Books by Chinua Achebe

Amhills of the SlIINJllllah

TIle Sacrificial Egg alld Other Stories
[Link] Fall Apart CHINUA ACHEBE
No LOllger tit Ease
C/Jike alld the River
A Mall of the People
Arrow of God
Girls at 1#11' alld Otller Stories
BeuKlre Soul Brother
Mortlillg ret Olt Creatioll Day
TI" Trouble ulith Nigeria
Girls at JiUzr
TI" Flute
TIte Drum
Hopes alld Impedimellts
and other stories
With John Iroaganachi
'PK
13'67
How the Leopard Got His Claws ,q
With Others
,A3
(;S7
Willds of Challge: Modem Short Stories from Black Africa
19'11
With C. L. Innes (Eds.)

Africall Short Stories

ANCHOR BOOKS
A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE, IN C .
NEW YORK
 Preface

It was with something of a shock that I realized that

my earliest short stories were pu blished as long ago as
twenty years in the Ibadan student magazine, The
University Herald. I suppose I had come to think that
that exciting adjective "new" so beloved of advertisers
and salesmen would stick to me indefinitely. But alas a
practitioner of twenty years standing should no longer
be called new. All that he can do is probably to draw
some comfort from looking at his art in the light of
wine (which improves with age) rather than, say,
detergent which has to be ever new. And I do not
necessarily mean wine of the vine, for the palm-tree
which I know better has its wine too, somewhat sweet
when it is first brought down in the morning but
harsher and more potent as the day advances.
I have felt another kind of disappointment in the
fewness of the stories. A dozen pieces in twenty years
must be accounted a pretty lean harvest by any
reckoning. A countryman of mine once described
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 GIRLS A T WAR AND OTHER STORIES
himself as a "voracious writer." On my present show-
ing I could not possibly make a similar claim. I do
hope, however, that this little collection does have
some merit and interest, even the two student pieces
(I dare not call them stories) which I have slightly
touched up here and there without, I hope, destroying
their primal ingenuousness.
Another fellow countryman of mine, Wole Soyinka,
once charged me, albeit in a friendly way, with an
"unrelieved competence" in my novels. I trust that
some at least of these short stories stretching farther
back in time than the novels and touching upon more
The Madman
varied areas of experience will please by occasional
departures into relieved competence (to say nothing of
relieved and unrelieved incompetence).
I am grateful to Professors Thomas Melone of
Yaounde and G. D. [Link] of Dar es Salaam for He was drawn to markets and straight roads. Not any
tracking down some of the earliest of these stories. tiny neighbourhood market where a handful of garru-
lous women might gather at sunset to gossip and buy
CHiNUA A CHE BE ogili for the evening's soup, but a huge, engulfing
bazaar beckoning people familiar and strange from far
Institute of African Studies and near. And not any dusty, old footpath beginning in
University of Nigeria this village, and ending in that stream, but broad,
Nsukka black, mysterious highways without beginning or end.
After much wandering he had discovered two such
markets linked together by such a highway; and so
ended his wandering. One market was AfQ, the other
Eke. The two days between them suited him very
well: before setting out for Eke he had ample time to
wind up his business properly at AfQ. He passed the
night there putting right again his hut after a day of
defilement by two fat-bottomed market women who
said it was their market stall. At first he had put up a
fight but the women had gone and brought their men-
folk-four hefty beasts of the bush-to whip him out
2 3
 GIRLS A T WAR AND OTHER STORIES The Madman
of the hut. After that he always avoided them, moving * * *
out on the morning of the market and back in at dusk Nwibe was a man of high standing in Ogbu and was
to pass the night. Then in the morning he rounded off rising higher; a man of wealth and integrity. He had
his affairs swiftly and set out on that long, beautiful just given notice to all the QZQ men of the town that he
boa-constrictor of a road to Eke in the distant town of proposed to seek admission into their honoured hier-
Ogbu. He held his staff and cudgel at the ready in his archy in the coming initiation season.
right hand, and with the left he steadied the basket of "Your proposal is excellent," said the men of title.
