SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 443, 
descendants of immigravts from a land where preservation was practised. The 
occasional use of canoe-shaped coffins, and one example of a box with cover 
carved to represent the deceased, suggests Egyptian influence. The anthropo- 
morphic figure is common in the’ Congo and West Africa. Representations of 
the deceased are sometimes set up during funeral ceremonies, and in at least 
one case the spirit of the dead person is believed to animate the figure. If 
these customs are due to Egyptian influence their presence in West Africa and 
their absence in the pastoral regions may be due either to the influence of a centre 
established by sea-farers on the West Coast, or to a diffusion by land which was 
wiped out in East and North Africa by the arrival of the pastorals. 
14, Rev. J. Roscozr.—Death Ceremonies as practised among the Tribes 
of the Lake Region of Uganda. 
The Bagesu are ceremonial cannibals and eat their dead lest the ghost do 
harm to the young people of the family. Among the pastoral tribes of Ankole 
royal persons are thought to transmigrate into animals and reptiles, but ordinary 
persons are buried with ceremony in the dung-heap in the kraal and the ghost 
is given cows, whose milk is laid before it daily at a shrine in the heir’s house. 
In Bunyoro the king is deified and human sacrifices are offered to him. The 
ordinary person is buried with ceremonies similar to those in Ankole. In 
Buganda attention is paid to a higher rank of gods, but these have been proved 
to have originated in ghosts, and the king is regularly deified. The ordinary 
man becomes a powerful ghost, and all sorts of things are given to him to gain 
his favour, but after a time he is reincarnated. The ghost is the only super- 
natural being the native understands, and it is on the power of the ghost that 
not only religion but laws and social customs are based. 
15. Mr. F. W. H. Miczop.—Ceremonial and Mystic Avoidance of 
Contact with the Ground. 
In Africa there are dancers who are completely covered so that no part of 
the body is visible, and the feet are also covered so that, though the dancing 
is incommoded, the ground is not touched. Other dancers, when resting before 
starting again, are only allowed to sit on another person, and when doing so 
the feet may not touch the ground. Others again are carried on the shoulders 
of their friends in the intervals. Some fetish women of high repute may never 
be seen walking, but ride on a special attendant’s shoulders. Brides have to 
be carried by the bridegroom or a friend, and widows similarly after the 
husband’s funeral. In some initiation fetish ceremonies the initiate meets the 
head of the Order lying in the path, and has to walk on his body. Further, 
in a certain cattle tribe the newly elected chief has to walk on a man’s corpse after 
cattle have been driven over the man and trampled him to death. 
It is unlikely that there is one general underlying reason applicable to all the 
many ceremonial occasions on which contact is avoided, as the occasions and 
attendant circumstances are so diverse. The reason seems usually to be unknown 
to the performers. 
16, Mr. M. W. Hitron-Simpson.—The Modern Use of the ‘ Water- 
clock ’ in Algerian Irrigation. 
The irrigation of the Aurés is carried out by deflecting the meagre streams 
into a network of ‘seggias,’ or miniature canals. Before the arrival of the 
French in Algeria disputes between tribes or villages arising from irrigation 
questions were frequent. The ‘ water-clock’ is still in use among the Shawia 
in order peaceably to divide among the owners of gardens in a single village 
the periods of irrigation from a ‘seggia’ to which each has become entitled 
by purchase or bequest. The ‘clock’ consists of a circular bowl, about 
six inches in diameter and two and a-quarter inches deep, the bottom of which 
is perforated with a minute hole. As the waters of a ‘seggia’ are turned into 
a garden the bowl is floated in a vessel of water and immediately refloated 
when it sinks, each owner being entitled to a definite number of ‘sinkings’ 
before the water is deflected from his land. The bowls are now often made 
of zinc, but older specimens are of hammered copper. A possible clue to the 
origin of the latter is suggested by the Roman ‘seggias,’ hewn in the solid 
rock, portions of which are in use to-day in the Aurés. 
HH 2 
