Human Leopards

That there were cannibals in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone in former days appears from the observations^[1] of William Finch, who visited Sierra Leone in August, 1607. This accurate observer states, “To the South of the Bay, some fortie or fiftie leagues distant within the Countrey, inhabiteth a very fierce people which are man-eaters, which sometimes infest them.” This clearly points to the Mende country, where the Human Leopard Society was lately flourishing. Finch does not, however, refer to anything but pure cannibalism.

In 1803 Dr. Thomas Winterbottom, the Colonial Surgeon, Sierra Leone, wrote an account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, and, after quoting and criticizing various authorities who had alleged the existence of cannibalism in different parts of West Africa, states (vol. i. p. 166) as follows:

“That this horrid practice does not exist in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, nor for many hundred leagues along the coast to the northward and southward of that place, may be asserted with the utmost confidence, nor is there any tradition among the natives which can prove that it ever was the custom; on the contrary, they appear struck with horror when they are questioned individually on the subject, though at the same time they make no scruple of accusing other nations at a distance, and whom they barely know by name, of cannibalism.”

Joseph Corry^[2] (1806) hints at human sacrifices, but neither he nor Major Laing^[3] (1822) heard anything of cannibalism, whilst Harrison Rankin^[4] (1834), who appears to have made considerable inquiry into the matter, and who speaks of “slavery, cannibalism and polygamy” as being deemed domestic virtues in the wilds of Africa, specifically mentions the only definite and well-ascertained case of cannibalism which came to his notice; it was the case of a liberated resident (i.e. a native African liberated from a captured slaver) who had wandered in the bush and had killed another native for food. Rankin in conclusion states, “In the heterogeneous commixture of tribes in the British Colony, I discovered none which doubted the practice of cannibalism, but none of the established residents would plead guilty to the charge themselves or admit it of their own nation. They generally agreed in attributing it to the savages of the river Bonny.”

The first trace of human leopards appears in the following quotation from Bishop Ingham’s “Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years,” published in 1894. The Bishop writes at p. 272: “The Temnes believe that by witchcraft a man may turn himself into an animal, and, in that form, may injure an enemy. A man was burnt at Port Lokkoh in 1854 for having turned himself into a leopard.” His lordship, who went to Africa about thirty years and who wrote about forty years after the event above mentioned, would probably have heard of this fact through Christian natives who (even if they had known the real reason for the burning) would have been keen to put it to the account of witchcraft; but taking into consideration the frequent criticisms of Temne “boys” at Gbangbama during the sitting of the Special Commission Court that it was absurd to waste so much time over the prisoners, but that we ought to burn all the persons charged with human leopard offences together with their villages and families, and so stamp out the practice as it had been stamped out in the Temne country, it seems more than probable that the man was burned not for witchcraft but as a human leopard.

The first definite reference to human leopards is to be found in Banbury’s “Sierra Leone; or, the White Man’s Grave,” 1888. At p. 183 he says: “Secret cannibalism is also prevalent, though the native punishment for this custom is death, and in the Mendi Mission (an American society) they possess the skin of a large leopard, with iron claws, which had once been the property of a man who, under this guise, satisfied his horrible craving.” This clearly refers to human leopard activity.

Mr. Alldridge,^[5] who has had a long and intimate acquaintance with the Mende tribes, is of opinion that the Human Leopard Society is of no great age, probably not more than half a century. All, however, that can be said with certainty is that until comparatively lately the operations of this society, if it existed, were so limited or so secret that the Society was unknown to Europeans, or indeed to Africans who were in touch with Europeans.

In 1891 the report from the Mende country that a number of cannibals had been burnt to death came as a shock to the Executive. The existence of the practice of cannibalism was known, but there was no idea that there was cannibalism on such a large scale. It seems that the inhabitants of the Imperri chiefdom had suffered so heavily at the hands of the cannibals that they complained to their chief. The complaints becoming too numerous and too insistent to be disregarded, the chief called a meeting, and the big men of Gangama, Gbangbama, Yandehun, and other towns and villages met at Bogo. Here the question of cannibalism was discussed, and those present were informed that a number of Tongo players^[6] had been summoned for the purpose of discovering the cannibals, the guilty parties no doubt depending upon their Borfima^[7] and bribes to escape detection. On the appointed day the Tongo players arrived. A huge fire was lighted, and the Tongo players were directed to throw into the fire all persons whom they found to be cannibals. One of the first to be cast into the flames was the principal chief who had been instrumental in calling in the Tongo players, and it is asserted that as many as eighty persons were burnt to death, a number of them anticipating their fate and of their own accord throwing themselves into the flames. A mercantile agent who visited Bogo shortly after this terrible retribution reported that the spot where the burning took place was a sickening sight, with its heaps of white ashes and remains of human bodies, whilst Mr. Alldridge, who held an inquiry into the matter, says that the pyramid of calcined bones which he saw at the junction of two roads just outside Bogo was about four feet high.

