48 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



loug, with a hole at eacli end, is used to make the signal ; and if there are any 

 cannibal men in the town, they know the sign and come out to the others. 

 If there are no cannibal men in the town to aid them, the leopard-men lie 

 concealed until a favourable opportunity presents itself, when one or more of 

 them spring up, seize the victim, and, stifling the cries, carry him or her off 

 to the bush. If there are confederates in the town, it is generally arranged 

 that the capture takes place in the bush. Those in the town arrange that the 

 victim passes along a certain path — a long, straggling, crooked footpath, with 

 high bush rising like a wall on either side ; the creepers cover even the 

 smallest openings, and give concealment. The leopard-man, dressed in a 

 leopard-skin, a knife in each hand, his hands through the handles, and the 

 blades turned in, crouches in the bush. Quite unconscious of his fate, the 

 victim passes along, happily enough, to cut palm-cabbage. The leopard-men 

 turn and follow. The boy stops, and prepares to trim the palm-tree. As he 

 stops a sound of " burr," " burr," like the purr of a leopard approaching a 

 goat, is heard. The human leopard springs. Once on the back of the victim 

 he puts the knives into his throat ; only one cry is heard, as the ■victim falls 

 on his face, the whole throat being cut out, and the human leopard kneeling 

 on his back. The body is then carried ofl' into the bush by the Yongolado ; 

 and a man, who is shod with shoes having a carved portion of wood 

 representing a leopard's paw, leaves as many tracks as possible, and a trail 

 into the bush different from the direction taken by the others. 



Having reached a secure place, indicated by a certain stick or tree, the 

 body is deposited on the ground. In a clearing near the Poro bush is a 

 certain stone covered by a country-pot which used to rise and walk when the 

 leopard-men wanted to catch anybody. Here the body is opened, the lower 

 part of the belly cut across, and the cut carried up each side as high as the 

 collar-bones ; the iiesh is raised, and the intestines examined. The intestines, 

 liver, heart; and head are removed, the body is divided at the waist, and again 

 longitudinally from the neck down the centre, making four quarters. The 

 body is then divided and distributed. The observations of Dr. Burrows show 

 that occasionally only a small portion of the flesh is taken and cut into small 

 pieces and distributed, with extraordinary rapidity, among the members. 

 The pieces are wrapped in banana leaves, and then in a cloth. The 

 mask is almost invariably removed, probably to destroy the identity of the 

 victim. 



The belly is always opened, the liver being a guide to the suitability of 

 the victim for " medicine purposes." Among the Mendi and Sherbro it is 

 an invariable practice to open the belly of all corpses, and the state of the 

 livor and gall-bladder is said to be indicative of any witchcraft practised by 



