Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People E-Book

D. Amaury Talbot

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 306

Beschreibung

FOR many years good fortune has granted to my sister and myself the happiness of living amid scenes of indescribable beauty and peoples of peculiar interest. The novelty of being the first white women to visit any particular spot has indeed long worn off by reason of the frequency of the experience, but the thrill of penetrating to places as yet unvisited by any European is still a matter of unmixed joy. Time and again our little party has been so fortunate as to happen upon peoples never studied before, who have been induced to confide to us traditions, beliefs, and legends of unexpected charm.

Leseprobe

Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People

Womans mysteries of a primitive peopleChapter 1. IntroductoryChapter 2. Prenatal Influences And Birth CustomsChapter 3. Birth Customs (Continued)Chapter 4. Affinities Or "Bush Souls"Chapter 5. ChildhoodChapter 6. Maidenhood To MarriageChapter 7. Wedded Life And MotherhoodChapter 8. Domestic LifeChapter 9. Marriage ProblemsChapter 10. Love Philtres And MagicChapter 11. WitchcraftChapter 12. JujusChapter 13. Woman And Secret SocietiesChapter 14. Woman In War TimeChapter 15. Widowhood And Burial CustomsChapter 16. Widowhood And Burial Customs (Continued)L'envoiNotesCopyright

Womans mysteries of a primitive people

D. Amaury Talbot

Chapter 1. Introductory

FOR many years good fortune has granted to my sister and myself the happiness of living amid scenes of indescribable beauty and peoples of peculiar interest. The novelty of being the first white women to visit any particular spot has indeed long worn off by reason of the frequency of the experience, but the thrill of penetrating to places as yet unvisited by any European is still a matter of unmixed joy. Time and again our little party has been so fortunate as to happen upon peoples never studied before, who have been induced to confide to us traditions, beliefs, and legends of unexpected charm.

That all this came into our lives, a golden gift from the gods, without hardship worth the name, is due to the fact that, unlike Mary Kingsley and the small band of women travellers who followed in her footsteps, my sister and I were not alone. A never-failing watchful care has always surrounded us, smoothing each difficulty, and, as far as is humanly possible, providing against every discomfort and danger--at what cost of personal sacrifice one hardly dares to think.

During this time we were naturally anxious to do something in return for all that was done for us, and soon discovered that the chief way in which we could be of use was by making clear copies of rough notes jotted down in spare moments by my husband, and by writing out information which there was no time to collect save orally, thus putting upon paper page after page of description, incident or legend, which pressure of official work must otherwise have kept unrecorded.

When therefore a kind request came from England for a paper embodying "the woman's point of view" of scenes and happenings so different from those to which most of us are accustomed, the idea of separate authorship seemed to one who, up till then, had only acted as an unofficial secretary, almost as startling as if a pen from the inkstand had been asked to start writing on its own account. On thinking the matter over, however, it really appeared that, since the women of these regions had never yet been studied by a white woman, a paper dealing with the question from this side might have a certain interest.

It was not, however, until the mail brought a letter from one of the kindest and most brilliant literary men of our acquaintance, pointing out that, although men have taught us much of late years concerning primitive man, primitive woman is still unknown save through the medium of masculine influence, that the importance really struck us of making use of the chance which a kind fate had given us.

Only a few weeks before this letter was sent, Mr. Walter Heape, F.R.S., had written:

"From the biological point of view the crux of the whole matter lies in Dr. Frazer's convinced belief that the Central Australian women do not know anything of the part played by the father. . . . This is indeed a case when a woman's help would be of the greatest value. I venture to think it is not improbable a woman would have discovered something more from the female members of these Central Australian tribes."

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On this suggestion, therefore, and that of the friend already mentioned, we determined, in default of those better fitted for the task, to take up this branch of research. Yet, when we realised then for the first time that, for the friendly controversy at present waged between ethnologists--concerning exogamy, for instance-not one word of information is available from the woman's point of view, on a matter so nearly concerning her--"without some man intervening either as inquirer or interpreter"--my sister and I seemed at a loss. We felt much as two sixteenth-century women might have done, who, hitherto following easily along paths made smooth for them by their men-folk, suddenly found themselves, at a turn of the road, standing alone--Nunez like--"Silent upon a peak in Darien," gazing out over the waves of an unknown ocean.