But the Government could not view with indifference such a crude and barbarous administration of justice, and on the 5th May, 1892, issued the following proclamation:

“Whereas from time to time in the Imperri Country and elsewhere within the Colony of Sierra Leone there have been native plays or dances commonly called or known as ‘Tongo Play,’ whereby some of the inhabitants of the said Colony have been accused of and denounced as being ‘Human Leopards,’ or as guilty of various crimes and misdemeanours, and upon such accusation and denouncement they have been unlawfully burnt to death or otherwise illegally punished:

“Now THEREFORE His Excellency the Administrator of the Government of the Colony aforesaid doth hereby publish, proclaim, and make known—

“That from and after this date the play or dance of the Tongo People commonly called and known as ‘Tongo Play,’ being contrary to law, must at once cease throughout the Colony.

“That every Tongo person is hereby enjoined and required to quit the Colony within twenty-one days from the date of this Proclamation on pain of being arrested, detained, and deported as a Political Prisoner:

“That every person taking part in any ‘Tongo Play’ or action resulting thereupon will be prosecuted and punished according to law:

“And all the inhabitants of and sojourners in the Colony are hereby enjoined to govern themselves accordingly.”

With all dread of the Tongo players removed, cannibalism burst out afresh towards the end of 1894, and at the beginning of 1895 a number of murders took place. It was then definitely ascertained that these murders had been committed by members of a society which afterwards became notorious as the Human Leopard Society. To deal with this extraordinary class of crime the Government of the Colony of Sierra Leone decided that drastic and exceptional legislation was necessary, and a Bill entitled the Human Leopard Society Ordinance, 1895, was introduced and passed as Ordinance No. 15 of 1895.

The object of the Ordinance was set out in the preamble, which read as follows:

“Whereas there exists in the Imperri Country a Society known by the name of the Human Leopard Society formed for the purpose of committing murder:

“And whereas many murders have been committed by men dressed so as to resemble leopards and armed with a three-pronged knife commonly known as a leopard knife or other weapon:

“And whereas owing to the number of these murders, and the difficulty of detecting the perpetrators of the same, it is expedient to amend the law:

“Be it therefore enacted by the Government of the Colony of Sierra Leone with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof as follows”:

Then followed provisions making it penal for any person without lawful excuse to have in his possession or keeping any of the articles mentioned in the Schedule, viz.:

“(a) A leopard skin shaped so as to make a man wearing it resemble a leopard;

“(b) A three-pronged knife; and

“(c) A native medicine known as ‘Borfima’”; and under the Ordinance the police were given powers where there was reasonable ground of suspicion to arrest and to search without a warrant, and heavy penalties were imposed for obstructing the police.

On the 9th October, 1896, a Protectorate was proclaimed over that portion of the Hinterland of the Colony of Sierra Leone which had hitherto been merely under the control of the Colonial Government.

Up to this date, for more than half a century, the Government of the Colony had claimed and exercised the right of intervention in disputes which led to intertribal wars or which interfered with the trade routes from the interior, but beyond this and the efforts made to stop slave-raiding there had been very little interference with the Hinterland natives.

During the same year it was found necessary further to strengthen the hands of the Executive in dealing with crimes committed by members of secret societies, and the Human Leopard Society Ordinance of 1895 was added to, provision being made whereby any chief who was proved to have permitted or who failed to report within a reasonable time any celebration of Human Leopard Customs which had occurred in any place under his control was liable to heavy penalties.

