Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/664



was only after extreme difficulty that I obtained any definite information about the religion of the Eghāp tribe, Central Cameroon. Apparently other investigators in the Grassland Area have had the same experience as myself in this respect.

Hutter, who spent several years among the Bali, says that it is extremely difficult to collect precise information on which a definite religious system can be constructed. Ankermann says that "It is difficult to understand the religious beliefs of the Bali, not because the religious system is too complicated, but because their ideas on the subject are vague and obscured." In yet another work, this writer refers to this question. In a private communication Ankermann writes: "Ich habe mich besonderer in Bali längere Zeit aufgehalten und habe Gelegenheit gehabt, alle religiösen Fahnfeste mitzumachen; ich habe aber dieselbe Erfahrung gemacht wie Sie, dass er sehr schwer ist, über die eigentlichen religiösen Ideen der Eingeborenen etwas zuvorlassige zu erkunden."