Uremma the River Goddess

s both their source of drinking water and their god. Tales were woven by the elders of Ukeh about the power of the gods who dwelt in the river. There was a time when the children of the rive

ation. The family into which a child of the gods was born would know that its affairs were lack and penury were over; their new child would fill their houses with riches. Their bar

reed to recall to the river kingdom all their children who had been born as humans in Ukeh. So one eke mar

land. On that day, Ukeh, a once happy town, became a byword for sorrow. If one cried over one's dead re

f the gods who did not heed the ca

r kingdom. The river gods sat yet again and sent emissaries to them, but they did not heed the call of the gods; their minds had been made up to live as men.

of the children of the gods, the wealth they brought with them began to diminish until there was nothing left of them. After the pain and searing sorrows that overtook the joy those children of the gods brought to the land of Ukeh, the people of the land decided they would never let the children of the gods dwell amongst them nor seek them to be born into their homes. They made it their tradit

to do it to forestall the danger of the children

p. It kept doing this until the priest who tested it in the river lifted it and gave it back to its mother and pronounced the child to be of men. The priest did not understand what happened nor had he seen anything like that all the years he had been testing babies in Nwangele River. When the baby was handed back to Ngbankwo, she and her poor husband broke into celebration. They had thought the baby was gone when it sunk into the river. They took the baby home and named

from all climes began to flock to her father's house to ask for her hand in marriage. Urenma's father, Okeke, who had since th

s would persuade Okeke to make

ld marry was far removed from his hands. His daughter Urenma, had made it cl

rn to the water kingdom to fill her role as a princess of the gods. Okeke and Ngbankwo were not aware of this. Though they had often wondered how she was able to do some of the things she did, they did not think she was a child of

things she could do. Urenma was able to heal her parent's sick animals, predict the weather, describe un-harveste