Read "Things fall apart" by Chinua Achebe online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
On the following morning the entire neighbourhood wore a festive air because Okonkwo's friend, Obierika, was celebrating his daughter's uri.
It was the day on which her suitor (having already paid the greater part of her bride-price) would bring palm-wine not only to her parents and immediate relatives but to the wide and extensive group of kinsmen called umunna.
Everybody had been invited -- men, women and children.
But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother.
As soon as day broke, breakfast was hastily eaten and women and children began to gather at Obierika's compound to help the bride's mother in her difficult but happy task of cooking for a whole village.
Okonkwo's family was astir like any other family in the neighbourhood.
Nwoye's mother and Okonkwo's youngest wife were ready to set out for Obierika's compound with all their children.
Nwoye's mother carried a basket of coco-yams, a cake of salt and smoked fish which she would present to Obierika's wife.
Okonkwo's youngest wife, Ojiugo, also had a basket of plantains and coco-yams and a small pot of palm-oil.
Their children carried pots of water.
Ekwefi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous night.
It was not very long since they had returned.
The priestess, with Ezinma sleeping on her back, had crawled out of the shrine on her belly like a snake.
She had not as much as looked at Okonkwo and Ekwefi or shown any surprise at finding them at the mouth of the cave.
She looked straight ahead of her and walked back to the village.
Okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance.
They thought the priestess might be going to her house, but she went to Okonkwo's compound, passed through his obi and into Ekwefi's hut and walked into her bedroom.
She placed Ezinma carefully on the bed and went away without saying a word to anybody.
Ezinma was still sleeping when everyone else was astir, and Ekwefi asked Nwoye's mother and Ojiugo to explain to Obierika's wife that she would be late.
She had got ready her basket of coco-yams and fish, but she must wait for Ezinma to wake. "You need some sleep yourself," said Nwoye's mother. "You look very tired. " As they spoke Ezinma emerged from the hut, rubbing her eyes and stretching her spare frame.