314 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



well-known tale of a young noble who found a beautiful 

 girl by the roadside, and immediately cut off her head. 

 When his father wished to kill him for this wicked 

 deed, the son begged him first to go and look at the 

 evil spirit he had killed. On the father proceeding to 

 the spot he found a huge old badger with its head cut 

 off. The young nobleman, like a veritable Sherlock 

 Holmes, had noticed that although the lovely maiden 

 declared to him that she had been lying there in pain 

 for several hours, her clothing was quite dry, in spite 

 of the fact that during that time rain had fallen 

 continuously. 



Belief in demoniacal possession is pretty general 

 throughout the country, and it is not uncommon for a 

 person to imagine that he is possessed by a fox or has 

 been deceived by a badger. Lafcadio Hearn tells us 

 that wrestlers, as a class, boast of their immunity from 

 fox-possession, and are not afraid of kitsune-tsuki (the 

 fox-possessed) or other spectres. Speaking generally, 

 all very strong men are supposed to be proof against 

 demons of every kind and to inspire them with fear, 

 and it is almost exclusively women of the lower classes 

 who are attacked predisposing conditions being weak 

 intellect, a superstitious turn of mind, and a debilitating 

 illness, such as typhoid fever. Fox-possession never 

 occurs except in such subjects as have heard of it and 

 believe in it, and there can be no doubt that the disorder 

 is related to hysteria and to hypnotic influence by auto- 

 suggestion." 



Amongst many curious phases of native fetish in 

 Sierra Leone are the " trials by ordeal " and the nature 

 of the oaths which are taken before any important 

 ceremony. 



