The people of Umaofia are scared of evil spirits. They believe if children whistle at night they will bring up evil spirits. No one will call a dangerious animal at night because they will hear and they are afraid of those evil spirits. So they will call a snake a string instead. They beleive that the animals are more sinister and uncanny at night so that is why they believe in not calling their name.

Now and again an ancestrial spirit or egwugwu appeared in a tremuluous, unearhty voice and completely covered in raffia when someone dies and they have a funeral. Old men dress up in smoked raffia skirts and their bodies were painted with chalk and charcoal. They come out of these huts and the people believe they are ancestrial spirits of many generations. They believe the spirits come up through the hut and come out of the hut. The reality is that they are just old men dressed up.

As they deliberated they could hear the mother of spirits wailing for her son. The white men burned the church down and then they killed a spirit. Thats why the mother wailed for her son. They really believe in thier spirits. So when you kill a spirit it usually means punishment. The white people didn't know that, so they could of cared less when they killed the spirit.