hERRY—T/ie Sierra Leone Cannibals. 33 



women's heads heiug all closely shaved. . . . VVheu a uegro mau goes from 

 home he has always his knapsack on his back, in which he has his provisions 

 and tobacco, his pipe being seldom from his month ; besides which he has 

 always his Uttle sword by his side, made by themselves of such iron as they 

 get from the Eui-opeans ; his bow also, and c^uiver full of poisoned arrows, 

 pointed with iron like a snake's tongue, or else a case of javeHus or darts, 

 having ii'on heads of good breadth, and made sharp, sometimes both." 



Succession. — The African social and political unit is the village. A village 

 consists of a headman and a number of group-families, the members of which 

 are each and severally responsible for the actions and debts of the others. If 

 theft is committed, it is only necessary to fix it on the village ; the headman 

 traces the responsibility to the group-family, and it is then for the head of the 

 family to bring it home to the individual. If the individual cannot make 

 good the theft by returning the articles or paying in land, the responsibility 

 falls on the family ; if the family fail, restitution must be made to the owners 

 by the village. As a consequence, there is Little or no theft, and storehouses 

 require no locks, for the headman and the village collectively are responsible 

 for seeing that each family gets its normal needs. Should the family fail to 

 support itself, its immediate needs are supplied by others ; but the rice it 

 receives is not a gift, only a loan, which has to be repaid in kind or in labour 

 the following year. Similarly, in war, the village is the unit, and each head- 

 man must produce his quota. The headman thus becomes the political, 

 military, and social head of the village community. This position is hereditary. 



The lands of the village surround it ; and when the population of a village 

 increases to such an extent that it has outgrown the available lands within 

 easy distance, there is a palaver, and an able man is chosen. At the head of 

 the youths and maidens who have passed the initiation school, are fit to marry 

 and are not otherwise appropriated, he sets out one day, each of his followers 

 carrying whatever of food and property has been spared from the family needs. 

 Travelling onwards, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, rising ground 

 suitable for a village is eventually reached. If there is nearness to water, and 

 a good supply of it, lands suitable for rice and casada, and plenty of palms, 

 the site is decided to be good. First, they clear a site for the village ; then as 

 the clearing progresses, the framework of the huts is made and the compounds 

 outlined, and while the men clear the more distant parts and prepare the 

 ground for cultivation, the women plaster the mud walls and prepare the 

 town. For purposes of defence the town is always laid out in the form of a 

 maze. This formation confuses an enemy should he gain possession of it, and 

 facilitates retreat of the defenders. The leader of this migration is called the 

 Kumra-Bai , and he is responsible on behalf of the new community that they, 



