In some traditions of novel criticism, character, action, and context are taken as the most important elements of narrative. In Aristotle's On the Art of Poetry, action is ranked before character in the order of importance. There is nothing said about context because it is really a part of action, as a chain of incidents making up a whole. For instance, the context of the calculation of time by the phases of the moon is essential in the action of Achebe's Arrow of God. This is not at all the same kind of thing as the action taking place in a rural environment, or a meeting taking place in a market square or a village square. This aspect is sometimes subsumed in criticism in the context. But it is not only distinct and to be kept so, it may also function as a factor of differentiation of the literary forms. For instance, the novel, in the strict sense of the low mimetic mode (Frye, 1957/1970), requires a fairly stable environment. This is a landscape which reflects human order. It may be urban or rural, but it will display organizational structures in which there are social roles assigned by convention, and resistant to change. Sometimes the action of the novel is connected to attempts to change this fixed social order. The kind of narrative in which this attempt may serve as the organizational principle or 'cardinal function' (Barthes, 1977), is going to be our preoccupation, starting in chapter five. The novel is the name of a subtype of what is properly narrative, and the latter is the property which marks all the works we are dealing with in this study, and holds them together. The novelty of the novel is ascertained by opposing it to the older forms of narrative, especially the heroic narrative and the literary epic, in which the character is said to be 'better' than the norm (Aristotle). In the European tradition, the epic was to deform (Sammels, 1988) to what came to be known as romance, but still with the central journey motif. Like the novel, the heroic narrative requires a fairly stable environment. Although this is an environment belonging to the legendary past, it is nonetheless recognizably human, and the character must act within its constraints. By contrast, the environment of romance is unstable; hence marvels and wonders are commonplace. As Northrop Frye puts it, the hero of the romantic adventure story, moves in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended: prodigies of courage and endurance, unnatural to us are natural to him, and enchanted weapons, talking animals, terrifying ogres and witches, and talismans of miraculous power violate no rules of probability once the postulates of romance have been established (1957/1970:33). These postulates include adventure, especially through primeval forests and uncharted wilds, and a journey in quest of some mysterious object. Narratives in which a marvellous journey is the frame that accounts for structuration are few in Nigerian fiction, and comprise mainly Tutuola's forest romances, like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle, and The Brave African Huntress. The other important work in this mode is Cyprian Ekwensi's Burning Grass. The latter, for instance, is based on the journey of Mai Sunsaye from Dokan Toro, on the eastern half of Northern Nigeria at its widest, to Ligu's Camp on the western frontier, and back again. The journey of the Palm Wine Drinkard is another kind, and has no geographical specifications. It is a journey in which one does not know where one is going. The objective is to find someone who has died, and assumed not to have gone to heaven, but to a home of the dead located in the terrestrial world. Whereas Mai Sunsaye is always sure of his destination, even when he is journeying through uncharted bushes, the Palm Wine Drinkard is in pursuit of a person who has left no trail, much less an address. He can only make his way by inquiring as he goes along. This leaves him open to deceit and exploitation, as at the hands of an old man, who isn't really a man, but a god (The Palm Wine Drinkard10). This man promises to give him information where to find the person he is looking for, if he should 'bring the right thing that he told the blacksmith to make for him' (1). With the help of a juju he has brought with him, he fulfils his own part of the bargain, only to be sent off on another errand, with a net to bring Death in. When he succeeds in this too, and brings death in a net, the old man and the townspeople all flee for safety, as the net breaks, releasing the captive. This adventure has the following consequence: So since the day that I had brought Death out from his house, he has no permanent place to dwell or stay, and we are hearing his name about in the world. This was how I brought out Death to the old man who told me to go and bring him before he (old man) would tell me whereabouts my palm-wine tapster was that I was looking for before I reached that town and went to the old man (16). The next adventure ends on a happier note. He comes away with a wife who would accompany him throughout the rest of the journey, helping here, complicating things there, but always a human companion. By comparison, the world of Mai Sunsaye's adventure in Burning Grass is almost the familiar everyday world, or at least, the uncultured, pastoral zone adjoining it. The challenges which face Mai Sunsaye are much less fantastical, and there is correspondingly, much less of the magical. The outward journey he makes all alone through the scrubland, with only an occasional break. For supplies, he depends mostly on what chance would provide. We read of his approach to one stop: Mai Sunsaye's first sight of the village on the great river did not excite him. He had been travelling through bush which thickened day after day, sleeping in trees, eating forest fruit, preaching at little villages on the way, and now the thought of seeing Jalla doubled his pleasure (Burning Grass65).
