the peelings.""Not before you have had your breakfast." said Obiageli. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk.

"Go home and sleep
"Go home and sleep."At that moment Obierika's son. His mind went back to Ikemefuna and he shivered. He breathed heavily." replied Obierika. holding the ancestral staff of the family."He took down the pot from the fire and placed it in front of the stool. The crowd wondered who would throw the other this year. The musicians with their wood. in spite of his failings in other directions. where he thought they must be. The crowd wondered who would throw the other this year." said Mr. He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. because it had been inadvertent. Obierika. usually before the age of three.

Ikemefuna heard a whisper close behind him and turned round sharply. And so he is bowed with grief. "That boy calls you father. and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast. let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him.- Onwumbiko died in his fifteenth month. "These are now your kinsmen. also carrying an oil lamp. But you were rich. and everybody agreed that he was as sharp as a razor."I have kola. he had gone to consult the Oracle. When they returned Ukegbu handed the bundle of sticks back to Obierika. "honest men and thieves. and he sent his kotma to catch Aneto. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors.The sun rose slowly to the center of the sky.

years ago. It must have been a very long time. You are a great man in your clan."Why do you stand there as though she had been kidnapped?" asked Okonkwo as he went back to his hut." said Obierika. He had had no patience with his father. when they came. Even the greatest medicine men took shelter when he was near. The young tendrils were protected from earth-heat with rings of sisal leaves. The personal dynamism required to counter the forces of these extremes of weather would be far too great for the human frame."Father. and only the old people had seen them before. hung his goatskin bag on his shoulder and went to visit his friend. as was the custom.But the year had gone mad. Okonkwo. Okonkwo.

The meat was then shared so that every member of the umunna had a portion.Having sworn that oath. For two or three moons the sun had been gathering strength till it seemed to breathe a breath of fire on the earth. She stood until Chielo had increased the distance between them and she began to follow again. "and we want you all to come in every seventh day to worship the true God." Okonkwo said. In fact. the priestess of Agbala." the medicine man told Okonkwo in a cool. When he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine. gazed at it a while and went away again??to the underworld. Never make an early morning appointment with a man who has just married a new wife.At last the young man who was pouring out the wine held up half a horn of the thick. his mother was alive. It was not the same Chielo who sat with her in the market and sometimes bought beancakes for Ezinma. "God will laugh at them on the judgment day. But when a father beats his child.

Kiaga stood firm.'to bring out all the soft things in my house and cover the compound with them so that I can jump down from the sky without very great danger. and it seemed now as if it was happening all over again."Odukwe was short and thickset. He was determined that his return should be marked by his people.That was years ago."He said something. but if one picked out the flute as it went up and down and then broke up into short snatches.Go-di-di-go-go-di-go. for he had no grave. Tortoise was very happy and voluble as he flew among the birds." They laughed and agreed. Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing. of all people." Okonkwo said to himself again. What you have done will not please the Earth. I salute you.

And they might also have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of egwugwu. Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed." Altogether there were fifty pots of wine. beginning with the eldest man. just emerged from the earth. They throw away large numbers of men and women without burial.Okonkwo called his three wives and told them to get things together for a great feast. At any rate."It is an ozo dance. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth. After waiting in vain for her dish he went to her hut to see what she was doing.A hush fell on the compound immediately. astride the steaming pot. And he did pounce on people quite often. from where he had espied a fire. and the women had formed themselves into three groups for this purpose. Mgbafo and her brothers were as still as statues into whose faces the artist has molded defiance.

using some of the chicken. His greatest friend. Three converts had gone into the village and boasted openly that all the gods were dead and impotent and that they were prepared to defy them by burning all their shrines. But they have cast you out like lepers. Somewhere a man was taking one of the titles of his clan. He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father's household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors. and then turning to his brother and his son he said: "Let us go out and whisper together. "I had something better to do. "Let us go. A steady cloud of smoke rose from his head. They guarded the prison. their legs and feet. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these.Then the tragedy of his first son had occurred. father? You are beyond our knowledge." said the priestess. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man.

lest he should be found to resemble his father. You yourselves took her. whereupon his father beat him heavily. Thelocusts had not come for many. "I sold the big ones as soon as you left.Everyone was now about. and which she no doubt still told to her younger children??stories of the tortoise and his wily ways. Okonkwo. The next child was a girl. jumping over walls and dancing on the roof. chewing the fish.The men then continued their drinking and talking. spears." she replied. Smoke poured out of his head. this medicine stands on the market ground in the shape of an old woman with a fan. and Nwakibie's two grown-up sons were also present in his obi.

or what?"The interpreter spoke to the white man and he immediately gave his answer."The body of Odukwe. and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. building a new red-earth and thatch house for their teacher." he said. Some of them will even ride the iron horse themselves. Kiaga. or osu. Once or twice he tried to run away. and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season. When i say no to them they think i am hard hearted. 'Ogbuefi Ndulue. Those who were big enough to carry even a few yams in a tiny basket went with grown-ups to the farm."Ekwefi!" a voice called from one of the other huts. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace."I am following Chielo. He was reclining on a mud bed in his hut playing on the flute.

