Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/677

Rh very much frightened, as they could never again enter into an elephant owing to this bann. After a short time the man who was in hiding came out in front of them and asked, "What will you give me if I remove the grass, and therefore the bann?" Both of the men promised him a rich reward if he would do this, so he then drew the elephant-grass stalks out of the hides and fled. He related his experiences, and immediately several hunters went out to look for the elephants. When they had been found and killed, the tusks were brought back for the head-chief, and the flesh was divided amongst the people. The same day the two men died.

In earlier times it is said that many of the people in the sub-town of Bamesso entered into elephants, and the Eghāp used to kill them in great numbers. A corresponding number of men in this sub-town would die about the same time. When the elephants could be seen quite easily after the grass-burning time, many of them were killed, and on the same day men would die in various parts of the town. On one of these occasions, as the hunters returned to their homes, one of them lost his way and had to sleep in the open. He was met by several elephants and in great fear he climbed into a tree from which he could see them. To his surprise he heard them speaking the Munghāka language, and immediately he knew that they were not genuine elephants, but forms into which the ghosts of men had entered. He was so frightened that he fell from the branch, and the elephants rent him in pieces. When a search party left the town to look for him next morning all that was found were his bones and grass bag.

During the time that the Eghāp were fighting with the Bamum one of the former went to the Nun River and built a hut. His ghost entered into a leopard, made a hole through the roof, and went outside. In the thick bush on