Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/537

Rh possessed by the spirit (jando) of a crocodile or a leopard that he will let himself loose occasionally on his neighbours, and thus preying in spirit on them many will die" (p. 273). The word spirit, however, is here used in a very loose way, and evidently expresses what in other tongues is called the mana or rather the orenda of the creature. Probably the same must in ultimate analysis be understood of ejo, the spirit of wealth, and embanda, that of strength. On the whole it looks as if the Boloki had no definite concept of any other than human spirits, either waiting to be born, embodied in or attached to living persons (elimo or elilingi), or disembodied ghosts, though beside these definite concepts there may be a vague tendency to erect disease-spirits, bush-spirits, and so on into separate classes of spirits not essentially human. But perhaps Mr. Weeks can more fully enlighten the Folk-Lore Society on this point.

With regard to the people of Loango, Dr. Pechuël-Loesche could not discover any elemental spirits, or indeed any spirits other than human, embodied or disembodied. Everything else is merely the interaction of impersonal forces pervading the world. Even when these forces are focussed in a fetish, they are only quasi-personal, and that notwithstanding the fetish is often found in the form of an image, contrary to the Boloki practice.

The discussion of fetish and of spirits not only illustrates Mr. Weeks' careful treatment of his subject and his wide knowledge of native customs and modes of thought: it is also of special interest in the search for the beginnings of religion. But on questions less fraught with controversy he writes with equal authority. Hardly any part of native life escapes his observation. With the technique of fishing he is as familiar as with that of witchcraft. He knows the details of cat's cradle as fully as those of the polygamist's menage. He states that the same desire for children on the part of the women is not found among the Boloki as among the women of the Lower Congo; and he suggests that "this may be accounted for by the fact that in the Lower Congo the law of mother-right is in full force, and consequently all the children belong to the mother and her family; while on the Upper Congo father-right is the general custom, and the children belonging to