There were seven men in Obierika's hut when Okonkwo returned. The suitor
was a young man of about twenty-five, and with him were his father and uncle. On
Obierika's side were his two elder brothers and Maduka, his sixteen-year-old son.
"Ask Akueke's mother to send us some kola nuts," said Obierika to his son.
Maduka vanished into the compound like lightning. The conversation at once centred on
him, and everybody agreed that he was as sharp as a razor.
"I sometimes think he is too sharp," said Obierika, somewhat indulgently. "He
hardly ever walks. He is always in a hurry. If you are sending him on an errand he flies
away before he has heard half of the message."
"You were very much like that yourself," said his eldest brother. "As our people
say, 'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth.' Maduka has
been watching your mouth."
As he was speaking the boy returned, followed by Akueke, his half-sister,
carrying a wooden dish with three kola nuts and alligator pepper. She gave the dish to
her father's eldest brother and then shook hands, very shyly, with her suitor and his
relatives. She was about sixteen and just ripe for marriage. Her suitor and his relatives
surveyed her young body with expert eyes as if to assure themselves that she was
beautiful and ripe.
She wore a coiffure which was done up into a crest in the middle of the head.
Cam wood was rubbed lightly into her skin, and all over her body were black patterns
drawn with uli. She wore a black necklace which hung down in three coils just above
her full, succulent breasts. On her arms were red and yellow bangles, and on her waist
four or five rows of jigida, or waist beads.
When she had shaken hands, or rather held out her hand to be shaken, she
returned to her mother's hut to help with the cooking.
"Remove your jigida first," her mother warned as she moved near the fireplace
to bring the pestle resting against the wall. "Every day I tell you that jigida and fire are