Whether The
Ladies Got Too Emancipated And Winked When Ikun Was Mentioned, Or
Asked How Mr. So-And-So Was
This morning, in a pointed way, after an
Ikun manifestation, I do not know; some people told me this was
So,
but others, who, I fear, were right, considering the acknowledged
slowness of men in putting two and two together, and the treachery
of women towards each other, said that a woman had told a man that
she had heard some of the other women were going on in this
heretical way. Anyhow, the men knew, and were much alarmed;
scepticism had spread by now to such an extent that nothing short of
burning or drowning all the women could stamp it out and reintroduce
the proper sense of awe into the female side of Society, and after a
good deal of consideration the men saw, for men are undoubtedly more
gifted in foresight than our sex, that it was no particular use
reintroducing this awe if there was no female half of Society to be
impressed by it. It was a brain-spraining problem for the men all
round, for it is clear Society cannot be kept together without some
superhuman aid to help to keep the feminine portion of it within
bounds.
Grave councils were held, and it was decided that the woman at whose
house these treasonable meetings were held should be sent away early
one morning on a trading mission to the nearest factory, a job she
readily undertook; and while the other women were away in the
plantation or at the spring, certain men entered her house secretly
and dug a big chamber out in the floor of the hut, and one of them,
dressed as Ikun, and provided with refreshments for the day, got
into this chamber, and the whole affair was covered over carefully
and the floor re-sanded. That afternoon there was a big
manifestation of Ikun. He came in the most terrible form, his howls
were awful, and he finally went dancing away into the bush as the
night came down. The ladies had just taken the common-sense
precaution of removing all goats, sheep, fowls, etc., into enclosed
premises, for, like all his kind, he seizes and holds any property
he may come across in the street, but there was evidently no
emotional thrill in the female mind regarding him, and when the
leading lady returned home in the evening the other ladies strolled
into their leader's hut to hear about what new cotton prints, beads,
and things Mr. - - had got at his factory by the last steamer from
Europe, and interesting kindred subjects bearing on Mr. - -. When
they had threshed these matters out, the conversation turned on to
religion, and what fools those men had been making of themselves all
the afternoon with their Ikun. No sooner was his name uttered than
a venomous howl, terminating in squeals of rage and impatience, came
from the ground beneath them. They stared at each other for one
second, and then, feeling that something was tearing its way up
through the floor, they left for the interior of Africa with one
accord. Ikun gave chase as soon as he got free, but what with being
half-stifled and a bit cramped in the legs, and much encumbered with
his vegetable decorations, the ladies got clear away and no arrests
were made - but Society was saved. Scepticism became in the
twinkling of an eye a thing of the past; and, although no names were
taken, the men observed that certain ladies were particularly
anxious, and regardless of expense, in buying immunity from Ikun,
and they fancied that these ladies were probably in that hut on that
particular evening, but they took no further action against them,
save making Ikun particularly expensive. There ought to be a moral
to an improving tale of this order, I know, but the only one I can
think of just now is that it takes a priest to get round a woman;
and I always feel inclined to jump on to the table myself when I
think of those poor dear creatures sitting on the floor and feeling
that awful thing clapper-clawing its way up right under them.
Tattooing on the West Coast is comparatively rare, and I think I may
say never used with decorative intent only. The skin decorations
are either paint or cicatrices - in the former case the pattern is
not kept always the same by the individual. A peculiar form of it
you find in the Rivers, where a pattern is painted on the skin, and
then when the paint is dry, a wash is applied which makes the
unpainted skin rise up in between the painted pattern. The
cicatrices are sometimes tribal marks, but sometimes decorative.
They are made by cutting the skin and then placing in the wound the
fluff of the silk cotton tree.
The great point of agreement between all these West African secret
societies lies in the methods of initiation.
The boy, if he belongs to a tribe that goes in for tattooing, is
tattooed, and is handed over to instructors in the societies'
secrets and formula. He lives, with the other boys of his tribe
undergoing initiation, usually under the rule of several
instructors, and for the space of one year. He lives always in the
forest, and is naked and smeared with clay.
The boys are exercised so as to become inured to hardship; in some
districts, they make raids so as to perfect themselves in this
useful accomplishment. They always take a new name, and are
supposed by the initiation process to become new beings in the magic
wood, and on their return to their village at the end of their
course, they pretend to have entirely forgotten their life before
they entered the wood; but this pretence is not kept up beyond the
period of festivities given to welcome them home. They all learn,
to a certain extent, a new language, a secret language only
understood by the initiated.
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