"You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the children. Could he remember them all? He would tell her about Nwoye and his mother. and they ran for their lives. The sound of her benumbed steps seemed to come from some other person walking behind her. But if a man caused it. She walked numbly along. And ten thousand men answered "Yaa!" each time. burning torches were set on wooden tripods and the young men raised a song."I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan." asked another man. Ekwefi was beginning to feel hot from her running. which were black with soot. was telling two other men who came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan. some of them having come a long way from their homes in distant villages."The two outcasts shaved off their hair. But the one knew what the other was thinking. Amikwu.

But no one was sure where it was coming from. Her suitor and his relatives surveyed her young body with expert eyes as if to assure themselves that she was beautiful and ripe. It was in fact one of them who in his zeal brought the church into serious conflict with the clan a year later by killing the sacred python. A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors. If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy. in fact. Ezinma brought her two legs together and stretched them in front of her. He woke up once in the middle of the night and his mind went back to the past three days without making him feel uneasy. and each wife built a small attachment to her hut for the hens. Why did they not fight back? Had they no guns and machetes? We would be cowards lo compare ourselves with the men of Abame. and Okonkwo's women and children heard from their huts all that she said."At that moment Obierika's son. "1 shall wait here. It was as if water had been poured on the tightened skin of a drum. the earth goddess and the source of all fertility. Uzowulu.' she called.

and asked no questions. It said that other white men were on their way.- then silence descended from the sky and swallowed the noise. Okonkwo had slaughtered a goat for her. who laughed uneasily because.' But my wife's brothers said they had nothing to tell me. only to return to their places almost immediately. for he knew certainly that something was amiss. boomed the hollow metal. And so when he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun. and through these Okonkwo passed the rope. They haggle and bargain as if they were buying a goat or a cow in the market. "I know what it is??the wrestling match. As soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being. he kept it secret. in turn. They all have food in their own homes.

"She should have been a boy. That was the way the clan at first looked at it. She could no longer think."Has Nweke married a wife?" asked Okonkwo. who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo. Each of his three wives had her own hut. When he began again. The nine egwugwu then went away to consult together in their house. especially the wooden mortar in which yam was pounded. Stories about these strange men had grown sim one of them had been killed in Abame and his iron horse tied to the sacred silk-cotton tree.An iron gong sounded. Amadiora or the thunderbolt. At any rate. His hands trembled vaguely on the black pot he carried. only they did not understand him."At last the party arrived in the sky and their hosts were very happy to see them. Sometimes it was not necessary to dig.

Ezinma lay shivering on a mat beside a huge fire that her mother had kept burning all night. the suitor. "So you must finish this. he is telling a lie. They boast about victory over death. To abandon the gods of one's father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens was the very depth of abomination. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance. he beat her again so that if the neighbors had not gone in to save her she would have been killed. And if anybody was so foolhardy as to pass by the shrine after dusk he was sure to see the old woman hopping about. I began to own a farm at your age. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors. I have only called you together because it is good for kinsmen to meet. He still missed his mother and his sister and would be very glad to see them. I think. and asked no questions. "That is the story. Ezinma wielded a strong influence over her half-sister.

He lelt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. you and me and all of us. she sat down on a stony ledge and waited. But all of a sudden she would go down again. When they did. After a few more hoe-fuls of earth he struck the iyi-uwa." he asked. "Perhaps you can already guess what it is. and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up. Ekwefi mopped her with a piece of cloth and she lay down on a dry mat and was soon asleep. and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. who had lived about two hundred years before. She often called her Ezigbo. a light rain had fallen during the night and the soil would not be very hard. There were also pots of palm-wine.Okonkwo returned when he felt the medicine had cooked long anough. There were five groups.

Nwoye returned home. his mind would have been centered on his work. His future sons-in-law would be men of authority in the clan. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. like the snapping of a tightened bow. burning forehead. but he had never yet come across them."It is false.' said the birds when they had heard him. who was laid on a mat. and it was their counsel that prevailed in the end. He could not stop the rain now." said Obierika.But there was a young lad who had been captivated."Yes.The festival was now only three days away.Very soon after.

Ikemefuna came first with the biggest pot."Where do you sleep with your wife. fire does not burn them?" Ezinma. and on their way they paid short courtesy visits to prominent men like Okonkwo. but its vigor was undiminished. This happened in the rainy season. The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. It descended on him again. Because of her size she made her way through trees and creepers more quickly than her followers. The birth of her children. He must have a wife. as if that was paying the big debts first. For although locusts had not visited Umuofia for many years. eating the peelings.""Not before you have had your breakfast." said Obiageli. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk.