The language phenomena recorded here have been collected from four tribes, the Chaga, Pare (Wasu), Shambala, and Iramba. My informants were students at the Teachers' Training School, Marangu. The script employed is that used by the various missionary societies for literary and educational purposes.

The Kru, a West African Negro group, inhabit the central and southern part of Liberia. They are surrounded by the Basa peoples to the north-west, by the Grebo to the south-east and by the Putu to the north-east. The informant, Thomas Tarbour (Sieh Tagbweh), from whom the following material was derived, was a native of Grand Cess (Siglipo), a large coast town near the border of the Grebo country. The Kru, along with other related groups in that part of West Africa, have a tradition of having migrated from far to the north-east. The physical type is that of the short, stocky Bush negro. No archaeological work has been done in the region, and such ethnological material as has been collected is a mere beginning.

Comme parallèle à mon article d'Africa, du vol. v, no. 2, 1931, sur la famille pahouine, nous voulons essayer de montrer l'évolution de la famille galoase et les améliorations désirées par l'élite de la jeunesse. Les Galoas sont une branche des tribus de langue Omyεnε, qui se sont répandues dans tout le bassin du Bas-Ogoué, de la Côte équatoriale et dans l'estuaire du Gabon. Celles du Bas-Ogoué se livraient autrefois spécialement à l'achat des esclaves venus de l'intérieur (par la rivière Ngounyi et le Haut-Ogoué), et à leur vente aux négriers espagnols ou portugais qui emmenaient leur cargaison humaine en Amérique. L'occupation française de ces régions a fait cesser ce trafic, et les Galoas se sont mis au commerce des marchandises, soit en devenant eux-mêmes traitants, ou transitaires, ou encore en prenant des concessions de forêts pour l'abattage des bois d'okoumé.

I must make it clear at the outset that I do not profess to have any expert knowledge of nutritional questions, but I hope it will be agreed that it is riot necessary to have the knowledge of an expert in order to realize that there are vital differences between the problems of nutrition in highly developed countries of Western civilization and the tropical countries of which, in the main, the Colonial Empire consists. In these territories the bulk of the inhabitants are still living in conditions which are extremely primitive or backward.

Dès son apparition sur la terre, l'homme s'est vu entouré de forces mystérieuses. Il essaya, goûta de tout; l'expérience lui démontra qu'il devrait mettre un frein à ses désirs, à ses appétits. Il reconnut des vertus puissantes dans les plantes, dans les éléments: les unes donnent la santé, la force; d'autres les ruinent.

Every one who tries to write in an African language, especially if he is translating from a European language or compiling a textbook, very soon has to decide what he is going to do about foreign words. In Northern Nigeria, as in most parts of Africa, the difficulty arises largely from the fact that most of the literature has up till now been produced not by the people whose language it is, but by the foreigners who are introducing the new ideas for which terms are required. Indeed, if it were possible for the people to write their own books, the problem would solve itself, for the idea would first be conceived, and then a suitable equivalent in the vernacular found to express it, or a foreign term incorporated, as the necessity arose.

Reports of the occurrence of ‘woman marriage’ in parts of Africa as far distant from one another as northern and southern Nigeria, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and the Union of South Africa indicate the possibility that there may be other instances of this institution that have gone unrecorded. The purpose of this paper is therefore to call attention to this striking phase of social organization by describing the form which ‘woman marriage’ takes in Dahomey, presenting data collected in the field in 1931. In doing this, attention will be paid to such aspects of the social setting in which this kind of marriage is lodged as may be needed to allow it best to be understood, while some of the attitudes which arise from it will also be indicated.

Among the Edo tribes which inhabit the Benin Province of Southern Nigeria are found in each village men corresponding to the old medieval troubadours, the repositories of the stories and legends of the past. They are not, of course, peculiar to the Edo tribes, but are found in most African societies. Sometimes these persons are the elders of the village, sometimes the telling of the tales is left to the young men, who amuse themselves and their friends by relating fables of the Aesop variety, or by describing with a wealth of pantomime and gesture some event round which a mass of legendary detail has arisen. The narration holds the audience enthralled, though most of the tales will be familiar, and the eloquence of the teller receives instant appreciation. The various actions described are imitated, and onomatopoeic sounds are freely used. Any misfortune to the characters of the story, particularly if caused by the tricks of the ‘villain’, draws forth roars of laughter, and any magical or mysterious happening elicits a chorus of grunts and exclamations of surprise.