his belongings on his head. He had got himself this "When we see we shan believe." Which was their
cudgel lately to deal with little beasts on the way who dignUied way of telling you to think it over once again
threw stones at him and made fun of their mothers' and make sure you have the means to go through with
nakedness, not his own. it. For QZQ is not a child's naming ceremony; and where
He used to walk in the middle of the road, holding it is the man to hide his face who begins the QZQ dance
in conversation. But one day the driver of a mammy- and then is foot-stuck to the arena? But in this
wagon and his mate came down on him shouting, instance the caution of the elders was no more than a
pushing and slapping his face. They said their lorry formality for Nwibe was such a sensible man that no
very nearly ran over their mother, not him. After that one could think of him beginning something he was not
he avoided those noisy lorries too, with the vagabonds sure to finish.
inside them. On that Eke day Nwibe had risen early so as to visit
his farm beyond the stream and do some light work
Having walked one day and one night he was now before going to the market at midday to drink a horn
close to the Eke market-place. From every little side- or two of palm-wine with his peers and perhaps buy
road, crowds of market people poured into the big that bundle of roofing thatch for the repair of his
highway to join the enormous fl ow to Eke. Then he wives' huts. As for his own hut he had a coup1e of
saw some young ladies with water-pots on their heads years back settled it finally by changing his thatch-
coming towards him, unlike all the rest, away from the roof to zinc. Sooner or later he would do the same for
market. This surprised him. Then he saw two more his wives. He could have done Mgboye's hut right
water-pots rise out of a sloping footpath leading off his away but decided to wait until he could do the two
side of the highway. He felt thirsty then and stopped together, or else Udenkwo would set the entire
to think it ovel: Then he set down his basket on the compound on fire. Udenkwo was the junior wife, by
roadside and turned into the sloping footpath. But three years, but she never let that worry her. Happily
first he begged his highway not to be offended or Mgboye was a woman of peace who rarely demanded
continue the journey without him. "I'll get some for the respect due to her from the other. She would suffer
you too," he said coaxingly with a tender backward Udenkwo's provoking tongue sometimes for a whole
glance. "I know you are thirsty." day without offering a word in reply. And when she
4 5
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES The Madman
did reply at all her words were always few and her "The great judge has spoken," sang Udenkwo in
voice very low.
a sneering sing-song. "Thank you, great judge.
That very morning Udenkwo had accused her of Udenkwo is mad. Udenkwo is always mad, but those
spite and all kinds of wickedness on account of a little of you who are sane let . . ."
dog.
"Shut your mouth, shameless woman, or a wild
"What has a little dog done to you?" she screamed
beast will lick your eyes for you this morning. When
loud enough for half the village to hear. "I ask you,
Mgboye, what is the offense of a puppy this early in will you learn to keep your badness within this
the day?" compound instead of shouting it to all Ogbu to hear? I
"What your puppy did this early in the day," replied say shut your mouth!"
Mgboye, "is that he put his shit-mouth into my soup- There was silence then except for Udenkwo's infant
pot." whose yelling had up till then been swallowed up by
"And then?" the larger noise of the adults.
"And then I smacked him." "Don't cry, my father," said Udenkwo to him. "They
"You smacked him! Why don't you cover your soup- want to kill your dog, but our people say the man who
pot? Is it easier to hit a dog than cover a pot? Is a small decides to chase after a chicken, for him is the
puppy to have more sense than a woman who leaves fall . . ."
her soup-pot about . . . ?" By the middle of the morning Nwibe had done all
"Enough from you, Udenkwo." the work he had to do on his farm and was on his way
"It is not enough, Mgboye, it is not enough. If that again to prepare for market. At the little stream he
dog owes you any debt I want to know. Everything I decided as he always did to wash off the sweat of
have, even a little dog I bought to eat my infant's work. So he put his cloth on a huge boulder by the
excrement keeps you awake at nights. You are a bad men's bathing section and waded in. There was
woman, Mgboye, you are a very bad woman!" nobody else around because of the time of day and
Nwibe had listened to all of this in silence in his hut. because it was market day. But from instinctive
He knew from the vigour in Udenkwo's voice that she modesty he turned to face the forest away from the
could go on like this till market-time. So he inter- approaches.
vened, in his characteristic manner by calling out to
his senior wife. The madman watched him for quite a while. Each time
"Mgboye! Let me have peace this early morning!" he bent down to carry water in cupped hands from the
"Don't you hear all the abuses Udenkwo . . ." shallow stream to his head and body the madman
"I hear nothing at all from Udenkwo and I want smiled at his parted behind. And then remembered.
