The contemporary development of African chieftainship is a question of considerable practical importance. The attitude which it will adopt towards the native chief in his relations with his own people is one of the major questions of policy which every colonial government has to decide. Some hold that a native society can only be satisfactorily ruled by—or through (the words are not quite synonymous)— its traditional head; others that the first duty of the civilizing power is to free its native subjects from the oppression and tyranny of their own rulers; others make it their aim to steer a middle course, and preserve the native authority in his traditional position while adapting his functions to the requirements of the present day. All have in fact considerably altered by their mere presence both the nature and the basis of the chief's authority.

Although the term culture contact implies the existence of several cultures in mutual contact with one another, the African anthropologist is primarily interested in the one-sided effect of European or Asiatic culture upon native African culture. The opposite influence of Africa on Europe and Asia in Africa he can for his purposes discard with a brief survey of those factors that in turn affect the native contact situation, such as the influence of native labour on the system of European farming, or the specific social and economic attitude which the existence of a large native majority calls forth among the European and Indian minorities.

Our knowledge of the linguistic groups in the Lake Chad area of Central Africa is very incomplete. In many respects the work of H. Barth, Central-African Vocabularies, 1862, is our only source of information. This source is incomplete, especially phonetically, and therefore of little value. The study of the sounds of African languages has developed very much recently, and there is no important school of African linguistics in which descriptive phonetics does not play an outstanding role.

A Snake was out riding on his horse (runs a Hausa fable) when he met a Frog. ‘That is not the way to ride,’ said the Frog,‘all curled up in the saddle. If you get down, I will show you.’ The Snake dismounted, and gave his horse to the Frog. The Frog mounted, and sitting firmly in the saddle galloped twice down the road and back. ‘That is the way to ride,’ he said, as he dismounted. ‘Very good indeed,’ said the Snake; ‘and now give me back my horse. Having is better than knowing how. Since you have no horse, your horsemanship is of little use to you. I, on the other hand, having a horse, need not learn to ride, unless I wish.’

Mawu, dieu le créateur, n'est pas le seul à intervenir dans les affaires de ce monde, tous les esprits inférieurs sont capables d'y jouer un rôle eux aussi. Il y a en particulier des esprits qui président à la vie des nations, des villages, des families; chaque homme a aussi durant toute sa vie un esprit tutélaire qui préside à son existence. Il est done tres important pour l'homme de connaître l'esprit tutélaire qui préside à sa destinée, ainsi que la manière de s'en faire un ami et un soutien. C'est cette connaissance que prétendent acquérir les devins, et nous allons nous appliquer à exposer leur méthode de divination d'après les renseignements qui nous ont été fournis par des devins eux-mêmes.

A Survey of the Nigerian Railway workers would constitute a record of every tribe living in the southern and northern provinces, inasmuch as the government-owned and controlled railway, extending over 1,892½ miles of territory, employs natives of the various tribes in each of its four departments. As these native workers show ability they are gradually permitted to fill posts when they become vacant that were formerly held by Europeans. During the year ending March 31st, 1934, despite drastic measures of economy to meet financial conditions and the lessening of the European staff by twenty-three officials, the number of Africans employed has increased by slightly over 900, mostly in the labouring class.

The Umundri coronation ceremony as described in Africa, vol. viii, no. 3, requires the addition of two more steps. Though they are not recorded by Hocart in his Kingship yet one of them, the Prostration or the Humiliation, is described by Professor James in his book, Christian Myth and Ritual. The other, the Scourging or Buffeting, has not been described before as a ritual step. Though neither were recorded in the Umundri coronation ceremony, yet there are good grounds for believing that either these two steps do occur but were not narrated, or else that they did occur but have recently dropped out, because they are found in the coronation rituals of other Nigerian and associated tribes. These two steps make a total of sixteen more to be added to the twenty-six described by Professor Hocart.