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XX  SECRET  SOCIETIES  411

or  her  of  it,  and  he  or  she  has  to  take  an  ordeal  drink
made  of  powdered  bark.  Among  the  Fjort  there  are
two  kinds  of  this  drink  used  for  ordeal — M'Bunda  and
N'Kassa.  The  first  is  given  to  persons  who  cannot  deny
being  witches,  but  who  deny  having  injured  the  man  in
question  ;  the  second  to  those  who  plead  entire  innocence
of  witchcraft^

I  have  detained  you  over  the  method  of  enforcing  law
as  it  exists  among  the  Fjort  and  Loangos,  and  so  have
no  time  to  enter  into  the  way  in  which  law  is  enforced
among  the  true  Negroes ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  for  me
to  do  so,  because  you  already  have  much  information  on
the  nature  and  action  of  the  great  secret  societies  who
enforce  the  law  from  Cape  Blanco  to  Cameroon.  Similar
secret  societies  exist  south  of  Cameroon.  A  few  of
these  are  used  in  the  enforcement  of  law,  but  in  power
and  organization  I  have  seen  nothing  south  of  Calabar
to  equal  the  Egbo  of  that  region,  nor  the  Oru  you  will
find  Ellis  describing,  nor  the  Porah  I  have  learnt  of
from  the  Timenhas  and  Susus  from  the  hinterland  of
Sierra  Leone.  From  Cameroon  until  you  reach  the
people  who  were  once  subjects  of  Fuma  Con^o,  you  will
not  find  a  dominant  authority  of  any  kind  equal  to
Egbo.  When,  however,  you  do  reach  these  subjects  of
the  great  unburied  king,  you  again  find  a  set  of  authori-
ties or  powers  equal  to  the  secret  societies.  These  are
the  Nyanga  Nkissi.  They  differ  in  being  not  groups  of
individuals  whose  knowledge  and  power  is  in  various
grades,  but  in  being  individual  men  attached  as  priests
to  individual  Nkiss.  You  will  find  several  great  Nkiss
in  Kacongo.  Their  names  are  various ;  there  is  Bmzi,
the  most  important  in  Kacongo,  residing  in  the  district
of  Ngoio.     It  is  the  great  Nkiss  for  getting  rain  from.
