —
distinctly prominent feature in the history of Benin, and, if the
truth were known, of the whole country. But as the rulers
and priests discovered that such protection or prohibition was
only obtainable through the strongest measures, they appealed
to their ancestral mediators, and so not only secured the divine
sanction, but converted it, in the form of a river, water, or
other natural obstacle, into an injunction, the passing or even
attempted passage of which provoked the divine wrath. So
that, sacred as the thing at once became in the eyes of all
because of its deification, it also came to be recognised by the

people themselves that to disobey the rule was to act in defiance
of the divine edict, and to incur the supreme vengeance, because
ofan offence —
an act of desecration —
against the ancestral code.
While, as regards the communities without their gates, the
CHAP. XI TABU, OR PROHIBITIVE ASPECT OF PROTECTION 371
effectuality of these divine injunctions, measured, that is, from

opposing standpoints, is entirely reciprocal, for, actuated as one
and all by the same principle of
of these various units are
aloofness and isolation, they are more or less equal in this
direction. That the causes of this aloofness and the tabu
have arisen from this desire, not merely to be left alone, but
from a desire for independence and protection, is evident.
What is still more evident is that this, which was a desire of
the heart, i.e. of the deepest and inmost feelings, was con-
siderably accentuated by the nefarious traffic in slaves which
has always existed among these people, but which in more
modern times was most unfortunately aggravated by European
demands.
Go northward or southward, go to the east or to the west,
tabu in every direction, and in some shape and form, is sure
to meet us. It may be in the water, or it may be in the
bush, a certain spot, a special locality, a particular house, a
solitary tree. It may apply to the person of some individual
king, who hedged round, as the King of Benin was, with a
is
divinity protected by an unctous theocracy of priests that

reaches up to the very godhead. Finally, it may, and does,
include every single animal emblem, upon whom is placed the
strictest tabu of all, the tabu which forbids an animal of this
kind to be killed, on pain of death. Indeed, this word
" forbidden," of all others, best describes the principle involved,
implying, as it does, a sacred ordinance which is out of bounds,

i.e. beyond human limits, but inside the jurisdiction of some
specific god.
It is exactly on this same principle that it is absolutely
forbidden to certain chiefs and dignitaries to cross or even see
certain water, just as kings have been and are confined to
their own houses and compounds. At Oguta, Onitsha, Issele
Oku, Idah, and in Ngwa and other parts of the interior, the
kings are never allowed outside their own premises and ;
indeed in some places the rule is much more rigid, the in-
carcerated puppets being visible only to their families and
personal attendants, and of course to the priests, while in
certain cases —
Benin city for example the outside public—
and strangers are permitted to see their feet alone, which are
pushed out from behind a screen. That tliis ancient custom

may have had something to do with the subsequent and more
modern aduhation of the extremities of the Papal Pontiff is
very probable, for even in such trifles it is possible to trace

the distant connection that exists between natural religion on
the one hand and all the modern theologies on the other.
That these so-called kings are merely puppets in the
hands of the priests, and not even ornamental figure-heads,
is very evident, for in the event of their breaking the
rule
— a possible contingency under the circumstances, especially
when the atmospheric variability of their natures is duly

weighed and considered —
they are obliged to pay a heavy
penalty. amounting as it does to a human sacrifice, is
This,
generally prohibitive. For no matter how brutal and self-
willed the individual is, the inordinate vanity and love of
power and display so inherent in these natives is sufficient
in itself to deter them from depleting their own households

or communities ; besides they appreciate the
the fact that
difficulty of forcibly seizing and of thus providing victims
enough from the outside communities to meet the divine
demands during the annual and other important rites, while
purchasing them in a legitimate manner in the open market is
recognised as a great expense. So that, ordinarily speaking,
human sacrifice is an effectual deterrent to keep in check the
king who, possessed of individuality, is inclined to kick over the
traces. On the other hand, it is an institution that in its
application to the question at issue demonstrates the priestly
acumen, as well as knowledge of human nature.
In localities such as Oguta and Onitsha, e.g. where the
influence of the British Government is felt, the rule to a great
extent has relaxed, and in some cases altogether lapsed, so
that in the former the penalty has been reduced to the

sacrifice of a bullock. But this,almost equally with the other,
serves the priestly purpose. For bullocks are comparatively
scarce, therefore highly prized and expensive, so that even here
the expense alone keeps their sable majesties of Lower Nigeria
imprisoned within their own domestic confines. Yet, as I
know to my cost in spirituous liquors and cigarettes, articles
for which some of them have a predilection, it is an imprison-

CHAP, xr TABU, OR PROHIBITIVE ASPECT OF PROTECTION Tpr:>
ment that surreptitiously and by connivance is broken during

the darkness of the night by more than one of these dusky
royal marionettes.
In this custom, which is clearly traceable primarily to the
personal egoism of the man, and secondarily as a later effort
to the priest or thought leader, who in his heart objected to
and was envious of the power of the patriarch, it is easy to
see two distinct developments. First, the personal and very
natural desire on the part of the patriarch or ruler for a self-
glorification that strove for adoration. Then the aim and
ambition of the aspiriug priest to place himself on an equal
footing with his ruler, to divide not merely the honours but
the rule, somewhat on the old Roman or later Machiavelian
policy of divide et impera "
''
and his careful fostering of the
;
idea until it became an accomplished fact, a diplomatic stroke

by which he won for himself and his heirs in jieriiyetxio not
only a royal triumph, but the mastery over the kingly person.
That it is a very ancient custom, which came into existence
during the early stages of religious development, subsequent,
of course, to the ghost conception, is quite conceivable. For
the eventual culmination of the human and personal desire for
self-worship unmistakably led up to and ended in the deifica-
tion of certain ancestral spirits. So the idea to establish a
belief in the immortality of the king was of course inspired by
the belief in the immortality of the soul. The wish, wdiich, as
we have seen all along, was father to every religious thought,
became at once the supreme opportunity of the priest, who,
to gain his own ends, converted the mortal illusion into an
immortal reality. It was but the human failing that, without
difficulty, leads even leaders of men into a belief of that which
they passionately desire, — the same identical principle of which
Terence says " Verum putes baud agre quod valde expetes "
:
you believe that easily which you hope for earnestly, a

belief the sincerity of which has been confirmed and sanctified
by time. It was, in fact, an audacious, but, as it turned out,
a successful attempt to immortalise the flesh, which they knew
to be corruptible, a vulgar and clumsy imitation of the distant
spiritual, which they so much dreaded ;or yet again, the
insolent initiative of the theocracy to wrest the patriarchal
mediatorship from the king by investing him with divine

powers in his own deified person —
an investment that not
only conferred upon them the office of mediators, but which
enabled them to localise and so to concentrate the ancestral
power in their own hands. Tor by doing this they transferred,
as it were, from the God above to the god below, i.e. from the
invisible spirit to the visible human existence — in other words,
into the king's own person — the more immediate and personal
power which enhanced the administration country and
of the ;
in this subtle way — whole development

for the subtlety of the
is beyond dispute they —

attained their desires and the supreme
culmination of tabu i.e. the custody of the king-god, whose
immortal sanctity is unapproachable and forbidden. Inter-
preted, as this lucid description has been, from the experience

and evidence of existing realities, it is still more evident that
the origin of these king-gods, as I have described it, which in
the first instance was due to the action of the more aggressive
type of priests, was still further improved on. For not satisfied
with the lesser deities, or with even great potentialities, these

theocracies advanced a step higher, with a daring and an
arrogance that to this day is to be seen in the overweening
vanity and bounce of their successors, and they boldly trans-
ferred the Supreme God from the sky above to their own personal
earth below the best examples of this are to be seen in the
;
Tsuku Ibiama of the and the Egwe or Sky-

Ama-Ofo or Aro,
God of the Egwe community, Benin city being rather more a
type of the former class, examples of which on a smaller scale
exist in various parts of the country. Indeed, even in those
districts that are more immediately under our administration
the tabu is still maintained, on the principle that by environ-
ing the kingship with a certain ring of exclusion, a greater
dignity and influence over the people is obtained. I have
already alluded in Chapter III. of this section to the pro-

hibition that is placed on the colour of cloth and dyes, as well
as on other articles, by the priests in connection with the
ordinary ritual which is observable towards their deities, but
I omitted in Chapter VI., when describing the worship of
Ogidiga, to mention a curious privilege that appertains to that
once all-powerful divinity, of reserving to himself all automatic
CHAP. XI TABU, OR PROHIBITIVE ASPECT OF PROTECTION 375
articles or mecliauical instruments of European manufacture,

such, e.g., as clocks, watches, musical boxes, etc., all statuettes
or figures made of metal or earthenware, in addition to any-
thing having on it a pattern resembling the form or shape of
the python. principal god of New Calabar,
Awomakaso, the
on the other hand, confines his tabu chiefly to cloth and hard-
ware of certain flowery patterns, but his laws, similar to those
of Ogidiga and other Delta deities, are extremely stringent,
forbidding all persons except the priests and their wives to
purchase the prohibited articles, inflicting forfeiture of the
goods in question on those who break the law.
Another still more curious custom, and of greater psycho-
logical interest than this, associated as it is with the exclusive-
ness that surrounds the individuality of the patriarch, obtains
among the Ibo. It appears that Eke, the fourth and last
day of their week, is reserved by a chief or head of the house
as his own special day for farming. On the other three days
his men are free to work for themselves, but on this, which, by
the way, from a religious aspect is treated as a day of rest or
market day, also for the observance of the special weekly
adoration of the ancestral gods, they are all obliged to work
for him. Further than this, in many localities the chiefs will
eat no food that has been cooked with water or palm oil, eating
their yams quite dry and drinking water only. Similarly,
women on Orio, the first day of the week, are obliged to remain
in theirown quarter and entirely by themselves, and no matter
how well born or wealthy they may happen to be, they have
to cook their own food and use separate utensils, and in
making it the same restrictions —which have just been spoken
of— are enforced. This is purely a religious formula, in con-
sonance with the principle of exclusion, yet based no doubt
in the original instance on a sanitary foundation of some sort,
for the belief with regard to it is, that in the event of a person
breaking the rule, the whole body will be affected with sores
or eruptions — another of the numerous instances of the
spiritual authority by which the human element is kept in
moral order and subjection.
CHAPTER XII
THE SPIRITUAL AND DEIFIED ASPECT OF PHENOMENA
The principle of adoration, or, to be more precise, the motive

which has led up to that principle, is identical with regard to
fire, air, wind, lightning, thunder, or rain, as to the more con-
tiguous elements which have been discussed. But although
these people recognise these elements which are very much
in evidence in their environment, and although fire is in daily
use and feared, therefore guarded against as a destructive
spiritby a spirit medicine which ranks as a household deity,
there is no specific fire god, not at least to my knowledge,
in any of the localities which were visited by me. Nor in
fact has the sun been elevated to any such exalted position.
This, however, as we have seen in Chapter VII., does not
preclude the specific adoration of these heavenly bodies among
certain people and communities, nor is it in any sense due to
all want of a sublimer philosophy, or to non-contemplation of
the glorious orbs on their part, but to a complete indifference,
amounting almost to apathy, which has been handed down to
them as an ancestral legacy. Not because they do not regard
them with respect or awe, for we know that awe to them is
a natural instinct, which is freely outpoured towards any
object that is a mystery to them what is more, they recognise,
;
for example, that the sun is the inspirer, if not the source of
all heat and light, but simply because it is so far off, so
distant in fact, and on the whole so beneficent, as to be an

altogether impersonal matter to them.
An exactly similar feeling prevails regarding the moon
and stars, upon which they look, as they do upon the sun,
376
CH. XII SPIRITUAL AND DEIFIED ASPECT OF PHENOMENA 377
with the same outward cahn and phlegmatic philosophy as

their ancestors before them have done, 1}ut in a comparative
sense, more especially with reference to the stars, as being of
smaller power and beneficence, therefore of less account.
Here also, as in every salient feature connected with their
faith that has been probed to its deepest depths, the question
of personal proximity, precedent, and association stares us in
the face. Indeed, no better example of this connection, as
also of their unchancreable conservatism with resfard to
religion,can be instanced than in this their attitude towards
the natural elements and phenomena their excessive attach- ;
ment and veneration for the two, from which they cannot
detach themselves, even when in the spirit that lesser associa- ;
tion with those phenomena that are removed but still tangible
to them, and their utter disregard for the most distant, which
are altogether beyond their reach. For besides confirming the
fact of the inevitable essentiality of association, or at least of
a tangible proximity in connection with religious emblems
that is requisite in order to inspire a wholesome awe the —
right and specific sort necessary to command
respect and to
preserve authority — it shows us that in no sense has there
ever been a lapse from the ancient faith.
It is more than possible, it is exceedingly probable, that

the philosophy of the present natives has grown rusty, and
that they have forgotten some, if not many of the most subtle
points and arguments, the underlying motives and guiding
principles that inspire the earlier beliefs, but it is also quite
certain that they have held fast to the faith and practices, i.e.
to that which has seemed good in the eyes of their fathers,

who, it is quite evident, never aspired to the adoration of those
objects which, as far as they were concerned, possessed for
them neither tangibility nor directness. So it is that there is
no direct or pronounced adoration of the celestial bodies, which,

as subservient to the Creator, are unconsciously included in
their annual obeisance to, their one great effort of recognition
of, him. Yet, strangely enough, judging at least from some of
have an idea that the Supreme God is, as it
their fables, they
were, a maker
and purveyor in the heavenly orbs, which he
of
will purvey, not exactly on a mere consideration, but if it is
made worth his while. For so far as even he is concerned

there must be an equivalent, evidently with the object of pre-
serving the inevitable balance and what is more, it must be a
;
substantial measure, i.e. it must be ecjually a spirit offering

with a substance, as a substance with a spirit.
AVe may contrast their aloofness or avoidance of the

celestial planets with their attitude towards phenomena such
as rain, thunder, lightning, and wind. Taking the first of
these, although the rain god is neither universal nor strictly
departmental, there are in existence in various parts of the
country deities who profess to confer on their successors or
proteges the power of making or withholding rain. As an
instance of this, at Isiokwe, in the Onitsha hinterland, Ede-
mili, the by the way, is an
ancestral god of protection, who,
maker and extinguisher of the
agricultural divinity, is both a
cloud fluid. As another instance, at a place called Omo-pra-
Ebelu, on the northern confines of the Ibibio country, I had
an interesting personal experience with one of these utilitarian
deities in the accommodating person of a local diviner, who, it
appeared, was his representative. Indeed, for the modest sum
of two heads of Virginian tobacco and a bottle of trade gin
in all to the value of tenpence —
this wily old doctor of
divinity and L.D.O., or Learned Doctor of the Occult, placed at
my disposal the services of himself and god in the face of a
lowering sky which threatened us with a second deluge that
would have appalled the heart of the stoutest rain-stopper,
unless he were too blind to see. No so our doctor Conscious !
as he was of everything going on around him, he was in no

sense abashed, but accepted, with as much dignity as it is
possible for craftiness to which had been

assume, his fee,
exactly doubled, quite unconscious, however, of any divine or

personal propensity for either the fragrant weed or the spirit-
inspiring liquid. Then confident as to results, and blind only
in the superb sincerity of his faith, without a tremor or a
blink, he faced the oncoming and angry-looking demon, who
was preparing to hurl himself upon us in the form of wind
and rain, and appealing to the ancestral staff that was in his
hand, with but a mouthful of words, and an oblation of
tobacco and gin, he propitiated him at least for that day.
CH. XII SPIRITUAL AND DEIFIED ASPECT OF PHENOMENA 379
saving us, in liis own reserved estimation, a good drenching

for curiously enough, as it happened, although a slight drizzle
fell, the storm passed away, and the day remained fine.
On another occasion, in the Ibo interior,was again my

it
good fortune to encounter at Omo-nkwa a chief by name

Ekuro-ego, who performed for me a similar office, and gave me
an equally interesting introduction. Austere and irascible at
first, as king of the town, he received myself and party with
great asperity. Indeed, it was not until a great deal of talk-

ing had ensued on both sides that he consented to keep us
for the night, and then only after he had bound us down by
a solemn oath, which had to be sworn on the ancestral emblem,
to keep the peace in deed as well as in word. Mollified, how-
ever, by the present which he had received, Ekuro-ego to some
extent relaxed and evinced a certain amount of anxiety to make
up for his earlier rudeness. So much so, that when towards
evening it began to drizzle, in reply to my query whether any
one in the locality was able to stop rain, he at once set about
and made preparations to do so. Phenomenally grave in his
demeanour, and abnormally staid as he was in all his move-
ments, he displayed as much alacrity as was consonant with
the dual dignity of his position, combining a human kingship
with a spiritual advocacy. Producing with great caution his
special medicines and his specific emblems, the bitter water,
a tortoise-shell, and a human skull, he placed them all with
deliberation on the o crround.
It was evident at the outset that this Ibo rain god, like
his Ibibio confrere, was no teetotaller unlike him, however, he
:
was a non-smoker, for prior to commencing work he demanded

a bottle of spirits only ; indeed, this question of a preliminary
fee is of all such operations.
an essential feature What these
were in this particular instance it is unnecessary to repeat,
beyond the fact that they consisted principally in the alter-
nate drinking of the gin by the advocate himself, and in a
spiritual baptism of the emblems, whom he drenched all over
with the fiery liquid, as well as by the spurting of it in a
defiant but decidedly dignified manner in the direction of the
stormy sky — last, but by no means least, by a spluttering in-
vocation to his spiritual Master, which was made with a mouth

38o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vi
full of spirit, in evident appreciation of past favours, and with

a pathetic appeal for a further continuance of them. Whether
this advocate of his fathers was in very deed a practical
weather prophet or not, or whether tlie matter was again one
of mere coincidence, is a question that the reader must decide
for himself, but again I must acknowledge that although we
had a light shower of was not the downpour that
rain, it
from the appearance of the sky might have been reasonably

expected.
But if there is no specific fire or rain god there is at least
a tornado divinity, who, practically speaking, answers the
purpose of both, including in his capacious scope of potenti-
alities the devastating wind and the sonorous thunder. Of
this fierce and impetuous deity I can also speak from personal
experience. The tornado, as experienced in Southern Nigeria,
whether in the bush or on the water, is a phenomenon that is
bound to impress itself on the mind of a thoughtful man.
In their contemplation of things natural, the tornado is to
them not merely, as we regard it, a phenomenon made up of
certain material elements, but the complex operation of a real
live god, whose evil personality is seen, and, what is more,
felt, in the fury and vigour with which his demons do their
work in carrying out his instructions. For the different con-

stituents of which it is composed, thunder, lightning, wind,
and rain, acting, as they appear to do, independently of each
other, are sufficiently terrifying in themselves. But when
these join issue, as it were, in one terrific onslaught upon the
shrinking earth below, with its tossing trees and cowering
humanity, there is in the audacious but splendid harmony
of the attack, as well as in the infernal discord of its con-
cord, a distinct suggestion of taking the offensive from every
quarter.
Thus, although they believe in a separate wind god who
controls the winds, and find in thunder and lightning an
individual deity who talks in the former and strikes with the
latter,and although they look on rain as an element which is
in the hands of agents, who can make or mar it at their will,
they recognise in the tornado a devastating deity of great
power, whose engines of destruction are lightning, rain, and

CH. XII SPIRITUAL AND DEIFIED ASPECT QF PHENOMENA 3S1
wind. Such a god is Ewitaraba of the Andoni, who is
esteemed of such importance as to rank second only to Yor

Obulo, their governing god.
This being the case, he isincluded by them in the select
circle of communal deities, in whose honour an annual ceremony
is observêd, and at this a white ram is sacrificed for his
special edification. But this hard s miter is of greater and
more personal significance to his people than merely posing
before them in the semblance of a wooden image as a destroyer.
For we find him taking an extremely active part in their
social life as a judge with extensive powers consequently, ;
therefore, in all personal matters between contending parties

and individuals it is customary to swear or make oath on the
emblem by which he is represented. Indeed, so great is the
faith of these natives in the destructive potentialities of this
divinity, that it is further the custom for any person who
considers himself aggrieved against another, because of some
offence or injury that he believes the latter to have committed
against him, to call down the divine vengeance u]3on the
offender.
At the same time, any offender upon whom the vengeance
of Ewitaraba has been invoked is entitled, whether guilty
of the charge or not, to avert the threatened calamity in the
former instance, and in the latter to obtain redress as well,
but he must do so through the mediation of his parents, or of
some influential friend. In either case the mediators are
obliged to pay all losses and expenses that have been incurred
by the plaintiff, including the restoration of any people or
property that have been taken from him, to his complete satis-
faction. Then the plaintiff is obliged to make an offering of
reinvocation and compromise to the presiding judge god,
which is a settlement in full of the and
entire business,
usually consists of the following mashed yams and plantains
:
mixed with oil, fresh fish, a mullet of some kind, called

Nde-yeh or Orgbolu, and a bottle of spirits, according to
the taste of the priest officiating. This oblation is taken by
him to the water-side in a small canoe, and laid at the shrine
of the god, to whom, in the presence of all concerned, he
addresses the following brief but pithy petition :
" Ewitaraba
fara ka tere-ele-inu-ege-ege," —
Pardon, Ewitaraba, this ninii
upon whom I invoked thy vengeance.
It is interesting, from an ethnological aspect, to note that
this tornado god is in every respect similar to Sango, the
Yoruba god and lightning, also of fire, whose
of thunder
acquaintance we made in Chapter III., and it is all the more
interesting because, in conjunction with other evidence that is
on hand, it clearly demonstrates how closely associated are the
two religions. It is possible, too, to trace in this association
the explanatory connecting link between the Semitic and the
Negroid races, that is to be seen in the resemblance which is
imputed to exist in their respective languages.

CHAPTEE XIII
THE INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY OF THE NATIVES IN ITS

EELATION TO EMBLEMISM
We are, it seems to me, too apt to compare the barbarian,

speaking collectively, of course, to the child, forgetful of the
fact that as far as the emotions are concerned he is in every
sense as much an adult as the European ; and in this respect
our comparison is, to say the least of it, inappropriate, if not
erroneous. For a study of these Delta natives will effectually
dispel a misconception so palpable as this, teaching us, as it
taught me, that while in intelligence natural man is yet an
infant —a fully grown-up and developed infant, however, in
instincts and emotions —
he is much older, i.e. nearer to Nature,
than the civilised unit; he is less disciplined or restricted,
and he is swayed by passions, impulses, and egoism, generally,
to a much greater extent. It is impossible then to reconcile
a statement such as that which compares the rag or wax doll
of the European child to the idol of the savage. Admitting,
however, that the former personifies its doll, its motive for
doing so is entirely different from that which attracts the
latter to his hideous images. That the child's motive is
possibly, or even probably, due to an unconscious but inherent
instinct is admissible,and that it is also in part the result of
the imitative faculty —
which is certainly a hereditary tendency
— cannot be disputed. For the behaviour of the child to its
doll is undoubtedly a copy of its mother's attitude toward
itself — on the one hand the same maternal affection and
solicitude for its personal welfare, its food, drink, and clothes ;
on the other maternal management and discipline, varied

383
possibly by a regime of scolding or undue severity. For even

granting that the child possesses a strong share of personal
individuality, it will be conceded that, as a rule, its treatment
of the doll is to be taken as a fairly accurate reflex of the
mother's conduct with regard to itself or other children be-
longing to the family.
Yet personified though it is, on no account is that doll
alive or in any sense inspired in the eyes of the child, because
it recognises the absolute difference between its own brotliers
or sisters and the doll that it plays with. For the very fact
that it can do with the latter, without a response of any kind,
what it cannot do to the former, without either consultation,
remonstrance, or compulsion, constitutes a difference which
conveys a decided conviction to its inquiring, observant, and
perplexed mind. Further than this, however, the child has
little perception, and beyond a vague idea, no definite com-
prehension of the soul or spirit — as it has been humanly
conceived ; for outside the limited circle of its own personal
surroundings its mind is a blank, while the barbarian most
undoubtedly has a tangible and defined conception of this,
which to him is the cause of that effect which wê call

existence. It must, therefore, be admitted that in spite of
the serious way in which the child avowedly takes the doll,
this is —
more a plaything a matter of imitation and occupation
— than anything else. In other words, it is the desire for
movement and action on the child's part — which is so charac-
teristic and distinctive a feature of the reason-endowed animal
as compared with the instinct- controlled beast that actuates
it, a desire that is to be seen even in the infant, which can
be said to be instinct with vitality, that is synchronous with
its early development of the faculty of observation.
ISTot so the barbarian, however. With him the Ju-Ju or

emblem is no child's play, no mere outlet for a state of
activity which he is not particularly desirous of, not even a
safety-valve by which the accumulated steam of his pent-up
emotions might escape, but a matter of life and death, con-
necting, as it does, one to the other, i.e. himself and household
to the household in the spirit. To natural man this grotesque
image of clay or wood is no mere toy, no senseless figure, that
CHAP. XIII INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY OF THE NATIVES 385
he moulds or carves for amusemeut during his hours of leisure,

simply to kill time with.
So this bundle of repressed but irrepressible emotions
appeals to his household doll, as to an association — not in a
merely abstract but in a personal sense, as a lifelong associa-
tion, to which, connected and related as he is, from a twofold
aspect, he is doubly bound. He appeals to it, as to a familiar
object,embodying, as it does, his familiar and guardian spirit,
not because he merely thinks or hopes this to be so, but be-
cause in all sincerity he feels and believes it to be the case.
More than this, because he believes it to be the spirit of
his father or grandfather, who, in accordance with the divine in-
structions, occupies the position of communicator and mediator
between the human and spiritual households.
Is it in the least surprising, therefore, that when his time is
occupied with the Ju-Ju, the matter to him is of the supremest

moment ? All the more so when we consider that he believes
himself to be iii actual touch with the ancestral spirits, in
whose hands the whole household is involved, and
fate of his
dominated, as he by the haunting fear of unexpected doom,
is,
which may fall on him or on any member of the family at any

moment.
Analysing the matter thus, is it possible then, in even the
strictest sense, to compare this child in intelligence, but adult
in emotions, to the child of civilisation ?
Is there not even in his intelligence more sense and

subtlety than there is in the child? Are his sensations and
energies as a father and a husband, his personal contact with
the experiences and events that he is daily brought into touch
with, in no sense to be taken into consideration ? And is his
knowledge of world and of the phantasmal, which divides
this
the rule in his mental domain with the real, not to be weighed
in the balance against themuch more evanescent and reflective
knowledge of the most civilised and precocious child, which, as
we know, is purely and almost entirely one of illusion ?
The earnest student is bound to be impressed with the
contrast between the two —
the fundamental sameness that is
common to both child and adult, yet the preponderating
differentiation in mental gravity and natural subtlety which
2 c
sheer experience, in the ordinary course of events, produces

even in barbaric adolescence —
the effect, in short, of the cause,
time, which is after all but a natural growth and development.
Admitting his ignorance and his inconsistencies, has he not
a deeper and more subtle knowledge of Nature, human and
animal, with its glaring contrasts and its startling complexities,
and a greater grasp of the purpose and philosophy of life than
even the precocious and well-educated child ? Is it not true
that the instincts and passions exercise a decided influence on
the reason of the barbarian or of youth, unrestrained as both
of them are ; but controlled, as the former is, by emotions, are
not these to some extent — unconsciously and indirectly it may
be —guided by
Is there, too,
reason ?
no connection, or even association between

the impulse and the motive which sets it in motion ?
Is the blind faith and persistent sincerity of the eternal

human ages to count for nothing, and to be lightly or face-
tiously compared to the mere pastime of a thoughtless and
careless child ?
Is all this real sincerity and solid faith to be estimated as

worthless, and is the believer to be classed as a pagan and an
idolater, while the disciples of the Greek and Eomish churches
are dubbed Christians — a sufficiently meaningless phrase from
a rational standpoint — because the European has either entirely
misunderstood or grossly misrepresented the tenets of his
religion ?
If so, of what use to the Christian, it may be asked, is his

own faith or sincerity — virtues that he esteems so highly and
extols so bravely —when sincerity that is sincerer, and faith
which is blinder than his own, is looked down upon wîth a
pity that is but contempt concealed or in disguise.
Or is faith to be regarded from a purely rational, therefore
all the more reasonable standpoint, as merely the negative
evidence of an incurious ignorance that shrinks or rather
flinches from inquiry, because it dreads the stark and bitter
truth ?
Be the answer to these queries as it may, it is impossible

for us, in the face of even so trivial an inquiry as this, to
assert that the barbarian, in spite of the brutality and blind-
CHAP. XIII INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY OF THE NATIVES 387
ness of his faith, is a child any more than is the ordinary

Christian or Mohammedan. That, like the child, he is nearer to
Nature, i.e. more literal and cruel, in fact brutal, is also not to
be denied ; but that he is brutal only in a different degree,
and not in any way in a different sense or kind, is surely
reasonably admissible. And
fundamental fact
this is a
pointing to that oneness which, even in the most complicated
condition of disintegration or dualism, is inevitable — that we
cannot in any sense whatever either afford to overlook or to
avoid. Indeed, if we accept the experience that the child is
nearer to Nature than the adult, and from every aspect this is
a very reasonable admission, in no one portion of it is it more
so than with regard to the cruelty or, let us call it, attitude of
the child towards animals. For even when there is no con-
scious or pronounced cruelty, there is in the child's general
treatment of animals an unconscious refinement of cruelty that
is none the less galling to the unfortunate victim which falls
into its ever-ready clutches. In the same way the barbarian

is brutal, often as much own kind as to the animal,
to his
whom he looks on as inferior, but with this difference, that
unlike the child who is irresponsible, it is not always or only
for the pure love of torture that he is thus brutal, but from a
deep sense of a conscious duty and responsibility, which, as
directly due to his ancestors and in a less direct sense to the
animal emblems, cannot either be shirked or avoided. For
if at least we judge the barbarian by these Delta natives
children though they are in a fundamental sense, even from

this natural aspect, they are at all events fully developed and
adolescent children, who are possessed of strong, fierce passions
and well-formed inherent characteristics, in addition to hard
and bitter life experiences that have burnt into their very souls
with the fire of reality, whose outlook on life, in spite of an
unexpanded intelligence and youthful imagination, is to them
an ever serious and inevitable problem, the control and mystery
of which is in ancestral hands.
This question, however, of natural man's attitude towards
the ancestral world has been already sufficiently explained. It
is evident that, as far as these people are concerned, it is one
that they cannot entirely escape from, any more than we our-
selves can from an inherited religion, but which they can

improve, by striving after and attaioing to the artificialities
and refinements of civilisation.

Eeference has more than once been made in this section
to the immaterialism of emblemism, but before concluding it is
necessary to impress upon the mind of the reader one promi-
neut feature in connection with it. This is the fact that the
—
emblem especially if it be an animal is in no true sense —
indicative of the functions or attributes of the deity represented,
the evidence of which is to be seen in the absolute want of
analogy, or, in fact, in the utter inappropriateness of the
former with regard to or as compared with the latter.
So we example, that Ekiba, the war god of the

find, for
Ibani, was emblemised by a monkey and then by an
first
iguana that the Okrika, a truculent and savage community,

;
had as their ancestral symbol a pigeon; that at Onitsha, five

blocks of :Wood represented Tsi, the supreme god, and that
in the same place Ani, the earth goddess, is a clay figure,
while at Ogbe-abri, a little farther off, she appears to the
people in the form of a tree. These are facts, the hard and
fast evidence of which is found all over the country in the
variety and insignificance of the countless emblems, which
prove incoutestably, that while material embodiment is essen-
tial and significant of one of the main principles of the
ancestral faith, the actual matter and shape which forms the
individual emblem is, in itself, immaterial and of no vital
significance —
apart, of course, from the personal and ancestral
association that is connected with it. This at once explains
the reason for the choice of the monkey by the ancestors of
the Ibani, and subsequently of the iguana by their successors,
because in each case these animals were most in evidence in
their respective environments and further, it accounts for the
;
selection of Dema, the shark, by the latter to uphold the

ancestral discipline. So at Oguta and other places in the
vicinity of water, although the crocodile was apparently chosen
in preference to the hippopotamus, the exception only proves
the rule, for wherever we look we find prevailing the same
utter disregard for outward appearances or character, yet the
utmost deference to the pervading spirit power.
SECTION VII
THE CEREMONIALS AND PRACTICES OF

NATURISM
389
CHAPTEK I
THE PRIESTHOOD IN RELATION TO THE PEOPLE

AND TO THE GODS
Having, as I trust, thoroughly grasped the principles of this

natural faith, with external wrapper of materialism, which,
its
as we have merely the essential embodiment that con-

seen, is
ceals the eternal mysticism of the spirit from what would
otherwise be a too intrusive view, it will now be necessary to
examine the existing ritual, so as to enable us to arrive at a
precise and equable conclusion regarding the whole question.
In order to do this in the most satisfactory manner, we must
first study the priests, and then the deities whom they worship.
I think that I have already made it quite clear that with

these natives there is no such thing as theory, and that what
they believe in they practise, or, to reverse the order, and be
still more accurate, what they practise they believe. Further,
it has been my endeavour all throughout the work to place
before the reader the actual characteristics and temperament of
the people and their leaders as they are i.e. as they thiftk
and act among themselves — and not as they behave in the
presence or exist in the imagination of the European.
We should between the priests and the people,
differentiate
to whose wants they profess to administer.
religious A pro-
fession, however, that, inasmuch as it is one of immemorial
custom and practice, is more sincere than that of European
theology, because it professes that it believes only in what it
practises, and is blind to the existence of its own self-deception.

Not that there is any serious, certainly no radical difference
between them, although, of course, in their mentality there is
391
392 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vii
in the priesthood a profounder depth of subtlety than is to be
found the people, who, because they think less and, in a

in
diffuse and impulsive manner, represent the shallowness and
superficiality of natural thought to a much greater extent.
The concentration of the priests gives them a decided
unity and strength of purpose, while the want of it on the part
of the people at once explains their subservience to the
former.
But, in spite of this superior mentality, it is, curiously
enough, in the priesthood more so than in the people that we

are confronted with a much greater depth of animalism. For
just as in one direction they rise, as it were, and so get nearer
to the gods, so in they come into
another they sink until
contact with those animals them emblematical of
who are to
the former. In other words, while their thoughts, hopes, and
aspirations soar upwards along the line of spiritual associations
that connect them with the gods, they cannot wrench them-
selves away from these material but personal links which, on
the other hand, bind them hard and fast to the species that,
although beneath, one with them.
is And it is in this extra-
ordinary contrast that the mental subtleties of naturism stand
revealed.
Yet in no sense is this inexplicable, because, in spite of the
seeming contrast, it is in reality —
as we saw in Chapter III.,
Section V. —
merely two external aspects of the same internal
spiritualism, which combine together in the unity of the human
mental. Dip deep down into the very heart of the subtleties
in question, make an analytical and scrutinising study of these

priestly beings, who are most indubitably a mixture of the
animal and the compare this with an equally observant

human ;
criticism of the reptiles and animals, which, as emblems of the

gods, are sacred to them, and the entire evolution of natural
religion, from the basic germs, with its long chain of ancestral
associations and connections, down to its latest development,
will at once become evident to the truthful and clear-sighted
observer. But to analyse the question any further is at present
both impossible and unnecessary.
Yet dual and inconsistent in their cliaracteristics as the
priests inevitably are, when weighed in the balance, as against
CH. I PRIESTHOOD IN RELATION TO PEOPLE AND GODS 393
the people, it will be seen that they take life, in a double sense,
much more seriously than the latter, and that although they
enter into the vanities and frivolities of their barbaric environ-
ment in conjunction with their flocks, they only do so as
utilitarians, with the ostensible objective of utility dangling
before their very eyes, seeing in the vanities of others the serious
and unflinching purpose of life — in other words, the oppor-
tunity of utilising these human foibles on behalf of the spiritual.
But if these devilishly subtle advocates are to a great extent

devoid of the humour of their more simple brethren —
markedly strong characteristic of theirs, counterpoise as it is to
the gloomy pessimism of their natures there is in them at least—
a keener and more delicate sense of discrimination and apprecia-
tion, a quicker acumen, a livelier tongue, a readier wit, a greater
depth of patience and of reticence, a much deeper guile, a
stronger reserve of strength, dignity, and self-possession above ;
all, a more thorough and comprehensive grasp of human and
animal nature. If, too, the light and frolicsome or laugliter-

loving side of only appeals to these crafty and professional
life
panderers and go-betweens, as apostles of opportunism, their

keenness of vision has at least taught them to differentiate
between the lean and the substantial in other words, the ;
airiness and elasticity of the spirit shadow as compared with

the solidity of the concrete substance.
It is, in fact, this natural idiosyncrasy — of combining the
tragedy and comedy of life into a judicious blend of dignified
pathos, that bristles all over in the grim appreciation of silence
with the aggressive severity of its sincerity — that in a word
explains how it is that dancing, singing, and feasting originally
became, and still remain, as customs, which in their very
essence —
both primarily and fundamentally are purely and —
naturally religious, being an exuberance, on the one hand, of
spirits, so called, or sensations, that are essentially animalistic
but expressing, on the other hand, in the cultivated frenzy of
certain overmastering emotions, a tacit acknowledgment of the
human subjection and, at the same time, of the spiritual
supremacy. liealise and appreciate these very natural differ-
ences that exist between the priests and the people, somewhat
on the lines of sheep who have a shepherd, but w4th this broad
394 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES s::ct. vii
distinction, that while the latter, in spite of their greater

proximity to the gods, are the blacker of the two, the former,
with all their seeming docility, are a stiff-necked and headstrong
throng, who, although they are easily led, cannot be driven at
all, much less with impunity ; and then we can
the more all
easily understand the nature of the and that ofmen who lead,
the men who, notwithstanding their impetuosity and stubborn-
ness, follow their tactful and diplomatic leaders with sub-
missiveness.
That the power of these ghostly counsellors is to some
extent curtailed or diminished by the influence of the doctors
and diviners there is not the slightest doubt, for although their
offices are quite distinct and their ministrations lie in different
directions, dealing, as they one and all do, with a spiritualism
outside the demonology of witchcraft, that in its essentials is
practically identical, differing merely in its external emblemism,

it is impossible to avoid interference or to prevent encroach-
ment. Yet
in spite of all, the priests, in most of those places
have not been administered by ourselves, manage to
that, so far,
divide the government of the communities with the kings and
chiefs. For while, as a general rule, the former are more or
less if not entirely a social evil, the latter, in addition to this,
are a political factor, and, as has just been pointed out, have
undoubtedly to be reckoned with. ISTot, however, that the
medical and divining fraternity are mere ciphers in a country
where witchcraft and intrigue are rife, but because the position
they occupy is one rather of isolation and independence than
of society or dependence, as being much more in consonance
with their professional character and the motive that imbues
and impels it. From the purely native standpoint, in fact,
doctors are priests and priests are doctors, when spoken of in
connection with aches and medicines. But in a purely
religious sense, in their relationship to the communal and
family gods, only the Nri clan among the Ibo, and all first-
born sons, the Di-okpara, and no others, are recognised as

officiating priests. What is more, no stranger, be he ever so
renowned in medicine, is allowed to officiate on any occasion or
pretext whatsoever.
There can be little if any doubt that originally the
:h. I PRIESTHOOD IN REIATION TO PEOPLE AND GODS 395
patriarch himself was priest as well as ruler of his own

establishment, but that later on, when he had established him-
self securely as medium and advocate with his own immediate
spirit father, he handed over the priestly office to his eldest
son. This ancient custom is still to be seen in every house-
hold in the Delta, in which, while the first-born son represents
the family in the flesh, his father, in virtue of his natural
priority, ismore closely associated with the family in the
spirit. For the first-born son, called Okpara in Ibo, and Akobi
in Yoruba, is considered sacred, and occupies, during his father's
lifetime, the position of family and officiating priest. Thus it
isthat on account of this sacred office he breaks the kola nuts
and distributes them to the guests or members present, and for
the same reason pours out the tombo, or palm wine, to all
visitors. Further, when household sacrifices are to be per-
formed, he always officiates, especially on the death of his
father, in cutting the throats of the victims, as well as in
sprinkling the blood over certain emblems and persons, and
finally, no family matter can be or is settled unless he is
present.
The reason of this, as we have seen, is due to the sanctity,
in their eyes, of primogeniture — which, as natural and divine,
is a law unto them, as being the direct result of an act that
has been made with the concurrence and through the spiritual
agency of the supreme god. This belief is in itself a sufficient
cause to sanctify the person of the eldest son, but there are yet
other reasons, which, according to their ideas, mark him down
as the spiritually selected representative of the household.
Briefly, these are : (1) that the first-born is considered to inherit
fully all the virtues of his father — the vices not even being
alluded to. (2) Again, it is generally believed that in his
position as eldest son and spirit specialist, he is thoroughly
proficient with regard to the disposition and humours of the
deities, as well as to the manner of approaching them, because
as having a greater, also a more direct and specific access to the
person of their common spirit father than the rest of the
family, he is in consequence better qualified to know more of
the attributes, and ceremonies by which they are to be
rites,
lauded and worshipped. (3) By virtue of his office, he acts

not only as the general superintendent but as the father of all
the slaves, i.e. domestics, belonging to the household, dealing

with each individual if necessary in the capacity of a fatlier.
(4) He invariably officiates on the occasion of all religious

festivities; and finally, (5) at any meeting in which several
families have assembled for social or other purposes, precedence
is invariably given to all first-born sons in preference to chiefs
of high rank, despite the fact of their wealtli, their power, and
their influence.
But although — to return once more to the question of
origin — priestcraft subsequently
personal and household into the
expanded from the exclusively
communal matter, it was un-
questionably from the former that the priesthood of the latter
first came into existence. It is this close relationship between
the two that explains the reason why, even in the rudest
condition of society, the priests have always — not so much
espoused the cause of or sided with the kings or rulers, as that
they have belonged to them : relic as this was of that primitive
social state when the head of the family or chief of the com-
munity had been, as it were, high priest, and the eldest son
the working or officiating member. For, when looked into, the
whole question resolved itself into one of a community of
interests, a sinking of one individual self into the persons and
individualities of many selves. Yet it was a community which
co-operated simply in a spiritual sense, and only when its
mutual interests were in jeopardy and threatened by an
influence that was inimical and powerful, that necessitated
combination as a countermove in order to avert a common
danger or prevent a wholesale disaster. For, in the ordinary
course of events, every household ruled itself, and went on its
own way, either rejoicing or sorrowing.

