Gripped as in a Vice. 
TURN up your dictionary and see what it has 
to say about the word Vice.'' You will 
find it to be one of those English words which can 
have two or more meanings. When you link it 
up, however, with the word grip or gripped, all 
doubt vanishes as to what I mean ; the process of 
identification is complete. At once, you have the 
picture of joiner or blacksmith putting either a 
piece of wood or a piece of iron into its mouth, and 
then screwing it up until it is so tightly shut that 
the wood or iron cannot possibly budge a fraction 
of an inch. When I think of the power that cer- 
tain things have over the Efik people, I find myself 
saying, Gripped as in a vice.'' Take the power 
of superstition, for example. I know there are 
superstitious people in this country who never feel 
sure of the future unless they nail a rusty horse- 
shoe on the wall or barn-door; who never look at 
the new moon except through an handkerchief; who 
would never sit with twelve others at a table, and 
who — if they never got married at all— would refuse 
to be made husband or wife on a Friday. Of 
course it is very silly and all the rest of it, but 
superstition yields a more tragic and deadly harvest 
in Africa. It is very largely responsible for the 
terrible power of Ju-ju everywhere. Of its marvel- 
lous hold upon the people let me give an extra- 
ordinary example. The second chief of Arsiboug 