Under the amended law the Governor-in-Council was given power to order the arrest and detention of chiefs when it was deemed expedient to do so for the preservation of peace and order and the suppression of the Human Leopard Society. Power was also given to the Governor-in-Council to deport any such chief from the British sphere of influence in Sierra Leone. The reason for the latter enactment seems to have been that it was considered impossible for the Society to flourish without the connivance of at least some of the chiefs in the part of the territory affected.

It appeared that while some chiefs had been most active in their support of the Government, others had given no assistance or had even put obstruction in the way of investigating charges by refusing to deliver up witnesses and by allowing them to leave the country, with the result that in many cases it was difficult to bring offenders to justice. Prosecutions, however, took place from time to time for offences against the Ordinance, and in a number of cases convictions were obtained on capital charges as well as in lesser offences against the Ordinance.

During investigations connected with the offences committed by members of the Human Leopard Society, it came out that another secret society existed known as the Human Alligator Society. This Society appears to have been an offshoot of the Human Leopard Society and the usual meeting-place of this new society was in the vicinity of rivers where crocodiles or as they are called locally alligators abound.

Thereupon the law was further amended in 1901, and it was made a felony for any person without lawful authority or excuse to have in his possession, custody, or under his control an alligator skin shaped or made so as to make a man wearing the same resemble an alligator.

During the year 1903 a Circuit Court, presided over by a judge who sat with assessors, was constituted, and after that date all offences against the Human Leopard and Alligator Society Ordinances were tried by that Court. From that date up to the middle of 1912 there were before the Circuit Court 17 cases, in which 186 persons were charged with murder under the above-mentioned Ordinances; of these persons 87 were convicted and sentenced to death, and in many cases the sentence was duly carried out publicly in the vicinity of the place where the murder was committed.

In July, 1912, a murder took place at Imperri; the murderers were disturbed at their work; a man who was patently concerned in the murder, but was not one of the actual murderers, was arrested; upon this man’s shoulders the murderers threw the whole burden of explanation. Unable to invent even a plausible explanation, he made a clean breast and gave the names of those implicated in the murder. In the course of his explanation other murders were referred to and other names were mentioned, with the result that further arrests were made, whilst other members of the Society whom he named turned King’s evidence. In this way the authorities obtained information with respect to about 30 human leopard murders since 1907, and between 300 and 400 persons, including several paramount chiefs (Mahawas) and a large number of sub-chiefs (Mahawurus), were arrested. As in many cases no corroborative evidence was procurable, the majority of these persons were released, leaving 108, who were committed for trial.

To meet some of the difficulties which had arisen, the Government thereupon brought forward two Bills, one of which extended and strengthened the existing law as to unlawful societies, whilst the other set up a special court for the trial of persons charged with offences connected with unlawful societies, and authorized the deportation of persons who, although acquitted by such court, were, in the opinion of the court, a source of danger to the peace of the district. The Attorney-General, in introducing the first Bill into the Legislative Council of Sierra Leone, said:

“It will be within the knowledge of Honourable Members of this Council that the operations of the Human Leopard Societies in the Protectorate—chiefly in the Northern Sherbro District—have been lately very active.

“Not only have many murders been committed this year in connection with the Human Leopard, but murders which have been committed within the last three or four years have only just come to light. I can say that, so far as I know, there are over twenty murders at least in connection with this Society perpetrated this year or within the last three or four years just recently come to light. This is a very serious state of affairs, and one that has to be dealt with in a drastic manner. As far as my knowledge of this Society goes, twenty years ago its operations were confined to, not the big men of the Protectorate, but lesser people; in fact, it was the paramount chiefs who took part in trying to suppress the Society. However, it seems as years have gone by, this state of things has changed, either from natural inclination or from force of circumstances, and the Society has become too strong for the chiefs, with the result that the paramount chiefs themselves have been drawn into the Society and are now the leaders of it.

“Section 2 of this Ordinance gives the Governor power, when any murder has been committed in any chiefdom, to declare such chiefdom or any part thereof to be a proclaimed district, and gives the District Commissioner power to arrest anybody therein. In the past the Government’s chief difficulty has been to get evidence to substantiate a prosecution, as it is generally after a long time that people come forward to make statements about these murders, and, owing to the intimidation practised by the influential chiefs upon possible witnesses, the Government have always encountered great difficulty in procuring witnesses to bring to justice the perpetrators of the crime. It will be seen by Section 2 the District Commissioner has power to arrest any person whose arrest and detention he may consider advisable in the interests of justice; the first person he will naturally arrest would be the chief of the district.

