However, Presently They Got This Something
Into Their Box And Rejoiced Exceedingly, And Departed Staggering
Under The Weight.
I gave them a good start, and then made the best
of my way home; and all that night Duke Town howled, and sang, and
thumped its tom-toms unceasingly; for I was told Egbo had come into
the town.
Egbo is very coy, even for a secret society spirit, and
seems to loathe publicity; but when he is ensconced in this ark he
utters sententious observations on the subject of current politics,
and his word is law. The voice that comes out of the ark is very
strange, and unlike a human voice. I heard it shortly after Egbo
had been secured. I expect, from what I saw, that there was some
person in that ark all the time, but I do not know. It is more than
I can do to understand my ju-ju details at present, let alone
explain them on rational lines. I hear that there is a tribe on the
slave coast who have been proved to keep a small child in the drum
that is the residence of their chief spirit, and that when the child
grows too large to go in it is killed, and another one that has in
the meantime been trained by the priests takes the place of the dead
one, until it, in its turn, grows too big and is killed, and so on.
I expect this killing of the children is not sacrificial, but arises
entirely from the fact that as ex-kings are dangerous to the body
politic, therefore still more dangerous would ex-gods be.
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