Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/88

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TO MY MOTHERLAND.
79

those who performed satisfactorily with their Oro apparatus. Here and there also were other groups, engaged in tumbling, and other active gymnastic sports, which they accomplished excellently. A procession was formed by the elders of the Ogboni lodges and the king's people, and with drums, etc., beginning with the king they went from chief to chief. Of course they remained without the gate. The chief comes out and all together enjoy a vigorous dance. They then sit down, all but one, who praises the chief to his face. A few strings of cowries are then distributed and the procession moves on. Returning homewards late in the afternoon I met some terrible fights. In one instance particularly, a young fellow was most unmercifully whipped. His offense seems to have been of the sort in which one of the other sex was participant. Punishment for these offenses is often reserved for such days when, as on election-days with us, there is greater freedom to engage in pugilistic encounters with impunity.

The next Oro day was only a week before my final departure from Abbeokuta. It was on the occasion of holding a council to consider the duty of the Egbas in relation to a war between the people of Ijaye, their friends and allies, on the one side, and Oyo, and Ibadan on the other. Early in the morning the chiefs and