Fetichism in West Africa : $b forty years' observation of native customs and superstitionsNassau, Robert Hamill
Philosophy
Fetichism in West Africa : $b forty years' observation of native customs and superstitions
Nassau, Robert Hamill
Ethnology -- Africa, West; Fetishism -- Africa, West
They began to plan, each one with his proposition. One said, "Let us go
and bury the dead body." Another, "Let us leave it and go on with our
business, and if on our return the body is missing, that will be a proof
that a partner has taken it. Then we will get on the track and find where
the body was taken." And they agreed that he whose plan proved successful
should be their new leader. So they closed the door, left Nkombe's dead
body lying, and went off on their usual business.
After they had been gone quite a while, Ogula came down quickly from the
tree. He tried to carry the body of his brother without dragging it so as
not to leave any sign of a trail. And he did not follow the path, but
walked parallel with it among the bushes. He hid the body, and then went
away to his house. He called his servant, telling him that Nkombe was
dead, and that he wanted him to come help bury the body. He did not call
the old man, but only told him that his brother was dead.
He and the servant went to the spot where he had left his brother's body.
They carried it far into the forest, buried it, and then went back to
their house.
When the thieves came again to their house, they missed the dead body, so
that part of their plan had proved true; and they said to the one who had
proposed it, "You were right. You are our leader. What is your next
order?" He said, "To-morrow we will not go out to do our business, but we
will go out to hunt for this other man."
The next day they went, and scattering searched on all paths to see
whether they would meet with some one or see some house. Some of them who
were on a certain path came to the huts of the old man and Ogula. The
first person they saw was the old man sitting in his doorway. They stopped
and saluted. They asked him a few questions, and then consulting together
agreed to return to their house and come back next day, hoping to find out
something from the old man. They went back to their house. Previous to
this, from the time that Ogula had been stealing goods he had built with
his servant a little village of his own some distance from the old man's
hut. On this first coming of the thieves, Ogula, hidden in his house, had
seen them, and he said to himself, "As they now know of this place, I
better go away, for fear this thing be found out, and they kill me as they
did my brother." So at night he left that house and went off to his
village.
In the morning of the next day, when the thieves came, they brought
liquor, for they had planned that they would make this old man drunk, that
he might talk when he was foolish with liquor.
They came to the old man's and saluted him. They sat and conversed, asking
him, "How many people are here? Are you always living alone?" At first he
replied, "Yes, I live alone." "But you are so old, how do you get your
food by yourself? Would you like to taste a nice drink? We are sorry for
you in your lack of comforts." "Yes, I would like to taste it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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