How we cite our quotes: Act.Line
Quote #7
And yet this fear will not depart from me
The darkness of this new abode is deep—
Will your human eyes suffice? (3.90)
The Praise-Singer still isn't convinced that Elesin is brave enough to pull this one off, since his eyes might not be able to help him make his way through the darkness.
Quote #8
My young bride, did you hear the ghostly one? You sit and sob in your silent heart but say nothing to all this. First I blamed the white man, then I blamed my gods for deserting me. Now I feel I want to blame you for the mystery of the sapping of my will. But blame is a strange peace offering for a man to bring a world he has deeply wronged, and to its innocent dwellers. Oh little mother, I have taken countless women in my life but you were more than a desire of the flesh. I needed you as the abyss across which my body must be drawn, I filled it with earth and dropped my seed in it at the moment of preparedness for my crossing. You were the final gift of the living to their emissary to the land of the ancestors, and perhaps your warmth and youth brought new insights of this world to me and turned my feet leaden on this side of the abyss. For I confess to you, daughter, my weakness came not merely from the abomination of the white man who came violently into my fading presence, there was also a weight of longing on my earth-held limbs. I would have shaken it off, already my foot had begun to lift but then, the white ghost entered and all was defiled. (5.42)
Given that Elesin is talking about death as a great abyss and says he found his feet "leaden" on this side of it, we're guessing that perhaps there is at least a little fear at play in his reluctance/failure to pull off the suicide (beyond the British intervention).
Quote #9
And it was a brave man indeed who dared lay hands on you because Iyaloja stepped from one side of the earth onto another. Now look at the spectacle of your life. I grieve for you. (5.98)
Here, Iyaloja is taunting Elesin about his change in circumstances. The British who have Elesin locked up have just manhandled Iyaloja in searching her, and Iyaloja turns that indignity into yet another insult against Elesin, since it's proof that he's no longer considered mighty and fearsome—if he were, the men wouldn't have dared to lay a hand on her.