Religious legitimation was twofold. First, there was an indirect power based on the ancestors who could send or withhold good fortune in childbirth, crops and hunting and afflict those neglectful of familial and reciprocal 'gift' duties. Ancestral power legitimised an existing hierarchy of positional succession that generated unequal access to marriageable women. A legitimate use of ancestral power was the acquisition of wives as a means of expanding the descent group and enhancing one's social standing. Secondly, there was a direct power held by individuals to greater or lesser degree which could express itself either in good magic or bad witchcraft, depending on character and intention (Chilver 1990: 234). This power was generally seen as a projectile, a transform or 'bush soul' (in high Pidgin English) hidden in an individuals' inner organs. Its owners have 'four eyes', a human pair and that of the embodied projection, which enable them to detect both dangers and opportunities. In envious persons this power might tempt them to 'eat' the life-force of rivals or even of their own kinsfolk. The world of witchcraft, at work at night, was also a world of desirable wealth. A visit to it was full of dangers and might involve capture and forcible induction into a witch-group. But since this power was strong, it was harnessed in the palace societies. For example, the night lodge of the regulatory society, nggwase, was credited with special powers of detection and could use good magic against bad witchcraft.

The slave-trade, which informants described in terms of violence and illegitimacy, distorted the reciprocities of marriage exchanges. It brought into households persons alienated from kin and hence distanced from the sanction of affliction from angered ancestors. The issue of slaves increased the powers of bridegivers since, as legal fathers, they could threaten affliction on tardy bride-price payers. The slave trade, often secret, offered a standing temptation to regulatory associations to accuse persons of witchcraft and sell them as penal slaves, or to allow unpopular persons to be denuded of their wealth on some pretext or other.

Thus great uneasiness surrounded the accumulation of wealth and men avoided accusations of witch-wealth by redistributing it by investment in membership of secret palace societies. This provided a means of acquiring good standing which could also be obtained by gifts to the palace or by obtaining wives for juniors. This provided a means of using the profits of trade to avoid accusations and acquire prestige or 'symbolic capital', to use Bourdieu's (1977) terms. Thus much wealth was recirculated in prestige consumption within the existing upper levels of Bamunka society - councillors, royals, important retainers, quarter heads, and heads of large compounds. Wealth was also allowed to 'trickle down', for example, as on feast days when the palace or a notable fed large numbers, or helped a son or client to acquire a wife.