If someone is told a
secret and is greatly excited about it, what about the thief [the
subject of the secret]--has he agreed [to the accusation]?
Ezennaya
had not yet reached Onyeanisi when a man called out his name and told
him to wait. Ezennaya waited. Kuja approached him and told him that
Nonyerem had been taken to Okanu's house so Okanu could provide
treatment for his head. Ezennaya thrust out his tongue, raised the palms
of his hands and said, "God witness for me." They then started off for
Okanu's house. But Ezennaya stubbed his left foot on a rock and pulled
off the nail on his little toe. Ezennaya shouted that something bad was
in store for him, that things had gone bad, because when a lump appears
in a young woman's breast it is not a trifling matter.
Okeke
Mmoro told him that the Lord would not allow that to happen, because
you don't poke your nose with the same thing you use to poke your ear.
Ezennaya
replied that if he [Okeke] told him to come and look at an elephant, he
would say look at the elephant's footprints on the ground. If his
friend scratched a bump, he would scratch it into scabies. [There was no
time to waste.]
Okeke then entered the bush, gathered leaves of the ulanjina
[a kind of shrub], rubbed them between his hands, and pressed the
liquid on the place where Ezennaya had stubbed his foot. That hurt him,
he cried out, and Okeke expressed sympathy. He thanked him. Ezennaya
went to a sand hill, gathered some sand, and spread it on the place
where he had stubbed his foot, then began his journey.
Okeke
told him that it was all right for the mouth to touch the ground but it
need not be closed forever. Ezennaya gnashed his teeth and said that an
unlucky person should not strike his wife on the head, that would cause
a swollen foot. [Bad luck would double.] And the elders say that when
the wind blows you can see the chicken's bottom, and because of it we
can differentiate between sweat and tears.
Ekwuigbo
stood by the road, took a stick, and was cleaning his teeth while
watching his three sheep enter the bush chewing iroko tree bark. He
called to Ezennaya and asked if everything was all right, since they
were proceeding in such a hurry.
Ezennaya
told him that if a person is fat only in his legs it is not good fat,
because the toad does not run in the afternoon for nothing. [refers to
impossibility--something must be going on.]
Ekwuigbo
asked him what happened. He replied that he should go with him to see,
because if a woman relates every little thing to her husband about her
daily activities, when her husband goes out, too much salt has been
added to the stew pot on the hearth fire. [No time to go into detail.]
Ekwuigbo
then told him that he would follow behind him, because if you stare at
the face of a corpse you will not eat anything. And he would not because
of "hurry hurry'' [sudden event] unwrap his cloth and throw it into the
bush.
When
Ezennaya and Okeke Mmoro and Kuja reached Okanu's house, Okanu rubbed
his [Ezennaya's] leg and drew out a clot of blood that was black as
dirt. But the gourd cup he used for the rubbing was on his head.
Ezennaya
took Okeke Mmoro and they went to Akueche's house so he could tell them
what else the divination had said, but Ekwuofu and Kuja and others in
the group stayed in Okanu's house.
Akueche was twisting the rope [made from stalks of palm leaves] he was going to use to tie up the new obi
in his compound. They knocked, he told them to enter and they did; he
gave them seats and they sat down. He went to his leather bag and
brought out kola and examined it, found the kola infested with insects,
split it open and threw the lobes to the ground. He put his hand in and
brought out another one, it too was infested; he hissed in disgust and
threw it out.
He
then went to the shelf above the fireplace and brought down a head of
kola nuts, took a knife and split it open and took out one nut and put
it on a platter, got three pieces of pepper, placed them around it, took
chalk and made chalk marks, then called them and presented them with
kola.
They
accepted the chalk, thanked him, and returned the kola to him, telling
him that the chief's kola was in the chief's hands, and also told him to
recognize that the head pad was uncomfortable on the head of the
spirits and the toad did not run in the afternoon for nothing.
[indicating that something was brewing.]
He
responded and said that "lead me out'' was wonderful, that anyone who
headed home would surely arrive there, and it was good if a person gave
his child the same thing he gave his brother. They agreed.
He
then began to bless the kola, although Ezennaya felt uneasy because a
person whose house is on fire does not go hunting for rats. [He was
anxious to get on with the matter.]
After
he had blessed it, he split it and spread it on the kola dish, so the
spirits could chew the tongue of the kola. Akueche took his own and ate
it, gave some to Ezennaya and Okeke Mmoro and they took it, ate and
thanked him saying, "Thank you for the kola." He thanked them and told
them to eat what was keeping them awake so that they could sleep.
