The daughters of the family were all there, some of them having come a long
way from their homes in distant villages. Uchendu's eldest daughter had come from
Obodo, nearly half a day's journey away. The daughters of Uehuiona were also there. It
was a full gathering of umuada, in the same way as they would meet if a death occurred.
There were twenty-two of them.
They sat in a big circle on the ground and the young bride in the centre with a
hen in her right hand. Uchendu before her, holding the ancestral staff of the family. The
men stood outside the circle, watching. Their wives also. It was evening and the sun was
setting Uchendu's eldest daughter, Njide, asked her"
"Remember that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at
childbirth," she began. "How man men have lain with you since my brother first
expressed his desire to marry you?"
"None," she answered simply.
"Answer truthfully," urged the other women "None?" asked Njide.
"None," she answered.
"Swear on this staff of my fathers," said Uchendu "I swear," said the bride.
Uchendu took the hen from her, slit its throat with a sharp knife and allowed
some of the blood to fall on the ancestral staff.
From that day Amikwu took the young bride and she became his wife. The
daughters of the clan did not return to their homes immediately but spent two more days
with their kinsmen.
On the second day Uchendu called together his sons and daughters and his
nephew, Okonkwo. The men brought their goatskin mats, with which they sat on the
floor, and the women sat on a sisal mat spread on a raised bank of earth. Uchendu
pulled gently at his grey beard and gnashed his teeth. Then he began to speak, quietly
and deliberately, picking his words with great care: "It is Okonkwo that 1 primarily