EGBO  , a

secret society flourishing chiefly among the Efiks of the Calabar district, West Africa . Egbo or Ekpe is a mysterious spirit who lives in the jungle and is supposed to preside at the ceremonies of the society . Only males can join, boys being initiated about the age of puberty . Members are bound by oath of secrecy, and fees on entrance are payable . The Egbo-men are ranked in seven or nine grades, for promotion to each of which fresh initiation ceremonies, fees and oaths are necessary . The society combines a kind of freemasonry with political and law enforcing aims . For instance any member wronged in an Egbo district, that is one dominated by the society, has only to address an Egbo-man or,beat the Egbo drum in the Egbo-house, or " blow Egbo " as it is called, i.e. sound the Egbo horn before the hut of the wrong-doer, and the whole machinery of the society is put in force to see justice done . Formerly the society earned as bad a name as most secret sects, from the barbarous customs mingled with its rites; but the British authorities have been able to make use of it in enforcing order and helping on civilization . The Egbo-house, an oblong building like the nave of a church, usually stands in the middle of the villages . The walls are of clay elaborately painted inside and ornamented with clay figures in relief . Inside are wooden images, sometimes of an obscene nature, to which reverence is paid . Much social importance attaches to the highest ranks of Egbo-men, and it is said that very large sums, sometimes more than a thousand pounds, are paid to attain these dignities .

At certain festivals in the

year the Egbo-men wear black wooden masks with horns which it is death for any woman to look on . See Mary H . Kingsley, West African Studies (1901); Rev . Robt . H . Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa (1904) ; C . Partridge, Cross River Natives (1905) .