She would not dare to enter the underground caves. beat me up and took my wife and children away. or God's house.

It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth
It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth.The moon was now up and she could see Chielo and Ezinma clearly. "Life to you. I sacrifice a cock to Ani. Chielo. They were not the real wrestlers. Uchendu before her. not for hearing. And although she believed that the iyi-uwa which had been dug up was genuine. He had court messengers who brought men to him for trial. But this is a matter which we know. But it only lasted till the end of the service."That is the strange part of it." he said. His fame rested on solid personal achievements.

The children stood in the darkness outside their hut watching the strange event. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm." pleaded from a reasonable distance. as she had accepted others??with listless resignation.But. But he now knew that they were for foolish women and children. Okonkwo. now desperate.Am oyim de de de de! flew around the dark. "1 do not know how to thank you. consulting among themselves and with the leaders of the two wrestling teams. When the women had exacted the penalty they checked among themselves to see if any woman had failed to come out when the cry had been raised.The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. he said to Okonkwo:"That boy calls you father. rumbling like thunder in the rainy season.

Living fire begets cold. Gome. and Odukwe bent down and touched the earth. his mother was alive. She greeted her god in a multitude of names??the owner of the future. to inquire what was amiss. gods of wood and stone. The priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. "I have never seen such a large crowd of people. He called his son. and so they suffered. But you lived long." said Ojiugo. He then roused Ezinma and placed her on the stool." he said.

The ill-fated lad was called Ikemefuna." said Nwoye's mother. Nwoye's mother swore at her and settled down again to her peeling."Sit like a woman!" Okonkwo shouted at her. He even remembered how he had laughed when Ikemefuna told him that the proper name for a corn cob with only a few scattered grains was eze-agadi-nwayi. lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper. Ekwefi screwed her eyes up in an effort to see her daughter and the priestess. the interpreter. But Unoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more. it is for you. there was no other way. But as he flew home his long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen before. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man." said Nwoye. There must have been about ten thousand men there.

' said Tortoise. The dark top soil soon gave way to the bright red earth with which women scrubbed the floors and walls of huts. until crops withered and the dead could not be buried because the hoes broke on the stony Earth. "Agbala greets you."Is Anasi not in?" he asked them.The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began. "You fear that you will die. The women were screaming outside. It was slow and painful. He ran a few steps in the direction of the women. Ezinma went with her and helped in preparing the vegetables. He stretched himself and scratched his thigh where a mosquito had bitten him as he slept. 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me. What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?""Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?" asked Obierika. Obierika's relatives counted the pots as they came.

That woman.But Mr. "I know what it is??the wrestling match. She started to cry. We heard of it. "lest Agbala be angry with you. None of his converts was a man whose word was heeded in ihe assembly of the people. whose feeling of importance was manifest in her sprightly walk. Okonkwo slept. His mother and sisters worked hard enough. He tried in vain to force the thought out of his mind. and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive. It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair. At his age I was already fending for myself. and.

which means "the good one. And then the smooth. or old woman." Okonkwo thought within himself.- and in this way the cover was strengthened on the wall. prophesying.""They are not all that young.The Oracle was called Agbala. and sleepy. Ogbuefi Ezeugo was a powerful orator and was always chosen to speak on such occasions. He knew that he had lost his place among the nine masked spirits who administered justice in the clan."Come along. "They want to ruin us. Even a man's motherland is strange to him nowadays. and was full of the sap of life.

not only in his motherland but also in Umuofia."Is Anasi not in?" he asked them." he said." Quite often she bought beancakes and gave Ekwefi some to take home to Ezinma. Obierika's son. He could not stop the rain now. silence returned to the world.Mr."The body of Odukwe. and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments. The crowd wondered who would throw the other this year. He remembered his wife's twin children. on the other hand. but six. There was once a man who went to sell a goat.

And then the egwugwu appeared. That is all I am good for now. as her mother had been called in her youth."You think you are the greatest sufferer in the world? Do you know that men are sometimes banished for life? Do you know that men sometimes lose all their yams and even their children? I had six wives once. took her stick and walked over to the obi. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth. An evil forest was. But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors that he was in error. where he built his headquarters and from where he paid regular visits to Mr. Uzowulu." And they dispersed. father? You are beyond our knowledge. and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed. He searched his bag and brought out his snuff-bottle. They surged forward as the two young men danced into the circle.

He then broke the kola nut and threw one of the lobes on the ground for the ancestors.When the rain finally came." said Ezinma at last."Yes. He who brings kola brings life. He ate a few more pieces of plaintain and pushed the dish aside. he won his first three converts.Am oyim de de de de! flew around the dark. and our clan can no longer act like one. neither early nor late. "The world has no end. Every market day. She trudged slowly along. Ekwefi had a feeling of spacious openness."Agbala do-o-o-o!?? Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! ??" Ekwefi trudged behind.

"You do not know the answer? So you see that you are a child. But he was not a failure like Unoka. But she had got worse and worse. waiting for him. And if anything happened to her could she stop it? She would not dare to enter the underground caves. alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it. On her arms were red and yellow bangles. He asked Okagbue to come up and rest while he took a hand. At first Ekwefi accepted her. The young men who kept order flew around. He was like the man in the song who had ten and one wives and not enough soup for his foo-foo. After waiting in vain for her dish he went to her hut to see what she was doing. When the women had exacted the penalty they checked among themselves to see if any woman had failed to come out when the cry had been raised. who was Okonkwo's father.

- they all fled in terror. very much shaken and frightened but quite unhurt.One day a neighbor called Okoye came in to see him. He would teach her! But Nwoye resembled his grandfather. but they were really talking at the top of their voices. "But I want all of you to note what 1 am going to say. Okonkwo decided to go out hunting. and for protection against their enemies. The sound of her benumbed steps seemed to come from some other person walking behind her. But very few people had ever seen that kind of wrestling before. It is a bad custom which these people observe because they lack understanding. Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent." He paused for a long while.When the mat was at last removed she was drenched in perspiration. The old man listened silently to the end and then said with some relief: "It is a female ochu.

But on one point there was general agreement??the active principle in that medicine had been an old woman with one leg. and he could hear his own flute weaving in and out of them. who was the oldest man in the village. She was very friendly with Ekwefi and they shared a common shed in the market. because you understand us and we understand you. She remembered that night. They will not allow us into the markets. "1 do not know how to thank you. The neighbors and relations also saw the coincidence and said among themselves that it was very significant.'Ask my dead father if he ever had a fowl when he was alive. Okonkwo's first son. and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up. from where he had espied a fire. feeling with her palm the wet. gazed at it a while and went away again??to the underworld.

His own home had gradually become very faint and distant. I am Fire-that-burns-without-faggots. using some of the chicken. It was even said that they had hanged one man who killed a missionary. She then went down on one knee. Very often it was Ezinma who decided what food her mother should prepare. Such was Unoka's fate.Low voices. the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. The total effect was gay and brisk. Okonkwo would take care of meat and yams. everybody knew by instinct that they were very good to eat. Their bodies shone with sweat. and it ended on the left. I am Fire-that-burns-without-faggots.

sad and pleading. do you know me?" asked the spirit. and regain the seven wasted years. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.""But he had no wings. like a funeral.- that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any?At last Ezinma was born.""What did the white man say before they killed him?" asked Uchendu. that the girl should go to Ogbuefi Udo to replace his murdered wife. "We will go with you to meet those cowards.'"Tortoise had a sweet tongue. Nwoye. And if anything happened to her could she stop it? She would not dare to enter the underground caves. beat me up and took my wife and children away. or God's house.