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86 with the missionaries is, however, a guarantee of his personal safety. On the road to Ilugun we met in several places fruits and other articles exposed for sale, without any person near to watch them. There were several little heaps of cowries left by those who had purchased. A few cowries were also deposited near each article to indicate its price. It is incorrect to suppose, however, that these articles were entirely unprotected. Suspended from a rod there is a small bundle of dried grass—Shango's torch—hanging always over the articles for sale, which is an appeal to the god that he should set fire to the house of any one wicked enough to steal them. This is even a greater protection than the presence of a person could be, for there are those expert enough to elude human vigilance, who would never expect to do likewise to Shango.

Crossing what was then, in the dry season, a gentle brook, but which at other times is a river of considerable magnitude, we entered the gate of the city of Ijaye, and were conducted to the station of the American Baptists by a boy whom we met at the gate, dressed in a shirt of civilized manufacture, a sure indication that he was belonging to the "mission family." The occupants of the station, Messrs. Phillips and Stone, and the wife of the latter, were out at the time,