Until this I did not know that secret societies were exported
irom their own districts.
I believe that these secret societies are always distinct from
e leopard societies. I have pretty nearly enough evidence to
prove that it is so in some districts, but not in all. So far my
v ence only goes to prove the distinction of the two among,
the negroes, not among the Bantu, and in all cases you will
n s°me men belonging to. both. Some men, in fact, go in
lor all the societies in their district, but not all the men ; and
in all districts, if you look close, you will find several societies
apart from the regular youth-initiating one.
These other societies are practically murder societies, and
eir practices usually include cannibalism, which is not an
essential part of the rites of the great tribal societies, Yasi or
g o. In the Calabar district I was informed by natives that
there was a society of which the last entered member has to
provide, for the entertainment of the other members, the body
o a re ative of his own, and sacrificial cannibalism is always
breaking out, or perhaps I should say being discovered, by the
white authorities in the Niger Delta. There was the great
outburst pf it at Brass, early last year, and the one chronicled
in the Liverpool Mercury for August 13th, 1895, as occurring
at Sierra Leone. This account is worth quoting. It describes
e hanging by the authorities of three murderers, and states
the incidents, which took place in the Imperi country behind
Tree Town.
One of the chief murderers was a man named Jowe, who
had formerly been a Sunday-school teacher in Sierra Leone.
He pleaded in extenuation of his offence that he had been
compelled to join the society. The others said they committed
the murders in order to obtain certain parts of the
body for ju-ju purposes, the leg, the hand, the heart, &c.
The Mercury goes on to give the statement of the Reverend
Father Bomy of the Roman Catholic Mission. “ He said he
was at Bromtu, where the St. Joseph Mission has a station
when a man was brought down from the Imperi country in a
boat. The poor fellow was in a dreadful state, and was
brought to the station for medical treatment. He said he was
working on his farm, when he was suddenly pounced upon
from behind. A number o f sharp instruments were driven
into the back o f his neck. He presented a fearful sight,
having wounds all over his body supposed to have been inflicted
b y the claws o f the leopard, but in reality they were
stabs from sharp-pointed knives. T h e native, who was a
powerfully-built man, called out, and his cries a tt ra cm g
attention o f his relations, the leopards made off. T h e poor
fellow died at Bromtu from the injuries. I t was only his
splendid physique that kept him alive until his arrival at t e
Mission.” T h e Mercury goes on to quote from the r
Mall, and I too go on quoting to show that these things are
known and acknowledged to have taken place in a colony like
Sierra Leone, which has had unequalled opportunities of
becoming christianised for more than one hundred years
and now has more than one hundred and thirty places of.
Christian worship in it. “ Some twenty years ago there
was a war between this tribe Ta ima and the Paramas T h e .
Paramas sent some o f their war boys to be ambushed in
the intervening country, the Imperi, but the Imperi delivered
these war boys to the enemy. In revenge, the Paramas
sent the Fetish Boofima into the Imperi country. lh is
Fetish had up to that time been kept active and working
by the sacrifice o f goats, but the medicine men o f the
Paramas who introduced it into the Imperi country decreed
at the same time that human sacrifices would be required
to keep it alive, thereby working their vengeance on
the Imperi b y leading them to exterminate themselves in
sacrifice to the Fetish. T h e country for years has been
terrorised b y this secret worship o f Boofima and at one time
the Imperi started the T o n g a dances, at which the medicine
men pointed out the supposed worshippers o f Boofima— the
so-called Human Leopards, because when seizing their victims
for sacrifice they covered themselves with leopard skins, and
imitating the roars o f the leopard, they sprang upon their
victim, plunging at the same time two three-pronged forks
into each side o f the throat. T h e Government some years ago
forbade the T o n g a dances, and are now striving to suppress
the human leopards. Th e re are also human alligators who,