Superstitions 
the priest pretends to find out what kind of sacri¬ 
fice Efa demands. This ceremony is repeated to 
find out if a chicken or something else must not 
be added to the first thing to be offered as a sac¬ 
rifice. The priest in the meantime talks to the 
person consulting the oracle and finds out pretty 
well what kind of answer is desired. Some¬ 
times the applicant wishes him to interpret a 
dream or to assist him in a business or a matri¬ 
monial enterprise. Priests of Efa are very nu¬ 
merous and they rob the people of much of their 
income. 
Ogun, the god of war, is fitly represented by 
an iron bar. To him human sacrifices are some¬ 
times offered. One of these dreadful scenes I 
was forced to witness, and a description of it is 
given in another place. There are also gods of 
the farms, of the house, of the family, of the 
city, and of many other things. They offer sac¬ 
rifices to streams, to trees, to birds, to snakes, to 
rocks and to other objects, animate and inani¬ 
mate. They claim that they are not rendering 
worship to these objects, but to the deity therein 
enshrined. By striking a hatchet into a tree near 
the walls of Abeokuta, 1 so excited the people 
that 1 found it difficult to appease them. The 
tree was an object of worship and at its foot was 
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