24 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS 
quarters with other families. Besides he felt im- 
portant enough, and well enough off too, to go off 
on his own. Having got the sanction of the head 
chief, or Ete,*' for a particular site of ground, it 
had been marked out with stakes and bush-cord 
with due native ceremony, and then there trans- 
pired, just as I got on the scene, the thing that 
linked up and explained so many other things. 
It was simply this. Instead of beginning to erect 
his walls or digging a pit tO' provide him with mud 
for the walls, he turned his attention first of all to 
the erection of an altar! Turn back to the story 
in Genesis, and you will find that is precisely what 
Abraham used to do. When he decided to settle 
in a place for a while, he first of all built an altar 
unto the Lord. Fancy an Efik heathen being like 
Abraham in this matter! And yet it is so. When 
the house was finished, you could see wooden idols 
which belonged to his grandfather or great-grand- 
father, propped up against the wall outside. Within 
— if you knew where to look — you could find two 
altars, one called Isu Abasi (Face of God), and 
another which he named Isu Ekpe (Face of Evil). 
At both of these he offers sacrifices ! If he takes 
an important journey, he makes gifts and says his 
prayers for help and guidance. If anything un- 
usual appears in the sky, or happens with respect 
to the weather, he seeks a religious explanation. 
If in his journeys through the forest, he comes 
across a tree unusual in size and shape, he at once 
jumps to the conclusion that some god or spirit 
has chosen and marked it off for his own special 
use. He has only one place for religion, and that 
is its proper one — namely, first place. When the 
