rates as
a mediator in wars, and dissentions among powerful tribes and chiefs. Its
interference is generally attended with effect, more particularly if
accompanied by a threat of vengeance from the _purrah_; and a suspension of
hostilities is scrupulously observed, until it is determined who is the
aggressor; while this investigation takes place by the sovereign _purrah_,
as many of the warriors are convoked, as they conceive necessary to enforce
their judgment, which usually consigns the guilty to a pillage of some
days. To execute the decree, they avail themselves of the night to depart
from the place where the sovereign _purrah_ is assembled, previously
disguising their persons with hideous objects, and dividing themselves into
detachments, armed with torches and warlike weapons; they arrive at the
village of the condemned, and proclaim with tremendous yells the decree of
the sovereign _purrah_. The affrighted victims of superstition and
injustice are either murdered or made captives, and no longer form a people
among the tribes.

The produce arising from this horrid and indiscriminate execution of the
decrees of this tribunal is divided equally between the injured tribe, and
the sovereign _purrah_; the latter share is again subdivided among the
warriors employed in the execution of its diabolical decree, as a
recompense for their zeal, obedience, and promptitude.

The families of the tribes under the dominion of this infernal confederacy,
when they become objects of suspicion or rivalry, are subjected to
immediate pillage, and if they resist, are dragged into their secret
recesses, where they are condemned, and consigned to oblivion.

Its supreme authority is more immediately confined to the Sherbro; and the
natives of the Bay of Sierra Leone speak of it with reserve and dread: they
consider the brotherhood as having intercourse with the _bad spirit_, or
devil, and that they are sorcerers, and invulnerable to human power. Of
course the _purrah_ encourages these superstitious prejudices, which
establish their authority and respect, as the members are numerous, and are
known to each other by certain signs and expressions. The Mandingos have
also their sacred woods and mysteries, where, by their delusions and
exorcisms, they prepare their children for circumcision.

The Soosees, inhabiting the borders of the Rio Pongo, have a species of
_purrah_, which gives its members great consequence among them; but their
ceremo