There are uncountable skulls at the god of Iron’s shrine; but many of the people who were killed were innocent.
(The shrine of the god of Iron was the place of execution of the people who were condemned to death in former days.)
Truths are failed to sell in the market but lies are purchased with high price without pricing it. The rope of the truth is thin but there is nobody who can cut it; the rope of lie is as thick as a large pillar but it can be cut easily into a thousand pieces.
*
As soon as this giant-like gate keeper of the god of Iron led us to the palace of the god of Iron, his master, he took us to the deputy of the god of Iron. He hardly handed us to him when he returned to the gate. Then as we stood before the deputy, he asked from us whether we came there to surrender ourselves to be sacrificed to the god of Iron. But the three of us hardly shook heads and said “no” but we came there just to ask the god of Iron to give us money, when he jumped up from his seat with great anger. He took one of the heavy clubs of iron which were scattered all over the floor. Then without mercy, he beat us for one hour. When he saw that we fell down and fainted, then he told some of his attendants to drag us to one fence. This fence was made of the strong irons by the god of Iron. And there we met more than two thousand captives and also uncountable of animals as dogs, goats, etc. All of them were kept in this fence to be killed for the celebration of the god of Iron’s yearly festival and the three of us were now among those who would be killed.
This deputy of the god of Iron was so cantankerous that he had never sent anybody to the fence of iron without beating him nearly to death. But as the fence was near the smithery shop of the god of Iron, we saw him in his workshop as he was very busy. I noticed carefully that he was about ten feet tall and very corpulent. Every part of his body was full of long hairs, his trousers, huge cap, etc. were rough leather of deer. Uncountable of skulls of both animals and human beings were surrounded his smithery shop, the fence of iron in which we were kept ready to be killed, and were also seeing everywhere in the town. The skulls were so common in the god of Iron’s town that almost all the roofs of the houses were thatched with the skulls of dogs, birds, all kinds of the animals and of human beings as well. As we were still in this fence of iron, he began to forge one big iron. The iron was so big that twenty strong men could not even lift it up to one inch but the god of Iron simply held it with left hand as if it was a small feather. Then he put it on his large anvil which was about eleven feet square and fourteen feet high.
To my fear, within thirty minutes that he had started to strike this heavy iron as soon as he took it out from the fire, he beat it into the shape of a very big fearful image. There were more than sixty mighty irons in his big hearth and the mighty bellows which was blowing by nine men, was bringing out the powerful flame which was rising above the workshop. This god of Iron was very busy this time in carving the big irons into the shapes of almost all the kinds of the living creatures and that as he was taking out one hot-red iron from the hearth with his long tongs it was so he was taking out another one from the same hearth with bare hand. As he was dashing to one corner of the workshop it was so he was dashing to another, he was examining the images which he had already carved whether they were accurate enough.
There was a big bowl of iron in one corner of his workshop which contained more than forty-four gallons of blood and he was drinking from this blood whenever he was thirsty. Having seen his fearful actions in the workshop, then Ojo, Alabi and myself blamed ourselves for not returning from the gate to our village as the gate-keeper had told us to do. We thought that he was just deceiving us as he told us the truth that if we forced ourselves to see the god of Iron there was no doubt, we must be punished to death especially this time that the god of Iron’s yearly festival was near. But of course the three of us believed this day as we were locked up in the fence of iron that “Truths are failed to sell in the market but lies are purchased with high price without pricing it.” So as we had doubted the truth of this gate-keeper we found ourselves in the fence of iron at last and we were waiting for our death.
“But of course, the god of Iron had been well known throughout the Yoruba land, in the Western Nigeria. One he who knows the god of Iron will never say: ‘Who is he!’ otherwise the god of Iron will do a wonderful thing to him which means he will kill him right out. Old people had strong belief that the god of Iron is the protector of the blacksmiths, the supporter of the soldiers, hunters and the ironmongers.”
It was like that the god of Iron was busy in carving the images almost of all kinds of the living creatures until it remained one day for his yearly festival to start. Then his bearers carried the whole of these images of iron to his palace as soon as he had closed up. Before he left the workshop to his palace, he bathed with blood instead of water. After that his deputy and many others came, they began to flatter him as he was dressing up in palm-fronds which were entirely soaked with the blood. Having dressed up then the whole of them went to his palace in form of a procession.