As is usual in such cases, once the study had been begun, difficulties, which at first loomed so large as to appear almost in the light of impossibilities, faded away of themselves. Although during the ten months of our sojourn among the Ibibios of Southern Nigeria, my sister and I were able to pick up but the merest fragment of the language, yet careful inquiry brought out the fact that a few native women in the district were capable of speaking intelligible English, and were willing, for a certain compensation, to act as interpreters. Among the Ibibios, surely, if anywhere, there is a chance to study primitive woman living to-day in all essentials as she lived, moved and had her being while Greece and Rome lay in the womb of Time.

This strange race, consisting of some three-quarters of a million souls, inhabits the south-eastern part of Southern Nigeria. Before our arrival in the Eket District, which forms the southernmost stretch of the Ibibio country, we had been informed, on all hands, that the natives of these regions were of the lowest possible type, entirely devoid of ethnological interest, and indeed, to quote the expression of our informant, "mere mud-fish." Saving the more civilised Efiks, it is indisputable that the Ibibios occupy a low rung on the ladder of culture, and are perhaps as bloodthirsty as any people throughout the length and breadth of the Dark Continent. Yet, to our minds at least, it would appear that their present condition is due to gradual descent from a very different state of things. Fragments of legend and half-forgotten ritual still survive to tell of times shrouded in the mists of antiquity, when the despised Ibibio of to-day was a different being, dwelling not amid the fog and swamp of fetishism, but upon the sunlit heights or a religious culture hardly less highly evolved perhaps than that of Ancient Egypt.

Indeed, if, as is held by so great an authority as Dr. Wallis Budge, much of the magic lore of Egypt may have originally come from the West, it is most probable that these very Ibibios formed a link in the long chain by which such knowledge was passed across the continent. In this case, the likeness in ritual or legend still occasionally to be traced between those of present-day West Coast tribes and of ancient Egypt would not appear to have been borrowed from the latter and borne across the Continent from east to west, but rather, contrariwise, from the Niger to the Nile. In any case, the Ibibios would seem to be a people of hoar antiquity, and so long have they dwelt in this region, that no legend of an earlier home can be traced among them.

By one of those strange coincidences which are always happening, it had come to our knowledge, some little time before the arrival of the letter asking us to undertake an independent study of the women, that here, at least, many customs of great ethnological interest still obtain which are not only unknown to men, but must always remain beyond the ken of male inquirers. For, by the unwritten law bequeathed to Ibibios from times so remote as to be almost forgotten, it is forbidden for any man to be allowed even a glimmering of mysteries which custom has decreed should be confided to women alone.

To mention one instance--when a man is slain in flight, only married women of his kin or town may bear the corpse to its last resting-place. There, in a part of the "bush" set aside for the purpose, and screened from all eyes, the last strange rites are carried out; but nothing that passes within those mysterious shadows may be revealed to man or maiden, whether white or black.

So much my husband had learned, and, as the matter seemed likely to prove of interest, I undertook further investigations, since it was probable that information denied him by ancient law might be given to me. After some difficulty, and on the promise that the name of my informant should never be given, an ancient woman consented to reveal to me rites surely as strange as any on earth. These will be dealt with more fully later, but it seems well to mention the matter here, because it was owing to this discovery that we first learned of the existence of the so-called "women's mysteries," and thus stumbled upon the knowledge that, in West Africa at least, and possibly among primitive peoples the world over, a vast field for research, untrodden as yet, lies open to women which to men must ever remain hopelessly barred.

On this point, Herr Gunter Tessmann, who was fortunate enough to witness the rites of the principal male secret societies among the Pangwe, writes in his excellent monograph:

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Die Schwierigkeiten, welche allgemein zu überwinden waren, ehe ich auch nur einen flüchtigen Einblick in das Kultwesen der Männer bekan, die sich auszudenken habe ich dem Leser überlassen. Hinsichtlich der Weiberkulte häuften sich diese Schwierigkeiten eben durch den Ausschluss des männlichen Geschlechts und die natürliche Scheu der Frauen derart, dass es mir nicht möglich war, persönlich zu ihnen Zutritt zu erlangen."

