His religious rites--a strong contrast to those
of the modern Hindoo--are ever causelessly bloody. Take as an
instance, the Efik race, or people of Old Calabar, some 6,000
wretched remnants of a once-powerful tribe. For 200 years they
have had intercourse with Europeans, who, though slavers, would
certainly neither enjoy nor encourage these profitless horrors;
yet no savages show more brutality in torture, more frenzied
delight in bloodshed, than they do. A few of their pleasant
practices are--
The administration of Esere, or poison-bean;
"Egbo floggings" of the utmost severity, equalling the knout;
Substitution of an innocent pauper for a rich criminal;
Infanticide of twins; and
Vivisepulture.
And it must be remembered that this tribe has had the benefit of
a resident mission for the last generation. I can hardly believe
this abnormal cruelty to be the mere result of uncivilization; it
appears to me the effect of an arrested development, which leaves
to the man all the ferocity of the carnivor, the unreflecting
cruelty of the child.
The dietary of these "wild men of the woods" would astonish the
starveling sons of civilization.
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