peace in my compound. If Udenkwo is crazy must This was the same hefty man who brought three
everybody else go crazy with her? Is one crazy woman others like him and whipped me out of my hut in the
not enough in my compound so early in the day?" AfQ market. He nodded to himself. And he remem-
6 7
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES The Madman
bered again: this was the same vagabond who de- speed. Furthermore, he did not waste his breath
scended on me from the lorry in the middle of my shouting and cursing; he just ran. Two girls going
highway. He nodded once more. And then he remem- down to the stream saw a man running up the slope
bered yet again: this was the same fellow who set his towards them pursued by a stark-naked madman.
children to throw stones at me and make remarks They threw down their pots and fled, screaming.
about their mothers' buttocks, not mine. Then he When Nwibe emerged into the full glare of the
laughed.
highway he could not see his cloth clearly any more
Nwibe turned sharply round and saw the naked man and his chest was on the point of exploding from the
laughing, the deep grove of the stream amplifying his fire and torment within. But he kept running. He was
laughter. Then he stopped as suddenly as he had only vaguely aware of crowds of people on all sides and
begun; the merriment vanished from his face. he appealed to them tearfully without stopping: "Hold
"I have caught you naked," he said. the madman, he's got my cloth!" By this time the man
Nwibe ran a hand swiftly down his face to clear his with the cloth was practically lost among the much
eyes of water.
denser crowds far in front so that the link between
"I say I have caught you naked, with your thing him and the naked man was no longer clear.
dangling about." Now Nwibe continually bumped against people's
"I can see you are hungry for a whipping," said backs and then laid flat a frail old man struggling with
Nwibe with quiet menace in his voice, for a madman is a stubborn goat on a leash. "Stop the madman," he
said to be easily scared away by the very mention of a shouted hoarsely, his heart tearing to shreds, "he's got
whip. "Wait till I get up there. . . . What are you my cloth!" Everyone looked at him first in surprise
doing? Drop it at once . . . I say drop it!" and then less surprise because strange sights are
The madman had picked up Nwibe's cloth and common in a great market. Some of them even
wrapped it round his own waist. He looked down at laughed.
himself and began to laugh again. "They've got his cloth he says."
"I will kill you," screamed N wibe as he splashed "That's a new one I'm sure. He hardly looks mad
towards the bank, maddened by anger. "I will whip yet. Doesn't he have people, I wonder."
that madness out of you today!" "People are so careless these days. Why can't they
They ran all the way up the steep and rocky keep proper watch over their sick relation, especially
footpath hedged in by the shadowy green forest. A on the day of the market?"
mist gathered and hung over Nwibe's vision as he ran,
stumbled, fell, pulled himself up again and stumbled Farther up the road on the very brink of the market-
on, shouting and cursing. The other, despite his place two men from Nwibe's village recognized him
unaccustomed encumbrance steadily increased his and, throwing down the one his long basket of yams,
lead, for he was spare and wiry, a thing made for the other his calabash of palm-wine held on a loop,
8 9
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES The Madman
gave desperate chase, to stop him setting foot irrevo- "Can you do nothing at all then, not even to untie his
cably within the occult territory of the powers of the tongue?"
market. But it was in vain. When finally they caught "Nothing can be done. They have already embraced
him it was well inside the crowded square. Udenkwo him. It is like a man who runs away from the
in tears tore off her top-cloth which they draped on oppression of his fellows to the grove of an alusi and
him and led him home by the hand. He spoke just once says to him: Take me, oh spirit, I am your osu. No man
about a madman who took his cloth in the stream. can touch him thereafter. He is free and yet no power
"It is all right," said one of the men in the tone of a can break his bondage. He is free of men but bonded to
father to a crying child. They led and he followed a god."
blindly, his heavy chest heaving up and down in silent The second doctor was not as famous as the first and
weeping. Many more people from his village, a few of not so strict. He said the case was bad, very bad
his in-laws and one or two others from his mother's indeed, but no one folds his anns because the condition
place had joined the grief-stricken party. One man of his child is beyond hope. He must still grope around
whispered to another that it was the worst kind of and do his best. His hearers nodded in eager agree-
madness, deep and tongue-tied. ment. And then he muttered into his own inward ear:
"May it end ill for him who did this," prayed the If doctors were to send away every patient whose cure
other. they were uncertain of, how many of them would eat
one meal in a whole week from their practice?
