Opening Battles around Ejahyay 
on the day that I saw him so angry and when 
he probably executed a man with his own hand. 
Yet I felt relieved when I got safe and sound out 
of his den, for I was still weak and nervous. 
A few days after this, we noticed that the 
gates of the town were closed and guarded, and 
that everything was strangely quiet. We kept 
within doors and awaited developments. The 
next day everything was reversed. The streets 
were filled with merry crowds, and sounds of 
boisterous revelry came from the houses. Areh 
Argo (the chief next to Areh) taking advantage 
of his master’s precarious situation, conspired 
to wrest from him some of the power he had 
usurped. Argo’s followers seized the gates and 
informed Areh that unless he made certain con¬ 
cessions and confirmed them by giving 200 bags 
of cowries and 300 slaves they would open the 
gates to Ogumulla. This was a dangerous thing 
to do to such a man and the masses were very 
uneasy until the thing was settled. Areh pre¬ 
tended to treat the whole thing as a good joke, 
told them that they did not ask enough,—and 
then gave them much more than they required. 
Then the people sent word to him that they 
would “fight the devil” for him. The money 
was spent in feasting and revelry. Thus did the 
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