The problem again is of no concern to the Mambila. The life of the dead differs in some respects from that of the living. For example, witchcraft, illness, wickedness, and troubles of all kinds that so often plague the living are unknown among the shades. Food and the all-important beer are always plentiful, the farms yielding bumper crops without having to be cultivated. Access to the shades village is open to all upon death, as the evil and the good all go to the same place.
Death is believed to be caused by the ancestors.
The process by which it occurs is by the acceptance of a morsel of finely cooked chicken, proffered usually by an ancestor in either line. Hence witchcraft is a contributory factor, and, as the Mambila, say, able to kill. The heroine of our tale, when questioned, was unable to identify the shade who had offered her the piece of chicken. She insisted that it must be one of her ancestors, this being in conformity with the general view outlined above. It also conforms with the Mambila kinship system, which is multilineal.