West African witchcraft practices told with the intent to amaze are here collected as the result of the author's years in the Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Niger Delta and South Africa. The publishers claim it to be ""the first popular book to deal so fully with the native African's conception of magic"". Whether first or not, they are right about its being popular, for Mr. Bolinder goes into his details from an extremely western point of view, judging the native practices on the basic point of how we ourselves would feel under similar circumstances. Invalid as it is, this basic assumption does not becloud the startling facts he presents, of the external manifestations of tribal life. In the Sierra Leone for instance, there are the two strong male and female societies- Poro and Bundu- with which Mr. Bolinder has become well enough acquainted to give us graphic instances of initiation rites as well as a feeling for their ideals- fertility, ancestor veneration and powerful allegiance. Further, there are the occasions of human and animal sacrifice, the position of the witch doctor etc., and the African relation to the vast supernatural that is strong enough to create the unbelievable and regulate even the lives of the whites. However, this is still more eye-opening than definitive.