Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter iii death, burial, and departed spirits oro egun gun, etc. Egun. Iro, Oro, Egun, Egungun, and Eleko, are all now Orishas representing the spirits of their ancestors, and it is during festivities connected with them that the "bull-roarer" appears. At Ilaro I noticed three trees with all their branches cut off1 and the bark 1 Note by Adesola in the Nigerian Chronicle. The whole company of gods and men proceed outside to what is called the Oro pagi (Oro kills the tree) or Oro jegi (Oro eats the tree) ceremony. For its performance the newly deified takes the company to the highest tree in the neighbourhood in order to show proof of its divinity by " eating" up every leaf thereon to the latest shoot. At a convenient distance from this tree gods and men accommodate themselves as best as possible--the gods crying with all their might and the men drumming very loudly, singing and dancing at the same time. As it is not permitted to the uninitiated to know how this spirit feat is performed, suffice it to say that one wakes up in the morning to see that particular tree completely denuded of its leaves: and it will require the service of the most powerful microscope to discover even the tiniest and latest shoot anywhere about the tree up to the loftiest branch or on the surrounding surface or anywhere about the vicinity of the tree. These leaves are supposed to have been literally eaten up by the god. "A ki ri ajeku Oro "(No mortal ever sees the fragments of food devoured by the Oro god) has now passed into a byword. Suspended on this tree between any two of its branches which are topmost, or sometimes left streaming on one of the branches which is the highest, is a new mat or a white or
