A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

10/10/26

Coverage

Tappi Town, Hinterland, Liberia

Transcription

October 10th, Tappi town

According to our observations, Tappi town is on the map about twenty miles too far north and about fifteen miles too far east. The District Commissioner left here yesterday. I had a long talk with him about conditions about here. He says he has had great difficulty in regard to the leopard men. I should think so, for in Tappi town and hereabouts thirty people have been carried off and killed by them -- and eaten -- in the past five weeks. The Commissioner says quite frankly that the Gios about here are cannibals and that the Chiefs of the towns are in sympathy with the leopard men and encourage their work. The Commissioner says it is not safe for people to walk along any of the trails at night and he says it is also unsafe for anyone to go alone on the trails out of the towns even in the day time. However I have on a number of occasions walked long distances to the neighboring towns alone and been surrounded by several hundred of these people who speak no word of English. It is the superiority of the white man, I think, that they at once feel. The Commissioner has some of implements the leopard men use. They have the paws and feet of the leopard fitted with iron hooks in the form of the claw and they also have hooks like the teeth of the leopard. Thus if a man escapes who is attacked by them, he has the marks as though he had been bitten or clawed by a leopard; or if he is killed in the town to be eaten later, then when his body is found, it has the same leopard marks on it and also may even have some of the leopard’s hair or a small piece of fur. The men wear a sort of net over them which, as they crawl in the dark, gives them the appearance of a leopard. You may remember the Nesso country on the map marked “cannibals.” This is the region we are now in and part of it we will pass through tomorrow.

Yesterday our patients from the nearby town did not appear so we went to see them, and walked back six and a half miles to Zoogu town. George, Loring and I went. We studied five cases of interest there and afterwards, in the late afternoon, walked back here. Loring took the pictures and I made the microscopical studies and took tissues for later histological study when we get back. One was an extraordinary case of keloids on the back, shoulders and chest of a woman undergoing sarcomatous changes. Another was a case of Gangosa. Several cases of syphilis were also seen and one of mycotic infection.

I sent the Commissioner a can of corned beef, a tin of coffee and a large amount of tobacco, one bottle of Sauterne and one of gin before he left. He sent me in return a goat, which we are eating today.

Today has been spent in studying the slides, tissues, etc. obtained yesterday and from a few additional cases. We start southward tomorrow, breaking camp here at 5:15 A. M. I have examined about eighteen other tsetse flies here without finding any infected. If I had omitted examining the one my boy brought me, all my work with them would have been of a negative character.

Type

Diary

Citation