THE WOMAN APAHÀ.

BUILT in a square on the narrow stretch of sandbank which divided the sea from the dry bed of the huge lagoon, the fort at Kitta glistened white in the moonlight. Constructed of rough stone and mud, and heavily whitewashed, the court-house and prison, with the gaoler's quarters and some store-rooms, made up the four sides. A small guard-room stood next to the great gate where a Hausa sentry crouched against the wall with his rifle beside him. On three sides of the square the buildings were of one story, but on the fourth, above the gaoler's livingrooms, were the District Commissioner's quarters. They comprised two rooms, built of wood, badly ventilated, and insufferably hot. The walls and ceilings were whitewashed, and some former inhabitant of a sarcastic or melancholy temperament had added a three-foot dado of coal tar. Between the rotting boards of the floor it was possible to observe the details of the gaoler's domestic life. On the sand, between the fort and the sea, a grove of palms rustled in the breeze. On the ramparts, watching the white of the surf that glimmered through the trees, sat the Commissioner and his friend, the Government Doctor. Dinner was over, and in canvas deck-chairs they were enjoying the cool of the night, while fresh sea air battled with the stale, sickly smell of the inland bush that drifted across the lagoon.

Both men had spent many years on the Gold Coast, and both were interested in their surroundings. Further, both were conscious of how little they knew of the inner life of those among whom they lived. Presently the Doctor roused himself.

'By the by,' he said, laughing, 'did you hear of the doings of your new secret police this morning?'

He referred to a body of men who had been enlisted, and sworn with many oaths to the strictest secrecy, and were supposed, while pursuing their ordinary avocations, to learn anything that was afoot and bring the result of their labours to the Commissioner.

'Well,' he resumed, 'I happened to be outside the fort this morning and actually found them drilling. Your friend Quartey

had borrowed some old police caps from the serjeant, I suppose, and there they were, enjoying themselves immensely amongst an admiring crowd. Quartey was shouting, "Men of the secret police, attention!" I soon stopped them, but what use do you suppose they will be after that?'

one.

His host smiled.

'Quashie,' he called, bring the cigar-box.' He chose and lit Every one knows,' he said, 'who the secret police are, and no doubt they have spread the news of their grandeur all over the town by this time. But here is the very man.'

A slight figure, wrapped in a dark cloth, ascended the stairs leading from the courtyard and saluted.

'Chief of secret police, sah,' he said. Come to make report.' He shivered as the sea breeze struck his naked shoulders. 'Report,' said the Commissioner.

'Well, sah, town quiet, no trouble, but one thing I hear. The fetish kill some one in bush very far, but one man with palm kernels come into town and lodge with my mother, and she tell To-morrow I look. Suppose I find him, the Government

think me fine man, and do me good.'

'Do you think,' said the Commissioner, that the way to keep the new police secret is for you to try to drill them in front of the fort?'

'Well, sah,' answered their head,' when Government made us secret police we tell our friends; but we no please them, for we have no clothes, and all say, "What good does it do us to be police if the people no think us big?" So for honour, sah, I drill them.'

With a few caustic remarks the Commissioner dismissed the chief of the new force, and turned to his companion.

'I don't know that the police won't so impress the people with their importance,' said he, 'that they may be of use after all. If Quartey's mother had not heard of the drilling, she would not have mentioned this fetish business. As we know, these fetish questions are the last to come to our ears, and two-thirds of the murders in this district are fetish business.'

Now the worship of the fetishes,' or native gods, of West Africa is responsible for most of the murders and outrages committed in their name by their agents, the priests or fetish men.'

The fundamental idea of a deity beneficent, provided that he

was sufficiently propitiated by sacrifice and offerings not necessarily of a bloodthirsty nature, has been for ages used by the priests for their own purposes of revenge or gain, and the Government, well recognising this, had given the strictest injunctions to their officers to investigate all such cases that came to their notice.

The Kitta district was a hotbed of fetishism under the sway of the renowned fetish Tufoo, who, hidden away in the feverstricken bush, flourished in his unholy strength almost as powerful as in the palmy days before official, merchant, or missionary had set foot on the beach.

The Doctor yawned. After long residence on the coast, he was sceptical of the Government's power to deal with the matter. Further, he was tired, and the monotonous sound of the surf made him sleepy.

'If there's a fetish row in the bush,' he said, 'I wish you joy of it. The people are stuck there, miles away, and have never been brought under control. If you try to arrest the priests, you'll have your hands full. I think I'll be off to bed now, so good-night.'

He walked to the staircase, and his friend, advancing to the parapet, bent over to watch his exit, when a noise below made them halt.