The first medicine-man his relatives consulted refused Nwibe was cured of his madness. That humble
to take him on, out of some kind of integrity. practitioner who did the miracle became overnight the
"I could say yes to you and take your money," he most celebrated mad-doctor of his generation. They
said. "But that is not my way. My powers of cure are called him Sojourner to the Land of the Spirits. Even
known throughout Olu and Igbo but never have 1 so it remains true that madness may indeed some-
professed to bring back to life a man who has sipped times depart but never with all his clamorous train.
the spirit-waters of ani-mmQ. It is the same with a Some of these always remain-the trailers of madness
madman who of his own accord delivers himself to the you might call them-to haunt the doorway of the
divinities of the market-place. You should have kept eyes. For how could a man be the same again of whom
better watch over him." witnesses from all the lands of Olu and Igbo have once
"Don't blame us too much," said Nwibe's relative. reported that they saw today a fine, hefty man in his
"When he left home that morning his senses were as prime, stark naked, tearing through the crowds to
complete as yours and mine now. Don't blame us too answer the call of the market-place? Such a man is
much." marked for ever.
"Yes, 1 know. It happens that way sometimes. And
they are the ones that medicine will not reach. 1 Nwibe became a quiet, withdrawn man avoiding
know." whenever he could the boisterous side of the life of his
10 11
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES
people. Two years later, before another initiation
season, he made a new inquiry about joining the
community of titled men in his town. Had they
received him perhaps he might have become at least
partially restored, but those QZQ men, dignified and
polite as ever, deftly steered the conversation away to
other matters.

12
 Chike's Sclwol Days

Sarah's last child was a boy, and his birth brought

great joy to the house of his father, Amos. The child
received three names at his baptism~ohn , Chike,
Obiajulu. The last name means "the mind at last is at
rest." Anyone hearing this name knew at once that its
owner was either an only child or an only son. Chike
was an only son. His parents had had five daughters
before him.
Like his sisters Chike was brought up "in the ways
of the white man," which meant the opposite of
traditional. Amos had many years before bought a
tiny bell with which he summoned his family to
prayers and hymn-singing first thing in the morning
and last thing at night. This was one of the ways of the
white man. Sarah taught her children not to eat in
their neighbours' houses because "they offered their
food to idols." And thus she set herself against the
age-old custom which regarded children as the com-
mon responsibility of all so that, no matter what the
37
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES C/Jike's S,hool Days
relationship between parents, their children played Mr. Brown's parsonage greatly fortified. A few days
together and shared their food. later he told his widowed mother, who had recently
One day a neighbour offered a piece of yam to been converted to Christianity and had taken the
Chike, who was only four years old. The boy shook his name of Elizabeth. The shock nearly killed her. When
head haughtily and said, "We don't eat heathen food." she recovered, she went down on her knees and
The neighbour was full of rage, but she controlled begged Amos not to do this thing. But he would not
herself and only muttered under her breath that even hear; his ears had been nailed up. At last, in despera-
an Om was full of pride nowadays, thanks to the white tion, Elizabeth went to consult the diviner.
man. This diviner was a man of great power and wisdom.
And she was right. In the past an Osu could not As he sat on the floor of his hut beating a tortoise
raise his shaggy head in the presence of the free-born.
shell, a coating of white chalk round his eyes, he saw
He was a slave to one of the many gods of the clan. He
not only the present, but also what had been and what
was a thing set apart, not to be venerated but to be
despised and almost spat on. He could not marry a was to be. He was called ''the man of the four eyes."
free-born, and he could not take any of the titles of his As soon as old Elizabeth appeared, he cast his
clan. When he died, he was buried by his kind in the stringed cowries and told her what she had come to
Bad Bush. see him about. "Your son has joined the white man's
Now all that had changed, or had begun to change. religion. And you too in your old age when you should
So that an Osu child could even look down his no e at a know better. And do you wonder that he is stricken
free-born, and talk about heathen food! The white man with insanity? Those who gather ant-infested faggots
had indeed accomplished many things. must be prepared for the visit of lizards." He cast his
Chike's father was not originally an Osu, but had cowries a number of times and wrote with a finger on a
gone and married an Osu woman in the name of bowl of sand, and all the while his nwifulu, a talking
Christianity. It was unheard of for a man to make calabash, chatted to itself. "Shut up!" he roared, and it
himself Osu in that way, with his eyes wide open. But immediately held its peace. The diviner then muttered
then Amos was nothing if not mad. The new religion a few incantations and rattled off a breathless reel of
had gone to his head. It was like palm-wine. Some proverbs that followed one another like the cowries in
people drank it and remained ensible. Others lost his magic string.
