The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-07-28
AFRICAN MAGNATEs IN LONDON
THE KING OF BoNNY AND THE LIRERIAN
PREMrEK SEEING EURoAEAN
CIVILIZATION.
Cincinnati Com mercial.

! OlncinnaIl COmnerclal
| London, June % The King of B,ppy
belongs to the Eooe tribe, and sites on
| throne which has belonged to HE family
for twenty seven generations. He is a
| 6ne-lookipg man, aud of complexion th at
| in America would be called ''saddle COLOR"
| though there is not a particle of European
| blood in his veins. He was educated in
England, and s not yet 40 years of age.
He has a mind we'll Informed, acute, and
stateEmau=tfks; and rs entirely absorbe in
the werk of ustly governing his subjects
OF Bonny, who are just emerging from bar
barism. In a conversation have Just had
with him he has given me some interest
ing particulars of bis country. The King
ia surrounded by council of seven or
eight chiefs, these being representative
of about twenty chiefs distributed through
the country. Peaceful government in
Bonny means inducing these chiefs to CO.
operate and not fall out with each other.
The towns and villages have each it's Gov
ernor, chosen by agreement ofits residents
with the central Council, and this local
officers chief work is jadicial. From his
Magisteriel deci Aiops there exists q right
of appeal, and the King with his Council,
hear the appeal, aHd decide upon il. The
practice of offering human sacrifices has
been so nearly trampled out that if an in
stance of it's occurs-as it occasionally does
iQ the remoter corners of the kingdom-it
is N 'de the subject of special inquiry and
rebuke.
The chief form in which native super
stition survives is in the homage paid to q
small, white, glistening serpent called the
Nomboh, that is, the Leaper. 1t is beauti-
ful, and it's bite is deadly. It climbs trees
whence it sometimes leaps on it's victim
beneath, and it leaps from branch to branch,
and so is able to travel far without touching
the ground. 1t is these leapipg tree snakes
probably which have given Co monkeys |
their frantic terror at sight of q snake !; |
and if in the anthrOpoid period any supe-
rior monkey and moDkeyess had gained q |
securer place, defended by precipices from |
quadrupedal beasts, they might still have
found one OF these Leapers in their simial
Eden. The Eboes who inhabit Bonny
have tradition that the Hebrews were
originally captured in their country by
Egyptian invaders, and they shrink from
explorers coming from that region. There
are some curious pathological Condolences
pointing in favor of their tradition for
instance, they call the Destroying Angel
Abandon, and their name for eorcery,
Obeaism, resembles the Obe woman or
PythOness of the Bible. One belief which
the people of Bonny have closely resem-
bles that of Plato as detailed in the vision
of Er the Armenian it is that after death
human spirits are able to return to this
world in any form they choose, aud they
choose such forms, animal or
human, as will enable them to avenge the
wrongs they have suffered while encased
in fesh. The worst specimens of white
men, especially kidnappers, are sometimes
believed to be the reincaTnations of negroes
who wish to punish certain persrns or
tribes by whom they were ILL used during
life. Tnis belief extends among some
tribes which have been visited by Stanley,
and they have no difficulty in identifying
him as one of these vindictive ghosts.
These learned Africans have perfect
faith In the future of their race and of
their country. They report . continual
progress among the people.