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Since our eyes have been opened to the value of data collected from such women with no intervening male influence, it is a matter of deep regret to my sister and myself that we made no independent attempt on a former tour to learn the inner secrets of the great Ekoi cult of Nimm--the woman's secret society, which in the Oban District is strong enough to hold its own against the dreaded Egbo Club itself, and the secrets of which, though closed to all men, might, and probably would, have been revealed to us. It is the more unfortunate that, so far as we could learn, among Ibibio women only two exclusively feminine societies still exist, those of "Ebere" and "Iban Isong," both comparatively small and insignificant. The knowledge of what we had formerly missed, however, naturally made us the more anxious to lose no scrap of information which yet remains to be gleaned concerning those feminine mysteries which have survived to the present day.

In attempting to put upon paper some account of what was thus garnered, the first difficulty confronting so unpractised a writer, was to decide at which point of the life cycle to begin. At first we thought of starting this little study of primitive woman at the time when, as a tiny piccan, so fair as to seem almost white, an Ibibio girl-babe first opens her eyes upon the light. Soon, however, we found that the true beginning must be made still farther back. So far, indeed, that little more than a faint echo has floated down through the ages from those remote and distant times.

One evening my husband was seeking information as to the existence of sacrificial altars from a man belonging to the household of Chief Daniel Henshaw, who is head of one of the seven ruling families of Calabar and Native Political Agent for the Eket District. The man questioned on this particular evening was well known for his knowledge of secret things forgotten by, or hidden from, the common herd. He chanced to mention that the only case, in which, to his knowledge, altars were actually built, was on the occasion of sacrifices made to the Great Mother, Eka Abassi (Mother of God).

Offerings to this goddess are always laid upon altars built of logs set crosswise in alternate layers one above the other. When less than breast high, dry twigs are piled above, and upon these the body of a white hen is placed. This must be such a one as has laid many eggs, but by reason of age can lay no more. Fire is set to the twigs and the whole consumed, forming a burnt offering "sweet in the nostrils of Eka Abassi." Subsequent inquiries brought out the fact that the last-named deity is the mother not alone of the Thunder God, Obumo, whom we had hitherto been assured was the head of the whole Ibibio pantheon, but also of all created things.

From out the strange vague twilight of the gods therefore, beyond Obumo's self, looms, mystic and awful, the great dim figure of "The Mother"--recalling with startling vividness those dread presences met by Faust on his journey through the realms of the dead in search of the shade of Helen; the "Great Mothers," whose power was so vast as to overawe Mephistopheles himself--recalling, too, whole crowds of myths, lovely or awful, at the root of ancient religions. For Eka Abassi is at. once mother and spouse of Obumo, and between her and the other gods there is a great gulf fixed. To quote the Ibibio phrase, spoken in hushed accents, as was every mention of her--"She is not as the others. She it is who dwells on the other side of the wall."

Nameless, therefore, this Mother of gods and men looms, misty and vast, at the very fount of Ibibio religion. To none now living would the true name of the goddess appear to have been entrusted. Possibly only to a small band of initiates was it ever revealed, in accordance with the old belief that the names of supreme gods may only be confided to a chosen few, lest, by means of these dread names, men, and even lesser gods, might be tempted to conjure. Thus Ra explained the reason why the name given him by his great parents "remained hidden in my body since my birth, that no magician might acquire magic power over me." So Lilith, to avoid the consequences of disobedience to her husband Adam, is said to have uttered the "Most Great Name," by virtue of which she was enabled to flee away to a place of safe refuge, and indeed gained such power that even Jehovah Himself was unable to coerce her.

Eka Abassi may not be spoken of among the other gods because she is so far beyond them all. From her has sprung all which exists-from Abassi Obumo "the Thunderer," her son and consort, to the least of living things and every twig, stone or water-drop. In all there dwells some fraction of her. According to those to whom the esoteric teaching has been handed down from times when her cult was as yet unobscured by the fungus growth of fetish and juju worship which has since grown up to hide it, of her might be quoted the words, long hidden beneath the sands of Oxyrhynchus:

"Cleave the log and thou shalt find me. Break the stone, and there am I."

Perhaps most nearly of all does Eka Abassi manifest herself in the unhewn stones set amid sacred waters which are to be found scattered over the length and breadth of the land, or in the great trees, "the givers of babes." Her supreme attribute is "Bestower of Fertility," for, since from her all things have sprung, to her appointed dwelling-places creep barren women, to pray that their curse may be taken from them; while those with hearths left desolate by the silencing of lisping voices, lay before her curls clipped from dead heads, praying that the small feet may soon be set once more upon the earthward road to gladden the hearts of parents untimely deserted.

