44 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadcmij. 



Tinga-Tanga contains a skull and bones, it is looked upon as a bad medicine ; 

 and no member of a society, not a bad society, would feed a bad medicine. 



Inside tbe Poro bush is a part known as the Toma bush, where the mem- 

 bers of the Toma society express their rftual in a dance, and make a medicine 

 called Toma. All members of the Toma bush are members of the Poro ; and 

 children are sometimes put into the Toma bush. Anyone who is able to 

 feed the Tinga-Tanga or the Toma bush would be a member of the societies 

 to which those medicines belong ; and members of the Leopard society should 

 be able to feed both the Poro and Tinga-Tanga and the Toma. The natives 

 say that Toma medicine is a bad and powerful medicine ; and although it 

 sometimes cures people, it more often harms them by making their noses 

 drop off, and it has been known to kill people. It is made from tobacco 

 and a part of the elephant, and is administered as a snuff called Telei, 

 or cut-nose medicine, when used in trial by ordeal. It is recognized as a bad 

 and dangerous medicine, and is only resorted to in important cases when both 

 parties have to partake of it. 



When the Poro is about to be killed, the Tinga-Tanga is brought out of 

 the Poro bush, and a small house of sticks and palm-leaves is built over it. 

 Every Poro bush is not in possession of a Tinga-Tanga, but sometimes the 

 Poro bush belonging to an important town may have two or more Tinga- 

 Tangas ; and when the Poro society dances, the Sokko men carry the 

 Tinga-Tangas on their heads. "When a chief's town is to be doctored, the 

 people assemble from surrounding parts, sometimes the Tinga-Tanga, the 

 Poro, and Toma bush are fed, and the Sokko men, with the Tinga-Tanga on 

 their heads, are brought to town and dance for four days. As they dance 

 smoke sometimes issues from the Tinga-Tanga ; and at the end of the four 

 days' dancing the Sokko men cook rice and put some of it on the Tinga-Tanga 

 and some on the graves near the Poro bush. 



Whenever it is intended to hold any palaver or any ceremony for 

 sacrifice, woixl is sent round and generally there is a meeting. This meeting 

 is of importance in proportion to the power of the chief who summons it. If 

 by a paramount chief, the sub-chiefs and their officials all attend, so that 

 every section of the country is represented. Smaller chiefs or sub-chiefs only 

 have their own immediate friends and followers or townsmen. 



Those bidden having arrived, the chief receives them at the barri, in the 

 Poro bush or under a cotton-tree, where they sit down. The chief's speaker 

 then gets up, and announces that the chief is in trouble, or that his health (in 

 a political sense) is bad, that he looked country-fashion and has found out that 

 his dead parents are vexed with him, and he must make a sacrifice, and they 

 are there to determine what the nature of the sacrifice should be. 



