DID IT HAPPEN?
/ THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JULY 1955.
THE VOW of the
T was during the night
of June 25 till dawn on June 26, 1994, that I was given the ritual protection of the Panther fetish, Agassou, in the king dom of Dahomey in Franch West Africa.
[The fetish consists of leary- ing the meaning of special dances and the taking of an oath in order to receive the prote tion of the Panther spirit.]
The granting of this protec=" tion, the being made as it were
honorary member of the fetish sect, was an act of very special favour from Frince Aho of Oumtegame. the ranking "member of the former royal
house of Dahomey.
The panther, Agasson, is and always has been the royal fetish, and Prince Aho was able to use his position to overcome the un- willingness of the fetishers to allow. white man to witness any of their more hidden rités. or even approach the sacred places hidden in the deep bush some miles from any village:
I and my companion had to ecnsent to be blindfolded on the last stretch of the journey to the sacred place, the "convent" as French-speaking natives call it.
Elaborate paths
I was not allowed to take a camera or note-books or pencils with me, and I had to take very elaborate and blood-curdling
oaths that I would never reveal to anybody who was not a mem- ber of the sect any of the things I learned that night.
swear that I I had also to would never touch or harm panther nor eat its flesh, and this promis I have found little
difficulty in keeping.
a
11
PANTHER
Once more the puzzle
is for you to solvo --- did this story is our could- be-trus serles really happan? Tomorrow the answer will be publisfied. Today's story is
2 by Hen
GEOFFREY
?
GORER
Exploring English Character
the fitle of Geoffrey Corer's forthcoming' book. As a social anthropologis he has explored people in many places-trom African jungles to the sidewalks of Brooklyn. The "American (1949) is probably his best known study. London born and 50 nex
Saturday: Gorer has i brilliant academic record, a wife, and a
farm in Sussex.
the panther bristles. The cup had niches made in the rim to show our rank in the fetishist secta
י
We had to practise shaking it the panther to the rhythm of drum beat, and were rehearsed till we followed it almost autom matically. This bell bad' to" be rung at the beginning and end of any private ritual or magic we wished to undertake with the other objects which we had been given, to summon and serid the panther spirit away.
It could be rung to ward off supernatural danger (If we were threatened by sorcerers of the magic of other fetishes) and must be rung at least once a year, or the spirit of the Pan- ther would be angry.
He was one
of tha MOJE MO%2. trous and revisiva
people i have set eyes
Ezer
ON
L
.Drawing Dy Showi
half a dtzen dances: baaides the Prophet and ourselves, there ware only pur or five men.
exactly similar to mine, even to the marks on the rim.
I rang it as I had been taught for 1 couple of minutes, and then decided to leave, feeling very puzzled.
TURNING A NATION INTO GOOFS
A
By JOHN GORDON
London, Billy Graham is the most per-
RE we becoming 8 plexing of our Trans-Atlantic
nation of goofs? Who makes the
conquerors. Until he made hi
putation bere, he was small most fryn his own land.
powerful impact on Britain He too is having royal help. today? Who sets us "oohing Britain
Where
does his power in come from? From the
unusual unanimity with which
and "ashing" in cestasy? Three Musketeers from the our clergy have put themselves
USA.
behind him. Having falled
Danny Kaye, who makes themselves to All their churches, the mink and tiara girls wa laugh. Johnnie Ray,
the they imported
American wonder-worker to work the
who oracle for them.
sets their coney-clad sisters sobbing.
That's a pretty poor refertion on them, I think. But a bit of luck for Bully.
Is he succeeding?
And, most potent of all, Billy Graham, spear-tip of When
the fervous has died
csting to see
the final
machine claims
today. I doubt it.
For
the slickest propaganda down, and the inevitable pro- portion of exhibitionists been machine ever set up to or winnowed out, it will be inter- ganise emotion-rousing..
Strangely enough, not harvest proves as rich as the I had seen no man such as he described, in that room or that one of them has the stature propaganda
in his own country that he continent and my friend was a very rational
who has in Britain. person, My friend and I got separated
wouldn't at all appreciate the Danny Kaye at
We have plenty of odd fish home in the crowd by the length of
Implication that he had been rates as quite a
modest ing any.
in our own pot without import- I smoked a cigarette on the suffering from a delusion, per fellow. But here he becomes staunch British
example, that the room. I was standing next When I returned home I put
patriot Charlie brought on by the heat to s tall and vary the elderly sidewalk while I waited for my haps the bell in a drawer in my writ-
at times more royal than Chaplin
As a clown he was the joy of ing-desk, I imagine that between Negro man, with knotted veins friend to come out. I wondered and the insistent rhythm.
