2 |
Letter dated 19 January 1902 from Allan to an unspecified recipient
at the University Museum / Pitt Rivers Museum, presumably Henry Balfour,
enclosing (2a) an extract in Allan’s hand from pages 28-9 of Up the Niger
by A. F. Mockler-Ferryman (London, 1892) and (2b) a manuscript by Archdeacon
Crowther entitled ‘Facts of the Ikuba - skull house, from the mouth of
natives’:
Transcription of [2b] ‘Facts of the Ikuba-skull house, from
the mouth of natives. / The Ikuba is a house about 40 ft long by 20
broad, built many years ago, in the middle of the town of Bonny, in
which the national god was placed for worship. / The reptile iguana
was the object of worship; and these reptiles in former years were
to be seen at every corner of the streets fearing no man, & crawling
into houses, none daring to molest them. Some poor slaves have been
put to death for accidentally killing an iguana, & a man of note
was fined 60 puncheons of oil many many years ago for killing one.
/ This house called Ikuba was built specially for the worship of this
god; besides the frequent offerings of sacrifices of fowls, yam & oil,
the skull of every victim captured in war, or of any miscreant was
to be brought to the Ikuba, & this being a practice some say over
100 years ago, the accumulation of skulls was great. / When we first
established ourselves at Bonny in 1865, the house was thatched with
bamboo leaves, but soon after, corrugated galvanised iron sheets were
put on the roof & sides. In the centre of the house was erected
an altar of mud about 6 ft. in length, 4 ft. broad, & about 3 ft.
high, — in the centre of this altar there is a hole about 8 inches
in circumference, into which tombo (palm wine), rum & other spirits
are poured, to invoke the dead fathers. Around this hole are formed
decanters, tumblers, & wine glasses, a raised platform about 1
foot from the ground is built of mud before this altar, on which were
placed 2 cast brass images of the iguana made I am told in Birmingham, & bought
for enormous sums of puncheons of oil from the former supercargoes
trading then in the river. There are also 2 carved ivory tusks bought
from the interior Aron country the pantheon of the Ibo country. These
ivory tusks have holes & are blown on certain events which will
be stated as we go on. These tusks are objects of great veneration, & the
spirits of the fathers are believed to be in them, & when blown
they are said to be the voice of the departed fathers. / In case of
any swearing, the blood of the fowl or goat is to be sprinkled on them, & the
dead fathers invoked; and in the case of any swearing between delegates
of 2 contending countries, nothing less than human blood is to be sprinkled, & that
means a human sacrifice, the flesh to be eaten by the juju-priests & the
skull put in the house. Again, should any one be guilty of criminal
act, & he succeeds to brake [sic] his chains run to the Ikuba, & blow
either of these ivory tusks, that person is free from death or any
further imprisonment, the sound produced then is said to indicate |
the | “forgiveness of the fathers”. / Rude images surround this altar,
drums, native gongs & bells | & plates, mugs [?] &c. |
complete the surroundings. Throughout the interior body of the building
years ago, you see nothing but the ghastly sight of skulls strung closely
together in rows right up the ceiling of [sic] roof & sides, so
that no post or stick is visible, only an array of skulls, — even the
door & window ceils [sic; sills] are lined with skulls to the outside
frames, recent skulls & bones are piled on shelves or on the ground
ready to be strung up. / It is said of the late King Dappa William
Pepple, that he was so well up with the history of the skulls of captured
victims in that house that he can point out to you that this is the
skull of the King of Andony, — this, of that country King & chiefs,
this, of an Ibo warrior, &c. — the priest who keeps the house is
also [?] an adept in pointing out important ones also; — so that the
Ikuba is a traditional record of the victories gained by Bonny over
the surrounding places. / Whenever there is no war, & the time
comes for Ikuba worship (the time of eating new yam about October),
the priest & his attendants generally | waylay | people in the
dusk of the evening or early in the morning, by hiding themselves in
the bush now happily cleared away by Gospel power, between the Mission & town, & many
innocent men, women & children have been clubbed, taken to the
Ikuba, their flesh cooked & eaten, & skulls placed among the
others. No skull is to be there whose flesh had not been eaten, even
when brought from war in the state of putrifaction [sic]. / The Ikuba
| head | priest, (now a church adherent) is never to be crossed or
passed on the right side or you pay a fine, every one knows this at
Bonny & generally give him a wide berth, — he is not to cut his
hair, & is always to have on one of those trade wooly caps in shape
like a night-cap, & not to take it off even if he enters a king
or chief’s house & not to shake any one’s hand. / On his refusing
to be any longer an Ikuba priest, many did not believe him, till one
Saturday, he had his hair shaved off clean, held [?] took his cap to
the riverside & threw it in the river, & on returning to the
home & to the mission, he purposely took the right side of those
coming to him, & the left of those going before him, took hold
of their hands & shook them saying uka gula, uka owu do kwara dokwa
i.e. “palaver set, that palaver is smashed” meaning that the law is
broken & he is no more a juju man of Ikuba; he came to the Mission
we strengthened his heart from the Scriptures & by prayer & he
returned home happy. On the next day Sunday, he took his seat at Church, & ever
since has been attending pretty regularly except when ill & distant
from home. / He was at Church when you gave your address on your visit
last year, & missed seeing you after Church | service |, because
they had to hurry home on account of the tide. / These are some of
the facts made known to us about this house; & will you kindly
not make it public in writing for such papers get out to supercargoes
here, & those not favourably disposed to us make great use of them
to incite the natives against us, so abusing them & giving them
bad names in England. The natives remark that no power on earth could
have taken away, or even approached the house to take away any of these
idols now voluntarily given up, but the power of the Gospel. / For
reports & letters on Iguana & Ikuba the skull house / See “Gleaner”
1867. / See “Ch: Missry. Intelligencer”, the Bhps’ letter May 5th 1866,
latter part. / See A new “Record” with bright yellow cover edited by
Mr Henry Venn in 1867 containing my account of the destruction of the
Iguanas & a sketch I made then of the heaps at the market place
— only a few numbers of this “Record” came out. / See “Church Missry.
Intell.:” Destruction of Iguanas — July 1867 page 223, letter of Bishop
Crowther. / See “Annual letter” of Rev. J. Boyle 1887-88 on the Ikuba
priest as a Church adherent. / D. C. Crowther. / Mission Station /
Bonny / Mar: 7th 1889. / To Rev. W. Allan M.A. / [????] / London.’
Transcribed by Elin Bornemann and Jeremy Coote, June 2009. |
