Some light was thrown on the means used to terrorize the ordinary members of the community into keeping silence regarding anything they may have heard concerning the crimes committed by the Society. When it was discovered that the Government officers were making enquiries regarding the Society an attempt was made “to swear” the whole country—that is, to put all the people under an oath of secrecy. In one Chiefdom this was done by swearing every one who was likely to be able to give any information on a “medicine” called Tillah. If a person breaks an oath on this “medicine,” even though he does so unwittingly, the natives believe that the medicine will catch him and will infect him with a disease which first attacks his lips and nose, which it eats away, and which eventually kills him. There are a few lepers in this Chiefdom, and they are pointed out as people who have broken, though perhaps unintentionally, an oath taken on the Tillah. Another exhibit which was produced in one of the cases before the Special Commission Court was a stone image which is looked upon by the Gallinas people in the light of a Deity. It is known by the name of Toniahun. The meaning of the word Toniahun is “turn back to truth.” The figure has been carved out from soapstone by some ancient sculptor, and its features are more of the Arab than the Negro type. No woman will look at this image for fear of becoming sterile, and they cover their eyes if they approach it. This figure, notwithstanding its name, was apparently also used for swearing persons on—i.e. to force them to state that they knew nothing of the Human Leopard Society—and so great is the fear of the Society and the various “medicines” employed by it that even the parents of children who have been seized as victims cannot be induced to assist the Authorities in bringing the guilty parties to justice. Prior to July, 1912, no case of Human Leopardism or cannibalism had ever been reported to have taken place in the Gallinas Country, and the Authorities had no reason to suspect that any had taken place. It was not until after a number of arrests had been made in other Districts that it was brought to light that a flourishing branch of the Human Leopard Society had existed in that District for many years, and details of about a score of murders were given by members of the Society who had turned informers. Although the existence of the Society must have been known to hundreds of people, many of whom went about in terror of it, the fear of the “medicines” of the Society acted as a sufficient deterrent to keep the matter from the ears of all Europeans in that part of the country, thus demonstrating the fear that an ordinary native has of doing or saying anything which might bring him into collision with the members of the Human Leopard Society, who might, with the aid of their “medicines,” punish him in some fearful and unexpected way. [Illustration: A NATIVE CHIEFTAINESS.]