XX.--HOW IBANANG OKPONG AND HER MOTHER WERE SWALLOWED BY A MAN-EATING
DRUM, AND HOW THEY ESCAPED FROM ITS INSIDE.
Years and years ago the Ikom people had never seen the large wooden
drum called ’Ndofu. This drum was made out of the trunk of a hard-wood
tree and hollowed out with a long slit at the top. When this drum was
beaten with two soft pieces of wood, the sound carried for a great
distance. This drum was used for dances and for calling the people
in from the farms when there was any big palaver on, or if the town
were going to be attacked. Messages could also be sent to anyone who
understood the beat of the drum.
About this time, many people from the surrounding towns and countries
disappeared and were never seen or heard of again, until at last it
became known that one of these wooden drums lived in a town in the bush
not far from Ikom, and if anyone strayed into the wooden drum’s town
by accident he was swallowed alive and was never seen again. The people
of Ikom therefore warned their children never to go by themselves to
the farms unless they knew the road very well indeed, as if they took
the wrong path and went to the town where the wooden drum lived, they
would be swallowed up and would disappear for ever.
In those days a man called Okongo Osim lived at Ikom. He had a very
beautiful wife whose name was Inkang Ezen. They only had one child,
Ibanang Okpong by name, and both the father and mother were very fond
of her. They took great care of the little girl, never allowing her to
go about by herself, and frequently warned her about the bad ju-ju who
lived in the bush and eat people. Ibanang, however, did not pay much
attention to what her parents said, and, as she was never allowed to go
out to the farm, she grew to be very discontented.
The parents arranged that they would never go to their farm together,
so one day Okongo Osim would go to the farm and leave his wife to look
after their daughter, as she could help in the cooking and get water
from the river. The next day the father would stay at home to look
after the girl and his wife would go to the farm.
This went on for some time, until at last Ibanang became very
dissatisfied, as she had never been to their farm and wanted to see
what it was like very much. So she waited until the day when her mother
had gone to the farm and she was left in charge of her father.
Ibanang then said she was going down to the river to get water to
boil the yams in, but, instead of doing as she proposed, she left her
water-pot on the ground outside the house, and ran off along the path
which she knew her mother always took to go to the farm.
After she had gone for a little distance outside the town, Ibanang came
to a place where the path divided and, not knowing which way to go,
she took the path which led to the right, and ran on until she came to
a cripple sitting on the side of the path beneath a tree. He greeted
her and offered her some kola. But Ibanang was in a hurry to find her
mother, and would not stop. She ran on and paid no attention to the
cripple, who shouted after her that she ought to go back, as the path
did not lead to her farm.
After she had gone a little distance she was out of breath, so she
stopped to rest for a time. While she was resting, a small wooden drum
came up and spoke to her. He offered a kola nut, which she refused, and
he then told her to go back, but Ibanang would not listen to him and
said she was looking for her mother. She then ran on and passed several
more wooden drums, each one bigger than the last; they all told her to
return, but she was obstinate, and still ran on until at last she came
to a clearing in the bush where there was an enormous wooden drum held
up by forked sticks and resting on the ground.
As the girl had never seen anything like this drum before she went up
quite close to it. The drum then said to her: “What are you doing in
my town? No one is allowed to come here, and if anyone does come, they
never go back again.”
The girl then began to be afraid and looked round to see how she could
escape, but the path she had come by had closed up and there was no way
out, as she was entirely surrounded by thick bush.
She then listened and could hear singing and dancing going on, but the
sounds seemed to come from the inside of the drum, and, although she
looked round everywhere, she could not see anybody.
While she was wondering where the sounds came from, the big drum opened
his lips wide and swallowed her up. She slid down his throat and fell
into a big compound where there were many people singing and dancing.
Ibanang did not know any of the people, but they were those who had
disappeared from the surrounding towns for some years.
She then asked some of the people why they did not go back home; so
they told her that the only way was to climb up and cut the heart
and liver out of the drum, but they could not do that as they had no
matchets or knives.
This made the girl very sad, but, as she could not see any other way
out of the place, she made up her mind to enjoy herself, and sang and
danced with the rest of the people.
When Ibanang’s mother returned from the farm her husband told her that
Ibanang had escaped from the house and had gone to the farm. But her
mother knew that she must have lost her way, as she had not been to the
farm and guessed at once that she had gone to the town of the wooden
drum, where she would be killed. She then abused her husband as much as
she dared for not looking after their child properly, and pulled her
hair down and cried all the night.
Inkang Ezen told her husband that in three days’ time she would set
out to find Ibanang, and that if she did not find her she would never
return. The next two days Inkang Ezen spent in borrowing native razors
from her friends and sharpening them.
Then on the third day she started off, when there was no one about,
with the razors in her cloth, and went by the road leading to the town
of the wooden drum.
She had not gone far when she met the cripple, who was always in the
same place from morning until sunset. He offered Inkang Ezen some kola,
as he had done to her daughter, but she refused to take it. Then the
cripple called her back and said she was on the wrong road and that if
she went further she would never return; but the woman told him she did
not care, as she was looking for her daughter, who had disappeared.
She went on, and met the small drum, who also offered her kola, and
tried to persuade her to go back, but she would not listen to him.
After that, she passed drum after drum, until at length she arrived at
the big drum, who asked her why she had come, so Inkang Ezen said she
was looking for her daughter Ibanang, and would like to go to the same
place where she had gone.
Then the big drum took her up, and, having opened his big lips wide, he
swallowed Inkang Ezen in the same way as he had swallowed her daughter.
When she went down the drum’s throat and reached the compound, she came
across several people she did not know, but, on looking round, she saw
her daughter, and ran to her and embraced her.
She talked to Ibanang for some time, until the people came up and spoke
to them. Inkang Ezen told them that Ibanang was her daughter, who had
lost her way in trying to find their farm. She also told them that she
had found out how to escape from the drum before she came, and had
brought some sharp razors to help them to cut their way out. When the
people heard this, they were so glad that they danced and sang all the
night through.
In the morning Inkang Ezen gave her razors to the men, and they at once
climbed up into the drum, and commenced cutting the drum’s heart out,
bit by bit.
When they began to cut, the drum felt a great pain in his inside, and
made such a noise that all the small drums and the cripple came to
enquire what the matter was. When they came, the big drum told them
that he had a bad pain in his heart, and thought that the people he had
swallowed must be trying to cut their way out. He then asked them if
they could do anything to help him, but the small drums said they could
do nothing.
All this time the men inside the drum were cutting away at his heart
and liver with their razors, until at last the drum got up from his
seat, and fell over dead.
When the drum fell down, Inkang Ezen told the men to work hard and cut
their way out. They cut their way through the drum’s heart and liver,
and then made an opening in his lips big enough for a man to crawl
through. One man got out, and told the people inside that it was quite
light.
Then all the people came out of the inside of the drum one after
another, including the goats and other animals that the drum had
swallowed.
Everyone praised Inkang Ezen very much for the way she had delivered
them, and asked her to show them her house, so that they would know
where to find her in the future. She was very glad to do this, and took
all the people to her husband’s house.
When they arrived, a report was sent round the whole country that the
big wooden drum, the destroyer of men, was dead.
Then the men went to the home of the big drum with axes, and cut the
drum into pieces and carried them to Inkang Ezen’s house.
After the body of the drum had been eaten up, the bones were preserved.
They bored holes in the leg bones, and took the marrow out. The bones
were then used to beat the drums with at dances and in times of danger.
The people who had escaped from the drum’s inside each took one of his
bones and departed to their different towns, where they all made big
wooden drums like the one which had swallowed them.