LEOPARD MEN.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 August 1921, Page 3

LEOPARD MEN.

By .“West African.” Once again the ravages hnd orgies ’of tlie dreaded Secret Society of the 1 Leopards have called forth a strong 'denunciation from the pretent leader of the Republic of Liberia, President King, who in his recent addresses to the Legislature pointed out that the strongest steps would be taken to suppress and destroy this menacing society of actual cannibals. | So active have the members of the society become, and so sure of their power, that tlie President declares rdurt women and children have actually been carried from the village*?, at night and taken into the deep bush where, after suffering indescribable torments, they have been killed and eaten. In the dense forests of Montsermdo County, among the Golnb, Pease, and other tribes, tlie activities of the Leopards are reaching such a pitch that the peaceful native, travelling back and forth front bis little farm or from village to village, will in no circumstances go unless be is assured that daylight will last until his journey’s end. And ho is wise. These cannibal disciples of the Leopard once flourished in Sierra Leone, until the heavy hand of British justice foil on the orgnnistaion so far as the Colony was concerned; hut it is evident that those of the fraternity living close to the Liberian border have crossed and assimilated themselves with the tribes tit tlie near vicinity. I havo in mind two caseis which occurred while I was actually in the vicinity of the tragedies—one that of an old man, the other that, of a young woman, but in both cases cannibalism was absent. In one case it was presumably on the score of age: in the other it seemed to have 'boon due to lack of time to carry off the victim. The old man had a small rice farm about half a mile from the village, and one night he failed to return. In the morning life was found lying on his back, dead, outside a little leanto palm-frond shelter on his farm. A portion of his throat had lieen torn away, and on the unmutilated part of his neck there were the clear marks of a leopard’s claws. Tin* young woman had gone to draw the evening water at the creek. \ shriek was hoard. Gun and spearmen rushed down the path to the watering place. There, lying in a few inches of running water, huddled up and face downwards was the girl, dead. Blood was running from leopard daw-marks on her face and neck. No doubt fright combined with the shock had caused her to collapse, and falling face down ward shp was drowned. These revolting devotees of revenge and blood ilust nppaPel themselves in the skin of leopards and on their hands they wear imitation leopard pads of leather, the claws of which are made from tempered iron. In eases in which tlie bodv of the victim is recovered by relatives or fel-low-villagers the leopard mark is designed to strike terror into them and thus prepare a way for the blackmailing that is sure to follow. The ramifications of this dreaded secret society are so far-reaching in a coiuitiy where all means of mechanical transport cease twenty miles from the coast--the only means of travel are on foot or in a hammock by forest tracks and in places by canoes—that the utmost determination will have to be exercised to abate this hideous menace.