THE LONG JUJU

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 281, 19 April 1913, Page 10

THE LONG JUJU

A London cable received the other day mentioned that a plot had been discovered to kill Mr. Talbot and his wife. Mr. Talbot is commissioner in the Calabar district, and is a well-known authority on the "Juju" rites. He recently revealed irregularities in the Native Courts, in which native clerks were guilty of swindling and other .offences against women prisoners.

The clerks' friends summoned a meet- I ing of the chiefs and arranged to mur- I der the Talbots, but the plot misear- I ried. \ The juju rites continue, stated the eable. A woman's corpse was discovered in the Sacred Crocodile Swamp, where she had been prepared for the sacrifice. This is the second attempt made by the cult of the "Long .Tuju" on Mr. Amaurav Talbot's life. Ten years ago a /British punitive expedition partly stamped out the cult, but recently a, chief named Kami Ogom raised the organisation almost to its former strength. He organised a staff of 1.300 messengers .who travelled over ' hundreds of miles of territory. Any native nourishing enmity against another bribed the Juju messenger, who ordered the men to go before the chief oracle Cluiku. and the victim went to death or lifelong slavery. Tn spite of the vigilance of the Government, until the beginning of this year the Aros (a native tribe) made most of their wealth through the slave trade. The country was honeycombed bv slave routes, along which continually passed the victims of the "Long Juju." If the, Juju emissaries pointed a finger at a man. woman, or child, the wretched creature followed them without hesitation or resistance. Sacrificial victims were supplied. to those wealthy enough to pay for such means of ensuring rich crops or answers to prayer. Ticports of these practices reached the Government, and the District Commissi'mcr.

at great personal risk, made iii(|uiries. Many ringleaders were arrested, and several chief priests of the cult were sentenced to death. To avenge their kin, relatives of the condemned men poisoned the Commissioner's food, but the Commissioner escaped with a severe illness. It was found impossible to convict the chief Kanu Okoru of murder. The chief, who had amassed a fortune of at least, half-a-miilio'i. escaped with three years imprisonment.. A slave town with two or three thousand inhabitants has been discovered at the back of Kanu Okoru s compound. This'was screened from the road by only a few yards of bush, but the dense undergrowth hid• everything 'roni sirbt. A. typical case brought to light by the Commissioner was a s follows: — After lr"vilv bribing the officiating priest for " favourable verdict, one man accused another of a crime, and summoned the iatter before the Chuku. After both had offered a sacrifice of sheep and goats to the oracle, accuser and accused were taken to a spot in the river bed. before the entrance t.o

n sacred cave in the side of the gorge. They were ordered to sit mi tlio trunk of it tree which jutted out over the water, while liis accuser nnd nil the members of the cult present were told to retire to a place above the pave and screened from the river. The executioners next appeared with a. "strangling stick"—a piece of wood, eight to nine inches long, with a rope noose firmly fixed to one cud and passing through a circular hole in the oilier. This stickwas placed Against the front, of the throat, and the was then quicklv strangled'hv means the cord, which was passed' over hi? '-pad. Xo resistance was ever made, '"lie fear of Oluiku seems to have been too overwhelming for any such idea. The head of the corpse was 1 lien struck thrice, wilh great, force, oil a sacrificial stone placed- near the tree-trunk, after which (he liodv was thrown inio the rived.. trampled on liv (he executioner. and Inallv interred on the hank. The head was often cut. off ami buried in another place to prevent possible identification.