shrine. But the Hills and the Caves were as silent as death. It was only on his fourth trip
that he had found Ekwefi, and by then he had become gravely worried.
Obierika's compound was as busy as an anthill. Temporary cooking tripods were
erected on every available space by bringing together three blocks of sun-dried earth
and making a fire in their midst. Cooking pots went up and down the tripods and foofoo was poun ded in a hundred wooden mortars Some of the women cooked the yams
and the cassava, and others prepared vegetable soup. Young men pounded the foo-foo
or split firewood. The children made endless trips to the stream.
Three young men helped Obierika to slaughter the two goats with which the
soup was made. They were very fat goats, but the fattest of all was tethered to a peg
near the wall of the compound and was as big as a small cow. Obierika had sent one of
his relatives all the way to Umuike to buy that goat It was the one he would present
alive to his in-laws.
"The market of Umuike is a wonderful place," said the young man Who had
been sent by Obierika to buy the giant goat "There are so many people on it that if you
threw up a grain of sand it would not find a way to fall to earth again."
"It is the result of a great medicine," said Obierika. "The people of Umuike
wanted their market to grow and swallow up the markets of their neighbours. So they
made a powerful medicine. Every market day, before the first cock-crow, this medicine
stands on the market ground in the shape of an old woman with a fan. With this magic
fan she beckons to the market all the neighbouring clans. She beckons in front of her
and behind her, to her right and to her left."
"And so everybody comes," said another man, "honest men and thieves. They
can steal your cloth from off your waist in that market."
"Yes" said Obierika. "I warned Nwankwo to keep a sharp eye and a sharp ear.
There was once a man who went to sell a goat. He led it on a thick rope which he tied
round his wrist. But as he walked through the market he realised that people were
pointing at him as they do to a madman. He could not understand it until he looked back