--- title: Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife an… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · full text with trees description: Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Agbor was an Okuni man, and was married to a woman named Awo, by whom he had --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/11/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Wh… # Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children. Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children. of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell: the whole text, 43 sentences and 1139 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. Agbor was an Okuni man, and was married to a woman named Awo, by whom he had two children, but they were both girls, much to his annoyance, as he wanted a boy who would be able to help him with his work when he grew up.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") Agbor was a hunter and a trapper, and it was his custom to set traps all along the road to the boundary where the Okuni farms joined up with Insofan.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Every morning he would start off with his bow and arrows to inspect his traps and take out anything he found in them, and sometimes, if he were lucky, he would shoot a buck or bush pig.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") When he returned in the evening, Agbor used to worry his wife and tell her that he wanted a son, until at last Awo told her husband that, as she did not appear to be lucky with her children, he had better save up and buy a slave who could help him.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") This Agbor did, and after a time he managed to buy a slave called Edim.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") The slave always went with his master into the bush, and helped him with his trap-setting and carried the heavy loads.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") One day Agbor caught a small bird in one of his traps, so he took it out very carefully and carried it home.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") He then made a cage for it, and fed it with seeds.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") Agbor warned his wife and two children that they were on no account to touch the bird, as he was very fond of it, and did not want any harm to happen to it.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Then, for some time, Agbor took much trouble in taming the bird, and taught it to sing.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") In the evenings, when he returned from hunting, he used to take the bird round to some of the chiefs and head men of the town, and the bird used to sing to them.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") This pleased the chiefs so much that they used to give Agbor presents of tombo and yams.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") One day, while Agbor and his slave Edim were absent in the bush hunting, one of Awo’s daughters opened the cage and let the bird fly away.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") When the hunter returned, he found that his pet bird had gone, and he was very angry indeed, so he asked his wife who had let the bird go, and Awo told him.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Agbor then got a cutting whip, and flogged his daughter very severely until the blood ran.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") Awo was much annoyed with her husband for beating the child, so she packed up all her things, and said she was going to return to her parents and would take her children with her.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") But Agbor would not let her go, and told her to go to bed and take her children with her.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") Agbor then got his matchet, and having sharpened it on a stone, went into the house and cut his wife’s head off, and then killed his two children.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") When he had done this he was frightened, and ran away into the bush and hid himself.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The next morning at daylight Edim the slave went to wake his master as usual to go out and visit the traps, but he found that the hunter was absent.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Edim then opened the door of Awo’s room, and looked in.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") There he saw the floor was covered with blood, and the three dead bodies were lying together on the bed.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Edim then ran out of the house shouting, and told the people of the town what he had seen, and that Agbor was not in the house.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") The people then went to the house to look at Awo and her children, and the father and brothers of Awo at once armed themselves and set off into the bush to find Agbor.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") After searching for some time they found him setting one of his traps, so they surrounded and caught him; then, having tied him up securely with his hands behind his back, they brought him into the town and handed him over to the head chief.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") The chief asked Agbor who had killed Awo and the two children, and he replied that he had done so as they had made him angry.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") He told the chief that one daughter had let his pet bird fly away, and when he flogged her the mother had threatened to leave him and to take the children with her.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") The chief told Agbor that he had no right to kill his wife and children, and sentenced Agbor to be killed by degrees.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") He was then led away and tied up to a post in the middle of the town.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") A man with a sharp knife then cut off Agbor’s left hand.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") But Agbor said nothing, much to the disappointment of the people, who wished to hear him shout.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") So the torturer said, “Do you feel any pain, Agbor?” and he replied “No.” After a short time the man cut off Agbor’s right hand, and as he still remained quiet, the man asked him, “How do you feel now, Agbor?”[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") He replied as before, that he did not feel any pain.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they cut off his left foot, and still Agbor remained quiet.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") The people were not at all satisfied with this, so they lit a fire and put Agbor’s right leg into it.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") The pain of the burning was so great that Agbor screamed with agony, but the people laughed and told him that he was now feeling what death was like, and to remember how he had killed his wife and children.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Agbor implored the people to kill him at once, but they refused, and left him tied up to the post, where he died during the night from loss of blood.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") When Agbor was dead, the father of Awo claimed his head, so it was cut off and given to him, and the body was buried.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") He then buried the head for two weeks, until the ants and maggots had removed the flesh.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the ground outside the door of his house.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") Then, every morning when he went out, he would hit the skull with his chewing-stick which he cleaned his teeth with, and say, “Ah, you killed my daughter, but I conquered you.”[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") From that time, whenever the Okuni people go to war, they put the skulls of their enemies whom they have killed on the ground, so that they can show them to all people as the heads of their enemies whom they have slain, and they always hit them with their chewing-sticks when they go out in the morning, saying, “I conquered you; I conquered you.”[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") Told by Ennenni of Okuni.--\[E.D., 19.6.10.\][43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/10/) - next →: [Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/12/) - ↑ back to [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/)