Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/252

 magicians, and when they carry off a human being the village of the victim is given to the flames in order to avert the evil omen. But when a member of the tribe dies a natural death a solemn inquest is held over his remains, his supposed murderer being killed in his turn, or else enslaved with all his family.

Other close neighbours of the English settlement of Freetown are the Bulloms or Bullams, who have been broken by the pressure of the more powerful Timni into two distinct fragments, the northern Bulloms, a small tribe occupying the coast between the Mallecory River and the Sierra-Leone estuary, and the Mampuas,

or Southern Bulloms, of Sherbro Island and the neighbouring district. The Bullom language, much affected by foreign elements, belongs to the same stock as the Timni. The forest districts east of the Mampuas, near the Liberian frontier, are held by the Mendis (Mendés), who, however, reject this name as implying the idea of slavery, and call themselves Kossa (Kossu), that is, according to Winwood Read, "Wild Boars." The Mendis, who speak a distinct language, are a warlike people, by whom, either alone or in alliance with the English, the Timni have often been defeated.