Suppose one man charges another with doing bad things. Then they bring the accused for night time and lock him up alone in the small inner room. Next morning, if he be innocent, he walks forth unharmed; suppose he be guilty, then Juju kills him and his dead body is carried out at dawn. Perhaps Juju beat him to death, perhaps kill him other way; but always he die. No help for such man. When a big pointed stone is found in our bush, an Mbari house is always built for it. In places where such things are, the knives, with which the old people made them, may be dug up out of the earth. I myself found one such knife at Baro. It was of very strong stone, hard past iron and curved over in a sharp point. At Olakwaw near Owerri one very big stone was found. They carved it into an Ala figure and built a house for it. This they put in the place of honour, facing the big door. Also at Ne-Ewu and Ihuara in Owerri District there are stone figures of Ala, Amad’ongha, Okpara Ala (the first born son of the Earth Goddess) and Eke, the great snake. This is the kind of big snake which lives for bush and always has a shining stone in its head, such as white people call diamond. It is because of these serpents that Eke day is said to take its name. [Illustration: FIG. 7. Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro] [Illustration: FIG. 8. Humorous figures] Images of Ale and Amad’ongha may be carved out of stone or moulded in clay, but must never be cut from wood like the Agu Isi (_i.e._ wooden images consulted by native doctors): for so the Juju orders. Ala has other sons beside Okpara Ala.[6] Among Etche Ibos and those of Owerri the younger sons are worshipped every month, four days after the coming of the new moon. They are represented under the shape of small cut stones such as were taken from the bad Onye Dibia (medicine man) at Awka. These stones are always kept in one of the round box stools, rubbed with cam-wood. The medicine man sits upon the box, then rises and shows the stones to the people who throw themselves upon the ground before these, praying for piccans, kids, lambs and yams. These sons are never represented in any other shape. No figures of them are to be found in Mbari houses. Sometimes we call these buildings Mbari, sometimes ’Mgbe. This last word means a small boy or girl orphan. There are two kinds of ’Mgbe--those who have relatives to look after them and those who have none. We call the latter Osu ’Mgbe, _i.e._ the worst ’Mgbe. He is so very poor he can only get food by searching round the bush for palm-nuts. For this reason his image is nearly always made with palm-nuts in hand.