Free Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

stew. But this time only four of them took their measure before the stew got finished.’
    Moses Unachukwu’s listeners smiled, except Mr Goodcountry who sat like a rock. Oduche smiled because he had heard the story as a little boy and forgotten it until now.
    ‘The brothers began to quarrel violently, and then to fight. Very soon the fighting spread throughout Umuama, and so fierce was it that the village was almost wiped out. The few survivors fled their village, across the great river to the land of Olu where they are scattered today. The remaining six villages seeing what had happened to Umuama went to a seer to know the reason, and he told them that the royal python was sacred to Idemili; it was this deity which had punished Umuama. From that day the six villages decreed that henceforth anyone who killed the python would be regarded as having killed his kinsman.’ Moses ended by counting on his fingers the villages and clans which also forbade the killing of the snake. Then Mr Goodcountry spoke.
    ‘A story such as you have just told us is not fit to be heard in the house of God. But I allowed you to go on so that all may see the foolishness of it.’ There was murmuring from the congregation which might have stood either for agreement or disagreement.
    ‘I shall leave it to your own people to answer you.’ Mr Goodcountry looked round the small congregation, but no one spoke. ‘Is there no one here who can speak up for the Lord?’
    Oduche who had thus far inclined towards Unachukwu’s position had a sudden stab of insight. He raised his hand and was about to put it down again. But Mr Goodcountry had seen him.
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘It is not true that the Bible does not ask us to kill the serpent. Did not God tell Adam to crush its head after it had deceived his wife?’ Many people clapped for him.
    ‘Do you hear that, Moses?’
    Moses made to answer, but Mr Goodcountry was not going to give him another opportunity.
    ‘You say you are the first Christian in Umuaro, you partake of the Holy Meal; and yet whenever you open your mouth nothing but heathen filth pours out. Today a child who sucks his mother’s breast has taught you the Scriptures. Is it not as Our Lord himself said that the first shall become last and the last become first. The world will pass away but not one single word of Our Lord will be set aside.’ He turned to Oduche. ‘When the time comes for your baptism you will be called Peter; on this rock will I build my Church.’
    This caused more clapping from a part of the congregation. Moses was now fully aroused.
    ‘Do I look to you like someone you can put in your bag and walk away?’ he asked. ‘I have been to the fountainhead of this new religion and seen with my own eyes the white people who brought it. So I want to tell you now that I will not be led astray by outsiders who choose to weep louder than the owners of the corpse. You are not the first teacher I have seen; you are not the second; you are not the third. If you are wise you will face the work they sent you to do here and take your hand off the python. You can say that I told you so. Nobody here has complained to you that the python has ever blocked his way as he came to church. If you want to do your work in peace you will heed what I have said, but if you want to be the lizard that ruined his own mother’s funeral you may carry on as you are doing.’ He turned to Oduche. ‘As for you they may call you Peter or they may call you Paul or Barnabas; it does not pull a hair from me. I have nothing to say to a mere boy who should be picking palm nuts for his mother. But since you have also become our teacher I shall be waiting for the day when you will have the courage to kill a python in this Umuaro. A coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight he runs away.’
    At that moment Oduche took his decision. There were two pythons – a big one and a small one – which lived almost entirely in his mother’s