BEADED LEOPARD 113 leopard skin appears half a century later in a photo taken in 1957 in the Bamileke town of Bana. It is shown displayed in the hands of a wala, the priest or minister in charge of royal regalia (fig. 11). This object was remembered as having been used as a dance garment that once belonged to a mafo, a close female relation of the ruler—usually a sister but in this case possibly the mother—who holds the rank of a female chief. It was specifically associated with the Mafo Mbialeu, which, if the attribution is correct, would date it at least to the mid nineteenth century.18 Louis Perrois and Jean-Paul Notué have commented on the same object, adding that it could have served as a dance accouterment, ground cover for prestige objects, footrest, and cult object.19 The fabulous bead embroidery of this object was in blue, red, and white and had a swirling rhythm offsetting inserts of triangles, circles, rosettes, and checked patterns. It is not clear whether this object, which sadly was destroyed in a fire, actually included a leopard skin, since only its beaded surface can be recognized in the photo, but whether it did or didn’t, its design is certainly strikingly FIG. 8 (top left): Seated young chief, Dschang area. Photo: Frank Christol, c. 1930. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. #1998-10200-730. FIG. 9 (left): Royal cloth. Grasslands, Cameroon. Plain weave cotton, indigo resist dyed. 131 x 282 cm. Donated by the Secrétariat d'Etat à la Coopération et à la Francophonie. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. #71.1962.59.99. FIG. 10 (above): The outer wall of the king’s compound in Bali. Photo: Jonathan Striebel, 1908/09. University of Southern California, Libraries: Basel Mission Archives/ Basel Mission Holdings E-30.27.003. similar to the San Francisco example. While we know that leopard pelts were associated with royal prestige display, there are many arguments that assert this type of object also belonged to the kuosi (elephant society).20 In situ images dating to the early 1950s and taken in Bandjoun and in Bafoussam illustrate kuosi members performing a ceremonial dance then called nékang.21 A prestigious leopard pelt belongs to the costume of the highest grades and is attached to the dancer’s back, an ensemble that is recorded even in relatively recent photography (fig. 12). The costume of elephant maskers consisted of a cowlshaped headpiece with rotund elephant ears that stick out horizontally and vertical cloth strips hanging down the front and back of the wearer (fig. 2). The body was covered with a complex robe of the aforementioned royal cloth, as well as a beaded vest with broad belt.22 During a visit in 1935 to Bazou near Bangante, about 60 km southeast of Bafoussam, Egerton was able to watch a performance by two or three dozen “elephant men.” He observes, “Many of them wore the blue and white batik
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