392 
FRKE EOBOS. 
Math the priesthood, and are said to have arisen out of 
mysteries observed by them. The rites of initiation are 
performed at night in a retired part of the woods, and 
death is the punishment for those, whose temerity or 
curiosity might tempt them to overlook the sacred 
proceedings*. 
Mr. W. P. Daniel, who had various opportunities of 
becoming acquainted with some particulars respecting 
the free Egbos of Calabar and Cameroons, says the 
Egbo is sub-divided into several grades, of which there 
are eighteen or twenty; of these the highest and most 
aristocratic has been termed Grand Egbo. All orders 
of Egbo have their own appropriate day of ceremonious 
observance ; but it is only on days set apart for the 
performance of the mysterious rites of Grand Egbo 
that every house witliin the town is closed, none of the 
inhabitants being permitted to leave them, under the 
penalty of death, or severe corporeal punishment, &c. 
The king is at the head of the highest class of 
Egbos, &c.t 
We cannot hear of the existence of societies so sin- 
gularly and systematically arranged, among tribes so 
rude and barbarous, without feeling convinced, that they 
* The feast of Minerva, at Sa'is, took place at night, each person 
hearing a light ; it was intended to represent the allegorical history 
of Osiris, which the Egyptians considered the most solemn mystery of 
their religion. 
•i* Proceedings of the Ethnological Society of London, 1840 ; also 
vide vol. ii., p. 241 of this narrative. 
