When she arrived, she told the chief and the people what the bird was saying, which was “Agbor Adam! Agbor Adam! Chief Alobi passed a law that women should not eat animals killed by the men in hunting, and that the men should not eat the fish caught by the women. But your wife eat a monkey which you had killed and you eat a fish caught by your wife, and then, when I called your name, you ran away with your wife and left the hunting party, but I followed you all the way, and although you tried to kill me, I am here to give evidence against you, as I promised.”
When Chief Alobi heard this he rose up in anger, and stamped his foot on the ground, saying, “Surely Agbor Adam shall die this day. For, first of all, he disobeyed my hunting law, and then he deserted the hunting party. Is there anyone present who does not agree?” But no one answered.
Then Chief Aboli pointed to the palm-tree on which Aictor was perched, and told Agbor Adam that he should be hanged there, but, first of all, he should climb up and down the tree six times, and when he got to the top for the seventh time he should place his head in a noose and hang himself.
When Agbor’s wife heard this, she ran and threw herself at the chief’s feet, and, beating her breasts and tearing her hair, she implored him to spare her husband, but the chief walked away from her.
Agbor then climbed up to the top of the tree and came down again. This he did six times, but when he had got to the top of the tree for the seventh time, and was just going to hang himself, Chief Ossima ’nkom of Yammi appeared, and called upon him to stop, saying, “I am the oldest and biggest chief in the town, and am going to beg for you.”
He then went to chief Alobi and said, “If a man kills another man he should be hanged, but if he breaks the hunter’s law he disobeys a chief’s order; he should be fined and not killed, and I think 260 rods would be a proper fine.”
To this Chief Aboli agreed, and thus Agbor Adam’s life was saved, so he climbed down the tree again and paid the fine.
From that time the people who disobeyed a chief were made to pay a fine in tombo, goats, or sheet, according to the order.
Told by Ennenni, an Okuni woman.—[E.D., 6.1.11.]