All babes born in this part of the world are sent by her; while, of the dead, save those who met a to violent end, men say "Eka Abassi has taken our brother."

Her eldest-born, Obumo "the Thunderer," once dwelt upon earth, but later went to join "the Sky People." Earth folk have lost the road by which he went, so cannot climb thither, but the Sky People sometimes, though rarely, come down to mix with the children of men. One such story is told of a family in Kwa Town, near to Calabar, who claim to be descendants of no earthly forbears.

"Long ago," so the legend runs, "a big play was being given. All the people were dancing and singing, when suddenly they noticed a stranger going up and down among them. He was very tall and splendid, but answered no word when questioned as to whence he came. All night long the festival lasted, and at dawn a strange woman was seen to have joined the guests. She, too, was finely made and beautiful, but sad looking, and, when asked of her town and parentage, kept silence for a time, but at length after much questioning said:

"'This "play" sounded too sweet in my ears, in the place where I dwelt on high; so I climbed down to hear it more clearly. Half way, the rope broke, and I fell. Now I can never go home any more, since there is no other way by which to climb thither--and I fear! I fear!'

"The townsfolk tried to comfort her, but she would not listen; only went up and down, wringing her hands and weeping. After a while, however, she saw the other stranger and, recognising him for a countryman, was comforted. He, too, had come down to view the 'play,' but had lost his road and could not go back. So lie set to work building a home for the Sky woman, where they two might dwell together. Later, children began to come to them 'softly, softly' (i.e. gradually and gently), and these were the ancestors of the present family."

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In many ways the belief of Ibibio women as to the origin of the souls of their babes is much the same as that of Central Australians, whose theory, according to Sir James Frazer, is that a "spirit child has made its way into the mother from the nearest of those trees, rocks, water-pools or other natural features at which the spirits of the dead are waiting to be born again."

That some such belief is held by Ibibios is clearly shown by the action of bereaved parents who, as already mentioned, bring curls, clipped from the heads of dead babes, to be placed in a hole in the rock, dedicated to Eka Abassi, here known as Abassi Isu Ma, i.e. "the goddess of the Face of Love"--or, since by a beautiful connection of thought the word for love and motherhood is the same, the name may also be translated "the Face of the Mother"--praying that she will speedily set the feet of their little ones upon the road back to life. In the sacred fish, too, with which all holy pools and streams abound, the souls of dead ancestors are thought to dwell, waiting for reincarnation. Unlike Central Australians, however, as reported by Sir James Frazer, Ibibio women--like their far-off sisters of Banks Island--are well aware that without mortal father no earth-child can be born. Yet, while the body of the new-comer is clearly attributed to natural causes, its spirit is thought to be that of the "affinity," either animal or vegetable, with which one or other of its parents was mysteriously linked; or of an ancestor, returned to earth in this new guise.

Among those few, however, who still keep in their hearts, jealously guarded, the secret which has come down from times when woman, not man, was the dominant sex--that not Obumo, but Eka Abassi herself, is the great First Cause--one ancient crone was persuaded to explain to me, after considerable hesitation and obvious nervousness at the thought of confiding so intimate and sacred a matter to a stranger, that the laws which bind mortal women could not apply to the Great Mother of All.

"My grandmother once told me," she said, "that the Juju Isu Ndemm ("the Face of the Juju"), which lies in our town of Ndiya, is the mouthpiece of Eka Abassi. So great is the latter, that no husband was needed for the birth of her babes. By her own might alone, did the first of these, Obumo, spring forth; but to none of her descendants was this power transmitted. When, therefore, she saw that all the first earth-women were barren, long she pondered; then sent down to them a great white bird, which, on reaching earth, laid a gleaming egg--(the symbol of fertility).

"Old women tell that, after showing the people how, by honouring eggs and oval stones, and making sacrifice to the Great Mother, the gift of fruitfulness might be won, the magic bird flew back to its home in the sky; whence, with folded wings, soft brooding, she still watches over the children of men. Mortals call her 'Moon' and sometimes, when people are sleeping, the Moon-bird floats down from her place in the sky and pecks up grains or other food, which she finds lying about. She looks round to see that all is well with the earth-folk, and that thetabuon fowls and eggs is still observed; for in our town neither may be eaten, and, were this command broken, sudden death would fall upon the offender, by means of the great Juju Isu Ndemm. Should the hens have any complaint to make on this subject they would tell the Moon-bird, and she would bear their plaint before Eka Abassi, who would not only exact the death of the actual offenders, but withdraw her gift--thus sending barrenness upon all the countryside."

