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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... Returning to the West African scene, I looked again toward the 'cults' , in which the most prevalent and notable was that of the "Leopard Society', which seems to have had a history of tribal tradition going back many years. However by the 19th century into early 20th, these warrior groups had become rather nefarious cults, and with apparently diverse ajendas and character.
In these 'societies' (which were more cults ), the members believed (contrived) to become possessed by the carnivorous animals they revered, and they committed heinous crimes while 'under the spell'.
With the 'leopard men' , they dressed as leopards using various covers of either actual hide or material simulating the animal, and designed steel claws (much like the Indian bagh nakh). ... These 'shape shifting' totemic identies also included crocodiles, but the 'costuming ' in those cases remain unclear. While there are depictions of the leopard men, I am not aware of similar of 'crocodile men'...
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Dear Jim, i followed your perspective and am now coming from the reading of a blog well detailed on the moves of these leopard men beasts; simply horrifying.
Concerning the (apparent) non existence of other wild animals 'vests', the blogger argues that:
In fact, in the underworld of African cults and sects, there were Cults devoted to Baboons and Crocodiles that acted like their totemic animals, imitating their behavior and killing as they acted in the wild. The leopard, however, was the largest and most feared of the Cults for being considered a strong animal and responsible for guiding the dead in the other world.
This could be an explanation. Yet we still see a 'missing link' between putting on an animal hide and building a metal chest cuirass covered with a portion of skin.