Blood-Drinking Dead of Ayong Kita

Overview

Ayong Kita inherits authority over his father Inkita’s household while still a child, but the enslaved people living there resent his power and plan to kill him. He escapes into the bush and survives with his small bow. A supernatural donor later gives him a wish-granting stone, whose wealth lets him establish a separate settlement and acquire more enslaved people through Aro traders. After ten years the donor tells him that he has enough and should return the stone. He instead prepares to take control of his father’s house and become a chief over Inde.

Before setting out, Ayong calls ritual specialists and asks them to identify household members who might kill him. They select fifty enslaved people and accuse them of witchcraft. Ayong subjects them to a poisonous ordeal; all die, and the account treats their failure to survive as confirmation of the accusation. The remaining household members submit to him. Nevertheless the buried fifty remain restless, trouble Ayong and are followed by his own serious illness. The specialists explain his condition by saying that the dead emerge at night and take his blood.

Three specialists first attend him and ask for seven more, producing a company of ten. They open the graves and find the bodies still fresh. Ayong orders them destroyed by fire, rewards the specialists and subsequently recovers. He then takes possession of his inherited property and rules the country. Dayrell’s chapter follows this conclusion with a customary explanation of the ordeal. The supernatural identity is therefore assigned to people already accused, killed and buried within the plot; their appearance as revenants does not erase their enslaved status or turn the preceding accusation into an independently established historical fact.

Origins & earliest records

Elphinstone Dayrell, a colonial district commissioner, published this translated collection in 1910, with a comparative introduction by Andrew Lang. The selected chapter does not name an individual narrator. Its historical-looking frame and customary explanations are claims of the printed storytelling witness, not independently verified facts about a community.

Records & interpretation

Dayrell (1910), XXXIII The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone, complete pp. 121–125; protective donor and stone pp. 122–123, return request and accused dead pp. 123–124, recovery and ordeal explanation pp. 124–125.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa

   Elphinstone Dayrell, collector; Andrew Lang, introduction · 1910

   Dayrell (1910), XXXIII The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone, complete pp. 121–125; protective donor and stone pp. 122–123, return request and accused dead pp. 123–124, recovery and ordeal explanation pp. 124–125.

2. 02

   Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa — XXXIII The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone

   Elphinstone Dayrell, collector; Andrew Lang, separate introduction commentary · 1910

   Elphinstone Dayrell, Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa, Longmans, Green and Co., London/New York/Bombay/Calcutta, 1910, with introduction by Andrew Lang; title and chapter text independently read in Gutenberg34655. Selected Lang commentary read, not a full introduction or whole-volume claim.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Collected primary narrative in colonial translationDayrell 1910 - chapter XXXIIIResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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