Morality —which primarily consisted of sanitary and social
laws, that were not only essential to but preservative of exist-
ence — was essentially and distinctly an outcome of certain
personal privileges and exigences, as these in their turn were
an evolution from those sentient and fundamental instincts
which formulated themselves into that personal element which
is the religion of Nature. For, as we have previously seen,
morality is religion and religion morality ; so that the supposed
line of demarcation between the two, non-existent as it is to

the rational and reasonable humanitarian, who, practical, truthful,
and blessed as he is with a vision that is clear, keen, and
penetrating, can see through and beyond the diaphanous mists
of phantasmal imagination into the reality of existence as it
is, and not as Christianity would
portray it to be, is only
perceptible in the abstract whereas the irrational and un-
;
reasonable theologian, whose mental vision, blinded as it is by

the bigotry of creed, dogma, and faith, that are but phantoms
of his own unhealthy conception, is oblivious to the truth of
Nature. The fact, therefore, that in all climes and at all times,
priests, acting, as they have done, as political advisers to their
monarchs, have left their ruddy mark on religious history, is
easily explained. More than this, the invariable rule — as we
see it among these natives — is to find the influence and power
of the priesthood on the side of conservatism, i.e. of the
patriarch or head of the community, and, as this personal
principle is so involved in the religion of natural people that
it may rightly and justly be denominated as their religion, the
situation explains itself.
Looking at the question from this standpoint, progress and

advancement represent reform, and reform, apart from the fact
of their extreme aversion to it, implies danger, if not destruction,
to the cause of their fathers as well as of the fathers them-
selves. So the power of the priestly craft was as necessary
to uphold the rulers as that of the rulers was to maintain
and protect the craft. In a few words, it was but a muturJ
co-operation society which combined together for purposes of
defence and offence if necessary, and which was bound to each
other by a compact that was not only solemn but personal
and related and in fewer words still, it was merely a family
;
bond and covenant.

In this way, too, following the bent of their own human
inclinations i.e. along the destructive line, which to natural
man was, as it still is, the line of least resistance — religion
has been intimately connected with war. Not simply because
its priestly exponents have either mildly or blindly followed
the people, but on the contrary, in most instances, because
they have led the way by exciting and inflaming the popular
niincl —
which is so quickly excited and so easily swayed to —
killand slay in the sacred name, and in the more sacred cause
of their governors in the spirit, whose commands they are
bound to obey and execute.
As a class, the offices of high and officiating priests, in
charge of the tribal or governing deities of a community, are
invariably hereditary ; but with regard to the latter the rule
is apt to be relaxed when persons are selected or set apart for
the purpose because of their special htness and adaptation to
the Avork in question, in modern parlance, because they make
excellent mediums. People of a nervous disposition, or those
who are predisposed to epilepsy or hysteria, are not, as we
have already seen in Part IL, chosen as priests, but are
undoubtedly utilised by the latter as oracles, prophets, or
mediums, through whom they effect their own specific
purposes, and in this way not only maintain but enhance
the public credence, not so much in their religious beliefs
which merely on account of their ancestral origin are never
doubted —
as in themselves and their divine office, an aspect
of the case which is seen in its most sacred and deepest
significance in the attitude of all the original Ibo clans
towards their Nri progenitors.

have already said as much in Part I. as is, for the
I
object of the book, necessary to demonstrate the peculiarly
divine and personal sanctity that presents itself to these
people in this law or action of the natural order of human
birth and succession, but I would here once more impress
upon the reader the essential importance of grasping this
very plain and tangible fact. For there is in it, not simply
a revelation with regard to the simple naturalism of their
character, but it enables us to follow up the long chain of
ancestral associations and precedents that, in their minds,
connects the sacred earth with the equally sacred person,
as well as the with the earth, and both together
person
again with the great Spirit Father and Generator on high.
In this way, then, and from this fundamental standpoint,
a study of the veneration that is accorded the Nri section,
and the pungent odour of awesome sanctity with which time

and the order of precedence have enveloped them, is specially
and pre-eminently needful. For just as the first-born son,

by virtue of his birth, becomes the family priest, so the Nri
family, for the same sacred reason, are not only the pro-
genitors but the priests of the whole Ibo race, and as such,
high priests, taking precedence of all other fraternities,
priestly, social, and political. This fact is all the more

significant among a people who not alone are extreme
sticklers in the direction of social etiquette, but who place
the order of precedence or nature above and before every
other order, being as it is to them the indisputable grada-
tion, that is from the Supreme Creator and Controller
because it emphasises the fact, that notwithstanding the
state of isolation and independence in which they live
with regard to one another, and in spite of the innumer-

able and incessant petty differences that exist between the
various clans and communities in their commercial and
other relations with each other, in this personal and priestly
sense, at all events, the Ibo are in every respect national,
if not a nation — a sense that, in their estimation, is not only
more sacred and significant than language, but in every way
more binding.
With regard to other parts of Southern Nigeria, however,
the political influence of the priests varies in localities,
although on the whole, and speaking generally, it is wide-

spread and powerful —
that of the Aro or Inokun being
presumably the strongest. For although among the Ibo
proper they come second to the Nri, their influence among
tribes such as the Efik, Akwa, Ibibio, Ijo, and all the
coast tribes was, previous to its overthrow by the British
Government, undoubtedly greater, as was that of Benin in
another direction. In the latter city, for example, also prior
\ to its destructionby ourselves, the theocracy were paramount,
and the king but a puppet in their hands. This, however, is
a feature which is bound to be common in a country where
the patriarchal or communal system prevails. Yet, exacting
as is the government of the priests, there is in witchcraft a
much more dominant and dreaded factor. For the spiritual
supremacy is divided between the two crafts but while that ;
of the former represents the natural or ancestral spiritualism,

the devilish subtleties of sorcery or human one-sidedness are

all on the side of evil and destruction.
It not in the least surprising, therefore, that, under
is
circumstances such as have been described, the dual office of

kino- and priest is not now communally exercised, although in
his own household every head is spiritual advocate and every

eldest son the priest. For the days when one diverged from
the must be very remote indeed. Among all these
other
natives, however, and especially the coast tribes, the office of
hi^h priest carries with it honours and powers that are quite
equal to those belonging to the king. Very recently of
course, i.e. within the past six years, owing to the presence
of our administration at Old Calabar, Opobo, Bonny, Xew
Calabar, Brass, Warri, and Benin City, both kings and high
priests have ceased to exist, or the power at least of the latter
has considerably diminished, in these particular localities.
But prior to this the pontiffs or religious sovereigns, who

were representing the tribal or governing deities, were men
who wielded enormous influence. Indeed this sovereignty,
spiritually derived as it was, and amounting as it practically
did to temporal supremacy, is exemplified in a great measure
in their titles alone. So, e.g., we find that the high priest of
the Xdem Efik, or presiding god of the departmental deities,
was not only called Aubong Efik i.e.. King of the Efik
— but was feared and respected as the first and greatest
personage in the country because of the power of the god,
whose chosen representative he was, that was centred, and the
glory which was reflected in him —
homage which entailed
a
the annual sacrifice of a human But apart from the
being.
deference that has always been shown to these priestly
autocrats not only in life but in death i.e. in their burial
rites,and the halo of immortality that is invariably thrown

around their festering and corrupted corpses, as well as in
the pre-eminently prohibitive powers conferred on them over
certain selected properties, and m
the sanctuary of protection
that they are able to offer to the outcast and condemned it is —
most of all in the titles of master, owner, and governor, which
were assumed consciously for their gods, but at the
originally
same time unconsciously for themselves, that the true exposi-
tion of their power is demonstrated. For it is, as we saw in

Part II., in this patriarchal or personal feature, this sense or
instinct of possession and proprietorship, that the whole social
system — spiritual and human — of these, as of all natural
people, rests, as on a foundation, the origin and entire base
of which is nature. Let us take, as an example of the whole,
Yor Obulo, who is not only chief of all the deities of the
Andoni, but the governing god of the people. For in this
particular instance, as the tribe is without a king, his place is
filled nominally by the latter, but practically, of course, by
the high priest who represents him. In this individual, and

in the priesthood under his control, we find an exact counter-
part to the Aubong
Efik and his assistant, or in fact to any
of the high priests and their assistants, who formerly ruled
over affairs spiritual at Brass, Bonny, New Calabar, etc.
Formed into six ranks, the duties of these priests is thus
divided. The high priest only attends at the Ju-Ju house,
and on very special occasions only.
officiates The second
priest is always in attendance on the deity, officiating not
only in the matter of daily sacrifice and food offerings to the
god, but performing any other service relating to individual or
special sacrifices. The third priest is merely an assistant to
the second. The fourth is the Drummer and Proclaimer the ;
fifth, the Ivory Horn Blower; and the sixth is only employed
on any public occasion to parade the town, which he does

carrying a tortoise-shell in his left hand and a small wand
in his right, with which he beats the former as he announces
in a loud voice the might and power of Yor Obulo, the
divine ruler and governor of the country. This only occurs
on the special and grand occasions of annual festivals, when
greater ceremony is employed, in which all the priests take
part, forming a procession for the purpose, which is always
headed by the high priest. One of the principal of these is
that of the sacrifice of bullocks which is annually made to
Yor Obulo, every large town contributing one of these
animals, and the smaller towns manillas, in proportion to
their size.
With regard to these and other contributions which are
levied throughout the year, they are taken charge of by the
2 D
high priest, who devotes a certain portion of the offerings to a

general entertainment of the chiefs and people, who gather
from all the different towns of the country to the principal
town, in which the high priest always resides ; while the
balance is held in reserve to be used when required
manillas, cowries, and all trade goods, such as cloth, gin,
tobacco, powder, etc., being stored up, while the cattle are
allowed to run loose in the town and adjacent bush. These,
of course, as pointed out in Section IV., are regarded as
sacred, and no one dare wound or even molest them indeed, ;
the penalty of death is exacted on any offender who touches
or in any way interferes with anything in or belonging to the

Ju-Ju house or priests.
All contributions, in fact, whether regular or irregular,
are formed into a kind of public fund, under the manage-
ment of the head chiefs, and reserved exclusively for the
maintenance of the first and second priests, who are on no
account whatsoever allowed to work. A certain proportion,
however, is utilised for palavers concerning the general com-
munity, or towards public expenses that may be incurred

but with regard to all private consultations and offices, the
priests reserve to themselves the right of retaining all fees and
offerings.
But to see the priestcraft in and on a much
its entirety,
larger and more extensive scale, a people who,

as befitting
prior to the advent of the British Government, were of a
warlike disposition, we must go to ISTembe. Here the great
high priest only attends in the Ju-Ju house, and to Ogidiga,
also, if he thinks it necessary, to any of the lesser deities,
during any special or annual ceremony but as soon as these ;
are over, he is obliged to retire into the privacy of private

life, where he surrounds himself not only with a halo, but
with an odour of sanctity. As among the Andoni and other
tribes, it is upon the second priest that the bulk of the
ordinary work falls. This functionary, called Osun, is
bound to hail from Kula, a town belonging to the Xew
Calabar section, and, in addition to his being the chief
assistant, he also holds the special office of Presser of the
Head. Supportiug him, the following are always in attend-
ance upon his spiritual highness the great high priest, and
to each is accorded a special function ; the first of these is
Opiapialabo, the Fighter, on whom is conferred the charge

of his Next is Okonalabo, the Singer
person. third, ;
Agbogrualabo, the Thrower and Keeper of the Head, and

the Killer of Women who commit adultery fourth, Okuru- ;
benkerebiobele, the Butcher, i.e. the Shaver and Skinner of

the Head ; fifth, Oyemabinalabo, the Killer sixth, Osi, the ;
Licker of the Blood ; and seventh, Oduminawoi, the Horn

Blower.
From the entire constitution of this priestly craft it is
evident that cannibalism not only had, but still has, a spiritual
or sacrificial significance ; and that, in other words, however
this may have it was originally a
degenerated in principle,
religious and an absolutely indispensable sacrament. Indeed,
to follow out the conception of natural man, it is only possible
to do so on and along his own lines of belief in the supremacy
of the spiritual. For this at once explains why it is that the
head of the enemy or captive becomes a sacred emblem, and
why the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood is
believed to render the victory over him final and complete,
giving to the conqueror as it does, in this way only, entire
and absolute satisfaction from every standpoint, including that
of revenge.
One peculiarly significant feature in connection with the
matter, bearing out the supposed divine nature of the high
priest, is the fact that he is not allowed to eat human flesh ;
and this from other considerations, is to be

divinity, apart
seen in the Ibo names for priest and high priest, the former
being Ukotsuku, i.e. Uko, feet, and Tsuku, god the latter, ;
Tssi Ukotsuku, or head feet of god.

As an invariable rule, these dignitaries become rich men,
for the fees they get are sometimes very considerable. For
example, it is practically an annual occurrence among the
Andoui, who, it may be remembered, are a small tribe that
exist solely by fishing, to invoke the aid of their controlling
deity for a prosperous season, on which occasion value to
the amount of several thousands of manillas — four hundred
averaging approximately one pound sterling — is handed in
by the various towns. This is nothing exceptional. On the
contrary, it occurs regularly in every trading, fishing, or
farming community in the Delta. In New Calabar, for
instance, we keen and pushing

find that the destinies of these
traders is presided over a god by Awomakaso
who, although —
he is only symbolised by a plain wooden emblem, is extremely
fastidious with regard to the temple in which he resides. For

this has to be built in one day, and if by any chance it is not
finished within this time, it is pulled down and rebuilt on the
fourth day. His affairs are, as usual, delegated to a human
and priestly representative, so that it is not in the least
surprising to find that Awomakaso is in no sense a

temperance advocate ; on the contrary, that he is in every
sense a believer in the efficacy of spirits, and desires that a

"bottle —
preference being given to rum should be presented —
to him on the day of the week, which answers
eighth, or last
to the Sabbath. Yet this exceedingly moderate potentate is
satisfied by one annual food offering, and a special festival
which is held only every three years. But this weekly
tribute is merely an infinitesimal fraction of the yearly
revenue which is gathered in by the high priest and his
assistants. For it is in the troubles and misfortunes, in the
pains, aches, bodily and mental ailments and infirmities of his
blindly foolish devotees that the gojiL reaps a golden harvest.
For the benevolent and all potent Awomakaso, like all
these personal gods, has the reputation of being a just and

compassionate being, who out of heartfelt sympathy and
compassion for the distressed and diseased would administer
to the mind and body with a view to healing their sorrows
and curing their wôunds.
High priests, and priests such as have been described, are
in existence in every town in the Delta, but under other
names, titles, and emblems, so that it is but vain and need-
less repetition to describe any more of them. For they are
all alike full of compassion and sorrow for their worshippers,
yet natural i.e. human to the very core — levying tribute on
them all the same, despite the finer feelings which they profess.
So, without an effort and \yith an ease that is all the more
effective because it is unconscious, they conceal the devilish
subtleties of their craft in a natural yet studied simplicity

at the same time that they endeavour to salve that conscious
and reflexive instinct that is either a development of, or
affiliated with, the faculty of reason which we call con-
science, by throwing the whole blame of the matter upon
the spiritual element, whose exacting demands, according to
their belief, are bound to be satisfied, whether they will or no,
by the inevitable sacrifice of the substantial. As are the
priests, so are the gods.
CHAPTEK II
THE GODS OF THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE
In spite of number and and notwithstanding the

variety,
difference in names, titles, and emblems, the main ancestral
principles of their belief and the various functions of the
countless deities remain the same. It is this salient feature
of " oneness " that I wish to impress upon the reader, and it
is and with this particular object that the
in consequence of it
following chapter has been written. Let us now make an
examination of a few more personal deities.
A curiously interesting if not instructive specimen of
these anthropomorphic productions from the civilised stand-
point, yet a perfectly natural god in the native estimation,
is Ukwu, which, literallytranslated, means Foot, a very
high deity among the Okah community of the Ibo, in whose
honour a great festival is annually held at the end of the
native year. The inhabitants of this district have, it appears,
quite a reputation as blacksmiths, and travel all over that
portion of the Ibo country which is contiguous to the Niger,
as well as the Ijo, Oru, and Brass territories, practically
in
dividing Delta with the Xkwerri, another Ibo clan of
the
smiths, who take the eastern division. According to Okah
customs, these journeymen mechanics are obliged to return to
their native district in order to be present at the ceremony in
question, the penalty for absence being banishment, which in
case of the first ofi'ence is rescinded on payment of a fine of
ten kegs of powder, or fifteen kegs in the event of two years'
absence. After this the sentence of expatriation is insisted
on as final.
406
CHAP. II THE GODS OF THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 407
That Ukwu, as being the protector or governor of the

community, and, so to speak, the foot of the supreme god, in
the first place derived his name accordingly, and exactly on
the same personal principle as did Ukotsuku the priest, is
quite evident. Further, it is also clear that this name has

been a comparatively modern selection, or, what is even more
probable, an adaptation that has been made to fit in with the
development of the people into a community of blacksmiths.
And the penalty inflicted for absence and the restriction
placed upon absentees are objectively and legitimately severe in
order to preserve intact the interests of the clan at large. So
that the fines imposed are not so much the work of priestly
greed and craftiness as due to the co-operative system of
mutual protection that prevails throughout the entire country,
which is based and formulated on the patriarchal or ancestral
system.
Thus it is that the deity in question, not only emblem-
atically but in actual earnest, puts his foot down, and so secures
the presence and maintains the discipline of his followers.
For become a pariah in the flesh carries with it the
to
infinitely greater punishment of spiritual extradition. So it
is, as we have seen in Part II., that a stranger in a community,
even although he belongs to the same tribe and speaks the

same language, can never obtain a footing in the family or
communal circle adopted him, but remains entirely
that has
outside the ancestral pale. So that no native, unless he is
forced into exile, will knowingly condemn himself to spiritual
disembodiment, which, according to his belief, is what ex-
patriation amounts to.
Besides Ukwu there is a goddess called Agbala, i.e. a full-

grown woman, sometimes with two or three children, who is
looked on with the greatest esteem and regard among the Okah
people as a doctor possessing the estimable virtue and merit of
a healer. In consequence of this, families in which there has
been undue mortality among the children always make a point
of patronising her, in the hope of checking the ravages of
the death messenger ; because, although the mortality may not
be checked through the adoption of her remedies and methods,
and in spite of the fact that success by no means crowns
4o8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vii
even the majority of her efforts, the popular faith in her and
the like goddesses in other communities is never shaken, but
still continues as firm as ever. Another virtue which
appertains to Agbala her power of divination, so that if
is
even a stranger presents himself for the first time at her

shrine, she addresses him through her priests by his name, as
if she was quite familiar with him.
It is, comparatively speaking, a big jump from the country
of the Okah to that of the Ogbayan, but lyanabo, the
ruling god of the latter, is worth the exertion for he has a ;
personality, however low it may be in the scale of civilisation,

a study of which will repay the student. First of all, then
a fact, by the way, that is deserving of notice he is a god —
whom the people acknowledge to have been sent to them by
the Omo-Tsuku, or children of God. Apart from this

suggestive fact, lyanabo — our master — as his name implies,
resides in a Ju-Ju house in the bush, the exact locality
of which is a secret that is known only to the priests, and
access to which is forbidden under penalty of death. Living
in the same bush is an animal called Orunama, described to
be like a dog, which, as being sacred to the god his emblem —

presumably, for this is a matter that is also a mystery is not —
permitted to be killed. More than this, it is entitled to
receive the same burial rites as a chief in the event of its

dying or being slain by mistake a fact which, as pointed out —
in the fifth chapter of the last section, speaks for itself as
being the ancestral or tribal emblem.
Unlike lyanabo, and, indeed, the generality of these Delta
deities, in this one specific instance, Mbari is a god who,
in addition to the ordinary emblem by which he is known to
the people, is further known to them by the selection of
a certain number of human beings, whom he takes under
his especial care and attention, as symbolical of himself.
Common to the Ibo clans of Ohuhu, Grata, and Gmumma,
Mbari, through the priest in charge, is in the habit of
selecting a number of nice-looking and well-formed young
men and maidens with whom he wishes to keep friends, and
on whom he confers special favours. Supported by the
community, they are obliged to live a secluded indoor life in
huts that are set apart for their use and occupation in the
immediate vicinity of the Ju-Ju house, to keep themselves
perfectly clean in their persons, and to rub camwood dye on
their bodies and heads every day ; the termination of a year's
seclusion such as this being always signalised by the organisa-
tion of a grand festival, which is renewed annually.
Inside the Ju-Ju houses that in these particular localities
are dedicated this human but
to peculiarly sympathetic
deity, are various and numerous clay images of human beings,
beasts of different kinds, snakes, leopards, the moon, stars, and
the rainbow. Further, the walls are ornamented with the
, cheap hardware plates of commerce that are brought to them
/ by New Calabar and Aro middlemen in return for produce.
These are let into the walls along with cowries, and arranged
with a not inartistic style in rude designs and patterns.
A curious and, in a sense, significant feature in connection
with these figures of human beings is the fact that they are
made to represent the images of certain prominent or
dangerous enemies whose death is religiously desired as an
/ advantage to the community. For the theory with regard to
this practice is that, in the event of a person inimical to its
interests coming to the town on evil purpose bent, the bare
fact of his looking on his own image — tenanted, as it pre-
sumably is, by a spirit more evil and powerful than himself
is certain to cause his death.
This idea, except for the penalty inflicted being severer,
is very similar in principle to that in which Orrunu, a spirit
in the form of a charm, blinds the enemies of the town over
which he watches, with the object of making
who visit it
mischief. Indeed the use and application of it is, on the

whole, except for superficial differences in the shape and
matter of the medicinal emblem, not only identical but
universal throughout the Delta.
It is my belief that this special dedication of human
beings to certain deities is quite common to the Delta, though
I did not personally come into touch with the custom in
other localities, with but few exceptions. One of these was

in country at the back of the Engenni river, among
the
people of the Ibo tribe, the god in question confining his
attentions to the and chastity of young virgins only.

care
That the custom more
is or less universal in West Africa may
be inferred from the ftict that it prevails at Sherbro and
Quiah —districts which lie between Sierra Leone and Liberia
in which places the girls so dedicated are called Bundu,
while in Adogme and Krobboe they are known as " sacred
virgins." Kept by the priests under strict surveillance for
a period varying from two to six years, no intrusion of any
kind is permitted, and every irregularity or offence is visited
with a heavy fine, slavery, or formerly even with death on the
part of the offending male and ; at the end of the time, when
certain sacred rites have been performed by the priests, they
are allowed to return to their own homes.
Associated and connected with this practice, it is also
customary all over Southern Nigeria as we — shall see later
on — for some of the local or commercial deities either to be
placed in charge of priestesses or, at least, to have them
attached to their godships.
Asimingi, the deity who formerly among the Ibani was
more or less paramount in the direction of evil, and whose
counterpart everywhere to be found among many of the Ibo
is
communities as Kamallo or Ogbonuke, is a god who took

a deep and personal, yet significantly enough an avaricious
and sordid, interest in those of his votaries whose ambitions
incited them to be claimants for the title and prerogatives of
a chief or king. It was only, however, when they had gained

the ear of the high priest ^nd priestess in charge of his
godship by distributing substantial presents among them and
the sacerdotal inhabitants of Finima — a town that was
regarded as sacred through the presence of the god — that the
claimants eventually prospered in their suits or attained
the objects of their ambition. Indeed itwas only by means
of considerable sacrificial concessions and a specially big
annual feast, lasting four days, to this powerful dispenser of
evil, that the Ibani were able to obtain such prosperity as
either awaited them or that was their just due in the ordinary
course of events. One other trifling matter in connection
with Asimingi was that every eighth day the high priest was
obliged to walk round Finima, and any woman meeting him
unexpectedly 011 such an occasion was obliged to pay a fine in

order to purify herself, because she had been looked upon
by him.
Needless to remark that this practice of promotion by
purchase irrespective of rank, tribe, or locality is prevalent
throughout the Delta, and that the
have their priesthood
intrusive fingers in every pie of temporal making, although the
members of mutual protection societies, such as the Okonko,
the Epe, the Idion, the Egbo, etc., take good care, no doubt, to
divide the profits with them.
Another interesting study is Nkwu Abasi, the god said to
have come from the Big Water, far away, who rules over the
destinies of the Akwete people. He is symbolised by a stone
in a small stream close to their town, and the law with
regard to the emblem woman who has
is that no slave or
been the mother of twins is permitted to see or even to
approach in near proximity to him. In addition to this, the
strictest prohibition is placed on sheep, cows, and native
coco-yams, which are neither eaten nor even allowed into
the town.
Once a year, immediately prior to the annual ceremony,
the priest in charge of Nkwu Abasi is presented with a ball
made out of mashed yams, in which several fish-bones have
been inserted. This he is obliged to swallow as a guarantee,
or rather proof, of his good faith and honesty of purpose.
For the performance of this act becomes at once a justification
to the people for all sacrifices so offered, as well as a propitious
omen that every prophecy made by the priest in connection
with the former are certain of fulfilment. In all questions
that arise between the priests and the people, the former, for
their own satisfaction and in order to put the value and
sincerity of their priestly taxes and levies to the test, are
only too willing to undergo some form or other of a not over
severe ordeal. For priestcraft and plausibility i.e. the art of
convincing by shallow pretexts or of blinding the emotional
mentality of the masses by means of mere deceptive tricks
or dodges — are synonymous terms, or rather the latter, in
consonance with the uneven principles of an art that is
bound to be duplex, is essential to the former. Indeed,

without plausibility the priest, like the lish out of water, is
utterlyand entirely helpless.

Second in importance to Xkwu Abasi is Ogu, also a god
of note and eminence, whose emblem is a tree of that name,
underneath which a small shrine is usually built, in which an
earthenware pot, filled with earth that has been gathered from
around the base, is placed. As befitting a deity of protection,
Ogu, in this particular instance, takes a special interest in
the individual affairs of every person who approaches him
with promises or —
as these in reality amount to vows in —
relation to their own personal concerns, but most of all in
the direction of disputation and litigation with others the ;
prevention of any or all evil events, difficulties, entanglements,

or dangers that may be due or forthcoming being his peculiar
office and department. '
With regard to domestic affairs, but particularly to the

'
pregnancy of the women of Akwete, Ogu is the special god

who watches over them and ensures a safe and sound delivery.
In the same way, it is a general custom among all these
natives, in every community and and
family, to consult
appease the household god of preservation. For, as I have
already pointed out, maternity is regarded as a sacred matter,
connected as it is in some mysterious way in their minds
with the generative principle of the Supreme Generator. So
that women when in this condition are more than interest-
ing, and the children borne by them, animated as they are
by the spirits of ancestors, are gifts from the gods and valued
accordingly. Indeed there is a double value of spirit and
substance —
as there is in sacrifice, and in fact in human
existence —
placed on each child that, like earth veneration
and personal adoration, is practically inexplicable to the
European unless he understands, as I have learned to do,
the unique psychology of the underlying motives that are
peculiar to all natural people.
In keeping with accepted beliefs, it is usual for women,
previous to their confinement, to supplicate the mother god-
dess of the household or community and ; as soon as the
suppliant, armed with manillas or cowries to the value of
five shillings, also a sacrificial fowl, presents herself before
the deity, the priest,who is there to receive her, throws some

water on the ground, and, taking some wet mud from the
spot, he rubs it over her abdomen as well as on lier forehead.
This done, he invokes the aid of the goddess in order to protect
the life of the woman, but more especially at the time of her
confinement, so that she may be safely delivered.
To mark the difference between the maid and the mother,
and to show the importance of the latter in their eyes, two
customs, or rather fashions, for they apply only to the dress
of females, that are generally in vogue are deserving of notice.
The first of these, prevalent among the coast and other tribes,
who cover their bodies either entirely or partially, is the
discarding of the fashion of tying, i.e. wearing cloth, in the
manner Egenebite that is prescribed for virgins only, and
the adoption of the styla called Beebite by the Ibani, which
is worn by mothers. To further distinguish between a married
woman who has had no offspring and a mother, the latter only
is allowed to wear a cloth, which is dyed yellow and called
Awumiabite. This privilege is, however, conceded to women

who have never conceived when they have been many years
married, but only as a rule to women of influence and utility.
Indeed this question of the consignment of women to
the care of one particular deity is to be seen in the most
trivial matters,and the regulations on the subject are every-

where very strict. In consequence of this, even after
confinement the greatest care is taken of the mother and
infant. Washed first of all with hot water, palm oil which —
is considered to be medicinal in its effects is rubbed all —
over the abdomen and applied to the wounded parts, and the
former is then bound very tight with a cloth by the old
women midwives. A big fire is kept in the room, and the
mother is fed three times a day, plenty of palm oil and
pepper being put into her food. Besides this, she is washed
three times a day, and spirit or palm wine, fortified by alligator
pepper, is administered internally, in the belief that it warms
and regulates the womb. Further, a woman nursing a child
— also during gestation — is forbidden to cohabit with her
husband. If in the former case, however, she transgresses
the law with some other man and becomes pregnant, she is
held responsible for the life of her lawful child ; while

punishment is inflicted on her paramour in proportion to
the rank of tlie woman, it being much heavier in the case
of a chief's wife, and the offence being altogether regarded
as extremely heinous.
As which have been pointed out, so practically
in those
in all matters connected with domestic economy, everything
is placed in the hands of the household or communal gods.
It is not surprising, therefore, that matrimony, as befitting a

cause which must lead to the effect that is above all desired,
is regarded as an affair of some importance, and not, as the
European imagines it is, in an absolutely cheap and insigni-

ficant sense. For before a man can consummate his marriage
with a virgin, he and the prospective bride are both obliged to
perform a ceremony in the presence of the household god of
preservation. This custom, known as Turu Jua among the
Ibani, is performed before So the offering on this occasion
;
being chalk, eggs, yams, palm wine, spirits, a special kind of

shiny-nosed fish called Xdah, and a compound made up of
mashed yams and ripe plantains. This oblation, the meat and
drink more especially, is offered to the god, i.e. placed in
front of his emblem, by the bridegroom himself, who in
serving him beseeches So to confer health, wealth, and
prosperity on all the members of the household, and par-
ticularly to defend them from all harm and evil. The virgin,
who has now become a bride, is then marked by the sacred
chalk with a stripe that extends from the left shoulder down
the whole length of the arm to the tips of her fingers, and
the husband as well as the head of the house, who must be
present, receive a similar mark on the right side. A big play,
which consists of the usual feasting, singing, and dancing, and
that lasts all day and night, then terminates the proceedings
and the ceremony.
Two stakes about four feet in length, with pointed
ends, cut specially from the tree Odiri — no other kind
being permitted — are placed horizontally on the ground in
a corner of the bridegroom's house by the family priest. The
following ritual is then observed. The bride and bridegroom
are obliged to sit side by side with their feet placed on the
two stakes. The priest now kills a goat and sprinkles the
warm blood on their feet and on the sticks.While he is
doing so he pronounces them man and wife, and the marriage
so binding that only death can dissolve it, and ends up with the
usual benediction for material prosperity. The husband, when
and drives the stakes into the ground
this is over, at once rises
with a stone or a rude mallet, and there they must remain
until they rot and fall to pieces. For no one dare take them
out. Thus it is that, in accordance with their laws, wherever
the wife may subsequently go or whatever she may do, and
no matter how many children she may beget by any one other
than her husband, all of them, including herself, belong to him
and are in fact his property. So that he can legitimately
demand that they should be given up to him. More than
this. When the w4fe dies, only the husband and no one else
is entitled to perform the sacred and all essential funeral
rites. The two stakes in and
question are known as Tsi,
no unmarried man dare allow them to enter his house. The

name Tsi {v. Appendix) not only implies the great antiquity
of the marriage rite, but demonstrates the supposed sanctity
of its origin.
An oath is a matter so sacred that, just as the keeping of

it brings its own reward, the breaking of it involves its own
punishment. In connection with the matter it is customary
to place a time-limit on the vow, so that, should the votary
die within this period, the cause of his death is attributed to
the fact that he had committed perjury and it is usual ;
on such an occasion for everything belonging to the deceased to

become forfeit to Should his family,
the priest in charge.
howêver, fail to deliver them, they under the ban of Ogu's
fall
displeasure —
or whoever the protecting god of the community
—
may happen to be and are threatened with his vengeance.
If, on the contrary, he survives, and there be any disputant
in the matter on whose account the vow has been taken, the
latter is obliged to make redress to the former in the following
manner : to present him with the value of a slave, either in
person or in goods, also with one trade shirt, one piece of cloth,
one keg of powder, one hat, one goat, one fowl, besides yams,
pepper, oil, salt, spirits, palm wine, and other articles. The
4i6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sfxt. vii
powder, it be observed, is for the purpose of firing a

will
salute, as an expression of joy and an announcement made in
honour of the god for giving him the victory, just as the
animals and food are reserved for sacrifice, i.e. to be eaten,
and the spirits and palm wine are meant to feast and make
merry with this demonstration of uproarious and unconfined
;
mirth — subsequent, of course, to the oblation — being in native

estimation the sincerest, as it is the most natural, form of
human adoration.
The principle of swearing on the emblem of a deity is not,
of course, confined to Ogu, Nkwu Abasi, or any one god in

particular; and it is usual among those tribes who are
associated with water and accustomed to use canoes, that
when the votary happens to be drowned, his property,
including even his paddles, are taken possession of by the
deity involved. For, as these people are firm believers in
design, the question of accident is never taken into con-
sideration.
The likeness between Ogu of the ISTdoke people and
Ewitaraba of the Andoni, despite their different names and
emblems, will have long since been detected as being the
arbitrators of their respective communities, who decide the
merits of every case that is laid before them. Indeed, a
careful examination of the various household and communal
deities of the different tribes reveals the fact that, except for
a very superficial difference in names and perhaps in formulas,
such, e.g., as in votive or other sacrificial offerings or in articles
that are tabu, the gods and their respective functions are
identical.
I have already, I trust, made it quite clear, or at least
have endeavoured to explain, that this system of religion is
based fundamentally —
that is, purely and entirely on the —
close and naturally inseparable ties and associations of family
or ancestral relationship, which is regarded by these natives
as a natural order, direct from the Supreme God. In other
words, that the essential and governing principle is, on the
one hand, the fatherhood of the governing and fertilising god,
and on the other, the motherhood of the producing and
nourishing goddess, his co-operator or spouse, and a third
deity — the sou — as the result of their co-operation. There-

fore, just as we saw in Chapter IX. of the last section that,
among the Ibani, Adum was the father god, Okoba the mother
god, and Eberebo the son god, so in the Ju-Ju houses of every
community in the Delta the same trio are to be seen under
their own local cognomens. But for the purpose of the book
this matter has been already sufficiently explained, so that,
beyond making an examination of the household and depart-
mental deities and the respective functions attaching to them,
it will be quite unnecessary to make any further inquiries.
Selecting those of Onitsha as an illustration equally and

thoroughly typical of the entire pantheon of any one individual
community or tribe, as of all the communities and tribes in
the Delta, wê find, first of all, that Ani, symbolised by a clay
figure which stands underneath a small tree called Egboor
Ogibisi, and Olinri, the mother of all, the nourisher of her
children, and the protector of her people from all evil, repre-
sented by some pieces of rock on the banks of the Niger river,
as the original ancestral gods of this clan, are responsible for
a great number of other deities belonging to the various towns
and families into which it is divided. Thus, e.g., Aze, emblemised
by a clay image holding a horn, which stands in a Ju-Ju
house that was built over the grave of an influential descendant
of Tsima the King, is the goddess of the villages of Ogbe,
Ozara, and Umaroh.
Ogwugwa, whose emblem or mud image, standing in a
Ju-Ju house and which includes a tree, is the deity of Ogboh
and Uto, whose spirit is contained in two earthen pots, which
are also kept in a temple, is that of Odojile.
At Isiokme, Edemili, an agricultural god —whom we met
in Chapter XII. of the last section as a rain-maker or with-
holder — resides in a stone and a piece of metal which are
deposited in a Ju-Ju house that is built inside a sacred grove.
In the towns of Umasere and lyawu the guardian deities
are Uto and Otumoye — the latter a sacred stream ; the former
symbolised by a clay figure in a temple, who has forbidden his
people to drum on all narrow-necked pots.
At Obikpu is Neghagu, a goddess, the daughter of a former
chief, who had been held in great esteem for her power and
2 E
4i8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vii
virtue, and who now in tlie spirit watches over her people as
she reposes, in the form of a mud image, in a Ju-Ju house.
Ao-ain, Ojedi, the god of Umudei, also represented by a mud
figure, is dedicated to a former big woman of that place.
Ani, the ancestral shadow of Ogbe-abri, is a tree god.
Associated with him, however, are certain family gods of
increase, as the natives speak of them, named Omumu,

Meledem, Okpukpoku, and Okikiria, who undoubtedly repre-
sent the adoration of the procreative principle as, for the —
matter of that, does the entire system of ancestral adoration,
based as it is on the co-operation of the male and female
energies. In addition to these isOkpulukpu, a carved wooden
image, the god of a chief or head of a house, in which are
deposited all his offerings — that is, reserved only for the
exclusive worship of such. So much so that even the eldest
son or daughter is not permitted to touch it during the father's

lifetime.
From these illustrations of the Delta system it is evident
that the evolution of the gods of a community is synchronous

with the actual development of the community itself. Each
fresh extension or foundation of a new family from the parent
stock, while still adhering to the original father, mother, and
son gods, selects its own special family deity, as typical of
it being the offspring, or symbolising the fact of its relationship
and the headship of its own branch. Thus it is that among

the Igbo or Ibo proper, the Nri —
a fact we have more than
once seen —
as the parent stock of the tribe, are considered
sacred in the eyes of all the other clans who have derived
their origin from them, although at the present day their
interests in social, connuercial, and other ways are far removed.
It is, as has already been remarked in Part I., in this specific
fact, still further in the fact that sociologically all the different
tribes of the Delta are practically identical, that the entire
interestand instruction of this work centre. For in following
up the links that connect the deities of one household or
community to those of another we are but tracing out the
history of the people themselves ; because if we but unearth
these ghostly-cum-material records we find everywhere, as we
have found here, that the god of each household or town is
THE GODS OF THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 419
but the emblem of some former ancestor, who in turn was the
son or daughter of another patriarch who, after departing
to spiritland, had been deified by their families ; and so on,
until, as in the case of theNri and the Ibo, we arrive at the
parent stock of the tribe or race, the emblem in each instance,
whatever it be, being merely the material reminder or evidence
to the family of his having at one time existed as a human
being in their midst, just as now he watches over their interests
in the spirit.
It is, in fact, in this system of the deification of certain
commanding personalities
who at one time had been
— personalities,
in their own
be it remembered,
persons the arbiters
of so many human —
destinies that it is possible to trace back-
wards the evolution of their entire religious system. For in
accordance with the rules that oblige every man or woman
to deify and honour father and mother after their corporeal
decease, and then to keep these particular gods as far back
as to the sixth many of
generation, these deifications are
necessarily of modern growth. What is more, they at once
account for the countless numbers of gods in existence. Yet
it is not so much in these numerous deifications as in their
communal and departmental deities that the ancestral genealogy
is traceable. For, subject to fluctuation, variation, and com-
pound multiplication as the former have been through a long
flight of ages, the latter, as the accepted gods of each succeeding
generation, have been handed down from father to son, without
change of any kind, except those of emblem and of name, due
principally, as we have seen, to change of locality and conditions.
In spite of this, however, it is from and through the deified
parents and personalities that the communal and departmental
gods can be traced. For there can be no doubt about it, that
it was through them that the god-idea originally evolved, and
it was in this way that the origin of the human ancestors,
connected and associated as they were with the gods, was

unconsciously traced back to the Supreme Generator or Creator.
1. The first of the gods who at some very remote period
have been ancestors subsequently deified —

all still belonging
to Onitsha —
is Ani-ezi. He is not only the protecting god of
the community but the punisher of all evil-doers, and the first
as representing the best interests of a household or community.

Although in this case, e.g., the emblem is only a mud figure,
which always stands in the centre of the house, it is interesting
to know that Ani, as the earth, is typical of the earth god,
and that Ani-ezi, interpreted literally, means " the meeting-
place of the mud with which any house has been built."
Apart from these two essential and paramount character-
istics, there is another extremely potential feature connected
with this deity. For it is by touching, or in some cases
breaking, the emblem — or, as it is called in Efik, the Usan
of the household god of protection belonging to some big
patriarch or chief that a slave or dependant belonging to some
other person is able to obtain, or in fact to compel, justice.
For in this way he places his person under the protection of
the god himself, and no man who has the smallest regard for
his own well-being as well as that of his house would dare to
incur the displeasure and most probably the wrath of his god.
So that, will he nill he, he is obliged to see the refugee out of
his trouble by redeeming or otherwise helping him.
2. Urai, the Preventer, is another household god, whose
emblem is a large pot of medicine, and whose particular line

of business is to stave off or prevent misfortune from falling
on the family.
3. Ikenga, symbolised by the wooden figure of a man with
two horns, the god of virtue and fortune, and giver of strength
and of all good things to those who have a house, is the daily
provider of food, and the god of good actions.
4. Ogbonuke, on the contrary, although he represents the
interests of all men in the prime of life, who by the way are
obliged to sacrifice to him as often as they are directed by the
priests or doctors, is the god of bad actions — corresponding to
the devil of theology.
5. Ofo, represented by a branch of the tree Ofo, is god of
justice and of right, and is appealed to by those who, having a
grievance, consider that right is on their side, or, in fact, that
they are altogether in tlie right.
6. Osisi — meaning literally a tree — an enlarged form of

Ofo, is a god who is reserved exclusively for chiefs of the first
rank and upwards. Every ordinary i)erson, however, has the

Osisi which belonged to his ancestors, and a man is of course

permitted to keep this after he has become a chief.
7. Ifejioku, the god of crops, who is represented by a yam,

or even piece of yam, or by some mud that has been brought
from the farm, which is kept in the house, makes all seed to
grow and the earth to become fruitful.
8. In addition to these, the women of the household also
keep for their specific use and purpose two deities, the first
of whom is Ekwu, the kitchen god, who resides in a mud
image, and the second, also an emblem of mud, is Umu-ada,
who represents the interests of all the women of the house or
village — otherwise " the collection of the spirits of departed
females."
9. But, although the last place has been reserved for him,
Tsi, the Supreme God or Creator of all these other gods, and of
everything in existence, is in reality first, and, as it were, apart
in every sense, not only as being the Maker, who has made
and fertilised all things above and below, therefore the Owner
and Master thereof, but also because he is a Being who is all
goodness, although he is at the same time all powerful and
capable of inflicting death and punishment. But not of evil
mind, because, apart even from all considerations of right and
wrong, the very fact of the infallibility of his position, invulner-
able and unassailable as it is, identical in fact as it is with that
of the father in the flesh —from which, of course, the whole
idea originally emanated — is in itself sufficient to guarantee
the question of right unquestionable, and to prevent that of
wrong unthinkable from being in any way connected with his
supreme and commanding personality. For his word is law,
and his law as Maker, Owner, and Master is not only just and
irrevocable, but, as we have recently seen, it is unquestionable
and even unthinkable. Indeed, as I have endeavoured to
explain in Part II., it is but a matter of an open mind, or
honesty of purpose, more even than of keenness of intellectual
perception, that enables us to detect the crude philosophy of
these natural people in the meaning of words such as those,
" life," " being," or " "
for example, which represent growth
all growth, and all that tends to exist, be, or live, being in
their estimation considered synonymous with all that is
good and beautiful, i.e. substantial —

as having a material
embodiment and a soul or spirit essence, and useful because

it can be materially utilised while all that makes for decay,
;
dissolution, and death, as opposed to development, is on the

wrong: side of the balance — that is, bad.
CHAPTEE III
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS

OF THE GODS
Let us now make an investigation of some of the most salient
features that have occurred to us with respect to the attributes

and functions of the various deities who manage and control
the domestic and communal affairs of these natives, referring
to them in the order in which they exactly occur.
Putting aside for the present all considerations as to the
palpable and unmistakable humanity of the entire arrangement,
we are all the same struck by three points which stand out
prominently from all the rest. These are :
The extraordinary resemblance of the spiritual to the

1.
mundane, and more specifically of the household and communal

gods to a council of elders.
2. The fact that the position of the Creator is unique,
apart, and not so much utterly independent of them as having

no connection with them whatsoever, with regard at least to
the administration of human affairs.
3. Yet, notwithstanding this, the fact that there is a

distinct association, if not relationship, existing that connects
the lowest with the highest and the highest with tlie lowest.
These points have very frequently been alluded to as well
as examined in different sections of this book, so that it is not
in the least necessary to dilate further upon them. It would
be as well, however, for the reader to bear them in mind.

