Three months ago the defendant accused me of witchcraft. This was on the Government beach. He stated that several people had died in the house owing to my having bewitched them. My husband was defendant’s brother. He died, and since his death has appeared to me in the night time and tried to have connection with me. I had to make medicine to stop this, as otherwise I might have died. How deeply the longing for offspring is ingrained in the hearts of these people may be gauged to a certain extent by the horror of the means to which they will sometimes resort in order to overcome sterility or increase fruitfulness. For such an end no crime is too cruel; no magic rite too dark or revolting. For example, a case was reported from the Ogoni country on unimpeachable authority but seven years ago, in which the foetus was removed from a pregnant woman in order to be shared out among, and devoured by, others who believed this to be a sure way of increasing fertility. In a land case, which had arisen between the Okrikans and the Mbolli tribe and came before me in April 1915, it was stated by Daniel Kalio, head chief of the former, that the disputed territory had been seized by his people in punishment for the terrible crime committed by their opponents. In the old days, he said, the river formed the boundary between our land; but our women were in the habit of crossing over to attend the markets. One day, while thus peacefully buying and selling, the ’Mbolli rose and slew seventy-two of them at one time--forty-one at one place and thirty-one at another. Their heads were struck off and borne before the Juju; while the bodies of those who had been about to bear babes were slashed open and the small, small piccans removed and carried away. It was suggested from another source that this last outrage was promoted by the same idea as that recorded among their neighbours the Ogoni and that the Mbolli sought, by this terrible means, to procure unprecedented fruitfulness to their own women. The suggestion, however, has never been substantiated. The story of the coming of Ale was told by an Ibo named Obi Amara. It differs from the usual southern Ikwerri Ibo idea that Chi, or Chineke, the creatrix, was the great first cause from which all mortal men have sprung. He explained seeming contradictions by saying that to Ale the bodies alone were due, into which Chi sent down souls from the Spirit Realm. They make Ale play for this country at the feast of new yams and also give food to Ale when they want plenty yams, especially at the sowing of farms. Ale is the mother of all Ibo people. Her husband is called ’Ndiche.