(It is because of this service that the goddess, as already mentioned, forbids the offering to her of any fowl, save such as has borne many eggs in its day, but, by reason of age, has ceased from bearing.)

The ancient woman naïvely added:

"That this is the simple truth and no fable, can be proved even to white people. For when you look up into the sky on a clear night, many or few, but plain to be seen, are the little star eggs--and how could these get there, if it were not that the great white Moon-bird had laid them?

Chapter 2. Prenatal Influences And Birth Customs

FOR Ibibio women motherhood is the crown of life, and therefore "jujus" thought to have the power of granting fertility or removing the curse of barrenness are held in greater reverence than all others.

Juju is beyond all else the force which dominates the lives of people such as these. The word itself is said to be taken from the Frenchjoujou, and was given to the fetish images everywhere seen because early traders of this nationality looked upon them as a kind of doll.

Many West-Coasters use the terms juju and fetish as if they were interchangeable, yet there would seem to be a distinct difference between the two. The latter appears to apply only to objects inhabited by the indwelling power of juju, which "includes all uncomprehended mysterious forces of Nature. These vary in importance from elementals so powerful as to hold almost the position of demi-gods, to the 'mana'--to use a Melanesian term--of herb, stone, or metal. In another sense the word also includes the means by which such forces may be controlled or influenced; secrets wrung from the deepest recesses of Nature by men wise above their fellows, or mercifully imparted to some favoured mortal by one or other of the deities."

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The word fetish is "derived through the Portuguesefeiticofrom the Latinfacticius--facere, i.e. to do. This shows the original conception at the root of the word." . . . . (It) "was probably first applied to images, idols or amulets made by hand, and later includes all objects possessing magical potency, i.e. bewitched or 'faked.'"

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Holy pools and rocks, many of which are regarded as the earthly manifestation of Eka Abassi, and are often connected with the rites of her son and spouse, Obumo the Thunderer, hold first place among jujus, in the opinion of the greater number of Ibibio women. True it is that her fame and glory have--save to a few initiates--long since been eclipsed by his. Yet "water, earth and stone, the three great 'Mothers,' are almost always to be found within the grove of the All-Father. Each of these is thought to symbolise a different phase of motherhood. The first, for instance, may perchance be taken as a representation of the Ibibio Aphrodite.

She is all that is soft and alluring, while the fish which teem in her waters are the sign of boundless and inexhaustible fruitfulness. She never grows old or parched, neither may she be roughly used, burnt by fire, nor torn and cut by hoe and spade, as is the case with her homelier sister the Earth. This second member of the trilogy may perhaps be described as the working mother. She it is who produces the crops to nourish her children in life, and provides their last long resting-place when work is done."

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A term in common use for expressing the approach of death is to speak of the time "when my mother shall take me," because all men are laid to sleep in her gentle arms. It is for this reason, above all others, that Ibibios cling with such jealous tenacity to their land and so fiercely resent the least hint at a change of tenure. The proudest landowners of our own northern climes, who, at no matter what cost of poverty or hardship, hold to ancestral acres, can hardly be moved by so intense a passion at the thought of their loss as are these poor sons of the soil at the merest hint of a change in the land laws. Such a thought seems like outrage aimed at a loved one; for to them, Isong, the Earth Mother, is, in a way, nearest and dearest of all.

Stones and rocks again are also looked upon as givers of fertility; mostly in conjunction with Obumo himself. The genius of the stone is sometimes named Abassi Ma, and is looked upon in a special sense as the consort of the Thunder God. She it is who, more than all other manifestations of Eka Abassi, is thought to have the power to remove the curse of sterility from barren women, or send new babes to desolate hearths. It is naturally hard to induce primitive peoples to explain fundamental ideas such as these, yet, from what could be gleaned in the matter, it seems not over-fanciful to think that the trilogy of motherhood symbols may be taken to represent three aspects of womanhood--mistress, attracting and alluring; house-mother, drudge and provider; and consort, the sharer of dignities and honours.

