^ Anthropology : Social 



which spirits may, so to speak, infuse titemselves and from 

 which they may diffuse more easily their influence for good or 

 bad. 



There is a belief in the validity of sacrifice, some of which 

 is distincdy owing to the infiltration of Muhammadan ideas. 

 In fact, amongst the Vai people a sacrifice is known as Sadaka or 

 Saraka, which is a scarcely altered form of the Arabic word. 

 It is thought in most parts of this country that the spirits of the 

 deceased can be attracted to the Hving in dreams by throwing 

 down some sacrifice — a handful of beads, a strip of cloth, 

 possibly a libation. Amongst the Kru peoples of the coast, 

 fowls or even oxen are used for sacrificial purposes, as will be 

 seen later in an account of the social institutions amongst the 

 Grebo and Kru. Amongst the Kru people the favourite 

 grigri or amulet is a small sheep's horn filled with a nasty 

 amalgam of chopped herbs, palm oil, and filth that is best left 

 unanalysed, but that is furnished by the witch doctor. Amongst 

 the tribes of the interior behind the Kru coast, the horns of 

 small antelopes and the skins of genets, squirrels, rats, mice, etc., 

 and the red wing feathers of the turacos are used for fetishes ; as 

 well as leopards' teeth, the tusks of the Pygmy hippo, finely 

 madi iron chains, litde blocks of wood, the bones of small 

 beasts, and even gun flints. 



A leopard's tooth throughout the whole eastern part of 

 Liberia, perhaps nearly all through the non-Muhammadan tribes, 

 is an object of great reverence. It is frequently used as a sign 

 of freedom, and the presentation of a leopard's tooth to a slave 

 woman or man at once sets them free. 



A belief in spirits leads naturally to the conception of 

 exceptionally endowed men and women who by intercourse with 

 supernatural agencies can cause death, illness, or misfortune to 

 their fellow human beings whom they may wish to injure. In 



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