The gani ceremonial, which I propose to discuss in this paper, is not Nupe by origin but was introduced by a small group of immigrants from Bornu, Mohammedans by religion, who, between 1760 and 1770, settled in Nupe country in and around the village of Kutigi. They still call themselves, after their country of origin, Benú—the Nupe version of the name for Bornu, but are in every other respect completely Nupeized. The historical facts are reasonably certain: moreover, according to two ethnographical accounts, the people of Bornu still practise a ceremonial called gani, though from the reports it is impossible to say how far this ceremonial resembles the Nupe variant. In Nupe the gani is only practised in the few villages where the immigrants now live among the original pagan population, though there it is performed by the whole community together—immigrants and original inhabitants alike. All these facts are important and will receive attention later.

Where racial antipathies exist there is a tendency on the part of the dominant group to avoid personal contacts with the subordinate race or races. This is perhaps especially the case in the intimate relationship of marriage. The study of inter-racial marriage data may therefore provide useful indices to changes in caste and class relationships in multi-racial communities. In this paper figures are presented for racial intermarriage in the Union of South Africa since 1925, the year in which it became compulsory to state the race of the contracting parties, and suggestions are made as to possible reasons for the trends which can be observed.

The official religion in Ethiopia is Christianity, a part of the Ethiopian population are Moslems, others, called Falasha, are of Jewish faith, still others are pagans. Whatever their religious beliefs, Ethiopians have in common a belief in the spirit called zar. The name is of non-Semitic origin, probably derived from the name of the supreme divinity of the pagan Cushites, the God-Heaven called in Agau ğar, and in Sidamo languages: Kaffa yarō, Buoro darō. This ancient pagan god is regarded in christianized Abyssinia as a malevolent genius. Although the official church, Christian or Moslem, condemns the belief in zar and the practices connected with it, the current opinion is that everyone ‘has a zar’.

During the last twenty years a new chapter has been opened in the study of the Sudanic languages of West Africa by research into their tonal structure. The presence of semantic or lexical tone had long been recognized in these languages: it was known, that is to say, that words otherwise homonymous were distinguished by differences of tone pattern, and that these differences were significant for meaning. It was, however, the work of Dr. Ida Ward in Nigeria which first made clear the essential part played by tone in the grammar of some of these languages, and subsequent research has confirmed this fact.

Bolobo is situated on the River Congo, some 200 miles farther from the coast than Léopoldville, the capital. At the time of Stanley's exploratory voyage the inhabitants consisted of two main tribes: the Bobangi, who had migrated from the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Mobangi River with the main stream, and the BaMoie, who are an off-shoot of the BaMongo tribe of Coquilhatville Province. The original owners of hunting rights in this place were not residents, and there is every ground for believing that these hunters, the BaTende tribe, mixed freely with the new-comers before their tribal limits were fixed some five miles inland from the river. At present the Bobangi are very few in number and are fast disappearing. The Moie, Tende, and Sengele elements predominate, with smaller numbers of a dozen other tribes, who have come here since that time for purposes of trade or employment, completing the 7,000 residents.