WEST AFRICA BY NIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1204, 12 August 1911, Page 11

WEST AFRICA BY NIGHT.

(By Mary Gaunt in the "Morning Post.")

FETISII OE KXOBO HILL.

Tho moonlight was the glorious moonlight of the Tropics, and shone silver on the fronds of the palms, tho mountains behind loomed dimly mysterious like mountains in a dream, and the road lav clear and still and warm in the whito light. x "Yi, yi, yi, ho, ho, ho," cried the hammock men, clapping their hands as they went at a fast trot, far faster than the ordinary man could walk without any burden on his head. We were bound from Dodowah to Akuse, nn eight hours' march, and it seemed cooler to do it at night cilice the night was as bright as day, and no one hinted to me that there was any danger in the path. We went through tho town, and here and there a gleam of fire showed, and here and there was a yellow light' in the window places, and now at nine o'clock in tho evening the people were in groups in the streets, dancing, singing, and merely looking on. Tho hammock men stopped for no man. "Hi, yi," 1 hey shouted, and the groups melted before them. Out into the open country tho road goes straight away, and the trees make shadows clear cut on it like splashes of ink, or, where the foliage is less dense, the leaves barely moving in tho still night air make a tracery as of lace-work on the road beneath, amf there is the soft sleepy rnurmur of the birds and the ceaseless skirl of the insects. Occasionally comes another sound, penetrating, weird, rather awe-inspiring, the cry of the leopard, but the hammock boys take no heed, it is moonlight and there are eight of them. "Carriers go sleep here, Ma. They say they no can go by night." "Why?" "I not knowing, Ma." I debated a moment. I was a woman miles from any white man, and I could not speak one word of the language. Still I could not arrive without my gear, and I alighted. "Where are those . carriers:" Nine pointing fingers indicated the house. Evidently the hammock men had been here before, and ono of them pushed open a door in the wall. Black shadows and silver white light was the compound. Heaped in the middle, not to be mistaken, were my loads, and from under the deeper •shadows beneath the surrounding sheds came tumbling black figures which might or might not have been my erring carriers. I did not know them from the people about them, neither did I know one word of their language, but one of my hammock men spoke a little pidginEnglish, and they were all eager to point out tho headman. Him I addressed .at length, and I gave him to understand that I was pained and surprised at such conduct. Never in the course of a long career had 1 eonie across carriers who slept when they should havo been on the road, and before I was half-way through tho harangue the sleepy and reluctant men were picking up tho loads.

The Terorr of Africa. Oh, such a night! On such a night Romci/ wooed Juliet, on such a night canu. the Queen of the Fairies to tee charm even in the frolicsome Bottom. All the glories of the ages, all the delights of the world were an that night. Thfc song of the carriers took on a softness and a richness born of the open spuces of tho earth a.nd the glorious light, and for accompaniment was the pad, pad of their feet in tho dust of the roadway and in one long musical monotonous cadetice tho cheep of the insects, and again a sharper note tho cry of a bat or a night bird. A great square hill rose up on the horizon, and we came to a clump of trees where tho. moonlight was shut out altogether; wo passed through water. A leopard was crying in the thick hush close beside it. It was uncanny, it was weird, all the terror that I had missed till now in Africa came creeping over me, and the men were singing no longer. Slowly we went up out of tho water, and wo stood a moment under the shade of the trees, but. with the white light within reach and Krobo Hill loomed up ahead, against the dark horizon. The .onlv hammock-boy who could mako himself understood came up. , , I "Mammy, man bo tired. We stop here small." ' It was a reasonable request, but tho leopard was crying still, and tho gloom and fear' of • tho pool ■ was upon me. .■.-.»■

"No, go on." They might'have defied mc, but they went on. Vresently wo were out in the' moonlight again; 1 had got tho better of my fears and repented inc. "Wait small now." "No, -Mammy," came the answer, "this be bad place, and they went on swiftly singing and shouting as if to keep thoii' courage up, or as I gathered afterward'; to givo tho impression of a great com pany. Only afterwards did I know what I had done that night. Krobo Hill grew, larger and larger at every step, and on Krobo Hill was one of the worst, if not the . worst, blood .fetish in West Africa. Every Krobo youth before he could become a man and choose a wife had to kill a man.-and bo did it generally on Krobo Hill. How- they killed him was a mystery; some said with, tortures, somo that only his head was cut olf.The Blood Fetish. But the negro revels in mystery and horror, and the fear of the hill still lingers iii the minds of the people; every now and then a man disappears, and the fear is justified. Always there are rumours of disappearances, less known men and women than a Government clerk and scholar, who had disappeared not long ago; and always the people knowthere is need of men aud women for tho sacrifices, sacrifices to ensure a plenteous harvest, a Rood iisliing, brave men, aud fruitful women,

"Would they have touched me?" I asked afterwards. "Not with your men round you. Some might escape", and tho vengeance would have bean terrible."

"But if I had l>cen by mvself?" "Ah, thou they might have said "that tho baboons had taken you; but you would not have been by yourself." But (ho night was past, and it was morning, tuoniiiu; now, thuugh it pj only half-past three, and the sun would not be up till closo on six o'clock. On again. Deeper and deeper grew tho oblivion in the darkness'that precedes the dawn till I wakened suddenly to dad myself underneath a European bungalow, and knew- that for the first time in mv experience of African (ravel 1 had arrived nearly two hours before I expected to And down the steps of the greeting me and actually perjuring himself so far as to say he was glad (<■ see me, camo one of those courteous, kindlv gentlemen whom England is blessed with as representatives in the dark corners of the earth. . Inithe dawning 1 looked out over Krobo Hill. My host told me its story. "I saw a light there last night," I said. "Impossible, there is a fine of £50 for anyone found on Krobo Hill They have their blcod sacrifices still I do not douht, but not there." The dawn had come, and the sun was rising, rosy and golden. Tho night lay behind in the west.. "J sse smoke there now." "Only a cloud." . But we got tho glasses, and thero was smoko on Krobo Hill.