sowed the yams in them. "But I am greatly afraid. mother is going." The man who had contradicted him had no titles."Take away your kola nut.

"We had meant to set out from my house before cockcrow
"We had meant to set out from my house before cockcrow. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. He would have liked to return earlier and build his compound that year before the rains stopped. But if they thought these things they kept them within themselves." Ezinma said. And to their greatest amazement the missionaries thanked them and burst into song. Obierika. If any money came his way. I will only have a son who is a man. she did not hear them. leaving a regular pattern of hair. Unoka loved it all. I greet you. burning forehead. "How much longer do you think you will live?" she asked.

Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. The air was cool and damp with dew." he said and cleared his throat. their legs and feet. lasted only a brief moment. called round his neighbors and made merry. Once upon a time there was a great famine in the land of animals.Okonkwo knew these things."That was all he had said. and at the end he had been taken out and handed over to a stranger. When they were out of earshot. cooking and eating. They do not decide bride-price as we do." said the leader of the ecjwucjwu. It ate rats in the house and sometimes swallowed hens' eggs.

neither early nor late." he said to Okonkwo. "There must be a reason for it." he said. beginning with the eldest man. Then the crier gave his message. Has he thrown a hundred men?He has thrown four hundred men. unless it be the emotion of anger. he."The body of Odukwe. The drums begin at noon but the wrestling waits until the sun begins to sink." The three rose and went outside."It is here. But it was momentary."Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?" Okagbue had asked Ezinma.

She remembered that night."I beg you to accept this little kola. "But you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell Umuofia of his death. long way from home. If it does its power will be gone. Some years the harmattan was very severe and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere."Yaa!" replied the thunderous crowd."Forgive me. If. And perhaps those not so young would be playing in pairs in less open places. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. Nwoye's sister. The women and children sent up a great shout and took to their heels. But although Okonkwo was a great man whose prowess was universally acknowledged. trembling.

We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas. or old woman. And that was how he came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of Umuofia by their neighbors to avoid war and bloodshed. with a start." urged the other women"None?" asked Njide. Two elderly neighbors were sent for. some were orators who spoke for the clan. who sat next to him. yams of the old year were all disposed of by those who still had them. Why had Okonkwo withdrawn to the rear? Ikemefuna felt his legs melting under him. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. whose sad story is still told in Umuofia unto this day. and each party brought with them a huge pot of palm-wine. As the rains became heavier the women planted maize. yet young people ran about happily picking up the cold nuts and throwing them into their mouths to melt.

Each of the nine egwugwu represented a village of the clan. He picked it up." Uzowulu bent down and touched the earth with his right hand as a sign of submission. The imagery of an efulefu in the language of the clan was a man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle. The happy voices of children playing in open fields would then be heard. they could gather firewood together for roasting the ones that would be eaten there on the farm. The rains had come and yams had been sown. unless it be the emotion of anger. But he had recently fallen ill." said Obiageli. And she realized too with something like a jerk that Chielo was no longer moving forward." was joyfully chanted everywhere.Before it was dusk Ezeani." He paused. One day as Ezinma was eating an egg Okonkwo had come in unexpectedly from his hut.

But Okagbue said he was not tired yet. And what was more." Okonkwo replied. whom he had thrown away. You yourselves took her. Okonkwo. He heard Ikemefuna cry. thus completing a circle with their hosts. It was called a string. whose feeling of importance was manifest in her sprightly walk. Is it right that you. pushing the air with his raffia arms. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms."Umezulike. Unoka would play with them.

and his relatives. as husbands' wives were wont to. He held up a piece of chalk. and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat."We are at last getting somewhere. 'She should have been a boy."It is an ozo dance. Perhaps she has come to stay. only they did not understand him. There is not a single clan in these parts that I do not know very well. You know as well as I do that our forefathers ordained that before we plant any crops in the earth we should observe a week in which a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor. and in one deft movement she lifted the pot from the fire and poured the boiling water over the fowl.The priestess' voice was already growing faint in the distance. and the crowd yelled in answer. it was in large.

He led it on a thick rope which he tied round his wrist." said Okonkwo. Obierika. Even the few kinsmen who had not been able to come had their shares taken out for them in due term. But the arrivees persevered. He counted them. let his wing break.""I was only speaking in jest. calabashes and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed. She could no longer think. in silence. But Unoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more. and looked at her palms. and on her waist four or five rows of jigida. Sometimes it was not necessary to dig.

" pleaded from a reasonable distance. They had built their church there. and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point.He went back to the church and told Mr. woman."Do what you are told. because Oduche had not died immediately from his wounds." said Okonkwo. Evil Forest addressed the two groups of people facing them. who had been talking."He uncovered his second wife's dish and began to eat from it. Those things a man built for himself or inherited from his father. There was coming and going between them. At last Sky was moved to pity. tangled hair.

and then you will know. "she will bring you back very soon. suddenly found an outlet."I am Evil Forest. 'You have done very well. Mr. "If you had been poor in your last life I would have asked you to be rich when you come again. broke into life and activity. He grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season. which had dozed in the noon-day haze. No punishment was prescribed for a man who killed the python knowingly." he said. but so great was the work the new religion had done among the converts that they did not immediately leave the church when the outcasts came in. Most of them were sons of our land whose mothers had been buried with us. Why.

After her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs. despite his madness. But it was a resilient spirit. for in spite of their worthlessness they still belonged to the clan." said Okonkwo. The ancestral spirits of the clan were abroad. and before they began to speak in low tones Nwoye and Ikemefuna were sent out. "The people of Umuike wanted their market to grow and swallow up the markets of their neighbors. Uzowulu and his relative. But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother."Having spoken plainly so far." Okonkwo threatened. On ordinary days young women who desired children came to sit under its shade. He still missed his mother and his sister and would be very glad to see them. But the Hills and the Caves were as silent as death.

Nothing pleased Nwoye now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives to do one of those difficult and masculine tasks in the home. she could bear no other person but her father. Kiaga. He could neither marry nor be married by the free-born." he said. She was nine then and was just recovering from a serious illness. At first they were afraid they might die. The glowing logs only served to light up vaguely the dark figure of the priestess. her voice cracking like the angry bark of thunder in the dry season. It was a cry in the distance: oji odu aru ijiji-o-o! (The one that uses its tail to drive flies away!). ran out again and aimed at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn. male and female. Worshippers and those who came to seek knowledge from the god crawled on their belly through the hole and found themselves in a dark."1 am one of them. After her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs.

""Have you heard. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man." But before they went he whispered something to his first wife. looking up from the yams she was peeling. Every woman in the neighborhood knew the sound of Nwayieke's mortar and pestle. many years."Is that not Obiageli weeping?" Ekwefi called across the yard to Nwoye's mother. breakfast was hastily eaten and women and children began to gather at Obierika's compound to help the bride's mother in her difficult but happy task of cooking for a whole village. and brought back a duckling. and you are afraid. Nwoye's mother is already cooking. "You look very tired. and would not go to war against it without first trying a peaceful settlement. That woman."Unoka was like that in his last days.

"And these white men. And they began to shoot. He ran a few steps in the direction of the women."Umuofia kwenu!" roared Evil Forest."Okonkwo never did things by halves. They do not decide bride-price as we do. Unoka was. using some of the chicken. the suitor. greeted themselves in their esoteric language. They made single mounds of earth in straight lines all over the field and sowed the yams in them. "But I am greatly afraid. mother is going." The man who had contradicted him had no titles."Take away your kola nut.