154 THE SIMO ANDHIS SECRET SOCIETY. 
respective means. The feast lasts sometimes for several 
days; after it is over, the Simo vrithdravrs to the woods, 
and takes with him the boys who have been initiated ; from 
this time forward, they have no further communication with 
their relatives. They lead a pleasant idle life ; provisions 
are bestowed upon them in abundance, and they dwell 
in huts made of the branches of trees, with no other clothing 
than a few palm leaves skilfully arranged, from the loins half 
way down the thighs, the head and the rest of the body 
being quite naked. 
I have often seen them go by with two calabashes of 
palm- wine slung at the two ends of a stick, which they 
carried on their shoulder. They walk at a prodigious rate, 
and seem afraid of being seen. When the Simo or his dis- 
ciples meet a stranger in the wood, they ask him for the 
watchword of the order ; if the answer is correct, the 
stranger is admitted amongst them ; if not, the master and 
his pupils, all armed with sticks and rods, attack him, and, 
after beating him severely, exact a high ransom. If an un- 
circumcised boy falls into their hands, they circumcise him 
and keep him, for the purpose of initiating him. They have 
no mercy upon women, whom they beat most cruelly, and, 
as I have been told, they are sometimes barbarous enough to 
kill them. 
The young persons thus initiated lead this idle and vaga- 
bond life for seven or eight years; this period, it is said, is ne- 
cessary for their instruction. When the parents are desirous 
of getting them back from the woods, they collect all the 
pagnes they can, and make with them a fine girdle, which 
they adorn with copper bells, and send it to their children 
with a present of tobacco and rum for the master. It is 
only at such times that the son shows himself in public. 
The eve of this festival is celebrated in the woods, near 
the spot where he is to make his appearance, and he gives 
notice by his loud shouts that he means to be visible. 
