The chief asked Agbor who had killed Awo and the two children, and he replied that he had done so as they had made him angry. He told the chief that one daughter had let his pet bird fly away, and when he flogged her the mother had threatened to leave him and to take the children with her. The chief told Agbor that he had no right to kill his wife and children, and sentenced Agbor to be killed by degrees.
He was then led away and tied up to a post in the middle of the town. A man with a sharp knife then cut off Agbor’s left hand. But Agbor said nothing, much to the disappointment of the people, who wished to hear him shout. So the torturer said, “Do you feel any pain, Agbor?” and he replied “No.” After a short time the man cut off Agbor’s right hand, and as he still remained quiet, the man asked him, “How do you feel now, Agbor?” He replied as before, that he did not feel any pain. Then they cut off his left foot, and still Agbor remained quiet.
The people were not at all satisfied with this, so they lit a fire and put Agbor’s right leg into it. The pain of the burning was so great that Agbor screamed with agony, but the people laughed and told him that he was now feeling what death was like, and to remember how he had killed his wife and children. Agbor implored the people to kill him at once, but they refused, and left him tied up to the post, where he died during the night from loss of blood.
When Agbor was dead, the father of Awo claimed his head, so it was cut off and given to him, and the body was buried.
He then buried the head for two weeks, until the ants and maggots had removed the flesh. He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the ground outside the door of his house.
Then, every morning when he went out, he would hit the skull with his chewing-stick which he cleaned his teeth with, and say, “Ah, you killed my daughter, but I conquered you.”
From that time, whenever the Okuni people go to war, they put the skulls of their enemies whom they have killed on the ground, so that they can show them to all people as the heads of their enemies whom they have slain, and they always hit them with their chewing-sticks when they go out in the morning, saying, “I conquered you; I conquered you.”
Told by Ennenni of Okuni.—[E.D., 19.6.10.]
XV.—What happened at Okuni when anyone was killed by Accident.
Many years ago there were two small boys living at Okuni, named Ori Namfup and Ori, they were great friends and always used to play together. One day in the rainy season when the native pear trees were covered with fruit, Ori said to his friend let us climb up to the top of two of these pear trees, and when we are high up we can play at stoning one another. They very soon climbed up to the highest branches of the trees, collecting the fruit as they went, and started throwing them at one another, when suddenly Ori lost his hold and fell to the ground, breaking his neck. Ori Namfup was very frightened, and ran into the town and told the people that Ori had fallen from a tree, and was dead. His friends then came and carried the body of Ori to the head chief. When the father of Ori heard that his son was dead, he went to the chief and demanded that Ori Namfup’s father should give him two slaves to replace the son he had lost. But the chief refused, and said that as Ori had been killed accidentally it was not right that two slaves should be given as compensation. But Ori’s father being obstinate and very headstrong, insisted upon his claim so fiercely that the chief gave in and ordered the slaves to be paid. Ori Namfup’s father then bought two slaves and handed them over to Ori’s father, in order to settle the matter and so that there should be no bad feeling between them.