Show ARE WORSHIPERS OF BIRDS BIRDS' F 1 Strange Discoveries Among African can Tribes Reported by English Eng Eng- lash lish Explorer l Mr P. P Amaury Talbot a a district a commissioner in southern Nigeria and his wife have just made a remark a-remark- rem remarkable rk able journey of over miUs s in the Eket district a country of rivers and creeks m many ny unexplored with with a population population pop pop- of a quarter of a million f fIn In an int interview with Reuters Reuter's representative representative representative Mr Talbot says he found customs and ceremonies which appear to have come down unchanged from the days of the Pharaohs In some parts the dead are roughly mummified mummified fied fled while underground burial chambers chambers cham cham- bers are to be found planned like those of ancient Egypt He found also traces of bird worship and witnessed a abird bird dance never before seen by Eu Eu- 1 f Most of the towns have their sacred pools inhabited by good or evil spirits to which in the past countless human victims were sacrificed On two of these holy waters waters the the Lake of Life and the neighboring Pool of Hatred x- x and Death Death Mr Talbot and Mr of the Kwa Ibo mission are the first and only existing white men to have set eyes r Mr T Talbot referring to the hard task of the administration in dealing f with secret societies which at certain times of the year still seek to offer human sacrifices said Towards the end of September such an attempt was made by a group of towns in a distant part of the dis dis- district district never before beCore visited by Euro Euro- My att attention was first drawn to this particular society which bears the dreaded name of haw Ghosts the Ghosts the Destroyers by a poor woman who brought some fragments fragments frag frag- ments meats of charred bone which she asserted asserted as as- was all aU that was left to her of an only brother who had fallen a victim of the vengeance of one of the chiefs of the society The people as a whole are perhaps the most bloodthirsty of all aU Africa For months no day passed without man or woman running In covered with blood and often horribly mutilated mutilated muti muti- to claim the protection of the commissioner |