Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/422

 396 Reviews.

There is one use for broken pottery not mentioned on p. 92, and that is eating it. The Boloki people preserved the broken pieces of their Libinza Lake pots for nibbling \vhen they had a craving for eating clay. I would suggest under the heading of metal-working (p. 95), an enquiry as to the position a smith holds in the comviunity ; and how do his tieighboiirs regard the smithy, the anvil, and the fire, etc.

To the question of " How many children had your father and mother?" (p. 120), there should be a note to warn the enquirer that primitive peoples are often averse to counting their children, lest the spirits should hear them and one or more of the children die ; and for this reason absurd numbers are often given, not to mislead the friendly enquirer, but to deceive the evil spirits; and, again, certain cousins, nephews, nieces, etc., are frequently spoken of as children belonging to a person.

Upon the subject of " European Questions and Native Answers" (p. in), I would like to sound a note of warning to the student entering on a fresh field of enquiry amongst a people whose language has not been reduced to writing, and that is to be sure that the native uses 'Yes' and 'No' in the same way as our- selves ; e.g. ask a Lower Congo man the following question, Ku- kwenda ko e"? (Will you not go?), and, if he is not going, he will answer Elo (Yes), where we should say ' No.' The European would understand by the answer that the native was going, but the native would have in his mind that the supposition of his not going was quite correct, and to that he answers 'Yes.' This view of negative questions causes many misunderstandings, and the only way to avoid them is by the employment of questions in the aifirmative.

Having reduced to writing one African language, and helped to reduce another, I should not recommend the method suggested and illustrated on p. 196. Such a method would necessitate a great amount of unnecessary writing of slips, e.g. if there are, we will say, 2000 verbs in the language under consideration, the writing of a slip for every element underscored, as given in the illustration, would demand the writing of eight thousand slips, and the introduction of every new element would mean the writing of two thousand slips for each. I could give a Congo language