8 4 
The Minor Tribes 
it from a basin, gives it a name, and pronounces a 
benediction, his example being followed by all 
present. The man-child is exhorted to be truth¬ 
ful, and the girl to “ tell plenty lie,” in order to 
lead a happy life. Truly a new form of the re¬ 
generative rite! 
A curious prepossession of the African mind, 
curious and yet general, in a land where population 
is the one want, and where issue is held the 
greatest blessing, is the imaginary necessity of 
limiting the family. Perhaps this form of infanti¬ 
cide is a policy derived from ancestors who found 
it necessary. In the kingdom of Apollonia 
(Guinea) the tenth child was always buried alive; 
never a Decimus was allowed to stand in the way 
of the nine seniors. The birth of twins is an evil 
portent to the Mpongwes, as it is in many parts of 
Central Africa, and even in the New World; it 
also involves the idea of moral turpitude, as if the 
woman were one of the lower animals, capable of 
superfetation. There is no greater insult to a man, 
than to point at him with two fingers, meaning 
that he is a twin ; of course he is not one, or he 
would have been killed at birth. Albinos are 
allowed to live, as in Dahome, in Ashanti, and 
among some East African tribes, where I have 
been “ chaffed ” about a brother white, who proved 
to be an exceptional negro without pigmentum 
nigrum .. 
