In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
could read and write both languages. 1 found 
out, however, that one of the letters began, 
“There is a great cottonwood tree in our way, 
and we must cut it down,” and my interpreter 
hinted that Areh was the cottonwood tree. 
I had often wondered what the inducement 
was that led the Bashorun to come to the aid of 
Ejahyay, and 1 now understood the whole matter. 
All who witnessed the last battle knew that it 
was the steadiness of the Egbars that had saved 
the city, and that battle dated the beginning of 
the wily Bashorun’s efforts to accomplish com¬ 
pletely the mission upon which he had come— 
the absorption of Ejahyay and its dependencies 
as a part of his personal possessions. He was of 
royal descent, and he claimed with some show of 
plausibility that Ejahyay was a part of his ances¬ 
tral inheritance. 
After the king had agreed to everything, the 
Bashorun proceeded to cut the cottonwood tree 
down. He called a meeting of the Ogbonees, a 
powerful and secret society to which many of 
the most influential of the Ejahyay chiefs be¬ 
longed, and obtained a decree conferring some 
high title of honor on one of Areh’s generals. 
This was the first stroke of the axe. Areh scorn¬ 
fully refused to acknowledge any title not con- 
190 
