The male society
had been very hard on the ladies for some time, and one day one
star-like
Intellect among the latter told her next-door neighbour,
in strict confidence, that she did not believe Ikun was a spirit at
all, but only old So-and-so dressed up in leaves. This rank heresy
spread rapidly, in strict confidence, among the ladies at large, and
they used to assemble together in the house of the foundress of the
theory, secretly of course, because husbands down there are hasty
with the cutlass and the kassengo, and they talked the matter over.
Somehow or other, this came to the ears of the men. Whether the
ladies got too emancipated and winked when Ikun was mentioned, or
asked how Mr. So-and-so was this morning, in a pointed way, after an
Ikun manifestation, I do not know; some people told me this was so,
but others, who, I fear, were right, considering the acknowledged
slowness of men in putting two and two together, and the treachery
of women towards each other, said that a woman had told a man that
she had heard some of the other women were going on in this
heretical way. Anyhow, the men knew, and were much alarmed;
scepticism had spread by now to such an extent that nothing short of
burning or drowning all the women could stamp it out and reintroduce
the proper sense of awe into the female side of Society, and after a
good deal of consideration the men saw, for men are undoubtedly more
gifted in foresight than our sex, that it was no particular use
reintroducing this awe if there was no female half of Society to be
impressed by it.
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