Some Nigerian fertility cults / [Percy Amaury Talbot].

  • Talbot, Percy Amaury, 1877-1945.
Date:
[1927]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some Nigerian fertility cults / [Percy Amaury Talbot]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ‘ All the people of Elele bring offerings to me,’ he said. ‘ When the yams finish they bring plantains and I begin to chop those. Also they bring me much tombo. It is a very strong law of the Juju that no yams, save such as are old enough to plant, may be eaten by a priest of Aya-Eke. None has ever broken this rule ; for, should it be disobeyed, the seed yams would die in the ground, bearing no increase. All the great men of our family have kept the law faithfully. Now no more big men are left in our house; but I, though but a small boy in comparison with those powerful ones, also hold to this rule.’ Hereupon one of our party asked if he himself had power to appoint a successor, or in what way one was chosen. No sooner was the word ‘ successor ’ uttered than Eleche raised his arms over his head twice as though to ward off threatened danger, while his head wife, who kept close to him throughout, shrugged her shoulders violently over and over again, repeating in an agitated voice: ‘ Mba! Mba ! Che! Che! ’ (Let it not be! Let it not be!) Meanwhile the crowd of retainers took up the cry, low but angry, like the rumble of distant thunder, waving hands outward as if to drive off the ill-effects of such ominous speech. Eleche answered excitedly, the words tumbling over one another in his agitation: ‘No successor is needed; for I shall never die! It is forbidden even to mention such a word! In the beginning of things, when I came out of the world, it was arranged that I should not be as other men but should live very long_ looking after my people and bringing them prosperity. The fate of common men is not for me ! ’ Thereupon, like a Greek chorus, came the response of the crowd: ‘Oda! Oda! (Forbid it! Forbid it!)