14 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS. 
Rev. R. Baiiham and let him dispose of them as 
seemed best to him. They were made into a great 
bonfire in the end, and though some natives feared 
and trembledj nothing serious happened by way of 
Ju-ju reprisals. To estimate what a big wrench 
an o a brave act it w'as for these Atabong people 
so to doj requires some knowledge of the place 
and power of Ju-ju in African life. To tell the 
whole story would fill a big book. As that is im- 
possible, let me give one or two examples instead. 
Supposing a man is busy at his farm. The yams 
are peeping through the ground and he requires 
sticks eight to ten feet long to support them as 
they grow. Away he goes to some suitable spot 
in the forest and cuts down as many as he thinks 
he will eventually require. He cannot possibly 
carry them all home at once. What must he do ? 
He searches until he has found the large dried pod 
of a special fruit, places that on the heap of sticks 
he has for the time being to leave behind, and 
goes home with the remainder on his head^ tied in 
a bundle. Though the African is not very particu- 
lar about taking what does not belong to him, the 
owner of the sticks knows that his property is as 
safe as if it were in a shed under lock and key. 
The pod is a guarantee of the protecting power 
of Ju-ju, and no one dare meddle with even one 
stick. Fve seen fresh eggs dropped at the juncture 
of two' paths as an offering to Ju-ju, and no one 
would either touch them or take them away. They 
stayed there until they rotted and perished utterly. 
Hard by every town there are little mud houses, 
roofed in with palm-mats and curtained in the front 
by fringes of dried grass. These are Ju-ju houses, 