In the following morning, before the celebration of his yearly festival started, he ordered all his bearers to go and bring the whole of us from the fence. Having brought us to him and as soon as we stood in front of his palace, he gave one long heavy matchet to each of the bearers who were about two thousand in number. Then he told them to behead the whole of us and pour our blood into the bowls of iron which were put in front of him. Without hesitation his bearers started to behead us without mercy and they were pouring the blood that which was gushing our from the necks of the people that they first beheaded into the bowls. But as the god of Iron sat on his throne it was so he was drinking this blood together with his deputy and the others whose ranks were below that of the deputy. They were singing loudly, dancing, many of them were kicking themselves, many were staggering here and there in the circle, some were jumping high up and falling down headlong and thousands of them were striking the irons very loudly instead to beat the drums. All these were included the enjoyments of the god of Iron’s yearly festival.
It was like that the celebrations of the god of Iron’s yearly festival started this morning. But as the bearers of the god of Iron were still beheading the captives and as they raised their matchets up to behead us. God was so good, it came to our minds this moment to run in to the circle, to mix up with the dancers and join them to dance perhaps if we did so we might be safe from killing. So, Ojo, Alabi and myself jumped into the circle. Without hesitation we mixed up with the dancers and then we began to dance with them. But unfortunately, the way the three of us were dancing was not conformed with the way and the style they were dancing there, our own dance was quite contrarily to their own.
As soon as they discovered this, the whole of the dancers, etc. stopped and every part of that place became as quiet as a grave-yard suddenly.
As soon as everything became quiet and the dancers, etc. became motionless suddenly but only the three of us were dancing round the circle. Then the god of Iron and his deputy looked up suddenly just to know what had happened to his people but both of them saw us this time as we were still dancing contrarily to the way that his people danced. So without hesitation and with great anger, the god of Iron told three of his bearers who stood at his back to go and bring the three of us nearer to him. Luckily, as the three bearers were taking us along to him, it came to Ojo’s mind how his mother was flattering the god of Iron whenever she was worshipping him when she was alive. Ojo’s mother was a god of Iron worshipper before she died.
Without hesitation, Ojo began to flatter him in his original family name. When the bearers escorted us to him and as he listened to Ojo and heard his original family name from him. He did not know when he stood up from his throne, he jumped into the circle, he began to dance with happiness. Then his deputy, etc. dancers, singers, etc. etc., joined him at the same time. The whole of us danced with him for more than two hours before he went back to his throne. When he rested for a while, he asked the three of us with a cheerful voice to come nearer to him and we did so with fear. He asked from Ojo: “How did you know the original name of my family, my good boy?” Ojo explained to him that his mother, before she died, was one of his worshippers in the village, so he heard his original name of his family from her whenever she was sacrificing to him.
When Ojo explained to him like that he shook head with happiness. At the same time, he told him to flatter him again. Then as Ojo began to flatter him again, he and his deputy stood up and began to dance again. Having danced for a few minutes, he went back to his throne. Then he told us that we would not be killed as the rest captives. When he told us like that we were very happy, but of course the three of us were not captives, we were finding money about before we came to his town. So we told him that we were in great poverty and that we wanted him to give us sufficient money which could set us free from our poverty. But he replied at the same time that he was not the possessor of the money but the Devil. He told us that when we returned to our village we should go to him and ask him to give us the money. He said further that he was quite sure the Devil would give us as much money as we required. . Having told us like that, he asked us to stay with him to be flattering him until the end of the celebrations of his yearly festival. So as we must not go against his wish, we reluctantly agreed to stay with him.
It was like that the three of us remained with the god of Iron till the end of the celebrations of his yearly festival but we were not happy at all since when he had told us that he was not in possession of money. In the following morning that his yearly festival was ended, we told him that we were leaving for our village that morning. Then he gave each of us one matchet and one heavy lump of raw iron which weighed more than one ton. Then he told one of his bearers to lead us to the gate so that the gate-keeper might not kill us as the thieves of iron. So before we left we reluctantly thanked him and we reluctantly bade him goodbye as well. But when we were about to leave we asked him to tell us what we were going to do with the heavy lumps of the raw iron. He told us that when we carried them to our village, each of us should put his own in one corner of his house and then he should be worshipping it. He explained to us further that one who worshipped this heavy lump of iron meant that he worshipped him.
Then Ojo held the matchet as he put his own lump of iron on head, Alabi did so and I did the same as well. After that we left his town this morning with sorrow as well as we had left the town of the Creator with the empty hands. When the bearer led us to the gate and he introduced us to the gate-keeper, he allowed us to pass peacefully. But we hardly left the gate to the distance of about one mile when we threw the heavy lumps of iron into the bush when we could not carry them further. Each was too heavy for even four men to carry. So we could travel as quickly as we wanted to. It was like that we left the town of the god of Iron without getting money.