With regard to the question of God in His capacity of a dealer
out or dispenser of death and punishment i.e. what in natural
philosophy is the reverse of good, or not good —

it is as well to
recognise that He is placed by the people themselves on a

pinnacle of goodness or moral supremacy above the communal
and household deities, who are altogether on the lower plane
of a morality which, dual as it is, returns an equivalent for
that which is meted out, either in the direction of good or
evil —yet not merely or so much because he is their Creator
as because he is Supreme, and like the king can do no wrong.
So it is, because they regard God, whose emblem is the
sky, the male or fertilising energy and originator of all
as
nature, that they have detached Him from the personal and
raised Him to an eminence which is as unique as it is supreme.
And, similarly, it is because the earth is the female energy, or
conceiver of all that is in being, that they have a reverence
for their land which is inexplicable to the European.
In connection, therefore, with the respective positions of
and the relationship existing between the primary God and the
secondary deities, it is quite essential that the attitude of the
people towards the former should be distinctly understood.
For it is in consequence of this detachment from the personal,
and because of this unique supremacy alone, that, apart from
the offering which is made to Him annually, it is customary
only to approach Him —
as has more than once been pointed
out — in the last resource or extremity, when all other gods,
arbitrators, advocates, mediums, and mediators have miserably
failed, and then only after a succession of misfortunes which
has culminated in ruin. It is not, in fact, until the supplicants
have been crushed and beaten to the earth because of a
recurrence of reacts against w^hich all spiritual remedies and
appliances are impotent, that they venture to appeal to the
Supreme God. He is the last and final court of appeal in the
same way that He is the first and greatest god.
The material and spiritual increase of the household, and
in the same wây of the community, is altogether regulated by
the father and mother gods, who, although they fertilise, nourish,
and protect their children, only do so when their children are
well behaved, docile, obedient, and reverential. For when
their conduct is the reverse of this i.e. when it is non-
ancestral, or wanting in due respect and duty to the spiritual,
these gods of increase transpose themselves for the nonce

CHAP. Ill ATTRIBUTES OF THE GODS 425
into demons of decrease, and so frequently send the messenger

Death from spiritland to release or briug back the souls of
the human members of the family, so that numbers of them die.
In plain language, they allow the spirits of disease to play
havoc among them, and so smite them hip and thigh. Yet
these evil spirits of disease, the reader must recollect, are not
adored as gods, nor are sacrifices made to them in this sense,
but only in that of propitiation —
a most tremendously significant
feature,demonstrating plainly and vigorously as it does that,
brutal and ignorant as the people are from a civilised stand-
point, the worship of their ancestors, which, as an evolution
from lâture herself, is their natural religion, is an element
outside and apart from demonology. For demonology, as they
believe in and practise it, is altogether an outcome of that
branch of human thought and desire which has been mentally,
and so to speak deliberately, concentrated on the wrong side of
the social balance, and put into practice with the object of
consummating the destruction of all that is even or good on
the right side — in a word, the unnatural or all-destroying
factor in humanity, as opposed to the natural or dual element,
which, although dual, is more on the side of construction a :
concept which in principle is very similar, if not identical, to

that which they believe to be the motive principle of suicide,
which, although a seemingly deliberate act of the person, is
regarded as due to obsession on the part of a unit of that
detached power of evil which they can only express by the
one and single term of witchcraft.
Similarly, the god of protection is the punisher of all
evil-doers —
evil, more especially, with regard to the neglect of
those household or communal duties and responsibilities that

appertain to every member of a family in gradation from the
father downwards. And it is particularly noticeable that even
the stranger who is outside the ancestral pale is taken under
the all-enfoldiug wing of this sympathetic deity. Yet, not
satisfied with the mere protection of one god whose sole duty
is to protect his flock, the services of another powerful spirit,
in the form of a preventer, have been requisitioned.
It is, however, in the character of the next two gods i.e.
in the Ikengas and Ogbonukes of the country that we are —

426 THE LOIVER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vii
confronted with a more subtle problem, not so much with

regard to their different functions as in connection with the
principles and requirements that primarily necessitated their
intervention, and in a certain measure their co-operation, in
the management of affairs. It is at once evident that in
these two very important functionaries we are face to face with
what, in a more remote period —
speaking both broadly and
—
generally, and without going into either detail or specification
appeared in the primitive philosophy of natural man as the

active and dominating principle of nature, namely, the good
and the bad, or, as he saw it, the growth or life and the decay
or dissolution of existence. Hence it was that, as everything
was then measured from a purely material or substantial
standpoint, the principle of good was afterwards personified in

the form of some prominent and powerful ancestor, who,
supplying them, as he was believed to have done, with all
that made life plentiful and prosperous, became to the house-
hold the god of virtue and fortune, the giver of all good
things, and the daily provider of food. In a word, while the
principle and the person represented to them the god of good
actions, in a manner the opposite principle, also
similar
personified in the entity ofsome former predecessor with a
reputation for harshness and severity, as they saw it almost
daily in the different operations of natural elements and
phenomena, had assumed, and in time occupied, the position
of the god whose actions were bad. Indeed, to quote the
exact words of an intelligent Ibo, addressed to me in person,
they believe that there are in existence two active spirits
the one a saviour or preserver, the other a destroyer, whose
sole purpose in life is to get men into trouble and
difficulties. induction is all the more evident in the
This
attitude of the people towards this latter deity. For it is
worthy of remark that Ogbonuke is not entirely one-sided
with respect to the important role he plays. On the contrary,
like Simingi or Kamallo, indeed similar to all deities of the
same class in every community or tribe, he is perfectly
neutral, if not actively benevolent, For, as we have seen, he
represents the interests of all men in the prime of life, so long,
of course, as they propitiate him. In this sense, if we are to
credit theology, he is every whit as obliging and accommodat-

ing as the arch-fiend Satan. With the proud Lucifer, however,
we have nothing either to do or say. But as regards this
native devil, what is most noticeable is the fact tlmt even he
is not utterly and entirely bad. For, although he is the head
of the department which supplies the dangers and mis-
fortunes, these things, first of all, are not exclusively confined
to him and his myrmidons ; and, secondly, with a moral com-
placency that above reproach, and so long as he has received
is
his mead of substance and of spirit, he not only withholds the

evil, but allows the good to pour in upon the people without
either interference or protestation on his part.

But the explanation of this, when analysed from the native
aspect, is that this god, like all these departmental deities,
although created by the Supreme, is all the same of ancestral
origin. II. and elsewhere, evil,
Because, as pointed out in Part
to be utterly one-sided, must be entirely outside the ancestral
pale i.e. outside the powers and scope of the Creator there- —
fore disembodied, unnatural, and confined to sorcery. And
this dread curse is not only kept off, as we saw in Chapter V.,
Section V., by a specific spirit medium, but also by Urai, the
Preventer, as well as by the god of bad actions, if properly
propitiated.
It is a difficult matter for the European, as I have so
often reiterated, to understand a principle such as this unless
he is able to think black, For these natives,
i.e. naturally.
dull and unintelligent European thinks them, are
as the
neither so dull nor so stupid as not to see which way the
wind is blowing when questioned by the inquisitive white
man. So that even if they do not give a direct refusal, or
take the trouble to wrap up their answers in metaphor or
parable, or to affect complete ignorance regarding what has
been said to them, or, yet again, to shuffle out of it with the
dexterity of natural simplicity and silence, they are invariably
prepared to supply their questioners with precisely the exact
information that they opine is required. Or, as an old Ibo
chief,whose bluntness of speech, as we would call it, or, as I
personally would prefer to designate it, natural simplicity,
which was deeper and more subtle than it appeared on the
surface, replied, when interrogated regarding the character
of a charm which he was wearing round the neck, "Why

ask ? Surely the white man, who knows everything,
knows all about such a trifling matter without any
reference to me." And this attitude exactly interprets
the feelings and opinions of the great majority of them.

But talk to them as if you are from one and the same
nature and belong to the same humanity as they do listen to ;
their grievances, their sorrows, and their misfortunes, and

enter into their joys, their humours, and their successes take ;
a human interest generally in their personal concerns, in the

welfare of themselves and especially of their children, the
condition and prosperity of their farms, their fishing, their
hunting, and their trades ; show them in a practical manner
that you have a fellow-feeling for them, that your sympathy
is real and sincere, and that you are in downright earnest, and
can think as they do, talk as they can talk, and, above all,
feel with the same pain and pleasure that they can feel, and
you will have won your way into that conflicting and chaotic
seat of the emotions which, for want of a better word, we call
heart. Further, let them see and feel that you understand
and appreciate their laws and customs, legal, social, religious,
and moral; hear with patience their ancient feuds and
palavers, extending backwards through many generations act ;
but the part of a wise and judicious mediator or arbitrator

between contending factions, and then, even though you belong
to an element that is outside their own ancestral circle, there-
fore, so to speak, devilish and inimical, you will not only get
into touch with them, but will find, as I did, that these
naturally shy and suspicious people will bare their hearts
almost as much as it is possible to do within the prescribed
limitations of that part of nature which we call human.
But to resume about the gods. It is Ofo, the chief-
justice of the community, and also the diviner of crime, when

no specific divining god, such as Ogba of Ogbunike, is present,
who, when the good offices of human judges and mediators
fail to effect a satisfactory settlement between contending
litigants, is generally appealed to as the divine, therefore more
discriminating and potential, arbitrator in the case. To
appreciate the exact position of this divinity, also of the

principle on which law is dispensed and morality is adjudi-
cated, it is essential that the reader should understand the
entire constitution of the social system of the people them-
selves. not only necessary in this specific instance,
This is
but in every single circumstance that is connected with their

existence. For this, and the social system which has grown up
around so entirely woven in with their religion
it, is the —
latter being merely an inevitable condition and outcome of the
former —
that, even if they would, they cannot get away from
it. For although the morality of these naturists is but a
natural morality i.e. the morality which has evolved from
and prevails in a state of nature, therefore too brutally literal
to suitthe testheticism of altruistic culture they are, in the —

strict and natural sense of the word, a truly and a deeply
religious people, of whom it can be said, as it has been said
of the Hindus, that "they eat religiously, drink religiously,
bathe religiously, dress religiously, and sin religiously." In a
few words, the religion of these natives, as I have all along
endeavoured to point out, is their existence, and their existence
is their religion.Yet though it is a religion of substantial

practice and not of phantasmal profession and theory, the entire
substance and control of it is but an offering on the part of these
natural beings to the overweening vanity and egoism of their
own mentality, which, however, is too blind to discriminate
between the real and the unreal, or rather between the
substance itself and the shadow or mental emanations that are
associated with it. But as this particular phase of their
philosophy, connected as it is with their morality, has been
more or less explained elsewhere, it will only be necessary to
point out here that the question as to right and wrong is, as
an invariable rule, with certain fundamental exceptions of
course, one that is purely and entirely a personal matter
affecting the existence or integrity of the individual, and by
no means a question that has been laid down or defined on a
fixed and unalterable basis. Therefore it is that, in the event
of a dispute arising between two persons, the question in
dispute is always referred for settlement to a third party.
Because, unless this is done, the case is never settled, and the
breach widened to such an extent, by acts of aggression and

is
retaliation on both sides, that it not only provokes

an open
rupture of the peace, but more often than not develops into
war between the two communities to whom the litigants
belono'. For the party in the wrong only admits it when he

is foi-ced to do so through fear
and under a spiritual com-
pulsion which he beheves to be stronger than the spirit forces
that are at his command.
Indeed, no more practical evidence of the morality of these
natives can be adduced than the fact that in the settlement
of
parties the
a dispute or law suit between two contending
selection of judges or mediators does not in any way
depend
on individual status or position, or in any sense on any especial
(|ualities of integrity or honesty. Eegardless of all these
qualifications, the one absolutely imperative condition which

is necessary in the selection of the mediators is that it should
be to the mutual satisfaction of both parties and on this being

;
arranged the judge chosen is vested with extreme powers, so

that in dealing with a case he does so entirely and absolutely
according to his own views of right and wrong. Do what we
may, in fact, in examining their gods and the special attributes
and functions belonging to them, it is impossible to get away
from the people themselves and the social system by which
they are environed. For the gods are in the likeness of the
priests, and the priests are but the thought-leaders
of the
people.
Passing on to Osisi, we are at once in touch with the
more immediate personal or ancestral god, who stands directly,
not only for the individual interests of the patriarch and,
through him, of the whole household, but who also is the
direct" and immediate connecting Unk between them and the
spirit family. And, as we have seen in Chapter III., vSection
IV., that life in spiritland is but a reflex of the human existence,
the rules about rank, title, and the order of precedence as a

spiritual legacy being rigidly observed in consequence, there is
no difficulty in recognising the motive that underlies the
bestowal of a special spirit guardian on a person who has been
promoted to the rank of chief. For the nature of these
natural men is so appreciably alike in its humanity to that of
ATTRIBUTES OF THE GODS 431
the civilised unit, that they are quite as keen to purchase the
patent of nobility as any purse-proud city alderman. Super-
ficially, however, there is just this difference, that, true to
Nature, the former, unlike the have neither inclination
latter,
nor permission to disavow the ancestors from whom they have

sprung, no matter how lowly their origin.
A combination of functions is seen among many, if not
most, of the Delta gods, and is to be traced to the greater
individuality of those ancestral thought -leaders who in the
remote ages from deified spirits developed into administrative
and departmental deities. A
good example of this combina-
tion is to be seen in Ifejioku, the agricultural god of Onitsha,
yet the maker and withholder of rain. It might appear strange,
for instance, that with a daily provider of food, such as Ikeuga,
a special god should be considered necessary for the supply of
crops, but the natural society of this early period found that,
in spite of the god of good actions, and the daily provider of
food, the crops at times went wrong, so that it became essential
to place the growth and increase of them under the care of a
specific god and department. Besides this, it is once more
possible to see in this especial phase a distinct spiritual con-
nection between the products of earth, as symbolised by a
yam or small portion of mud from the farm, and the earth
herself. So it is that any veneration which is offered direct
to this deity is indirectly an offering to the great mother.
Ekwu and Umu-ada we see that even the
In the gods
women of a community, who, as I pointed out in Chapter IV.,
Section IV., are neither so despised nor so downtrodden as
is generally supposed, along with their special domestic arrange-
ments and personal interests, are specifically represented the —
former by the god Ekwu, and the latter by the combination
of female spirits called Umu-ada. This fact of the femininity
of a god-being, who combines within her entity or embodiment
the concentrated essences of so many departed women, based
as it is on one of the favourite principles of their philosophy,
that number necessarily implies strengthand co-operation, is
one which speaks for For it unmistakably demonstrates
itself.
that, in spite of the lesser and inferior position which has been
assigned to women in the social scale, their position as indis-
432 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vir
pensable co-operators in the human phase of the creative
scheme not only assured, but satisfactory, and altogether

is
compatible with the degree or form of energy that has come

to them in the natural order of things. Further, it shows that
it is a position in whicli they feel themselves capable of defend-
ing their own personal interests by means of a spiritual co-
operation that is essentially typical of the productive energy.
Indeed, as I have endeavoured more than once to impress
upon the reader, the question of sex and sexual co-operation
is, with these natives, the pre-eminent feature of the plan of
Nature. And a comprehension of the psychology of their

philosophy makes it quite clear that sex, as their primitive
ancestors primarily regarded it, was merely the necessary and
inevitable division of the oneness or unity of Nature by which
the greater energy fertilised and predominated over the lesser
yet equally indispensable energy, that, so to speak, receives
and subsequently conceives the fruit or animating essence,
which it then produces in one soul -charged or animated
embodiment, as the unit or offspring of both energies.
The words implying ownership and fatherhood, which are
in common use all over Southern Nigeria, are most interest-
ing, as giving a true insight into the whole primitive idea of
creation. They are, in fact, one of the unmistakable clues to
the original thought of natural man, who looked on himself,
not only as the production of God the Creator or First Father,
but as his immediate offspring. Hence it is that the Aro call
themselves " the sons of God." Hence it was that Igwe, the
sky (god), came down from above, and having impregnated
Ani, the earth (goddess), made her conceive man and every
living thing. Hence, too, the libations and food offerings to
the earth prior both to eating and drinking. So it is that
expression " father and mother," as applied to the head
the
of a house or distinguished personage, exists everywhere. For
whatever the original conception was, as it appeared to the
far-off ancestors of these natives, it is obvious that, in spite of
their knowledge of the two sexes or energies, primitive philo-
sophy went back and beyond this to the one great sky father, as
embracing within himself not merely these physical energies,
but also the more mysterious principles of adjustment among
ATTRIBUTES OF THE GODS 433
others of good and evil, of right and wrong, and of light and
darkness.
It is quite impossible to understand the spiritual conception
and the god-idea of these natives unless we possess a know-
ledge of that peculiarly personal system of society out of which
it has evolved and developed and we recognise that the gods
;
are but the shadows or spirits, so called, of mortals. They are

rude but perfect pictures of the very worshippers in whose own
human image they have been either kneaded out of clay or
carved out of wood, the father and fertiliser supreme hold-
ing in his hands the power of life and death the head wife
;
and mother, or producer of the eldest son, filling a position of

great trust and reverence as the maternal nourisher the son ;
in his turn as having the confidence of both, and being the

mediator between them and the rest of the household; the
elders of the various branches into which this is divided,
respected as they are in this capacity, occupying the position
of counsellors and managers —
heads of departments, in other
words. Indeed, it is all so obviously human that it is difficult
to understand why a misconception so stupendous should have

ever prevailed with regard to it.
2 F
CHAPTER lY
THE ANNUAL AND ANCESTRAL CEREMONIALS
In order to get a deeper insight into the character of this

spiritual family, it will now be necessary to examine the ritual
and ceremonials which are regularly held in their honour.
It is customary, as a mark of esteem, gratitude, and fear to
their ancestors, but especially to the protector and daily giver
up a short prayer or petition, in addition to a
of food, to offer
certain amount of food and libations of water or liquor, in
accordance with what they may happen to be drinking at the
time. Besides this, a daily service in some cases, but always
a weekly service, is held once every four days among the Ibo
and other interior tribes, and on every eighth day among the
coast natives. The principal feature of this, as indeed of all
their services, consists of food and drink offerings ; also of an
animal sacrifice — usually a goat or a fowl, according to the

means of the household. In addition to these, special services
of thanksgiving and purification —the latter very similar to
the Jewish, also to the Eoman, lustrations —
are invariably
organised in connection, more especially, with marriage rites,
the birth of children —
especially of twins —
the pregnancy and
menstruation of women, the casting out of spirits, combating
disease, defilement of the person or land by the committal of
certain crimes against ancestral authority (murder and theft,
for example), the dedication to the gods of children, also of
certain animals, to invoke the ancestral blessing on the departure
from and the return to the household of all members of im-
portance who have gone on a journey either by land or water
— to commemorate, in fact, all such domestic events or occur-
434
CHAP. IV TJI£ ANNUAL AND ANCESTRAL CEREMONIALS 435
rences as are associated with the ordinary routine of a

household.
But while these are, so to speak, private functions, or at
least confined to the members and precincts of the household,
it is also customary to celebrate annually certain public
festivals to the supreme and departmental gods, in which the
entire community
participate. Of these there are seven notable
feasts, which are regularly observed once a year, at stated
periods, by all the various communities throughout Southern
Nigeria, and as they are established on the same basis, and
are practically identical in every feature, I have once more
selected those of Onitsha as an excellent illustration of the
rest, as they were celebrated prior to the establishment of a
civilised administration.
These ceremonies, given below in the order in which they
occur, are as follows :
1. Ajatsi or Ajaci — Sacrifices and adoration to the great

spirit or creator.
This, which is the first feast in the year, as it is in an
ethical sense the first in importance, is always made in antici-
pation of the new crop, to ensure that it is good. On this
occasion sacrifices of thanksgiving and propitiation are made
to Tsi or Ci, the creator god, to thank him for blessings past
and present, and to obtain his favour and protection during
the ensuing year.
2. Umato. —Communion of first-fruits.
This is a festival to the household gods, and, properly
speaking, a celebration which is meant to show the good-will
that is existing between all the various households of a com-
munity. The king is always the first person to initiate it,
which he does by inviting the chiefs to a feast in his house.
The chiefs then follow suit, according to their respective ranks,
and finally the people entertain among themselves. The occa-
sion, asbeing connected with the ancestral or more personal
element of their existence —
the element, moreover, of that
retributionwhich is so much feared is naturally regarded —
as one of great moment. It is in consequence exceedingly
popular, and all classes and sexes join in it with great
enthusiasm and fervour. This is done not so much as an
outburst of spontaneous joy, as an expression of their
deepest feelings and of their inmost consciousness, to ensure,
in fact, among the various units of the community that unifica-
tion and integrity of interests which is essential to the welfare

and prosperity of the community as a whole. And as a
material expression of this unanimity the givers of the feast
in each case always expect the assistance of all their female
relatives in preparing the food. On this occasion, as on the
former, a meat offering is always presented to all the tutelary
deities.
^ 3. Onm-Waji or Ovmnc-Aji. —A communion of the new

yam.
On the first day of this festival animal sacrifices are made
to the gods of the community. This ceremony is performed
between two poles outside the precincts of every household by
all the principal elders, and in the presence of all the members.
A preparation of certain herbs called unedi, with which pieces

of roast yam are mixed, is then administered to the heads of
the different households, and at each mouthful of the mixture
the onlookers who are standing round give a loud shout, so as
to indicate to the gods the faithful observance on the part of
their father regarding the divine instructions relative to the
prohibition placed on the eating of new yams. Eegarded as
a season of great rejoicing and mirth, this sacrament is likewise
held in great esteem as a thanksgiving offering for the new
crop of yams, in which the entire community participates, more
particularly so because of the gratifying prospect of a greater
abundance of food. It is, in fact, a harvest festival. The
young men, according to custom, are the first who are obliged to
eat of the new yam. Chiefs of the sixth or lowest rank follow
them, and so the feast is continued on the ascending social
scale until it comes to the king's turn, who on this occasion
closes the ceremony, as in Umato he was the first to open it.
It is usual, however, for the king to give a month's notice
before the ceremony can take place, and in all communities,
such as Onitsha, in which several smaller towns or villages
are incorporated, the new yam is first of all eaten by the
smallest, and so on according to size up to the principal or
royal town, which comes last on the roster, the doctors,
CHAP. IV THE ANNUAL AND ANCESTRAL CEREMONIALS 437
diviners, and priestcraft generally preceding it as distinct and

constituted bodies in themselves. The idea of this is at once
apparent, amounting, as it does, to a merely precautionary and
protective measure — in one word, to that tabu, or divinity of
prevention which, in this instance, is taken on behalf of the
king and royal family. So that in the event of the existence
in the crop of impurities —
that is, of malign or poisonous
influences —
the person of the king, representative as he is of
ancestral authority, will remain safe and unharmed. So soon,
therefore, as it is known that this is pure and eatable, the king
enters a small and private Ju-Ju house that is secreted in
the bush, in which he remains for four days without food of
any kind, sustaining himself on liquid only. Then breaking
the divine tabu by divine sanction, he pays a visit to each
town belonging to the community, to give them an opportunity
of seeing and speaking to him, and once more retires into the
solitary confinement which is so exclusively symbolical of his
kingly office.
4. Ogha-Lido. — Literally the feast of hunters.

This, which is a ceremony consisting of sacrificial offerings,
feasting, dancing, and singing that is offered to the communal
gods of protection, is a gathering in every community, by the
members and hunters, identical
of the fraternity of warriors
in every way "peri"
to the of the Brassmen alluded to in
Chapter II., Section IV. These, from the king down to the last
joined and youngest member, meet together to celebrate the
number of victims, human and animal, that they have killed
during the year — each member stating openly, and in the
presence of the assembly, how many he individually has been
responsible for. And as it is customary to observe certain
special rites, which include a sacrifice of the victim in question,
to the protecting god, at the actual time of occurrence — in
addition to the fact that the death of a human being outside
the community, or of some large fierce animal, is always an
event and a red-letter day in its annals it is not possible for —
any member either to romance or to exaggerate his prowess in
either direction.
5. —
Ofaid. A celebration to Ofo, god of justice and right,
in honour of the public appearance of the king.

Withthe exception of the appearance referred to at the

termination of the Owu-waji festival, this is the only occasion
year by year on which the king is ever visible to his people.
To give notice of the feast or summons to the royal pres-
ence three cannons or guns are fired at three different periods

of the day ; as a rule, in the morning, at mid-day, and during
the afternoon. Immediately afterwards drum isa special
beaten, as a form of announcement and a herald of his approach,

and then the king comes out into the courtyard or open space
inside his quarters, crowned and dressed up in all the finery
that he is possessed of, and accompanied by a large retinue,
consisting of all the chiefs and his own household, who form
themselves into a procession.
An exhibition of dancing by the men and women of the
place, accompanied by drums and a chant to the glory and
honour of the king, which is sung by the chiefs alone, is now
given, and when it is over the procession again forms up and
proceeds to the farthest end of the royal enclosure, where a
sacrifice is performed. When this — the details of wdiich will
be given under the heading of Sacrifices and Scapegoats has —
been completed, the king and chiefs once more return to the
people outside, who are excluded from this portion of the
ceremony. Dancing is vigorously kept up the whole time,
and towards the end of the proceedings the king sits in state,
surrounded by the whole community, and foretells the events
of the ensuing year —
a matter which among the Brass, Ijo,
and other coast tribes is invariably undertaken by the high
priests.
6. Ihele-Beji, also called Ito-Uk-pukixi. — The crumbs or
remnants of yam.
This old-time ceremony, which in some parts has of recent
years fallen into disuse, is a royal prerogative reserved for the
king only, of eating fufu or mashed yam all by himself —an

offering of which is made to his own ancestral Osisi.
This, without doubt, is the same custom as that alluded to
in Chapter II. of this section, in which the priest of the god
Nkwu Abasi eats a ball compounded of mashed yam and fish
bones. For although it is indubitably an act of obeisance and
an oblation from the king or priest to the deity, it is also, as I

CHAP. IV THE ANNUAL AND ANCESTRAL CEREMONIALS 439
have previously remarked, an act of vindication on the ^ârt of

the former as between himself and the people.
—
^ 7. IfejiokiL The feast of roast yam.
This, the last, but by no means the least of their feasts, is
performed at the close of the year. It is a general festival
and holiday for all the people, in which sacrifices, usually
animal, and thanksgiving are offered direct to Ifejioku, god of
the crops, as a token of public gratitude on the part of the
community for a fruitful and prosperous year. More than
this, the termination of it not only marks the end of the native
year, but serves also as a form of public notice that farming

has to recommence. Eeserving, as I have done, the greater and
most important part of the details, with regard to their ritual,
for the next two chapters, there is little more left for me to
say. One thing is quite obvious, and that is the real human
motive which in each case has prompted the observance of
these rites. For in accordance with a belief and a system such
as these natives practise, there is no efficacy in prayer without
a sacrifice or an offering. Prayer, in fact, is but an outcome of
the sacrifice, and only useful as a communication or announce-
ment to the gods that the latter has been completed. There
are, therefore, only three forms of ritual which are in use (1) :
an offering in anticipation of favours that have been invoked

(2) a thanksgiving offering; (3) a votive offering. But it will
be observed that while the former, invocations are reserved
almost entirely for private or household worship, except in
special cases of emergency or exigency, when a common danger
or misfortune threatens, the latter form of service is practically
public or communal.
But before passing on to the contemplation of the more
serious aspect of their adoration, there are certain lesser
features — those of dancing, singing, and feasting in connection
with it —that it is necessary to call the reader's attention to.
Dancing, singing, eating, and drinking — in one word, feasting

or relaxing — is with these natives most undoubtedly a sincere
and genuine form of adoration, a manifestation of joy and
gratitude for favours received. an external demonstration
It is
of those higherand inner emotions which, in natural man, are
instinctive and inexpressible identically the same instincts
;
which, in the civilised unit, express themselves among theo-

logians in religious revivals, and among rationalists in that
silentand unconscious feeling of sheer exuberance in the mere

fact of living that is feltmore particularly in spring, or on a
bright fine day, after a long spell of bad weather. So when
the oblations have been offered, and the gods have expressed
their entire satisfaction with their people by showering on
them the material blessings which they stand in need of, the
dancing and singing of the latter is but an uplifting of
their soulsand the outpouring of their bodies in the sheer

delight of an existence overwhich the doom of the react and
the unexpected is always hovering.
CHAPTER V
A DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION OF THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM
A. Human Sacrifice
It will now be necessary for us to examine those customs

that constitute the entire basis and fabric of naturism or
ancestor -worship. These consist of sacrifices and offerings :
the former are divided into human and animal, and the latter
into gifts of food and liquor, such as eggs, fruit, vegetables,
palm wine, or spirits ; or goods of various descriptions, as, e.g.,
cloth, dyes, chalk, hardware, and among the coast tribes any
form of European, mechanical, or artificial articles.
And as being quite the most essential and sacred, there-
fore the most vital sacrament of their ritual, it will be necessary
to begin with human sacrifice. Because in selecting it as the
firstand principal in importance of their religious rites the —
substance, spirit, and practice of their religion, in fact I have —
done so, not merely because in a dual sense it involves the loss of
human life, as well as the release and utilisation of the spiritual,
but because in their own eyes it is the oldest, as it is the most
mysterious and indispensable custom in existence. Not only a
mystery on account of its age, however, but because in some
unaccountable way, which beyond the heights and
is quite
depths of their philosophy, human has always been so
sacrifice
integral a feature of their life both —

human and spiritual
that they have never known or imagined a period in which it
has not figured. So that as the inevitable groundwork of their
entire social, in other words religious system, natural society has

always found it impossible to dissociate itself from the custom.
441
Improvident as these natives, and in fact all natural people

are, blended with their improvidence is a strong sense of the
practical, which, combining as it does with the instinct to
acquire personal property, helps to convert them into keen and
shrewd traders.
Consistent with this commercial spirit, it is the worldly
ambition of every ego to become rich and powerful, and the
standard by which these two factors are measured is by the
number of wives and slaves that are in his possession. Assess-
ing the average value of the latter at £10 per head, the
monetary value of a human sacrifice varies, accordingly, from
£10 up to and in excess of £1000, dependent, of course, on
the wealth and importance of the deceased which means —
that from one to a hundred and more slaves are sacrificed on
such an occasion. But this estimate in no way includes the
utility or working value that each of these domestics represents
to the master of the house.
From this very material aspect, it is not humanly possible
to suppose for an instant that the son or successor to a house-
hold — the latter more particularly, a promoted slave as in
many instances he is — would willingly impoverish or ruin
himself and house simply for the mere lust of blood, or to
provide his late father and master with a costly funeral. For
vain, improvident, and lavish of display as these people in-
dubitably are, they are not so foolishly improvident or so
inordinately vain as to throw away, merely for a sentiment or
an idea, the excellent material that, if retained, would enable
them in person to make a display, and what is more to the
point, their power felt, during a whole lifetime.
But this, which to the civilised European is a mere whim
is, as we have seen in Chapter II., Section
or brutal carnal lust,
IV.,an indispensable sacrament, hoary with time and tradition,
backed up by an authority which, emanating from God, and
handed down to them by a long line of ancestors, is all the
more sacred and inevitable in their eyes. For taking into
consideration the essential significance to them of blood — the
very life, and connected in some mysterious way with the
soul or fruit of the body, as it is believed to be — the shedding
of blood in a righteous cause is in itself a sacred act. So that
CHAP. V THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM 443
in the case of human sacrifice neither excuse nor justification

ever even enters into their philosophy.
As this is a point which, ahnost more so than any of the
others that are contained in this book, I have times without
number discussed in many and various localities with the
people themselves, in a friendly and unimpassioned manner,
I feel myself specially qualified to express an opinion thereon.
For although, apart from any moral considerations regarding
the inhumanity of the act, they were willing enough to admit
the sense of my arguments, which were invariably advanced
from the standpoint of utility and domestic economy and not- ;
withstanding the fact that those of them who are actually

under our administration have professedly, and in some few
instances actually, discontinued the practice, they cannot in
reality wrench themselves away from a custom that is a bond
of union and association between their fathers in the spirit and
their successors in the flesh. Because where religion i.e. life
— is concerned, even the fear of the present punishment from

and
the Government is not strong enough to quench the belief
associations that have ruled them for all time.
Looking into the details of the question, although the sacri-

fice of human beings primarily and to this day was reserved for
very special occasions only, and more particularly so on the death
of any titled or important persons, and as a scapegoat for every
community, — in the former instance to accompany them as
befitting their position into and
spiritland,in the latter to
carry away all the evil spirits from the community, —

there are
others of no less importance in the same spiritual sense.
Of this nature are the sacrifices that are offered up to the
ancestral deities, or to the powers of evil, to avert any specific

or anticipated danger —
as in the case of Benin city, when
after the massacre of Mr. Phillips and his party something
like 150 human beings were sacrificed to secure and make
certain of spiritual assistance from the gods.
Another occasion which in the native estimation demands
a human sacrifice, is the very serious offence of breaking the
market laws, for which the penaltydeath.
is This law, which
prevails all over the interior, allows the offender who is rich or
powerful to provide a substitute. The unfortunate victim is
clothed with white Ijaft, then tied hand and foot to a tree in
the centre of the market-place, and left there until he dies.
The severity of the sentence, as in other cases, notably that of
theft, is due of course only rigorous measures
to the fact that
are effective. under consideration, the
Besides, in the case
fact that people from various towns are gathered at the market
renders it absolutely necessary to enforce the extreme penalty
in order to prevent faction fights, feuds, and bloodshed, and so
preserve the peace. In those localities, however, which have
come within the influence of our administration the fine of a
bullock, which is sacrificed, is imposed instead.
Formerly, too, among the Efik and other coast tribes, a
human being was sacrificed annually, or sometimes oftener, to
one of the river or sea gods, in order to hasten the arrival of
the slave or trading ships.
Fishing towns near or on the mouths of rivers also annually
devoted a man to their river god, with a view to ensure a good
fishing season. The custom, it appears, was to tie the wretched
victim to a stake in the river at low water, and leave him to
be covered by the rising tide, if, had not
in the meantime, he
been eaten by crocodiles or sharks, both of which swarm, the
former in the mouths and the latter in the creeks of the entire
Deltas of the Niger and Cross rivers.
Another matter necessitating human sacrifice is in the
event of peace being concluded between two communities w^ho
have been at war. On this occasion the slave is killed, and, if
the belligerents are neighbours, buried on some part of the
boundary line lying between the two localities, his blood being
called " the blood of reconciliation."
In order to grasp the entire scope of the sacrificial con-
ception with regard to the funeral rites of an elder or chief, it
is necessary to look into the routine which is always observed.
When the obsequies have been performed, at least three or

four men are killed and buried with the deceased, in order,
as it is believed, to raise him i.e. his soul —
up by the head
and feet when in the grave. A certain number are also hung
in the different compartments of the house, one in each of the
following places, for example : the hall or ancestral chapel, in
which the deity in the form of preventive medicine or the
bitter water is always placed the sitting, sleeping, eating, and

;
washing rooms and the

; kitchen. Some are also hung in the
street or roadway, and it is usual also to sacrifice those slaves
whom the chief prior to his death has mentioned as being his
hand, his foot, his face, or his skin.
The and principle upon which these places are

entire idea
selected is obviously based on the assumption that the released
souls or spirits of these identical attendants will occupy similar
positions, and carry out the same duties in exactly the same
relative places in spiritland as they have done in this exist-
ence. The very names for male and female slaves, who have
been purchased and reserved for sacrificial purposes, are
sufficient evidence in themselves of the utility and humanness
of it all. Thus Oka, literally foot in Ibo, is applied to the
former as being the feet, therefore the messengers and servants
of their owner and master, and, as such, ever ready to be at his
beck and call, and to do his bidding, as befitting his rank and
position, and so as to save his dignity and his own feet.
Similarly, Abor, which literally means a market or trading
basket, is the name given to all female slaves who are pur-
chased by rich and influential women for the same purpose,
^/--^thr-specific idea in this phase of the matter ostensibly being,
that the Abor will carry her mistress's basket for her when
they go ntarketing in spiritland.
Those slaves who have been hung are afterwards cut down
and decapitated, and small boys who happen to pick up the
are at once recognised as having a big future in front of
is evident that this belief is in itself significant of
the spiritii^l importance of the ceremony, when even an act
such as thi^ which to the European appears so trivial, is thus
construed. /Among all these tribes, but principally among the
Efik, Ibibio,and Ibo, living virgins were formerly sacrificed
according to old custom at the funeral rites of a chief. The
snuff-box, sword, and staff, or umbrella bearers, and other
personal attendants, are also suddenly killed, sacrificed, and
thrown into the grave along with the insignia of their various
offices. Further, a slave is invariably sacrificed to the carved
staff or walking-stick, called Ekpenyon by the Efik ; or to
the Duen fubara of the New Calabar, Ibani, etc., both of which
are ancestral emblems, while one of those who are buried

with the deceased is thrown into the grave alive, with only
his hands and feet broken.
Immense quantities of food and spirits, trade goods, and
copper rods, manillas or cowries, according to the locality, are
also added. Among the Efik and coast tribes generally, this
pit, which is dug inside the house, has a recess on one side of
it, in which a bed or a sofa is placed with the body fully and
richly dressed, and in the case of a king a crown is placed on

the head.
;
Wlien the pit has been tilled in, the ground is
trampled down and beaten hard, so as to allow no traces to
remain, and in this way to prevent violation either from
cupidity or revenge.
Subsequent to the final burial ceremony a memorial
service is held annually in honour of the departed magnate,
and in the interior it is customary for a party, headed by a
drummer, to take a walk round the neighbouring country, with
the idea of seizing a man and a woman for sacrificial purposes.
On the return of the party to town the captives are beheaded
and their bodies eaten.
B. The Scapegoat: Human and Emblematic

The custom of offering up a virgin as a scapegoat was and
isan act that has always been made in entire consonance with
the innate sincerity of their beliefs as an offering of the flesh
and of the spirit to the ancestral deities, in order to obtain
their spiritual aid in removing to a safe distance all those evil
spirits that were obnoxious and harmful to a community.
That at one time the practice was common to every tribe
in the Delta is quite certain, and that it is still practised among
a great many —
even among those who are in the immediate
and near vicinity of such civilisation as we have introduced
is also, unfortunately, a matter of equal certainty. Indeed, I
know for a fact that many of these ancient and time-honoured
customs were, three years ago, and are for the matter of that
now, being performed in secret under the very noses of our
administration. This custom of the scapegoat, which, as a
rule, is observed annually by practically all the tribes, was
occasionally, however, — by the Ibani, e.g., —

only practised once
in two, three, and sometimes in seven years.
In a book of reminiscences published about 1836 by a
Captain Crow, who had been master of a slave- trading vessel
which had traded between Bonny and the West Indies towards
the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
century, this custom is alluded to. According to him, a virgin
of from fifteen to sixteen years of age was thus sacrificed as a
propitiatory offering to Boreas — God of the North Wind. As
a matter of fact, however, the ceremony wâs performed as
a general purgation of the whole community, and an offering
to Simingi, which, literally interpreted, means the bad or
rough water, i.e. the god who disturbed and converted the
water into an element of danger or evil —
practically speaking,
the devil of the community. Some weeks previous to the
event the victim was led through the town of Bonny, attended
by priests. Every house, rich and poor, was thus visited, and
any article that she took a fancy to or expressed a wish for
was given to her. In this way, when she was quite satisfied
with the amount of things collected, and had expressed willing-
ness to die, she was placed along with them in a large canoe
and taken to a spot about twenty miles from the town, and
then thrown by the priests with the booty into the sea.
In the interior, especially among those tribes and clans
who have not come into touch with civilisation except in an
indirect way through articles of commerce, the rite is not only
held annually, but performed with all the pomp and ceremony
that the town or community is able to muster, accompanied, as
all their religious festivals are, by dancing, feasting, and every
outward manifestation of joy and mirth.
It is customary to buy the intended victim many months
previous to the occasion, and during the interim that elapses
the girl is clothed, fed, and well looked after in every way.
In some localities —
at Onitsha, for example, prior to 1886,
when the Ptoyal Niger Company first assumed the reigns of
administration —
two of these sacrifices were made, the first
being performed altogether in secret, and in some hidden recess
of the forest, to purge the king from all evil for the ensuing
year ; the second a public ceremony on behalf of the people.
With view a fund was raised by special contribu-

this object in
tions from all the members of the community, and two slaves
were purchased in the interior.
On the day appointed, a short period subsequent to the
second rite, the girl, who was decorated with palm leaves, was
brought to the king's house with her hands tied behind her
back, and her legs fastened together by rope. From here,
with her face downward, she was dragged all the way to the
river, a distance of two miles. The men to whom this task
was allotted, as they dragged the unfortunate creature along,
kept on crying Aroye-aro-Aroye, i.e. Evil, Evil. During the
progress of the ghastly procession, as it passed the entrance or
doorway of each house, the occupants came out and threw a
small piece of stick or stone on to the body, at the same time
that they addressed a brief petition to the manes to bear away
from their abode, in the person of the victim, all the evil that
had been and was with them. When the whole town had
been paraded in this cruel and brutal manner the hapless
creature, more dead than alive, was then dragged to the water-
side, where her body was placed in a canoe and escorted by
the priests to the deepest part of the river, into which it was
thrown.
It is noticeable and significant that in this very important
ceremony no blood is shed. Yet in no sense of the word is it
any the less substantial or binding. The only practical explana-
tion of this which seems to offer as acceptable from a natural
aspect is that it has always been considered essential in this
sacrifice of expiation to keep the offering intact, so that the
act of purgation or removal of the evil element could be all
the more efftcaciously performed. The mere fact, too, that the
victim receives and carries away all the evils of the com-
munity renders it so much the more necessary to get rid of
the sacrifice in its entirety as an unclean and therefore unde-
sirable object.
There is, however, another form in which the ceremony is
performed by some of the coast tribes, among whom and the
resident Europeans it is commonly spoken of as driving out
the devil or devils, i.e. evil spirits.
I have previously alluded to the ceremony in question, in

THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM 449
Section IV., Chapter I., under its Efik name of Ndok, which is
nothing more or less than the biennial purification of Duke
Town from all evil spirits, which takes place usually towards
the end of the year. Whether it is still in existence or not
I cannot say, but a description of it as it was celebrated only a
few years ago will most undoubtedly give the reader a clear
insight into the inner conception, not only of the rite itself,
but of those vital principles out of which their faith has
emerged and developed. Some days prior to the final or
culminating ceremony it is customary for every household in
the town to make rude figures, called Xabikim, of various
animals, among which are to be seen elephants, leopards, croco-
diles, manitis, bullocks, etc. These, which are constructed out
of reeds and sticks, are lashed together, covered over with
cloth, and set up before the door or at the entrance to each
house.
Early on the morning of the day appointed usually —
about 3 A.M. —
the closing ceremony begins with a deafening
outburst of noise, that can only be likened to the descent of
an approaching and ever -increasing tornado rushing into a
valley of deep and deathlike silence.
Let the reader image, if he can, some 30,000 persons,
boiling over with religious fervour and spiritual excitement,
their energies braced up with pent-up emotions
for the occasion
and passions that have been concentrated for one supreme
effort that is to purge them of all antipathies and impuri-
ties, and to rid them of the society of those spirits that
have lived with them, in many cases on terms of intimate
familiarity. Immediately in every house the mimic thunder
of cannon is heard, mingling with the rattle of musketry, the
beating of drums, and the clatter of pots, pans, doors, or of
anything, in fact, that is capable of making a noise. For two
ideas are at work in the minds of the people. One is, that
those spirits who and inimical to the interests of the
are evil
community at large, however necessary and whatever import-
ance they may possess for the individual, must go. The other
is, to make all the noise that is possible in order to effect this
removal.
But with regard to the noise this is not all, for the cattle,
2 G
which always sleep in the town, driven simply mad with fear,
and infuriated by the unaccustomed uproar that is so foreign
to the ordinary groove of their placid existence,
gallop up and
down the streets, bellowing and snorting, with heads erect and
not knowing where to go or what to do.

tails flying,
Let the imaginative reader picture to himself the squalid
town with its moist and murky atmosphere, and the gloomy
monotony mangrove environment, that is all the murkier
of its
because of the thronging spirits, and even then the imposing
array of ancestral bogies which his mind has conjured up will
fall short of the reality asappears in the imaginations of
it
the natives, who see myriads out of each eye, at the same time
that they feel them in every quivering sense.
Add these ghostly legions to the human side of the
account, and the imagination of the reader will better conceive
than I can describe the demoniacal pandemonium that is
evoked by this old-time custom. To the ordinary observer
who visits the town in the height of the tempest the scene
presented merely that of a mob of fantastic madmen and
is
painted fiends let loose, and the external aspect will justify his
opinion. But the observer who passes behind the scenes, or,
better still, who looks underneath the boisterous superficiality
of the exterior into the turmoil of the shadow existences,
will
encounter a revelation. For he will make the discovery of a

spirit world, a diabolical inferno, weird, grotesque, and devilish,
such, in fact, as no rational or reasonable imagination, but

only that of a thought- tortured Dante or a demented poet-
dreamer could possibly conceive.
Threading his way unobtrusively through the excited and
demented crowds, with every faculty ever ready, and all his
senses on the alert, he would observe, as I have in innumer-
able instances done, sincere and genuine outbursts of grief on
the part of various individuals —
invariably slaves —
on behalf
and in remembrance of departed relatives, whose spirits, and
therefore personalities,had in this rude way been expelled, as
far as they were concerned, for all eternity. And if he under-
stood the inner workings of these people as I do, he would at
once realise the infinite pathos and the intense ecstasy that
actuates these heart-rending, passionate bemoanings. For there
are in these wild and untamed savages the same feelings of

natural tenderness and affection, the same love of association
and attachment for the domestic felicities, that are to be found
in the breasts of those who belong to the more favoured and
cultured races.
At the approach of dawn the diabolical din, which has
been sustained without flinching or flagging, begins to subside,
and ceases altogether on the appearance of the sun upon the
scene. The houses by now are all thoroughly set in order and
garnished, having been swept from the roof to the floor, and
the dirt which has been so collected, along with the remains
of old firesand the Nabikim, are carried by the members of
each household down
to the river's brink and thrown into the
water. Thus istown purged of its evil spirits, who, driven
the
by the popular voice and clamour into the Nabikim, or
different emblems that are constructed by each household as
indicative of the natural element that is most inimical to them,
are swept away on the ebb-tide of the river beyond the sphere
of active operations, and banished, in the opinion of the public,
for good, or at least for a definite time, from the precincts that
had been so familiar to them.
G. Animal Sacrifice, also Fruit axd other Offerings

So many references have been made to the question of
animal sacrifices that it is not my intention to enter into any
further or more elaborate It will be necessary,
descriptions.
however, to bring forward a few facts in relation to the
custom.
While animals of various kinds — outside those which are
emblematical — are sacrificed, it is, a rule, customary to
as
select only domesticated species, such as bullocks, goats, sheep,
fowls, and dogs, which are specially reserved for the purpose.
This, indeed, appears to be the sole and only reason for which
these animals are maintained and set apart vide Section IV. ;
These animal sacrifices are made on exactly the same prin-

ciple of propitiation as the human, and with the same idea of
substantiality to the spirits, who receive their due meed of the
spiritual essence of these offerings in spiritland. Palm oil is
an indispensable article in many sacrifices, and, apart from its

undoubtedly phallic significance, the idea that has actuated its
use is one of gladness and acceptance to the deity concerned,
in
for a favour so gracious and acceptable. This sacred

return
significance is well exemplified in the following custom:
When, for instance, a son is disinherited by his father, the
father rubs palm oil on the arms of the son, but if through
mediation he is once more restored to favour, the son rubs palm
oil on his father's arms, and at the same time
brings a goat and
an egg, which are first sacrificed and then eaten.
Oil, however, is not the only article that is in sacrificial
use, for chalk, earth i.e. mud or clay — and dyes of various
colours, but yellow and white principally, are of quite as much

significance, and equally sacred.
Thus, for example, when a man has been acquitted by the

head of his house of a charge which has been brought against
him, the entire matter is at once for ever decided by the act
which he performs of rubbing the released prisoner's arms and
breast with chalk or mud in token of acquittal. So, too, a man
who divorces or repudiates his wife rubs her arms with chalk
and turns her out of his house, to return to her own people if
free-born, or to live among his servants if a slave. If, however,
her lord and master prove lenient, and through the offices of
an intermediary she is restored again to favour, she begs his
forgiveness and rubs his arms with chalk. This in her case
must be done with a large piece, and the strokes must be
broad in order to show her heartiness, and so as to obtain his

acceptance.
This anointing of the body and limbs with chalk, dyes, or
earth, by decorating usually the eyes and arms, is to be seen
in every sacrificial ceremony, the officiating priest, eldest son,
or diviner being always thus anointed, a solution of mud and
^yater — as we have seen in Section V., Chapter I. —
being alsO'
considered efficacious for persons possessed by spirits. In the

same way was always customary for all persons who had
it
returned from consulting the Aro Chuku, and who, on that

account, were considered, for some few days at least usually —
seven —
to be sacred, to adorn themselves in a similar manner.
This is generally done by daubing the yellow dye called Edo
on the forehead, as well as bespectaclmg both eyes with it.

In Brass, previous to going to war, the warmen always went
to the Ju-Ju house and had chalk rubbed on their faces.
And finally, as we have seen, chalk is used in the marriage
ceremony.
There is one other rite which deserves mention, and that
is the custom which generally prevails, but which I have
myself principally found among the Ibo, Efik, and Ibibio,

of frequently consecrating children, white kids and white ,
chickens to the ancestral divinities, and sometimes to the

Supreme God. When it has been decided to do so, the child
or animal selected is brought before the household god and
the basin containinsr the sacred water, and the name of the
deity is there and then conferred upon it, at the same time
that a petition is offered up on its behalf. This, as usual, is
brief and to the point, and as the entire dedication is a
thanksgiving offering, protection, prosperity, and safety on the
object so consecrated are always requested. If, however,
misfortune should by any chance happen to it, it is usual to
replace the object as soon as possible.
Young women and also young men are frequently selected
and set apart for the service of their god vide Chapter III.
and animals are sacrificed in their honour at annual ceremonies,
but in no case that I know of are these votaries ever offered
up as sacrificial victims.
The next very important and equally indispensable item
in the formula of sacrificial ritual is, that every victim must
be clean and spotless, and every sacrifice that is offered should

be without blemish of any kind. In the event, for instance,
of this being human, no deformed person, or one with even
the faintest suspicion of a sore, or mark of any kind on the
skin, or who has a finger or toe missing, can ever be offered,
and even a person with a squint is, as an invariable rule,
rejected.
In the same way every animal, whether it be a bullock,
goat, sheep, fowl, or dog, before it is offered is first of all
carefully examined, and if a scratch or incision is found on

any part of its body, or a limb is seen to be bruised or
broken, it is instantly classed as unclean and unfit.
It will be as well, perhaps, at this juncture to point out that

certain established rules are invariably observed in connection
with the sacrificial system. Thus, e.g., while human beings are,
as a rule, reserved only for the principal deities and events of

primary importance, animals are utilised for those of secondary
consequence, food, fruit, and offerings of such description
ranking least and last of all. So that the latter, and among
domestic animals the fowl, as being the commonest and most
economical,is most often offered to meet those ordinary require-
ments of the daily routine which are alsolutely essential to

keep in touch with the ancestral authorities. In the same
way the bullock, as the largest and most expensive item next
to the human being, is the least of all used, the goat occupying
a mean between the two. The sacrifice of the dog, however,
forms an exception to the general rule, in some measure on
account of its scarcity and utility in the hunting-field, but
also because it is held in less repute. Whatever the principle
that was embodied in the original concept, this animal is not,
as a rule, offered to the Supreme God or departmental deities,
but always to water or other spirits, and frequently among

the interior natives to the malicious spirits of disease. So
among the New Calabar people, for instance, only a dog is
sacrificed annually to the Okpolodo-Oru, and the Bekere-Oru,
both water spirits, whose emblem consists of three mangrove
sticks tied together, and to the latter of whom no Ju-Ju house
or even shrine is built.
But equally important and essential as any one of the

preceding customs is the principle upon which every animal
sacrifice is made. I have already alluded to this in the
previous chapter by pointing to the fact that in connection
with this form of ceremonial the shedding of blood is a dual
and inevitable requisite — first of all as a propitiatory measure
to the gods ; secondly, as a means of prevention or removal of
any malign or inimical spirit influences. With this object

in view, the blood of every victim that is slain and offered for
sacrifice, whether human or animal, is sprinkled not only on
the altars and on the emblems, but also on the ivory tusks
or horns which, in many localities, are on the altars, as well as
on the foreheads of the worshippers.
The vital importance that blood bears to the actual act of

sacrifice however, seen not only in the fact that it sanctifies
is,
the ceremony by purging those concerned of evil, but by

drawing together or reconciling any two parties or individuals
— as in the case of the two belligerents previously mentioned
— it becomes a bond of reconciliation, a secret compact
between them, a solemn vow or covenant, that is rarely if
ever broken, if for no other reason, simply because the
vengeance and destruction of the deities is dreaded.
Thus all over the Delta it is by no means an uncommon
event to find blood alliances existing, and which have existed
for long periods between two towns and communities. The
people of Uwet, for example, are in an alliance of brotherhood
with the Efik, both being bound by the most solemn oath on
the Mbiam never to look on each other's blood and the same ;
form of alliance formerly bound together the Brassmen and

the Ibani, which at once explains the reason of the good
fellowship that has always existed between them.
Another form of this ancient found among
custom is to be
the people of the Kwa Old Calabar,
river, in the vicinity of
w^ho some fifty years ago banded themselves together by a blood
compact, which was formed for mutual protection against the
aggressive encroachments of their powerful Efik neighbours,
who on such occasions, when victims were required for human
sacrifice, had made it a regular practice to go into their
territory and seize members of their community.
But this blood alliance is as much in vogue between
individuals as it is among communities, and I have even known
instances when compacts of this kind are made between
members of different tribes. On these occasions, whether the
bond is cemented between members of the same or of the
opposite sex, the following ceremony is performed. Each of
the persons thus associated makes a scratch or small cut on
the arm of the other, and then while they lick each other's
blood they make a vow that having joined themselves
together they will never part from one another.
The sacrificed animals are, in accordance with the time-
honoured law of ancient custom, to be white. Consequently on
all necessary occasions the priests or diviners at once demand
white goats, white sheep, white fowls, white pigeons, etc., and
a single spot on any one of these detracts from or depreciates
the real efficacy of the offering. In all cases of prophetic
announcements or prognostications by the high priests or
kings, white baft is always offered and white animals are
always sacrificed.
Finally, no cloth is used either in a sacrificial or, indeed,
in a religious sense of any sort —
to deck the victim, to
surround the groves or shrines, or to adorn the bows of
canoes, for example —
except it is white, and the priests are
invariably clad in garments of the same colour and material.
White cloth or, in lieu of it, a green twig or branch of a
tree is invariably employed by all these natives as a sign of
peace and good-will, and at all the water shrines that are
placed on the creeks and rivers, and in many of the groves
belonging to the coast natives, it is used exclusively either to
bind round a symbol or as an offering to the spirit. But
although white is usually considered a sacred colour, of course,
as pointed out in Section VI., Chapter III., colours vary with
localities, and those which are acceptable in one place are
invariably tabu in another.
So, too, among practically all the tribes, whether on the
coast or in the interior, it is the custom to tie together strips
of white baft, or to make a chain of withes in large links and
festoons, which are stretched across the paths from tree to
tree with the idea of keeping off intruding spirits and all
malicious influences generally. The popular belief in these

preventive charms is that by securing the aid of the
guardian spirits they are rendered effective in bringing
destruction on all those who in any way interfere with them.
That, however, they really deter would-be depredators from
injuring the farms over which they preside is quite certain
and further evidence in regard to the real sincerity and
blindness of their beliefs.
To give the reader some faint idea of the innate power
of association and custom, even where animals of no very
recognised form of intelligence are concerned, there is in a
certain locality in the middle reaches of the Delta a little-
known pool of water in which live a few old crocodiles, who
are said to be hoary with the weight of the years which have
passed over them. The priest who presides over these
monsters has them well in hand, and when he is desirous of
propitiating these sacred emblems of his ancestors he first of
all approaches them with a fowl, or it may be a goat.
Knowing his voice, they come out of the water in answer to it
to receive his offering, but, mark well, the sacrificial victim
must be white, for no other colour, it appears, will satisify these
saurians.
A custom which formerly was practised by the Ibani,
and is still prevalent among all the interior tribes, consists in
prolonging the life of a king or ancestral representative by
the daily, or possibly weekly, sacrifice of a chicken and egg.
Every morning, as soon as the patriarch has risen from his
bed, the sacrificial articles are procured either by his mother,
head wife, or eldest daughter, and given to the priest, who
receives them on the open space in front of the house.
When this has been reported to the patriarch, he comes
outside and, sitting down, joins in the ceremony. Taking the
chicken in his hand, the priest first of all touches the
patriarch's face and afterwards passes it over the
with it,
whole of his body. He then cuts its throat and allows the
blood to drop on the ground. Mixing the blood and the
earth into a paste he rubs it on the old man's forehead and
breast, and this is not washed off under any circumstances until
the evening. The chicken and the egg, also a piece of white
cloth, are now tied on to a stick, which, if a stream is in the
near vicinity, is planted in the ground at the water-side.
During the carriage of these articles to the place in question,
all the wives and many members of the household accompany
the priest, invoking the deity as they go to prolong their

father's life. This is done in the firm conviction that
through the sacrifice of each chicken his life will be accord-
ingly prolonged ; for once more it is quite evident that the
entire principle of this belief in the efficacy of sacrifice is
because of the spiritual release and increase that occurs

through the death of the material being.
7). The Destruction of Twins
Although the destruction of twins is not, in the strict
sense of the word, a sacrifice, it is all the same a sacrificial

offering, very much in the same light as the purification
ceremonies which have been just described. For the custom,
based on the identical spiritual principle of an evil react, is
treated as one of offence against the ancestral gods that
must of necessity be removed, along with the offending
cause — the woman.
As I have already pointed out with regard to human
sacrifice, this too is a purely religious custom, the origin of
which is lost in antiquity, and due apparently to the con-
ception that one birth at a time is the distinguishing feature
between man and all other creation, and therefore the birth
of twins was regarded as an unnatural event, to be ascribed
solely to the influence of malign spirits, acting in con-
junction with the power of evil. And the custom has been
tenaciously adhered to, in spite of the fact that every child
born into a family, apart from all other human considerations,
has a monetary and a practical value attached to it.
Indeed, according to their ancient faith, although two
energies are requisite to produce a unit, the production of
two such units is out of the common groove, therefore
unnatural, because it implies at once a spirit duahty, or
enforced possession by some intruding and malignant demon,
in the yielding and offending person of a member of the
household, an outrage committed upon the
consequently
domestic sanctity.For in their opinion, the natural product
of two human energies, as a single unit, is only endowed, or
provided with, one soul-spirit. The custom that prevails
among the Ibo and Brassmen of allowing one always the —
first-born of the twins — to live, is a practical admission of
this conception.
The custom is universal throughout the Delta, and is
only dying out in those few localities in which the people
are actually in touch with civilisation. The advent of twins
is looked on in every home of the Delta not only with horror
and detestation, but as an evil and a curse that is bound to
provoke the domestic gods to anger and retribution. In

order, therefore, to avert the expected vengeance, it is the
standing law of the priests that no time is to be lost in at
once removing the unfortunate infants. This is generally
done by throwing them into the bush, to be devoured by
wild animals, or the equally ferocious driver ants, or some-
times, as is done by the Ibibio, Ijo, and other coast tribes,
by setting them adrift in the rivers and creeks in roughly
made baskets of reeds and bulrushes, when they are soon
drowned, or swallowed by sharks or crocodiles.
In most cases the mothers, who are looked on as unclean,
are driven out of the town and into the bush, and unless
given protection by the people of another community, or
surreptitiously fed by some old crony, they often fare as
badly as their offspring, whom they look upon as the work
of evil spirits.
In some cases, however, humaner treatment is accorded to
them. In Ibani, for instance, it was customary, as it now is
among the other middlemen, to quarantine the unclean mothers
in an out-of-the-way hut for a period of sixteen days. Here
neither man, woman, nor child dare visit them, with the
exception of certain old women who were specially set apart
to tend and provide them with food, water, and other necessary
requirements. At the end of this time they were brought out
and obliged to undergo the ceremony of purification, at the
hands of the priests, which, in addition to washing off the
chalk that had previously been smeared all over their bodies,
consisted of the sacrifice of a chicken, or a new-born pup.
Besides this, the father, or in the case of a slave or poor
member of a family, the head of the house, was also obliged
to avert the wrath of the enraged deity and the consequences
that were to be expected, by offering special sacrifices and
presenting gifts to the priests —
an undertaking which, as a
rule, implied a minimum outlay of at least 1600 manillas,
equal in those days to about £6 : 13s., or less or more,
according to existing rates. and once more clean and
Purified
free from evil, the women were received back into the family
circle, and the threatened evils were considered to be averted.
In the Ibibio country, and formerly among the Efik, the

46o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, vii
regulations with regard to the women are much more elaborate,
and in a certain sense humane.

Here, as invariably in all similar cases, the ancestral
gods are propitiated by gifts and sacrifices, but the women,
looked on as unclean for the rest of their lives, are obliged
to reside in villages, which are known as T'win Towns, or
the habitations of defiled women, appointed for that particular
purpose. From this time forth the husband, whether he be
head of the house or not, is obliged to maintain a wife who
has been so defiled; although at the same time he is
strictly forbidden to cohabit or to have any dealings with
her, being, as lie is in every religious and personal sense,
human and spiritual, divorced from her. But in spite of
the fact that to him, as well as to all members of his
the
or her community, the woman is unclean and therefore tabu,
the penalty of death being inflicted on both in the event of
their breaking the law in this direction, she is allowed to
form connections, but on no account to marry with strangers,
or men belonging to outside communities, and the offspring
resulting from such intercourse becomes, as a matter of course,
the property of her husband, or the head of the house.
In order to remove the child from the defiled locality,
which cannot, however, be done until it is weaned, i.e. when
from two to three years old, a special sacrifice of chickens
and fowls must first be made. Sacrifice, in fact, is imperative
and inevitable in all cases in which intercommunication is

necessary, and an interchange of visits is made between all
members of the households in question and the defiled

women. Thus, for example, when it is obligatory on certain
occasions for any near relatives or others of either sex to

visit one of these women, the visitors are compelled to
sacrifice fowls or goats to the domestic deities, so that the
act of contact may not be productive of the evil effect of
twins, in any subsequent issues of children, on the part of

female visitorsand on exactly the same conditions defiled
;
women are permitted to visit relatives, also to work for their

husbands.
Eut in the event of the defiled woman herself bear-
ing twins again, these must be destroyed unknown to any
one. known, the probabilities are that the death of

For, if
the mother would be demanded by the household and the

community as well. Or if not killed, she would be driven
into the bush and left to die, although, if discovered by a
stranger, he is at liberty to claim her as his own property,
that is, at least, if he feels inclined to run the risk of a venture
so truly provocative of offence.
Among the various clans of the Ibo, when the birth of
twins takes place, the people belonging to the quarter in
which the mother resides are obliged to throw away all the
half-burnt firewood, the food cooked, and the water brought
in the previous night —
everything, in a word, in the shape
of nourishment, solid or liquid, because the advent of the
unholy twins defiles the house and practically all its contents.
To purify the place from this unwelcome pollution, the
and goats,
inevitable sacrifice, consisting in this case of fowds
is there and then performed, and the unclean mother is at
once removed from the house and town. Indeed, as soon as

a pregnant woman is delivered of a child, and it is known
that another is to follow, she is instantly carried into the
bush, and when the second is born it is immediately thrown
away, while the first-born is retained, and named M'meabo,
which means two people.
If it happens also that during childbirth the infant comes
out of the womb feet foremost —
the event which is referred
to as Mkporo-oko, i.e. bad or evil feet —
it is regarded in the
same light as twin-birth, and the unfortunate mother is

accorded exactly the same treatment, her eventual destination
in either case being a Twin Town.
The Ibo customs are, however, practically identical with
those of the Ibibio, Ijo, and other tribes, except for one or
two trifling differences. For example, in the event of the
defiled woman bearing issue by a stranger, the children,
although the property of the husband, must be maintained

by the natural father, who is obliged to pay over the legitimate
expenses to the former. The women and the children are,
however, placed ûnder certain laws or restrictions, the use
of certain trade markets and roads being prohibited to them,
but they are permitted to have a market of their own.
In Brass, too, when a wom^n gives birth to twins, the

lirst-born is kept thrown awây alive.
and the other In the
is
event of the former being a male child, it is called Isele,

and if a female, Sela, both names meaning selected.
It is a relief to be able to turn away from a picture so
gloomy and gruesome to look upon another that presents a
direct and striking contrast to it. This we find in the Igarra
country, among whom the advent of twins is hailed with joy
and acclamation. Indeed, far from imputing it to the inter-
vention of malignant spirits, it is attributed to the good, and
the twins themselves are considered a valuable acquisition.
This, on more incomprehensible,
reflection, is all the
because the Igarra, and. other minor
although in dress
externals they ape Mohammedanism, have a religion which in
most of its practices is very similar to that of the Delta
tribes, particularly of the Ibo, with whom they are in
contact to the south and east. Besides, the Yoruba, from
whom it is said that they originated, are a race whose religion
is also natural, and only a portion of which has embraced
Islamism, and that in a comparatively recent period. When,
however, the happy event that is under discussion occurs in
Igarra land, the first of the twins to arrive, strange as it
may appear to our Western notions, is looked on as the

younger, while the second occupies the position of elder. The
reason which is assigned by the people for this curious reversal
of the natural order ison the assumption, pure and simple,
that the younger is first of all by the elder, in token
sent ouf
of his inferiority, or rather in acknowledgment of his brother's
seniority.
This question of seniority, however, involves no difference
on the part of the parents or household as regards their
treatment of the pair, which in every respect is similar,
everything in the shape of food, raiment, and necessaries, as
well as luxuries of life, being divided equally amongst them.
To such an extreme is this rule carried, that it is even
customary for twins to be married on the same day. Indeed,
so stringently are these laws observed, that any infringement
of them, i.e. any favouritism shown to one twin more than
to the other, is said to lead to the death of one.
A big ceremony is held annually to celebrate the

anniversary of the natal da}^ of all twins, and so greatly in
honour do they appear to be esteemed, that the Igarra have
a tradition that no one ever attempts to poison twins, for
no poison, even if they swallow it, will have any evil effect
on them. Further, while they remain as children, it is
believed that they are able to prognosticate with regard to
the offspring of a woman that is pregnant.
CHAPTER YI
SANCTUARIES OR SACRED PLACES OF REFUGE
In the direction at least of those crimes and offences which

are regarded by humanity as the most serious against society,
the moral law is as exacting and as binding on these Delta
natives as it is on the most advanced and cultured units of
civilisation. So, for example, murder, theft, perjury, adultery,
and all offences against the land and ancestral authority, in
fact, including treachery, but especially treason with regard
to domestic or communal secrets in connection with religion,

were and to thisday are regarded as capital offences while ;
fornication is and virginal chastity is,

also severely punished,
as a rule, —
most stringently observed the safety and modesty
of all girls prior to marriage lying in nothing so much as
in their absolute was presumably, in the first

nudity. It
instance, to the existence of laws such as these which in the —

younger Hfe of humanity were even more stringent than they
—
now are that the origin of sanctuary is to be traced. But
whatever the primary motive was, it is further evident that
the opportunity thus offered to the condemned was in a
measure, if not entirely, the result of priestly action or
interference, under cloak, of course, of ancestral authority
and direction. Not altogether or by any means from any

rio-hteous orhigh-minded motive of clemency, but more than
probably with the very human idea of gaining adherents, and
in this practical way of increasing their temporal power and
influence. But not alone temporal, for although, as we
shall see later on, these rescued people became, all the same,
spiritual outcasts subsequent to their decease, a sacrificial
464
CHAP. VI SANCTUARIES OR SACRED PLACES OF REFUGE 465
capital was manufactured out of the specific acts of rescue,

and as a sop to the protecting god. Indeed, the very fact
as out in Chapter III.
pointed — that a refugee can claim
protection from the head of a house, or rather from the
tutelary god of protection, is in itself unmistakable evidence
of this.
Apart from the fact that the emblem of the protecting
god of every household or community constitutes sanctuary
for every stranger claiming it, or equally so the feet of any
patriarch if held, there are certain places of refuge, invariably
the Ju-Ju houses of specific deities, that are set apart for
the use of all those who have offended against the laws of
their country, or who have fled from it of their own free wîll
and accord. Thus formerly among the Ibani, e.g., the follow-
ing places were reserved as sanctuary :
1. The Ju-Ju house, known as the House of Skulls, of
Ekiba, the war god.

2. Ebi, a shrine belonging to one of the many tribal
divinities.
3. Fubra, the ancestral shrine of a former kins.
4. Perekule, the seat of the ancestral kings of Ibani.
5. Bu-ipri, a small but sacred bush, situated outside
the town of Ibani, in the direction of Ju-Ju Town, i.e. the
abode of the priests. It is, by the way, almost needless for
me to say that in these, as, in fact, in all their temples, mud
altars are erected, on which stand the images of the gods.
On some of them, however, usually those of the war gods
of Ekiba, in this instance — in addition to the emblem a pair
of ivory tusks, invariably those of an elephant, are inserted,
which {vide the Book of Kings, chapter i. verse 50) is
nothing, in other words, but " the horns of the altar," as
therein referred to. And just as with the Jews, so with
these natives, the escaped criminal or refugee has but to lay
hold of them, or in other cases, where there are no horns,
merely on the altars, and his person, defiled though it is
considered to be, at once becomes inviolate.
In Benin city, when we captured it in 1897, most of the
numerous altars in the king's quarters were plentifully
stocked with well-carved ivories, all of which were saturated
2 H
or sprinkled over with the blood of sacrifices. That there

was a shown to some extent by the figured and
history, as
emblematical carving and the sacrificial blood attaching to
each one of these tusks, there can be little or no doubt.
For, according to law and custom, it was the king's right to
demand one of the tusks of every elephant slain within his
dominions. So that it is at least justifiable to assume that
each one of these represented, so to speak, a chapter in
the life -history of those kings who had reigned over the
Bini country — chapters which, although they had reeked
with the blood andhad resounded with the despairing
cries of the who had been slaughtered as
countless victims
sacrifices to appease the inhuman lust and the voracious
gluttony of the master god, liad also, no doubt, been witnesses
of sanctuary which had been afforded to the few who
the
had had the good fortune to escape the death to which they
had been condemned.
Similarly with regard to the character of the bush Bu-
ipri, or of bushes of the same sacred description, a twig
or branch broken off, no matter how small, immediately
secures the hoped-for freedom, and invests the culprits or
runaways with the inviolate halo of divine tabu. They
are not allowed to return to live within the precincts of the
town or towns belonging to the community which has con-
demned them, or from which they have escaped, but they
are given shelter in the priests' town until the day of
their death. While, however, they are still under the
protection of the sanctuary that they have claimed, and until
their case has been investigated and decided by the council of
elders, i.e. the king, chiefs, and headmen in council, they are
regarded by the people with horror and loathing, as objects
which are impure and full of evil. So much so, in fact, that
a chance or casual meeting with one of them on the part of
some stray passer-by ends in the ignominious flight of the
latter. For while contact is not even to be thought of as
being a downright misfortune, the forerunner of some hideous
calamity, the mere fact of setting eyes on them is in itself
sufficiently unfortunate. It is not, in fact, until these Furu-
nama, or foul and unclean beasts, as they were designated
CHAP. VI SANCTUARIES OR SACRED PLACES OF REFUGE 467
by the Ibaui, undergone the inevitable ceremony of

have
purification at hands of the priests of the devil-god
the
such, e.g., as Asimingi, Kamallo, or Ogbonuke that they are —
permitted to enter a house, or come near any of the other
members of the community, outside the priestly body. The
sacrificial articles that are used on an occasion such as this are,
in the case of a male, twenty-four manillas or its value in
cowries, and a white cock and in that of a female, a white
:
hen or chicken, an egg, and a small bottle of spirits. And

the whole concept of this ceremony is with relation to the
welfare of the community, and not of the individual offender.
For this reason he is purified i.e. purged of the evil that he
had committed against the sanctity of the ancestral laws so —
that the other members of the community who are clean in
this respect should not be corrupted, and their lives unneces-
sarily endangered.
As soon as sanctuary has been obtained and assured, the
priest in charge of that particular Ju-Ju house proclaims the
fact to the king's chiefs, and all the notables of the town or
community. The considered, and when the
case is then
purification ceremony,which follows next, is over, and a thanks-
giving sacrifice has been offered to the god in return for his
clemency, the refugee is then and there dedicated to him as
his servant, and his person —
even should it happen that he
—
was by right a slave ceases from this moment to belong to
his original master. For as being under a divine protection,
he is now sacred and tabu, therefore free, and no one dare lay
a finger on his person, or molest him in any shape or form.
On the contrary it is the custom i.e. law that food and —
clothing are to be supplied to all such persons by the king
and chiefs of the community, yet on no account can they be
forced to work.
One especially significant feature in connection with this
custom is the fact that the protection extended to the criminal
is only temporal, and in no sense of the word spiritual. For
the right of burial is denied him on his demise, and his corpse
is thrown either into a river or the bush, according to the
locality. Ancestral salvation, in fact, is denied to him as a
matter of course, so that he becomes an outcast. Indeed this
fact is all the more significant as demonstrating that even

priestly or divine interference and influence is in their own
deepest estimation of no avail in sheltering the human unit
from the consequences of his own acts, for which he is alone
answerable to the generating fountain-head or creator of all
tldngs.
The condition under which the sanctity of the marriage
laws can be evaded has already been pointed out in Chapter
III. of the previous section. And there is but little doubt
that the custom which invested the spirit of this particular
blood -plum tree with the protective right of sheltering all
such offenders had itsan idea and on a principle
origin in
which was very similar which gave rise to sanctuary.
to that
If it %vere only feasible to trace back the origin of the blood-
plum divinity, it is very possible that we would discover him
to have belonged to some powerful personality with initiative
and originality, who had found it to answer his purpose to
give shelter to all those persons whom the law had condemned
to death for adultery.
But it is evident that it is not in the mud of the altar,
not in the ivory of the tusks or horns, nor yet again in the
vegetal substance of the leaf or twig, that the efficacy and
potentiality lies — indubitably sacred and reverenced as these
are, because of their association and connection with the
still more sacred spirit tenants — but in the ancestral spirit
element by which the various emblems are tenanted and
inspired.
CHAPTER VII
A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE WHOLE
In the first place, then, it is very evident that the natives

believe in the henotheistic or god -supremacy principle, and
that the Creator or Supreme God and His existence is acknow-
ledged by one and all of these people, irrespective of tribe or
locality. What is more, this God of these so-called black
barbarians, despised and downtrodden though they have been
from time immemorial, is the same identical God as that
of Jew or Gentile, who created the heaven and the earth
and all that lives therein. But with this difference, that
while the latter begat a Son who is said to be the Saviour
of the world, the Delta deity begat a son from whom has
issued the human race. There is, however, another and a
still greater difference. For while the supreme gods of the
others possess a distinct capacity for inflicting punishment
to put the mildest construction upon the severity of their
natures as depicted by the acts and measures of their own
disciples — the Delta creator, although he possesses the power
of death, does not as a rule exercise it, and to his creatures, or
rather children, he is capable of doing good only.
Indeed, strange though it may appear to the theologian or
man of and although these natives believe in the
science,
spiritualism of Nature and in witchcraft practise demonology,
they believe, as firmly as does, e.g., the Christian, that there is
a Being who lives, it may be in the sky or it may be every-

where, that is the Father and the Master of all beings.
This Being, as has been pointed out, not only has a separate
name in each dialect or language, but almost every community
469
or even town has its own individual name for him ;

and as
such he is not only the maker and owner of all life that
lives,but the first great father of the human race. In every

part of the Delta that I have been in the same idea prevails
for creation to these people, as we have more than once seen,
represents the actual and specific act of reproduction, the
animating or spiritual principle belonging to the creator,
whose mode of action or procedure, although a mystery

altogether beyond their comprehension, bears a decided re-
semblance in its process to the ancient idea of immaculate
conception, which is so common an event in Aryan mythology.
So we will find, on examining the very meagre tradition
of the Delta tribes, that in some such mysterious way the
creator i.e. the son of the sky god and earth goddess
begat two sons, the elder a black man and the younger a white
man, from whom the respective black and white races have
sprung. And it is in this very primitive belief that it is so
easy to trace all the subsequent ceremonials which have

emanated from the one parent stem. For having first of all
found it necessary to revere his own immediate ancestor, and
the principle which called him into existence, it was but the
next natural step to trace that ancestor's descent in a direct
line from the first great God Father of all. —Very naturally
the act of doing so at once placed mankind on a higher
pedestal than the rest of Nature, still believing, as they did,
that all creation was from the same source i.e. animated by
the same vitalising principle the belief — in transmigration
also became an easy and a natural step, a portion of the
process, in other words.
It is as well at this stage for me to explain that, cognisant
as I was of the prevailing prejudice that exists even in the

minds of leading ethnologists regarding this belief in a
supreme god, during the period that I served in Southern
Nigeria I took the most infinite pains, and made every possible
effort to inquire into the question, with the result that has
already been given.
Although the morality of these naturists is but a natural
morality, i.e. the morality which prevails in a state of Nature,
they are, as we have already seen, in the strict and natural

CHAP. VII A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE WHOLE 471
sense of the word, a truly and a deeply religious people. In

a word, the religion of these natives, as have all along
I
endeavoured to point out, is their existence, and their exist-

ence is their religion, for it is essentially a religion of sub-
and not of mere profession and theory.
stantial practice,
Thus it is that they have practically put away the
Supreme God, the Being who creates and preserves, who is
the power for good, in contradistinction to the destroyer with
his manifold and self-multiplying energies of destruction,
and that it is only on very special occasions of misfortune,
when all else, including the ancestral deities, have failed them,
that they call upon him ; and mca, versa, they only thank him in
time of unprecedented prosperity.
The reason of this avoidance, as it were, of the Supreme
God is simple enough and easily explained, for it is but a
recognition and an acknowledgment of his supremacy and
goodness and of their own inferiority. From this standpoint,
God being on a plane so much above them as to be absolutely
unapproachable, they do not consider it necessary to do more
than recognise his existence, acting throughout on the
practical principle that they have nothing but goodness to
expect from him. In other words, there being nothing to fear
from him, no cause for fear existing in his direction, fear of
him has no place or existence in their minds. So the cere-
monial and formula of their religion is nothing but a mere
exposition of ingratiating those spiritual influences which have
within them the dual capacity of inflicting good or evil and ;
who ifnot so ingratiated, human-like, are more capable of

inflicting evil than good or of those influences which, coming
;
as they do within the domain of witchcraft or demonology,

are altogether evil and malign. Between the Supreme God
and humanity there are a certain more or less definite number
of spiritual beings — local or communal deities, who live in
trees, stones, rivers, mountains, and other natural phenomena,

as well as in artificial objects of various kinds in a few words, ;
whose emblems are natural or artificial deities who, although —

created and deputed by the Supreme God, occupy an inde-
pendent position with regard to the management and admini-
stration of human affairs. These deities, made as they are in
man's own image, are as a matter of course anthropomorphic

in form, consequently human or natural in their character,
which means in plain English that they are capable both of
good and evil ; and having their own specific attributes and
functions they immediately and specifically represent the
varying interests of the various social elements known among
the Efik and Ibibio as Idems they have priests, and in
;
some instances priestesses —

the latter of whom are consecrated
from birth and always remain celibate and — to make sacrifice
prayer to those particular have been

gods to whom they
dedicated. In spite of the fact that the Creator is seldom
approached or referred to except in crises or under very
exceptional emergencies, these departmental divinities are in
popular estimation regarded as distinctly inferior to him in
power and magnitude. Yet placing a purely human construc-
tion on the matter as the people do, and looking at it from
the standpoint of a mentality which is eminently human, and
in no sense either influenced or inspired by any outside or
higher element, it is not in the least surprising that, in some
respects, these inferior deities are deemed to occupy a position,
not only of considerably greater congeniality, but also of more
immediate consecjûence, merely because of the fact of their
association with the and of their connection with
earth
humanity, which brings them into touch with the more
substantial, therefore more enjoyable, pleasures of human
existence.
This, in a word, is but a revelation or rather reflection of
their own native character, which is naturally and pre-emi-
nently sociable. For these people on the whole have no real

love for solitude, believing, as they most implicitly do, that it
is not good — in other words, natural — for man to be alone.