how much I should tell him. There is perhaps one thing to royalty itself. Encouraged the world. But alas, one day 1934 and 1939 I did ring i: most chowing in his skinny, musculas Since he was interested in ques- add, I am an orderly person no doubt by, the exceptional the own tell asicep and woke years, probably a little out of arms, who, like most of the tons of cult, I felt he should and I knew exactly
in which was beating time to
fuss royalty has, made of up convinced that he Superstition, and also to remind onlookers,
know something of what had drawer of my desk I had placed by clapping his of the
complicated the drums
hards.
to happened: at the same time the bell. The desk was locked, Suddenly he turned to rhythm I had learned. I never
to be without
the didn't stopping
cross- and was not damaged by enemy moved the bell from my desk, 'me. and when I went to the United rhythm. "Ring your bell, while questioned about that night in action. When I returned home man, brather" he said urgent Dahomey by a professionally at the end of hostilities I found States, Inclurally left it behind.
interested person, and so be put everything in my desk as, ľ ly. "Ring your bell."
in the dilemma. of appearing expected, with the single excep. tion of the bell. I couldn't find churlish or breaking my word to the Africans.
that anywhere.
WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
After the usual sacrifices and chanting. the cccupant of the hut came out to give us these the hidden objects. Like all priests in the fetishist convents. he was in a permanent trance... down any-
and moved with eyes shut, like.. a sleep-walker."
I have also never told any- body, nor written where.
the very extraordinary things which I witnessed, or at least am firmly convinced. I witnessed that night nor do intend to break that promise now except for one small incident,
But the rest of the story
doesn't make sense, unless I tell about the beginning.
"
In a trance
He was one of the most mon- Strous and repulsive people i have ever se: eyes on, ecor- but very soft, mously fat, squashy fai like an aver-ripe melon or vegetable marrow of which the skin has just not broken.
His skin was a most peculiar colour; he was not an albino, Almost at the end of that as some African negroes are, long night, when I was nearly but he seemed almost colouriers, deafened by the continuous as if he had been bleached. beating of the lam-toms and
I won't list all the objects we other drums in the peculiar were given; some of them were rhythm sacred the Panther, and sickened from the smell of rather unpleasant. The most im- blood of the numberless animal portant of all was a little ritual sacrifices, we were led to bell of iron, surrounded with small hut, not much bigger than panther hairs. This bell stood a large dog-kennel, to receive about four inches high, wo
insignia the
sect inches of plain handle, and then membership and instructions a cup with a clapper in it of
irca, the
cup surrounded with
in their use,
of
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Uncomfortable
Most of the war I worked in the British Embassy in Washing- ton, D.C., and had to endure the Washington summers. which were more oppressive than any- thing I had experienced in. Africa.
My flat was ke a oven till a couple of hours after suriset, and I was glad of almost anything which would keep mə out of it.
have a great variety
of
A friend of mine, an American interested in anthropology, was study of Negro making religious cults, and occasionally asked me to accompany him to There are a great a service. many Negroes in Washington natives call the town a talte full of currants and consequently a great number of religious sects. The religious practices of the educated Negroes do not course differ in any way from that of their white counterparts; the less educated Negroes but
of sects, some of them tiny groups with handful of followers; and many self-appointed leader and
of them use dancing and chanting "speaking with tongues and what looks like a light trance in their worship.
Only in the
peremonics of these small Negro" seets have I been reminded of sometimes what I have seen or heard in Africa, Jazz and its variants, like swing and be-bop, do not seem to me to have anything African, in them at all.
'Store' services
to
41
I must have shown my sur- prise and lack of understanding in my face; I couldn' guess what he was talking about. "The big cats are coming. brother; ring that bell of yours, ring it quick."
want
Repulsive
my
I hadn't really made up mind when my friend joined me, I don't blame you pulling out," he said. "I've never seen anybody more repulsive than that great fat fellow next to you. He looked bleached, as it he'd been kept in a cellar for
| DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
Put your lichid the space abors âna Teap this posel by you until tombersw ...when the onswer will be green-with another story in this series be
י,
Then I remembered the bell I had brought back from Dato my; and as the same time realised that the drum rhythm was very near that of Agassou, the panther which I had leam ed. "My bell's in England." I said. "Then ring this one, but years."
** said ring it good, brother,"
my **I was feeling the heat Old Saturday's story by Ursula neighbour;;, and took from in- rather,” I said and determined Bloom actually happen? Answer: ride his shirt a little iron bell to say nothing more.
