The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-03-21
.EKOIS ARE HAPPY
Care-Free People Where Women
Rule Families.
No Taxes or Wearisone Restrictions
In Southern Notwithstanding Is
Chief Pleasure and 0uarrelinn
In Home is 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
ciety at Washington, according to a
Washington correspondent of the
Rochester Democrats 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 q%uarreling in a house where
there are little children. The latter
so they say, love sweet words, kind
looks and gentle voices, and if there
are not to be found in the family
into which they have been %reincar-
mated, they will close their eyes ano
forsake the earth till a chance offers
to return again amid less quarrelsome
surroundings.
ITO the f1koi, 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.
! Tho g4otfp, IN oivvo a gpripc nf d1npnE.
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 az
most invariably go with her if h
leaves her husband, and her rights as
to property are mast 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 e~arth-gods
Awbassi Nsi, happened by accident 70
kill a woman. Awbassi, sorry fer 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
l shouted Yes" and, catching hold OF
one another, started dancing for jog.
they took man, therefore, as compen'
t sation for the fellow-woman whom
they had lost, and thus the men he
I came the servants of women, having
b to work for them up to this day
d The religious ~observances of this
n Ekoi are altogether a fascinating
d study" continues Mr.. Talbot. BE
meath many modern ~corruptions ant
disfigurements are to be found tracer
8 of an older, purer form of worship
g traces which carry us back to this
d Oldest known Minoan civilization anC
g link the belief of the modern Exc
. with that of the ancient Phoenician
the Egyptian, the Roman and the
v Greek. In some ways, indeed, the
4 Ekoi form may be termed the mos
n ancient of all, for whereas in the old
r est known representations of Minoar
:, bird and tree worship the tree has be
o come almost entirely conventionalizet
into pillar shape, and later On be
comes a mere pedestal to support thu
bird, among the Egoi it still keep,
its original form-that of the actua
o living tree. The smallest town ha;
Il it's juju tree"