“(_c_) A native medicine known as ‘Borfima’”; and under the Ordinance the police were given powers where there was reasonable ground of suspicion to arrest and to search without a warrant, and heavy penalties were imposed for obstructing the police. On the 9th October, 1896, a Protectorate was proclaimed over that portion of the Hinterland of the Colony of Sierra Leone which had hitherto been merely under the control of the Colonial Government. Up to this date, for more than half a century, the Government of the Colony had claimed and exercised the right of intervention in disputes which led to intertribal wars or which interfered with the trade routes from the interior, but beyond this and the efforts made to stop slave-raiding there had been very little interference with the Hinterland natives. During the same year it was found necessary further to strengthen the hands of the Executive in dealing with crimes committed by members of secret societies, and the Human Leopard Society Ordinance of 1895 was added to, provision being made whereby any chief who was proved to have permitted or who failed to report within a reasonable time any celebration of Human Leopard Customs which had occurred in any place under his control was liable to heavy penalties. Under the amended law the Governor-in-Council was given power to order the arrest and detention of chiefs when it was deemed expedient to do so for the preservation of peace and order and the suppression of the Human Leopard Society. Power was also given to the Governor-in-Council to deport any such chief from the British sphere of influence in Sierra Leone. The reason for the latter enactment seems to have been that it was considered impossible for the Society to flourish without the connivance of at least some of the chiefs in the part of the territory affected. It appeared that while some chiefs had been most active in their support of the Government, others had given no assistance or had even put obstruction in the way of investigating charges by refusing to deliver up witnesses and by allowing them to leave the country, with the result that in many cases it was difficult to bring offenders to justice. Prosecutions, however, took place from time to time for offences against the Ordinance, and in a number of cases convictions were obtained on capital charges as well as in lesser offences against the Ordinance. [Illustration: OBLIVIOUS OF HUMAN ALLIGATORS.] During investigations connected with the offences committed by members of the Human Leopard Society, it came out that another secret society existed known as the Human Alligator Society. This Society appears to have been an offshoot of the Human Leopard Society and the usual meeting-place of this new society was in the vicinity of rivers where crocodiles or as they are called locally alligators abound.