SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FEIDAY, MAY 6, 1887. 



ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES.] 

 TJie tribes of Sierra Leone. 



The journal of the Anthropological institute, 

 for February, 1887, contains a description of the 

 tribes of Sierra Leone, by T. R. Griffith. The 

 colony is not the place to study the characteristic 

 features of African man, as its population is a 

 conglomerate of an enormous number of African 

 tribes, the colony having been for many years the 

 place to which were carried all liberated slaves 

 rescued by British men-of-war. It is of consider- 

 able interest to study the development of such an 

 aggregate of natives of various parts of Africa, 

 particularly as they are under the influence of 

 powerful and homogeneous tribes which inhabit 

 the interior. Griffith states that the amalgama- 

 tion of these elements is going on very slowly, 

 and that exclusive tendencies still prevail. A 

 peculiar dialect of the English language is now 

 spoken by the inhabitants. Besides the popula- 

 tion of liberated slaves, we find the so-called 

 Nova-Scotians and the Maroons. The former are 

 the descendants of American negroes who had 

 fought under the English flag in the American 

 war, and were first transferred to Nova Scotia, 

 then in 1792 to Sierra Leone. The Maroons had 

 lived in the mountains of Jamaica, and had 

 claimed their freedom when England took that 

 island from the Spaniards. The latter are mixed 

 with Spanish and probably Carib blood. They 

 have a quarter of their own in Freetown, Both 

 Nova-Scotians and Maroons are remarkable for 

 their dislike of agriculture. There are some per- 

 manent residents from other parts of Africa, who 

 form a distinct part of the population, — the 

 Akus, who are liberated slaves from Yoruba, a 

 state west of the Niger and near Lagos ; the Ibos, 

 from the same country ; and the Krumen. The 

 last-mentioned people are the well-known seamen 

 of Africa, who serve on European steamships, and 

 are the most industrious of the coast tribes. Their 

 home is east of Cape Palmas. In Freetown they 

 occupy a quarter of their own, the population of 

 which is almost entirely masculine. There ai'e 

 several large rivers in this district, of which the 

 Sarcies and Rockelle are the most important. The 

 country between these rivers is inhabited by the 

 Timene (Timmani), who formerly possessed the 



peninsula of Freetown also. Their northern neigh- 

 bors are the Susu, — a people of mixed origin, 

 being originally a branch of the Mandingo, who 

 conquered their present country, and intermarried 

 with its former inhabitants, the Bagas. The 

 Mandingo occupy the higlilands east and south- 

 east of Sierra Leone. It seems that the state of 

 all these tribes has little changed since the begin- 

 ning of this century : for the description of Major 

 Laing, who travelled in the Timene country in 

 1827, agrees well with Griffith's remarks. The 

 Mandingos are Mohammedans, while among the 

 other tribes the ancient belief still prevails. The 

 Mendes, who live south of the Timene, are, accord- 

 ing to Griffith, "thorough pagans, and probably 

 there is no tribe near to Sierra Leone that indulges 

 so much in superstitions of every description." 

 Among the Susu and Timene there are many 

 Mohammedans. Besides these, the Sherbros and 

 Vei live in the colony, the latter being well known 

 on account of the invention of a written language. 



Among the peculiar institutions of these tribes, 

 the secret societies, which have a great influence on 

 public life, are particularly remarkable. There is 

 a society of women, called Bundu, and another 

 one of men, called Por6. The initiation, which 

 takes place when the children come of age, is 

 celebrated with great ceremony. The girls are led 

 into the woods and kept in seclusion for one moon 

 and one day before they are allowed to return into 

 the village. At the end of the term they receive 

 Bundu names with great ceremony and gesticula- 

 tion by some who personate 'Bundu devils' with 

 hideous masks. The girls are then publicly pro- 

 nounced marriageable. The following illustrations 

 are three of these masks which were exhibited in 

 the London colonial exhibition. Fig. 1 is a large 

 white mask with red mouth and black mustache 

 and hair, ornamented with white bark. The 

 dancer wears, besides this mask, a belt and arm 

 and leg ornaments of white bark. Fig. 2 is a 

 ' Bundu devil ' of the Sherbro. The whole mask is 

 black, and so are the fringes of bark that are fas- 

 tened to its lower rim. Fig. 3 is another ' Bundu 

 devil' with a beautiful hair dress, earrings, and 

 shells in place of the eyes. Masks of this kind are 

 used all over West Africa. In Central Africa 

 masks are not unknown, some being found on the 

 left tributaries of the Kongo, others in Lunda. 



The initiation of the men is called Poro or Puru, 

 and so is their secret society. Griffith distin- 

 guishes two kinds of Poro, — the religious and the 



