flying crests like strange and fantastic coiffure. Nwoye's mother thanked her and she went back to her mother's hut.

A deep murmur went through the crowd when he said this
A deep murmur went through the crowd when he said this. Then they washed them and cut them up for the women who prepared the soup.""Ee-e-e!""And this will not be the last." He presented the kola nut to them. The medicine man ignored him. burning forehead. "my eyelid is twitching. The old man bore no ill will towards Okonkwo. Tortoise's wife sent for him and he gathered all the bits of shell and stuck them together. They scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men. The first day passed and the second and third and fourth. and he was not afraid of war. And so he did now. let his wing break. Am I dead? They said I would die if i took care of twins. Now and again a full-chested lamentation rose above the wailing whenever a man came into the place of death.

He accepted the half-full horn from his brother and drank it. Yam stood for manliness.""They dare not bring fewer than thirty pots."It is near that orange tree." Ezinma said. "lest Agbala be angry with you. he thought over the matter. he had not slept at all last night. Children no longer stayed indoors but ran about singing:"The rain is falling. Nwoye's mother thanked her and she went back to her mother's hut. On his head were two powerful horns. "Amadiora will break your head for you!"Some days later. He knew it must be Ekwefi. But they soon returned and everyone was gazing at the rag from a reasonable distance. sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck. It was a story of brothers who lived in darkness and in fear.

Having sworn that oath. What she had seen was the shape of a man climbing a palm tree. "Your daughter will bear us sons like you. "1 thought you were going into the shrine with Chielo. That was the day it happened. These men must be mad. without serious danger to his own health. and was now accorded great respect in all the clan." He then added ten sticks to the fifteen and gave the bundle to Ukegbu."Agbala do-o-o-o! Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! Chi negbu madu ubosi ndu ya nato ya uto daluo-o-o! ??"Ekwefi could already see the hills looming in the moonlight. "Umuofia kwenu. who then unrolled the goatskin which he carried under his arm. After her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs. or waist beads." said Ezinma.At this point an old man said he had a question.

Unoka." he said.And then the priestess screamed. palm-oil and pepper for the soup. She slowed down her pace so as to increase the distance between them. who had felt more angry than the others. But this is a matter which we know."I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy. We do not dispute it.When all the egwugwu had sat down and the sound of the many tiny bells and rattles on their bodies had subsided. As the rains became heavier the women planted maize." he said. Nwayieke lived four compounds away. and Umuofia was still swallowed up in sleep and silence when the ekwe began to talk. looked left and right and turned right. A palm-oil lamp gave out yellowish light.

Okonkwo's second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food. They will serve you when I have eaten."How can I know?" Ekwefi wanted her to work it out herself. And what is the result? Their clan is full of the evil spirits of these unburied dead. Perhaps she has come to stay. And then came the clap of thunder. had entered his eye. mother is going. and the lad Ikemefuna. and then painted his big toe.""Let us not reason like cowards." he said. Ekwefi picked her way carefully and quietly. passing back the disc. Obierika and half a dozen other friends came to help and to console him. Ezinma?""She has been very well for some time now.

took out two leaves and began to chew them. The fact was that Obiageli had been making inyanga with her pot. Hisspeech was so eloquent that all the birds were glad they had brought him. There was no festival in all the seasons of the year which gave her as much pleasure as the wrestling match.As he broke the kola. mother. more terrible and more sinister than the anger. had gone to consult the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves to find out why he always had a miserable harvest. like the snapping of a tightened bow. When he began again. Tortoise stood up in his many-colored plumage and thanked them for their invitation. he fled to Aninta to escape the wrath of the earth. "That is the story. For how else could he explain his great misfortune and exile and now his despicable son's behavior? Now that he had time to think of it. Ofoedu ate slowly and talked about the locusts. But in this case she ran away to save her life.

Okonkwo's wives. Do not bear a hand in his death." said Obierika. She went on fanning it until it burst into flames."Their clan is now completely empty. She gave the dish to her father's eldest brother and then shook hands. She was afraid of what might happen if Chielo suddenly turned round and saw her. a good harvest and happiness. who was laid on a mat.""You do not understand. who came out of her hut to draw water from a gigantic pot in the shade of a small tree in the middle of the compound." said Obiageli."Perhaps I have been away too long. and then you will know. There were nine of them. The barn was built against one end of the red walls.

became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything. But he had recently fallen ill. "Are you afraid you may dissolve?"The harvesting was easy. who was now the eldest surviving member of that family. Okonkwo said yes very strongly. If a clansman killed a royal python accidentally. At first it appeared as if it might prove too great for his spirit." the medicine man told Okonkwo in a cool."One of them passes here frequently.The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. But at that very moment Chielo's voice rose again in her possessed chanting. It was Nwoye's mother. slit its throat with a sharp knife and allowed some of the blood to fall on the ancestral staff."They do not understand. But there is just one question I would like to ask him. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase.

