Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/291

 Revieivs. 269

personal possession as well as of reincarnation in the shape of animals. The person possessed by them, usually a woman, has the gift of propliecy, but may sometimes practise black magic as a muloshi, or witch, causing disease and death. The family spirits are prayed to by the head of the family, who makes sacrifices to them ; it is their duty to protect the crops and to keep illness from the house ; their foremost task is, however, to keep from the threshold the vi-waiida, the restless souls of evil men, suicides, murderers, and sorcerers. There exists a guild of ngufigii^ who may be priest, physician, diviner, or exorcist ; the different ways of producing enchantments and practising divination are fully described. To detect sorcerers the mwav or inavi poison ordeal, common in East Africa, is resorted to. Totemism is general, and both animate and inanimate totems are recognised. Exogamy is general.

The authors believe that the aristocracy of the plateau comes from UTua,the country of the Baluba of the Lualaba; the proletariat, too, distinctly show Luba features. This may be the case ; but, if the aristocracy do come from the Lualaba, they must have returned to their place of origin, for it seems fairly well established that the Luba people originate from Lake Nyassa and, travelling in a north- eastern direction, migrated to the Lualaba, and thence to the Sankuru and the Kasai ; that one branch proceeded further west, but, being repelled, returned by a more southern route to form the nucleus of the Lunda empire, of which Kazembe was an offshoot. We find ourselves confronted by the exceptional fact that two tribes, belonging to the same race, both claim to be offshoots of the main branch : the informant of the authors, Simimbi, a chief of the Awemba, telling them that they are descendants of the Lualaba Baluba, and my informant, a chief of Urua on the Lualaba, claiming descent from the Awemba. This is certainly the reverse of what usually happens.

It is impossible to do full justice to all the valuable material contained in this book within the space at my disposal ; The Plateau of Northern Rhodesia is a work which every student of Africa ought to possess, and the authors are to be complimented on their achievement. The illustrations are excellent.

E. TORDAV.