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Iv. The Sacrifice Of M'orimi

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p. 35

Iv. The Sacrifice Of Mrimi.1

\"Arba continues:"

Obo I have told you of the days

When Odudwa and Orsha fought;

But of the times of peace our annals hold

Strange legends also... Now in the age when mirth

And Odudwa reigned, grief ever-growing

Befell Great Mrimi, the wife of skilled

Mrimi

has no

sons, Oblufon--for while his lesser wives

Proudly bore many sons unto their lord,

A daughter only, young Adton,

Was granted to his queen. And as the years

Lagged by, a strangeness which he always seemed

To keep in hiding chequered the fair day

With doubtings, and waylaid her in the paths

Of her fond nightly dreams. Once with the Spring,

She saw the clustered tree-tops breaking into leaf

Copper and red and every green, and she

Remembered how beneath the new year's buds

It was ordained by Peregn 'Gbo, lord

Of uninhabitable woods that Life

p. 36

Should spring from Forest, and Life from Life,--till all

The Woods were gladdened with the voice of beasts

And birds--and thus she reasoned: "Is it not told

How Peregn 'Gbo1 spoke, and from the womb

Of Forest leaped the sloth that laughs by night?

How 'mid the boughs the sloth brought forth the ape

That bore the leopard? And did not Peregn

Watch o'er the birth of young Ornmila,

And ever, when the morrow's sorrowing dawn

Must yield up to the leaguing fiends the child's

Fair life, did not the watchful God send down

His messenger to stay the grasping hand

Of Death? Thus do the Gods; and surely one

Will give me sons. Ah! whom must I appease?"

She

consults

fa:


Quick with new hope Great Mrimi sought out

A priest of fa2 in his court yard dim,

Where from each beam and smoke-grimed pillar hung

The charms the wise man set to guard his home,

His wives and children from the ills contrived

p. 37

By the bad spirits. To her gift she whispered,

And laid it on Okpll; and the priest

Seizing the charm of fa said: "Okpll,

To you the woe of Mrimi is known;

You only can reveal its secret cause,

Its unknown cure!
" Then he laid down the charm

And ffun Knran stood before them. The face

Of fa's priest was troubled, and he said:

Who tells

her to

sacrifice

her

daughter.
"Mrimi, this is the message of my lord

fa: a son, nay many sons, you long for.

You have a daughter, and your husband's love

Was yours. The Gods would give you many sons,

But in your path stands shu, the Undoer,

Whose shrine calls out for blood, for sacrifice:

Adton." Without hope Mrimi

Went forth, and loathing of the ways of the Gods

Possessed her--while indignation fed her love

Of her one child....

The months passed by: Moons came,

And in the smiles of happier wives she read

A mockery; Moons faded from the sky,

And grief and her Adton remained

Companions of her hours. At last she cried:

"But sons l asked for; I will go again

p. 38

And pray for sons and my Adton.

The last word is not yet. Olkun's tide

Has ebbed: will it not flow again?"

Yet hope

She

consults

fa again.
Went not with Mrimi to the dark court

Of fa's priest; and when a torch disclosed

The self-same bode of sorrow in the dusk--

To her drear home Great Mrimi fled back

In terror of the deed which love commanded,

And love condemned.... Silently in the night

di advises

her to act

on fa's

message.
Came di, the Perverter, the smooth of tongue,

Who with his guileful reasoning compels

To conscious sin: "The forms of messengers

Reveal the thoughts of fa, and the ears

Of fa, the God-Messenger, have heard

The far-off, thundrous voice. Would you hold back?

Is not the birth of Nations the first law

Armf gave? Can any wife withstand

His will, or maid stern gun's call?1 To-day

Is yours, oh, mother of great kings that shall be:

The green shoots greet the Spring-rain and forget

The barren months, and Mrimi shall know

Her grief and her reproach no more." Then doubt

p. 39

Seized Mrimi but still she answered; "Will Gods

Not give? Is the grim World a morning market

Where they drive bargains with the folk they made?

Are babes as bangles which Oblufon

Fashions to barter?" But di answered her:


"But once Armf spoke to Odudwa,

And with what heavy hearts the Gods went forth

From Heaven's valleys to the blackness! Now thrice,1

Thrice to the woman Mrimi the word

Has come--with promise of the World's desire:

Not every wife is chosen for the mother

Of a house of kings. And think!--Oblufon!"

Then di, the Perverter, hid his form

In darkness; and with the dawn a young girl lay

The death

of Adton.
On the Undoer shu's altar--while

The lazy blue of early morning smoke

Crept up the pass between the hills.

Next

Footnotes


p. 35

1
See Note VI on Mrimi's sacrifice.

p. 36

1
See Note XI on Peregn 'Gbo.

2 See Note XII on the divination of fa.

p. 38

1
gun kills unmarried girls of marriageable age.

p. 39

1
According to the legend, Mrimi consulted fa three times before acting on his advice.
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