Collecting Butterflies 
town, prettily situated on a rising bit of land. 
Native Calabar is very famous for its wrestlers, 
and here at all hours of the day a group of 
athletes might be seen striving with one another. 
They will wager on themselves or their fancies all 
their worldly possessions in their passion for 
gambling over these contests. 
Calabar was the head-quarters of the “‘ Egbo,” 
a mysterious secret society, a new member of 
which had to pay a heavy fine or premium by 
way of entrance fee. Before Sir Claude Mac- 
donald took the matter in hand, the cult was 
responsible for various forms of barbarities and 
atrocities, which he was instrumental in modi- 
fying and suppressing. The “ Egbo” has its 
uses, in that it is a means of conveying laws 
and instructions to the surrounding district, 
and prevents, in a great measure, the undue 
usurpation of power in one king’s hands. 
A bell is rung when the secret society is in 
congress, and formerly, as the procession of 
““Egbo”’ men passed through the town, every 
one not of the persuasion ran into their houses, 
or death might have been their portion. Only 
one white man has been admitted into the 
sacred circle. He was a well-known trader of 
the place, much respected by the natives. 
I employed, during the time I was in Calabar, 
two native boys to catch butterflies, beetles, 
moths, etc., for me, supplying them with killing- 
39 