As a cattle Fulani, Mai Sunsaye is used to wandering through the savannah in search of pasture. The care of the cattle provides the motivation. Here he has neither cattle to care for nor is following the cattle tracks. This passage through a bush thickening 'day after day, sleeping in trees, and eating forest fruit' is obviously a kind of endurance test. But elements of an other world are clearly marked, as we see in the movement of another traveller in these wilds. Mai Sunsaye has heard of the capture of his son Rikku by the people of Shehu, his enemy, and borrows a horse to ride to Kontago, where this young person is being held captive. Ata stream where he stops to water the horse, he is attracted by the sounds of children crying, and goes to investigate. A lion dashes out of the jungle, and makes for his horse, but, on the opposite bank of the stream, a woman had appeared. She eyed him with amusement for a time, waded through the water, and with a nimble leap stood beside the children. Mai Sunsaye's mouth hung open in surprise. He could hardly believe what he was seeing: that this woman was the mother of the twins. She found a shady place and sat down with the children, suckling them. Sunsaye was shaking with fear. 'She's not afraid, the wild woman! She lives among animals. She's one of them!' She smiled at him. There was something eager and young in her smile. She looked up for a moment and called out in a strange tongue. Sunsaye heard a thunderous crash in the woods. The lion had returned. It squatted beside the woman, licking its fangs, swishing its tail. The wild woman made tender noises in her throat (99). The overtaking of this woman is part of the reason why Mai Sunsaye has undertaken this adventure. She is Fatimeh, the slave girl he had rescued from Shehu. But the recognition scene is not yet. It comes when he accompanies her and her lion to her home, which 'consisted of one hut and one store,' so flimsy that neither could withstand a strong wind. There was no clearing in front of the hut. From behind the hut cattle mooed.' She is also a cattle woman. The lion never harms these cattle, but treks along with them when Fatimeh strikes camp. Similarly, there are talismans in this narrative with miraculous powers to reverse or set aside the natural process. We see this, for example, where Hodio, Sunsaye's second son, the lover of Fatimeh, has to face Shehu and two of his men in battle, when he catches up with them to get even for the abduction of Fatimeh. They are armed with poisoned arrows, with which they have killed his horse. They seem to be intent on taking him alive. But he responds with a challenge: 'Listen! I am Hodio, son of Sunsaye of the cattle Fulani. My father makes darkness for his enemies. Yee-whoo! He leapt backwards screaming. From his pocket he drew a talisman of black catskin and waved it. This was the baduhu, known throughout the savannah lands as the Giver of Darkness. Hodio threw it down on the rock between him and his enemies. 'He who crosses that, falls into a well. Wai! You dare to measure your might against the magic of a cow Fulani, son of Sunsaye the famous medicine man? Come now and meet your doom!' (19) With the help of this effective magic, Hodio is able to scatter Shehu's men and put them to flight, with wounds to remember the encounter. Alone with Shehu, he is prepared to withdraw the talisman, and engage in single combat, receiving and inflicting injuries in the process. Sunsaye himself has fallen prey to another talisman with miraculous power. This is the sokugo, which brings about the wandering disease. It has been given him by Ardo, his rival for the chieftaincy of Dokan Toro currently held by Mai Sunsaye. He goes wandering, following anything he sees that flies. But he has his own reason for his wandering, which perfectly justifies him in his own eyes, so that he has no occasion to question himself in his lucid moments. By virtue of this object, he is not strictly wandering, but on a journey. Mai Sunsaye has rescued the slave girl Fatimeh, paying her owner, Shehu, five head of cattle in exchange. By this act he has made another powerful and ruthless enemy, namely Shehu who, though he takes the offered cattle, judges this no adequate compensation. Nothing would give him satisfaction, except killing off the members of Sunsaye's family one by one. Both Sunsaye's younger sons fall in love with Fatimeh, but the older one runs away with her, despite that her status as a slave disqualifies her to marry him. The elopement, however, leaves Sunsaye's younger son whom he loves most of all his children to pine away. Sunsaye promises him to bring her back, and this is the quest he pursues after being ushered into the wilds by the sokugo. No sooner does he leave than Ardo and his people attack his family, seize all their cattle, burn down the houses, and send his wife and children fleeing for their lives. His and the paths of the fugitives cross several times in brief reunions, which end in his melting away again in the trail of some bird, afterwards to resume the search for Fatimeh. The slave girl exercises a great fascination on Sunsaye and his boys from the first moment they set eyes on her, when in hot pursuit by a koboko wielding servant of Shehu, and falls at Sunsaye's feet crying out to be saved. The pursuer, having no sentiments in the matter whatever, immediately announces his title over the girl: 'She is my slave!' he roared. '[I want her back] She's running away!' He raised the whip. 'Your slave?' said the old man, leaping to his feet. His son's glance met the girl's, caught the mute appeal. 'Your slave! the old man said, 'you're not fit to wipe the dust from her feet; yet you call her your slave. Listen! I'll make you an offer!' (2). The youngest son Rikku is already captivated; as to the old man, he has settled in his mind from the first instant of this chance encounter to make her a member of his family. The older son Hodio will make the offer of five head of cattle as soon as he is sent for and sees her, an offer the old man says is 'rather much.' But he does not bargain.
