Quomodo evenit ut Penis primum cum Vagina coiit.
Penis autem olim rure solus habitabat, hand procul a Testiculis, amico ejus, qui magus erat valde peritus, atque fundum proximum incolebat. Ultra tamen praedia Penis villam parvam habebat Vagina. Penis forte ad villam Vaginae vagatus, et fame afflictus, illam palmae nuces, quas nuper in horto collegerat, rogavit, scilicet quod ipse totam diem in agro laborasset nec sibi cibum parare potuisset. Nec abnuit Vagina, sed se pauperem esse dicebat, et Penem debitum reddere alio tempore opportere. Quo pacto Penis cum nucibus abiit. Paullo postea Vagina haud procul ab aedibus Penis ligna capite ferebat, et, debiti memor, domum ejus aggressa, “Esurio” inquit “O Penis, cum totam diem haec ligna collegi, nec mihi cibum parare potui. Redde igitur nuces quas debes.” Penis tamen noluit, et Vagina iterum vehementius nuces postulabat; deinde, cum se nihil profiteri sentiret, ligna in terram irata dejecit, seque insuper prostravit. Unum autem e lignis quod peracutum erat Vaginam inter crura altius vulneravit, gravique dolore afflixit. Quod visum Penis aegre ferebat, atque ligno extracto et vulnere aqua perluto Vaginam domum duxit. Haec tamen interdum, magno dolore pressa, lamentari non desinebat, quod maxime Penem pigebat, qui eam penitus amabat, etiamsi nuces debitas reddere noluerat. Itaque Penis domum regressus servum jussit in villam Vaginae properare atque vulneri medicamenta adhibere. Quo facto servus, cum Vagina nihilominus inter gemitus vociferabat se vehementer dolentem sanari a Pene opportere, qui causa malorum fuisset, ad Penem regressus ea quae dixerat Vagina nuntiavit. Quae audita Penis diu meditatus statim ire amicum suum, Testiculos, consultum statuit, qui maxime sapiens diceretur. At Testiculi, de Vaginae vulnere certior factus, dixit Penem Vaginam sanare posse si verbis suis obtemperet; et Penis laetus se velle omnia facere quae necesse essent asseverabat. Eo autem tempore Penis nunquam erectus fiebat. Itaque Testiculi “Liquore” inquit “te implebo ita ut erectus fias; deinde i ad Vaginam teque in vulnus insere; quo facto te paene foras extractum iterum atque iterum in vulnus impelle, dum tandem liquorem quo te implevi in vulnus vomes.” “At si quidam” inquit Penis “inimicus mihi gladio instabit jam in vulnere condito, inopinantem interficere poterit.” “Bono animo es” inquit Testiculi “ego enim a tergo vigilabo pro te ne quid infaustum accidat.” Itaque Penis ad Vaginam properavit et omnia quae amicus jusserat perfecit. At Vagina medicinam sibi magnopere profuisse dixit, et Penem precata est ut omni quaque nocte veniret eodem modo vulnus sanaturus. Paucis itaque diebus Vagina convaluit, sed rima alta in corpore manebat. Ex eo tempore etiam Testiculi et Penis in uno juncti sunt, ita ut Testiculi, quoties Penis Vaginam videat, eum liquore implet per quem validus fit. At si quid incommodi Vagina habeat, vel alio sit qui vehementius rixetur, tum Penis erectus non fit, nec rimam intrare potest.
(Told by Ennenni, a singing and dancing girl of Okuni. May 18th, 1911.)
Plate I. (click image to enlarge)
Fig. 1.—CARVED WOODEN DRUM AT INKUM. (THE MAN-EATING DRUM.)
Fig. 2.—CARVED WOODEN TABLE USED IN JU-JU DANCES FROM INKUM.
Fig. 3.—STONE JU-JU AND CARVED WOODEN PILLAR: EGBO HOUSE IN BACKGROUND.
Plate II. (click image to enlarge)
Fig. 1.—CHIEF INDOMA OF INKUM, SON OF THE
POWERFUL CHIEF INDOMA, ABOUT WHOM SEVERAL
STORIES ARE TOLD.
Fig. 2.—CHIEF INDOMA’S COMPOUND.
Fig. 3.—SKULLS IN HEAD CHIEF’S HOUSE AT ABRAGHA.
THE CHIEF ALWAYS SAT WITH HIS FEET ON THE SKULLS.
HE WAS THE HEAD OF THE INFAM JU-JU.
LONDON:
HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN’S LANE, W.C.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Author’s Note.—Okukum is the juice extracted from a fungus like a very small mushroom. It is painted on to the skin with a small stick, and is a fight brown liquid paste. Curious designs are made all over the body, the lines running parallel. The paste is then allowed to dry for about a day, and eventually rubs off. By this time the acid has eaten into the skin, and the dark marks remain, showing the pattern for several months. They cannot be washed off by water. The Okuni and Infoit people call this fungus oboma and the Boki people katium. The indigo black markings last less than a week, and the Okuni people call it ebim.
[2] A sort of burrowing bush rat.
[3] Author’s Note.—Koko yams are cooked for several hours. They are boiled in three different waters, and so that each water is steamed away before the fresh water is added. The yams are then left in the pot until the following morning. The ordinary yam is cooked and eaten at once.
[4] The “night” calabash was used by the witches when they were going to kill anyone for their feasts, as it prolonged the night, and the Okuni people still believe when the nights are unusually long that the witches are out with the “night” calabash and are killing people.
[5] These shelters are made out of palm leaves and are quickly put together, but they do not keep out the rain. They are, however, sufficient for the wants of the natives in the dry season.
[6] The native hunters say that if you shout at an iguana he does not move or take any notice, but if you point at him and whisper, “Look, there is an iguana,” he will run away at once. An iguana never runs more than about fifty yards at a time; he then stops to get his breath. If you find him again he will be killed easily, as he cannot run so far a second time; there is, therefore, a second saying amongst the hunters that “A first run is a run for life, and when you are in danger you should run as far as you can before you stop to rest, as when you run the second time you will not be able to go so far.”
[7] The natives believe that when a man whose first-born child is a boy happens to hit a toe on his right foot against a stone on his way to a town, that he will be badly received at that town, but if the toe which is hit by the stone is on his left foot, then the people will welcome him and treat him kindly.
[8] The origin of this saying is, that a man seeing a fine bird sitting on the branch of a tree threw a stone at it, but the stone hit the branch, and as the man was standing underneath the stone came back and hit him.
[9] “’Nda” in the Infor and Inde languages means “elephantiasis.”
[10] The native lamp was of earthenware, with a fibre wick in palm-oil.
[11] The four streams mentioned in this story are still called by the same names, and are well known to the inhabitants of Okuni.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.