Things Fall Apart by chinoa Achebe part one chapter 1 aono was well known throughout the nine Villages and even Beyond his Fame rested on solid personal achievements as a young man of 18 he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amal Lindsay the cat Amal Lindsay was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten from umia to umeno he was called the cat because his back would never touch the Earth it was this man that aono threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their Town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights the drums beat and the fluts sang and The Spectators held their breath Amal Lindsay was a Wy Craftsman but a cono was a SL slippery as a fish in water every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms on their backs and their thighs and one almost heard them stretching to Breaking Point in the end a cono threw the cat that was many years ago 20 years or more and during this time a conquer's Fame had grown like a Bushfire in the haran he was tall and huge and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look he breathed heavily and it was said that when he slept his wives and children in their ouses could hear him breathe when he walked his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on Springs as if he was going to pounce on somebody and he did pounce on people quite often he had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough he would use his fists he had no patience with unsuccessful men he had had no patience with his father unoa for that was his father's name had died 10 years ago in his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow if any money came his way and it seldom did he immediately bought Goods of palm wine called around his neighbors and made marry he always said that whenever he saw a dead man's mouth he saw the Folly of not eating what one had in one's lifetime unoo was of course a dettor and he owed every neighbor some money from a few cares to quite substantial amounts he was tall but very thin and had a slight stoop he wore a Haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing on his flute he was very good on his flute and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the Harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments hung above the fireplace Woka would play with them his face beaming with blessedness and peace sometimes another Village would ask unoka's band and their dancing ugu to come and stay with them and teach them their Tunes he would go to such hosts for as long as three or four markets making music and feasting unoa loved the good fair and the good fellowship and he loved this season of the year when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling Beauty and it was not too hot either because the cold and dry haran wind was blowing down from the north some years the hariton was very severe and a dense Haze hung on the atmosphere old men and children would then sit round log fires warming their bodies woa loved it all and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season and the children who sang songs of Welcome to them he would remember his own childhood how he had often wandered around looking for a kite sailing leisurely against the blue sky as soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being welcoming it back from its long long journey and asking it if it had brought home any lengths of cloth that was years ago when he was young unoa the grownup was a failure he was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat people laughed at him because he was a loafer and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back but unoo was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more and piling up his debts one day a neighbor called OKO came to see him he was reclining on a mud bed in his heart playing on the flute he immediately Rose and shook hands with aoya who then unrolled the goat skin which he carried under his arm and sat down unoka went into an inner room and soon returned with a small wooden disc containing a cola nut some alligator Pepper and a lump of white chalk I have Cola he announced when he sat down and passed the disc over to his guest thank you he who brings Cola brings life but I think you ought to break it replied aoya passing back the disc no it is for you I think and they argued like this for a few moments before Uno accepted the honor of breaking the cola okoya meanwhile took the lump of chalk drew some lines on the floor and then painted his big toe as he broke the cola unoa prayed to their ancestors for life and health and for protection against their enemies when they had eaten they talked about many things about the heavy rains which were drowning the yams about the next ancestral feast and about the impending war with the village of mbano woko was never happy when it came to war he was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood and so he changed the subject and talked about music and his face beamed he could hear in his mind's ear the blood stirring and intricate rhythms of the E and the Udu and the oen and he could hear his own flute weaving in and out of them decorating them with a colorful and plaintive tune the total effect was gay and bril but if one picked out the flute as it went up and down and then broke up into short snatches one saw that there was sorrow and grief there okoya was also a musician he played on the oeni but he was not a failure like unoka he had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives and now he was going to take the EDM title the third highest in the land it was a very expensive ceremony and he was Gathering all his resources together that was in fact the reason why he had come to see unoka he cleared his throat and began thank you for the cola you may have heard of the title I intend to take shortly having spoken plainly so far okoya said the next half a dozen sentences in Proverbs among the EO the art of conversation is regarded very highly and the Proverbs are the palm with which the words are eaten okoya was a great talker and he spoke for a long time skirting round the subject and then hitting it finally in short he was asking unoka to return the 200 caries he had borrowed from him more than two years before as soon as unoka understood what his friend was driving at he burst out laughing he laughed loud and long and his voice rang out clear as the oeni and tears stood in his eyes his visitor was amazed and sat speechless at the end unoo was able to give an answer between fresh outbursts of Mirth look at that wall he said pointing at the far wall of his Hut which was rubbed with red Earth so that it sha look at those lines of chalk and ooya saw the groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk there were five groups and the smallest group had 10 lines unoa had a sense of the atic and so he allowed a pause in which he took a pinch of snuff and sneezed noisily and then he continued each group there represents a debt to someone and each stroke is 100 calories you see I owe that man a, calories but he has not come to wake me up in the morning for it I shall pay you but not today our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them I shall pay my big debt first and he took another pinch of snuff as if that was paying the big debts first okoya rolled his goat skin and departed when unoa died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt any Wonder then that his son a conquer was ashamed of him fortunately among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father a conquor was clearly cut out for great things he was still young but he had won Fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine Villages he was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams and had just married his third wife to Crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two intertribal Wars and so although aono was still young he was already one of the greatest men of his time age was respected among his people but achievement was revered as the the elders said if a child washed his hands he could eat with Kings okono had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with Kings and elders and that was how he came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the Village ofia by their neighbors to avoid war and bloodshed the UL fated lad was called igima