In some places all the girls of the quarter join together to seek out an ant hill and dig up the part in which dwells the queen ant. ‘One of their number is appointed to carry this thing, which is then borne back to the town and set down on the road near some of the principal compounds. All stand watching to see in what direction the ants will go; for the way they take points out the compound in which the girls are to live until the time of the new yam harvest. There they must stay in seclusion, grinding cam-wood and preparing for the approaching festival. Thither their future husbands come bringing palm-wine, yams and fish, together with six Awarawu manillas as dash for the owner of the compound.’ From many indications we had long suspected that the magic powers of the ant hill proceeded, in part at least, from its phallic resemblance. This was borne out by the number of Ibudu shrines, avowedly raised for the increase of children, before which these curious structures, known in these parts as ‘Bush-men,’ were found. In several, one of these lesser ant hills had been set up amid the special ‘servants of the Juju’ modelled on either hand of the principal image. Such an one is to be seen in the shrine of Ezum Mezum, erected within the compound of the Aro chief Ogunda of Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. On each side of the pillar stand her ‘servants.’ The nearest, a conventionalised phallic pillar surmounted by a head and with a little doorway in its tower-like base, through which one of the small elongated chalk cones--offered by every woman of the compound after conception--is seen, half in and half out, so as to appear in the act of entering. Next to this, but further from the image, is a natural ant hill, daubed with paint, against which leaned several of the lesser symbols. These chalk cones or images, though more roughly moulded, bear considerable resemblance to those carefully modelled in clay and suspended over their father’s shrine by each ‘true daughter’ of an Ibibio chief in the Mkpokk region to show that they were the legitimate offspring of the dead man, not of slaves, or of ‘widows’ born to the house, of whom he was only titular parent. [Illustration: FIG. 39. The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’] At the end of their period of seclusion in Nwan Aja’s compound, the girls of Elele put on new cloths and gay ornaments, then sally forth to market (Eke Oma). This is a sign that the play is ended for the time. Every other year a special play is given. According to Mr. D. Braid: