Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria

by Elphinstone Dayrell

I.—How an Inkum Woman Abandoned One of Her Twins in the Forest,
and How it was Saved by the Hawk.

Awu was a native woman of Inkum, a town on the right bank of the Cross River, consisting of five compounds separate one from another by about half a mile of bush. Awu was a fine girl, but preferred to enjoy herself as she liked rather than to get married, which would mean too hard work. She used to walk from one town to another, and attend all the dances and plays, as she was a good singer and dancer. She always wore a cloth of the latest pattern, and a silk handkerchief round her head, with plenty of hairs from the elephant’s tail round her neck, and strings of beads round her waist. She also wore a piece of black braid tied round each ankle, and some rings on her fingers. These are the signs of a girl who is popular with young men. Awu had men friends in every town she visited, but she never stayed long with any of them, being what is called a “walking woman.”

At last she conceived, and when she was about eight months gone with child she happened one day to go into the forest to gather firewood to cook her morning food. While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on the belly, this immediately brought on her confinement, and she gave birth to twins in the forest. The first born was a girl, to whom she gave the name of Aro, and the second was a boy, whom she named Agbor. When Awu found that she had given birth to twins she was very much ashamed of herself, and was afraid to take both the babies back to the town as they would be killed by the people, and she would be turned out of the town and left to starve in the bush. She therefore decided to take the first-born child Aro back with her, but Agbor she left on the ground underneath a tree.

Very soon after Awu had departed, the driver ants discovered Agbor and quickly covered him, commencing to eat him. The bites of the driver ants made the child cry. All this time a hawk had been circling around, high up in the air, searching for food, and when he saw Awu had deserted her baby he swooped down and carried the infant off with him to the top of a high tree. The hawk, seeing what a fine child Agbor was, thought he would try to save his life, and immediately set about removing the ants from Agbor’s body. He lit a fire and boiled some water, with which he washed the child, and the ants very quickly disappeared.

The hawk looked after Agbor until he grew up. One day Awu sent her daughter Aro to get her some fire, and Aro, after wandering about, eventually found herself at the hawk’s house, where she saw Agbor sitting down.

Aro was so taken with Agbor’s good looks that she continued to stare at him without speaking, until at last Agbor said, “Why do you look at me like that?” but Aro did not reply, and picked up some fire, continuing to stare at Agbor. Then he repeated his question, and added, “Do I resemble either your father or your mother? If so, let the fire you are holding go out,” and the fire went out at once. Aro then took up some more fire, and Agbor put the same question to her again, and the fire Aro was holding went out a second time. This was done three times, each time with the same result. Then Aro ran home to her mother and reported what she had seen, and said what a fine boy Agbor was.

When Awu, the mother, heard about the fire, she knew at once that Agbor must be her son whom she had deserted and left to die in the forest. She therefore made up her mind that she would go and see him. The following morning, therefore, she rose at first cock crow and went to the hawk’s house, where she found Agbor and took a great fancy to him. Awu wanted to get Agbor away from the hawk and keep him for herself, but did not quite see how it could be done.

At last she thought of the porcupine, who was well known throughout the country as a clever and resourceful person, and went to him and told her story.

Now, the porcupine was a lot caster, and when he had cast lots he decided that the best thing that Awu could do was to go to a house and lie down, pretending to be dead. The porcupine told her that, if she did this, directly the hawk heard that she was dead he would send Agbor to his dead mother’s side to mourn for her. Then Awu would be able to seize him. The mother having paid the porcupine for his advice went away, and did what she had been told to do. When the hawk heard that Awu was dead he told Agbor that the next day he should go and cry at his mother’s side, so, when the morning came, the hawk dressed Agbor up and he started off to cry.

When he arrived at the house Agbor wanted to sit at the head of his mother, but the people who had assembled would not allow this, and told him to sit at Awu’s feet, which Agbor did. Directly he sat down, his mother jumped up and seized him, and said she would not let him go again.