spread under similar circumstances in many other places of South Africa. In that respect In that respect "the Bantu Jews" were more fortunate than the European ones, who kept the circumcision for themselves, but were never able to introduce it amongst other nations. The relations of the Balemba with the tribes of the country were always good. They had no king of their own, and submitted readily to the chiefs paying always tribute. But they paid it in busenga, viz. in copper bracelets of their manufacture, and never by digging the fields of the chief nor by giving him one of their daughters as a wife. Some Suto kinglets tried to force them to pay in the ordinary way. The Balemba did not refuse. But on the day which had been prescribed to them to come and dig the royal field, they all appeared with shaved skulls, and the Ba-Suto said to the chief: "Do not allow these shaved heads to enter your field! It is a sign of death! It would bring unluck to you!" When they were asked to bring a girl as wife to the chief they did the same; they cut her hair quite off, and the sight of this woman in mourning attire frightened him so much that he sent her back home. For the Balemba this was a great relief. Should the chief have accepted the girl it would have been a frightful misfortune to them. Indeed, one of their most sacred principles is that they must not intermarry with the other tribes. They call them disdainfully, “Ba-Sindji, bali ba nyama ya mafu, the Sindji, eaters of dead meat."1 They do not give them their daughters at any price. But they have no objection to take foreign women as That word Sindji presents a very special interest, and also throws some light on the origin of the Balemba. The ancient Arabian geographers, especially Masoudi, who wrote in 943 A.D. a relation of his travels in Africa under the title "Golden Meadows," speaks of the aborigines of Central Africa as being the Zindji. How strange to see that word preserved by the Balemba during 1000 years with the same meaning and the wives, provided they first incorporate them to their tribe as Balemba. The ceremony of naturalisation was performed in the following curious way: The day they brought to their home the Suto bride for whom they had paid lobola, they used to make a hole in the back wall of one of their huts. The woman had to kneel outside and only introduce her head into the hut. Then they would shave her skull as completely as possible. She was then a Molemba. The advent of European civilisation has been rather disastrous to the Balemba. European ware and wire are supplanting theirs, and the Kaffir trade has now passed from their hands into those of white storekeepers. When they become Christians, as is the case with some of them in our Spelonken stations, they at once lose their characteristics, which they consider as being their special form of heathenism. This is not difficult for them because, religiously speaking, the Balemba do not seem to have kept the slightest trace of faith in Allah,1 and they adore the spirits of their forefathers just as the other natives do. Whatever may be the fate of the Balemba-and though they are likely to be soon dragged along with their Bantu fellows in the Christianisation of the native races of South Africa-the fact of their separate existence and of the retention of their Semitic habits. for two centuries at least is full of meaning. It shows what a wonderful grasp Mahommedanism has on the native mind. Consider these people knowing nothing of Allah, having forgotten entirely all higher religious teaching, if they ever received any, and notwithstanding 1 The Rev. Mr. Schloemann says that they hold prayer-meetings more frequently than other natives, and that they conclude their prayers, addressed to their ancestors, by the word "amena," which he thinks to be identical with the Hebrew "Amen." He also states that the number 7 is sacred for them, this sticking for generations to some queer rites, the meaning of which they do not understand! This is the way Islam wins adepts, not in bringing to them light and spiritual principles, but in enslaving them by a number of external habits which it makes them adopt. Nowadays the African soul is ready to part with its childish animistic representations. But it is solicited by two opposite influences-Mahommedanism and Christianity. Mahommedanism is making tremendous progress. The case of the Balemba shows that the fight between these two influences is bound to be very serious indeed, and that in the interest of the native tribes no effort must be spared to prevent the religion of the letter and of slavery from prevailing over the religion of the spirit and of liberty! COLLECTANEA. SPECIMENS OF MODERN MASCOTS AND ANCIENT AMULETS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. WITH PLATES V. AND VI. (Exhibited at the Society's Meeting, June 17, 1908.) THERE appears to have been a great revival in this country, during the last few years, of the belief in luck and protective amulets. Such amulets have, of course, continued to be used by the illiterate from prehistoric times. Amongst the educated classes, while protection from the evil eye and from witchcraft is now rarely sought, "pocket pieces" have persisted for 'luck' and for the prevention and cure of rheumatism and certain other ailments, and these classes have also been the principal field for the huge sale of rheumatism rings, 'electropathic' belts, and other objects which appeal to the charm instinct while professing to have a scientific reason for their success. The revival and survival of amulets have been, however, mainly amongst bridge-players, actors, sportsmen, motorists, gamblers, burglars, and others engaged in risky occupations. "For in these days when Wisdom's light On everything is shining, Our certainty of Reason's right Is by degrees declining; And in a year or two the man Who seeks unworked-for riches Will ask on Macbeth's noted plan The help of witches!" (A. W. B. in The Tribune.) This belief in 'luck,' and in obtaining it by things said or done and periodicals, but most of all in those making a special appeal to women, where can be found such advertisements as "Do you want to know what are your Lucky Days; Numbers; Months; Colours; the Christian Name of the person you should marry? Address, etc." While the servant girl still studies her "Dream Book," her mistress has "Planets of the Month," "Consult the Oracle," and many other books telling her what to do and what to avoid for 'luck.' Even tea-leaf fortune-telling has been revived, and Spiers and Pond's, Hamley's, and other large Stores have sold "The 'Nelros' Cup of Fortune" for that purpose. Astrologers, clairvoyants, palmists, writing experts, and all manner of soothsayers and cunning men advertise so expensively that they must have many customers, and sandwichmen promenade London streets to invite all and sundry to visit Madam This or Madam That and be 'psychometrised.' The fashion of sham occultism,— sham, because most of its devotees seem signally ignorant of the history and philosophy of occult studies,-has no doubt been a principal cause of the recent diffusion of both real and sham amulets, but other forces have probably helped. Perhaps the most important minor cause has been commercial exploitation, which has led to the advertisement and pushing of amulets almost as if they were quack remedies for 'that tired feeling.' Another minor cause may be the adoption of the word mascot in place of the more superstitious-seeming word amulet. The word mascot, which covers luck-bringing persons as well as objects, appears to have been derived from a Provençal word mascotte popularised by Audran's comic opera "La Mascotte," which was first performed at the end of 1880. "Un jour, le diable, ivre d'orgueil, |