Ogbuefi Ezeudu, who was the oldest man in the village, was telling two other
men who came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had
become very mild in their clan.
"It has not always been so," he said. "My father told me that he had been told
that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the
village until he died. But after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the
peace which it was meant to preserve."
"Somebody told me yesterday," said one of the younger men, "that in some clans
it is an abomination for a man to die during the Week of Peace."
"It is indeed true," said Ogbuefi Ezeudu. "They have that custom in Obodoani. If
a man dies at this time he is not buried but cast into the Evil Forest. It is a bad custom
which these people observe because they lack understanding. They throw away large
numbers of men and women without burial. And what is the result? Their clan is full of
the evil spirits of these unburied dead, hungry to do harm to the living."
After the Week of Peace every man and his family began to clear the bush to
make new farms. The cut bush was left to dry and fire was then set to it. As the smoke
rose into the sky kites appeared from different directions and hovered over the burning
field in silent valediction. The rainy season was approaching when they would go away
until the dry season returned.
Okonkwo spent the next few days preparing his seed-yams. He looked at each
yam carefully to see whether it was good for sowing. Sometimes he decided that a yam
was too big to be sown as one seed and he split it deftly along its length with his sharp
knife. His eldest son, Nwoye, and Ikemefuna helped him by fetching the yams in long
baskets from the barn and in counting the prepared seeds in groups of four hundred.
Sometimes Okonkwo gave them a few yams each to prepare. But he always found fault
with their effort, and he said so with much threatening.
"Do you think you are cutting up yams for cooking?" he asked Nwoye. "If you
split another yam of this size, I shall break your jaw. You think you are still a child. I