Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/252

 2 28 Reviews.

started from, they would appear to have travelled from the east, in successive waves, westward, and afterwards southward, so that the western members of the family would appear to have been longest settled in their present homes. The Fantis and Ashantis, whether or not they belong to this family, seem to have been living in the 1 5th century very much where they are now.

Mr. Hayford describes the native state as a kind of federal union owning "allegiance to one central paramount authority, the king properly so called." Thus the King of Kumasi was the paramount ruler of all Ashanti, including the Manpons, the Juabins, the Adansis, and other tribes. On the Gold Coast proper, we have the native states of Fanti, Ahanta, Ga, Wassa, and others ; the paramount chief of the "Fanti Union" being the King of Mankessim.

Mr. Hayford says " the office of king is elective." This must be understood in the somewhat restricted sense, that the man who would naturally be the next heir may be passed over if incapable or otherwise objectionable. The king, moreover, may be deposed, and another appointed from the same family, if his rule fails to give satisfaction to his people. The " natural " successor — showing a survival of the matriarchate, as we find it e.g. among the Yaos — - would be the " younger uterine brother, cousin, or eldest nephew." But the reigning king frequently nominates his successor, and his wishes are usually respected.

Where anything is known about the Bantu tribal institutions in detail they are found to be substantially the same as the above, allowing for the fuller development of the latter. " The centre and representative of every tribe is the chief, and where a district is inhabited by several tribes of one race, there is one who is para- mount chief over all the others." ' This was the position of the Zulu kings, of Moshesh in Basutoland, of Kreli among the Ama Xosa. But here, as might be expected among tribes which, down to comparatively recent times, were still on the move, the position is apt not to be a permanent one. A conqueror, like Tshaka, or Moshesh, may extend his rule over other tribes besides his own, or, on the other hand, a kingdom may be divided — usually by the secession of some disaffected member of the royal house. Thus,

' T}ie Natives of South Africa, edited by the S. A. Native Races Com- mittee (1901), p. 2~i,.