-•) 



Anthropology : Social 



and a tremendous ovation occurs in his honour, guns being 

 fired. If the accused be of the male sex, flattering attentions 

 are bestowed on him by the females of the town, attentions 

 singularly unwelcome at that moment, as after the first spasms 

 of delight at his acquittal he probably retires to the shelter 

 of a hut, a prey to horrible nausea and severe pains. 



The sass-wood in the Grebo country is called " gedu." 

 More will be said about the administration of this ordeal in 

 the Grebo country when the various divisions of the social 

 hierarchy in that part of Eastern Liberia are described. 



Amongst the Kru people ordeal by " sassy-wood " was 

 formerly very frequent, though it is disappearing now that the 

 young men of that nation go out so much into the world to 

 earn their living and return imbued with so many wholesome 

 European ideas. Amongst customs connected with the 

 administration of this ordeal in the Kru country is that of 

 the accused walking about excitedly after his drinking the 

 decoction, shouting "Am I a witch.'' Am I a witch.''" In 

 these gyrations he is followed by one of the medicine-men, 

 who dances behind him, replying " Yes, you are a witch." 

 Rapid motion to and fro is supposed to assist the working of 

 the poison. If the wretched sufferer succeeds in vomiting the 

 liquid, he is at once pronounced innocent, and the usual 

 rejoicings supervene. But if it proceeds to act on him with 

 a purgative effect or he merely becomes stupefied, he is 

 compelled to take a second dose, and as he is now rapidly 

 qualifying as guilty, the assistants proceed to administer an 

 increasing series of cruelties, which probably cause his death 

 before it can be brought about by the poisonous draught. In 

 the case of innocence, the medicine-man returns his fee to 

 those who employed him. Amongst the Kru people the ordeal 

 already mentioned may sometimes be lessened in its virulence, 



J967 



