chalk and charcoal. Now and again an ancestral spirit or egwugwu appeared from the
underworld, speaking in a tremulous, unearthly voice and completely covered in raffia.
Some of them were very violent, and there had been a mad rush for shel ter earlier in the
day when one appeared with a sharp machete and was only prevented from doing
serious harm by two men who restrained him with the help of a strong rope tied round
his waist. Sometimes he turned round and chased after those men, and they ran for their
lives. But they always returned to the long rope he trailed behind. He sang, in a
terrifying voice, that Ekwensu, or Evil Spirit, had entered his eye.
But the most dreaded of all was yet to come. He was always alone and was
shaped like a coffin. A sickly odour hung in the air wherever he went, and flies went
with him. Even the greatest medicine men took shelter when he was near. Many years
ago another egwugwu had dared to stand his ground before him and had been transfixed
to the spot for two days. This one had only one hand and it carried a basket full of
water.
But some of the egwugwu were quite harmless. One of them was so old and
infirm that he leaned heavily on a stick. He walked unsteadily to the place where the
corpse was laid, gazed at it a while and went away again--to the underworld.
The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors.
There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old
man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man's life from birth to
death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his
ancestors.
Ezeudu had been the oldest man in his village, and at his death there were only
three men in the whole clan who were older, and four or five others in his own age
group. Whenever one of these ancient men appeared in the crowd to dance unsteadily
the funeral steps of the tribe, younger men gave way and the tumult subsided.
It was a great funeral, such as befitted a noble warrior. As the evening drew
near, the shouting and the firing of guns, the beating of drums and the brandishing and
clanging of machetes increased.