departed staggering under the weight. I gave them a good
start, and then made the best of my way home ; and all that
night Duke Town howled, and sang, and thumped its tom-toms
unceasingly ; for I was told Egbo had come into the town.
Egbo is very coy, even for a secret society spirit, and seems
to loathe publicity ; but when he is ensconced in this ark he
utters sententious observations on the subject of current politics,
and his word is law. The voice that comes out of the ark is
very strange, and unlike a human voice. I heard it shortly
after Egbo had been secured. I expect, from what I saw, that
there was some person in that ark all the time, but I do not
know. It is more than I can do to understand my ju-ju
details at present, let alone explain them on rational lines. I
hear that there is a tribe on the slave coast who have been
proved to keep a small child in the drum that is the residence
of their chief spirit, and that when the child grows too large to
go in it is killed, and another one that has in the meantime
been trained by the priests takes the place of the dead one, until
it, in its* turn, grows too big and is killed, and so on. I expect
this killing of the children is not sacrificial, but arises entirely
from the fact that as ex-kings are dangerous to the body
politic, therefore still more dangerous would ex-gods be.
Very little is known by outsiders regarding Egbo compared
to what there must be to be known, owing to a want of
interest or to a sense of inability on the part of most white
people to make head or tail out of what seems to them a
horrid pagan practice or a farrago of nonsense.
It is still a great power, although its officials in Duke or
Creek Town are no longer allowed to go chopping and
whipping promiscuous-like, because the Consul-General has a
prejudice against this sort of thing, and the Efifik is learning
that it is nearly as unhealthy to go against his Consul-General
as against his ju-ju. So I do not believe you will ever get
the truth about it in Duke Town, or Creek Town. I f you want
to get hold of the underlying idea of these societies you must
go round out-of-the-way corners where the natives are not
yet afraid of being laughed at or punished. I subjoin a
fragment from my Duke Town diaries to demonstrate that I
did endeavour to do what I could in the interests of science.
- T h e y are at it down in Duke
nibbing the drum, but ^ 'g ir ig dark and Calabar has
go down and see to It t oug J ^ . stiU there's
not risen to * Two and a half hours later. Its a
lots of sheet lightning. Town paths in
perfect scandal world J drains
the most poweriui. t h n a play.
Igalwas, and M'pongwe is now b A J - J » * d
Y o n pretty frequently come upon Ymu in a
Libreville. Y o u will see s re c e are suspended,
cluster o f houses, a line rom ^ and children keep one
making a sort o f screen. ^ other side to the
side o f this screen, the men d a n c i n g ^ | haye spoken o f
peculiar monotonous Y a s i un . regarding it which
elsewhere, but one thing _ ^ forest at the back o f
struck me as peculiar. piece o f forest a
Victoria, Cameroons. reC° | nl T h branches were bent,
peculiar look about a portion o f it lh e Dr
and 1 tendrils were tied * * *
elsewhere, but which I had never ^ ^
I was puzzled, and after having pas telling
hundred yards or so & some
the men to go on. I examined i nothing.
minu.es, and then rejoined m y and said n o . m ^
Presently said one o f my Wei Weis, n ™ y
‘ “ ^ w S th in g ? ” said J, not wish.ng
“ Y o u look them thing, ma, when you J
go look him again, you sabe Poorah, ma? m a tone
accusation. ^ „
“ We l l ” said I, “ w h a t i s i t doing here.
. ! ? , c . Iqierra Leone) boys done bring him, ma,