Every member of the Human Leopard Society is a member of the Poro, the main supporters of both societies are the chiefs, the place of meeting for both societies is the Poro bush—this suffices to show how easily the Poro organization can be used, and no doubt has been used, for many of the purposes of the human leopards.
BUNDU DEVILS, SIERRA LEONE.
Tongo Players
A quotation which Mr. Alldridge has been so good as to allow from his “Sherbro and its Hinterland” (pp. 156–159) with respect to the Tongo players already alluded to will illustrate the atmosphere in which the human leopards worked.
“Formerly when suspicious circumstances, such as frequent sudden deaths, or the continuous disappearance of individuals, as in the case of the victims of the Human Leopards, arose and baffled the local fetish, recourse was had to the terrible Tongo player system, especially if cannibalism was thought to be at the bottom of the mischief.
“To set this medicine going the intervention of a most appalling fetish had to be invoked through a class of medicine people from the upper country called the Tongo players.
“As soon as the Tongo players had determined to comply with a request from a chief, they sent out their emissaries into his towns and villages to obtain information concerning suspected people. When all was ready the head of the Tongo, named Buamor Neppor, attended by his two principal assistants, Akawa (Big Thing) and Bojuwa (Great Thing) with their following, arrived in the principal town and proceeded to clear a space in the bush for their encampment, where they made their fetish medicine. This place of concealment was called Mashundu.
“In the investigation one village at a time was dealt with. A messenger was despatched to call all the men, women, and children to a meeting to be held on an appointed day.
“The meeting was held on a cleared space, called the Korbangai, outside the town, to which the people had been summoned. They were then drawn up into line. Their names were called by a spy from their own village, who was in the pay of the Tongo players. Certain questions were asked. The names of suspected persons were then submitted to the medicine-men, hidden in the bush, who professed to go through the ordeal by which the guilt or innocence of these suspected persons might be determined. The operator’s ordeal was the plunging his hand into a cauldron of boiling oil and pulling out a piece of hot iron. If the hand was burned, it was certain proof of guilt; if not burned, of innocence.