The following day King Mombo came to me and said: “Oguizi I want you to eat with me to-morrow—I will have the fattest of my goats killed and some chickens. These will be cooked in fresh palm oil that has just been made.” “I will,” I replied. Then he called Ogandaga, his head wife, and said to her: “Prepare a meal for to-morrow. Have the fat goat killed and also a few chickens, for the Oguizi and I are going to eat together.” When I had accepted the invitation we separated, the king looking happier than usual.
Little did I know what King Mombo intended to do, and why he had invited me to eat with him, and his reasons for doing so. I will however recount to you now what I was told afterwards.
The following day, while Ogandaga was cooking our dinner, Mombo went into the Alumbi house and took in his hands the skull of his great ancestor, Olenga-Yombee, and said: “Olenga-Yombee, my great beloved ancestor, see that I make the great Oguizi love me.” Then he scraped with a knife a little of the forehead of the skull. The scrapings fell into a small wooden bowl which he had taken with him. He replaced the skull on its own cake of ochre, and went to where his wife was cooking, and told her to go and fetch a bag that was in his sleeping-house. When she had gone he put the scrapings of the skull of Olenga-Yombee into the pot which contained the goat’s meat, stirred it with the wooden spoon that was near by, and went away.
After a while Ogandaga told us that the meal was ready. The bottom of a canoe put on two mortars made our table; baskets on which were large leaves were our plates, and cocoanuts cut in two were our glasses; our fingers were to be our forks. According to the custom of the country, Ogandaga tasted of every dish before our eyes, and drank of the water that was in the jug before we did, and then bade us eat and drink.
The king and I sat down opposite each other. Then he gave me some of the meat of the goat which had been served in a wooden dish used for the first time. As soon as he saw that I had eaten all I had on my plate he seemed overjoyed, for now he was sure I would love him.
Then he invoked in a loud voice the spirit of his great ancestor, Olenga-Yombee, and called upon him to make me love him.
“The king and I sat down opposite each other”
There is a belief amongst the people that after the scraped skull is in the body it turns into the blood of that ancestor, which then becomes part of your own blood. Hence you must love the person who is a descendant of the man to whom the skull belonged.
The whole population of the village was present while we were eating, and shouted: “Great is Mombo, the friend of the Oguizi!”