Of the sacred pools, some two score in number, which we were privileged to be the first "white men" to view, that of Abassi Isu Ma, near Ikotobo--a rumour of which was first brought to my husband's notice by Mr. Eakin of the Kwa Ibo Mission, who, later on, induced a guide to lead us thither--is perhaps the most famous. In his company, one Sunday afternoon, we set out, and at length, after passing along a narrow path through thick "bush," reached the farthest point to which ordinary mortals had hitherto been allowed access. Beyond this only the head priest had been permitted to penetrate, in order to lay offerings within a hole in the sacred rock which faces the entrance and is the outward visible sign of the Great Mother herself.

"Low down on the face of the stone, beneath its veil of moss, and about a foot above the surface of the water, loomed a circular hole, partially filled by offerings laid there by the Chief Priest."

"A strange superstition has grown up around the rock. To it, or rather to the place of sacrifice just below, for, as has already been mentioned, the spot itself is too sacred for the near approach of ordinary mortals, come wedded couples to pray that babes may be born to them. Barrenness is regarded, not only as the greatest curse which can fall to the lot of man or woman, but also as a sign that the bride was a disobedient daughter. When a maid refuses to obey her mother, the latter says:

"'Because you have been a bad daughter to me no child shall be born to you, that thus atonement may be made for your undutiful behaviour.'"

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This idea is surely near of kin to the warning voiced in the "Maxims of Ani":

"Give thy mother no cause to be offended at thee, lest she lift up her hands to the god, who will surely hear her complaint and will punish thee."

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A little earlier in the same interesting document a man is bidden "to be most careful how he treats the mother who suckled him for three years and carried bread and beer to him every day when he was at school."

When an Ibibio woman has transgressed in such a manner, and punishment has in consequence befallen, her husband leads her down to the sacred pool. At the place of sacrifice they give offerings to the priest. Thence the woman wades up stream almost to the entrance of the sacred pool, where she makes obeisance and prays:

"O Abassi Ma! Keeper of souls! What have I done to anger Thee? Look upon me, for from the time I left the fatting-room in my mother's house I have never conceived, and am a reproach before all women. Behold! I bring gifts, and beg Thee to have pity upon me and give me a child. Grant but this prayer, and all my life I will be Thy servant!"

The priest then takes an earthen bowl, never before used, dips it into the sacred water, and pours some over the woman, who bends down so that face, arms and body may be laved by the stream.

When she rises again the little party climb up the steep bank to the place where the rest of the offerings lie. These are cooked and eaten by husband, wife and priest; after which the suppliant returns home, strong in the hope that Isu Ma will take away her reproach. . . . When a child is granted in answer to such a prayer, custom ordains that he or she shall be named 'Ma,'"

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in gratitude to the Great Mother. This fact alone would appear sufficient refutation of the charge that love and gratitude play no part in West African religions.

So soon as an Ibibio woman discovers that she is about to bear a babe, old wise women of the race gather round her to teach the thousand and one things which she must or must not do in order to secure the well-being of the new-comer.

All over this part of the country grows a herb with blue flowers, the spikes of which bear blooms in shape like those of a giant heliotrope, but of vividest cobalt, while the stems look as if stained with indigo. The under sides of the leaves, too, are often blue veined, and, from a distance, stretches of this plant, which springs up upon old farm-land or any cleared space, look like a splash of summer sky caught in the green of the bush. Large posies of this flower are picked by the friends of the mother-to-be and rubbed over her body that her pains may be lightened.

The greater number oftabuimposed at such times relate to food. For instance, no snail, especially the greatAcatina marginata, may be eaten, lest the babe should be afflicted with a too plentiful flow of saliva. Nor may an expectant mother eat pig, lest the skin of her child should become spotted in consequence, nor of the fat white maggots to be found in palm trees, lest its breathing powers should be affected. Thetabuon pig, which is strictly observed here for mothers, is much like that reported from Guiana as imposed upon fathers, whose "partaking of the agouti would make the child meagre, or eating a labba would make the infant's mouth protrude like the labba's or make it spotted like the labba, which spots would ultimately become ulcers."

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So far as could be learnt, however, an Ibibio father is not under the necessity of abstaining from any kind of food.

When a woman on the verge of motherhood chances to pass along a path crossed by a line of ants, she may not step over them, lest her unborn babe should be marked with a bald line round the head, supposed to resemble the "ant road." To avoid such a catastrophe she must first pick large leaves and lay these over the spot where she means to cross. Next she should collect sand and strew it over them, for only when the leaves are thus almost covered may she step across.