That Nature, in fact, is so constituted by God, that society or
companionship is but the inevitable outcome.
Life or existence is a dual element, or combination of the
material and the spiritual; in other words, the world as it
appears to them is divided into these two main or principal
phases, which in their turn are subdivided into the follow-

ing units: (1) human beings; (2) animal beings; (3) vegetal
beings ; (4) material beings, the three latter of various
CHAP. VII A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE WHOLE 473
kinds and descriptions, and that the entire vitality of the

material phase is due to the animation or inspiration of the
spiritual or life-giving principle. It is also evident that, while
for the most part the countless host of spiritual beings, who
divide their existence between this world and spiritland, are
anthropomorphic, there are also spirits of like kin, but varying in
degree, confined to the animal, vegetal, and material elements.
But while the spirit essence of vegetal and material —
also of
the animal, except in specific cases and under certain conditions
— is confined exclusively to its own species, the anthro-
pomorphic spirit essence is not only interchangeable with the
zoomorphic, but possesses the ability to enter into matters of
every sort — a characteristic that, wdth regard to the latter, is
limited to human bodies only. From this extremely lunda-

mental standpoint, beyond certain superficial differences which
I am now about to point out, there is no further classification
of the spirit element that I am aware of Nor, in fact, within
such limitations as have been defined could this be either
possible or probable. Spirits, then, are accordingly divided,
first of all,two main classes: (1) the embodied, (2) the
into
disembodied, or, regarded from another standpoint, the
ancestral and the non-ancestral. While these again may be
subdivided into: (1) the ancestral embodied; (2) the non-
ancestral embodied; (3) the ancestral disembodied; (4) the
non-ancestral disembodied. In plain English, then, this means
that those who are ancestral are capable of good and evil,
while those who are not ancestral are at all times inimical
all who are outcast and disembodied being also, as a matter
of course, eternally malignant and vicious.
For embodiment or the material is the distinguishing
characteristicwhich divides the natural wôrld of the Supreme
God or creative power from the unnatural domain of the evil
or destroying power. Because this latter element, under an
omnipotent cloak of disembodiment, is neither confined by
limits nor regulated by balance of any kind. It is
quite obvious, then, that, apart from all polemic or prejudice,

these natives have a clear and distinct concept of a god, upon
whom they look as the creator, by whose action the conception
of all things human, animal, and vegetal takes place, the male
and female energies of the various elements being nothing but

mere agents or instruments in his hands. And in continuation
of this idea, it is also evident that the sun, moon, stars, rain,
dew, lightning, thunder, and other natural phenomena are
likewise instruments created by him, into which he has
infused his own animating spirit, in the same mj^sterious way
that he has given to humanity that personal gift of reason,
which enables it to appreciate, and express its appreciation of
the various spiritual influences which surround it, as well as to
discriminate between the positive and the negative, or what
appeals to and evil.
it as good
It is, on this
in fact, natural basis that the religion of these
natural people is founded and formed. For it is because of
the intellect with which God the Creator has endowed mankind
that it has been enabled to frame a worship of propitiation
and protection, as a set off against the different malign
influences which are ever so much stronger than it. And it
is in this radical differentiation of the spirit element that the
entire crux of their beliefs and principles is centred. So the
rest of creation, as being devoid of human reason, is a grade
lower and further removed from the great and sublime
Supreme yet, as belonging to the one comprehensive but
;
incomprehensible scheme of creation, none the less utilised by

the spiritual as forms of material embodiment, which, from
a moral and mystic standpoint, are essential as wêll as
inevitable.
In the early chapters of Part III. I endeavoured to sketch
as closely and as concisely as I could the process of evolution of
natural religion as it appears to me after close contact with,
and a closer observation of, the religion and customs that are
practised by a still natural people.
To those who have followed the connections right through,
certain salient points must be very evident :
1. That certain animal or natural instincts form the basis

of natural religion.
2. That naturism, or natural religion, embraces within its
" "
scope all that belongs to Nature, or all so-called super
i.e. outside or spiritual — natural elements, and all objects
human, animal, vegetal, and material.
C!iAP. VII A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE WHOLE 475
That while spiritualism is virtually the higher or

3.
controlling moral aim and motive of naturism, humanism is

actually and in truth the guiding and underlying principle.
4. That although spiritualism is a belief in spirits, it is
essentially and primarily a belief in human or ancestral spirits,
who not only rule and regulate the operations of the natural
elements, but who, after they depart from this world, continue
in the spirit to govern their human households.
5. That belief in the transmigratory and interchangeable
nature of the soul-spirit was but an outcome of the ancestral
cult, in the same way that other beliefs were.
That emblemism
6. —
as exemplified in so-called totemism,
idolatry, and fetichism, also witchcraft —
is nothing, as its name
implies, but the external representation of the animism of

naturism, by specially, and as a rule personally, selected
emblems or symbols, which, as containing the more immediate
father or departed spirit, are regarded in the light of mediators
between the existing household and the ruling ancestral deity.
7. That the propitiation and mediation of all divine and
demoniacal spirits, the Creator excepted, are the active and

vital principles of the ancestral faith.
8. That spirits are of two kinds ; the anthropomorphic, who
have the dual energy of good and evil, and the disembodied,
i.e. demons who are capable of evil only.
SECTION VIII

477
CHAPTEK I
WITCHCRAFT AS IT EXISTS : A GENERAL ESTIMATE OF IT
In this one word witchcraft is centred and concentrated, with
all the devilish craft and subtlety that human nature is

capable of, the demonology which is rife among these spirit-
ridden people of dual existence. In witchcraft we are con-
fronted with only the evil aspect of nature — what is more,
with that aspect which is only capable of
and that does evil,
not admit of any opposing or counterbalancing element such as
good. Here, in fact, we have these natives at their worst.
To start with, magic, although recognised as existing and
practised, is not considered lawful. For it is looked upon as
outside the domain of even the evil. It is possible, then, to
recognise at the very outset two prominent and important
landmarks the first being the entire absence of the ancestral
;
element, and the second, the fact that the powers utilised by
the exponents of magic are natural, and of the element that is
evil, pure and simple, in contradistinction to social harmony
and that which is good. Consequently, the extreme penalty

of death is inflicted on any person convicted of witchcraft.
For, irrespective of age and sex, witchcraft is a system that
terrorises a whole community, because its plots are hatched
and all its deeds are done at night under cover of darkness
and secrecy —
a secrecy which is guarded with even greater
care and jealousy than Freemasonry. In spite of the terror
with which it has inspired these natives, it seems impossible
for them to crush and eschew the system, although it brings
upon them not merely all their woe, but most of the death
which overtakes them.
479
48o THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, viii
As to see, the whole idea of the cult

far as it is possible
as it minds of these natives, irrespective of
prevails in the
tribe and locality, is based on the thought, which to them is
even more than a reality, that any person who owes another
a grudge can, and does, inHict mortal injury on that person.
Acting then on this belief, which is an outcome of that inherent
curse, suspicion^ every misfortune or evil which overtakes the
individual is at once attributed to this dread horror. So it
happens that on the death of a king, chief, or influential and
wealthy personage, the suspicion of foul play immediately
presents itself. In a large household consisting of several
thousand members, as exists among the Jekri, Brassmen, New
Calabar, Ibaui, and Efik middlemen, in which the personal
family alone may consist of many hundreds, it is not always
an easy matter even to decide on whom suspicion is to fall.
In this way the poison test or ordeal, as it is found in
vogue among these people, must have had its origin. For the
belief is that the innocent alone escape, and only the guilty
die and as the death is attributed to a secret and malignant
;
foe, all wives, head slaves, and even friends are forced to
establish their innocence in the usual way. Although this

custom has to a great extent died out among the coast tribes,
many instances — which, of course, occurred previous to the
formation of a Protectorate — have
been brought to my notice
in which as many as three and four score persons have
succumbed out of the hundred or more victims who had been
obliged to undergo the ordeal. When, for example, the famous
Duke Ephraim of Duke Town died in 1835, out of fifty of his
householdwho were obliged to "chop nut" i.e. to drink a
decoction of the Esere or Calabar bean — over forty were
known have died.
to Just to show how tenacious is the grip
of this malign influence, should suspicion rest on any particular
members of a household the head of which has just died, or
should any circumstantial evidence exist, such as known
dislike towards deceased, the use of abusive or threatening
language, or designs with regard to property, the test can be,
and is, applied, in the case of previous failures, twice and even
three times.
The following is an illustration of how events shape them-
CHAP. I WITCHCRAFT AS IT EXISTS 481
selves in the everyday life of these demon-haunted people.

Let the reader imagine to himself a huge household, at the
head of which is an aged chief, who is very feeble and decrepit
— so much so that his death may reasonably be expected to
occur at any moment. At the head of his house is his head
wife, also old, and strong in his esteem as a faithful spouse
and capable manager. One day, alas, unfortunately for her,
she is company of a witch-
either found talking to or in the
doctor or diviner. The explanation of this is very simple.
Tor, with previous experience to warn her, the old woman, in
anticipation of the immediate future, has only consulted the
latter to secure a medicine or charm in order to protect her
on the death of her husband, for
life whom she has in reality
much respect and affection.
But the old woman — unenviable position that she occupies
as head wife —
has many secret enemies, who have either
undermined her influence or poisoned the mind of the chief
against her, so that he does not take this the true view of the
case, and he suspects that the medicine is for no other
purpose but to take his life and hasten his departure to
the land of spirits. In spite of the fact that this woman
has been bound to him all her life, that she is a woman
of influence and capacity and a splendid trader, and has
been his right hand —
to whom, in fact, he is indebted for
much of his prosperity — he has already begun to fear and
to hate her.
He too, on his side, sends for and consults a diviner, and
the interview, held in secret and at the witching hour of night,
is fraught with evil consequences for at least one member of
that cumbrous household. This worn-out and effete old atom
of human mechanism, forgetful of the past and of all that his
head wife has done for him, and dreading the severance of
associations and the leap into the unknown, notwithstanding
his fatalism, deliberately plans a murder, yet sincere in the
belief that if he does not dispose of his wife she at least will
dispose of him.
So before many days are over a tragedy, as sudden as it
is unexpected to the majority of the household, takes place.
Just as the sun is beginning to rise over the tops of the dark
2 I
4S2 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, viii
and sombre trees and a glow of brightening light can be seen

stealing through the overhanging gloom, shrieks, that are
still
succeeded by wails, are heard resounding throughout the house,

and soon the news is brought to the decrepit old chief that
his head wife has been found dead —
hanging in her house at
the farm. Rumour, many-tongued, and as busy here in these
savage haunts as it is amid the hum of civilisation, whispers
in one direction that she has taken her own life, and in
another, that her husband has taken it for her. So it is of
daily occurrence in the domestic drama of Delta life, that a
mere incident perfectly innocent in itself, leading through the
avenues of darkest passions, culminates in the direful tragedy
of wilful murder.
Taking the Efik by way of example, the same dread
terror of this secret superhuman power, which they call
Ifod, is found pervading them, as it does every African,
irrespective of creed or race. As soon as a person has reason
to suspect that he has fallen under the spell of the black art
(which he immediately does when he is afflicted in mind,
body, or estate), the first step he takes is to pay a visit to the
Abia Ebok, or local doctor, to remove, cure, or at all events
checkmate the evil that has come upon him. Finding the
medicines of this man of no avail — in other words, realising
that the inimical spirit influence has been too strong for the
doctor's spiritual coadjutors — the afflicted one then goes and
lays his case before an Abia-Idiong, or witch-doctor, with a
more than local reputation, who, having within him the
subtlety of the serpent to a greater extent than the former,
at once traces the cause to witchcraft.
This fact having been definitely decided, the next step is
to detect the enemy who, under cover of secrecy, is slowly and
surely accomplishing his fell design. No time is lost by the
wily Abia-Idiong in making the unpleasant discovery, and no
sooner does he discover than he denounces the vile dastard.
Then comes the pathetic and inevitable scene of the poison
ordeal, and the curtain once more drops on a tragedy that in
every sense is as gruesome as it is merely because
painful, not
of an innocent life taken, but because all the mighty forces of
evil which are at the disposal of humanity have been conjured
up by an imagination which is under the control and at tlie
mercy of the lowest animal instincts.

A head trading woman in charge of an outlying planta-
tion belonging to a very powerful chief happened to commit
what was a very grievous fault.
in his eyes For this she was
severely punished by the loss of the plantation, and, what was
of far greater consequence to her, her master's favour. Acting
on the impulse of the moment, as these people invariably do,
and without calculating the possible contingencies or the
eventual consequences, she consulted the inevitable Dibia, to
get him to how she was to recover her
divine for her as to
lost position, and particularly the favour and patronage of the
great chief. Yet, unconscious though she was of any evil
intention, she had taken the first and most fatal step towards
her own doom. The fact of her visit to the Dibia soon leaked
out, and was at once only too readily conveyed to the ears of
the chief by more than one of her enemies, who, of course,
purposely placed upon her motive the false construction that
it was the beginning of an attempt upon his life. Denying
this, as she was able to do, with a clear conscience, her
natural indignation and vehemence were interpreted as proofs

of her guilt, so her explanation was not only rejected, but she
herself was subjected to further punishment. This consisted
in having her ears cut off, and a flogging from each and all of
the other women in the household ; and, not content with these
brutal indignities, she was further sentenced to be chained up
and not released until death. But her
and insatiable
cruel
enemies, hankering after the death of their victim, were still
not satisfied. So a further report was quickly brought to the
chief, that, although chained, the prisoner had set poison for
her master, to first of all afflict, and then to destroy him.
What was more, that she had called down curses and
imprecations on his head, invoking the names of the great
men of former generations — his and their fathers
fathers
before them — to come and remove him from all his earthly
wealth and make him as themselves.
Capable and powerful though he was, the chief, fearful of
the black art and of his life, believed all these statements,
with the result that the unfortunate victim of foul and false
suspicion was chained to a post in the centre of the compound

with her feet fastened together and in this dreadful position
;
she was left without food or drink, and exposed to the sun
and all the elements until she died.
Among the Andoni —
that small and primitive tribe of
fishermen living on the coast between Bonny and Opobo so —
strong is the hold, so deadly the fear, whicli witchcraft has
obtained, that a society of protection has been formed amongst
them, which is known as Ofiokpo. This society consists of
a board or assembly of free-borns in each town, slaves being
rigorously excluded, whose object is to condemn and kill any
person against whom witchcraft has been proved.
One of the leading members of this society is appointed as
representative or care-taker of Ofiokpo, who is esteemed as a
deity of proof —
the god or father of evidence one who finds —
out the fault of another. When sufficient testimony has been
collected against any person accused of sorcery, the society at
once pass a sentence of death upon him, and, headed by their
president, proceed by night to his house, when the latter, who
is armed with a big bludgeon, beats the wizard or witch to
death.
While this ordeal is going on neither women nor slaves
are allowed to be outside their houses, and the body when
dead is shared among the members and afterwards eaten.
The house is confiscated and all the property sold, in order to

provide yams, palm oil, salt, and pepper to cook with the
flesh of the deceased, also to buy tombo or rum, which is
drunk during the play which follows.

Necessity and the principle of self - defence alone, it
appears, is the only explanation that is offered regarding the
existence of such a society. And that, from their point of

view, it is justified, is evident. For it is a simple and common
matter for near relatives — such as brothers, e.g. —
to accuse
each other of this deadly offence. Envy or jealousy, according
to my informants, is undoubtedly the first incentive to the

underlying principle of suspicion, especially in cases where
one member of a family has been more fortunate or grown
more wealthy than the others. This evidently supplies
sufficient motive to the less fortunate members, who go out of
their way to make out a case against the object of their spleen,
at the same time that they endeavour to win over the
members of Ofiokpo to their side, so as to effect their wicked
purpose.
In the same way it often happens that two great friends
go out fishing together, and one of them, either by accident or,
it may be, better management, secures a much greater haul of
fish than the other. Unfortunately, however, it is an act by

which he unconsciously lays up for himself a store of evil that
is fraught with danger to his life for on their return to the
;
town the unlucky one immediately goes and consults the

Ojerra-mu-or, or witch-doctor, as to the reason of his friend
having obtained a larger haul than himself. This mischief-
maker of the deepest dye, who thrives and fattens on the
foibles and follies of his companions, and who is ever eager to
grasp a fee, at once attributes the cause to magic. So the
seed of strife and death is sown, and the warm-hearted friend
is suddenly changed into an active enemy who strives his
utmost to procure the death of one that until so recently was
to him as of his own flesh and blood. Analysing the matter,
as I have done, most carefully, there is no question about it,
that amongthis strange and savage people the cannibalistic
tendency has also something to say to the existence of witch-
craft. For it seems that slaves —
even those who are house-
born — are frequently accused of the offence, and killed without
any previous form of trial or inquiry. This is done by
knocking the head of the wretched victim against the wall of
every house in the town, and finally against the ancestral
monument, at the same time that the reason for doing so is
publicly announced as due to witchcraft. The body, in this as
in all similar cases, is then divided amongst the household
and eaten by them with due ceremony.
One very curious feature about this particular matter is
that, as a rule, only Kwa or Ibibio slaves are treated in this

way, the Ibo being prized more highly, because they are of
greater value, besides being more tractable and amenable to
discipline than the former. The society of Ofiokpo is not,
however, merely confined to the Andoni, for every town or

community in the Delta has its own god-divining and protec-
486 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES sect, viii
tion society —mutual and co-operative, but of course under

its own local name.
Among the Ogoni, who
on the same level as the
are
Andoni, any one accused crime was formerly sent to
of this
the Aro Chuku to be tried, the offender being buried alive if
found guilty. More recently, however, it has been customary
to hang a wizard or a witch, and a certain price is put upon
the body. If the family of the deceased pay the amount in
question, they are entitled to have his body, which they bury
but if they decline or cannot afford to do so, the body is
shared by the community and eaten. Should, however, accused
be found not guilty of the charge, the accuser is obliged to
pay so heavy a fine, as well as to sacrifice so many goats and
fowls, that he and his family are, as a rule, bound to be ruined
— ruin, in other words, standing for retribution.
In Brass the natives firmly believe that witches exist, and
that certain persons by natural operations —
or rather by
CO - operation with natural forces —
possess the power of
inflictingdisease, injury, or death upon their neighbours.
These individuals are divided into two classes the harmful —
and the harmless.
'
The former are said to go out of their houses at night,
and to hold meetings with demons and their colleagues, to
determine whose life is next to be destroyed. This is done
by gradually sucking the blood of the victim through some
supernatural and invisible means, the effect of which on the
victim is imperceptible to others. Sometimes at nights a
large fire is seen in the bush, generally on a tree, when the
witches are supposed to be dancing. Such trees are, however,
found to be intact at daylight. It is the custom not to suffer
witches to live, and the moment certain individuals are
suspected, a strict watch is kept over their movements, until
adequate proofs are obtained of their guilt, when, regardless of
position and connections, they are condemned to die. The
death reserved for them is that by fire. A bundle of wood
being provided by each house in the town, the condemned are
bound hand and foot, placed on the pile, and burnt in a
manner similar to that of offering sacrifices in former times.
The practice of sorcery or magic by means of evil spirits or
the so-called medicines universally resorted to throughout

Africa is strictly forbidden in Brass, and any one found
dealing in or practising with them is certain to receive the
extreme penalty.
Eegarding the second or harmless class of sorcerers, the
discovery is said to be only made after death, when a careful
examination of the intestines reveals the existence of certain
small black objects which, it is popularly believed, are connected
with witchcraft — the undeveloped germs, in fact, of the natural
element. The corpses of these people are never buried, but
placed on the branches of mangrove trees in a locality which
is set apart for the purpose.
CHAPTER II
AN IBO ASPECT OF WITCHCRAFT
Having presented the reader with a brief outline of facts and

examples illustrating the popular attitude of the natives in the
Delta towards this deadly scourge of their own making, it is
now my intention to place before him, in the entire and
original sense in which it was given to me, a statement
regarding witchcraft as it exists among the Ibo, that was
made to me by one Ephraim Agha, a native of Onitsha.
That sorcery exists all over the country, with a force and
terror that is all the greater because its deeds are done in
secret, is more than true, he says but ; that, notwithstanding
the injuries and deaths which it inflicts upon the really

innocent, the popular estimate of it is formulated on a false
and hypothetical basis, is quite certain. "What is still more
certain, is that this estimate is the outcome of lost hope
and irretrievable despair — the final struggle, in fact, of afflicted
spirits struggling, as it were, against the inevitable.
It is far from my intention, he continues, here to assert
that the practice of witchcraft is absolutely devoid of such
nefarious contrivances as are distinctly detrimental to health
and vigour of mind ; but what I intend to convey is, that its
pretensions are fabulous and exaggerated. For, notwithstand-
ing its evident possession of certain destructive engines, which
by sleight of hand are dexterously administered into the human
organism, many of its pretensions are physically impossible.
The following, in popular estimation, are the principal ideas
which prevail among the Ibo on this subject of deadly
interest.
488
CHAP. II AN IBO ASPECT OF WITCHCRAFT 489
According to this, there are in existence in every com-

munity a combination of witches who are organised for the
sole object of perpetrating evil or working mischief upon
mankind in general. As regards the formation of movements
of this combination, no mystery could be completer, for its
secrets are guarded with the jealousy that only the impending
fear of death can produce to perfection.
It is said, by the way, that women are invariably members,
and that men seldom join this diabolical society. One notable
fact, however, in connection with this opinion is that no
woman is, as a rule, accused of witchcraft unless she is known
to be sterile, or has passed the limit of procreation. The fact
of the matter is, that any woman is open to such an accusation
so long as there is a masked buffoon to make a charge against
her.
The only tangible evidence of the existence of the
combination is to be seen in the calamities and deaths that
are of such frequent occurrence in every community, which
can only in this way be explained.
It is generally believed that the organisation has at its
head a chief who an adept in the magic arts, and who, as

is
such, exercises all the prerogatives and wields the authority

due to his rank. It is always a subject of doubt and dispute
among the people as to the possibility of a man becoming a
wizard. Men are generally exempted because they are
initiated into the secrecy whereby it is established, and can
better defend themselves than women, who are usually helpless
and defenceless.
Besides the special confederation of whom I have spoken,
there are in existence other nightly assemblies, which are,
however, considered harmless in the popular estimation.
These are practically buffoons and dancers who go about the
streets at night, masked, from house to house, with the sole
object of receiving payment in kind for their dancing, and,
except in cases where they are interfered with or intruded
on by members who are not initiated, they do no harm
whatever.
It is also a popular article of belief that members of the
combination have a preternatural insight into everything.
particularly disease, and that by means of this capacity they
can subvert and countermand the natural order of things.

When any individual is sick, it is the custom among the
people to conceal very closely the nature of the sickness and
the whereabouts of the invalid. These precautions are taken
solely to prevent interference on the part of witches, who,
despite every effort, however, are reputed to become cognisant
of all the facts, so that in the event of death the cause of it is
invariably attributed to them.

Sometimes it is usual to remove the patients to another
locality, in order to escape the clutches of the local society ;
but even distance does not exempt them from the enchant-
ments of these human demons, who are ubiquitous, and to
whose spells no obstacle is impervious. Indeed, even natural
phenomena, such, e.g., as inundations caused by rivers, and
droughts, are also looked upon as coming within the sphere
of their active operations.
There is, too, a belief among the people to the effect that
witches are not the creation of God, this being the reason
given for His neither interfering with nor punishing them for
their evil designs against His own creatures.
The supernatural power of witchcraft is said to be acquired
by swallowing a vegetable and poisonous powder which endows
those who partake of it with the gift of second sight, that en-
ables them to see what certain people are doing at a distance.
The members of the combination are, as I have already
pointed out, under pain of death not to reveal the secrets of
its origin, organisation, and powers and in return for this
;
each member is endowed with supernatural powers

individually
of operation and metamorphosis. Most of the current infor-
mation concerning the craft and its practices is, however,
purely traditional and presumptive, and must therefore be
taken on trust. It is presumed that men and women in olden
days, by making experiments in vegetable medicines and
poisons, had unconsciously discovered the secrets of this
miraculous power. This belief has led to a gross exaggeration
of the powers of a combination which is aimed principally
at the opulent and powerful members of every community,
whose deaths are sought on every available opportunity.
Seeing that everyhuman being is capable of evil, women,

as being the weaker vessels, therefore incapable of defending
themselves against any attack on their character or persons,
are, as a rule, fastened upon as witches. This, however, is a
mistake, for although vindictive in their natures they are all
the same incapable of executing their desires without the

assistance and co-operation of the male sex. ISTo woman is
accused of witchcraft without the full consent of her husband

and her own family, i.e. father, mother, and children, if she
has got any. This gives her every opportunity of vindicating
her innocence at the same time that it avoids a brawl or fight
between the opposing factions. The people who in reality

are the most dangerous, and all the more to be feared on that
account, are those men who make a practice of dealing in
medicines that ostensibly are harmless and inoffensive, but
which in reality are virulent poisons ; and it is generally
admitted that no man w411 divulge the secrets of this deadly
craft for fear of incurring the double vengeance of the witches
and of the populace.
The belief is also general that witches can and do change
themselves into any kind of bird or animal, and it is not by
any means an uncommon occurrence to come across persons

who have seen the metamorphosis take place before their
very eyes.
Among a people who are naturally superstitious, to whom
the ordinary operations or functions of nature are incompre-
hensible,and who see either danger or death in every simple
change of circumstance, no single occurrence can fail to have
a cause attributed to it, and seven other causes to boot besides.
By operation is meant that no distance is in itself sufficient
to impede the spiritual progress of witches, and no barrier
sufficiently impregnable to resist their spiritual force, so that
they can not only pass through the smallest aperture or crack
in a wall, but through the wall itself This force or element,
which they are able to project from their own organisms by
virtue of a medicine which is usually deposited in some
earthen receptacle or calabash, is capable of inflicting bodily
pain or harm on the victim.
The power which enables these witches to project so much
destructive force into space is supposed to be gathered by

means of certain virtues extracted from the animal, vegetable,
and mineral kingdoms, which are compounded into a powder
and carefully kept concealed. Just as in other concerns of
so concerning this secret craft there is much exaggeration.
life,
"Cowards," according to a popular Ibo proverb, " are accus-
tomed when travelling from one place to another, especially
during the night, to close their eyes lest they see anything
disagreeable or evil befalling them." For they do not consider
that as a brave man dies, so dies a coward, and so they die
many times over in their minds before their actual death —
saying which recalls Shakespeare's reflection that
Cowards die many times before their death,

The valiant never taste of death but once.
Thus it is that during a walk their imaginations become

excited by fear until every squirrel becomes an elephant, an
insignificant piece of cloth a fiery serpent, and every dark
corner an abode of diabolical demons.
The above remarks are meant to demonstrate the prevail-
ing ignorance and superstition of the real essence of witchcraft,
which is nothing more nor less than a specially organised and
unique system of poisoning. There are, it appears, several
methods by which this may be done. One of these is by
getting to windward of the victim and allowing the poisonous
powder to float down upon the wind until it has effected its
purpose, or to place it upon the ground over which he is
obliged to pass daily or frequently. Another more certain
method is to administer it in food or drink in the form of
a slow poison and with the connivance of an accomplice.
While the popular illusion in ghostly phantoms which prevails
has evidently originated in the practice that these poisoners
have arranged of waving lights about at night in the thick
bush with such adroitness that they are said to be the heads
of witches.
Whether inside or outside their own circle, every member
of this fraternity is by nature a cannibal — the victims selected
being killed, as a rule, by means of the blood-sucking process,
which operation is carried out either singly or jointly. This,
which is generally considered to be the most favourite of

their methods, is said to be accomplished so skilfully that
although the victim operated on feels the pain he is unable
to perceive any visible or external cause to account for it,
which, notwithstanding, eventually proves fatal to his life.
Another supposed operation by means of which people

are spirited away or detained against their wills is that of a
species of hypnotism, which, however, is not mental, but
supposed to be produced by means of the inevitable drug.
Among themselves sorcerers are believed to entertain, also
to accomplish, prodigies, e.g. not only can the largest tree be
transplanted from one place to another without the slightest
effort, but inverted upside down. During the performance of
these miraculous feats horrible orgies are held, and on occasions
even their own children are ruthlessly sacrificed and eaten.
Members of the combination during their nightly pere-
grinations are said to emit flame from their heads which is
unquenchable, and the existence of which can in no way be
accounted for. No words, as you see, can fully express the
dense ignorance of the people. In reality, of course, the flame
is generated by oil, with which other inflammable substances
are mixed. These are mixed together and put into a clay pot,
w^hich is perforated with holes and suspended on a pole or the
branch of a tree, or carried about by strong, active young men
to enable them to see their way in the dark, so as to avoid
pursuit.
As far as my experience of witchcraft goes, there are three
branches or sections, two of which are offensive or injurious,
and one defensive or harmless.
The first of these is called Ogboma, which never loses
an opportunity of poisoning members of a community with a
facility and secrecy that defy detection. The members of
this fraternity clothe themselves inwardly with white and out-
wardly with black, and whenever they come into contact with
the object of their fury or hatred they suddenly expose their
inward form, which, being pure white, startles the victim into
a state of insensibility that enables the sorcerers to carry their
evil intentions into disastrous effect.
The second class is called Amosu, and applies practically
to the witchcraft of the combination that I have endeavoured

to describe, which is merciless, especially towards those by
whom they have most benefited.
The third, Amosu Ukawu, is purely and simply a

defensive measure for self-protection, its poisons being procured
and employed solely as antidotes against the diabolical machi-
nations of the two former.
In conclusion, every member of the combination is gifted
with the power of stupefying the senses and intelligence of
any one outside its pale, which is done by means of the
powerful medicine before alluded to. In fact, mere contact
with a witch is said to produce the same effect.
men " the man is free

It is a saying among our wise that
from the influence of witches who has none in his own house."
Hence it is customary, before offering a visitor anything to eat
or drink, for the host first of all to taste either victuals or
liquor in order to assure his guest of the sincerity of his
intentions.
In this, the concluding paragraph of Agha's valuable
communication, we have not only the explanation of an old-
time custom, but the key to a social enigma, which, even
with a thorough knowledge of human nature at our com-
mand, would be otherwise quite inexplicable. For it is the
rude and savage instincts of the animal, the violent anti-
pathy, the vindictive passion of revenge, the hatred, malice,
and all uncharitableness, and finally in the lust for blood,
at the root of which always lurks the insidious venom of
suspicion, like a sleuth-hound with its nose on the trail,
that in the first instance gave rise to a craft which, if it could
way
see its clear, would suck dry the life-blood of the people.
Knowing these as well as I do, what also is so plainly evident

is that, apart from instincts and passions which are ineradic-
able, the patriarchal system is to a great extent responsible
for the existence of witchcraft, creating, as it must of necessity
do, so many opportunities — literally preparing the soil, in fact
for jealousies and rivalries. Thus it is that the social
atmosphere of a Delta household is not only thick with con-

cealed strife and spite, but alive with sprites who, notwith-
standing their supposed spirituality, are as full as they can be
of all the lowest failings that human flesh is heir to. In a

word, the ordinary household is nothing but a hotbed of evil
passions that, underneath an outwardly calm surface, is seething
with mental visions and apparitions that readily take the
shape and form of the devouring death fiend.
Without in any way, however, wishing to cross swords
with a man of such undoubted intelligence and experience
as Agha —
himself a native, who has gone into this question
—
most thoroughly and exhaustively taking the Delta tribes
generally, witchcraft is usually spoken of as in two classes
the black or actively offensive, and the white or inoffensive
magic, which is only undertaken in self-defence.
CHAPTER III
WITCH DOCTORS : (.4) THEIR METHODS, (b) THEIR POISONS
A. Their Methods
The Ibo word Dibia, or the Efik Abia, stands for doctor,
that is, a person who professes to cure or remedy bodily ills
and ailments. This does not necessarily mean that every

individual professor is a sorcerer, or diviner, or thought-
reader. Thus, e.g., among the Efik we find an Abia Ebok who
is merely a physician, and an Abia Idiong who is a diviner
or witch doctor. Many of these gentry, however, do, as a
matter of combine both functions, and sometimes all three,
fact,
and these latter, being specially qualified to deal with ghosts

and demons, generally manage to establish for themselves
reputations that are out of all proportion to their actual
attainments, consequently are treated by the people with the
greatest fear and respect, as belonging to a fraternity that is
not only small and exclusive, but which alone possesses the
power of getting into touch with the outside spirit world.
And it is this seeming reality which is their sole salvation,
and that explains the fact of their existence, and the otherwise
inexplicable toleration of the masses. For to the people, these
subtle and expert diviners are absolutely indispensable. So,
with the fatalism they inherit from Nature, these natives,
finding that they cannot do without diviners, make the most
and best of them.
Yet this is to some extent inconsistent. The witch doctor
not only is capable of dispensing or deputing his powers to
ambitious novices, but he is actually known to do so.
496
CHAP. Ill WITCH DOCTORS : METHODS, POISONS 497
Having decided on conferring certain powers on a par-

ticular individual, the diviner proceeds to administer to him a
potion that has been decocted from various leaves and herbs
which are found in the bush. Having made the aspirant drink
a portion of it, he then pours a few drops into his eyes and
ears, the reputed effect of which is to instil courage into the
heart ; harden that impressionable organ, so
in other words, to
that its owner may have neither fear nor scruple to take life,
irrespective of age or sex —
no difference being made even
towards children. This is a point that is worthy of the
reader's notice, for under ordinary conditions, and in the
domestic life of these people — apart from any intrinsic con-
siderations — children are and treated with great
regarded
affection both by men and women. So that in attempting the
destruction of children, as witchcraft does, it is aiming at all
that is best in the social life of the people.
Having filled the aspirant's mind with the power and
mysteries of the Great Mother, the master of divination turns
him out into the —
bush all by himself to contemplation of the
mysteries which liearound him, and in communion with his
other self.
With his mind open to receive impressions, and his facul-

tiesabsorbed in a concentrated contemplation of the mystic,
Nature speaks to him with a thousand voices, that are but the
own diabolical intentions. So one night of
re-echoes of his
communion with Nature hardens his heart, forming as it does,
in reality, the initial ceremony of a career of blood that deals
only with the darkest and most terrifying problem of life.
But if these voices of Nature so impress this bundle of dia-

bolical emotions, it is not in the least surprising that her silence
appeals to him by way of contrast with even still greater
force.
In this way, then, face to face with Nature, he is hardened
and initiated into the various secrets which it is necessary for
him to learn. attentively to what the diff'erent
So, listening
spirits and grasses have to tell him, the
of the trees, plants,
aspirant soon learns to discriminate between the medicines and
forces which have been placed at his disposal. This, how-
ever, is only one aspect of the weird and grim initiation the —
2 K
internal or emotional aspect which evolves from his own mner

but disturbed consciousness. But there is another, the external
and more tangible, side to it, which brings him into actual
contact with the animal life of the forest, that, in combination

with the fears which he himself has conjured up out of the
hell of his imaginations, makes it all the more terrifying and
terrible an ordeal. All the more so, because it seems to him
as the realisation of his inmost thoughts, and all that has been
told him; therefore proof positive and infallible that spirits
in various forms and embodiments, vesjetal and animal, have
visited him. Bound hand and foot, morally as well as physi-
cally, he becomes a prey not only to his own hideous fears,
but to the animal life which teems all round and frequently
all over him, —
the driver ants, active, combative, and always
on the move, whom nothing short of fire and water can stop
once they set themselves in motion, pouring like a black
torrent, every single atom of which is instinct with fierce
vitality, through and over every obstacle the restless red-tree;
ants, that, although always busy in the construction of their

leafy domiciles, have yet time enough left to sting the large ;
and loathsome stink ants, that fill the air with their offensive
effluvia; the bush cats, leopards, iguanas, and snakes, always
on the look-out for victims with which to appease their hungry
appetites. That the experiences which in this way befall
him are often diabolical enough to upset the nerves of the
bravest and strongest man, can well be imagined. So that
when a novice emerges from the hellish ordeal with nerves
shaken and courage intact, having undergone a probation so
exacting, a process so hardening and sterilising that it
freezes up any of the milk of human kindness with which he
may have been possessed into the cold hard ice of a deadly
antipathy, he is well qualified to become a fiend incarnate, who
gloats over and revels in the flesh and blood of his own kith
and kin.
B. Theie Poisons
There are, so all my various informants have instructed

me, several kinds of poisons which are believed by the people
to be in existence, but the constituents of which, as being
CHAP. Ill WITCH DOCTORS : METHODS, POISONS 499
difficult to reconcile with reason and knowledge, are therefore

of extremely dubious character.
Medicine men, it is popularly estimated, are thoroughly
cognisant of the different constituents which compose the three
principal divisions of natural objects. Consequently they are
invariably applied to for poisons of any kind whatsoever. For
the belief in their potentialities, as suitable for the purpose for
which they have been prepared, is very general.
Poisons are, as a rule, prepared by drying and reducing
various vegetal properties into either powders or potions by
mixing them with water or from fluids ; —
the gall, bile, and
such like —
that have been extracted from certain wild animals
or reptiles. There are four different classes of poisons, namely,
(1) those which are applied internally; (2) those which are
used externally; (3) those which are applied by invisible
means (4) those which affect the senses.
;
1. Internal Poisons.
It is commonly believed that poisons which are not taken
internally are not invariably mortal. Hence every father
advises his son to be circumspect and vigilant of his throat.
Poisons of this kind are usually prepared and compounded with
an admixture of the galls of animals, particularly of leopards,
pythons, lizards, and a special sort of fish. These compounds
are, as a rule, used as irritants, for the express purpose of
exciting vomit. Vegetal matter is also indispensable in their
preparation, for in this way they are reduced to powder and
carefully preserved. Some of them are said to be so powerful
that a drop as from a needle's point is sufficient to cause
death.
2. External Poisons.
These are always used by laying them on or across the
path which is daily resorted to by the individual for whom
they are intended. It is usual, during the process, for the
poisoner to express in words thoughts such as these, " May he
be lamed," " May he be filled with blood," " May his back or
spine break," and of course others equally malevolent. These
invocations, it is firmly believed, are tempered with the various
properties of the medicine which is purposely and assiduously
procured by medicine-men for such ends. These poisons are
also sprinkled on the roofs of houses, or over the mat or stool

on which the victims sleep.
3. Communicable Poisons.
That is, those which can be communicated by invisible

methods.
These are procured from or made with the spines of
certain animals, porcupines more especially, compounded with
potash, iron filings, and other inorganic matters, which are
reduced to a powder. In this form they are supposed to be
communicated invisibly with such celerity and exactness
against a person, that blood poisoning supervenes. It is also
believed that there are certain roots, barks, and leaves of trees
that, after due preparation, are mixed with other properties
extracted from animals, particularly those with stings. These
too, it appears, can be despatched from a considerable distance,
in a manner which is absolutely imperceptible, against the
person of the victim selected. It is to this cause that leprosy
and sores of various kinds are usually attributed.

4. Soijorific Poisons.
These are said to be extracted from the tails of crocodiles
and scorpions' stings, mixed with vegetal matter. The mode
of administering them is to rub a certain amount of the poison
on to the hand, or upon a walking stick or piece of wood,
and when the sorcerer is close to his victim he merely waves
the poisoned-covered object before him, and in this way com-
municates its the immediate effect of
virtues into his head ;
which is to head whirl, his senses reel, and to

make his
benumb all his nerves and sensibilities. Imperfect as this
account is, it is at least sufficiently luminous to show that
although in reality the real mischief is perpetrated by means
of those poisons which are administered in food or drink, there
is, according to popular estimation, as much reliance placed
in all the other forms. And the explanation of this, as
we saw in regard to the Ancestral Medicines in Section V., is
simple in the extreme. For the entire operation is, of course,
demoniacal.
In making a review of the entire question, certain salient
features, it is quite manifest, have been more in evidence.
These are : (1) Witchcraft, according to native belief, is not
CHAP. Ill WITCH DOCTORS: METHODS, POISONS 501
in any sense a direct or indirect creation or the handiwork of

the Supreme God. For this reason, therefore, he neither
punishes nor interferes with the people for the dreadful evils
and enormities committed under its potential and prolific segis.
(2) The metamorphosis of witches into animals, as the work of
sorcerers, is altogether supernatural; or, to describe it more
accurately, beside and outside Nature. (3) The prodigies of
witches are unnatural topsy-turveydom, an inversion of the
natural order of things and events —such, for example, as
eating their own offspring, turning trees upside down, etc.
(4) The killing and eating of children, of their own flesh and
blood, forms a marked contrast with the fact that, under normal
social conditions, children are not only esteemed with much
affection,but regarded in a spiritual and creative sense, as
divine and ancestral pledges. (5) No women, unless they are
known to be barren, or prevented by age from bearing, are
ever of witchcraft, proving again, as previously
accused
explained, the undeniable and God-like sanctity of maternity.
APPENDICES
503
APPENDIX A
A GLIMPSE INTO THE GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION OF
THE VARIOUS TONGUES
It is not my intention to spend much time over the solution of
the linguistic problem. For, however valuable it may be from

an anthropological standpoint to arrive at the origin of these
different tribes, it is of much greater value to obtain a true and
faithful picture of the moods and modes of thought in which they
have lived and are still living.
Commencing with, and adhering for the most part practically

and principally to the Ibo as the most important and influential
tongue, if we make an examination of certain words, taken at
random, between the dialect as spoken by the " Ndoke " and
" Ngwa " clans and that in use in the Niger at and below
Onitsha, we will find that while certain words coincide exactly,
others again are totally dissimilar. Thus, e.g., while the under-
mentioned words
Dog — n'kita
5o6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES APP. A
words, including the numerals, which if not the same are, practi-
cally speaking, similar, a few examples of which are here given :
English. Ibo. Niger Ibo.
Day uhochi ubosi

Go ba'ah naba
Palm tree nku nkwii
Cow ehi efi
Poison msi nsi

Picture onyinyo inyinyo
Shadow onyinyo inyinyo
Among words of this description, it is quite evident that the

differences are merely superficial, and easily accounted for by former
and varying conditions of acquirement or use that have prevailed
" awun," the sun, and " owan," the
in the different localities. Thus
" anwu " and
moon, of the Ndoke clan, have become on the Niger
"onwa." "Wan-afo," a free-born, is similarly transposed to
" nwaf oh."
"
In the same way the following letters are interchangeable " r :
"
with "1" or "n," "1" with "n," " s," " sh," and "gh" with "f
" with " t," as the under-
or "r," "u" with " o," and "a" and "d
mentioned examples will illustrate :
English. Ibo. Niger Ibo.
Sheep aturu atutu

Water mini miri
House ulo unoh
Pillow ohi-hisi ofi-isi
Grass aghigha afifia
Nation oha ora

Children umu omo
Paddle amara amala
But in addition to transposition and interchanging between

letters of the same class, which is done indiscriminately and with-
out adhering to any regular rules, certain rules are observed: (1)
vowels are not considered; (2) letters are also inserted, affixed,
prefixed, or omitted, either to suit local conditions or for sake

of euphony but although we are purposely avoiding this branch
;
of the subject, it will be necessary, even from the basis on which

the work has been constructed, to glance rapidly at some of its
leading characteristics, in order more particularly to confirm the
fact that the languages in question are, in every sense of the
word, primitive or natural. For, as we shall see, although they
have a distinct grammatical structure that is decidedly capable of
much improvement, they are, as a careful analysis of them will
APP. A GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION OF TONGUES 507
demonstrate, extremely simple, and, from a civilised point of view,

defective in their construction.
In the first place, then, comparing their alphabet with our own,
the prevailing vowel sounds are "a" as in "father," or "a" as in
"fall"; "e" as in "let," or "e" as in "there"; "i" as in "see,"
or as in " bid " ; "0 " as in " go," " o " as in " for ; " u
" " as in
"bull," "u" as in "schedule"; "k," on the whole, is the prevail-

ing letter, "c" and "x" altogether deficient, while " j," "1," ''v,"
and " z " are less used than the remaining consonants, especially
in Efik and Ibibio. As regards their pronunciation, the letters
"b"and "p" are sometimes confused, "b" and "m" and "d"
and " n frequently combined, and while " g " is always hard,
" are
"h" is guttural. Speaking of these tongues collectively, the

general intonation is, on the whole, distinctly soft and pleasing to
the ear, the alternation between the vowels and consonants being
very evenly distributed.
In the second place, as regards their roots, it is quite evident
that these are either more or less formed from, or at least identical
with, the imperative singular of verbs, and in their primitive form
they always commence with a consonant, and are principally
monosyllables and dissyllables. It is possible in the Efik dialect
to arrange these primitives in five classes, which are distinguishable
by the order of their vowels and consonants, as in the following
examples :
(1) (2) (3)
Ma — desire Dep —buy Mia — beat

Ja— chew Bat — count Tua — cry
Fe — fly Ket — aim. Foi — pinch
(4) (5)
Biak ——mix
pain Bana — adorn
Bnak Bara — answer
Tuak —knock Duri — spread
Nouns are, as a rule, constructed from these roots by prefixes ;
thus "ma," love; "ima," love; "bok," feed; "ubok,"a hand;

" no," give ;
" eno," a gift.
Nouns have no regular declension for gender or case, but
when they do undergo any change or inflection this usually takes
place by prefixing " m" or " n " to the root. Thus, e.g., " aubong,"
a headman, plural "ikpat," a foot, feet "nkpat";

"mbong";
"ete," father, and "eka," mother, plural "mete," "meka."
Sometimes, however, the plural is only indicated by the ac-
companying adjectives, as in the following example, " eti eno," a
good gift; "nti eno," good gifts.
5o8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES app. a
In the same manner the cases of nouns are indicated by the

and the objective
position only, the nominative preceding the verb,
and possessive following it.
The adjectives, like the nouns, are also formed chiefly from
the verb roots, as, for example, " kpong," leave alone ; and
"ikpong," solitary ; " nyan," stretch out " anyan," long.
;
Frequently the same word serves both as noun and adjective.

Thus while " ifu " stands for idleness, and " ubwene " for poverty,
" owo ifu" means an idle man, and " owo ubene " a poor man.
A particularly noticeable characteristic, not only of Efik but of
all these tongues, is repetition or reiteration. In this simple way,
for instance, a noun repeated is at once transformed into an
adjective. So " mbat," mud, and " mbom," pity, becomes " mbat-
mbat," muddy, and " mbom-mbom," pitiful.
Degrees of comparison are similarly expressed, " eti," good,
being, when reiterated, very good and when followed by " akan,"
;
extremely good ; or preceded by " ata," superlatively so.

In much or precisely the same way an intensive or frequenta-
"
tive form is constructed. Thus the root " no," give, as " nono
is to give entirel}'';
" sua," hate, as " asasua" is he hates deeply ;
"bara," blow, "ababara," blow strongly.

