Since this paper will be chiefly concerned with the suggestion of methods for the investigation of a specific problem, it is necessary first to define the problem as clearly as possible.

In the Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1943 I said, ‘Every culture has its “hard” and its “soft” points. If change is first sought at the former it will provoke resistance and very likely open discord, while the latter are yielding and it is from them that reformation will spread.’ There seems to be no possible dispute about the fact. But to admit the fact carries us only a very little way towards solving the problems to which the existence of yielding and unyielding features of culture gives rise. In the lecture I attempted to go no farther than a very general discussion of these problems. I was therefore pleased when, some time ago, I received a letter from the Editor of this Journal inviting me to discuss more fully what psychological methods may be applied, not merely to recognize those ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ points of culture which history has demonstrated, but to predict them before such demonstration.

It has already been announced in Africa that the Institute is engaged on the first steps of the preparation of a Handbook of African Languages. The widest possible co-operation of African linguists is essential if this work is to be authoritative. As questions of terminology and of method are of central importance, it has seemed desirable to set out briefly here certain points which may stimulate comment and also help towards a systematic handling of material.

The object of this paper is to describe the initiation ceremonies into the Buyeye, a society of snake-charmers, the main purpose of which is to give the members a knowledge of all matters concerning snakes, especially the cure of snake-bites. This knowledge enables members to handle snakes with impunity, although they only do so for purposes of propaganda.

Translation is not commonly esteemed to rank among the highest of literary arts; but it is a very useful art. Here is an example of what Africans are doing to naturalize glories of English literature. It is taken from the rendering of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into Ila (a language of Northern Rhodesia) which won the prize in the Institute's Competition, 1937–8: the immortal scene of the trial of Christian and Faithful in the town that was named Vanity. The Rev. J. W. Price, who spent nearly twenty-seven years among the Ba-ila, has put it back into English as literally as possible, to show the degree to which Moses Mubitana has caught the meaning and spirit of the original.