every sense in their stomach. At last he pronounced the cure. The ancestors
The only person who supported Amos in his mad were angry and must be appeased with a goat. Old
marriage venture was Mr. Brown, the white mis- Elizabeth performed the rites, but her son remained
sionary, who lived in a thatch-roofed, red-earth-walled insane and married an Osu girl whose name was
parsonage and was highly respected by the people, not Sarah. Old Elizabeth renounced her new religion and
because of his sermons, but because of a dispensary he returned to the faith of her people.
ran in one of his rooms. Amos had emerged from We have wandered from our main story. But it is
38 39
 GIRLS A T WAR AND OTHER STORIES Chike's SclIOO/ Days
important to know how Chike's father became an Osu, It did not matter to t heir dancing that in the
because even today when everything is upside down, twentieth century Caesar was no longer ruler of the
such a story is very rare. But now to return to Chike whole world.
who refused heathen food at the tender age of four And sometimes they even sang in English. Chike
years, or maybe five. was very fond of "Ten Green Bottles." They had been
1\\10 years later he went to the village school. His taught the words but they only remembered the first
right hand could now reach across his head to his left and the last lines. The middle was hummed and hie-ed
ear, which proved that he was old enough to tackle the and mumbled:
mysteries of the white man's learning. He was very
happy about his new slate and pencil, and especially
Ten grin botr angin on dar war,
Ten grin botr angin on dar war,
about his school unifonn of white shirt and brown
Hm hm hm hm hm
khaki shorts. But as the first day of the new tenn
Hm, hm hm hm hm hm,
approached, his young mind dwelt on the many stories An ten grin botr angin on dar war.
about teachers and their canes. And he rememebered
the song his elder sisters sang, a song that had a In this way the first year passed. Chike was
somewhat disquieting refrain: promoted to the "Infant School," where work of a
more serious nature was undertaken.
Onye nkuzi ewelu itali piagbusie umuaka. We need not follow him through the Infant School.
It would make a full story in itself. But it was no
One of the ways an emphasis is laid in Ibo is by different from the story of other children. In the
exaggeration, so that the teacher in the refrain might Primary School, however, his individual character
not actually have flogged the children to death. But began to show. He developed a strong hatred for
there was no doubt he did flog them. And Chike arithmetic. But he loved stories and songs. And he
thought very much about it. liked particularly the sound of English words, even
Being so young, Chike was sent to what was called when they conveyed no meaning at all. Some of them
the "religious class" where they sang, and sometimes simply IDled him with elation. "Periwinkle" was such a
danced, the catechism. He loved the sound of words word. He had now forgotten how he learned it or
and he loved rhythm. During the catechism lesson the exactly what it was. He had a vague private meaning
class fonned a ring to dance the teacher's question. for it and it was something to do with fairyland.
"Who was Caesar?" he might ask, and the song would "Constellation" was another.
burst forth with much stamping of feet. Chike's teacher was fond of long words. He was said
to be a very learned man. His favourite pastime was
Siza bu eze Rome copying out jaw-breaking words from his Chambers'
Onye nachi enu uwa dum. Etymological Dictionary. Only the other day he had
40 41
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES
raised applause from his class by demolishing a boy's
excuse for lateness with unanswerable erudition. He
had said: "Procrastination is a lazy man's apology."
The teacher's erudition showed itself in every subject
he taught. His nature study lessons were memorable.
Chike would always remember the lesson on the
methods of seed dispersal. According to teacher, there
were five methods: by man, by animals, by water, by
wind, and by explosive mechanism. Even those pupils
who forgot all the other methods remembered "explo-
sive mechanism."