Mr. Elphinstone Dayrell informed us that among the natives of the Ikom District, of which he was Commissioner, the curious superstition obtains that should a man or woman chance to tread upon a millipede no further children would be born to them. Among Ibibios, too, these creatures are regarded as the harbingers of misfortune. Amid both Efiks and Ibibios the ancient custom still obtains that locks should be undone and knots untied in the house of a woman who is about to bear a babe, since all such are thought, by sympathetic magic, to retard delivery. A case was related of a jealous wife, who, on the advice of a witch doctor versed in the mysteries of her sex, hid a selection of padlocks beneath her garments, then went and sat down near the sick woman's door and surreptitiously turned the key in each. She had previously stolen an old waist-cloth from her rival, which she knotted so tightly over and over that it formed a ball, and, as an added precaution, she locked her fingers closely together and sat with crossed legs, exactly as did Juno Lucina of old when determined to prevent the birth of the infant Hercules.

Sir James Frazer, in the "Taboo" section of his wonderful book "The Golden Bough," gives many examples of similar beliefs. To quote a few instances:

"In north-western Argyllshire superstitious people used to open every lock in the house at childbirth. The old Roman custom of presenting women with a key as a symbol of an easy delivery perhaps points to the observance of a similar custom."

"Thus, among the Saxons of Transylvania, when a woman is in travail all knots on her garments are untied, because it is believed that this will facilitate her delivery, and with the same intention all the locks in the house, whether on doors or boxes, are unlocked."

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"The Lapps think that a lying-in woman should have no knot on her garments, because a knot would have the effect of making the delivery difficult and painful. In ancient India it was a rule to untie all knots in a house at the moment of childbirth. Roman religion required that women who took part in the rites of Juno Lucina, the Goddess of Childbirth, should have no knot tied on their persons."

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The temptation to quote from Sir James Frazer, which besets one at every turn, must, however, be resisted as far as possible, since, did one but yield to it, even to a comparatively small extent, such is the charm of style and vast learning of this great anthropologist that one could no longer venture to claim for this little record that it was written without intervening male influence."

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Throughout the whole of her life no Ibibio woman may eat of a double yam or double plantain lest she bear twin children--the dread of which misfortune looms so large as to darken the existence of Ibibio women. Wretched indeed, in the old days, was the lot of any unfortunate mother of twins, since, though most of the men now deny this, averring that twin babes were only hated and feared as something monstrous and unnatural, a considerable number of women confessed that they, like those of many neighboring tribes, believed that one of the pair at least was no merely mortal offspring but that of some wandering demon.

Till a comparatively short time ago such a birth was followed by the death of both mother and babes, and, except where the fear of the white man is too strong, twins are not allowed to live even now. The custom is either to fling both little ones into the bush to be devoured by leopards or other fierce wood-folk, to offer them up on the beach to be eaten by vultures, or to kill one of them outright and starve the other, the bodies being then flung into bush or river.

Of late years this cruel custom has been modified to the extent that, after bringing about, or at least consenting to, the death of her babes, the woman is allowed to seek refuge in a town set apart for twin mothers. There she is still obliged to undergo "purification" for a period of twelve moons before being allowed to mix again with her fellows. In such circumstances it is customary, in some parts, for the husband to build a but for her and take food thither once a week.

On one occasion not very long ago a wretched twin mother, driven out of her town, made her way to the nearest "twin village." It happened that most of the inhabitants had almost "cleansed" themselves, that is to say, had passed through the greater part of the twelve moons during which they were forbidden to mix with their fellows. Contact with another woman who had but just borne twins would have rendered them unclean once more, so they drove forth the wretched mother, who, weak and almost despairing, managed to reach the town where Mr. Eakin, of the Kwa Ibo Mission, was staying at the time. The unfailing charity of this good friend provided all that was necessary for the moment; then, as soon as the woman was sufficiently recovered, they set out together for the nearest "twin town."

It was midnight when they arrived, and none of the inhabitants would open their doors to this sister in misfortune. So soon, however, as they understood that she was no longer alone, but accompanied by one whose word they had long since learned it was best to obey, a great clatter arose. A woman, whose time of "purification" was almost at an end, turned out every pot, pan and chattel from her dwelling, lest they might be contaminated by the new-comer, and bore them to the house of a neighbour whose year of seclusion was also all but over. The sick woman was then allowed to take possession of the deserted dwelling.