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PURRAH, PURROII

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 666 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PURRAH, PURROII , or Pogo, a See also:secret society of Sierra Leone, See also:West See also:Africa. Only See also:males are admitted to its ranks, but two other affiliated and secret associations exist, the Yassi and the Bundu, the first of which is nominally reserved for See also:females, but members of the Purrah are admitted to certain ceremonies. All the See also:female members of the Yassi must be also members of the Bundu, which is strictly reserved to See also:women. Of the three, the Purrah is by far the most important. The entire native See also:population is governed by its See also:code of See also:laws. It primarily represents a type of See also:freemasonry, a "friendly" society to which even infants are temporarily admitted, the ceremony in their See also:case consisting merely of carrying them into the Purrah " See also:bush" and out again. But this See also:side of the Purrah is merged in its larger See also:objects as represented by its two See also:great aspects, the religious and the See also:civil. Under the former, boys join it at See also:puberty, while under the latter it is practically the native governing See also:body, making laws, deciding on See also:war and See also:peace, &c. The Purrah has its See also:special See also:ritual and See also:language, See also:tattooing and symbols, but details are unknown, as the See also:oath of secrecy is always kept. It meets usually in the dry See also:season, between the months of See also:October and May. The See also:rendezvous is in " the bush," an enclosure, separated into apartments by mats and roofed only by the over-See also:hanging trees, serving as a See also:club-See also:house. There are three grades, the first for chiefs and " big men," the second for fetish-priests and the third for the See also:crowd.

The ceremonies of the Purrah are presided over by the Purrah " See also:

devil," a See also:man in fetish See also:dress, who addresses the See also:meeting through a See also:long See also:tube of See also:wood. The Purrah can See also:place its See also:taboo on anything or anybody; and as no native would venture to'defy its See also:order, much trouble has been caused where the taboo has been laid upon crops. In 1897 the See also:British or See also:local See also:government was compelled to pass a special See also:ordinance absolutely forbidding the See also:imposition of the taboo on all indigenous products. Of the affiliated See also:societies the Yassi appears to some extent to be an association for providing men and women, who believe themselves See also:ill through "fetish," with medical treatment, on See also:payment of certain fees. The women's Bundu is in many ways a replica of the men's Purrah, though without See also:political See also:power. See T. J. Alldridge, The Sherbro and its See also:Hinterland (1901).

End of Article: PURRAH, PURROII

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