It seemed to Ekwefi that the night had become a little lighter. The cloud had
lifted and a few stars were out. The moon must be preparing to rise, its sullenness over.
When the moon rose late in the night, people said it was refusing food, as a sullen
husband refuses his wife's food when they have quarrelled.
"Agbala do-o-o-o! Umuachi! Agbala ekene unuo-o-ol" It was just as Ekwefi had
thought. The priestess was now saluting the village of Umuachi. It was unbelievable, the
distance they had covered. As they emerged into the open village from the narrow forest
track the darkness was softened and it became possible to see the vague shape of trees.
Ekwefi screwed her eyes up in an effort to see her daughter and the priestess, but
whenever she thought she saw their shape it immediately dissolved like a melting lump
of darkness. She walked numbly along.
Chielo's voice was now rising continuously, as when she first set out. Ekwefi
had a feeling of spacious openness, and she guessed they must be on the village ilo, or
playground. And she realised too with something like a jerk that Chielo was no longer
moving forward. She was, in fact, returning. Ekwefi quickly moved away from her line
of retreat. Chielo passed by, and they began to go back the way they had come.
It was a long and weary journey and Ekwefi felt like a sleepwalker most of the
way. The moon was definitely rising, and although it had not yet appeared on the sky its
light had already melted down the darkness. Ekwefi could now discern the figure of the
priestess and her burden. She slowed down her pace so as to increase the distance
between them. She was afraid of what might happen if Chielo suddenly turned round
and saw her.
She had prayed for the moon to rise. But now she found the half-light of the
incipient moon more terrifying than darkness. The world was now peopled with vague,
fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new
shapes. At one stage Ekwefi was so afraid that she nearly called out to Chielo for
companionship and human sympathy. What she had seen was the shape of a man
climbing a palm tree, his head pointing to the earth and his legs skywards. But at that
very moment Chielo's voice rose again in her possessed chanting, and Ekwefi recoiled,
because there was no humanity there. It was not the same Chielo who sat with her in the