THE "LONG JU-JU."

Otago Witness, Issue 2514, 21 May 1902, Page 30

THE "LONG JU-JU."

A GHASTLY FETISH WORSHIP.

Probably the message from Reuter'e corespondent in West Africa that the British expedition against the Aros tribe had captured the " Long Ju-Ju " would convey but little information. The *' Long JuJu " seem 3to me " a place of skulls," more ghastly in its rites even than the Vadoux rites of Hayti and Central Africa. The correspondent has lately furnished an explanatory account: — The approach to the Long Ju-Ju, he says, is through dense bu3h, which becomes thicker until one arrives at the entrance of a deep, oval-shaped pit 70ft deep, 60 yards long, and 50 yards wide. One then climbs down the precipitous sides of the rock into a narrow gorge and into running wat&r, up -which one wades, passing under two fences, until one finally comes to a place where the water comes out of the solid rock in two big streams, which unite below a small island on which are two altars, one made of many trade guns stuck muzzle downwards into the ground and topped with tkulb, the other being of wood, and supporting more skulls, bonus, feathers, blood, eggs, and other votive offerings to the Ju-Ju, including the head of the last victim. Over the reck where is the source of the water 13 a roof of human ekulls. with a curtain, the top part of which is composed of clothe, and the lower part of native matting, screening the reck and banging just short of the water's edge. The lower portions of the rock, composing the other fides of thi3 crater, are draped with mats only. On the left of the entrance, centrally situated and opposite the iblar.d, has been he-wn out of the rock a flat-topped Fc-dge for sacrificial purposes. The water, >,ljout 12in deep, is full of tame grey coloured irfh. about 2ft in length, with long suckers and glaring yellcv.- eyes, which have a most biziixro acpe^raucs as tlioj, £lide noiseleEsly

tltrctiga. the clear water in. the dim light of this charnel house of fetish law, which is roofed with densely-intertwined creepers. These fish are regarded as *acred. On the left of the exit lies another pile of human skulls and ether relics of Ju-Ju rites; and on th« right the last sacrifice — a white goat, trussed up in the branches of a palm tree, and starving to death. The Long Ju-Ju, the- most powerful religious centre in West Africa., is visited from hundreds of miles by natives of all sorts and conditions. The ritual has been in vogue for centuries in this gloomy cave of savage superstition. Everything which ig sacrificed, such as cattle, goats, fowls, etc., must be white. The high priest of the oracle, swathed in cloths, is usually out of sight, and addresses the pilgrims in impressive monotone, having previously been made cognisant of every detail concerning the supplicants and their disputes by means of a sort of fetish lore, which certainly extends as far as the limits of Southern Nigeria. The conducting of a visitor to the Ju-Ju is a lengthy process. He is led by a circuitous route, and finally inarched in backwards. The number of pilgrims is about 500 annually, all of whom pay dearly for the advice or decree which is vouchsafed to them. Probably the number of human sacrljces does not reach a total of 50 per annum, whilst about 2GO people are sold into slavery, and the remainder are allowed to go away free.