“This power seems drastic, but the circumstances of these murders are so exceptional that drastic powers are required. Honourable Members will remember that in the Principal Ordinance it is a serious offence to be in possession of certain articles. It is proposed to add three other articles which will be seen detailed in Section 7. Up to the present, the possession of certain articles has been necessary to enable the District Commissioner to deal with persons who are known to be active members of the Human Leopard Society. It is now made criminal for a man to be a member or to take any part in the operations of this Society. These are the two chief points in the Bill. Another addition is that by Section 5 which gives power to the Governor to deport a man who has been connected with this Society, and, if he is an alien, to banish him permanently from the Colony. As the District Commissioners have been obliged to arrest a good many persons for whom it may not be possible to formulate any charges, Honourable Members will see from Schedule 9 that there is an indemnity clause covering all the arrests which have been made.”

The three articles mentioned by the Attorney-General are described in the Ordinance as:

“(a) A dress made of baboon^[8] skins commonly used by members of an unlawful society;

“(b) A ‘kukoi’ or whistle commonly used for calling together the members of an unlawful society;

“(c) An iron needle commonly used for branding members of an unlawful society.”

In introducing the Special Commission Court Ordinance into the Legislative Council the Attorney-General said:

“This Bill gives the Governor power to constitute special courts for the trial of all offences under the Human Leopard and Alligator Societies Ordinance, 1909, and also the Ordinance (the Human Leopard and Alligator Amendment Ordinance, 1912) which has just been read a second time. I may say that the usual way of trying offenders in the Protectorate is by the Circuit Court with three or four Native Paramount Chiefs, but as a great number of these chiefs are implicated and have been arrested in the Protectorate, it is obvious that the services of many, if any at all, will not be available. Moreover, there are 64 persons under trial. It will take up too much of the time of the Circuit Judge if all were sent for trial before the Circuit Court. The Governor has the power to appoint Commissioners, usually men who are Senior District Commissioners. However, it is not desirable to appoint Commissioners in the ordinary way to try offences like these. Instead of the prisoners being tried by the Circuit Judge in the ordinary way, they will be charged before a special court of three Judges.

“It is proposed in the Bill, which I may point out will only be in operation for one year, to appoint a Special Commission Court consisting of three persons. Who they are or who they will be I cannot say; but I can say that they must be either judges or barristers of a British court.

“The Bill also provides that there must be unanimity before a prisoner can be convicted. The procedure will be practically the same as that of the Circuit Court, and all the procedure of the Circuit will be followed.

“It will be observed in Clause 10 that the same powers of deportation will be given to the Governor when dealing with prisoners convicted by the Special Commission Court as with those convicted by the Circuit Court. By Clause 11 further power is given to the Governor. Unfortunately, it sometimes happens in these cases that there are several persons who are more or less connected with these Societies, but against whom there is no evidence; they will be simply ordered to leave the Colony and will not be allowed to return.”

The Colonial Office were fortunate in being able to secure the services of an able and distinguished lawyer and judge in the person of Sir William Brandford Griffith, an Ex-Chief Justice of the Gold Coast Colony, to be President of the Court, and he arrived in the Colony from England on the 8th December, 1912.

The Poro

Although it is impossible to say that the Human Leopard Society is connected with the Poro, nevertheless any account of that Society would be wanting unless accompanied by some reference to the Poro, one of the secret societies by which the natives of the Sierra Leone Hinterland are educated and were, until the British Government took over the administration of the country, ruled. Mr. Migeod, in the Journal of the African Society for July, 1915, ventures the suggestion that Purrus Campus in Ptolemy’s map of the second century may be no other than the Latin for Poro bush; and everything points to the custom being of great antiquity. The earlier writers on Sierra Leone dwell almost exclusively upon the predatory habits of the Poro and the danger of trespassing into the Poro bush, but Major Laing (1822), who travelled amongst the Hinterland tribes to the north of Sierra Leone, also points to the fact that it was the Poro which governed the country. He says:

“Particular pieces of ground (generally eminences covered with thick wood) are consecrated to the Greegrees and held sacred. I have always seen those enclosures approached with reverential awe, and have been informed that the smallest encroachment upon them would subject the aggressor to the most awful punishment from the Purrah, an institution which is much dreaded by the whole of this unhappy country. Their power supersedes even that of the headmen of the districts, and their deeds of secrecy and darkness are as little called in question, or inquired into, as those of the inquisition were in Europe, in former years. I have endeavoured in vain to trace the origin or cause of formation of this extraordinary association, and have reason to suppose that it is now unknown to the generality of the Timannees, and may possibly be even so to the Purrah themselves, in a country where no traditionary records are extant, either in writing or in song.

