NOTES ON THE EKOI 
87 
complaint against a man, she brings her 
grievance before the head- woman of her 
society, who is usually a priestess of 
Nimm. The latter then calls a meeting, 
and, if the complaint is thought justified, 
steps are taken to bring the offender to 
a sense of his duty. The Ekoi are a 
polygamous people, but the chief wife, 
not the husband, is the head of the 
house. Each wife has control over her 
children, who almost invariably go with 
her if she leaves her husband, and her 
rights as to property are most strictly 
safeguarded by native law. 
In an article such as this there is neces- 
sarily no room to give an idea of the 
richness and beauty of folklore among 
this people, who have legends to explain 
practically all their customs and beliefs. 
Perhaps, however, it is allowable to 
quote one short story, which, though far 
below the level of Ekoi legends in point 
of style, explains more clearly than would 
be possible in any other way the position 
which woman holds in this country. 
"At the beginning of things," so the 
legend runs, "the world was peopled by 
women only. One day the earth-god, 
Awbassi Nsi, happened by accident to 
kill a woman. On hearing this, the rest 
gathered together and prayed that, if he 
meant to slay them, he would bring de- 
struction on all together, rather than kill 
them One by one. Awbassi was sorry 
for the grief that he had caused ; so he 
offered to give them anything they should 
choose out of all his possessions to make 
up to them for their fellow-woman, 
whom he had slain. They begged him 
to mention what he had to give, and said 
that they would all cry 'Yes' when he 
named the thing which they wished to 
have. Awbassi began and mentioned one 
by one all his fruits, fowls, and beasts, 
but at each they shouted 'No.' 
"At length the list was nearly ended ; 
only one thing remained to offer. 'Will 
you, then, take a man?' asked Awbassi, 
at last. 
" 'Yes,' they roared, in a great shout, 
and, catching hold of one another, started 
dancing for joy at the thought of the 
gift which Awbassi was sending. 
"They took man, therefore, as com- 
pensation for the fellow-woman whom 
they had lost. Thus men became the 
servants of women, and have to work 
for them up to this day, for though a 
woman comes under the influence of her 
husband on marriage, yet she is his pro- 
prietor, and has a right to ask any serv- 
ice and expect him to do whatever she 
chooses." 
The religious observances of the Ekoi 
are altogether a fascinating study. Be- 
neath many modern corruptions and dis- 
figurements are yet to be found traces 
of an older, purer form of worship — 
traces which carry us back to the oldest- 
known Minoan civilization and link the 
belief of the modern Ekoi with that of 
the ancient Phoenician, the Egyptian, the 
Roman, and the Greek. In some ways, 
indeed, the Ekoi form may be termed 
the most ancient of all, for whereas in 
the oldest-known representations of Mi- 
noan bird and tree worship the tree has 
become almost entirely conventionalized 
into pillar shape, and later on becomes a 
mere pedestal to support the bird, among 
the Ekoi it still keeps its original form — - 
that of the actual living tree. 
The smallest town has its juju tree. 
There are many varieties of these, but 
each stands alone, usually in the open 
space before the Egbo house. They are 
generally bound round with tie-tie or 
surrounded by a little fence festooned 
with linked rings of the same. On the 
branches of these trees hang countless 
nests of one kind or another of the 
weaver bird. Even the smallest child 
knows that these are sacred, for on them 
depends the prosperity of the town. 
Should the birds be injured or driven 
away, the women would become barren 
and even the cattle cease to bear. Surely 
in this form we have the oldest picturing 
of the wedding of earth and sky — sky 
father and earth mother — for of all 
created things the bird is most akin 
to air and sky, while the tree, with its 
roots in the dark ground, is the best 
and oldest personification of mother 
earth. In the course of ages, strangely 
enough, mother earth has become father 
earth for the Ekoi, whose two principal 
deities are now Awbassi Awsaw, the 
sky god, and the earth god, Awbassi Nsi. 
Enough legends and fragments of ritual. 
