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171 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
UKHURE sticks found on nearly all altars throughout the country. Great chiefs have as
many but generally found in couples or threes.
lt was late in the afternoon on the 27 th May, 1904, when the boys placed my chair in the
shady side of a square in the town of UGBENI, so that I might witness the OVIA dance.
Three men carried UKHURE sticks and placed them near to me against a wall. A boy
carried one decorated with a tuft of strips of palm leaves. A crowd of women were to my
left, a crowd of men just opposite to me, while children were as six, seated on the far
side of the women.
Certain masters of the ceremonies pushed back the crowd until there was room enough
for the dancers in the middle. There were ten dancers, five dressed in one fashion and
five in another, and they formed themselves into a circle. Though these dancers were
not dressed as extravagantly as those at OTWAW, yet they were picturesque and
curious enough to be worth describing. Five were dressed as follows:-
A huge head-dress, attached to a kind of crown. A triangular wooden framework,
covered with red cotton cloth, in the centre of which was a small mirror, while feathers
of the hornbill ran up two sides of the triangle and around the top of the crown. A
couple of the tail feathers of the parrot were attached to each of the feathers around the
crown. The crown itself was of wood, surrounded by bands of gold or silver braid. Two
square pieces of glass inserted into the crown gave it the appearance of having eyes.
Below this was a mask of network, and over this was hung a small piece of a consular
uniform rich in silver braiding. Then from the crown long streamers of red cotton cloth
were suspended. The cape, or mantle, was of strips of palm leaves, and they had a
garment of similar make tied round their waists. Instead of the black, neatly-netted
work underwear of the EGUGU, these dancers wore ordinary cotton pants and shirts
with long sleeves. Around their legs just below the knee they wore a string of negro
bells, while around their ankles they had anklets of dried seeds that rattled.
The five others were dressed like the five just mentioned, save for their head-dress.
They had the netted mask and crown and red streamers flowing from it, but the upper
part was of light branched woodwork, from the branches of which hung many red
parrot feathers in couples.
The dance commenced by the masked men beating their sticks while the women sang,
and the men behind the circle walked backwards and forwards, with their shoulders
pushed upwards, cooing like birds. Suddenly a couple of the masked figures rushed into
the centre of the circle, and stamped the ground violently in front of each other. Then
the others ran round in a circle, all their movements in perfect accord to the time they
kept beating with their sticks. Then one of these clumsy-looking figures came into the
centre of the circle, and commenced that spinning and roundabout motion already
described in the dance at ITE, but instead of cannoning against one of the circle, the
dancer in this case righted himself in time, and started stamping before one in the circle,
who had to stamp back at him.
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