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.