Adjectives similar to nouns have no inflection except for the
plural, and then not regularly. This is formed in the same
manner by the prefix " m " or " n," or by a change of the initial
vowel, as, e.g., "idiok," bad, plural "midiok"; "eti," good, plural
"nti"; "eren," a male, "iren," males; "afia," white, "mfia."
Adverbs, too, which are generally constructed from verbs,
nouns, or adjectives, are likewise formed on the same principle
of doubling the root. Thus we find that " anyananyan," length-
wise, and " taktak," utterly, are merely the repetition of " any an,"
long, and " tak," perish. Some adverbs, however, take the
pronominal prefixes, as well as the prefix auxiliaries, of moods and
tenses of the verbs to which they belong. Thus " nyung," also
"ami nnyung nka," I also went.
The pronouns, unlike the nouns and adjectives, are not so
very defective in number, and show a greater degree of inflec-
tion. They are divided as follows personal, possessive, reflexive,
:
relative, interrogative, and demonstrative. The personal are as

follows first singular nominative, " ami " ; possessive and objective,
:
" mi," plural " nyin " second singular nominative, " afu," posses-
;
sive, "fu," objective, " fi," plural "mfu" or "mbfu"; third

singular nominative and objective, " enye," and possessive, "esie,"
plural "mo"; the possessives are " okimmo," mine; "okuomo,"
thine ; and " esiemo," his own plural " ekenyin," ours ; " edem-
;
bufu," yours; and "ekemo," theirs. The reflexives are: singular,

"idemmi," myself, "idemfu" and "idemesie," plural "idemnyin,"

" idemmbufu," and " idemmo." The relatives are " emi," " eke,"
and "se," who, which, what. The interrogatives are "anie,"
who " efe " or " ewe," which and " su " or " nsu," what.
; ;
Finally, the demonstratives are "emi" and "odo," this and

that, and "efen," "eken," and "ewen," another, others. In
addition, however, to these are "imo" and "mimo," pronouns
that are peculiar to Efik, and employed only, or, as a rule, when
repeating conversations or reporting speeches, as when, for
example, a messenger relates word for word any dialogue which
has passed between himself and others. It is very evident that
these pronouns are useful in avoiding a too frequent repetition of
the personal pronouns, and in this way tend to simplify the
sense that is meant to be conveyed.
There are no articles, but "a," the indefinite, is often ex-
pressed by the numeral " one."
With regard to the prepositions, while there are only a few in
Efik and Ibibio, Ibo has a goodly number. In this latter tongue,
however, the ubiquity of the word " na " is particularly notice-
able. For not only does it figure very frequently as a preposition,
standing as it does for about, at, from, in, on, to, and compounded
with " ive," meaning above, and with " ititi," amid, but it is
employed as the adverb "also," and as the conjunction "and,"
besides being used in the former case, with other words, to signify
in, on, to, with, etc. In the same way in Efik "ye," which means
with, also implies and, and "ke" is used in the various senses
of for, by, from, to, in, into, and out of. Spoken in their own
dialects, the meaning of these prepositions is more clearly defined
by the context.
The conjunctions also, although tolerably numerous both in
Efik and Ibo, do not number among them a single specimen, not
even " na " or " ye," which expresses the same sense of connection
that " and " does, these being employed more in connecting nouns ;
verbs and sentences being joined in Efik, for example, by " ndien,"
then.
The numerals are reckoned by the Efik in divisions of five,
ten, fifteen, and tvrenty, only the first five, also nine, ten, fifteen,
and twenty, being separately designated, while the rest are either
combinations or repetitions of these, very similar in their con-
struction of the Roman numeral lettering. So from one to five
are "ket," "iba," "ita," "inang," " itiun," and "itioket," six, is
five and one. Similarly " itieba," seven, is five and two " itiata,"
;
eight, is five and three; " osuket," nine; "duup," ten; " suu-
peket," eleven; "duupeba," twelve; and so on to "ifut," fifteen;
" ifuriket," sixteen ; and so on again to " edip," twenty ; " edip-
§10 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
yeket," twenty-one ; and in this way it repeats up to aba," forty ;

"
" ata," sixty ; " anang," eighty ; and " ikie," a hundred.
" Osuket," nine, is quite an exceptional expression, which
seemingly is altogether peculiar to the Efik. Meaning, as it does,

" one remaining," it is suggestive of a person counting yams or
other articles of produce, while another is keeping a tally or
account of the number. Throwing two at a time, at the ninth
throw the former cries " osuket," as a warning that the following
throw will be a tally —
of twenty in this case, but ten when
counted in singles — when the score is marked up. This process
consists of making notches on a stick, or of counting with rods,
etc.,each notch or rod being equivalent to a tally, but does not
occur at " ifurenang," nineteen, which is a compound of fifteen and
" edipyeosuket " being
four, indeed, it enters into no combination,
twenty-nine, and " edipyif urenang," thirty-nine, or twenty and
nineteen. The ordinals, which are not very complete, are as
follows : "akpa," first; "udiana akpa," second, or, as it is literally
expressed, "the one next to the first." After this they are
indicated by employing the verb " oyakhii," which fills iip or
completes the sense that is meant to be conveyed with the
" oyiikha-ita," the third; " oyakha-inan," the
cardinal, as, e.g.,
fourth, etc.
In addition to these, there are in Efik two other complete sets
of numerals that are quite systematically expressed, of which
English has but the rudiments. According to this system, all
aggregates are formed by the addition of the prefix " mb to the
"
"mbiba," the two or both; " mbita," all three;

cardinals, as, e.g.,
"mbinang," all four " mbitiun," all five, and so on all through
; ;
and in a similar manner, by prefixing " ika," thus '' ikaba,"

" ikata," " ikanang," " ikotiun," twice, thrice, four times, etc.
The other set is composed of adverbial numerals, which are

thus formed once, " inikiet " ; twice, " ikaba " ; thrice, " ikata " ;
:
four times, " ikanan " ; five times, " ikotiun ; six times,
" " iko-
tiokiet," and so on up to a hundred.

A further investigation of and comparison between the
numerals of the various tongues is distinctly deserving of atten-
tion. For while in certain cases the actual words which stand for
them, as well as the systems upon which they are constructed,
diifer to some degree, there are again in other directions instances
of a decided resemblance if not connection, but this is outside our
present province. I must, however, draw the reader's attention
to the fact that the Efik, as indeed do most of these natives,

reckon also by means of signs. According to this natural method,
a finger or fingers held up represent the actual numbers. A hand
clenched means five, and along with one up to four fingers, from
AFP. A GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION OF TONGUES 511
six to nine, both hands being clasped for ten. A finger is again
added for eleven, and so on up to fifteen, for which the arm is
bent and the hand touches the shoulder. Twenty is signified by
waving a finger in front of the body, and the reckoning proceeds
as before until thirty is reached, when the hands are clapped and
a finger waved. For forty, two fingers are waved, and at fifty the
hands are once more clapped, and in the same way the remaining
fingers up to a hundred are signalled, when the closed fist is
wâved and the simple sum of addition comes to an end.
Returning once more to the five classes of verb roots, with the
exception of the first, derivations are constructed from all of
them by the addition either of a syllable or a vowel. In the
second and third of these the addition is usually that of a vowel,
which, when " re " is affixed to it, at once reverses the sense of the
word. So " wan," twist or coil " wana " or " wanga," coiled
;
;
" wangare," uncoiled.

" Fuk," cover " fukha," covered
;
" fukhare," uncovered
;
;
" buk," gather up " bukha," gathered up
;
" bakhade " (or " re "),
;
divide or distribute.
" Dian," join or fix ;
" diana," fixed ;
" dianare," unfixed, i.e.
separate, also depart.

In the fifth class certain verbs alter the final vowel, and in
this wayarrive at the passive voice ; thus " duri," lay or spread
"duro," laid; " durore," unlay or take off; "here" or "siri,"
close, shut ; " here " or " sere," closed " berere " or " serere,"
;
unclosed.
Words of the third class, however, in adding a syllable change
their meaning but do not become either reversive, passive, or
reflexive. Thus " bia," gossip, tell-tales, becomes " biana " or
" bianga," meaning befool, cheat, deceive, trick " sue " or " sune," ;
abuse, curse, revile, as " suene " " sudi "

is disgrace, shame,
or
affront; "sua," hate, dislike; " suana," strew, scatter, disperse;
and "sia," sneeze; "siama," suck teeth. With regard tc this
class, it is impossible to trace numbers of the words to their
primitives, while many of those of the other classes, it is evident,
form no derivatives, although in Efik, as in all these tongues, the
capacity of the language admits of such construction. The con-
jugation of the verbs is practically if not entirely a matter of
prefixes. These which, in the form of letters, are used to denote
persons, and as syllables or auxiliary verbs, the moods and tenses,
invariably become incorporated with the root-word. The pro-
nominal prefixes are as follows " " or
: M
" n " for the first
singular, " i " for the plural ; " a," " 0," or " e," in agreement with
the radical vowel, for the second and third singular, and always
" e " for the plural. One noticeable feature about them is that
512 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES app. a
they entirely nullify the use of the pronouns, which would other-
wise have to be employed; thus, for example, "da," bring;
"nda,"I bring or brought "ada," thou, he; " ida," we; "eda,"
;
they bring or brought.

The tense of the verb which is most generally used, and
particularly in a conversational or narrative sense, as in the
example given, is the aorist, which is employed somewhat
promiscuously, either for the present or the past. The present
definite is formed by the prefix " ma," " me," or " mo," in accord
with the root or accented vowel, and the past definite by " ka,"
"ke," or "ko," as follows: "Nam, do mmanam," I am doing;
" amanam," thou, he, etc. " imanam," we ; and " emanam, ye or
;
they are doing; " nkanam," I did; " akanam," "ikanam," " eka-
nam," thou, he, we, and they did.
The future is formed by " ye " and " di," thus " nyenam " and
"ndinam," I shall or will do; "eyenam" and " edinam," thou,
he, etc.
The conditional mood
formed by "me," if, and "kpe,"
is
might, as, e.g.^ "nkpanam,"might do; "me nkpanam," if I

I
might do " akpanam," thou, he might do
; while, finally, the
;
infinitive takes " ndi " as prefix, thus " ndinam," to do.
The assumption of the negative form, the capacity for which
is possessed practically by every verb, is a feature deserving of
attention. This, as a rule, is done by adding the suffix " ke " to

the primitive, or, as sometimes happens, by altering it to "ge,"
"he," "ha," or "ho," so as to fit it in with the word. Further,
the pronominal prefixes of the second and third persons of both
numbers are changed into "u " for the second and into " i " for all
the others. So " dep," buy, alters to " ndepke," I bought not
" udepke," thou ; " idepke," he, we, you, they bought not. In
the same way, with the exception of the imperative, which becomes
prohibitive, other parts of the verb assume the negative. Thus
"kudep," do not buy "nkudep," I must not buy ; "okudep," he
;
must not buy ; " ikudep," we must not, etc. ; " ta," chew ; " tuka,"
do not chew; "ntaha," I chew or chewed not; "utaja," thou;
"itaha," we, etc.; "no," I bestow; "nnoho," I bestowed not;
" unoho," thou ; " inoho," he, etc.
It will be necessary now for a few moments to contrast these
grammatical methods of the Efik and Ibibio with those of the Ibo.
A comparison between the two makes it at once evident that while
there is practically little or no difference in the construction of
these, or in fact of any of the other tongues, there are certain
features that it will be as well to call attention to. In the first
place, although, as in the Efik, the primitives can be arranged into

five classes, thus :
GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION OF TONGUES 513
(1) (2) (3)

Sit
.
—uo Await — (lor Kill —bue

Go Â. Prick — gudor Coine — bia
(i) (5)
Convey — wegar Learn —mota
Adhere — Kpani Know —mara
tiiere is a great deficiency of primitives in classes 2 and 4,
the majority belonging to the other three; and, further, it is
noticeable that many of these are dissyllabic, such, e.g.^ as " bibie,"
correct; "doiie," correct; "kpaso," disturb; "kpado," squeeze;
"isota," obtain " datsi," obstruct ; " sompi," butt.
;
Similar to Efik, nouns are often constructed from verbs by

prefixes of letters or syllables, thus " ku-ume," breathe, " Iku-:
ume," breath ; " kpobe " or " mabe," calm, " nkpobe " or " nmabe,"
calmness; "suka," condense, " nsuka," condensation; "ma-ikpe,"
condemn, " di-ima-ikpe," condemnation "kive," consent, "uk we," ;
consent; "gho," sow, " agho," crop; " gugo," coax, "ogugo,"
coaxer. Or the prefix used is an entire word in itself, with a
meaning of its own, such as "ihinye," thing. So " yiri," resemble,
as " ihinye-yiri " becomes resemblance.
Sometimes a suffix is employed in addition to the prefix, as, e.g.,
"bue," to grow stout or to swell; "abuba," fat. Again, we find
that nouns are also formed from verbs, not only by a prefix, but
by a doubling of the root. So '* ke," create, develops into " okeke,"
creator, while creature is " nke-akereke " the word for creation, ;
"uwadum," being, curiously enough, quite different, and derived

from " uwa," world. Sometimes, however, the initial letter of the
verb root is repeated, as in the case of " mesi," complete, " mmesi,"
completeness but at other times, in addition to the ordinary
;
prefix, the pronoun " onye," who, is used in the sense of " one
who"; thus "dozi," compose, " onye-ndozi," a composer.
Nouns are also formed from the verb by the alteration of the
middle vowel, as, for instance, "nzozo," conceal, " nzuzo," con-
cealment or by changing the initial vowel, as " iriri," cord,
;
" eriri," a cord; or, again, by that of the final vowel, "bawo,"
crack, "bawa," a crack or, yet again, by both, as, e.g.^ "nu-anu,"
;
rejoice, "anona," rejoicing; and adjectives also are constructed

on a similar principle by changing the initial consonant of the
verb so " sedebe," conciliate, as " medebe " is conciliatory.
;
But while, as in the following cases,

—
Nri nourish and nourishment
—
Otutu compare and comparison
Zatsa—clarify and cleanness, or purity
—nkotsa
Ridicule
Lean —debere
2 L
verbs cand nouns are identical ; in others, as in the under-mentioned,

they are quite dift'erent :
— preserve ——
Debere Osebru wa preserver
Zi or ziri — seed Mkpuru seed
—
Mara serve Odibo — servant
—
Nta hunt Ebenu — hunter
—
Meta execute Obii-madu— executioner
—laugh
Tsi or otsi Mu amu —laughter
or
Zo — content — contentment
Idsu-afo
Diriri —continue Onodu — continuance
Ke — cord Udo — cord
So, although the prevailing method of noun formation is from
the verb root, adjectives are also resorted to, usually by the
similar means of prefixes, thus "di-nara," cool, " idi-nwa-nara,"
—
:
coolness; "di-ogo," decent, " ogo," decency or by affixing

another word to the adjective, as: "nne," true, "nne-oku," truth,
i.e. true word.
On the other hand, in spite of the fact that nouns are, as a

rule, formed from verbs, instances occur in which verbs have been
constructed out of nouns thus, e.g., we find that " makunye," con-
;
sort, is formed from "yi," a consort; "baghara," forgive, from

" ghara," forgiveness ; " mekwa," repeat, from " kwa," repetition ;
" dike," stretch, from " ike," strength ; " la-na-iyi," destroy, from
" iyi," destruction ; " go-agogo," celebrate, from "agogo," celebra-
tion ; " te-nzu," chalk, i.e. smear with chalk, from " nzu," chalk.
Similarly, adjectives are also formed from nouns by a syllabic
" or "di-ofia,"
prefix, thus: " ofia " or "ohia," a bush, " di-ohia
bushy ; " ntatsie," comfort, " di-ntatsie," comfortable ; " afifia " or
"ahihia," grass, "di-ofia" or "di-ohia," grassy.
Sometimes, however, the same word represents both noun and
adjective, or adjective and adverb ; thus, " enwu " stands for
"
brilliancy and bright, " ngwa brisk, " abuba
" for briskness and
" "
for fat, "ogologo ogonogo," long and length, and boru-bor
" or "
for frequent, while frequently is expressed by " mbe-odo."
Another feature which is also noticeable is that the agent or
personal noun is at times constructed from the object, or abstract
noun, by the utilisation of the pronoun " onye," one who ; thus,
while " ero " or " iro " is enmity, " onye-iro " develops into an
enemy, i.e. one who bears enmity.
These principles are not, of course, confined to Ibo or Efik any
more than they are to one of the other tongues, but, as is only
natural, are peculiar in a greater or lesser degree to all of them—
a fact, however, which does not support the theory regarding the
unity of their origin with any greater significance than does the
fact that the evolution of their religions has been identical, as
primitive religion all the world over has similarly been. But
even with the former fact thrown in, a comparison, for instance, of
Efik with Ibo reveals the experience that there are a few, but not
many, words in common between them. In like manner there is
little similarity between Ijo and Ibo, although racially the tribes
speaking the former have undoubtedly intermingled with the
latter. But although these dissimilarities would seem to point to
either a difference of origin or variations and submersions such as
have been alluded to in Part I., there are, for instance, certain
aspects of resemblance
tion— — quite apart from grammatical construc-
not only between Ibo and Niger Ibo, but between the latter
and the Jekri or Bini dialects, which most certainly must be
attributed to former associations and connections. And this
reasonable conclusion is all the more justified by a comparison on
the triangular method, which a reference to any three dialects in
the Delta will effectually demonstrate.
To give a notable and at the same time average example if we :
take Jekri, Igara, and Ibo, similar words (as is only to be ex-
pected, connected as both are with Yoruba) are found in Jekri
and Igara yet words in which Ibo and Igara coincide are
;
altogether dissimilar in Jekri, while those in which Jekri and Ibo

are identical have in Igara a distinct and separate name. As an
illustration of this, for example, both in Jekri and Igara " eju " is
an eye, " ojiji " is a shadow, and " ewo " or " owo " a hand ; in Ibo
the corresponding words are "anya," " onyinyo," and "akah."
On the other hand, while the Ibo and Igara for goat is " ewu "
and " ewo," and for water " miri " or " mili," the Jekri word for
the former is " ekeregbe " and for the latter " omi."
Again, although it is possible in all three tongues to find a
decidedly radical resemblance, as, e.g.^ in the following :
English.
5i6 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES app. a
But these remarks are, as has already been pointed out,

applicable generally. For, however careful and analytical the
comparison, and irrespective of the languages, it will be found that,
except in those affiliated groups, such, for example, as those of
Ibani, Okrika, New Calabar, and Brass, which are derivable from
I jo, and of Jekri, Sobo, Igabo, whose parent stock is Bini, the
differences altogether preponderate. More than this, it is evident
that even between the dialects themselves many words are
entirely different. Yet here and there, of course, it is quite
possible to detect certain resemblances which are relics, no doubt,,
of former associations or connections, thus :
[Table
APP. A GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION OF TONGUES 5^7
Si8 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES app. a
It is quite unnecessary, consonant at least with the object of

the book, to make any further or more elaborate investigation
than has already been made for, in going as far as we have gone,
;
those specific features which have previously been called attention

to will have been noticed, although in addition to these the reader
will find it useful to make
a note of the two following points.
Firstly, that while in the affiliated dialects words occasionally
differ, among those tongues which are for the most part further
removed from each other they happen to be similar, and in some
cases identical, as, e.g.^ a canoe, the Andoni " ndei " being quite
distinct from the Efik " ubum," which is from the same root as the
Ibo "ubo," as well as different from the Ijo "aro"; and leopard,
which is " siri " or " sere " in Ibani and New Calabar, being
" kuronama " in Brass.Secondly, that the same word in different
tongues sometimes represents an altogether dissimilar idea or
article, thus " amu " in Andoni means country and in Ogbayan
:
water ; " enyin," an eye in Efik, is " enyi " or " eyin," a friend, in
Ibo ; " ukpen " is a soul or spirit in Jekri, while " ukpon " in Efik
is the shadow of a person, also the soul. So too " egugu," used
on the Niger at Onitsha and vicinity, means an idol or sacred
—
symbol containing a spirit said to be an avenger who makes his
appearance forty days after the death of a chief only ; as
" egungu," among the Jekri, is employed in a general sense to
express a ghost; and a very similar Niger-Ibo word, " ngugu,"
stands for a head of tobacco, a bundle, or a parcel. This word
" egugu," however, is not a pure Ibo word, but is said to be
derived from the Yoruba word " egugu," which means the spirit of
a dead man, and was introduced into the English language in its
present corrupt form, " Ju-Ju," by some of the slaves who were
freed by Englishmen during the period which immediately suc-
ceeded the abolition of slavery. Few if any words, however, are
common to all the tongues or dialects. Take the word for water
as one which in every sense ought to be the same. In the Ibo it
is " miri," " mini," or " mili," in Andoni " mu," in Efik " mon," in
Jekri "omi," in Igara "mili," in Ibani " okrika," in New Calabar

"mingi," in Brass "mindi," and in Ogbayan " mu."
In this one instance only —
that is, within my knowledge
the word is near enough to suggest a derivation from the same
root which is similar, if not identical, to the Egyptian word
"moya," the Coptic "mo," and the Arabic "ma." Similarly, in
the Ibo word "gutsie" or "kutsie," which means shut up, and
"kutsie-onu," to be silent, there is also traceable the same root
which is to be found in the Egyptian word " iskut " and the
Arabic "uskut." Curiously enough, too, the Efik word for love,
"ma," is very similar to the old Coptic "mai," beloved while the
;
Ibo word " ora," a nation, and the Efik " oruk," species, correspond
with the English "race," as also do the Efik "ka" and the Ibo
"ga" with our word "go." It is possible that several more such
radical similarities as between these dialects on the one hand and
the Shemitic and Sanskrit on the other might be pointed out, but
without in any way affecting the point at issue. Indeed, whether
these are mere coincidences or the relics of a remotely bygone
connection, is not for me to find out ; for these are links the
unravelling of which must be left to the expert philologist.
APPENDIX B
THE PRIMITIVE PHILOSOPHY OF WORDS
Let us take first of all the Ibo word " nna," meaning sire or father.
Altering the end vowel to "e" we have mother, "nne"; or by trans-

posing the middle consonant " n," " nwa," or " nwata," a child, also
a relation ; while by interchanging the final vowel of this latter
word with an " e," the imperative " nwe," possess, is formed ; and
in addition to these, " wanye," woman, " nnedi-uku," an ancestor,
and " nnadi-nnadi," ancestry, are also derived. Curiously enough,
however, the eldest son and successor is '* okpara " or " okpala,"
—
and the eldest daughter " ada " words that have no connection
whatever with the original root, although a grandson is " nwa-
nwa-woke," a granddaughter, " nwa-nwa-wanye," a grandfather,
"nna-otsie," and grandmother, " nne-otsie," i.e. old father and
mother. Yet all of which, with the above two exceptions, coming
as they have done from the same primitive source, are not only
related, but expressive of the one paramount idea or train of
thought that issues from the person and embraces possession
accordingly.
It will be found distinctly instructive at this juncture to
examine this same root, " na," form as a preposition,
in its
standing, as it does, for about, from, in, on, to, and by means
of, as well as for the numeral one, because also traceable, as it is,
in the personal pronouns, but more especially in "nde," those,

"ngi," thou, "owengi," thyself, " nkena," this, "onweya," himself,
itself, " onv/e-ayi," ourselves, it is quite possible to see a distinct
connection with " nna," father, " nwe," possess, " nwa," a relation
or possession, and this again with" ndu,"
—
"d" being interchangeable
with " n " —life, or the animation which endows matter or material
embodiment with existence. Because here, too, we can trace a

relative connection between the person of the man or father and
the property, i.e. the people and things associated with him.
Similarly, in the Jekri tongue, while the word "owa" means
APP. B THE PRIMITIVE PHILOSOPHY OF WORDS 521
a father, " iye " —a

distinct expression altogether — is mother, but
"oma" is "oma-olubirin," daughter, "omere," brother, and
son,
" omere-olubirin," sister. In this chain of connections, the fact that
"iye," mother, is not derived from the same root is particularly
significant, because it plainly suggests the idea that, during the
period of which v/e speak, the mother was not so much the wife,
i.e. helpmeet or partner in the later or modern sense, but the bearer
or producer of children or fruit, hence " iye," as resembling, on a

smaller and more personal scale, "eye," the earth, as well as
"eye," the life which proceeds from her. This is all the more
confirmed by the fact that the mother was the property or slave,
i.e. servant, of the patriarch —
a connection that is to some extent
seen in the words " onobirin," woman, and " onokerin," man, and
even more so in the Ibo "wan-ohu" and the Niger-Ibo "oru,"
meaning slave the latter being undoubtedly akin to " ora," a com-
;
munity or race. While in " ra,'"' which signifies cohabit and prefer,
singularly akin to "na"
or "nna," father — the "r" in all these last-
mentioned words being interchangeable with " n " —
it is quite
evident that cohabitation was, as it still is, a question of selection
or preference on the part of the male sex for certain females who,
from the natural point of view, were considered desirable, i.e. useful
or fruitful as producers of offspring.
For, as I have already shown, there is not the slightest doubt
that the inferior position occupied by woman was not entirely
because of her being physically weaker and less courageous, but
because, in the eyes of these natural people, the male energy was
—
deemed to be as it appeared to them in the plan of creation and
existence — the dominant and fertilising energy, and as such it was
esteemed accordingly while the Avoman, looked on as she was as
;
only bearer or producer of the virility imparted to her by the

fertiliser or generator, naturally subsided into the subjective posi-
tion she still occupies. Indeed this conception of the matter is, as
we have already seen, distinctly traceable in the derivation of the
word iyi " itself. For it is equally a matter of certainty that in the
''
belief of these natives the whole principle of creation appears as

one great system of generative and reproductive operations. Thus
it is that they have traced back the origin of their own, as of all
life, to the earth, or first great producer, whose animated form
became long afterwards venerated as the great mother goddess,

whose animation they conceived to be due to the co-operating
energy of the fertilising sky god. But although there is little or
no myth or tradition to assist us in this direction, it is quite possible
to trace in the words "elu" or "enu," sky, and "eluwa," earth,
an association that supports this principle to a great extent. For
in " wa," connected as it is with " nwe," possess, and " nwa,"
522 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES app. b
father or relation, is implied an association or relationship between

the sky and the earth which is borne out in every sense by their
religious beliefs and practices ; so that the light in which this sky
god, who subsequently became the Supreme Deity and Creator, is
regarded resembles nothing so much as that of a being who is the
generator, fertiliser, and nourisher or animator of all nature the —
exact counterpart, in fact, of the human father or patriarch.
What is more, this fact is further strengthened by the very
evident connection which exists between the words " nri," nourish-
—
ment, and " nna," father all the more so when we consider that
the letters " r " and " n " are interchangeable, and that this inter-
changing of letters is, in fact, indiscriminate. Also, that this
aspect of the universal fatherhood of God as an ever active fer-
tiliser is entirely consonant with their idea that matter, in the
different forms of vegetal, animal, human, and inorganic in which
it exists, is an essential embodiment which, when it is animated
from or through the primary source, transforms men and animals,

e.g., into conscious agents, who in a spiritual or human sense
unconsciously, that is, in some vague and indefinable manner,
assist theCreator in most, if not in all, of his creative operations
a belief thatis to some extent seen in the Tbani name " Tuminbio
etemeah," w^hich means " God, not man, is my Creator."

Again, in connection with the Ibo word " nne," mother, it is
extremely interesting to observe that the same word, when
employed as an adjective, exactly represents " true," and with
"oku," word, joined to it, "truth." Distant though the con-
nection between a natural mother and the altruistic ideal of truth
may appear to be, it is not in reality so far removed when
examined in a natural and simple manner. Because, in doing so,
we must remember that the natural definition of truth does not
exactly coincide with the civilised concept, expressing, as it does,
an idea similar to that which defines " good " as a principle that,
while it is a cohering and converging factor when the balance is
even, is equally capable of divergence during all periods of uneven-
ness. More than this, however, truth is also a question of
personal convenience in every sense and from every personal
aspect ;and as in a household all the individual members com-
posing are merged into the one commanding personality of the
it
ancestral through the medium of its human head, it becomes more

than ever a personal matter. So that, whatever the conjugal
infidelity and immorality of the married woman may now be,
there can be no doubt that in more remote times, although the
position of women, owing to the fact of her energy being produc-
tive, therefore lesser, was in every sense subordinate and sub-
jective, her standing when she became a mother improved
materially, and as a producer of the male or patriarchal energy

she was treated with respect and esteemed accordingly. Not,
however, merely as a personal possession capable of fidelity and
truth, but as an energy whose personal co-operation was recognised
to be an essential factor in the creative and ancestral plan of
operations, i.e. in the specific direction more especially of
continuing and multiplying the seed of the fathers, therefore
worthy of patriarchal or personal confidence as a preserving agent,
intact in her own person, of the purity of the household and of its
spiritual genealogy. For it is in the preservation of this unity
of the dual, spiritual, and human household that the basis of
honour lies, and not, as from the civilised standpoint, in the action
or person of the individual.
It will perhaps better enable the reader to understand the
natural idea of dualism which I have here sought to convey by
examining the words for " good " and " evil." Thus " mma " or
" omma," a word suspiciously akin to " nna," " " being con- m
vertible to "n," stands for the former, and "ndso"for the latter,
"adso" or " odso " being used for bad. Taking "mme" first, we
find that it is further employed to signify joy —
as is also a word
called " noma," which is formed from it —
and kindheartedness ;
and, as being meant to express this sympathetic sentiment on the

separation or parting of two persons, it has come to imply fare-
well. Similarly, " omma," as expressing what is beautiful, comely,
and elegant, an aspect that from a natural standpoint is some-
thing materially and spiritually substantial and useful in the
same dual sense, has in its latest evolution developed into
good.
But it is in " ndso," evil, although the connection is seemingly
more complicated, that the end arrived at is certainly more
suggestive. So at first, while comparing it with " adsa," dust, also
fish, and "adsa," sacrifice, which appear difficult to connect
beyond the fact that the earth, as the first great mother or pro-
ducer, was responsible for all productions, a sacrifice being regarded
as a necessary and essential return, a tithe or tribute, in fact, to
her, and rendered on this account also in order to keep the balance
even — it is just possible, however, to find a definite trace of the
root "Tsi," God, from whom as Creator all things, even evil, were
brought into existence ; and considerably accentuated
this idea is
by the fact that the word " ndsi " signifies black, while " Tsi," as
we shall see in the next chapter, also represents darkness. In
order, however, to get a clearer insight into the psychology of the
dualism that has been alluded to, we must now investigate the
associations that are connected with the word " nso." For this
expression, meaning growth, which was regarded as a natural
thing that was due to the generative or, as they viewed it,
mysteriously animating process, in other words, to the operations of
the Creator or generating God, developed into the word " me-nso,"
literally blood or fruit growth, and as such became a spiritual or
sacred act. Thus, when assuming the function of what we now
recognise as an adjective, it implied in the same sense holy or
sacred when applied to or associated with other features.
So it is evident that "ndu," life, is from the same root as
"nse," and that "kwe-ndu"
—
"kwe" undoubtedly being a deriva-
tive of "ke," create —
came to mean "that which was growing or
possessed by spirit," that is "animate"; and in exactly the same wây
" na-ndo," as being a favourable or beneficial form of animation,
implied eventually amiability. Yet we find that " ndso " and
"adso," evil or bad, also " nsi," poison or bane, are all derived
unmistakably from the same primitive "nso," growth. But, as
has been seen in Part III., there is nothing singular in this when
considered and criticised from the standpoint of their own natural
beliefs and principles. For, according to these, although evil,
when it has arrived at or assumed the unnatural and unholy state
of disembodiment, is a purely indivisible unity, incapable of good
from its very organisation, good is a dual and composite element
that is capable of bifurcation and detachment, i.e. of inflicting good
or evil in absolute accordance with existing conditions. And,
arriving at this conception, as they did, from their observations of
nature, it was not in the least surprising that they found the
balance evenly adjusted on the whole, alternating, as it did with
regard to themselves, between what was beneficial and constructive
on the one hand and what was injurious and destructive on the
other.
But this personal and possessive factor of proprietorship to
which frequent reference has been made, and which is the dis-
tinctive as it is the distinguishing feature of the patriarchal
system, as this in turn is of natural religion, is all the more plainly
seen in the mastership and ownership that is to be found, not only
in the powers of life and death which is possessed by all heads of
houses and families, but in the very names and idiosyncrasies of
their household and tribal deities. As an example of this, the
expression father and mother, which is still so commonly in use
when slaves, dependants, weaker or poorer men, address all patri-
archs and persons of wealth, power, influence, or social prominence
of any kind, is extremely significant, suggestive as it is in every
way of this inclusive yet exclusive, this all-embracing and all-
possessive, comprehensive principle, which in the eyes of all
natural people is so absolutely essential a feature in the tragically
serious problem of life and existence. What is more, we must
THE PRIMITIVE PHILOSOPHY OF WORDS 525
also recognise in this concise and epigrammatic phrase a decided

acknowledgment of that inevitable co-operation or cohesion between
two energies which, in spite of their apparent separativeness and
disintegration, are attracted or merely gravitate towards one another
in consonance with the also inevitable natural law of unity that
is essential to the reproduction of the personal unit, i.e. of its own
any question of specific energy or sex.
species, irrespective of
So too, in the person of the god lyanabo, who presides over
the destinies of the Ogbayan, the people bow the knee to and
acknowledge the power and authority of "the master" into
whose hands is entrusted the fate of every member of the
community.
Similarly the Jekri have a family god called Origho, meaning
head and the Brass natives recognise as their master Nyanabo,
;
who discharges the duties of the ancestrally divine office and rules
over them with the same arbitrary supremacy as Tamuno, the
Creator, and owner of the sky, does over all things living. In the
same way, among the Ibo, but under various names, such, for
example, as Tsineke, Tsi or Ci, Stuku or Chuku, and Ekeke,
we find the same identical master or ownership signified.
One extremely significant feature, however, with regard to this
Supreme Being — not, perhaps, so much from a philological as
—
from a sociological standpoint is the fact that there is no word
meaning God, or the Creator, which is common to all the
tongues and dialects. Or, put in another way, the word in ques-
tion is entirely different in most if not in all of them. Thus to —
cite, e.g., some of the principal of these —
in Jekri it is Oritse in ;
Aboh, Olisso in Onitsha, Tsi or Tsuku

; in Igara, Chama
;
Chala in Brass, Ayiba

; in Ibani, Okrika, and New Calabar,
;
Tamuno in Ibibio and Efik, Abasi in Andoni, Owaje or Ore-ene

; ;
;
and in Ibo as we have seen in the preceding paragraph.

But is comparatively of little account,
while, philologically, this
demonstrating as does most pointedly and vividly the exceed-
it
ingly potential factor of clanship, and, more even than this, the
shrinking and instinctive sense of social isolation unmistakable —
relic as this is of inherent animalism from a sociolofîcal stand-
;
i:)oint it is a distinct and important link in this chain of ancestral

associations. For, if it does nothing else, it at least demonstrates
the fact that even the Supreme Deity or Creator was of course
originally, as he now is, the family god —
the personal being, the
father of their fathers, who for all time has watched over and
ruled their destinies, and from whom, as the first and original
ancestor or fertiliser, they claim their origin.
More significant, however, in a measure even than this is
the fact that in every community or household throughout the
entire country the household or protecting deities, called Wa-

yana-oru by the Ibani and Ibu-dogu or Aggu by the Ibo, i.e. " our
owner," represent not only the same identical feature or principle,
but form an association or link in the ancestral genealogy which
is pre-eminently important. For they are a distinct connection
between the household in the flesh and the household in the spirit,
and through the latter with the supreme god, which enables the
ethnologist to all the more easily trace the pedigree that had been
established by the primitive ancestors of these people, which,
tracing backward
it and upward from themselves, as they clearly
did, through their household and communistic masters or owners,
had finally terminated in the Creator as the first Father and
Generator of the human race in particular, but of the world in
general. Indeed, the deeper we go into this question of associa-
tions and connections by means of these excessively personal
deities and the customs and ceremonials that have grown up
around, not simply the mere memories, but, as these natural people
devoutly believed, the actual spirit forms of their fathers which
were preserved in various material embodiments or emblems, the
more palpable does it become how simply and naturally the idea
of God evolved out of certain inherent instincts which inspired
fear and reverence towards and because of the substantial exist-
ence and authority of the father in the flesh, and then of the
—
phantasmal concept of the Father in the spirit in a word, the
development of the spiritual from the human. For to natural
man the material embodiment presented no less important a
feature than the spiritual, in spite of the fact that the physical in
him had succumbed to the supremacy of the unseen and merely
phantasmal which had been unconsciously called into being through
an excess of emotion on the part of the mental energy of his own
material organism.
In nothing is the dearth of ideas evinced so plainly as in the
fact that the one word stands for and interprets a number of
different ideas or serves for a variety of varying or variant
purposes, also in the formation from the same root of words
which were totally dissimilar in meaning to the original primitive.
More than this, however, it is a matter of the most essential
importance that the reader should from the very outset recognise
the very palpable anthropomorphism of natural man's religious
development, besides its absolutely emblematical character. For,
as he saw in every natural phenomenon, element, or object an
emblem that to him was symbolical of personal associations, so
every word that he formed grew also into a symbol that, while it
stood for these natural emblems, connected them too with his
inmost thoughts. But not only this. For, as has been seen in
Part III., this emblemism represented a principle that in its

importance, according to his crude yet literal valuation of matters,
although secondary and supplementary, was as essential to the
preservation and maintenance of the spirit essence as this was
vital to the material embodiment.
We have already seen how close as well as obvious is the con-
nection between the two Jekri words " eye," meaning earth, also
life, and "iye," mother. Now if we take their word "emo,"
breath, we cannot help being struck with its kinship to " oma," a
son and if we delve into the psychology of those natural, there-
;
fore deeply simple, motives that were at work during the period
of word formation, the connection will become quite obvious. For
we must recollect that in the minds of these people breath was
equivalent to, if not synonymous with, soul or spirit, as this again
—
was considered to be the " life " itself the principle, or rather
essence, as they looked at it, that not only animated the body,
but which gave it all its vitality, mobility, and intelligence. So
the son, as successor to his father in the flesh, bearing as he also
did in his own person the paternal virility as well as the spiritual
vitality, was esteemed as a breath or spirit of the holy ancestral
lineage, in virtue of which he assumed the office of family priest,
which rendered his person sacred.
It necessary to carry the analysis of this spirit idea still
is
farther, it will enable the reader to get a clearer insight

for
into, and a more thorough grasp of, the spiritual aspect of
the naturism which is described in Part III. Curiously enough,
too, although I lay no special stress on the point, this Jekri
word " emo," breath, is strangely akin to the Ibo word " ume,"
breath, which also, however, means capacity, and as "umi," depth,
while the core or heart of a thing or matter is interpreted by
"ime."' But the root from which this word breath evolved has
had several radiations, some of which, although now they bear on
the face of them interpretations that seem quite removed from the
original, are in reality manifestly connected. Thus, e.g., "mea,"
bear fruit, " me " or '' meh," blood, and " ba-meh," bleed, had
undoubtedly to do with "ume," breath, because to this day we
find among these natives the same vague idea and mystery
associated with blood as with breath. Not that they consider
blood as in any way the same as spirit, or confound one with the
other at the same time it is an equivalent, for, like the Jews and
;
all natural people of old, the blood to them is the life, the fruit,
or nourishment of the body, the spilling of which not only causes
dissolution to the flesh but deprives it of the immortal spirit. So,
as we shall see later on, while the unlawful shedding of blood is a
defilement to the sacred earth, when spilt in a lawful or righteous
cause it is a sacrament and a purification. The former of these

principles is most distinctly and vividly seen in the Ibo word
" nmerus," which means corruption or detilement, the literal
interpretation being blood putrefaction, from "me," blood, and
"ru" or " rua," rot or putrefy and the latter, to some extent, is
;
traceable in the word " rae-ebube," admire, which is composed of

the two words "me," blood, and "abuba," fat, meaning literally a
something that, as it was first of all substantial or fruitful, i.e.
as regards its utility, became in this practical and personal way
pleasing to the senses, therefore an object or substance to admire
or appreciate. But we have not yet done with the word "ume."
Passing over the fact that " umu-nna " is a blood-relation, we find
that " me " or " mere " also came in time, as embodying the growth
or development of a thing, i.e. either some thought in the abstract
or a material body, to mean become, act, and do, and in this way
it is quite possible to trace the development of the imperative
"muo " or " muro," meaning beget, bring forth. But " mo " or
"moa" in Ibo is spirit, and the fact that in defining the latter
these natives see in breath, as also in wind, not only a mere like-
ness but an affinity, became all the more significant in this close
and radical resemblance of the two words. While, however, it is
interesting to note that out of "muo," beget, has evolved the
word and " moa," shining, as being the product or
" emuo," shine,
association of some luminous quality belonging to or connected
with the spirit, it is still more interesting to follow up the connec-
tion which exists between breath and wind, and between this again
and the sky. Thus while " ume " by itself implies breath, it has
the same meaning with " iku " prefixed to it.
Dropping "ume," and with its two last letters reiterated,
"ikuke" or "ifufe" becomes breeze, wind, air, and also sky.
Taking the root " ke " by itself, or " kere," we get the word make
or create, and from this, as we have previously seen, "okeke,"
Creator, " nke-akereke," a created being, and " nke-ahu," corporeal.
So that here we have a distinct connection which shows that the
Creator and the sky god were at some very remote period not so
much confounded as looked upon to be one and the same being.
And in this very palpable connection it is also quite transparent
that in the wind, which to them appeared as it were to rush down-
ward from the elevation of the sky, and, so to speak, out of its
very bowels, accounting, according to primitive mode of thought,
for the invincibility of its might and destructiveness, they not
only saw but felt that vital and animating essence which they also
associated with the breath and the soul that was in their own
bodies. Indeed, it is further evident that this mobile energy, along
with light, darkness, and other phenomena and elements, were in
A pp. B THE PRIMITIVE PHILOSOPHY OF WORDS 529
the most primitive instance of all, as we are soon about to see,

primarily and essentially attributes of the great Sky God that
subsequently were dissociated or detached, becoming, as they now
are, the independent operations of other lesser or departmental
deities.
But to grasp thoroughly the peculiar significance and sug-
gestiveness of this unique connection, we must once more go to
the Jekri tongue. Here we find that " okuku," which is evidently
derived from the same root, "uku," as the Ibo word "ikuku,"
means darkness, an element which among these natives is often
associated with wind, which is so prominent a feature of the pre-
vailing tornado, while " uku " means death, the effect in both cases
having undoubtedly been looked upon as due to the same funda-
mental cause. Because, simple and ignorant as these natural
people undoubtedly were on all points, but> more especially with
regard to the law of causation, and from the particularly enlightened
standpoint of modern and scientific civilisation, in a comparative
and primitive sense they were by no means so fundamentally
ignorant as we suppose. Certainly at this period of word formation,
when the religion in them was gradually developing into the cere-
monial of public adoration towards their spirit fathers and the
great sky father and earth mother, although they had no explana-
tion for their beliefs, they all the same believed in the existence of
cause and effect, and of actions and reactions. For, as has been seen
in Part III., it was on this principle of recurrence, itself a natural
instinct, of endeavouring to preserve the equilibrium of right and
wrong, or good and evil, i.e. of personal existence, and of reaping
the rewards or punishments of personal acts, that the whole social,
legal, and religious structure of primitive society was based and
constructed. To resume, however. Now although the Ibo for
death, "onwu,"and darkness, "itsitsi," is quite different to the
corresponding Jekri words that have been mentioned, we find the
same root "uku" in the Ibo words "tsuku" or "chuku," meaning
God; "ikuku," wind; and "okukwe," belief or faith. For although
this latter term is clearly made up of "oku," word, and "kwe,"
believe, it is quite easy to trace in this expression "oku," word,
an unmistakable derivation from "uku" of "tsuku," God the
Creator and Giver of speech, " kwe " being possibly derivable from
" ke," create. Because a connection such as this demonstrates
most forcibly that in the literal minds of these natural folk death
is not only associated with darkness, and speech with God, but
that God, as the maker or generator of persons and embodiments,

as well as of spirits and speakers, is associated with all three. It
is quite evident, therefore, that as the result of these personal
connections, belief or faith also became in the abstract an associa-

