As the title of this paper suggests, the movement described in it is not the first of its kind to have been recorded in Central Africa. About fourteen years ago Dr. Audrey I. Richards reported on a witchfinding movement associated with the Nyanja word mcape. (Local variations include mcapi, mucapi, &c.—referring to the medicine—and the Bemba called the medicine-vendors the Bamucapi.)

A Sketch of two incidents recorded in my field notes will serve to introduce the subject of this paper.

1. Nanyuki and his wife Mwango were completing their marriage by the enyangi ceremony. I was to see the second of the major sacrifices, which takes place at the husband's homestead. A day after the appointed time, Nanyuki informed me that everything was being held up. Mwango, he said, refused to go on unless he gave her a he-goat. He had tried all day in vain to get her one; none of his neighbours wanted to barter, and he could not afford money. I almost suspected a device for putting me off and preventing me from being present at the ceremony. Why should Nanyuki, who, I knew, was eager to get back to work in his swamp garden, allow his plans to be upset by Mwango's whim? However, his anxiety and exasperation seemed genuine enough; he told me that he could not think what to do, and would have to consult Kebaso, his dead father's brother.

Jusqu'a une date très récente l'usage du gnomon chez les Bambara du Soudan français était, on peut dire, général. Il se trouvait presque sans exception dans tous les villages des masa dont les attributions et le rôle dans la société bambara, malgré des travaux importants consacrés à cette ethnie, sont loin d'être exactement connus. Actuellement, l'influence musulmane, comme aussi le contact avec notre civilisation, ont fait disparaître l'emploi de cet instrument astronomique; les vieux Bambara n'en parlent plus que comme d'une chose du passé. Mais la mémoire des informateurs très divers est vive à son endroit, et, sans rien vouloir exagérer, il semblerait qu'il s'agisse là d'un des plus vieux et des plus authentiques édifices de la civilisation Noire.

This paper forms part of a short general account of the Luo based on a rapid survey made in 1936. The survey was financed by the Leverhulme Grants Committee. An earlier part, describing the political structure of the Luo, has recently appeared in another journal.

Apart from information provided by Father Hartmann and a fuller account by Mr. K. C. Shaw, early accounts of Luo marriage are slight, and in some cases misleading. Mr. Shaw's account covers a good part of the ground covered by the present paper, but it is useful to have two independent accounts, especially as both were written from information obtained through interpreters. When I went to Kenya I did not expect to visit the Luo and I had not therefore read Mr. Shaw's article. Mr. Shaw and I disagree in a number of particulars in the overlapping parts of our papers. It does not follow from this that either of us is wrong in our statements because, as Mr. Shaw points out, there is some variation in local custom in the different tribes of Luoland. My own information on this particular subject was mostly obtained from the Alego tribe of Central Kavirondo. In the main I have followed the account given me by Pastor Ezekiel of that tribe. In doing so I have omitted much detail.

Une particularité des langues bantoues, dont on ne connaît encore ni l'origine, ni toute l'étendue, est l'emploi de prépréfixes devant les substantifs. On donne le nom de prépréfixes à des éléments qui précèdent les préfixes nominaux ordinaires; cette particularité a été constatée dans assez bien de langues bantoues, tant dans le sud — par exemple, Zulu, Xhosa, Thonga — que dans le nord-est — Ziba, Ruanda, Ganda — de l'Afrique.