100 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
delivered, but with most tribes the delivery takes place in the woman’s own hut. 
Westermann says that among the Kpwesis, a woman before giving birth to a 
child, is sometimes laid for hours or days in stocks made of plantain stalks to 
prevent evil spirits from entering her body and interfering with the birth of the 
child. We did not observe this custom. If the woman is of any importance, 
one of the ‘“‘femba”’ usually attends her. The Mandingo women remain in the 
house and do not go out until seven days after the birth; the new-born child’s 
head is shaven and a cap placed on it. In the other tribes the child is rubbed 
with palm oil. The husband is never present at the birth, and has no further con- 
nection with his wife until the child is weaned, that is, for about eighteen months, 
or even longer. This fact is used as an argument for polygamy. Although 
the children are weaned late, they nevertheless are fed on milk alone for only 
about three months. Small pieces of mandioca root or of dried green bananas 
are then added to the diet. Later rice is also given. Apparently neither goat’s 
milk nor cow’s milk are given to children, nor is milk used generally by the 
natives in the interior. The children of some of the interior tribes are weaned 
and taught to eat by tying them upon a board and pouring mandio¢a or rice 
soup on their face and mouth from a ladle held a foot or two above the child’s 
head. The child naturally beginning to ery of course opens its mouth, and when 
it draws in its breath it must swallow some of the food; thus it learns to eat. 
The child is usually carried on the mother’s back as illustrated in Nos. 39 and 
57, and is simply tied in place with her one-piece skirt. It of course wears no 
clothing, not even a loin cloth, until puberty is reached. 
The Leopard Men. The “leopard men”’ or ‘‘human leopards”’ are still found 
in Liberia among the Mas and Gios. The activities of this society or of similar 
groups of men have long existed, not only in Liberia, but also in parts of Sierra 
Leone and of the Ivory Coast, and much has been written of them. It is not 
known, however, that the human leopards of Liberia have any definite connec- 
tion with similar groups in other countries, and it has been supposed that their 
customs differ somewhat. ‘The members are generally men, but women have 
also been known to be connected with the societies. The ceremonies are said to 
be held in the forest, and the special marks of the society are scarified on the new 
members on that part of the back which is covered by the loin cloth. It is also 
said that an oath of allegiance to the society is taken, by which absolute silence 
regarding its activities is imposed, and that violation of this oath is punishable 
by death.~ The society is greatly feared by some of the tribes. Natives in certain 
districts are terrified at the mere idea of walking outside the village and along 
the forest trails at night. In certain neighborhoods all the important men of the 
tribe are believed to be members. Our information regarding these people in 
Liberia was obtained particularly in the eastern central regions of the country 
and from government officials at ‘Tappi Town, where a number of leopard men 
were seen. The leopard is the emblem of the society and constitutes its totem. 
When on killing expeditions the members dress themselves more or less in leop- 
ard skins and either paint their bodies with annatto dye or rub yellow clay 
upon them. Insome instances they carry a net which they throw about the body 

