The Stolen Child 
the wife of one of his young companions and 
the latter, after reproaching him for his base 
conduct, committed suicide in his presence. 
From that day Ogudookpeh was never seen to 
smile. Remorse seemed to have banished the 
song entirely out of his life. Yet he did not 
seem to be incapable of a kind of grim humor. 
To help them fight the Dahomians, somebody 
sent the Egbars a cannon, but no one knew how 
to fire it. One day, there was a thundering re¬ 
port and a ball came crashing through the houses 
of the city. Ogudookpeh had succeeded in 
shooting off the big gun. Fortunately, nothing 
but a horse was killed, but when the owner 
demanded damages, Ogudookpeh exclaimed, 
“Why, you fool, you ought to pay me for 
knowing how to shoot the gun.” Once this 
savage humor assumed a very dangerous form. 
Seizing his bow and quiver he ran out into the 
streets of his chiefdom and began to shoot at 
everybody he saw, ordering them back into their 
houses. The people thought that he was for the 
time possessed by Oro and that Oro was thus 
expressing his displeasure. They could more 
readily believe this because he held an office in 
the Ogbonee lodge in which he represented the 
avenging power of Oro and in which his own 
249 
