carried on in the Upper Cross River, and consists in helping the old and useless members of the village or community out of this world by a tap on the head, their bodies are then carefully smoke-dried, afterwards pulverised, then formed into small balls by the addition of water in which Indian corn has been boiled for hours—this mixture is allowed to dry in the sun or over fires, then put away for future use as an addition to the family stew.
With all the cannibalistic tastes that these people have been credited with, I have only heard of them once ever going in for eating white men, and this occurred previous to the arrival in the Old Calabar river of the Efik race, if we are to trust to what tradition tells us. It appears that in 1668-9 four English sailors were captured by the then inhabitants of the Old Calabar River; three of them were immediately killed and eaten, the fourth being kept for a future occasion. Whether it was that being sailors, and thus being strongly impregnated with salt horse, tobacco and rum, their flesh did not suit the palate of these natives I know not, but it is on record that the fourth man was not eaten, but kindly treated, and some years after, when another English ship visited the river, he was allowed to return to England in her. Since that date, as far as I know, no white men have ever been molested by the Old Calabar people.
There has been occasionally a little friction between traders and natives, but nothing very serious, though it is said some queer transactions were carried on by the white men during the slave-dealing days.
