Again, When I Was In A Village Up The Calabar There
Were Fourteen Goats And Five Slaves Killed In Eight
Days by
leopards, the genuine things, I am sure, in this case; but here, as
down South, there was a
Strong objection to proceed against the
leopard, and no action was being taken save making the goat-houses
stronger. In Okyon, when a leopard is killed, its body is treated
with great respect and brought into the killer's village. Messages
are then sent to the neighbouring villages, and they send
representatives to the village and the gall-bladder is most
carefully removed from the leopard and burnt coram publico, each
person whipping their hands down their arms to disavow any guilt in
the affair. This burning of the gall, however, is not ju-ju, it is
done merely to destroy it, and to demonstrate to all men that it is
destroyed, because it is believed to be a deadly poison, and if any
is found in a man's possession the punishment is death, unless he is
a great chief - a few of these are allowed to keep leopards' gall in
their possession. John Bailey tells me that if a great chief
commits a great crime, and is adjudged by a conclave of his fellow
chiefs to die, it is not considered right he should die in a common
way, and he is given leopards' gall. A precisely similar idea
regarding the poisonous quality of crocodiles' gall holds good down
South.
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