It was 15th May and a day of blazing sunshine; yet crowds had already collected and sat, the elect in a circle many deep round the compound, while the rest almost blocked the road along its front. Three sets of drums were playing; first Eleche’s household band, secondly one supplied by a neighbouring quarter, and thirdly, just before the shrine, that which bore the proud name of ‘The Juju’s Own.’ This consisted of six drums, three tall and upright, three long and oval. Opposite the door of the principal shrine a little group of offerings was to be seen, backed by the branched sticks of the Thunder God. Questioned as to this, Eleche said: Amade Onhia is kin to my Juju. In many towns the biggest Jujus have the habit of sending to request him to come and stay by them. Aya-Eke did this and ordered that his shrine should be placed opposite to her own, saying that when ceremonies were made in her honour they should be performed for him also. On being asked as to when the wrestling would begin, Eleche answered, with true African placidity, that this depended upon the arrival of the combatants, who would probably not appear until the sun sank lower in the heavens. He explained that he had told us the play began at mid-day, because by ancient custom the summoning drums must start at that time. Now, according to widespread West Coast belief, noon and midnight are the special times at which ghosts walk abroad. Among Ibo and Kalahari little children are warned never to throw sticks or stones when the sun is high overhead, lest they should inadvertently injure one of these wandering spirits and thus draw down its wrath upon themselves. With Mbolli and Etche Ibo--as usually in the Ikwerri country--seed yams and corn are stored in the shrine of the ancestors, _i.e._ beneath the guardianship of these beneficent friends, much as was the seed-grain of ancient Rome within the sacred Mundus. Chief Eleche also told us that the Egu Nda Madu, the festival of the forefathers, is always held at the same time as that of the new yams and, were these rites neglected, the ghosts would cease to exert a protective influence upon the next season’s crops. It is probable, therefore, that the reason the drums must start to play at noonday is to call the attention of the ancestral shades to the fact that the ritual wrestling is about to begin.