"The number sacrificed depends, of course, upon how many can be found," answered Ama; "but generally there are at least three hundred; this time it is hoped that there may be many more.  As to where they come from, a good many are `smelled out' by Mafuta and his assistants, and the rest are made up of such prisoners as may happen to be in our possession at the time.  There are five hundred hunters out now securing prisoners; we expect them back to-morrow or the next day.  And that reminds me, Dick," she added, with a sudden access of gravity, "if you had not been clever enough to save my life when the snake bit me, you would most certainly have been one of the victims; indeed it was with a view to sacrificing you at the Customs that my father accepted you from the Igbo."