Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/282

 246 Reviews.

Les Fontaines des Genies (Seba Aioun), Croyances souDANAisES A Alger. Par J. B. Andrews. Alger, 1903. 8, pp. 36.

There are at Algiers a number of West African negroes of various tribes — Hausa, Bambara, etc. — each of which is organ- ised into a religious society, called Dar. These societies possess houses inhabited by their chiefs, which also serve as centres of the cult and contain the religious emblems. Each Dar has its assemblies of men and women, the former ruled by five kebir, the latter by a single hounia, and it is the latter who is most closely associated with the djinn, of which there are many. There are seven fountains, but the correspondence with the number of Diar is accidental, for each fountain has its special djimi, though the cult of each dar is not restricted to a single spirit.

Sacrifices are an important part of the cult, and a common explanation of the ecstatic state of the votaries, provoked, as is commonly the case, by dancing, is that they are possessed. Mr. Andrews gives a long list of names of djimt, and it would have been interesting to learn more as to the origin of the names ; they are represented as divided into nations and tribes, and have the reputation of causing diseases as punishments for affronts ofifered to them. There is also some account of the musical instruments employed by the negroes, probably imported by them, and a few specimens of their melodies. The work is useful, but a comparison with the home customs of the tribes in question would have increased its value.

N. W. Thomas.

The Rymour Club, Edinburgh, Miscellanea. Part I. March, 1906.

With a membership of forty-nine, this club has begun, not only to collect, as set forth in the objects of the society, but also to publish ballads, lyrics, and other rhymed material, and ballad and other tunes, etc., more particularly such as illustrate