Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria

by Elphinstone Dayrell

Agbor was an Okuni man, and was married to a woman named Awo, by whom he had two children, but they were both girls, much to his annoyance, as he wanted a boy who would be able to help him with his work when he grew up.

Agbor was a hunter and a trapper, and it was his custom to set traps all along the road to the boundary where the Okuni farms joined up with Insofan. Every morning he would start off with his bow and arrows to inspect his traps and take out anything he found in them, and sometimes, if he were lucky, he would shoot a buck or bush pig.

When he returned in the evening, Agbor used to worry his wife and tell her that he wanted a son, until at last Awo told her husband that, as she did not appear to be lucky with her children, he had better save up and buy a slave who could help him. This Agbor did, and after a time he managed to buy a slave called Edim. The slave always went with his master into the bush, and helped him with his trap-setting and carried the heavy loads.

One day Agbor caught a small bird in one of his traps, so he took it out very carefully and carried it home. He then made a cage for it, and fed it with seeds. Agbor warned his wife and two children that they were on no account to touch the bird, as he was very fond of it, and did not want any harm to happen to it. Then, for some time, Agbor took much trouble in taming the bird, and taught it to sing. In the evenings, when he returned from hunting, he used to take the bird round to some of the chiefs and head men of the town, and the bird used to sing to them. This pleased the chiefs so much that they used to give Agbor presents of tombo and yams.

One day, while Agbor and his slave Edim were absent in the bush hunting, one of Awo’s daughters opened the cage and let the bird fly away.

When the hunter returned, he found that his pet bird had gone, and he was very angry indeed, so he asked his wife who had let the bird go, and Awo told him. Agbor then got a cutting whip, and flogged his daughter very severely until the blood ran. Awo was much annoyed with her husband for beating the child, so she packed up all her things, and said she was going to return to her parents and would take her children with her. But Agbor would not let her go, and told her to go to bed and take her children with her.

Agbor then got his matchet, and having sharpened it on a stone, went into the house and cut his wife’s head off, and then killed his two children. When he had done this he was frightened, and ran away into the bush and hid himself.

The next morning at daylight Edim the slave went to wake his master as usual to go out and visit the traps, but he found that the hunter was absent. Edim then opened the door of Awo’s room, and looked in. There he saw the floor was covered with blood, and the three dead bodies were lying together on the bed.

Edim then ran out of the house shouting, and told the people of the town what he had seen, and that Agbor was not in the house. The people then went to the house to look at Awo and her children, and the father and brothers of Awo at once armed themselves and set off into the bush to find Agbor.

After searching for some time they found him setting one of his traps, so they surrounded and caught him; then, having tied him up securely with his hands behind his back, they brought him into the town and handed him over to the head chief.