100
people
up
own
YES.
i
Famela Frankau
A REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT
THIS experiment sought an answer to the question: "What are the anxieties predominant in the minds of people today?”
TO FIND that answer reporters, interviewed 100. people. Four replies — the fears of the famous “-- were published on Saturday: what follows are the confessions of the people in the crowd, the unknowns who speak under a strict bond of anonymity. AND WHAT is the conclusion that emerges from this chart of the Secret Mind? This: the fears of men and women are as different and illogical was men and women. themselves; and the only theory is
that there is no theory.
T
by JOHN S. MATHER
<
+
A milkman
celebration, and Jeopardised,"
my job
with
with wrong
is
3,200
de-
customers: "I dread upsetting
Hver
A club steward: "I
him,
Hamlet.
Was
Having made a fortune out of America, he decided to quit, blowing it a farewell raspberry. It was recorded recently
Proudly waving his British in a book telling the story native land.
passport he came back to his He Intended, he of the Palladium that when told us, to make this his home the Queen, then heir to the and do his filming here. Throne, paid
But soon the patriot removed A visit to himself to Switzerland where, Danny in his dressing-room, of course. he does not contri he declined her invitation bute to British taxation.
And
to supper on the excuse mirage.
his British filmma remain
that he had another
However, be doesn't altogether engagement which he neglect us. Now and again he confessed later he hadn't. comes across to give us advice. The most recent was that we He also explained later should shed our hypocrisy and that he was nervous..
become simply,
lovable, But such incidents haven't beautiful-natured people like dimmed Danny's golden glow, I the Russians and the Chinese. expect our elite will be as pro- Before giving Is advice, minent as ever in his queue Charlie, you should come and through the next few weeks.
share our burdens.
worry about forgetting mem- electrician who happens to be bers' names. A Eirmingham a strong swimmer is secretly
"I worry surgeon:
about my convinced he will die of drown ability every time I go into the ing operating theatre. It means life or death
A falling phobia 34-year-old com- artist in Pimlico. We have found Bods you
Kere's mercial know So
many third-rate
W
Men,
ad, Ody Jo chester chinted the Many they worry all right who is terrified of being called onto speak when he has nothing to say. Like the Liverpool barman whose biggest fear, is of telling a jeke in a crowded room and
got getting a single laugh.
would expect the kind d failures among artists. They fears that make psychiatrists are old and pathetic. I wonder rich. Agoraphobia in a Hari mass of replies has to do with
whether I go like that."
A man haunted PLAINTIVELY,
old
But far and away the Burongest undercurrent in the stead housewife who says the twin personal, problems of "Duzing the VJ celebrations, 1 security and the future,
The 51-year-old sales director
hysterical
or Jose
31-year- bus. And in the Swansen,
of a canning
his
fainted in the centre of a man ning drowd. Now I get in a crowded room, street,
think he'll Job
one day, to a bright office
then? who says ng man. Al
The 38-year-old flera? love football but my fear of in to be my own boss.
in Potters Bar will not get a There is being crushed by the crowd, pasion. He reach are chance of that shall have stops me going to watch. dread all the years I shall
"All I wanted
In Wanstead: from life was
agent
At first I felt rather uncom- fortable looking at •these Negroes worship as though were looking at a performance; but I don't think our presence W35 ever resented, and our financial contributions
were undoubtedly most gratefully re- ceived. Even in the wartime btom many of the older Negroes were miserably poor.
Many of these small sects have no place
of worship af their own, and rent the back of a Negro-owned shop for a few hours on Sunday, evenings for their services, It was one of these "store" services that my friend and I went one June evening in 1943. The sect
HAT man in the tube "We have banned the word from was a "Pentecostal" one, which
that at meant
one moment
looking so grim isn't our house.** some of the most intense wor-
A Manchester newsagent was necessarily thinking
stark: "Ill-health terrifes me." shippers would babble what
about the H-bomb; And a middle-aged, Ayr house- always look to be gibberish though the faithful were sure
that woman in the bus who wife was frankest: "My secret
what then? The old they
"speaking with stares into space is not vex fear is cancer,"
daughter-in-bow and quarrels office cleaner lives with her tongues."
ed by the crisis in the Now back to Birmingham and
with Her. "One day she'll get a mother of two. She sayɛ: . “1 The service had obviously been Socialist Party.
