thick palm branches and palm leaves was set on the walls to protect them from the next
rainy season. Okonkwo worked on the outside of the wall and the boys worked from
within. There were little holes from one side to the other in the upper levels of the wall,
and through these Okonkwo passed the rope, or tie-tie, to the boys and they passed it
round the wooden stays and then back to him,- and in this way the cover was
strengthened on the wall.
The women had gone to the bush to collect firewood, and the little children to
visit their playmates in the neighbouring compounds. The harmattan was in the air and
seemed to distill a hazy feeling of sleep on the world. Okonkwo and the boys worked in
complete silence, which was only broken when a new palm frond was lifted on to the
wall or when a busy hen moved dry leaves about in her ceaseless search for food.
And then quite suddenly a shadow fell on the world, and the sun seemed hidden
behind a thick cloud. Okonkwo looked up from his work and wondered if it was going
to rain at such an unlikely time of the year. But almost immediately a shout of joy broke
out in all directions, and Umuofia, which had dozed in the noon- day haze, broke into
life and activity.
"Locusts are descending," was joyfully chanted everywhere, and men, women
and children left their work or their play and ran into the open to see the unfamiliar
sight. The locusts had not come for many, many years, and only the old people had seen
them before.
At first, a fairly small swarm came. They were the harbingers sent to survey the
land. And then appeared on the horizon a slowly-moving mass like a boundless sheet of
black cloud drifting towards Umuofia. Soon it covered half the sky, and the solid mass
was now broken by tiny eyes of light like shining star dust. It was a tremendous sight,
full of power and beauty.
Everyone was now about, talking excitedly and praying that the locusts should
camp in Umuofia for the night. For although locusts had not visited Umuofia for many
years, everybody knew by instinct that they were very good to eat. And at last the
locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass, they settled