The Sacrifuial Egg
Chike was naturally impressed by teacher's explo-
sive vocabulary. But the fairyland quality which words
had for him was of a different kind. The first sentences
in his New Method R eader were simple enough and
yet they filled him with a vague exultation: "Once
there was a wizard. He lived in Africa. He went to Julius Obi sat gazing at his typewriter. The fat Chief
China to get a lamp. " Chike read it over and over Clerk, his boss, was snoring at his table. Outside, the
again at home and then made a song of it. It was a gatekeeper in his green uniform was sleeping at his
meaningless song. "Periwinkles" got into it, and also post. You couldn't blame him; no customer had passed
"Damascus." But it was like a window through which through the gate for nearly a week. There was an
he saw in the distance a strange, magical new world . empty basket on the giant weighing machine. A few
And he was happy. palm-kernels lay desolately in the dust around the
machine. Only the flies remained in strength.
Julius went to the window that overlooked the great
market on the bank of the River Niger. This market,
though still called Nkwo, had long spilled over into
Eke, Oye, and AfQ with the coming of civilization and
the growth of the town into the big palm-oil port. In
spite of this encroachment, however, it was still
busiest on its original Nkwo day, because the deity
who had presided over it from antiquity still cast her
spell only on her own day-let men in their greed spill
over themselves. It was said that she appeared in the
form of an old woman in the centre of the market just
42 43
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES The Sacrificial Egg
before cock-crow and waved her magic fan in the four metalware, also at its own price. The offices were
directions of the earth-in front of her, behind her, to situated beside the famous market so that in his first
the right and to the left-to draw to the market men two or three weeks Julius had to learn to work within
and women from distant places. And they came its huge enveloping hum. Sometimes when the Chief
bringing the produce of their lands-palm-oil and Clerk was away he walked to the window and looked
kernels, cola nuts, cassava, mats, baskets and earth- down on the vast anthill activity. Most of these people
enware pots; and took home many-coloured cloths, were not here yesterday, he thought, and yet the
smoked fish, iron pots and plates. These were the market had been just as full. There must be many,
forest peoples. The other half of the world who lived many people in the world to be able to fill the market
by the great rivers came down also-by canoe, bring- day after day like this. Of course they say not all who
ing yams and fish. Sometimes it was a big canoe with a came to the great market were real people. Janet's
dozen or more people in it; sometimes it was a lone mother, Ma, had said so.
fisherman and his wife in a small vessel from the swift- "Some of the beautiful young women you see
flowing Anambara. They moored their canoe on the squeezing through the crowds are not people like you
bank and sold their fish, after much haggling. The or me but mammy-wota who have their town in the
woman then walked up the steep banks of the river to depths of the river," she said. "You can always tell
the heart of the market to buy salt and oil and, if the them, because they are beautiful with a beauty that is
sales had been very good, even a length of cloth. And too perfect and too cold. You catch a glimpse of her
for her children at home she 'bought bean cakes and with the tail of your eye, then you blink and look
mai-mai which the Igara women cooked. As evening properly, but she has already vanished in the crowd."
approached, they took up their paddles again and Julius thought about these things as he now stood at
paddled away, the water shimmering in the sunset and the window looking down on the silent, empty market.
their canoe becoming smaller and smaller in the Who would have believed that the great boisterous
distance until it was just a dark crescent on the market could ever be quenched like this? But such was
water's face and two dark bodies swaying forwards the strength of Kitikpa, the incarnate power of
and backwards in it. Umuru then was the meeting smallpox. Only he could drive away all those people
place of the forest people who were called Igbo and the and leave the market to the flies.
alien river folk whom the Igbo called Olu and beyond When Umuru was a little village, there was an
whom the world stretched in indefiniteness. agegrade who swept its market-square every Nkwo
Julius Obi was not a native of Umuru. He had come day. But progress had turned it into a busy, sprawling,
like countless others from some bush village inland. crowded and dirty river port, a no-man's-land where
Having passed his Standard Six in a mission school he strangers outnumbered by far the sons of the soil, who
had come to Umuru to work as a clerk in the offices of could do nothing about it except shake their heads at
the all-powerful European trading company which this gross perversion of their prayer. For indeed they
bought palm-kernels at its own price and cloth and had prayed-who will blame them-for their town to
44 45
 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES The Sacrificial Egg
grow and prosper. And it had grown. But there is good boisterousness. "You never know whom you might
growth and there is bad growth. The belly does not meet on the streets. That family has got it." She
bulge out only with food and drink; it might be the lowered her voice even more and pointed surrep-
abominable diseru;e which would end by sending its titiously at the house across the road whose doorway
sufferer out of the house even before he was fully was barred with a yellow palm-frond. "He has deco-
dead. rated one of them already and the rest were moved
The strangers who came to Umuru came for trade away today in a big government Ion),."
