Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/866

 850 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

African is apt to convey exactly the piece of information which he suspects the questioner would like to receive. In putting questions one must also have regard to the inability of these people to work with abstract ideas. The items which follow I have not attempted to organize or combine, or correlate with other simi- lar facts, but simply to present as observations made during a long residence in the Cameroon district.

There are many sorts of secret societies in the Dualla region. Each organiza- tion has its peculiar sign which consists of a characteristic object which has great significance in the rites and activities of the society. The Kongolo, for example, wear bells about their necks, in their dances, while the Tambinde are distinguished by caps made from the tailfeathers of parrots.

An interesting group is the Ubomako or " Walkers Upon Stilts." Their sign is a stilt, which serves as a concrete expression of " bigness." By no means all the members of this society understand the art of using stilts, but the implement serves as the official token of the group. Entrance into this society is open to both slaves and freemen.

A purely slave league is that of the Bajongs, whose symbol is a conventional- ized antelope's head. Both classes may belong to the Mungi, whose members bear one or two tattooed crosses upon the breast and the stomach. They are reputed to be able to cause sickness and even death by putting a mungi bush before the house door of their debtors. The debtor in such cases loses no time in settling accounts, after doing which he removes the bush with dancing and song. They also plant poisonous peppers in the field of an enemy, who, if he picks them, will suffer a poor harvest or will himself become sick.

The league known as the Gingu possess great power ; they can bring misery and sickness upon a whole village. They are reputed to have so-called " brothers " dwelling as spirits in the waters, to whom fruits are offered after the harvest. These spirits aid their mortal brothers in the pursuit of the sea cows. Two other spirits Edumo, an evil earth-spirit, and Ekelle-Kette, a mischievous sprite who misplaces household utensils are recognized.

Witchcraft plays a large part in the imagination of the blacks of the African west coast. When the smallpox breaks out in a neighborhood, the spirit of sick- ness is driven out of the village in the person of a Bushman of the Bassa tribe who have a reputation for especial magical powers, to the accompaniment of long- continued drumming and dancing. The village is then surrounded by a rope, in order that the sickness may not enter again.

In cases of witchcraft the wish, the abstract curse, does not suffice ; some concrete material poison must be introduced in an invisible way into the victim. This is apparent in bewitching from a distance. Sometimes the medicine-man is able to get the enemy into his power in the form of a turtle which he makes sick and possibly causes to die. The enemy also sickens or dies at the same time. (As Herr Standinger remarked in commenting upon this report when read before the Berlin Society, we have here a very interesting case of the power of sugges- tion working upon the fears and the vital processes of the victim, who falls into the greatest despondency and apathy, due to the settled conviction that he can- not survive the death of the turtle which is in the power of his enemy.) Of course, upon the payment of a sufficiently great sum, both turtle and man are often allowed to recover.

There is also a charm which makes one invisible, which is much sought after by elephant-hunters. The medicine-man is usually promised one tusk, and when the overconfident hunter, relying too fully on the power of the charm, is trampled to death by the infuriated beast, it is plausibly assumed that a stronger charm has intervened to the man's undoing. DR. A. PLEHN, " Beobachtungen in Kamerun," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, Vol. XXXVI, No. 6. E. B. W.

World-Organization Secures World-Peace. It is now over fifty years sinre the first world's peace congresses met. Although devastating wars swept both the continents of Europe and America before the present series of universal peace congresses began in 1889, the momentum of that earlier agitation seems to have been brought over into the present movement, which is rendered auspicious