[144] E. T. Hamy, "Les Races Nègres," in L'Anthropologie, 1897, p. 257 sq.
[145] "Chaque fois que j'ai demandé avec intention à un Mandé, 'Es-tu Peul, Mossi, Dafina?' il me répondait invariablement, 'Je suis Mandé.' C'est pourquoi, dans le cours de ma relation, j'ai toujours désigné ce peuple par le nom de Mandé, qui est son vrai nom." (L. G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, 1892, Vol. II. p. 373.) At p. 375 this authority gives the following subdivisions of the Mandé family, named from their respective tenné (idol, fetish, totem):
1. Bamba, the crocodile: Bammana, not Bambara, which means kafir or infidel, and is applied only to the non-Moslem Mandé groups.
2. Mali, the hippopotamus: Mali'nké, including the Kagoros and the Tagwas.
3. Sama, the elephant: Sama'nké.
4. Sa, the snake: Sa-mokho.
Of each there are several sub-groups, while the surrounding peoples call them all collectively Wakoré, Wangara, Sakhersi, and especially Diula. Attention to this point will save the reader much confusion in consulting Barth, Caillié, and other early books of travel.
[146] Travels, Vol. IV. p. 579 sqq.
[147] "La chaîne des Montagnes de Kong n'a jamais existé que dans l'imagination de quelques voyageurs mal renseignés," Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, 1892, I. p. 285.
[148] Bertrand-Bocandé, "Sur les Floups ou Féloups," in Bul. Soc. de Géogr. 1849.
[149] A full account of this literature will be found in the Rev. C. F. Schlenker's valuable work, A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs, London, 1861. Here is given the curious explanation of the tribal name, from o-tem, an old man, and né, himself, because, as they say, the Temné people will exist for ever.
[150] There is also a sisterhood—the bondo—and the two societies work so far in harmony that any person expelled from the one is also excluded from the other.
[151] Reclus, Keane's English ed., XII. p. 203.