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141 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
IYASE72 or IYASERI is head of the nobles or EGA-IBU such as IHASA, ESAWN, ESOGBAN,
and many others. He had three immediate followers CISUMA, ESOGBAN, and ESAWN.
He could pick men out of the different classes of chiefs and make them EGÃIBU. IHASA,
for instance, was serving under UNWAGWE, the chief of the IWEBO, and was thus
ennobled or made an EGÃIBU by IYASE. IYASE is not succeeded by his son, but is chosen
by the OBA from one of the great chiefs of the kingdom. He was also regent on the OBA'S
death or during his absence.
All these foregoing six viceroys were paramount without the compound of the OBA, but
within that enclosure the heads of the following six offices were paramount:-
The six great offices in the OBA'S compound were the IWEBO, ABIOGBE, IHOGBWI,
IWASE, IWEGWE, and IBIHE, representing in a primitive fashion, equity, justice, Church,
State, Commons and Lords. Each of these offices was filled by a pair of great chiefs and
their followers, who were of four grades more or less according to their wealth.
1. Those who could sacrifice one cow to their father and one to their mother.
2. Those who could sacrifice one cow to their father and a goat to their mother.
3. Those who could sacrifice goats.
4. The rest who could sacrifice fowls.
The office of Iwebo was in the hands Of UNWAGWÉ and ELIBO[1]. When OBA made
father, it was UNWAGWÉ who brought him the cowries (IGO) to be sprinkled with chalk,
and the beads that were washed in the blood of the human beings sacrificed. These two
chiefs also acted as arbitrators within the compound of the OBA. Some of their followers
were as under:
72 These two chiefs had the right of sacrificing one cow to their father and one cow to their mother
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