“In the early ages of the slave trade (which particularly prevailed in this country) every nefarious scheme was resorted to by the headmen for the purpose of procuring subjects for the markets. It may be conjectured that where liberty was so insecure concealment not difficult, and the means of subsistence easy to be procured, and when the power of the headmen did not extend beyond the limits of their own town, many individuals, whose safety was endangered, would fly to the woods for protection; and as their numbers increased, would confederate for mutual support, and thus give rise to secret signs of recognition and rules of general guidance. It may further be supposed, that in a country divided amongst numerous petty authorities, each jealous of the other, such a confederacy may soon have become too powerful for any probable combination against them; and being possessed of power would at length employ it in the very abuses to which it had owed its own origin.

“The headquarters of the Purrah are in enclosures situated in the woods; these are never deserted by them entirely, and any man, not a Purrah, approaching them is instantly apprehended, and rarely ever heard of again. The few who have reappeared after several years of secretion have always become intermediately Purrah men themselves; those who do not again appear are supposed to be carried away to distant countries and sold. The Purrahs do not confine themselves always to the seizure of those who approach their enclosures, but frequently carry off single travellers, and occasionally whole parties, who are imprudent enough to pass from one town to another in certain districts without applying for an escort from the body. To ensure safety, one Purrah man is sufficient, who, while leading the party, blows a small reed whistle suspended from his neck. At the advice of Ba Kooro, I procured one of these persons as a guide from Ma Bung to Ma Yasoo, the intermediate country being thickly inhabited by the Purrah. As we passed along, they signified their vicinity to us, by howling and screaming in the woods, but although the sounds denoted their neighbourhood, no individual was seen.

“The Purrahs frequently make an irruption into towns in the night-time, and plunder whatever they can lay their hands upon—goats, fowls, cloths, provisions, men, women, or children. On such occasions the inhabitants remain shut up in their homes, until long after the plunderers retreat. During the time that I was in the interior, I always had a sentry over my quarters at night, for the protection of the baggage. One night, the town in which we slept was visited by the Purrah, and my sentinel remained firm at his post. When the Purrah came up, an attack was made upon him, but the application of the bayonet kept them at a distance until I made my appearance, when the Purrah, uncertain of their power over a white man, scampered off; they were mostly naked and unarmed, but a few had knives.

“The outward distinguishing marks of the Purrah are two parallel tattooed lines round the middle of the body, inclining upwards in front, towards the breast, and meeting in the pit of the stomach. There are various gradations of rank among them, but I could never ascertain their respective offices; persons said to be men of rank amongst them have been pointed out to me with great caution, as the Timannees, generally, do not like to speak of them; but I could learn nothing further. Purrah-men sometimes quit their retirement, and associate with the townspeople, following employments of various kinds, but no chief or headman dare bring a palaver against a Purrah-man, for fear of a retributive visit from the whole body. At stated periods they hold conventions or assemblies, and on those occasions the country is in the greatest state of confusion and alarm; no proclamation is publicly made, but a notice from the chief or headman of the Purrah, communicated by signs hung up at different places, with the meaning of which they are acquainted, is a summons to them to meet on an appointed day, at a certain rendezvous. Palavers of great weight, such as disputes between rival towns, or offences of such magnitude as to call for capital punishments, are always settled by the Purrah—the headmen of towns not having at the present day (whatever power they may have possessed formerly) the lives or their subjects or dependents in keeping. The Purrah may be therefore said to possess the general government of the country, and from the nature of their power, and the purposes to which it is applied, they will probably be found a most serious obstacle to its civilization.”^[9]

