Chief Indoma blamed Chief Awum very much for what had happened, but he praised Chief Osode for getting them back in safety across the river, and also for his ingenious device in getting them some more human food without any risk or fighting.
Told by Abassi of Inkum, 7th June, 1910.
X.—How an Inkum Boy was Drowned by His Companions and how they
were Punished.
There was once an Inkum woman named Omegha, who was considered very good-looking, but, curiously enough, no man had ever wanted to marry her, although she was very popular and went about from one man to another. She also went from town to town, showing off her beauty, in the hopes that some man might fancy her and ask her to marry him.
At last she got tired of walking about, and returned home to live with her parents. Her father was very fond of her, but often said that he wished she had been a boy as she would then have been able to help him with his work on the farm.
After Omegha had been living at home for a little time, her father said to her, “I wish you would get a son who would help me on the farm when he grew up.” Omegha replied that, although she slept with plenty of men, she had never conceived. Her father then warned her that she would never bear a child if she went on as she was doing, always changing and sleeping with so many different men.
He then advised her to live with the same man for a whole month, and then see what would happen. Omegha waited for a week, and then did as she had been advised to do by her father, and, after a month had elapsed, she found that she had conceived.
A few months after this, Omegha’s father died, leaving her mother and herself in the house. Then her mother said to her “Now that your father is dead, you must not go about as you did before, as there are only two of us. You shall stay at home and I will look after you and the child who is soon to be born.” They then wrapped the dead body up in mats, and made a hole in a room at the back of the house, where they buried the corpse.
Some time afterwards, Omegha gave birth to a son, whom she called Ogor. The boy grew very fast, and after a time he was able to walk.
As Omegha was a poor woman, she used to take her little son with her to the farm every day. But when Ogor was six years old, she got tired of doing this, and used to leave him in the house with his grandmother, who was very fond of him. Then Omegha used to go off alone, and visit her numerous men friends.