The rain fell in thin. who were still outside the circle. with music and dancing and a great feast."Two years ago." said someone light-heartedly and the crowd laughed. whose frantic rhythm was no longer a mere disembodied sound but the very heartbeat of the people."Have you?" asked Obierika. Okonkwo ate the food absent-mindedly. and when he died he was buried by his kind in the Evil Forest.""But someone had to do it. until crops withered and the dead could not be buried because the hoes broke on the stony Earth. as her father and other grownup people did." said Obierika's other companion. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet.At last the two teams danced into the circle and the crowd roared and clapped. and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season.

The drum sounded again and the flute blew. Ekwefi quickly took her to their bedroom and placed her on their high bamboo bed. but that year-had been enough to break the heart of a lion. shrill and powerful. "They are young tubers. She miscarried after she had gone to sleep with her lover. was a failure. It is a poor soil and that is why the tubers are so small. Okagbue emerged and without saying a word or even looking at the spectators he went to his goatskin bag. She hurried through Okonkwo's hut and went outside."Do you think you are cutting up yams for cooking?" he asked Nwoye. 'Don't touch!'But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know. He could not do anything without telling her. He knew that Nwakibie would not refuse him. as the saying goes. Unoka.

"you. But there was a great medicine man in the neighborhood." roared Okonkwo." he said. Okafo seized it. She was used to Chielo calling her "my daughter.Okonkwo cleared his throat and moved his feet to the beat of the drums. Then the group drank. "Beware. And whenever the moon forsook evening and rose at cock-crow the nights were as black as charcoal. Unoka stood before her and began his story. guns and cannon were fired. Many years ago when she was the village beauty Okonkwo had won her heart by throwing the Cat in the greatest contest within living memory. All that he required was something to occupy his mind. When they carried him away.Chielo's voice was now rising continuously.

"Tortoise turned to the birds and said: 'You remember that my name is All of you. He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days."None. one of those wicked children who. Maduka vanished into the compound like lightning. But the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed. Okonkwo looked away. and the sound of wooden mortar and pestle as Nwayieke pounded her foo-foo. Ezeudu is dead. on their backs and their thighs. And to their greatest amazement the missionaries thanked them and burst into song. very shyly."I am calling a feast because I have the wherewithal. She had married Anene because Okonkwo was too poor then to marry. And what do you think the Oracle would do then?""You know very well. Ekwefi.

But her love of wrestling contests was still as strong as it was thirty years ago. tall. The harmattan was in the air and seemed to distill a hazy feeling of sleep on the world. and the elders of his family. meanwhile. and there was no hurry to decide his fate. dead. with a full beard and a bald head. he beat her again so that if the neighbors had not gone in to save her she would have been killed. He hit the bottle against his knee to shake up the tobacco. you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labor to clear. Okagbue's voice was unchanged.On a moonlight night it would be different. "before i learned how to tap. There was so much food and drink that many kinsmen whistled in surprise. There was a long break.

She looked very much like her mother.Unoka. beat me up and took my wife and children away."Ezinma looked at her mother. Okonkwo and his family went to the farm with baskets of seed-yams. They set out early that morning.Okonkwo and his family worked very hard to plant a new farm. like coco-yams. She had borne ten children and nine of them had died in infancy. You yourselves took her. and flies went with him." said Okonkwo as he took his machete and went into the bush to collect the leaves and grasses and barks of trees that went into making the medicine for iba. There were five groups. He ran a few steps in the direction of the women. Kiaga's congregation at Mbanta. "Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger.

if one finger brought oil it soiled the others. All that is true. quietly and deliberately. He had finished it on the very day the locusts came. My mother's people have been good to me and 1 must show my gratitude.""I don't know how we got that law."Ezinma looked at her mother. "How much longer do you think you will live?" she asked. He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. He worked. A man stood there with a machete in his hand." the medicine man told Okonkwo in a cool. It was a day old. and you are afraid. He went into Ekwefi's hut."It will not take us long to harvest as much as we like.

Fortunately. all talking in low voices. She was particularly fond of Ekwefi's only daughter." said Obierika.- that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any?At last Ezinma was born. Although her husband's wives were saying that it was nothing more than iba. "You are already a skeleton. And he did pounce on people quite often. sat on the floor waiting for him to finish." But it was a different Chielo she now saw in the yellow half-light. you have become a woman indeed." said Okonkwo. At last Vulture was sent to plead with Sky. 1 know more about the world than any of you. Palm trees swayed as the wind combed their leaves into flying crests like strange and fantastic coiffure. Nwoye's mother thanked her and she went back to her mother's hut.