2 M
tioiithat almost visibly demonstrated, simply because it consti-

tuted, as they thought, the existence of such tangible realities as
God, speech, death, and darkness.
This is all the more plainly seen in the Niger-Ibo words " tsi
or " ci," and " otsitsi " or " ocici," meaning respectively creator and
darkness, the latter, it is evident, as a most decided emanation or
creation of the former. But in tracing these connections it is
primarily and most distinctly essential for the reader to grasp
once and for all the natural concept of the Creator and his process
of creation, as I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to
describe it in the previous portion of this chapter, because in this
natural concept of the matter liesembedded the key to the spiritual
riddle that has been presented to him in Part III., and a clear com-
prehension of it will at least enable him to elucidate much that
would otherwise appear enigmatical.
Then, again, it is very evident that there was a distinct and
tangible association between darkness and daylight, which was
interpreted as an all-night contest between the two contending
factors, in which the latter emerges triumphant and radiant, so
to speak, out of it; thus "tsi" is daylight, "gutsie" is dawn,
" otsitsi " or " itsitsi," night, " otsitsi " or " utsitsi," to-morrow, and
" etsi," darkness ; but " tsi," as we have seen, is also God, so that
it is quite palpable that as detachments of His, in other words,
personal effects of the same great cause, day and night, or light
and darkness, were expressed by words which gravitated round
the central symbol or root " tsi." Indeed, it requires but little
stretch of imagination to picture first of all in these phenomena,
as they were pictured by natural man, a sky god who embraced
them all in his expansive person, but which came afterwards to
imply certain operations that were essentially God-like or like
God.
These conclusions are, without a doubt, further strengthened
by the fact that deride is signified by " tsi " or " otsi," the question
of derision having presumably been connected with that of alter-
nating supremacy because, like all natural people, these natives are
in every sense, instinctively in fact, dual, so that they deride as
easily as they exult, and take life with the same unconcern
although they are all the time conscious of its gravity as they —
bring life into the world. Continuing, however, we find that the
words for separate and wait are " itse " and " tse," and that cut is
"batsa," while dislocate is "tsi fieupu," both these latter words
suggesting, if not denoting, the idea that the process of light
emerging from darkness resembled nothing so much as an act of
cutting or dislocation.
It is not possible, however, to leave this important primitive
" tsi," with its various significant associations and connections,

without taking into consideration the fact that there yet remain
a few words that are manifestly derived from or affiliated with
the same root. First of these is "otsie," meaning aged, which,
preceded by "ndi," implies ancient people, literally old or god-life,
i.e. life which has come from God, and as the natural sequence
of which the phrase " ya otsie " has come to be interpreted as

respect, for the reverence paid to old age is a purely ancestral
matter, and one that savours more of custom than of humanity.
Pursuing this train of thought, we also find that animate and
animation are interpreted by " kwe-ndu " and " ikuta-ndu," words
that are both associated with "ke," "nna," and "uku." There-
fore as " kwe " means obey as well as believe, obedience, or
adherence to life, i.e. to the creative principle, is evidently here
implied.
But we have seen in the beginning of this chapter that the
word " otsie " has been employed in the formation of those words
that express the existence of former parents, making the chain of
connections between the human being and the Supreme more
marked than ever. Curiously enough, too, ambiguous though it
may appear, it is decidedly feasible to see in the development of
the word murder, " bu-otsu," a disconnection or dislocation of the
ancestral or spiritual line, that at once placed the act of killing
a member of the household on an equality with blood or land
pollution. For, taking the term to pieces, " bu " means cut off,
and " otsu," whether derived from " otso," sacred, or " otsie," old,
is undoubtedly connected, along with them, to the primary root.
Finally, it is even possible to trace from the latter, as being

symbolic of the creative, animating, and speech-giving principle,
the word "etse" or "utse," which implies conception, for the idea
involved, according to the native way of thinking, is identical.
Eeturning once more to the expression " okeke," we find that
although it is interpreted as Creator, with the personal pronoun
''onye" prefixed to it, it implies a dealer, the root verb "ke,"
which means create, also meaning to deal. So, judging at least
from a comprehensive and analytical study of their methods of
thought, as illustrated by hard and fast practice, the Creator, in
the opinion of these literal people, is most decidedly a dealer, in
every natural sense, but on a large scale, of course, dealing, as
they think he does, with all the various phases and elements of
Nature. For with them the Almighty and self-contained patriarch
or ancestor is one who has dealings with his people, i.e. those who
are dependants or detachments from his own person ; in other
words, he is the doler out of everything good or bad, of justice or
natural equity, in the form of rewards and punishments, as the
case —
may be in one word, the master and owner, who keeps the
balance even. Similarly, but in a more superlative sense, the
Creator is but the Patriarch of the patriarchs, the Father of fathers,
or the Master Dealer,
This interpretation, too, is all the more evident in the direction
of the word dispenser, the symbol for which, "okeke," is also
identical with creator, and even more so when we ascertain that
" onye-okeke " is one who distributes, or a distributor ; also that
" okeke " (unaccented) means division, and " ke " divide ; an inter-
pretation which is much more appreciated when contrasted with
the association that existed, as we have seen, between daylight
and darkness, which subsequently was nothing more than an
alternation of supremacy between the night and day gods, that
ended with dislocation or division.
It is also only reasonable to infer that " ka," to excel, must
have been, in a comparative sense, associated with the work of the
Creator, as one who had surpassed in everything, but especially in
the direction of the singularly unique element of speech and this ;
is to some extent borne out by the fact that " ka " or

" ku " is
talk or tell, and " oku " call, so that as something called, spoken,
or told by God, " oku " came in time to mean a word and doubt- ;
less, too, as being a divine element, it was also applied to fire.

I have already called attention to the fact regarding the great
importance of the part which imitation has occupied, and still
occupies, in the evolution of language, but so far I have only made
but casual reference to the later but equally important feature of
symbolism, that also has occupied a prominent place in the con-
struction of every tongue. This has been particularly noticeable
with reference to the words into the psychology of which we have
been endeavouring to arrive. And if this analysis has failed to
throw upon the subject the luminosity that had been intended, it
has at least made it transparent that the natural elements of the
earth and the surrounding phenomena answered, and so fulfilled,
a most essential purpose in the natural law of evolution by
appearing to these primitive philosophers as living symbols or
rather emblems, which they believed to be operated on by the
departed spirits of their own immediate family circles therefore ;
in every sense personal, and associated in their minds primarily

with certain ideas, and eventually by words, that were either
descriptive, suggestive, or typical of the emblems in question.
But as this is a matter v/hich is common to every race and
language we will not further expatiate on it, beyond remarking
that this custom of utilising, or at all events of taking advantage
of natural features, more especially with regard to those apper-
taining to the earth, is to be seen all over Southern Nigeria in the
names given to localities, towns, rivers, etc., such, e.g. as Oboihia,

the name an Ibo town, from "ohia," bush, or "ahia," market,
of
and "obo," a person's name; Nkarahia, also an Ibo town, and
with a similar derivation Nkwala, the name of an Ibo district
;
Finima, bird town, from "fini," bird, and "ama," town or country
Okuloma, curlew place, from " okulo," curlew, and " ama " Isuama, ;
the name of an Ibo clan, from " isu," surface of anything, or face,
and " ama " ; Ago-ama, the name of a small Ibo district, from
" ago " or " agu," leopard, and " ama " Azumini, the name of an
;
Ibo town, from " azu," on or near, " mini," water ; Ekwe, the
name of an Ibo community, from "igwe," sky.
What, however, is a more noticeable fact, and a much more
modern innovation than this with regard to the naming of localities
and communities, is the even more familiar method of distinguish-
ing them by means of patronymics thus, " Omo-soko," from
;
" omo," children of Soko " Omo-oyere," the children of Oyere

;
Ekperewari, from " wari," the town of Ekpere ; " Omo-pra Ebelu,"
the children of Pra and of Ebelu.
It is essential, however, for the better comprehension of their
religion, and with the idea of still further elucidating this sym-
bolism, to show how clearly the evolution of this very natural
process is to be still more vividly seen, in the way that words have
evolved from certain natural symbols, out of w^hich, again, other
features, as being similar to, or characteristic of, the original, have
also developed into expressions ; and with this object the following
examples have been carefully selected. Thus we find in Jekri that
while " ero " is a river, " ere " is a python, not merely because the
natives have recognised a resemblance between the windings of
the one and the sinuosities of the other, but because the latter is
generally found in the vicinity of water, and is regarded as an
amphibious reptile. In like manner fog, arising as it does from
the river, is called " eri," but how " eru " became a slave, unless as
a subservient to either, or both the python or river gods, it is
difficult, of course, to determine.
Taking " eji," rain, next, it is an easy matter to connect it with
"oji," a tornado, showing that in the natural thoughts of these
primitive philosophers the latter is associated with the former, as
one of the results of the operations of the tornado god. Evidently,
too, the resemblance between the glistening of a torrential rain-
drop and the liquid humidity of the eye led to the formation of
theword " eju " for eye, in other words, to the substitution of the
word expressive symbol to denote the visual organ. And
of the
so possibly it may have been
that "eja," fish, was first of all con-
nected with water, and in this way with rain. Following up the
train of words which appear to have radiated from this root, we
arrive at " nje," food, " ojo," day, and "uja," meaning town or
country, all of them seemingly as divergent from each other as it
is possible for words to be, beyond suggesting a certain association
between them on the ground that the securing of a supply of food,

as the business of the day, was the work of the community, which
was carried out on strictly co-operative lines an equal division
;
being made at the end of the day, among the various social units,
of the food thus obtained, a custom that, according to their
traditions, was undoubtedly prevalent at a not very remote period.
Reverting once more, therefore, to the root " uku," which we
saw was so closely related to " tsuku " as well as to " tsi," it is
practically impossible to see what possible connection could ever
have existed between it and the Ibo words " okiiku," fowl, and
" okuko," a cupping-horn ; or how " imo," a nose, was ever asso-
ciated with " emo," breath, although the latter may be explained
by the fact that the organ in question, as being the channel by
which the breath went in and came out of the body, was regarded
and named accordingly. So, too, " ewo," which is a goat in Igara,
in Jekri stands for doctor or sorcerer, as well as hand. A curious
association, to say the least of it, if association it can be called,
that must have originally connected the man of primitive science
as a most useful if not indispensable member of society, one of —
its principal hands, so to speak.
Returning, however, to the word " oji," it is easy to understand
how " ojiji " became a shadow, and how the same word, also " oji
in Niger-Ibo, is interpreted as black, for in these tropical latitudes
the gloom and intensity of cloudiness, which is the prevailing
atmospheric condition, may develop almost into the darkness of
night with extreme rapidity but while it is possible to trace a
;
distinct connection between the Jekri " oritse," God, and the Niger-
Ibo " tsi," there appears to be no link whatever between " ojiji
and "oritse." Yet in the expression "agura," stars, and "urare,"
sky, we can again perceive how closely these two phenomena were
associated, and how symbolical they were in the minds of these
primitive people of the mysterious and awsome Being who had
created them and it is obvious, too, that " akparara," thunder, as
;
his awful or awe-filling voice, was also in the same definite manner
regarded as an element that was connected with the operations of
the Sky God.
Selecting as our next illustration a forest or bush —
a natural
feature so characteristic of the Southern Nigerian environment
the Ibo word is "ohia" or "ofia," while that for market is "ahia"
or " afia," a practical proof that markets were originally, as they
still are, held in woods. So a market, as a place where bartering
is carried on, accounted for the word " afia," merchandise, as being
the material that was exchanged at the market. Similarly, that

portion of a bush which was allotted for burial — in other words,
reserved for spirits as such — was called " otso-ofia," and became at
once " tabu," i.e. under ancestral or spiritual protection, therefore
exclusive, prohibitive, and sacred. Descending from a feature so
prominent as this to the contemplation of an object as insignificant
as a calabash, " uba," we see how easily it became converted to
" ubo," a vessel, utilised as a rule for drinking purposes. In much
the same way it is extremely difficult for the reader to see what
possible connection there can ever have been between " utsegin,"
an axe, "eso-egin," fruit, or " isangin," blood; but if he has
followed the obvious relationship which has been shown earlier in
the chapter between the Ibo words " me," blood, " mo," spirit, and
"ume," breath, it will enable him to appreciate and so bridge
over the yawning gulf which seemingly separates these three
Jekri words. But to simplify a paradox such as this involves the
explanation of a doctrinal principle, the gist of which can only
here be stated, and for the fuller explanation of which the reader
is referred to Part III.
In a few words, then, the principle in question embodies a
animism, or the spiritual animation of all matter, organic
belief in
and even inorganic. So that, according to these natural philo-
sophers, stone or earth, especially if selected as embodiments, were
as certain to be animated with the creative essence as human or
animal organisms, and in this way artificial objects were quite as
endowed as the natural symbols. But, as
liable to be spiritually
we animism was one purely of degree,
shall see eventually, this
and not necessarily an independent or specific animation by the
spirits of human beings or animals — a later doctrinal development
that naturally evolved out of the earlier and more primitive con-
ception. Taken in this literal sense, then, it is quite a simple
matter to trace the connection which must have once existed, so
"
as to lead to the more recent formation of the word " utsegin
" "
from the more ancient terms isangin " and eso-egin," though
why the principle involved should be any more applied to an axe
than to other similar weapons or utensils is not for me to say ;
and following up the connection, it is further and much more

possible to trace "esan," bone, and "esen," foot, to the same root.
This derivation is all the more obvious in the connection that
exists between the Ibo words "nkpulu," fruit, and "nkpulobi,"
soul, being, as the latter is, a combination of " nkpulu " and " obi,"
an abode, which is the noun formed from the primitive " bi " or
" be," meaning dwell, or a dwelling-place, the body being regarded
as the substance or abode, and the soul as the fruit or spirit
dwelling therein. Closely affiliated with this root is " bu," meaning
be, exist, and " buru," bear. But " bu " or " bi " also implies cut
off, and
" bue " or " buo " kill. Thus it is evident that from " bu,"
the state of being or existence, to "bue," the act that pro-
duces death or dissolution, there was in the estimation of the
natural philosophers but very little difference ; merely, as we have
seen before, an exchange from one state of life to another state
the transfer of the fruit or soul either from the material to the
spiritual world, or from one form of embodiment to some other.
So it is that among these natives and all natural people, human,
and in fact all, life is held cheap, also that the sacrifice of the
fruits and flesh of the earth was considered essential for the sub-
sistence of the spiritual ancestors and gods. Further than this, it
isagain a simple matter to see in this question of sacrifice the dual
interpretation of substance and spirit in the partaking of the flesh
of the offerings by the human members, and of the spirit thereof
by the ancestral shade. So that from this standpoint it is all the
more easy to understand how, as we saw in the analysis of the
word " bu-otsu," murder, the act as committed against the body
and the spirit, becomes a dual offence, which assumes in its latter
phase a threatening, some disconnection of the ancestral continuity,
—a serious impiety, therefore murder. Indeed, an examination of
the word "bu-anu," butcher, confirms this in every point, the
" anu," the flesh (of
literal meaning being " bu," cut off or dissect,
animals), or without bone, which is in direct contradistinction to
" bu-otsu." There are many further associations connected with
this root, but space prevents me from referring to more than the
most important. This in the shape of " ba " means eat, eating
being, no doubt, considered as equivalent to existing ; but how this
again came as " bo " to mean ancient, unless it was that existence,
as a spiritual matter traceable up to the Sky Father, was looked
on as beyond computation. Similarly, it is not easy to comprehend
the reason why " bo " or " bota " now means restrain and rebuke,
or why " bo-ogu " is medicine, also quell. It is obvious, however,
that "oku," word, and not " ogu," medicine, is here implied, so
that it is quite possible to arrive at the conclusion that mediation
has always been regarded, as it still is, as an ancient form of
exercising restraint or rebuke between contending parties.
Following up this principle of material animism, there is no
difficulty in recognising the same idea at work in the construction
of the word " amara," meaning both a paddle and action. For it
is easy to see in this an animistic association which not only
imbues the former with a spirit of its own, but that gives it the
action requisite to make it of use. So, too, a favour or a free gift,
which in the eyes of these natives must be solid or substantial
acts, is *'
amara," and in this way, with an accent over the initial
vowel, the same word also implies behaviour, and so benefaction,

a benefactor being " onye-more amara," i.e. one who performs
actions. Similarly, to be gracious, " di-amara," the prefix " di
implying be or exist, i.e. the being in a state of action that confers
a benefit, or what is beneficial ; and this interpretation is further
accentuated by the knowledge that "di," when combined with
" ike," strength, means solid. So if we examine the matter care-
fully we discover that aliment, as being due to the action of food,
arrives in the word " nri " at the same substantial or satisfactory
result. Therefore, as the hand which conveys the food to the
mouth, and so supplies nourishment to the body, "akka-nri," again,
implies the right or proper hand for the act in question. Yet
what we, with a certain amount of implied contempt, call a crumb,
is by these natives designated " nri," apparently on the principle
that a part is equivalent to the whole. The extreme significance,

however, of the attachment or convergence of these expressions
towards this root lies, it is more than possible, in the fact that it
is to the family of " Nri " that many or most of the other Ibo clans
trace their descent and origin, as to the parent stem of their race
— a fact which is indubitably supported by the present meaning
of the word. In the tracing of all such primitive words as those,
the original interpretation of which we have been investigating, it
is essential for the reader to remember that, from the literal outlook
of the natural philosopher, whatever his thoughts on the subject
were, his language i.e. the vocabulary of words at his command
— besides its crudity and limitations, was far too absolutely sym-
bolic or literal to be in any sense expressive enough to express his
ideas. Consequently, although he did not in any way confound
human or animal blood with the juices and fruits of vegetal
growths, or these again with breath or spirit, he all the same
associated them with the life-giving or animating principle that to
him represented the motive consciousness of all existing matter,
which in the various forms of natural phenomena and elements
appeared as actually living and personal emblems. Enough, how-
ever, has been said in relation to this aspect of the question to
enable the reader to appreciate the symbolic or concrete nature
of primitive man's natural efforts towards the development of a
language, so that it is quite time now for us to trace how the
merely impersonal and abstract ideas evolved from the more per-
sonal and concrete symbols for apart from other philosophical
;
considerations, this further investigation, involving as it does the

delineation of a greater and far more expansive mental develop-
ment, is trebly instructive, demonstrating on the one hand the
expression of his ordinary thoughts, and on the other the deepest
convictions of all that was most personal to him, i.e. his religion
538 THE LOWER NIGER AND 17 S TRIBES app. b
and morality, while it further enables us, finally, to get a still

profounder insight into a johilosophy that, in spite of this develop-
ment, was, as it still is, primarily and essentially natural in its
naked and primitive simplicity. But in attempting to arrive at
these conclusions, which we are now about to essay, and in order
to avoid unnecessary confusion and misconception, the reader must
do so with the natural definition of simplicity before his eyes, for
even in the simple construction of primitive symbols and words
there is an implied subtlety and depth of thought that we, with
ideas so different, and from an altitude so abnormally elevated,
are apt to overlook whereas it is in this very duplicity of the
;
simple, or simplicity of the duplex, that the essence of their entire

philosophy is to be discovered.
Dealing, as we are now about to do, with words that, although
they were primarily, no doubt, derived from symbols or tangible
objects, later on developed into abstractions more or less
impersonal, we will commence this effort by seizing the shadow
instead of the substance, but on this occasion only. Yet para-
doxical though it may aj^pear, a course such as this will enable us
to appreciate the fact that the Ibo word " inyinyo " or " enyinyo,"
by first of all being employed to symbolise a shadow, then came
to be used as a likeness or picture of any thing or object. If,
however, we pursue our investigations, we find that this word for
shadow has itself been derived from " ihinye," a thing, i.e. a
substance or embodiment, to which is attached, or that is endowed
with, a shadow or soul, one being as indispensable to the other as
the other is to it. To better understand this idea, it is obvious
that this word " ihinye " is made up of "anya," a something
material but indefinite, and " ife," " h " and " f " being transferable,
meaning be, exist, and so in its further development expressing
property, i.e. a personal possession. "Anya," however, also means
an eye, an interpretation out of which it is quite feasible to see light
in another direction. For as it is by means of the eye alone that
either a shadow or a picture can be observed, it is more than
probable that this organ, which to natural man was itself a source
of much mysticism and speculation, out of which, as he thought,
the soul and the obsessing spirit could look and observe, not
merely in an ordinary sense, but with an intent and an eftect
which was evil, and that made of it an emblem of destruction and
of fear, imparting import in consequence so that it became, in
;
time, connected in his mind with the shadow or soul that to him
was an actual and tangible although invisible presence.
In a very similar way it is also instructive to see how distress,
affliction, or trouble, represented as they are by the one word
"ahuhu" or "afufu," and suffering, " ta ahiihu " or " ta-afufu,"
have evolved out of " ofufu," which means destruction. For it is
obvious that as distress and suffering spring naturally enough

from the effects of destruction, wind, " ufufe," as being one of the
principal destructive agents of their environment, appeared
unmistakably to these people as the most prominent natural cause
or factor of affliction and woe. Yet " iwe," which implies sorrow,
to be a something vexatious and wrathful, has no connection
seemingly with this potential agent, although it is a mental
condition which might very reasonably be expected as a result
of destruction. On the contrary, however, regarded, as it un-
doubtedly was, as a personal matter, it is certainly connected
with the root " nwe," possess or have because light-hearted and
;
thoughtless as these people are, they are all the same weighed
down by a sense of an impending and inevitable doom, the
dreadful uncertainty and unexpectedness of which is sufficient in
itself, apart from the miserable and savage conditions under which
they live, to fill their very souls with vexatious if not wrathful
sorrow.
To change the subject to something more cheerful, the words
"dokwa" and "dozi," when translated literally, mean adjust;
so, in the usual way, " ndokwa " and " ndozi " become an adjust-
ment, and as arguing that such a conclusion imports or necessitates
contending issues or factions, an arrangement, and then an amend-
ment or even amelioration, and finally an agreement or settlement
of the question in dispute ; this latter word, however, if further
represented by " ka-aba " and " ndaba," which bears a striking
resemblance to the Zulu term " indaba," a meeting or palaver for
the purpose of coming to an adjustment. In Ibo, "ndaba" also
implies correspondence or fitness, while "ndokwa" and "ndozi"
mean improvement ; and as in this development a certain fitness
"
of things, which is eminently suitable, is understood, " di-ndokwa
occupies the position with advantage. A
train of thought such
as this is in every sense consistent with the intensely practical
side of Delta human nature, which sees in utility a beauty of
solidity that appeals to their love of the substantial. But we are
not yet finished with the two latter words, for, meaning, as they
also do, decoration, it is again possible to trace in this departure a
trifling illustration of that inherent dualism which opposes to the
practical that also innate love of finery and ornament which is
the birthright of every human unit, civilised or savage.
If, however, the reader has not already got an insight into the
subtlety of these people by means of the various words that have

been discussed, he will perhaps be better able to do so in the
following examples. In the root " go," for instance, we get first
of all the meaning deny, then, as a sequence of denial, which is
"agugo," exculpate, and finally, as the result of exculpation, by

reiteration and the prefix of an " n," we arrive at " ngogo,"
exultation, it being quite evident that exculpation, as a conse-
quence of denial, becomes of course a matter for exultation. And
to those who understand the psychology of these simple or, as we
would call them, artful people, the train of thought here unfolded
is normal in the extreme for the natural art of their natural
;
temperament is to conceal an act, therefore it is in no sense

immoral or a lie to deny it. For such a course is entirely a
question of the skill of one man pitted against the skill of another.
It is in fact to his adversary that the discovery of the act is left,
as a matter of course, because an acknowledgment of it is an
acknowledgment of guilt, which in every sense and from every
standpoint is deemed not merely an act of downright folly, but
of absolute unskilfulness —
because, in a word, an offence is no
offence until it has been exposed and proved. In obvious support,
as it were, of this, we find that " nzuzo," a secret, as being a
something that it was essential should be hidden, was evidently
taken from the word " nzuzo," meaning a shelter. The natural
principle, in fact, on which these natives regulate their moral
conduct is precisely similar to that enunciated by Socrates in the
Dialogues of Plato, that the mendacious man is capable, intelligent,
and wise ; so that if he cannot tell a lie on occasions, he only
exposes or demonstrates his own ignorance. For just as natural
justice is the will of the stronger, a lie is but the natural word
or act of human subtlety. It is possible, in fact, to detect in
this principle the Eleatic definition of a lie, based as it was on
the belief that as being alone had existence, no reality could
be attached to non - being, and that therefore falsehood, which
was merely the expression of non -being, was impossible. For
although the Delta natives are deficient, if not altogether devoid,
of sophistry, such as the ancient Greeks indulged in, to them
matter of any kind, as we shall see later on, is animated or
endowed with spirit. But going deeper into the antecedents of
this primitive "gho,"it is quite possible to connect it with the
same word that represents happen or occur. AYith an accent on
the final "o," also by reiteration and a prefix, swelling into
" gho-aghugho," it implies to impose on, and, with only a slight
change of pronunciation, produced by the inflection of an accent

on the initial vowel of " aghugho," it further develops into a
word that means conspire and intrigue. Dropping the "gho,"
" aghugho " by itself, as we saw in Part IL, stands for trick,
cheat, fraud, and subtle, and with " di " prefixed to it, cunning or
skilful.
Extremely interesting, however, as this connection is, it is even
still more so to discover that thissame root " gho," only with a
slightly different pronunciation, means crop, a crop being " agho,"
the noun being formed in the ordinary way while by prefixing
;
" no " to it, and altering the final " o " to " a," " noagha " implies
decay and in much the same way we arrive at " bogha " or
;
" ghoagha," exchange, and " agho-izizu," first-fruits. But while

it is decidedly a matter of difficulty to connect " gho," happen or
occur, with " gho," crop, beyond the fact that the latter, as a
regular and natural event, led up to the adoption or utilisation
of the concrete reality to signify any ordinary occurrence, the
association between growth and decaj^ appeared to these natural
philosophers to be so close as to demonstrate a tangible and
inevitable connection that was but another phase of the same
mystic process of the great generating father and mother deities,
and in this light it is also a simple matter to trace the develop-
ment of the word exchange for even here it is quite possible to
;
see the same procreative principle at work in the minds of these

observant and scientific philosophers —
scientific because they were
imbued with the spirit or rather the instinct of curiosity, which
is the basis of all science, the connection between dissolution
and reproduction being looked on by them as simply a process of
substitution, a changing of one form into another. So, too, in
"
the word " wuo," which means die, and which with the affix " bin
becomes decay, we have a further demonstration that death and
dissolution were also regarded either as a similar operation or
part of the same process.
These various radiations from the main root "gho," when
examined through a thorough knowledge of native character and
idiosyncrasy, make it very as pointed out in Part II.,
clear,
how radically duplex, i.e. how
absolutely natural, in fact, this is.
And the deeper we make the investigation, the more obvious does
the fact become, that not only in their social life, but in their
personal characteristics and temperament, these instincts, from
which the stratagems and arts of cunning, fraud, subtlety, and
skill have emanated, are most distinctly to be traced to the same
natural instincts that are to this day to be seen in the various
animals of their environment.
To know and understand the human beings, it is indispensable
that we should know and understand the animal beings not, —
however, as we ordinarily see them, captive in menageries, but as
they exist, free and unconfined, in their own haunts of swamp
and forest. Then, and only then, is it possible to realise how the
methodical tortoise is symbolical to them of much sophistry and
many virtues, and how the sinuous python represents to them a
type and emblem of cunning and subtlety that is less skilful but
more potential in its scope, typical as it is of a power which is

all-enfoldingand constricting, than that of the inoffensive shell-
back.
Passing on to another aspect of their moodish and variable
philosophy, the dualism of these natural people is once again
evident in the fact that they either saw little or no difference
between the passions of love and hate, or at least recognised
the existence of a kinship or oneness that bifurcated in opposite
directions, owing to the variation of the exciting causes. Thus
the Ibani word for love is " belema," and for hate is " belemaa,"
merely a lengthening out or prolongation of the last vowel, simply
to show that the adjustment of the balance had been so disturbed
or distended as to divert the channel of the natural emotion from
the level of love into the opposing or conflicting level of hate ; so,
too, while the Ibo call enmity or malice " ero " or " iro," and
" nro " pain, they speak of " uro " as a thing which is nice and
pleasant.
Compatible with the central idea around which this book has
been written, it has all along been my earnest endeavour to place
at the reader's disposal the most natural, at the same time
comprehensive, words ; but instructive as they all have been, it is
not possible, from a philological standpoint at least, to produce a
better example than that of the noun "ike," meaning "strength."
Examining it carefully, we find that " dike," stretch or divide, is
derived from " ike," strength, implying the existence of an energy
that possesses the force or strength to stretch or divide anything
to an appreciable extent. This is all the more evident in the
adjective strong, which also is interpreted by " dike," and even by
"ike" itself. But "ike," meaning, too, as it does, power, readily
transformed the more concrete matter into the abstract idea of
authority; authorise being interpreted by "nye-ike," the
literal meaning of which is "nye," add or bestow, and "ike,"
strength, i.e. an addition or bestowal of power. Similarly "inye"
or "nye-akka" is an auxiliary or a help, i.e. "akka," a hand,
added or bestowed, or " onye-akka," a helper, or one who helps
with the hand and associating, as they must have done, the idea
;
of austerity with authority, it is not surprising to find that a

person who is austere is " akka-ike," or literally one whose hand
has strength, and therefore authority. Following up the same
idea, or rather the contraction of it, in another direction, we find
that "idi-ike," closeness or compactness, and "di-ike," close or
compact, as a something that is beyond the power of extension,
is also a force that implies the existence of strength which is
compressive in its operations, and in this way it represents as

well our word solid or substantial. It is evident, too, that the
APP. B THE PRIMniVE PHILOSOPHY OF WORDS 543
same principle is involved in such words as " di-dike," courageous

"idi-ike," firmness; and " na-ike," vehement; and " da-ike," cogent,
i.e. with regard to argument, for a similar compactness or con-
centration of power is implied in all of them, including " nye-ike,"
another meaning of which is, invest with power.
But we are not yet quite done with the word " ike," for by
prefixing "gu" to it we arrive at the very opposite end of
strength, namely, weaken, "gu" meaning it ends, weakness being
interpreted by " ike-ogugo," which is simply an intensification of
the root " ogu." But although from a philological aspect this
root is instructive, from a sociological standpoint, and as embracing
within its scope the real human interest, we will find that "ani"
or " ala," earth, and " issi," head, are even more comprehensive,
not independently or directly, however, but in mutual or outside
combination. Taking the former to commence with, we obtain in
" issi-ani " the most primitive and natural form of homage, the
literal meaning of which is head to earth.
In the words " kpo-issi-ani," adore, and " akpo-issi-ani," adorer,
composed, as each of them is, of three difterent words, the literal
meaning of which is "kpo," call or steer, " issi," head, "ani,"
ground, i.e. steer or guide the head to the ground ; or by
connecting " kpa," cause, and " akpam," cause to adhere, with
"kpo," it is possible to conceive how " ikwe-issi-ani," meaning
allegiance, as being an outcome of personal adoration, resulted
first in reverence and homage, then culminated in an allegiance
that was sacred because it was personal and ancestral.
But the primary and essential sense of the allegiance that is
here implied, similar or rather identical, as it is, to that of the
earth homage, is also a matter that is deserving of the deepest
and most critical scrutiny. For without a clear and tenacious
grasp of the psychology of this significant philosophy, it is
impossible to follow up the otherwise luminous associations and
connections of natural religion that lead up from the bowels of
the personified earth through the spirit personalities of departed
ancestors, right into the very heart, as it were, of the personified
sky. So here in " igwe," the Ibo word for the sky, there is no
"
difficulty whatever in tracing the primitive " ke," create, " igwe
or " ikwe " being synonymous with " "
gwe " and kwe," just as
" kwe " is with " ke." And as the sky spirit appeared to these
ancient philosophers as the generator or fertiliser and first father
god, it was from his name that " ke " came to mean create, that
is "ka,"ripe; and so also "ka" implied superior and talk, for
to them he was equally the talker and the maker ; while it is

that "ga," which
significant may have been confounded with
"ka," means succeed.
In connection with the word " kwe," it is here necessary to

examine the two words "kweme," can or able, and "kwesiri,"
which varies in its meanings. For while in the former term there
is a decided possibility of tracing its development to the belief
in
the ability of the creative principle to create or operate in any

direction, so in the latter word, which as first of all meaning to be
fit, developed next into a something
suitable, and then came to
imply equal. It is also easy to see that the law of "lex talionis"
is,as has been previously pointed out, nothing but the evolution
of those basic principles which constitute all that is religious,
moral, and equitable in them, as in all human beings.
So, too, although not actually derived from the same root, it is
all the same advisable to investigate the words " kpere," pray, and
" ekpere," prayer, connected as they are in spirit and in principle
to this law of equilibrium. For as prayer with these natives is

nothing but a petition addressed to the ancestral gods, invariably
with regard to material and personal prosperity, —
a fact which
is confirmed in every way by their practices, —
so we find that
"kpere," pray, has been developed from "kpe," steer, and con-
nected it may be with "kpa," cause, both words clearly indicating
its drift as being unmistakably one of control and causation. So,
" sekpuru,"
too, "beku," which means implore, and "bu-ikpere" or
worship, consists of nothing but an imploring or invocation,
accompanied by the inevitable dance and feast in other words, a
;
necessary performance of legitimate and essential ancestral duties,

as a return for favours given and favours expected.
Returning for a moment to the contemplation of the sky, we
find that "igwe" or "igwe-otsa" means clouds, and as further
interpreted by myriads, also iron, it is singularly suggestive of the
stars that appear in the sky, as well as of Jove's mighty thunder-
bolts. Transferring our attention once more from heaven to earth,
i.e. word "ani" or "ala," it is essential that we should get
to the
to understand why in one direction it should be connected with
fornication and iniquity, and in another with such words as stoop,
"huri-ala," and solicitous, "ba-kiri-ani." For as the earth was
considered sacred and revered accordingly, so any offence committed
against her —
including, of course, that of fornication, which was
doubly personal, embracing as it did the ancestral or spiritual
was equivalent to an off'ence committed against the person, and in ^
this deeply personal sense it was regarded in the light of an iniquity

" aroro-
or wickedness. But this latter word is also represented by
ala," in addition to " ndso," evil, and "nmefie," which likewise
" aroro " is derived
implies transgression and it is obvious that
;
from, or at least connected with, " ero or " iro," enmity or malice,
"
so that the iniquity in question was considered to be aggravated

by wilfulness or premeditation, while " nmefie,"

i.e. me, blood,
and " efie," dislocating, associated as it with the same idea of

is
blood dislocation or pollution, that has already been referred to in

connection with the word " nmerua " or " merua," spoil and defile,
is doubly so an unjustifiable transgression.
This will be all the better understood when we grasp the fact
that this same word also, in its more primitive form, "aro-ala,"
means an atrocity. Further, that there is no specific word for
which described as " adiro-aroro-ala," i.e. the absence
chastity,
or non-existence
is
of defilement
—"adiro" being equivalent to
"odiro," which meaning, as it does, it is not, when added to
another word negatives it.
It is impossible, therefore, except hypothetically, to arrive at
the associations which must formerly have existed between such
words as " ororo," assortment ; " iroro," contemplation or considera-
"
tion ; feast, " oriri "; cord, " iriri "; continue, " diriri "; acquit, " iri
or " aro ; acquittal,
" " iri-aro," and hope, " orika." But a contem-
plation of the links that may possibly have at one time existed
between them, if it does nothing else, leads us at least to reflect
not alone on the extreme paucity of the symbols from which these
natural observers drew their inspirations, but more particularly on
the fact that their philosophy —
meagre and merely symbolical or
verbal as it was —was their religion, and their religion was the
natural adoration and allegiance of the personal, i.e. of their fathers
in the spirit. And as in their belief the subsistence of the latter
was absolutely essential to their own maintenance, and as this
again was entirely a question of sacrifice —
in other words, a feast
—
on the substance and spirit of the offering it was also a question
of contemplation and consideration, equally so of hope, the hope of
ancestral favours, the continuance of which formed the sum and
substance of their daily prayers or invocations. But as the balance
was never even, personal or land pollution, as is naturally to be
expected, was a frequent offence, therefore all the more so a matter
for further reflection as well as of annoyance. But although these
associations are difficult to appreciate, it is an easy matter to see
why or connecting together of ideas or
"diriri," as the joining
events, just as in "iriri," cord, strands of fibre are twisted into
one length, came to mean continue.
To return, however, to this root " aro." That it was, as
previously remarked, associated with " ero " or " iro," malice and
enmity, and that this again is derived from the same primitive as
" nro," pain, is tolerably certain. For physical pain, equally with
mental dejection, as in their opinion all disease, is nothing but the
material effect produced by a spiritual cause, i.e. by the action of
spirits. So that looking at the matter from this natural aspect,
2 N
546 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES Arr. b
with the " ara " of " pu-ara,"

it is perhaps possible to connect it
mad.
To attempt, however, to trace to its source either of the words
"na" or "pu-ara," both implying madness, is, to say the least of
it, a baffling task. That the former word must have been in some
"
way connected with the words " nna " or " nwe in an animistic
sense, as being a spirit that is above, about, and around every- —
where, in fact —
is an inference to some extent justified by the fact
that madness is now regarded as possession by a spirit invariably
evil, therefore inimical, and frequently, too, of the same
household.
On the same natural principle, land, as being personal to or
the property of the people living upon it, is regarded and respected
in the same personal light, so that any act which is perpetrated
against the constituted authority of the patriarch, or thing, is at
one and the same time a crime against the land. Thus " aghara-
ala," which now means anarchy, originally meant a disturbance or
unsettlement of the people of a certain locality, from "aghara,"
confusion, and "ala," land or country; but the real force of this
interpretation is much more explicitly grasped when we trace the
former word to its root,or "hara," either of which signify
"gha"
leave or forsake — an act of this nature was without
for originally
doubt regarded as an unpardonable impiety, judging so alone from
the present attitude of the natives towards land and all personal
property. Indeed, this is to some extent seen in the meaning of
the word " onye-aghara," an impertinent or impudent fellow, or
literally, one who makes for confusion and disturbance. Yet as
showing the intense polarity of human nature even in its most
primitive aspect, the word " baghara " now represents forgive.
Going in the other direction, it is palpable that as an outcome of
the reverence due to the earth, it must at some remote period have
been customary, more so when the adoration of this great element,
as the goddess mother, was in full swing, as on a smaller scale this
is now carried on through the departmental deities, in
thanking
her for past to solicit her for future favours, so that the develop-
ment of the words stoop and solicit, from " ani " or " ala," is in no-
wise a circumstance that ought to surprise us. Yet although it has
no direct bearing on the question that has been more immediately
under discussion, as merely a side issue it is interesting to note
how the word " di " or " onu-ani," as a charge on the land which,
as producing naturally, and without any visible labour or trouble,
— the operation as one with the creative being looked on as
spiritual, — came eventuallyto signify cheap.
But we have notyet done with " issi." For while " elu-issi,"
literally head to sky, denotes what is over or above the head, and
in this way the top of the head, —
similarly as the word watch, i.e. to
keep a look-out, is " anya-anwu," meaning eye to sun, —

or as " inya-
issi,"eye to head, implies to vaunt or brag, and " nya-issi," boast,
" buru-issi," on the contrary, which in its naked simplicity meant
bear or carry head, has in some inconceivable way changed its
meaning to aforetime, unless we see in its development a process
of mental calculation, which reckoned up the past by means of the
names of deceased heads of houses. Compounded with "obi,"
which has various interpretations, abode in this case being the
most suitable, " issi-obi " is indicative of courage, while " adsi-issi,"
literally principal or head dust, represents a chief of some rank
another justification, if this were needed, of their attachment to
the earth, and of the reverence that is reposed in it through the
personalities of chiefs and patriarchs.
There still remain for investigation quite a number of words,
into the psychology of which inquiry is possible, but in the first
place enough has been done in this direction, more specifically
with regard to quality — the greater and more important of them
having been examined ; and in the second place, an equally
important moiety, from a sociological standpoint more particularly,
awaits us in the analysis of names and proverbs. In addition,
however, to these cogent reasons, the fact that those leading and
essential principles which, as has already been substantiated in
Part III., are embodied in their personal and religious practices,
have been sufficiently, if not copiously illustrated, ought in itself
.
to answer the purpose ; nay, more than this, to be a further in-

centive to the reader to continue an investigation which, so far, has
succeeded in throwing a light upon the subject, that is as luminous
as it is ominous when compared with the realities of their present
existence. All the more so when we consider that this existence
has in no radical or religious sense changed from that which
witnessed the birth and development of these primitive symbol-
words.
Under these circumstances, it is not possible to conclude this
chapter without once more calling attention to the literal simplicity
of this natural word construction. For the fact that so many
words have been formed from so few roots not only demonstrates
the simplicity of their constructive methods, in other words the
process of evolution, but also the want, in the person of these
thought-leaders, not so much of originality as the possession of an
inherent tendency to conserve and stick to the same familiar
symbol and idea.
APPENDIX C
THE FURTHER MENTALITY AND THE DEEPER HUMANITY OF NAMES
To every name itself attached a significance of expression and

