TRIBAL CUSTOMS 101 
of the victim. They are armed with sharp iron hooks in the form of leopard’s 
claws and teeth, and also carry short spears. They are said to imitate the 
movements of leopards by bending and crawling. Usually the victim is attacked 
suddenly along the trail at night, and if he escapes, he is sometimes at a loss to 
know whether he has been actually attacked by an animal or by a human 
leopard, for in some instances leopard fur is placed around the iron claws, bits 
of which may adhere to the clothing of the victim or to his wounds. We saw one 
person who had been terribly mauled supposedly by a leopard man. Sometimes 
a person is suddenly attacked when he is working in the forest. Women are said 
to have been carried off when they were washing clothes in a stream. As the 
men slay in bands, the victim is supposed almost never to escape. The bodies 
of the slain are cut up and the meat distributed often to other members of the 
tribe, including the women. On several occasions we found human bones near 
the trail. 
Human flesh is the fetish of the society, and the consumption of it is believed 
to give special power. Although the desire for animal food in a region where 
animal flesh is scarce certainly plays a part in these slayings, the killings, it is 
said, are primarily made that the flesh may be eaten ceremonially in order to 
vitalize the charm of the society; that thus strength may be brought to the mem- 
bers and protection given to the community. 
The charm of the society, which is said to be kept in a small bag, is carefully 
guarded, and consists of various articles such as coagulated blood or pieces of 
flesh and bone either of man or of animals. Some of the blood of the victim is 
poured over the charm at the ceremonial exercises. 
Among the Gios at times when it is difficult to obtain victims from outside 
their own villages, it is the custom to select as victim a person either in their 
own or in an adjacent village, preferably one of the older people. The members 
will sometimes argue regarding the person to be selected; one member pointing 
out to another that as he furnished his grandmother for the last ceremony, it 1s 
“now your turn to furnish someone from your family.”’ The Gios will also dig 
up for the ceremony anybody that has been recently buried, and indeed among 
them this practice seems here to have become a matter of course. In some in- 
stances after a victim has been selected by the society, one of their number will 
go to the village at night and call the name of the doomed man while he sleeps. 
So powerful is the magic of the society and so great its power, it is maintained, 
that the victim himself will often feel compelled to get up and walk out of the 
village upon the trail, perhaps to his death. It is perhaps of some significance 
that we saw no cemeteries or groups of graves anywhere about the interior 
villages in eastern Liberia. 
The Gios have generally adopted as their totem the chimpanzee, called by 
them baboon, which they protect and regard as sacred. 
The Government of Liberia has already done a good deal to put down the 
activities of the leopard men. However, they were especially active in eastern 
Liberia at the time of our visit. Nevertheless the problem is not believed to be 
a difficult one to deal with, provided that it is handled intelligently and a really 
