50 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



Of all these the most powerful during the British occupation 

 have always been the Timni (Timani, Temne), who 

 Beliefs! 1 so ^ to the English the peninsula on which now 



stands Freetown, but afterwards crying off the 

 bargain, repeatedly tried to drive the white and coloured intruders 

 into the sea. They are a robust people of softened Negro type, 

 and more industrious farmers than most of the other natives. 

 Like the Wolofs they believe in the virtue both of Christian and 

 Moslem amulets, but have hitherto lent a deaf ear to the preachers 

 of both these religions. Nevertheless the Protestant missionaries 

 have carefully studied the Timni language, which possesses an oral 

 literature rich in legends, proverbs, and folklore 1 . 



The Timni district is a chief centre of the so-called porro 

 fraternity 2 , a sort of secret society or freemasonry 

 widely diffused throughout the coastlands, and 

 possessing its own symbols, tattoo markings, pass- 

 words, and language. It presents curious points of contact with 

 the brotherhoods of the Micronesian islanders, but appears to be 

 even more potent for good and evil, a veritable religious and 

 political state within the state. "When their mandates are issued 

 all wars and civil strife must cease, a general truce is established, 

 and bloodshed stopped, offending communities being punished 

 by bands of armed men in masks. Strangers cannot enter the 

 country unless escorted by a member of the guild, who is recog- 

 nised by passwords, symbolic gestures, and the like. Their secret 

 rites are celebrated at night in the depths of the forest, all intruders 

 being put to death or sold as slaves 3 ." 



In studying the social conditions prevalent amongst the Sierra 

 Leonese proper, it should be remembered that they 

 6 are s P run g> not on b' from representatives of almost 



1 A full account of this literature will be found in the Rev. C. F. Schlenker's 

 valuable work, A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs ; London, 

 1861. Here is given the curious explanation of the tribal name, from o-tem, 

 an old man, and ne, himself, because, as they say, the Temne people will exist 

 for ever. 



2 There is also a sisterhood the bondo and the two societies work so far in 

 harmony that any person expelled from the one is also excluded from the other. 



3 Rechis, Keane's English ed., xn. p. 203. 