me out. And what then?" going on for some hours when Our private fears as of have a nagging terror that one we arrived. The small room was June 1955 bear little rela- by a sex fend "
A parson in Swansea: suffocated In a closed car, I can
A crowded. Near the further end tion to the big events of
been haunted for years ride only in an open car" A by the tear that I would inse 22-year-old messenger in a Long was the Prophet, a rather sleek
my voice in the pulpit, although don Insurance office works of OR so many there speake and well-fed man dressed in June 1955. For example:-
the fourth floor and says: “1 49-3egregid widow in Baya some sort of white robe, and
to Birmingham and
It has never happened yet," We go beating me, on a small hand- meet a 35-year-old chartered EARS for children are almost model in Manchester. I am cant to hear an open window.
water. She is so very simply: as widespread as children, seared of losing my Bgure I think I'm going to fall but "Each ght Hem bed work- eschorting his fol- accountant and he says, "I fear the poor 38-year-old widow in before I get to the top of the
Again, as you would expect, ing out, how bad health that could throw too West Kensington says:
macia -mamry: there are the problems which shall have when. 1. am old" responsibility
"What tree". would happen to my two child-
up columns. of the And there is a | juunger members of my firm
40-year-old And we stopped a Chlotse ses clutter: The fear of illness-doctor 000-a-year City importing agent "My greatest fear
Ten 11 died?" And the £1, cook in Manchester. He said:
I
women's magazines. The 23- barmaid in a two-roomed flat is running Tear-old London secretary in Camden Town worrying hypochondria--can take
says: the strangest forms. Here's
"On that money I can't
married six months, who is every Friday: "Can I pay the worried about having a child rent and make ends meet this aged to dderly women dressed #1 have a craving for
These were mostly middle. Hard lingerie salesman, saying: afford to give my three children cut of salt when we are at sea,"
mush-
the education and start in lite
because her A smoker's secret
husband may trans week?" in their pathetic best, gnarled
but I always feel that I had."
fer als love to The 17-year And let's not pretend. Here and work-wor; a group of them rooms,
Says a mother of Bramley afterwards because I think a
typist who says: and there was the person who were dancing round and read toadstool has got mixed up in Leeds: I dread the common ISASTER stalks many an I'm afraid of being thought a worried gravely about in a circle, with heads lowered them."
entrance exam, my two children imagination. Sometimes with prude and I'm afraid of being collective future, like mother and shkulders raised, following
will have to sit for I ans resson, as when a commercial thought a flirt". complicated
frightened in case they don't traveller says: "I've had to
ware
drunk and towers.
the
Ring your bell'
cat physical by Thythms with
one
much
it
the
an
of my kiddies will be assaulted
A little slip
to spend taking orders from a And claustrophobia in 2 man I despist. It is a onstant year-old girl assistant to a Brad- ford chemist. She says, "I feel misery to me
have
A
· old" Lewisham
wakeful widow
only worry is that
of the H-bomly,
of two and ex-schoolteacher. In Liverpool- A family ban
She declared "My A girl's heart per bad our crashes. Every acting
H-bomb will destory us all Occasionally
the SILLY? But listen to pretty. But all that worries a staff I get my car out my tummy
·But somewhere in Hudders dancers would leave the ring secretary in a Kensington manager to verpool by the turns over." Sometimes with 24-year-old girl publicity held is a 28-year-oldi
a London executive who says: "I've who moved us most She said Minse med, ent to the room; occa home and I dread it happening doing the thing is wrong to do smoke in bei I wake up later and now I wonder whether Mr. J'un delightened of not having and join the watchers at the store: "My mother is in a mental day my chlidren catch me out reason, as when
I am forever clippie
“Whenever I down lots of proposals I'm stenally one of the watchers to me. And I worry whether I would, intory up his, or more should marry and have Jobs now there's a potent thinking Tye get the bed sight. Right will come along The enough to retire, on 1 scared
Children generally her, bands, let out ren soudce of heartache AA Liverpool sugar processes 37-year-old Southall telephonist, of crossing the road. "And I'm join the In Swansea alone five parents Birmingham policeman says: walks around worried that one who says: "I keep linking trightened of being trapped in
her scented eph My job call, tenhlen day be will have so do under en when ma
She said, poor girl "I've got the lot.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD. ring seam and
HONGKONG
KOWLOON
circles At any one time there were that perhaps thirty watchers arida
theis
chlidren would get, standard of discipline on or off anaesthetic, and he won't wake husband-wil" "get-
·Declared Man garageman duty. One little elip, pertaps a up. A 40-year-old ✨ Edinburgh" in young girls,