Mr. Efiom Ekpe Esuk : 
Society Steward and Martyr. 
WHENEVER I think about Mr. Efiom, I am 
reminded of the title of a book I read years 
ago : He fell in love with his wife.'' For that is 
just what Mr. Efiom did with his wife Ikani. He 
had been married before, of course — very much 
married. Like all heathen chiefs he had as many 
wives as he could pay for in dowries ; for the more 
wives he had the more important individual he be- 
came in native society. Then, too, his wives, 
through farming or trading, brought him much 
gain. But when he became an out-and-out Chris- 
tian all these fashions had to be put away. Efiom 
called his wives together and told them that his 
heart went out after God, and he felt he must follow 
the teaching of God's Book ; that he wanted to deal 
fairly by them all and provide them with enough 
goods or food or money to get an honest and re- 
spectable living; and then he would begin afresh 
and take to himself only one wife, and live with her 
Christian fashion and make a home. The woman 
he asked to be his wife, Ikani, was one like-minded 
with himself. Their house was near our first mis- 
sion church, and I loved to pop in when passing 
and notice how fond they were growing of each 
other. By-and-by we needed a Society Steward, 
and Efiom was the man selected for the office, a 
position he ably filled until the day of his death. 
When a tornado wrecked the church and a new one 
