58 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
ally do not tattoo or cicatrize. On the other hand, the women almost invariably 
do. Ciecatrization is done generally when just before puberty they pass through 
the grigri or sande bush school of initiation. The region scarified is generally 
the back, chiefly over the loins. The pattern most frequently employed is dia- 
mond-shaped, or sometimes two partly overlapping triangles are outlined. As 
no pigment is used, the result is that raised scars of normal-colored skin are 
formed. The women often decorate themselves with brown, gray, or white 
earth, usually some form of kaolin, at other times they use stripes of indigo for 
adornment. The indigo is used particularly at the time of initiation in the bush 
school. They often cover their bodies and their faces with whitish clay which 
gives them a hideous appearance, but which they apparently seem to think 
beautifies them. 
The Vai houses are usually round and plastered with clay. Both the Vais 
and Mandingoes use beds, generally made of palm mid-ribs closely placed longi- 
tudinally side by side and fastened to a wooden frame with short legs. 
It has been suggested that the Vai language will probably become the domi- 
nant form of native speech in Liberia.!. However the mastery of the Vai alphabet 
and writing is a much more difficult feat than learning the language, for the 
characters are complicated and very hard to remember. The alphabet and the 
system of writing are said to have been originally devised by a member of 
the tribe named Doala Bukere. It contains one hundred and thirty odd char- 
acters, which represent the sound of a vowel pronounced with one or more 
consonants, and, unlike most oriental systems, is written from left to right. 
Although many of the Vais are very proud of this writing and greatly like to 
practice it, it is not likely long to survive in use for the reasons already given. 
Some of our Vai servants always kept our lists of laundry in Vai writing. 
It is interesting to note that in reference to his visit in 1849 to Doala Bukere, 
originator of the Vai alphabet, the celebrated missionary philologist, Koelle, 
alludes to him as a victim of sleeping sickness and says that when he again went 
to see him in 1850 he found that he had died of a cutaneous disease called in the 
Vai language ‘‘konje-kira”’ or ‘‘ball sickness’”’ (perhaps so-called with reference 
to enlarged lymph glands) which produced in him such extraordinary drowsiness 
that he often fell asleep while taking his meals. 
The Vais have a number of folklore stories. They also have their medicine 
men and women who claim special knowledge of the virtues of leaves, roots, 
barks, and seeds. ‘The medicine men at times practice divination by sand sifting, 
that is, sprinkling the sand and drawing some deduction from the figures it 
assumes. They also practice a kind of hypnotism and throw themselves into 
trances. They believe in the efficacy of sacrifice called ‘“Sadaka”’ and think 
that the spirits of the deceased can be attracted to the living in dreams by mak- 
ing some such sacrifice as a handful of beads or a strip of cloth, or by an offering 
of food or drink. A leopard’s tooth is an object of great reverence and good omen. 
The Vais, like all the tribes of Liberia, believe in the efficacy of the trial by ordeal 
for the discovery of guilt. Although they are Mohammedans and more educated, 
1 Johnston: Loc. cit., II, 1107. 
