Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/115

Rh fixed upon the building, and would bring great luck, and, to prevent and minimize occurrences of such evil omen for the coming year, those women who had borne twins in his majesty's dominions during the year gone by would now be buried alive in the hole in the centre of the house, over which, when a proper dwelling-place had been provided, a most powerful Juju would preside. He ended by saying that the king had given orders for a great feast to conclude the three days' proceedings, and that his royal bounty had provided for his people a more than usually liberal dole of rum and palm wine.

" ' He finished amid the frantic applause of the crowd and more discharging of muskets and banging of drums.

" ' Now the warriors got into some sort of order in front and began to chant a monotonous song or hymn, to which the women marked a rude time by grunting at regular intervals and slapping their arms, breasts and thighs.

" ' While this hideous anthem was being sung, the executioner and his assistants seized the victims two and two as they lay, male and female, and binding them face to face, pitched each couple into the long holes lying ready excavated beside them. This done, he and his daubed and painted assistants, in all their disgusting paraphernalia of charms and bones, began to dance about the pits, rattling hollow calabashes full of small nuts and seeds, and partially drowning the groans and screams of agony that proceeded from the wretched beings below.

" ' But now arose the cry of "Rice-pounders! Women! O, women, bring your rice-pounders! Let