Ezennaya
told him that they had come for divination, so he went and brought out
his divination equipment and began to do the divining. After he had
finished, he told them that they should go and dig up Nonyerem's
talisman at the base of the silk-cotton tree in the Ichekoku village
square. They thanked him and asked him if there was anything else. He
replied that that was all, and that if they did what he told them, the
thing that was gripping the child so hard would leave him. They then
thanked him and gave him some money, some cowrie shells, and a head of
kola nuts. He took them and thanked them, they thanked him and left.
Ezennaya
said that the one who carries the load is the one who bears the burden.
They then started off for the house of Okafor Ndakubu so he could come
and dig up Nonyere's talisman. By then the chickens were going to sleep
[it was early evening]. Ndakubu was grinding snuff when they reached his
house. They waited until he finished grinding the snuff; he took a
pinch of it himself, gave it to them, and they took some. Ezennaya told
him that a certain mad man said that the way people knew he was mad was
that he wanted to say one thing and another thing came out of his mouth.
Ndakubu
told him that human beings go through a lot [of troubles]. They all
then went to Okanu's house and picked up Nonyerem and went to Ichekoku.
Ezennaya went to Osota's house and bought a white cock, killed it, and
went to the place where they were going to dig up the talisman.
Ndakubu
looked for the place he had buried the talisman, took the chicken and
spread its blood there, then took the chicken's body and set it down on
an oil bean tree that had been cut down.
Ndakubu
then mumbled some secret words, but the people did not understand what
he said. He took something he had tied up in antelope skin, threw it out
on the ground and picked it up three times. He then put his hand into
his bag and gathered some dried leaves he had put inside of it and
chewed them, coughed and rubbed his eyes, took chalk and rubbed it on
his eyes, then began to dig up the talisman.
He
had dug to about the height of a man's knees, but the palm kernel had
not struck the swallow [he had no success]. And night had fallen, the
moon was shining but the moonlight was not sufficient. Ezennaya then
went and lit up an urimmu [local lantern similar to a candle].
At
times, as Ndakubu dug, he took the thing he had removed from the
antelope skin and rubbed it on the hole he was digging, so he could find
out where the talisman was.
Soon,
they heard something like the sound of a bell; they stood still and
listened and it seemed to them like a gong sounding. Then, Nduru came
out and struck the gong and said that everyone, great and small, should
go to work in the Dunu village square early the next morning, and anyone
who did not come would have to give the people of the town one gallon
of wine.
Not
long afterward, Ndakubu dug out something that had been tied up. He
took it and opened it up. Then everyone shouted, and they saw something
that shone like silver, and a ring, and necklaces, and waistbeads woven
out of cotton.
Ndakubu grasped another chicken and spread its blood on the opening, placed the chicken near it and then closed up the opening.
Everyone
thanked him, and called him "a man of his word." He then took the body
of one chicken, gave Ezennaya what he had dug up as the talisman, and
told him to take the other chicken and go home and cook it and that only
Nonyerem should eat it.
Ezennaya
took the thing that he dug up, took three cowry shells and gave them to
Ndakubu, then took Nonyerem and gathered up his hoe and his knife, and
they all went home.
When they returned to Ezennaya's house, no one was able to sleep because Nonyere's fever went high and low, and he was babbling.
Crowds
of people then filled his house. His mother and father could not even
sit down. They were rubbing him with pomade, palm kernel ointment, and
oil from palm nuts.
At
the first cockcrow, Nonyerem was gasping for breath. Everyone was
concerned, because Ezennaya had not relaxed his efforts for a minute,
yet Nonyerem was hanging on to life to the point that death would have
been better.
Before
the second cockcrow, Nonyerem's mother cradled him, wiping away the
foam that was coming out of his mouth, but his eyes were closing.
Everyone
was crying. Nonyerem then called to his mother and father and they came
to him. He bade them goodbye. And when he had finished speaking, his
hands drooped down and he died. Commotion broke out everywhere.
At
that time, it was slowly getting dark; all the people came together and
threw themselves to the ground. What bothered them was not only that a
person had died, but that something ongoing had come to an end, and
night had fallen in the afternoon.
Now,
whatever had eaten the food had also licked up the soup. Nonyerem's
mother was crying and she did not want people to comfort her. She said
that a poor person lives a long time but he is beset by a lot of
trouble.Chapter 5
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