is
an intensity of human emotions the depths of which it is quite

impossible for us to sound, much less to fathom. For not only is
this attachment a living personal memory, but it is a record of
persons and events that have been associated and connected with
it. So that, from a natural standpoint, there is more in a name,
more joy and more sorrow, more pathos and more passion, more
tragedy and more comedy, more humanity and inhumanity than
it is possible for the civilised unit to realise. Because, in fact,
there is centred in a name all the philosophy i.e. all the love and
tenderness, all the hate and scorn, all the jest and satire, all the
hopes, aspirations, and ambitions that people such as these are
capable of. For these names are but the pages, and the proverbs
are the chapters, in the life-history of every house; more than
this, they are the diary or daily record, either of its progress and
development or of its deterioration and downfall. And just as
we who are civilised write our inmost thoughts and feelings into
books, these human beings, whose nature is no different from our
own, have utilised the flesh and the blood of their own children and
of their slaves, so that they might leave behind them an everlasting
and imperishable record of their life and death struggles.
For from beginning to end of the whole question, not only of
their philosophy but of their entire sociology, we are confronted
with the personal. And as we saw in Appendix B that their
religion and their gods were a purely personal and family matter,
that concerned the wellbeing and prosperity of the household, so
in these names we see all the more clearly and forcibly how, as
being one and the same with their ancestors, they are one and the
same with their deities, with this difference, that the latter, as
they suppose, preside and rule over them through the medium of
the former. But as this personal connection between the people
548
APP. c MENTALITY AND HUMANITY OF NAMES 549
on the one side and their ,gods on the other is a feature that is
pre-eminent, and as it appears to them inevitable, it is essential
for the reader to take especial notice of it. For he will see, and
this early conception of the matter will all the better enable him
to appreciate, how it is that the human and the spiritual, closely
blended together as they are, have not simply become inseparable,
but that the latter is merely the continuity, as it is also the
controlling factor, of the former.
Having prepared the ground and defined the course of their
religion, as it is marked out through a maze of words by associa-
tions and precedents that are linked together in one connected
chain of custom, we will now attempt to continue along this track
of names, which in the end, it is hoped, will become as well defined
and beaten as that which has brought us so well and so far.
With a plethora of names such as are at our service, the
difficulty, as it has all along been, is to know where and how to
commence. The
fact, however, that the essential principle of the
entire the human and the spiritual
i.e, —
fabric is, according to
native ideas, based, as we have seen, on the personal and social
element, at once simplifies the matter. So, taking the family or
social unit to start with, the custom which under normal con-
ditions obtains among all these Southern Nigerian tribes is to call
their children by names that are significant of the order in which
they have been born i.e. the order of succession and of their
significance in the household. Thus among the Ibani, for example,

the first-born is named " Ogbulu," and the first daughter,
" Ogbolo ; the second son, " Sunju," the second daughter,
"
"Osunju"; the third son, "Dappa," and the third daughter,
^'
Ndappa " ; and so on. But in the event of the death of the
first-born, the second son when born is called " Di-ibo," or reborn,
signifying that in their belief the first son has been reborn.
Should it happen, however, that several children belonging to the
same parents die in succession, the name of " Kia," meaning
countless, is bestowed on the the form of a
last arrival, in
feeble reminder, or rather reflection, regarding the remissness or
even good faith of the ancestral deities. In the same way, among
the Ibo the name " N'wa M'muo," child of spirit, is given to the
last infant of a woman who has had either several successive mis-
carriages or whose children have died in early infancy and ;
the meaning here intended is also an indication of doubt and

uncertainty with reference to its future, dependent as this is on
the variable and revengeful attitude of spirits in general, but of
those who are inimical in particular.
The position of the first-born son, as has more than once
been pointed out, is unique, sacred and sacerdotal, by the natural
550 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES app. c
law of primogeniture. Similarly, the eldest daughter occupies a

lesser but also important position in the household, which entitles
her to certain rights and privileges ; but, except for this, it is
always in the male branch that the interest of the family centres.
So when a son is born in Bonny, among people of Ibo origin, and
he happens to be a fine infant, the choice and affectionate name of
" Nwa diuto " is conferred on him. For, meaning, as it literally
does, sweet son, i.e, it is sweet or good to bear a son, it is, as it
were, a poem and an epigram that conveys much in little — much
joy, and mirth, and warmth of feeling, but, above all, a keen
appreciation of a gift so appropriate and so godly. When,
however, circumstances have been hard, cruel, and altogether
unfortunate, and only one child is left in a family, the Ibo,
whether it be a son or a daughter, specially select for it the
equally poetical and epigrammatical appellation of " Nwa ahuna
—
ayan " love child, or child of love.
But if the name " Nwa ahuna ayan " is suggestive of so much
—
poetry and pathos, in a name such as " Nwa-ka-ire," a son surpasses
everything, —we discover, so to speak, an exultant strain, if not
outburst of joy, and a sonorous paean of unstinted praise thrown

to the gods in a reckless frenzy and ecstasy of delight, an out-
pouring of the patriarchal feelings, and an acknowledgment of the
tardy but all the more acceptable beneficence of the household
deities. To grasp thoroughly the underlying motive of this
frenzied extravagance, it will be as well for the reader to study
the legend that is connected with this patronymic. It appears
that a long time ago there was a chief called " Tsuku-Debai,'"' —the
—
man in God's care, living in the Ibo interior, who was wealthy
and powerful in every direction, endowed as he was with wives,
slaves, land, and goods of every description, but wanting in one
great and important essential, and that was a son. So that in
spite of his wealth and prosperity his heart was sad and heavy
within him. For the Supreme Father, he, the begetter of all things
in the sky and earth, had forgotten and overlooked him, and so
the sjîrit fathers in their turn had neglected and forsaken the
house of which he was the earthly head and representative. Thus
it was that the desire of his heart was as yet unfulfilled, and
the continuity of his household trembled in the balance, which
threatened not only to be uneven, but to upset and altogether
collapse. It was true that he had daughters, but what were a
score or so of daughters as compared to one son !
Disturbed in mind and distressed in heart, Tsuku-Debai, having

exhausted all the arts and medicines of the local Dibias, had
applied to doctors and diviners of other localities with a more
than local reputation, to work the oracle for him, but in vain, for
the medicines of the former and the magic arts and divinations of
the latter ^Yere alike useless ; until at length, penetrating the
thick mists of the surrounding spirit world, there came to him,
like a ray of sunshine through a little chink, the thought that the
gods of others were nothing but crafty leeches who had sucked
the blood of his worldly substance almost dry. Thereupon, like
the Jewish potentate of old, on whom the wisdom of others has
been foisted, Tsuku-Debai suddenly realised that life was vanity
and vexation of spirit, and that there were no gods like his own
gods. So, resigning himself to an attitude of silent despair, he
once more threw himself, through the mediation of his household
divinities, upon the clemency of the Supreme God. And in the
much-hoped-for end, which had been so long coming, his domestic
virtue was finally rewarded. For just as the serpent-gliding
lightning flashes and falls from the heights above right into the
very midst of the forest, the day came when the Mighty One at
last remembered him, and one of his wives brought forth a son
and a reproducer of his own personality. Then so great and
overpowering was the joy of this man, who at his own birth had
been placed in the care and dedicated to the service of God by his
father, that in the overflowing fulness of his heart he called his
son " Nwa-ka-iri." Because he, like his father before him, wanted
to express as well as to record those thoughts which were not
only deepest but uppermost in his mind, to the effect that no
matter how rich and powerful a man may be, without a son to
transmit and so perpetuate his own and the ancestral personality,
—
he is worthless and useless that is, there is no further utility for
him or his branch of the family, because after death his name can
no longer be held in remembrance. In addition to this, because
there is further implied in this the liability of disembodiment after
death, which at once places the spirit of the sonless person outside
the ancestral pale and mp.kes of it an outcast — the mere anticipa-
tion of which is to these natives a terror in itself.
It is in fact with these natives, as it is with Asiatics, who con-
sider male children to be the light, the glory, and the splendour of
their families ; so even among the poorest and humblest perpetua-
tion of the parent stock and the transmission of the material
embodiment, without which there can be no spiritual continuity
or perpetuity, is a sacred duty, which they feel they owe as much
to the human as to the spiritual branch of the household. And
in nothing, not even in their customs, can we grasp this natural
and ancestral conception so plainly as in these names, which
invoke, promise, threaten, praise, revile, satirise, and sympathise,
that in fact express and demonstrate all that is human i.e. all
that is best and worst in them.

In the name " Ngara mara " we must have recourse to, not so
much a fable as a parable, before we can grasp the force and
intensity of all that is meant to be conveyed. A man, who was
nameless, once upon a time married a certain woman. After they
had lived together for some years without the latter bearing him
any children, he divorced her, and reclaimed the marriage expenses
from her family, with which he took unto himself another woman.
—
But alas for him, as matters turned out the second wife also
proved to be barren, while his former spouse, who had remarried,
had presented her husband with some very fine children. A
calamity — for sterility is regarded as calamitous, and due either
to the disfavour of the gods or to the machinations of evil and
—
antagonistic spirits such as this was too much for this childless
being. Losing his head, and with it his wits, he made overtures
to the woman whom he had turned out of his house to induce her
to return to him, but to no purpose, for they were promptly and
indignantly rejected. Disgusted but not disheartened, the name-
less one promptly bought a female slave, and called her " Ngara
mara," a name which not only asks but begs a question, implying,
as it does, an answer to the effect that had I only known then what
I know now, that my second wife that was to be was unfruitful, I
—
would never have removed my first a sentiment that does not
require either further elucidation or comment, indicating, as it does,
the entirely human or personal aspect of a matter which, to these
natives, is also one of a hereafter.
Turning aside from this uxorious aspect of the question, and
continuing our analysis in another direction, in the Ibo name
" Onwu-mere," literally the act of death, or what death has done
for me, it is at once possible to picture the advent of a child into
a household during a time when all is woe and desolation, because
of some grievous calamity that has fallen on it.
To better understand the sarcasm which is here implied, let us
examine the name " Onwu-che-kwa," which means, Death, wait a
moment. It is once more an easy matter to conjure up the very
vivid impress of a scene that is being daily enacted amid the
depressing gloom of a cloud-covered sky and a forest environment,
when, sitting in solemn conclave under the grateful shade and
protection of their ancestral gods, and of some widespread,
majestic cotton tree, the patriarch and elders of the family are
collected together to discuss events. Face to face with the
painful and disheartening fact that all the children who were born
previous to the arrival of this one had been snatched away from
them, and apart from the inevitable sacrifice and offerings which
are duly offered, there is addressed in this name a petition to the
spirit of death, which not only begs him to desist, but which
implores him to stay his dread hand and spare this offspring, so
that it may live and perpetuate the name and substance of the
house.
Passing on to yet another locality, we come across a family
which is in a still greater dej^th of despair and dejection. Kobbed
and crushed by the stronger hands of their neighbours, and equally
so, beaten on to their very knees by the neglect of their domestic
deities and the bitter malevolence of hungry demons, they give
vent to no heartrending cries or wailing lamentations ; but when
a son is born to them they grovel and abase themselves in the
—
very dust, as they call it " Onwu-biko," Death, pardon, and have
mercy. For the conferring of a name upon a child is in no sense
a mere social or religious formality, nor is it only an ordinary
petition, but an act which, from every native point of view, is a
perpetual landmark in the history of the house. Because the
longer the child lives the more convincing and substantial is the
evidence that their petition has at length succeeded in its object,
or vice versa, when it dies, that it has entirely failed. It is, how-
ever, in no sense surprising that with a people so literal as these
natives are, the practice of conferring names should not alone
correspond, but be connected with the current course of events
that are taking place. Indeed, it needs but a little on
reflection
this point to arrive at such a decision, because, with no means at
their disposal of recording either their thoughts or their actions,
it is only reasonable that they should select this natural way of
doing it. It is but a reversion to the personal, which is ever

present, because inevitable, in addition to the fact that this safety-
valve, out of which the excess of personal joy or sorrow is bound
to escape, is,with the exception of their customs and practices,
the sole means which is at their disposal of expressing their
mental emotions, i.e. their philosophy.
Let me conduct the reader to either Brass or Bonny, with the
object of meeting, as we are bound to do, a man or a woman
called " Olali " or " Olalibo," or, as it is spelt in the latter place,
" Alali." Asoft and euphonious name such as this, meaning, as
it does, a son or a daughter of joy, is at once a guarantee that the
individual in question was born on some occasion of a great feast,

or on a day of general rejoicing throughout the tribe or com-
munity. Before inquiring into his antecedents, it is a foregone
conclusion that the occasion in question had been proclaimed as a
universal holiday because of an enemy vanquished or a victory
gained ; or possibly, because some renowned hunter belonging to
the community had slain a mighty beast, such as an elephant or a
hippopotamus. Or yet again, in more modern times, because of
the advent of a European trading vessel —
an event that was held
in such high honour among these coast tribes that it entailed a

thanksgiving olfering to the gods in the form of a human sacrifice
And inquiry merely confirms anticipation, besides, of course,
giving all the details in connection with the case.
Pursuing our investigations in a gig canoe belonging to one of
the leading chiefs of Ibani, the captain or steersman, on being
interrogated, answers that he is named " Tamunoilunimi," —
God's
good will. This name is given either to free-borns or slaves, of
both sexes, when born at a time of great and unusual prosperity.
Continuing our inquiries among the crew at random, the boy
who is paddling on our right turns out to be " Soto," a son, who
has been provided by the same Supreme God. Sitting in front of
him is " Karibi," who came to his parents disguised in the sub-
stantial form of a blessing, from the same sublime source ; while
behind, reclining in the well of the canoe, on some hard boards
softened only by a thin country mat, is a daughter of the owner
himself, rejoicing in the mellow and melodious cadence of " Soba,"
a name which, in addition to proving her divine origin, demon-
strates, as do the other names which have been mentioned, that
fate, in the person of the ancestral and supreme god, has dealt
not only kindly, but to some worldly purpose, with this particular
household.
On landing at one of the Ibani farms, between the Bonny
and Andoni rivers, when we are conducted to the house by a
lugubrious looking creature, it is not in the least surprising to
—
know that his name is " Bilibilibo," a son who has come to the
house during a time of trouble and sorrow. More than this, as if
to show that his name was well deserved and appropriate, and
further, as a practical proof that the sorrow had remained with
him, the dilapidated condition of the premises and its surroundings
tells its own tale of ruin and poverty even more eloquently than
the mere name, suggestive though it is. It would, however, baffle
even the divining powers of the shrewdest and most calculating
thought-reader of the present day to guess that the weakly-looking
youth in attendance on the woebegone host is " Orumbo," a war- —
man. But such is the fact, the accident of birth, or, as they
deem it, the act of God, having coincided with a period during
which their country was at war. The name given to a child often
has relation to the time or place of its birth, or, in the case of a
"
slave, of his or her acquisition for example, a child called " Bush
;
or " Canoe indicates that it was born underneath the one or inside
"
the other.
It is not in the least surprising, therefore, to ascertain that among
the crowd of people which is assembled at Nembe are men and
women who, as having been ushered into this existence during the
night, are called "Ombo," " Omnombo," and "Noina," "Nointa,"

"
or " Noinoin ; and others who, because they were born at flood-
tide or high-water, bear the names of " Seria," " Seri," and " Seriba,"
" Kalaseri " and " Osere " ; while those whose fate ordained that
they should make their appearance on this earthly scene when the
tidewas ebbing, or at low-water, go through life bearing the name
of " Omo," or ebb-tide.
Looking round us, there are, again, others who have come
into being either in the bush or mangrove swamps, and who, in
consequence, carry about their persons the absolutely ineffaceable
title of " Piri," " Piriba," and " Bowu," which marks them down, as
it does one and all whose fortunes have been similarly erratic, as
persons dedicated to those spirits of forest or water under whose

special and specific care they have been brought forth. But our
list is by no means exhausted. So we also find that if during
the pregnancy of a woman her husband dies, the child when born,
if a male, is called " Daofa," or if a female, "Daerigha," which
implies that it has never seen its father. But if, while she is in
such condition, her husband is away in foreign or distant parts,
and her confinement proves to be identical wîth his return, a son
in such case is named " Daokuru," and a daughter " Ikoru " or
" Dakuru," meaning that it has waited for its father to be born.
In the event, however, of a woman bearing twins, regarded, as this
is, as an unnatural affliction, the second arrival is thrown into the
bush alive, while the first is retained and named " Isele," if a boy,
and if a girl, " Selai," i.e. selected. But as if to show to what an
excess this habit can be carried, besides affording us an excellent
illustration of the spleen and sarcasm these people are capable of,
when it happens that a woman upon whom the stigma of sterility
has been thrown by spiteful and more fortunate neighbours, at
last gives birth to an infant, it is at once christened, according
to its sex, either " Digha " or " Dighabo," i.e. barren.
Leaving Brass, and going inland again, in the philosophic
cognomen of " Ndu-wuisi " we are confronted with an appellation
which is used among the Ibo in the case of a chief or head of a
house who has been delivered from some great and grievous sick-
ness or affliction, and who at the same time has either purchased
a slave or has had a son presented to him by one of his wives.
Of a somewhat similar nature to this is the name " Inoma-Ihia,"
it is useless to cheat which, bestowed as it is on a slave purchased
;
by a man who has suffered oppression at the hands of one richer

and stronger than himself, on the occasion of some misfortune
occurring to his oppressor, is descriptive of an incident which is,
unfortunately, common enough in the social life of these natives.
It is related of a free-born, who, although of an independent
position, was a man of only very limited means, that he bought a

slave, who by his own active intelligence and exertions rose to the
rank of chief in the community to which his master belonged.
Arrived at a position so honourable, this man purchased for him-
self a slave, " Buo," i.e. literally feet, which thus released him from
attendance on his owner, to whom he gave the name of "Iri
Ibugeea," which, as implying that, you are not fit to be my master,
was, to say the least of it, equal to the snub direct. For a name
so full of undisguised contempt as this is more than equivalent to a
blow on the face. But poor and unambitious though he was, this
was too much for the free-born, his master, who was a man of
spirit, and as it happened that about this time his favourite wife
presented him with a fine infant, he called its name " Isiri-sihia "
this signifying, you cannot wash it out, or, in other words,
once my slave always my slave, was a retort that was none the less
courteous because it was true, for manumission, 4ike non-alienation
of land, is practically impossibleand unattainable.
Thepersonal, as an element which enters in some shape or
form into practically every name, and the association that exists
between the people and their gods, who, although presumably
spiritual are virtually personal, has more than once been called
attention to. To accentuate this fact, however, a little more from
this specific direction, it will be necessary to examine a few more

names. For it is desirable that the reader should understand, as
I myself do, after a very searching investigation, such as I have
made, into thousands of names belonging to the various tribes,
that no matter in what direction we look, this dual element is
always present.
Thus " Da opunye," big father, is a patronymic that, although
it is utilised for either sex, is usually conferred on the male, being,
as it is, essentially patriarchal in its scope and potentialities.

Given as a rule to a slave who has been redeemed by a free-born
or domestic of a house, with the help of his master, as well as in
the redemption by a chief of a slave, whom he has presented to
either a son or a daughter, the hidden significance of its meaning
is, that a man must not trifle with his master, because the master
of a house is, in the eyes of the gods, a great and important being,
the father, —and as possessor of all that is in it, including souls and
bodies, the mother, —
and not only the link between the spiritual
and human households, but the selected representative of the
latter, who is responsible to the former for the discipline and
veneration that is their due.
The cognomen " Wari N'gerebo ]\Iea," — a house does not belong
to one man alone, implies that a house is divided against itself, and
consists of several adult children, who are on bad terms with each
other, and the head of which, having departed to the spirit regions,
has consigned its welfare to the eldest son, who is universally
unpopular. If, therefore, under circumstances such as this, it
should happen that a child of either sex is born to one of the

younger members, this name is adopted, as a plain and unmistak-
able caution to the newly appointed head, in defiance of all
ancestral precedent. For although even these coast natives are in
their hearts still true to the patriarchal system, they have certainly
imbibed the principles of socialism, and further, also acknowledge,
as we have seen, the inevitable principle of equilibrium. So that
in the event of the head of a house proving himself to be
unworthy of his great trust, and incapable of ruling it, he is at
once deposed by a meeting of all the elders, and the member who
in the opinion of the majority is considered most eligible is elected
to replace him.
The following need no comment commencing with the Ibana,
:
we have "Father is great," "Well done, father," "Father's right

hand," "Father's gift," "The child who loves a father's house,"
" Fatherless child," " Whatever a father says," or " has said," " The
goodness of God," "Xo one has seen God," "People's words are
not God's," " God, not man, is my creator " — a name, I may remark,
that is in every sense suggestive, if not indicative, of that animistic
principle of creation which, as I pointed out in Appendix B, is one
of the essential beliefs on which their creed is based, and in this
way a light, which shows clearly the oneness of the Creator with
the created, and therefore the inseparability of the spiritual from
the human.
Passing on to Brass, we find that " God is greater than deities,"
that " Everything was ordained by God," that " There is no one
strong with God," that "No one can reject the acts of God," that
"No one knows the ways of God," and that " There is not a man
whom God does not bless " ; but as an offset to this, " There is no
one who will not do me evil." Further, that " Breeding is for
the benefit of the earth," that " deception " and " division " are
inevitable elements, and that " There is no man who will live
for ever."
Continuing with Ibo, it is recognised that " The Creator does
not cancel," but that " he protects," " saves," and " does exceedingly
well." So these people " give God the preference," and " claim
His protection." Yet it is possible "For a man to be calumniated
by the Creator himself." But vv^hile in one direction certain names
affirm that " God is the way," " Is the cause of all fame," " Has
the life," " Has the increase," and that it is " His hand that guides,"
another name asks, " Is there indeed a Creator ? " and others again
express the wish that " God may avenge," and " think." Descend-
ing from heaven to earth,

— "The land does well," "The land
protects," therefore it is invited to "help" and to "judge,"
also to "spare" and to "commend." Then it is acknowledged
" war," that " No eye can see spirit,"
that The spirits surpass all
that " The land of spirits is very far," " The spirit does exceedingly
well," " Protection is requested from the spirit against foul means,"
" and from which
while the power of " Death that has conquered
" there is no rescue " and " no escape " is likewise admitted. So
also is the power of the mysterious eye,
—
" May I not be killed
by the eyes," " The eye accuses the brave of theft," or, as seen in
the name " Aya Oku," which, although it means a brave man is
literally a man who has fire in his eyes, i.e. an impulsive, impetuous
man, and is a name given, in addition to his own, to a man who
is of a fiery and energetic disposition. Then, again, we get in
another name a pathetic if not piteous appeal, made by the
" There
person, that " His name and personality be not lost," that
may be no scarcity of men with him," that " He may have only
sons," that " His own may live for ever." For a " Father is the
sustainer of strength," " A child is the way," " Ason the sovereign
lord," " Children are beautiful ones
" and " a fortune." Because
"In a multitude is strength and good"; although it is also
recognised " That a multitude is a cause of malice." But in the
midst of it all, and in spite of the fact that "life is most im-
portant," and that "life surpasses," as it also is "the question,"
" Household wrath " prevails simply because " man is more wrath-
ful than God." Kecognising, too, that " When a thing is done its
effect remains," that
" The world is a mystery to them," and that
"Some things are found unexpectedly," "They do not regard

words," yet " Calumniate after due consideration."
Going outside the limit of Southern Nigeria into the Yoruba
country, merely for two luminous examples, we get in " Abeokuta"
the name of the town in the Lagos hinterland —
the meaning
"Under the stone," which as an emblem of their ancestral deity was
worshipped by its people under the designation of " the Builder "
and in " Awujale," which was the title of the kings of " Jebu," we
have " Lord of the soil " and " Supreme head of all other kings,"
it being the custom for the head of every small community in this
country, as in the Delta, to call himself a king.

This habit of coining or creating names to meet the exigencies
and to mark the events of the daily life struggle, which as an out-
come of their literal nature has developed into an idiosyncrasy, is
not only confined to themselves, but used freely towards all out-
siders or foreigners with whom they are brought into contact, either
socially, politically, commercially, or by any other means.
Thus an administrative officer or a trader who in his dealings
MENTALITY AND HUMANITY OF NAMES 559
with tlie people has had a strong or a tight hand over them, is
designated " Aka-ike," which means, literally, a man with strength,
or a strong man. A military officer who has been engaged in
punitive expeditions at once becomes " Ozumbah," a fighter or
breaker of towns. Any one wearing eye-glasses or spectacles is
" Anya ngbegwe ugbe," — the man with the glass eyes ; while an
individual who has heavy or prominent cheek-bones assumes to
them the aspect of a "cat-fish," i.e. with big jaws. Further,
it is noticeable that in the bestowal of these names they evince at
times a decided sense or appreciation of humour, of the dry or

quizzical description, as is evident from the following specimens,
" Oganah," meaning presents have ceased, — a name that is given
to a trader who, in order to secure the custom of the natives of a
certain locality, commences bydistributingpresents indiscriminately
amongst them, but who ceases to do so once he has gained his
object. " Osisi-omma," —the good gun ; " Osisi," literally a tree or a
stick, is also used to denote a gun, as being in shape and size
somewhat like the latter ; and this name was in one instance
that I know conferred on a well-known European agent, of the
name of Gunn, who was on excellent terms with the natives.
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, INDEX
Abasi. See Nkwu Abasi Blood-plum, the, 301 sq., 468
Aboil scepticism, 147-8 Bonny river, the, 12
Abua, the, 18 Bonny, town of, 18, 40 language of, ;
Agbala, 407 45 kings of, 47

;
Akwa, the. See Kwa Boundaries, 311-2

Alagba-n-ye, 22-3 Brassmen, the, 18, 23, 26, 27, 40 ;
Alepe, 23, 26, 27, 279-30 language, 41, 46 funeral customs, ;
Ama-ofo, the, 34 166 sqq. pythons of the, 219 ob-

; ;
Amgbagbayai, 268, 358-9 session among the, 227 smallpox ;
Ancestors, cult of, 63, 67, 89, 98 sqq., among the, 255 suicide of the, ;
105-9, 115, 232 connections of,

; 258 ancestor-worship, 292 witch-
; ;
with emblemism, 276 sqq., 284 craft among the, 486

sqq., 313, 335 ; ceremonies connected Burial, sect. iv. chap. ii. ; of children,
with, sect. vii. chap. iv. 191
Andoni, the, 18 language, 41, 43
; ;
funeral customs, 171, 177, 213 200 ; ;

Cannibalism, 162, 178 sq., 182, 245 sq.,
gods, 401 witchcraft among the,
;
324, 403 connection of, with witch-
;
484 craft, 484 sqq., 492-3

Ani, 301 Character of the natives, part ii. chaps.
Animals, beliefs concerning, 147, 188 ;
i. ii.
attitude towards, 199 sqq. rein- ; Charms, 192, 264, 267, 456
carnation of spirits in, 217 sqq. ;
Colours, 303-4
obsession, 239 sqq. sect. v. cha'p. ;
Creator, the, sect. vi. chap. viii. passim
ii.; worship of, 313 sacrifice of, ;
Creek Town, 21
451 sqq. Crocodiles, beliefs concerning, 194,
Animism, 59, 85, 114-5, 137, 208, 210, 205, 219, 231 reverence for, 364,
;
535 366-7, 456-7

Aro, the, 17, 42, 160 burial customs, ; Cross river, the, 12
175, 183 sacred stones, 308
;
Aro Chuku, 30, 251, 254, 258, 287, 486 Death, 171 sqq., 187 of children, 212 ;
Asaba, 34 sqq., 257

Asimingi, 410 Degeneration, 201, 204, 278
Association, influence of, 63, 66-7, Dema, 317
181, 204 connection
;
of, with Demons, 144, 152, 254
emblemism, 281, 385 Determination to die, 257
Atakpo, 309 Dibia. See Witch Doctors
Awomakaso, 375, 404 Di-okpara, 394
Disease, 227, 233 spiritual aspect of,
;
Beauty, native conception of, 125-6 sect. V. chap. iv.

Benin, 16, 29, 30-31 kings of, 371 ;
Disembodiment, 152, 210, 333, 473
Benue, the, 11 Dreams, 145-7, 186
Bini, the, 19, 23, 26, 36, 39-40; Dualism of the natives, 52, 63-4, 88,
language, 41-3 tabu, 370 ; 101, 118, 122, 125, sect. iii. 155-6,
Birds, 318 sqq. 187, 202
Blacksmiths, 406-7 Duen-fubara, 162 sqq., 182, 286
Blood alliance, 242-3, 260, 455 I Duke Town, 21, 149, 449
56' 2
Ebele, 32 40 ; language, 41 sqq., 65 burial ;
Edemili, 301, 378, 417 customs, 156 sqq., 175, 191; women,
Efik, the, 17, 20 sqq., 40; language, 215 sq. sacred animals, 219, 317
; ;
41, 43, 44, 65 burial customs, 175, ; beliefs concerning animals, 243 ;
177, 213 skull trophies, 292

; ;
suicide, 260 sq. worship, 292 ; ;
sacred trees, 300 sacred trees, 228 stones, 307 ; ;
Efiura, 22 priesthood, 398-9 gods, 406 sqq. ; ;
Egbo, 170, 174, 323 witchcraft, sect. viii. chap. ii.

Egwe, 337 Idolatry, 114, 278, sect. vi. chaj). ii.
Ehehe, 189, 243 passim

Ekiba, 23, 388, 465; Ifejioku, 421, 431, 439
Ekoi, the, 17 Igabo, the, 18, 19, 28 ; language, 42 ;
Ekpafia, the, 18 sacred animals, 219

Emblemism, QQ, 105, 202, 204, 208 ;
Igara, the, 19 burial customs, 175
;
defined, sect. vi. ; immaterialism of, Igo, 322

388 ; 475 Iguanas, sacred, 219
Embodiment, 137, 152, 282, 473 Igwi-kala, 347
Environment, influence of, 61, 113-4, 360 traditions,
Ijo, the, 18, 19, 25-8, ;
117 sqq., 121 sqq. 30 40 language, 41-3 character,

; ; ;
Ewitaraba, 381 52 women, 215 sq. sacred animals,

; ;
Exorcism, sect. v. chap, iii. 219 obsession among the, 227

; ;
smallpox among the, 254-5 suicide ;
Fables, 75, 315 sq., 319 sqq. of the, 259 sq.

Fetichism, 278, sect. vi.
114, 116, lyanabo, 408
chap. ii. passim
Fish, beliefs concerning, 217 sqq. Jekri, the, 18, 28, 30, 40 ; language,
Forcados, the, 11, 12 42, 46
Future life, 130, 131, 150 sqq., 162, Ju-juism, 115, 290-91, 518
168, 184 sqq. native desires in a, ;
221, 299 Kings, 149, 160 as gods, 371 sqq. ; ;
as priests, 400 seclusion of, 437-8;
Gana-Gana, the, 11 Kwa, the, 17 ; language, 41 ; 292

Ghosts, 143 sqq., 155
Goddesses, ^yorship of, 215 sq., 280, Land, veneration of the, 37, 69, 102,
sect. chap. viii.
vi. 'passim, 368-9, 311, sect. V. chap. viii.
407-8, 417, 431 Language of the Delta, part i. chap.
Gods, sect. vii. cha2)s. ii. vii. ; father, iv.,65 sqq.
342-3, 347, 354-5, 416, 421, 424, Leopard, 317-8 ; society, 324
433, 468 sqq. mother, sect. vi. chap.
; Lokoja, 11
\iii. 2)cissim, 354, 416, 424, 433 son, ;
354, 417, 433 household, 355, 414, ;

Magic, 479
416, 423 community, 355, 416, 423,
; Marriage, 414-5
471 ; names of, 525 Mbari,'40S
Medicines, sect. v. chap, v., 340
Hebrew, linguistic affinity with, 44-5 Mediums, 251
Human sacrifice, 119, 160, 161, 162 ;
principle of, 182, 286, 312 influ- ; Naneta, obsession of, 233-8
ence of, 372, sect. vii. chap. v. Naturism, 91, 94, 113 sqq., 208, 210,
474-5
Ibani, the, 17, 22, 24, 40 language, ; Ndok, ceremony of, 149, 499 sqq.
41, 46 burial customs, 166 sacred
; ; Ndoke, the, 33, 161
animals, 219, 280, 317 stones, 306 ; ; Neurosthenia, 241 sq., 250, 256
birds, 323 gods, 357-8 ;
New Calabar people, the, 18, 25, 40 ;
Ibeno, the, 17 language of, 41 burial customs of, ;
Ibibio, the, 17, 21, 40 language, 41, ; 162 sqq.

43 funeral customs, 182-3 women,
; ; New Town. See Duke Town.
216 skulls honoured by the, 292
; ;
Niger Delta, description of the, 11
religion, 307 sqq., 121 sqq. ; traditions of the,
Ibmanni, 24 2)art i. chap. iii. ; languages of the,
Ibo, the, 17, 19, 24; traditions, 31 sqq., 2)art i. chap. iv. ; sociology of the.
INDEX 563
47 natives of the, "part

;
ii. cha'p. i. sons as, 293, 395. See Thought-
religion of the, 102 leaders
Nigeria, Northern, 12 sqq. Proverbs, part ii. chap. iii.
Nigeria, Southern, description of, 11 Python, the, 328 sqq. See also Ogidiga
sqq. ;
passim
tribes of, chap. ii.
Nkwu Abasi, 33, 280, 307, 315, 411 Rain-makers, 378 sqq.
Nostalgia, 259 Re-incarnation, 207 sqq.
Nri, the, 34 sqq., 394, 398-9, 418, 537 Relics, 286
Numbers, 331-2, 509 sq. Religion, 67, 71, 79 sqq. theories of ;
Nun, the, 11, 28 the origin of, 84 sqq. evolution of,

;
in the Delta, 344 sqq.

Obsession, of women, 227-230 ; of Right hand, 310
men, 230 sq. ; by animals, sect. v.
chap. ii. Sanctuary, right of, 302, sect. vii.
Obuton, 21 chap. vi.

Ofiokpo, 323, 484-5 Sango, 303
Ofo, god of justice, 36, 301, 420, 428, Scapegoat, the, 446 sqq.
437 Secret societies, 323 sqq.
Oga, 33 Sharks, sacred, 219, 317
Ogba, 307 Sky-God, the, 342-3, 347, 528
Ogbavan, the, IS ; language, 41, 42 ;
Snakes, 192-3 sacred, 219, 317, sect.
;
gods, 408 vi. chap. vi.

Ogbe-abri, 301, 388, 418 Sobo, the, 18, 28 language, 42, 292
;
Ogidi, 181 Souls, 139 sqq., 149, sect. iv. chap, iii.,
Ogidiga, 23, 181 obsession by, 230 ;
269 value of, 285
;
sqq., 279 worship of, 301, 374, 402

;
Spirit guardians, 190 ; nature of, 290
Ogo-mogu, 192 sq. Spiritualism, 137, sect. iv. chap. iv.
Ogoni, the, 18, 24-5 ; language of the, 277, 473, 475
41 Stones, sacred, sect. vi. chap. iv.
Ogu, 412 Strangers, 74
Okoyong, the, 17 Suicide, 258 sqq., 425
Okrika, the, 18, 24 ; language, 41, 45 ; Sun, worship of the, 105, 133, 337,
burial customs, 177 sacred birds, ;
377
322
Old Calabar, see Duke Town ; people, Tabu, 304, sect. vi. chap. xi.
see Efik Tamuno, 104

Olinri, 308, 417 Thought -leaders, 59-60, 70, 97, 99,
Olorun, 104 100 in Brass, 255 262-3 position
; ;
;
Omens, 322 of, 270 Sf?., 372 sqq., sect. vii. chap. i.
Onitsha, 35 kings of, 36 ;

language ;
Tolofari, 306
of, 46 tree at, 299
;
gods of, 417 ; ;
Tortoise, the, 53, 71, 96, 203 venera- ;
annual ceremonies at, 435 sqq. tion for the, 313 sqq., 541
Opobo, the, 22, 24 Totemism, 114, 197, 201, 296-7
Ordeals, 367, 480 Trade, spirits in, 359
Oru, the, 18 language of the, 41
;
Transmigration, 95, 193, sect. iv. chap.
Osisi, 301, 420, 430 iv.
Owu, the, 227 sqq., 325, 356 sqq. Trees, sacred, 223, sect. vi. chap. iii.
Tsi, 388, 421, 435, 523, 530 sq.

Palm-oil, 451-2 Tsima, 36, 279, 299
Perekule, 23, 24, 47, 465 Tsineke, 104
Peri, play of, 166, 178 sqq. Twins, 311, 458 sqq.
Phallic worship, 68, 101 sqq., 108,
116, 133, 337, 418 Ubani. See Ibani
Philosophy of the natives, ^)ar^ ii. Ukwu, 406-7
chap, ii.', 132 Union, the, 17
Plants, beliefs concerning, 147, 300 Uwet, the, 17
Poisons, 498 sqq.
Polygamy, 302 Vows, 265, 312, 415-6
Prayer, 281 5^., 292
Priests, evolution of, 100-101 ; eldest Warri, the, 28, 30
5^4 THE LOWER NIGER AND ITS TRIBES
Water, worship of, scd. vi. duips. ix. x. 357, obsession of, 227 sqq.
431 ; ;
Widows, flogging of, 174 dress 413 as witches, 489, 491

of, ;
Wind, beliefs concerning, 93, 346 Worship, 281 sq.

Witchcraft, sect. viii. chaps, i.-iii.
Witch Doctors, 145, 190, 215, 247 ;
Yams, Brass belief concerning, 255
sincerity of the, 249 sq., 269 ; 254 ; Yor Obulo, 200, 381, 401
methods of, sect, v, chap. v. passim, Yoruba language, 40, 42, 46; tradi-
287, 293, sect. viii. chaps, i. iii. tion, 130 ; sacred trees, 302 sq. ;
Women, position of, 215, 343, 348, gods, 382
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Official Egyptian Calendar — III. The Calendar of the Egyptian
Farmer— IV. The —V. The Nature

Official Festivals of Osiris
—VI. —VII.
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— XV. Funeral Ceremonies — XVI. Funeral Cere-
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—XVIII. Sacred Places and Objects— XIX. The
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PAGAN RACES
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MALAY PENINSULA
BY
WALTER WILLIAM SKEAT, M.A.

LATE OF THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES CIVIL SERVICE
"
AUTHOR OF " MALAY MAGIC " AND "FABLES AND FOLK-TALES FROM AN EASTERN FOREST
AND
CHARLES OTTO BLAGDEN, M.A.

LATE OF THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS CIVIL SERVICE
CONTENTS OF VOLUME L
Preface — Bibliography — Introduction.
PART I. Race — Racial Characters— Racial General — Note by
Affinities,
W. L. H. Duckworth on " Fasciculi Malayenses." — Note on Diseases of the
Aborigines.
PART IL Manners and Customs — Chapter L Food, Stimulants, Narcotics
— IL Dress —Habitations— IV. Hunting, Trapping, and Fishing—
III.
V. Modes of Barter— VI. Weapons and Implements VII. Cultivation— —
VIII. Arts and Crafts— IX. Decorative Art— X. The Social Order— XI.
—
Dealings with Other Races Appendix Place and Personal Names.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
PART III.— Religion— Chapter I. Birth-Customs and Beliefs— II. Maturity

Customs and Beliefs —
III. Marriage Customs and Beliefs IV. Burial —
Customs and Beliefs— V. Music, Songs, and Feasts—VI. Natural Religion
and Folk-lore.
PART IV. Language — Chapter I. Present State and Future Prospects II. —
Taboo and Other Special Forms of Speech —
III. Past History and Relation
to Other Languages — Appendix — Comparative Vocabulary of
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graphs Illustrating Local Groups Indexes.

3
Svo. With Illustrations.
AT THE BACK
OF THE
BLACK MAN'S MIND

OR, NOTES ON THE KINGLY OFFICE IN
WEST AFRICA
BY
R. E. DENNETT
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CONTENTS
Chapter I. Luango and the Bavili — 11. Election of a King in the
Kongo — III. Coronation of a King in the Kongo — IV. Courts

of Maluango and Mamboma —V. Law—VI. Measures, Signs
and Symbols —VII. Bavili Psychology — VIII. Ndongoism—
IX. Nkici-Ism— X. Bavili Philosophy— XI. Bibila, the Philo
sophy of the Groves — XII. Sacred Lands and Rivers —XIII

Sacred Trees —XIV. The Omens —XV. Sacred Animals
XVI. Nzambi (God), the Word Nkici, and the Bakici Bac
— XVII. The Bini — XVIII. Benin Districts — XIX. Beni
Customs — XX. More Customs —XXI. Traces of Nkici-Ism
among the Bini —XXII. The Philosophy at the Back of the
Black Man's Mind in Table Form— XXIII. Conclusion
Appendix.

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IMPORTANT NEW WORKS

ADONIS, ATTIS, OSIRIS. Studies in the History of

THE TODAS OF THE NILGIRI HILLS. By

PAGAN RACES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA

AT THE BACK OF THE BLACK MAN'S MIND

MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON.

Major ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD

All rights reserved

To the Natives of Southern Nigeria in particular, and of West

and sympathy, not only as a small memento of ten years' per-

sonal touch, but in the best and truest interests of themselves,

and of Humanity, by one who has always endeavoured to labour

on their behalf with the strenuous and untiring energy of a

of the best years of her life in the same good cause, it is in

all esteem and respect dedicated to the memory of Miss Mary

study of a particular people. The opportunity came when he

But knowledge acquired elsewhere and opportunity for

research are of little avail unless an investigator be endowed

This is by no means easy to do, as it necessitates much

of tolerance towards weakness, crime, and brutality. Natives

are extremely sensitive, and any exhibition of superciliousness

expression to their inmost thoughts, their aspirations, and their

lived under conditions similar to those that obtain in the

j^iger delta, it is improbable that we would have been

One great merit of Major Leonard's method of in-

vestigation is his appreciation of the fact that the social and

result of their environment as is their material culture. No

Again and again he rightly insists that religion is a natural

result of human evolution, having its ultimate sources in pre-

human needs, so it has continued to do : sometimes widening,

of a reformer — the eternal conflict between the priest and the

development can be understood apart from the social history

of real significance as is the study of animals formally

business to consult at first hand the great book of nature as

it is manifest in Southern Nigeria, and to see the people as

interpretation of Negro thought and expression.

character and social life.

Colonel Ellis has proved in a masterly manner the gradual

associated an analogous progress in the laws of descent and

progressive evolution. The conditions of existence in the

The environment of steamy tropical West Africa is very

entirely for their sustenance upon collecting and hunting

sense is not lacking. The admirable investigations of Messrs.

Spencer and Gillen have shown that these social savages

perhaps more clearly here than elsewhere is seen the direct

the expression of the urgent need for the vitalising rain.

religion. The Niger delta natives have simply transferred

a position of great trust and reverence, as the nourisher and

as being counsellors and heads of departments.

the phallic principle, eventually arrived at a worship of the

and religious ideas which do not materially differ from those

based on the adoration of ancestral spirits, materially repre-

transferred according to circumstances. These objects, rude

objects which in themselves have, or carry with them, any so-

called supernatural powers. It is not the object itself, but

what is in the object, that is the power for good or for

associated with it. The object accordingly becomes nothing

merely a question of association. The thing itself is helpless

and powerless ; it cannot do harm, just as it cannot do good ;

the spirit, which is invariably ancestral, even when deified,