"Every year," he said sadly, "before 1 put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock
to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine
of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the
yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I
weed -- I”; “Hold your peace!" screamed the priestess, her voice terrible as it echoed
through the dark void. "You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when
a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad
according to the strength of his arm. You, Unoka, are known in all the clan for the
weakness of your machete and your hoe. When your neighbours go out with their axe to
cut down virgin forests, you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labour to
clear. They cross seven rivers to make their farms,- you stay at home and offer
sacrifices to a reluctant soil. Go home and work like a man."
Unoka was an ill-fated man. He had a bad chi or personal god, and evil fortune
followed him to the grave, or rather to his death, for he had no grave. He died of the
swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. When a man was afflicted
with swelling in the stomach and the limbs he was not allowed to die in the house. He
was carried to the Evil Forest and left there to die. There was the story of a very
stubborn man who staggered back to his house and had to be carried again to the forest
and tied to a tree. The sickness was an abomination to the earth, and so the victim could
not be buried in her bowels. He died and rotted away above the earth, and was not given
the first or the second burial. Such was Unoka's fate. When they carried him away, he
took with him his flute.
With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many
young men had. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife. But i