This is an account of property-holding among the Ciga, who live in the mountain highlands of western Uganda and northern Ruanda. When British dominion over them was established the Ciga were independent. They were even then resisting attempts at conquest from Ruanda, and were themselves pressing against their northern neighbours. Unlike most peoples of the region, the Ciga were not ruled by Hamitic overlords.

In the native mind evil, and especially any sort of disease as well as death is due either to beings out of a man's reach (spiritual beings) or to human beings endowed with extraordinary power (witches, sorcerers, operators of black magic).

There are a few cases in which the natives accept the evidence of facts: perhaps the only one in which almost all of them agree is in the case of murder. Should a man be deliberately killed, suspicions of witchcraft are not entertained. But should he be killed by a wild beast while hunting, inquiries may be made as to the indirect cause of his death. It will be asked: who advised him to go hunting? who brought that bad beast on to his path? who caused the hunter to miss it?

Vorbemerkungen : Der Nsungli-Stamm bewohnt ein Gebiet im nördlichen Kamerun unter britischem Mandat. Es erstreckt sich von etwa 6° 5′ N. bis 6° 45′ N. und von 10° 30′ bis 11° 15′ O. Das Gelände ist vorwiegend welliges Hochland von 1600 bis 2300 m. Man unterscheidet zwei Jahreszeiten: die Trockenzeit und die Regenzeit. Erstere beginnt Anfang November. Im März setzen in der Regel wieder die ersten Regen ein. Die eigentlichen Regenmonate sind Juli bis Oktober. Bedingt durch die Höhenlage hat das Nsungli-Land eine für afrikanische Verhältnisse recht niedrige Temperatur. Meist sind morgens 7 h nicht mehr als 9-12° C. Mittags steigt das Thermometer auf 20-28° C, um am Abend wieder auf 15-18° C zu fallen. Bei Einwirkung der rauhen NO. Winde geht die Temperatur auch noch unter 7° C zurück.

La tribu des Sénoufos habite principalement le nord de la Côte d'lvoire, tandis que quelques groupements moins importants resident dans les districts méridionaux du Soudan français, entre Jes fleuves Baoulé et Volta Noire. Son territoire s'étend entre le 8e et le 11e degré de latitude nord. Comme les Sénoufos y vivent à côte d'autres tribus sur ce territoire, il est difficile de déterminer leur nombre exact, les recensements officiels du gouvernement colonial ne faisant généralement aucune distinction entre les tribus différentes. Néanmoins on peut approximativement évaluer les Sénoufos à 800,000 individus, y compris les anciens esclaves, prisonniers de guerres et leurs descendants qui ont accepté les coutumes et les mœurs de leurs maîtres. Cette tribu se subdivise en clans à idiome propre, avec certaines variantes dans les coutumes secondaires. Les clans principaux sont: les Naffaras, les Kiémbaras, les Niarafolos, les Pallakas, les Diébalas, les Tagouanas, les Niellés.

A Young man and a young woman of the same village or of divisions of the same village look and look at each other with shy glances. The young man is in love with the girl and the girl is in love with the young man. One day the young man will speak to the other young men in the onjango and say, Fellows, Ngandi's little daughter hurts me. Now then if I had said, After a few days I shall send you to propose a trial marriage to her, would it have been all right? Then the others will say, Yeah, old man, maybe you are talking nonsense; we thought that there was something between you, as you avoid each other; there is no hindrance, it is all right in that quarter, old fellow.

In a recent issue of a weekly review devoted to the interests of East Africa, the Editor drew attention to an African aptitude which is of a very modern kind and has a particular interest for every one anxious to know, and to utilize, Africa's own thought and opinion. He had been studying a copy of Mutende (‘Peace’), which is the newspaper experiment of the moment in Northern Rhodesia under government auspices, and had been struck—as a journalist—with the contributions to its columns by Africans. Mutende is a multi-lingual production, under European editorship, and occupies a place of great potential importance within the Copper Belt area, where the absence of any sort of provision for the intelligent use of leisure time was shown to have been a contributing cause of the unfortunate trouble in 1935 between government and mine employees.

In a recent contribution Mr. A. V. P. Elliot has broached a subject which requires the serious consideration of all educationists in East Africa. One hopes that the interchange of information which he suggests will take place.

Great progress has been made in recent years in the study of African languages and in the construction of suitable and standardized orthographies. This work has had several aims, among them those of bringing order out of confusion and of ensuring that the sounds of the spoken word shall be adequately represented in writing. There is, however, one all-important and far-reaching aim, referred to by Professor Westermann in The International Review of Missions. ‘Orthography and the evolution of a standard language are means to an end, and the end is a vernacular literature.’

Kikuyu stories, like all unwritten literature, tend to be fluid. No two people seem to know quite the same version of a story, and one person may give as one long story what another will tell you should be two distinct shorter ones. Moreover, practically all direct speech is quoted in the form of a song, both the words of the song and the music varying with different reciters. Kikuyu stories are full of repetition.