y
one drank, and often Ma went to bed knowing that there was not one sober
person for miles around. The horrible stuff came up from the coast,
having been shipped overseas from Christian countries. Ma never ceased
to wonder how white men could seek to ruin native people for the sake of
money. It made her very angry, and she fought the trade with all her
power.

"Do you know," she said one day to her chief, "you drink because you
have not enough work? We have a rhyme in our country which says,

Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

Why don't you trade with Calabar?"

He grinned. "We do trade with Calabar," he said; "we trade in heads."

"Well, you must trade in palm oil and food instead. And first you must
make peace."

"We can't do that, Ma, because Calabar won't come to Okoyong."

"Of course not, because they are afraid, and rightly too. Well, if they
won't come to you, you must go to them."

"But, Ma, we would never come back."

"Tuts! I will go with you."

She made them go to the river and get a large canoe and fill it with
yams and plantains (these were gifts for the Calabar people), and with
bags of palm nuts and a barrel of oil (these were to begin trading
with). But they knew little about boats, and they loaded it so high that
it sank. Another was got, and all was ready, when some of the chiefs
drew back and said they would only go if Ma allowed them to take their
guns and swords.

"No, no," she said, "that would be foolish. We are going in peace and
not in war."

"Ma, you make women of us! No man goes to a strange place without arms."

But she would not yield, and they started. Suddenly she caught sight of
some swords hidden under the bags of nuts, and, stooping, she seized
them and pitched them out on the bank. "Go on," she cried, and the canoe
swept down the river.

King Eyo received the trembling chiefs like a Christian gentleman, spoke
to them kindly, and showed them over his large house. There was a
palaver, and all quarrels between the two peoples were made up, and all
evil thoughts of one another vanished, and the men from Okoyong went
back astonished and joyful. They began to trade with the coast, and so
busy did they become in their fields growing food and making palm oil
that they had less time for drinking and fighting, and grew more sober
and prosperous.

They were very grateful to Ma.

"We are not treating her well," they said to one another. "We must