Liberia ^ 



ill the same year (1849). He afterwards wrote the following 

 account of his investigations (I summarise) : 



" Doalu Bukere, the inventor of the Vai alphabet, was 

 about forty years old when I paid him this visit in Bandakoro. 

 He was the real originator of the alphabet, assisted by five of 

 his friends. The first impulse to attempt it w^as given him in 

 a dream (about fifteen years ago), in which a tall, venerable- 

 looking white man, in a long coat, appeared to him saying : ' I 

 am sent to you by other white men ... to bring you a book.' 

 Doalu asked what was the nature of this book. The white 

 man answered : ' I am sent to bring this book to you in 

 order that you may take it to the rest of the people. But 

 I must tell you that neither you nor any one who will become 

 acquainted with the book is allowed to eat the flesh of dogs 

 and monkeys, nor of anything found dead, whose throat 

 was not cut ; nor to touch the book on those days on which 

 you have touched the fruit of the To-tree (a kind of pepper).' 

 The messenger then showed Doalu his book, and taught him 

 to write any Vai ' words in the same way in which the book 

 was written. This made a deep impression on Doalu's mind, 

 and he described it to me most graphically. He said : ' The 

 man thus addressed me : " Look, Doalu, this sign (writing 

 with his finger on the ground) means /." Then he wrote 

 close to it another sign, saying, " And this means na. Now, 

 Doalu, read both together ! " ' Doalu did so, and was 

 delighted to have learnt to read the word ina, which means 

 * Come here ! ' In the same way the messenger showed him 

 how a great number of other words could be written. At 

 last Doalu asked his instructor concerning the contents of 

 the book he had brought. But the answer was, ' Wait a 



' For some unexplained reason, Koelle, ordinarily so accurate in his ortho- 

 graphy, writes this word " Vei," though it is most distinctly pronounced I'at. 



1 108 