Every subsequent writer touches upon the Poro, and gradually more information is gleaned as to its object and procedure and the manner in which it exercises its power. The fullest account is to be found in Mr. Alldridge’s “The Sherbro and its Hinterland” (1901). The Poro is for men only, and it begins by training the youth of the country. Boys between 7 and 20 are taken into the Poro bush for several months. “The meetings of the fraternity for initiation of new members always take place in the dry season, from November to April, as they are held in the Big Bush, a part of which is sufficiently cleared and the ground cleaned. The opening to the Big Bush is rudely constructed of palm leaves, the entrance being through leafy bowers, and the aperture serving for a doorway hung with country mats. Inside, the place is separated into compartments similarly divided by palm leaves—that entrance also being hung with mats. The whole is beneath the dense and overspreading foliage of high trees, and is known as the Poro bush.”^[10] This Big Bush is usually much higher than the usual low bush of the country, and looks more like virgin bush—a scarce commodity in Mende land. Here the boys are taught and trained and initiated, here they dance and sing after dark, and here they are imbued with the idea of the power and authority of the Poro. After some months of training the boy is placed in—

(1) The Messenger or servant class; or,

(2) The Mohammedan Mori^[11] or the Devil men class; or,

(3) The Chiefs’ class;

when further initiation and instruction suitable to his class are given.

Until the British Government proclaimed a Protectorate, the government of the country was practically in the hands of the third class. The chiefs would assemble in the Poro bush, they would be sworn to secrecy, and then would discuss the matter in hand; their orders would be issued and carried out by the whole Society; any member in default could be tried by a Poro tribunal inside the Poro bush, condemned, and there put away.

Every member of the Human Leopard Society is a member of the Poro, the main supporters of both societies are the chiefs, the place of meeting for both societies is the Poro bush—this suffices to show how easily the Poro organization can be used, and no doubt has been used, for many of the purposes of the human leopards.

A quotation which Mr. Alldridge has been so good as to allow from his “Sherbro and its Hinterland” (pp. 156–159) with respect to the Tongo players already alluded to will illustrate the atmosphere in which the human leopards worked.

“Formerly when suspicious circumstances, such as frequent sudden deaths, or the continuous disappearance of individuals, as in the case of the victims of the Human Leopards, arose and baffled the local fetish, recourse was had to the terrible Tongo player system, especially if cannibalism was thought to be at the bottom of the mischief.

“To set this medicine going the intervention of a most appalling fetish had to be invoked through a class of medicine people from the upper country called the Tongo players.

“As soon as the Tongo players had determined to comply with a request from a chief, they sent out their emissaries into his towns and villages to obtain information concerning suspected people. When all was ready the head of the Tongo, named Buamor Neppor, attended by his two principal assistants, Akawa (Big Thing) and Bojuwa (Great Thing) with their following, arrived in the principal town and proceeded to clear a space in the bush for their encampment, where they made their fetish medicine. This place of concealment was called Mashundu.

“In the investigation one village at a time was dealt with. A messenger was despatched to call all the men, women, and children to a meeting to be held on an appointed day.

“The meeting was held on a cleared space, called the Korbangai, outside the town, to which the people had been summoned. They were then drawn up into line. Their names were called by a spy from their own village, who was in the pay of the Tongo players. Certain questions were asked. The names of suspected persons were then submitted to the medicine-men, hidden in the bush, who professed to go through the ordeal by which the guilt or innocence of these suspected persons might be determined. The operator’s ordeal was the plunging his hand into a cauldron of boiling oil and pulling out a piece of hot iron. If the hand was burned, it was certain proof of guilt; if not burned, of innocence.

“The victim thus being found out, he was brought before the head Tongo player, who asked him if he were prepared to pay money. If he were, time was allowed for him to send to his family; meanwhile he was detained and stocked. Having got as much as they could out of the man and his family, an excuse was made, and he was burned to death.

“On some occasions a Tongo play was held. The players were arrayed in barbaric costume. They wore a leopard-skin cap, the side flaps of which drooped over the face, a leopard tail hung down from the back of the cap, and a sort of door bell was attached to the end. There was a leopard-skin jacket; the wrists, elbows, and ankles were further adorned with strips of leopard skin; the whole costume being completed by short cloth knickers, trimmed with leopard skin, and leopard-skin gaiters.

