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SACKVILLE STREET, FREETOWN.
HUMAN LEOPARDS
AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRIALS OF HUMAN LEOPARDS BEFORE THE SPECIAL COMMISSION COURT; WITH A NOTE ON SIERRA LEONE, PAST AND PRESENT
PREFACE
Captain Beatty, just before leaving for the Dardanelles,asked me to write a preface. I think thatthe best preface will be to answer, as far as I amable, several questions which were frequently put tome on my return to civilization after the conclusionof the Special Commission Court. These questionswere, “What was the object of the Human LeopardSociety? Were its members cannibals for the purposeof satisfying an appetite for human flesh, orwas it some religious rite? Would the sentencesinflicted by the Special Commission Court have theeffect of stamping out the horrible practice?”
The first question can be answered with someconfidence. The trend of the whole evidence showedthat the prime object of the Human Leopard Societywas to secure human fat wherewith to anoint theBorfima. The witnesses told us how the occasion ofa murder is used to “blood” the Borfima, but thepotency of this terrible fetish depends upon its beingfrequently supplied with human fat. Hence thesemurders.
The question as to cannibalism it is not possibleto answer with any degree of certainty. The Commissionsat for over five months, had before itvihundreds of witnesses, and the notes of evidence raninto thousands of pages; but the Court was a judicialtribunal, and it was anxious to bring its labours to anend as speedily as possible, so that no question wasasked or allowed by the Court which was not relevantto the issue. Again and again answers given bywitnesses opened up avenues which it would havebeen m