Something that looked, in the light of the lamp, like a large dog dodging in and out among the trees, crawled up to the fort, and at that moment the sentry challenged.

'I will wait and see what's up,' said the Doctor; and they resumed their seats as they heard the gate below being unbarred.

For some time they heard nothing save a subdued muttering, but then four persons appeared at the head of the staircase and, walking along the ramparts, halted in front of them.

The gaoler and his wife held up between them a child about ten years old, in apparently the last stage of exhaustion. Covered with mud, bleeding from a thousand scratches, and worn with famine, she was indeed in a deplorable state. Stark naked, except for a miserable rag round her waist, she nevertheless supported on her back a baby which seemed to all appearance dead. As the gaoler withdrew his hand to salute, she sank to the ground, whilst the baby's head hit the hard stone with a thud.

With an exclamation of pity, the white men sprang to their feet, and the Doctor, thrusting the mouth of the spirit-bottle

between the grey lips of the girl, poured a heavy dram down her throat, and then, turning to the other child, bent over it, trying to learn if any life remained in that miserable frame.

'This one seems better, anyway,' said the Commissioner, as the elder girl, revived by the strong spirit, tried to scramble to her feet. 'But what does this mean, and where on earth did these children come from in this state?'

It was the gaoler who answered. He was very fat, very solemn, and very black.

'This, sah,' he said, pointing to the bigger girl, 'is the woman Apahà, and this,' pointing to the baby, 'is the small child Nubbly Loo.'

There was a silence, broken by the whimpering of the baby, who was beginning to show some sign of life. The gaoler, heavily gasping, proceeded:

It would appear from what the woman Apahà says that her mother was killed by the fetish in the bush for running away from her mistress. She says her mistress sent her sons after her mother, and caught her and herself. They take her far into the bush to a fetish place, and put her mother on a big stone and drive a stick through her head. Then this woman come down here to lay the complaint before the Government. She hide herself in the bush, and she has been coming three days, walking in the night and hiding in the day. She has had nothing to eat or drink, and they looked for her all the time. So, sah, she has arrived, the woman Apahà, always accompanied '-here the gaoler, quite exhausted, gasped always accompanied by the small child Nubbly Loo.'

'When the men killed her mother, didn't they try to stop her?' asked the Commissioner.

'She say, sah, that it was dark and that the moon was gone, and she creep in the bush.'

'If it was dark like that,' queried the Doctor, 'how could she see her mother killed?'

'She say the men make a big fire on the stone, and she see them by the firelight.'

'Does the girl know the names of the men, and can she swear to them?' asked the Commissioner.

The gaoler bent over the little girl.

6

'Yes, sah,' he said. There was the old woman, Amalagbe, and Atikpo and Tamaklo, her sons. These held her while the

fetish man killed her, but she does not know his name. Also Atikpo is one of the head men of the village.'

‘And the name of the village?' said the Commissioner.

It is called Kulimeh,' replied the gaoler.

The Commissioner whistled. Well, take the children away. Your wife is to be in charge of them,' he said.

Take them away and look after them, and see they do not go outside the fort.'

The children were formally handed over to the gaoler's wife, and accompanied by the Doctor they departed.

'Now, gaoler,' said the Commissioner, this must be kept as quiet as possible. Keep those children in your quarters as much as you can, and don't let them talk to or be seen by anyone if you can help it, and, above all, don't get talking in the town yourself. Now go and ask the Doctor if he will kindly come up here before he leaves for the night.'

The stars still shone brightly and the surf still thundered monotonously on the sand, but the peace of the night was gone for the white man on the fort ramparts.

'Kulimeh,' he thought, one of the worst, if not the worst place in the district, and the fetish and one of the head men in the town responsible, and yet a matter that it is impossible to leave alone. From Quartey's report it is evident the people here have got hold of it, and it's quite certain the coming of the children will be known all over the place to-morrow. Probably it is known now, and the gaoler is certain to talk. There's no hushing it up and treating it as an ordinary bush palaver, even if one could bring oneself to do it. My leave isn't due for over a month yet, and anyway one would hate to clear out, putting it on another man's shoulders. No' but his musings were interrupted by his friend's return.

They will pull through all right,' he began. They are recovering already. Now, according to her story-and she sticks to it still-that little girl whom the gaoler calls "the woman Apahà" has been three days and nights in that bush without food or water, except what she could find in the way of leaves and berries, yet she and the baby don't seem very much the worse for it. Wonderful, isn't it, what these people will stand?'

The Commissioner nodded.

'Do you know Kulimeh ?' he said, lighting his pipe. The Doctor shook his head. 'No,' he said.

I only know