In turn, the brothers will repudiate their love for her. The youngest does this after the way to marriage had been cleared by Hodio's and the girl's circumstances having changed. The former has happily remarried, while the latter has brought forth young, so that by custom she ceases to be a slave, and is now free to marry a free born (101). But Rikku's love has changed to that of a brother. Sunsaye's career in pursuit of her has one happy consequence. She cures him of his wandering sickness. But she has also helped to bring him into confrontation with Shehu, the slave trader, when the latter is caught red-handed arranging with some Arabs to ship Rikku into slavery across the border. The battle that ensues is the climactic point of the narrative, and finishes off Shehu and his collaborator, the Prince, breaking up a slave-dealing network. A figure like this prince reappears in the Nigerian novel in the Zaki of Soyinka's Season of Anomy, whose history is said to stink of slavery, gold, oil (90). The destruction of a slave-trading network is therefore the great act of Sunsaye in this narrative. But he must go home to complete his triumph in the best folktale tradition, by taking on Ardo and vanquishing him. He is exhausted by these great exertions, and dies soon after. This is something which may be understood in terms of the nature of romance, which in principle can go on indefinitely by adding more and more adventures. And so its ending is arbitrary (Kristeva, 1980). Quite simply, Sunsaye's career ceases when there are no further adventures to undertake. The socially significant achievement of Sunsaye can be seen as imposing a rational structure on his adventures, whereas romance tends to move in pure linearity, from adventure to adventure. Such appears to be the case with the Drinkard's journey. Despite that it has a justification, it doesn't seem to have any specifiable consequence. For example, it has not affected the Drinkard's consciousness in a significant way, nor is the social functionality easy to determine, unless in the negative dimension of setting death loose in the world. What launches him out into the wild world is an appetite. He is a prodigious child, who becomes a 'palm-wine drinkard' at the age of ten. His father makes over to him a palm field of nine square miles, with560,000 trees in it, and also engages 'an expert palm wine tapster' to work for him, supplying an average of 125 kegs of palm wine a day. He has many friends who bear him company all day and all night drinking. Then the tapster falls off a tree and dies, and the Drinkard unable to find an acceptable replacement, undertakes a journey to the land of the dead to recall the expert. T his journey takes him through countless vicissitudes, to the 'Deads' town' and an interview with the tapster . The latter cannot return to the world of the 'alives.' but he has a gift, a magic egg which can provide whatever the Drinka If the origi rd wants. nal impetus for the journey is an appetite, and the object is to bring a man back from the dead to minister to it, the magic egg must be understood in substitutive terms. It is given in place of the man who cannot come. And the role is identical. All this, however, is overtaken by the realities he is faced with upon his return. He finds his town ravaged by famin e. His magic egg is immediately applied to try and remedy the situation. With it he is able to bring relief to the hungry. Bu t this relief is tempor ary. The egg soon inflicts hardship and disaster on the sufferers from famine. A lasting solution is sought, which proves to be a sacrifice of appeasement to Heaven. This is what restores the natural rhythm, and it does not appear to directly have resulted from the adventure. Both the famine and the sacrifice of appeasement are as fortuitous as any of the adventu res in quest of the dead palm wine tapper. The personal dimension to the adventures of Mai Sunsaye is seen in the series of encounters he makes wit h members of his family, in which he confirms them in their chosen ways of life. Hodio becomes an urban dwel ler, and a participant in the urban economy of h every sign of making a secondary processing. Jalla continues the lifestyle of the cattle Fulani, wit great success of it into a m an, been cured of his calf. Rikku has also grown love for Fatimeh, and is set t continue in the traditional way of life. o But it is young Rikku who is at the centre of his father's adventure, the handso me Rikku, who is constan tly falling into the power of someone else. Yet he has proved himself again and again to be well adapted to the rigorous and selfdependent life of the nomadic cattlemen. For example, he successfully leads Jalla's numerous herd for several days all alone t hrough unknown country to Ligu's camp, after the seasoned herdsman, Belmuna, hired to lead the cattle and sh ow the boy the ropes is gored to death by stampeding cattle. Three powerful figures who lay hold of him in turn are Fatimeh, wife Kantuma a Shehu's nd finally Shehu himself. It is remarkable that his falling into the hands of Kantuma is in connection with a bird. He has caught a strange rare one in his trap, and has gone into town to find someone to read for him the message att ached to the bird's leg. Kantuma sees him from her upper chamber, falls in love with him, and presses him to stay on with her as a k ept man. Several days later, he takes opportunity of a horse race to run away, only to fall into Shehu's hands. In the intercepting of the latter's attempt to carry him across the border into slavery, Sunsaye who has started out in a situation of self loss is rediscovered a hero. The literary epic and its derivatives, such as the heroic romance and the quest romance generally involve a movement of ho me coming. Burning It may also involve an outward journey. These are characteristics shared by Grass . It diff ers from the quest romance of the European tradition, in that there is a specific object which launches the series of adven tures, the attaining of t his object being the point of culmination of the whole sequence. Sunsaye purpose can har having no such fixed dly be called a romantic hero. But if as we have concluded on the basis of structura ti on, the point of culmination of the whole sequence is the figh t with the slave traders, this encounter is in fact where Sunsnye is headed all the while without knowing it .