Agbor was an Okuni man, and was married to a woman named Awo, by whom
he had two children, but they were both girls, much to his annoyance,
as he wanted a boy who would be able to help him with his work when he
grew up.
Agbor was a hunter and a trapper, and it was his custom to set traps
all along the road to the boundary where the Okuni farms joined up
with Insofan. Every morning he would start off with his bow and arrows
to inspect his traps and take out anything he found in them, and
sometimes, if he were lucky, he would shoot a buck or bush pig.
When he returned in the evening, Agbor used to worry his wife and tell
her that he wanted a son, until at last Awo told her husband that, as
she did not appear to be lucky with her children, he had better save up
and buy a slave who could help him. This Agbor did, and after a time
he managed to buy a slave called Edim. The slave always went with his
master into the bush, and helped him with his trap-setting and carried
the heavy loads.
One day Agbor caught a small bird in one of his traps, so he took it
out very carefully and carried it home. He then made a cage for it,
and fed it with seeds. Agbor warned his wife and two children that
they were on no account to touch the bird, as he was very fond of it,
and did not want any harm to happen to it. Then, for some time, Agbor
took much trouble in taming the bird, and taught it to sing. In the
evenings, when he returned from hunting, he used to take the bird round
to some of the chiefs and head men of the town, and the bird used to
sing to them. This pleased the chiefs so much that they used to give
Agbor presents of tombo and yams.
One day, while Agbor and his slave Edim were absent in the bush
hunting, one of Awo’s daughters opened the cage and let the bird fly
away.
When the hunter returned, he found that his pet bird had gone, and
he was very angry indeed, so he asked his wife who had let the bird
go, and Awo told him. Agbor then got a cutting whip, and flogged his
daughter very severely until the blood ran. Awo was much annoyed with
her husband for beating the child, so she packed up all her things, and
said she was going to return to her parents and would take her children
with her. But Agbor would not let her go, and told her to go to bed and
take her children with her.
Agbor then got his matchet, and having sharpened it on a stone, went
into the house and cut his wife’s head off, and then killed his two
children. When he had done this he was frightened, and ran away into
the bush and hid himself.
The next morning at daylight Edim the slave went to wake his master as
usual to go out and visit the traps, but he found that the hunter was
absent. Edim then opened the door of Awo’s room, and looked in. There
he saw the floor was covered with blood, and the three dead bodies were
lying together on the bed.
Edim then ran out of the house shouting, and told the people of the
town what he had seen, and that Agbor was not in the house. The people
then went to the house to look at Awo and her children, and the father
and brothers of Awo at once armed themselves and set off into the bush
to find Agbor.
After searching for some time they found him setting one of his traps,
so they surrounded and caught him; then, having tied him up securely
with his hands behind his back, they brought him into the town and
handed him over to the head chief.
The chief asked Agbor who had killed Awo and the two children, and he
replied that he had done so as they had made him angry. He told the
chief that one daughter had let his pet bird fly away, and when he
flogged her the mother had threatened to leave him and to take the
children with her. The chief told Agbor that he had no right to kill
his wife and children, and sentenced Agbor to be killed by degrees.
He was then led away and tied up to a post in the middle of the town. A
man with a sharp knife then cut off Agbor’s left hand. But Agbor said
nothing, much to the disappointment of the people, who wished to hear
him shout. So the torturer said, “Do you feel any pain, Agbor?” and he
replied “No.” After a short time the man cut off Agbor’s right hand,
and as he still remained quiet, the man asked him, “How do you feel
now, Agbor?” He replied as before, that he did not feel any pain. Then
they cut off his left foot, and still Agbor remained quiet.
The people were not at all satisfied with this, so they lit a fire and
put Agbor’s right leg into it. The pain of the burning was so great
that Agbor screamed with agony, but the people laughed and told him
that he was now feeling what death was like, and to remember how he had
killed his wife and children. Agbor implored the people to kill him at
once, but they refused, and left him tied up to the post, where he died
during the night from loss of blood.
When Agbor was dead, the father of Awo claimed his head, so it was cut
off and given to him, and the body was buried.
He then buried the head for two weeks, until the ants and maggots had
removed the flesh. He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the
ground outside the door of his house.
Then, every morning when he went out, he would hit the skull with his
chewing-stick which he cleaned his teeth with, and say, “Ah, you killed
my daughter, but I conquered you.”
From that time, whenever the Okuni people go to war, they put the
skulls of their enemies whom they have killed on the ground, so that
they can show them to all people as the heads of their enemies whom
they have slain, and they always hit them with their chewing-sticks
when they go out in the morning, saying, “I conquered you; I conquered
you.”