Unfortunately, However, I Cannot Speak
With The Same Amount Of Knowledge Of Egbo As I Could Of Poorah.
Egbo has the most grades of initiation, except perhaps Poorah, and
it exercises jurisdiction over all classes of crime except
witchcraft.
Any Effik man who desires to become an influential
person in the tribe must buy himself into as high a grade of Egbo as
he can afford, and these grades are expensive, 1,500 pounds or 1,000
pounds English being required for the higher steps, I am informed.
But it is worth it to a great trader, as an influential Effik
necessarily is, for he can call out his own class of Egbo and send
it against those of his debtors who may be of lower grades, and as
the Egbo methods of delivering its orders to pay up consist in
placing Egbo at a man's doorway, and until it removes itself from
that doorway the man dare not venture outside his house, it is most
successful.
Of course the higher a man is in Egbo rank, the greater his power
and security, for lower grades cannot proceed against higher ones.
Indeed, when a man meets the paraphernalia of a higher grade of Egbo
than that to which he belongs, he has to act as if he were lame, and
limp along past it humbly, as if the sight of it had taken all the
strength out of him, and, needless to remark, higher grade debtors
flip their fingers at lower grade creditors.
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