and money, not in search of duties to perform, for they Janet walked a short way with Julius and stopped;
had those in plenty back home in their village which so he stopped too. They seemed to have nothing to say
was real home. to each other yet they lingered on. Then she said
And as if this did not suffice, the young sons and goodnight and he said goodnight. And they shook
daughters of Umuru soil, encouraged by schools and hands, which was very odd, as though parting for the
churches were behaving no better than the strangers. night were something new and grave.
They neglected all their old tasks and kept only the He did not go straight home, because he wanted
revelries. desperately to cling, even alone, to this strange
Such was the state of the town when Kitikpa came parting. Being educated he was not afraid of whom he
to see it and to demand the sacrifice the inhabitants might meet, so he went to the bank of the river and
owed the gods of the soil. He came in confident just walked up and down it. He must have been there
knowledge of the terror he held over the people. He a long time because he was still there when the
was an evil deity, and boasted it. Lest he be offended wooden gong of the night-mask sounded. He im-
those he killed were not killed but decorated, and no mediately set out for home, half-walking and half-
one dared weep for them. He put an end to the coming running, for night-masks were not a matter of super-
and going between neighbours and between Villages. stition; they were real. They chose the night for their
They said, "Kitikpa is in that village," and immedi- revelry because like the bat's their ugliness was great.
ately it was cut off by its neighbours. In his hurry he stepped on something that broke
Julius was sad and worried because it was almost a with a slight liquid explosion. He stopped and peeped
week since he had seen Janet, the girl he was going to down at the footpath. The moon was not up yet but
marry. Ma had explained to him very gently that he there was a faint light in the sky which showed that it
should no longer go to see them "until this thing is would not be long delayed. In this half-light he saw
over, by the power of Jehovah." (Ma was a very that he had stepped on an egg offered in sacrifice.
devout Christian convert and one reason why she Someone oppressed by misfortune had brought the
approved of Julius for her only daughter was that he offering to the crossroads in the dusk. And he had
sang in the choir of the CMS church.) stepped on it. There were the usual young palm-
"You must keep to your rooms," she had said in fronds around it. But Julius saw it differently as a
hushed tones, for Kitikpa strictly forbade any noise or house where the terrible artist was at work. He wiped
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 GIRLS AT WAR AND OTHER STORIES TIle Sacrificial Egg
the sole of his foot on the sandy path and hurried seemed like another life, separated from the present
away, carrying another vague worry in his mind. But by a vast emptiness. This emptiness deepened with
hurrying was no use now; the fleet-footed mask was every passing day. On this side of it stood Julius, and
already abroad. Perhaps it was impelled to hurry by on the other Ma and Janet whom the dread artist deco-
the threatening imminence of the moon. Its voice rose rated.
high and clear in the still night air like a flaming
sword. It was yet a long way away, but Julius knew
that distances vanished before it. So he made straight
for the cocoyam farm beside the road and threw
himself on his belly, in the shelter of the broad leaves.
He had hardly done this when he heard the rattling
staff of the spirit and a thundering stream of esoteric
speech. He shook allover. The sounds came bearing
down on him, almost pressing his face into the moist
earth. And now he could hear the footsteps. It was as
if twenty evil men were running together. Panic sweat
broke all over him and he was nearly impelled to get
up and run. Fortunately he kept a firm hold on him-
self . . . In no time at all the commotion in the air
and on the earth-the thunder and torrential rain, the
earthquake and flood-passed and disappeared in the
distance on the other side of the road.
The next morning at the office, the Chief Clerk, a
son of the soil spoke bitterly about last night's
provocation of Kitikpa by the headstrong youngsters
who had launched the noisy fleet-footed mask in
defiance of their elders, who knew that Kitikpa would
be enraged, and then . . .
The trouble was that the disobedient youths had
never yet experienced the power of Kitikpa them-
selves; they had only heard of it. But soon they would
learn.
As Julius stood at the window looking out on the
emptied market he lived through the terror of that
night again. It was barely a week ago but already it
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