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.
Told by Ewonkom, an Ikom woman.—[E.D., 23.6.10.]