The methods of trial varied from area to area. In one 
tribe, it was customary to hold mass ordeals when the 
king died. In another, the number of beans which were 
egested was augmented by a similar number which the 
subject was required to eat. This augmentation contin- 
ued until death occurred, or until all the beans in his 
stomach were rejected at one time. 
In a third area, the judges, who were the chiefs of the 
village, would put the beans on the ground in front of 
the accused, who had to pick them up one by one and 
eat them. It was in this tribe that the medicine man was 
thought to influence a result of death by rubbing the 
beans with the tail of a leopard. 
Contrary to the strong faith existing in other tribes, 
the natives of the Calabar region had no consistent be- 
liefs about this practice. In one region, the ordeal was 
approached with confidence, while in another, it was 
looked upon as a sentence of death. Rarely would an 
individual publicly demand to submit, a common occur- 
rence among other tribes. When this did happen, how- 
ever, it was usually assumed that the person had made 
previous arrangements with the poison preparer. 
For some years, it was highly difficult for investigators 
to obtain specimens of the plant for botanical classifica- 
tion, for although the natives were well acquainted with 
the bean itself, they knew nothing of its origin. This 
situation was in existence because, as written by the 
Rev. H. M. Waddell of Calabar (Hanbury, 1876), 
The plant is everywhere destroyed by order of 
the king, except when it is preserved for 
supplying the wants of justice — and that 
the only store of seeds is in the king’s custody. 
This practice resulted in a near deification of the plant, 
and was continued until the middle of the 19th century, 
when the practice of the ordeal was outlawed. This edict 
[ 810 | 
