The Colorado statesman., 1914-03-21
EKO|S ARE HAPPY
Care-Free People Where Women
Rule Families.
No Taxes or Wearisome Restrictions
In Southern Niseria-Daneina 10
Chief Pleasure and QuarreIinq
in Home 10 Forbidden.

With no taxes to pay and no weari-
some restrictions to undergo. living in
a land so fruitful that a few weeks
labor is enough to supply them with
food, home and clothes for a whole
year, the Ekoi, native of extreme
southern Nigeria, ON the equator
should be, and probably are, among
the happiest people on earth, accord
ing to p. A. Talbot, African explorer
OF London, England, in a communica-
ton to the National Geographic So
clety at Washington, according to a
Washington correspondent of the
Rochester Democrat Chronicle.
The Ekoi are devoted parents he
writes They have curious beliefs as
to the advent and death of their
babies. One charming superstition for
bids all quarreling in house where
there are little children. The latter,
so they say, love sweet words, kind
looks and gentle voices, and il there
are not to be found in the family
into which they have been reincar-
mated, they will close their eyes and
forsake the earth till a chance offers
surroundings.
To the 11koi, dancing is one of the
main occupations of life. With them
the dance provides an outlet both for
the dramatic instinct and for religious
fervor. At the new year, and on all
great festivals, the chief societies of
men, women and children come up to
the station to give series of dances.
The Ekoi are a polygamous people,
but the chief wife, not the husband.
is the head of the house Each wife
has control over her children, who al
most invariably go with her if she
leaves her husband, and her rights as
to property are most strictly safe
guarded by native law"
Mr.. Talbot recounts one of the
many old legends OF the country, ex-
planning the position which women
holds. At the beginning of things. the
legend runs, the world was peopled by
women only. One day the earth-god,
Awbassi Nsi, happened by accident to
kill woman. Awbassi, sorry for the
grief he had caused, offered to give
them anything they should choose out
of all his possessions. They begged
him to mention what he had to give,
and said they would all cry Yes"
when he named the thing which they
wished to have. At length the list
was nearly ended: one thing remained
to offer and that was a man. They
shouted Yes" and, catching hold of
one another, started dancing for joy.
ThaV
sation for the fellow-woman whom
they had lost. and thus the men be-
came the servants of women, having
to work for them up to this day.
THE religious observances of the
Ekoi are altogether a fascinating
study" continues Mr.. Talbot. BE
meath many modern corruptions and
distgurements are to be found traces
of an older. purer form of Worship
traces which carry us back to the
oldest known Minoan civilization and
link the belief of the modern Ekoi
with that of the ancient Phoenician,
the Egyptian, the Roman and the
Greek In some ways, indeed, the
Ekoi form may be termed the most
ancient of all, for whereas in the old
est known representations of Minoan
bird and tree worship the tree has be-
come almost entirely conventionalized
into pillar shape, and later on be-
comes a mere pedestal to support the
bird. among the Egoi it still keeps
its original form-that of the actual
living tree. The smallest town has
its juiu tree