They then started off again, and walked as far as the third water, called “Ofat elikatt,” (“the slippery water”; so called because the stream runs so fast over the stepping-stones that it causes a person’s foot to slip).
Having rested for a little while, they started off again, but had only gone a few steps when the bird once more attracted their attention by calling Agbor’s name. This time Aictor was saying, “Turn round and look at the little stream as it will be for the last time.” As they did not understand what the bird said, they started off to run again, and did not stop until they reached the small stream quite close to the town, which is called “Ezi Ifom” (“the water where the cows drink”).[11]
Here at last they managed to wash without any interruption from the bird, and when they were ready they walked on into the town, which they found almost deserted, as all the men and women were absent hunting and fishing.
When they arrived at their house, however, they found that Aictor had got there before them, for they saw him sitting on the top of a palm-tree, and when they came near they could hear him calling out, “Agbor Adam! Agbor Adam! Here shall I stay in the town until Chief Alobi and the hunters return, when I will tell them that you have broken their hunting law and you will be killed.”
Agbor and his wife then ran into their house and shut the door carefully behind them. Agbor told his wife that when night came he would go and get a supply of food, but that she was not to let anyone in and not to answer anybody who called. He also said that when he got food he would return, and that if there was no one about outside trying to catch him, he would knock at the door and she could then let him in.
During the next two nights, Agbor went out as soon as it was dark and got as much food as he could into the house and then fastened himself securely in.
When the chief returned to the town with his hunters, he sent some men to call Agbor, but although they knocked at his door for a long time and called both Agbor and his wife by name, they received no reply.
When the morning came, the chief sent for the animals to come in, and, as the elephant was the biggest and strongest, he chose him. He then told the elephant that he was to get hold of Agbor Adam, but he did not wish him to be killed, as he only wanted to find out why the bird Aictor had been calling his name and why he had left the hunting party. So the elephant went to Agbor Adam’s house and, having broken the door open, dragged him out with his trunk, and brought him before the chief.
Directly Aictor, who was sitting near the chief on a palm-tree, saw Agbor, he began to call his name, and said he had broken the hunting law.
As no one could understand the bird, the chief sent to Uman compound for a woman named Iman, who was a native of Abijon, and could, therefore, speak Ingor.