The men observed that certain ladies were particularly
anxious, and regardless of expense, in buying immunity from Ikun,
and they fancied that these ladies were probably in that hut on that
particular evening, but they took no further action against them,
save making Ikun particularly expensive. There ought to be a moral
to an improving tale of this order, I know, but the only one I can
think of just now is that it takes a priest to get round a woman;
and I always feel inclined to jump on to the table myself when I
think of those poor dear creatures sitting on the floor and feeling
that awful thing clapper-clawing its way up right under them.
Tattooing on the West Coast is comparatively rare, and I think I may
say never used with decorative intent only. The skin decorations
are either paint or cicatrices - in the former case the pattern is
not kept always the same by the individual. A peculiar form of it
you find in the Rivers, where a pattern is painted on the skin, and
then when the paint is dry, a wash is applied which makes the
unpainted skin rise up in between the painted pattern. The
cicatrices are sometimes tribal marks, but sometimes decorative.
They are made by cutting the skin and then placing in the wound the
fluff of the silk cotton tree.
The great point of agreement between all these West African secret
societies lies in the methods of initiation.
The boy, if he belongs to a tribe that goes in for tattooing, is
tattooed, and is handed over to instructors in the societies'
secrets and formula. He lives, with the other boys of his tribe
undergoing initiation, usually under the rule of several
instructors, and for the space of one year. He lives always in the
forest, and is naked and smeared with clay.
The boys are exercised so as to become inured to hardship; in some
districts, they make raids so as to perfect themselves in this
useful accomplishment. They always take a new name, and are
supposed by the initiation process to become new beings in the magic
wood, and on their return to their village at the end of their
course, they pretend to have entirely forgotten their life before
they entered the wood; but this pretence is not kept up beyond the
period of festivities given to welcome them home. They all learn,
to a certain extent, a new language, a secret language only
understood by the initiated.
The same removal from home and instruction from initiated members is
also observed with the girls.
