He Will, If Given Suitable
Offerings, Reveal The Future To Bubis, But Bubis Only.
His priest
is the King of all the Bubis, upon whom it is never permitted to a
white man, or a Porto, to gaze.
Baumann also gives the residence of
another important spirit as being the grotto at Banni. This is a
sea-cave, only accessible at low water in calm weather. I have
heard many legends of this cave, but have never had an opportunity
of seeing it, or any one who has seen it first hand.
The charms used by these people are similar in form to those of the
mainland Bantu, but the methods of treating paths and gateways are
somewhat peculiar. The gateways to the towns are sometimes covered
by freshly cut banana leaves, and during the religious feast in
November, the paths to the villages are barred across with a hedge
of grass which no stranger must pass through.
The government is a peculiar one for West Africa. Every village has
its chief, but the whole tribe obey one great chief or king who
lives in the crater-ravine at Riabba. This individual is called
Moka, but whether he is now the same man referred to by Rogoszinsky,
Mr. Holland, and the Rev. Hugh Brown, who attempted to interview him
in the seventies, I do not feel sure, for the Bubis are just the
sort of people to keep a big king going with a variety of
individuals. Even the indefatigable Dr. Baumann failed to see Moka,
though he evidently found out a great deal about the methods of his
administration and formed a very high opinion of his ability, for he
says that to this one chief the people owe their present unity and
orderliness; that before his time the whole island was in a state of
internecine war: murder was frequent, and property unsafe. Now
their social condition, according to the Doctor's account, is a
model to Europe, let alone Africa. Civil wars have been abolished,
disputes between villages being referred to arbitration, and murder
is swiftly and surely punished. If the criminal has bolted into the
forest and cannot be found, his village is made responsible, and has
to pay a fine in goats, sheep and tobacco to the value of 16 pounds.
Theft is extremely rare and offences against the moral code also,
the Bubis having an extremely high standard in this matter, even the
little children having each a separate sleeping hut. In old days
adultery was punished by cutting off the offender's hand. I have
myself seen women in Fernando Po who have had a hand cut off at the
wrist, but I believe those were slave women who had suffered for
theft. Slaves the Bubis do have, but their condition is the mild,
poor relation or retainer form of slavery you find in Calabar, and
differs from the Dualla form, for the slaves live in the same
villages as their masters, while among the Duallas, as among most
Bantu slave-holding tribes, the slaves are excluded from the
master's village and have separate villages of their own.
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