“The Tongo players came out and danced; the headman and his attendant carried a knobbed staff set with sharp cutting instruments, called the Tongora, which was loosely veiled with leopard skin.

“While dancing the headman and his two attendants suddenly rushed up to the suspected persons and dealt them heavy blows with the Tongora, blows which may or may not have killed them at once; but whether killed or not they were quickly taken away and thrown on the fire.”

Borfima

A word which was constantly heard before the Special Commission Court was Borfima, the “medicine” referred to in the Human Leopard Ordinance. The word is a contraction of Boreh fima, medicine bag, and is usually, but not invariably, tightly bound up in a leather package. This package contains, amongst other things, the white of an egg, the blood, fat, and other parts of a human being, the blood of a cock, and a few grains of rice; but to make it efficacious it must occasionally be anointed with human fat and smeared with human blood. So anointed and smeared, it is an all-powerful instrument in the hands of its owner, it will make him rich and powerful, it will make people hold him in honour, it will help him in cases in the White Man’s Court, and it certainly has the effect of instilling in the native mind great respect for its owner and a terrible fear lest he should use it hostilely. An oath administered by the proper person and with due ceremony upon Borfima is of the most binding nature, and it was by means of such oaths that great secrecy was obtained. But the potency of this great fetish apparently soon evaporated. Owners of the Borfima found that their riches did not increase as rapidly as they anticipated, they lost cases in the Courts, expectations were not realized with respect to adverse witnesses upon whose hearts and livers and kidneys imprecations had been showered—all this showed that the Borfima had become weak and needed resuscitation with fresh human fat and blood—and to obtain this human fat and blood was the primary object of the Human Leopard Society.

Witch-doctors

To give an idea of the mental outlook of the majority of the natives before the Court, and so that some of the difficulties under which the prosecution laboured may be appreciated, allusion should be made to witch-doctors and oaths.

A witch-doctor holds a high position in a native community, and is often able to accumulate great wealth. The practice of this profession is usually confined to certain families, the secrets of the profession being handed down from father to son. Only one member of the family practises at the same time, although he may have a number of assistants who are commonly members of his family. Some of these witch-doctors profess to be able to name and trace their ancestors back to a remote period. All the followers of this profession are skilled herbalists and have some knowledge of surgery, but they profess to effect cures by the aid of witchcraft. If a native is ill, it is said that he has been caught by some devil, and it is the business of the witch-doctor to rid him of that devil. The witch-doctor knows that certain devils dislike certain herbs, which, if administered to the sick person, may have the effect of disgusting the devil and making it fly away. A devil is frequently caught and put into a bottle, and then it is for the patient to say whether he will have it destroyed, which can only be done by fire, or whether he will allow it to be released and propitiated by various offerings, and by such means transform it into a friendly devil, which he can make use of to injure some other person. The witch-doctor is frequently employed by chiefs or other much-married men to discover whether their numerous wives have been guilty of acts of infidelity; they are also frequently employed to discover the perpetrators of any crime and the place of concealment of stolen property, and it is extraordinary what successes they achieve, particularly in discovering stolen property.

Oaths

Another line of practice in which witch-doctors excel is the “pulling of swears”—anglice, the removal of oaths. When an oath is taken upon an ordinary native “medicine,” it is possible for the oath-taker to be absolved from the consequences of a breach of his oath by engaging a witch-doctor, who, for a fee proportionate to the potency of the “medicine” used, will “pull the swear.” This is accomplished by certain ceremonies performed with other “medicines.” After the “swear has been pulled,” the first medicine has, so to speak, its teeth drawn.

The “medicine” on which pagan Mende witnesses were sworn before the Special Commission Court was compounded every Monday morning by the Court interpreter, and consisted of a preparation of salt, pepper and ashes mixed with water. A spoonful of the mixture was taken by each witness when sworn; if there were many witnesses, fresh “medicine” had to be prepared later in the week. The oath administered in the presence of the Court and repeated by each witness was, in its English translation, as follows: “I (name of witness) swear by this medicine to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Should I tell a lie, if I go to the farm may snake bite me, if I travel by canoe may the canoe sink, and may my belly be swollen. I swear by my liver, my lungs, my kidneys, and my heart that, should I tell a lie, may I never be saved, but may I die suddenly.”