Bkrky — The Sierra Leone Cannibals. 43 



There are two kinds of Sokko men — the Sokko-Lakkas and the Sokko- 

 Tassos. When it is intended to put people into the Poro bush, the Sokko- 

 Lakka's business is to walk round the country and summon people, saying 

 where and when to assemble. After the Sooko-Lakka has called all the 

 people, the Sokko-Tasso comes out and dances. 



The head-dress known as Tinga-Tanga is shaped somewhat like an hour- or 

 sand-glass, and is a sort of circular basket about three feet high, formed of 

 two cones, the apices of which join in the middle. The bases of the cones 

 are joined by four wooden hoops ; a similar number are worked in or near the 

 junction of the two cones: and the inner and outer hoops are surmounted by 

 circles of wood which look like two equators to a pair of globes one inside 

 the other. The top edge of the basket is surrounded by a huge bunch of 

 feathers ; and the dancer carries a fire stick wrapped in tow concealed in the 

 head-dress, so that smoke issues from it during the dance. The Tinga-Tanga 

 is a powerful medicine made by the Poro society and kept in a Poro bush. It 

 is sought to protect people from arrest or punishment. When the Tinga- 

 Tanga is covered with feathers and one cannot see inside it, it is a good 

 medicine ; but when the feathers are only on top or are absent and the sides 

 bare, and the Tinga-Tanga contains a skull and bones or bottles of fat, it is a 

 bad medicine. A Tinga-Tanga examined was found to contain two femora, 

 two tibiae, and the skull and lower jaw of a youth seventeen to twenty years 

 of age ; these were said to be the bones of a human-leopard victim offered 

 some three months before. The whole of the bones were charred and rolled 

 up in a fishing-net. The parcel thus made was carried on the top of the 

 Tinga-Tanga. Natives have again and again declared that bones in a Tinga- 

 Tanga are " persons' bones who were pulled in saraka " (sacrifice), and it is 

 a very bad medicine because of the skull and bones. 



A chief having looked country-fashion — that is, consulted a diviner and 

 found that the de^'ils (spirits) are vexed with him — proceeds to make saraka 

 by feeding the Tinga-Tanga. 



When the Tinga-Tanga is to be fed, the Poro people are put in the Poro 

 bush which is known as " killed Poro." In order that no further trouble may 

 befaU the person performing the ceremony, rice is cooked ; and the Tinga-Tanga 

 and Pora bush are fed by placing some of the cooked rice in the Tinga-Tanga 

 and on the graves near the Poro bush. A stronger medicine can be made by 

 killing a fowl or a goat and feeding the Tinga-Tanga with it. The ordinary 

 Poro of the Mendis is the Lakka Poro ; and the ceremony of feeding a Tinga- 

 Tanga would not have anything to do with the Lakka Poro. The Tinga-Tanga 

 is apparently the abode of a devil, a fetish. When covered with feathers 

 the feeding of a Tinga-Tanga is considered an ordinary saraka ; but when the 



