Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/669

Rh a mixture of camwood powder (pii) and palm-wine (ndu yuuh), and the whole is then bound together by native-made string. It is then thrown on to the path by means of a cord. When all the preparations have been made, the sacred instrument men gather in the head-chief's compound. Here three of them play lustily on drums for about fifteen minutes. At a given signal all of them spring into the air and rush through the narrow opening of the mat fence surrounding the head-chief's compound, bellowing like cattle. They beat the fencing, stamp on the ground, and strike the drums with great vigour. All those people in the town who are supposed to be controlled by evil spirits rush about in great agitation, foaming at the mouth, with their eyes wide open and staring.

In the market-place the men who are supposed to drive the evil ghosts away divide into five sections. At the head of each is a drummer, followed first by a man with a whisk, and then by a number of men armed with spears. A dance is then held, in which the performers spring high into the air, some of them with stalks of elephant-grass (mbere) in their hands to drive the ghosts away. No one is allowed to leave his compound while this is going on, and complete silence reigns over the town. Whatever appears, whether human beings or animals, will at once be caught by the evil ghosts.

After this dance the men return to the sacred instrument hut (ndap ngōng) with the instruments, and then go back to the head-chief's compound (ndap fong).

It is believed by many of the Eghāp that the ghosts of some of their ancestors return to the tribe as children. Many believe that all people are born anew, but others say that only those souls in the home of the dead who have no children there come back to the tribe. There is, however, no definite belief on the matter among the tribe as a whole.

The home of the dead is believed by the majority of the Eghāp to be situated exactly under the tribal area on