XXV 
THE STOLEN CHILD 
The man who did the most for the military 
supremacy of the Egbars at this time was an in¬ 
ferior chief named Ogudookpeh, the same who 
afterward carried away one of the mission girls. 
He was a giant in stature, and on the battlefield, 
seemed to know no fear. He was always in 
front and his bearing was so lion-like that he 
could hold the men together and induce them to 
stand when no one else could. He sometimes 
disdained to retreat until he was left entirely 
alone. 
One of Ogudookpeh’s striking peculiarities 
was that he never smiled. This eccentricity was 
said to have been caused by an unfortunate event 
in his early life. To commit suicide in the pres¬ 
ence of another is one of the ways the Yorubans 
have of revenging a gross insult offered to them 
by that person. This is called “dying on his 
neck.” You cannot frighten a Yoruban quicker 
in any way than by threatening to “ die on his 
neck,” though 1 was never able to find out the 
reason for this. Ogudookpeh grossly insulted 
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