Note 5 — Note on the Kuni People

It would appear from Father Egedi’s observations that the relationship between villages arising from the splitting up into two or more of an original family village is not so permanent as I believe it to be among the Mafulu. Dr. Seligmann says5 that among the Kuni Father Egedi “could find no trace of intermarrying groups, or groups of clans claiming common descent,” which statement applies to my investigations among the Mafulu. He further says6 that “The Dilava folk” (Dilava is a Kuni village) “marry into all the surrounding villages; and when a death occurs it is the head of the family of the deceased who says when mourning shall cease”—statements of which the former, and I believe the latter, could hardly be correctly made concerning the Mafulu. He also refers7 to Kuni war chiefs, an office which does not exist among the Mafulu, and apparently understands that the office of these war chiefs is non-hereditary, a statement which could not be made of any Mafulu chief; and he refers8 to a funeral ceremony which is quite unknown in Mafulu. But his statement9 that the kufu (club-house) system seems less developed than in Mekeo would apply very strongly to the Mafulu.