In Togoland there is a large tree which is worshiped by all the
inhabitants as a god named Azago. He is the giver of children,
and crops, and all blessings. No one is permitted to eat
fresh yams until the priest of Azago announces that the god
has partaken of them. A dreadful fatality will follow such a
disobedience. One year a pupil in a mission school ate a yam
before the appointed time, and his distracted parents looked for
his death and for all calamities to come--but the boy prospered
and grew fat, and none of his kindred died. The next year all
the children of that mission school ate yams before permission
was given by the priest of Azago, and none perished. The people
wanted also to eat, but the priest warned them that the God
of the mission schools was greater than Azago, so the mission
children could eat yams with impunity, but not so the general
populace. But from that time the power of the superstition
declined, and recently when one of the priests died the elders
decided to forsake Azago and serve the living, true God. (Text.)
(1651)