Chap.XYIIL AErjVAL OP 'MAGOUGA. 369 



I had rendered him at Mobana, in saving him from 

 the fury of the people when they were excited about 

 the robbery, and he said that, now w^e had come 

 back, he would see us safe to the Ishogo country. 

 Magouga seemed not to have heard a correct account 

 of the Mouaou affair. All he knew w^as that the 

 people had driven us away, and that we had killed 

 many of their warriors. He told us that one of the 

 men shot by Igala was the head warrior of Mobana, 

 and that this was likely to be made a cams belli 

 between the Mobana villagers and the people of 

 Mouaou Kombo, who were held to be the cause of 

 the death. The Mobanans were already cooking the 

 " war dish "* in order to march against the village of 

 Mouaou Kombo. It was evident from the confused 

 statements of Magouga, that the country was all in a 

 ferment behind us. He said the Mouaou people had 

 abandoned their village and retired to the forest, fear- 

 ing lest I should return and burn it. They said all the 

 arrows they had shot at me would not pierce me, but 

 had rebounded from my flesh ; and they were filled 

 W' ith superstitious fears of the power of so mysterious 

 a being. I must here add that my men and mj^self 

 kept the fact of my having been wounded a secret 

 from all the negroes on our homeward march ; my 

 men knew as well as myself how important it was 



* The " war-dish " is tho pot of magic herhs and fetiches wliich is cooked 

 with a great deal of mystery and ceremony on the eve of going to meet an 

 enemy. The mess is cooked in a very large vessel, and the affair is pre- 

 sided over, as a matter of course, by the most renowned fetich doctor of the 

 tribe. So soon as the cooking is completed, the warriors swallow part of 

 the contents of the vessel, and smear theii bodies over with the rest ; when 

 they have succeeded in exciting themselves to the requisite pitch, they 

 rush forth to attack the village they intend io xjaiida (assault). 



