Fanti Customary Laws. By J. M. Sarba,h. (W. Clowes and
Sons.)—This is a sort of digest, or rather, by means of cases, a series of illustrations, of the native laws, as they are allowed to stand, and as they have been amended, in the Fanti and Akim sections of the Gold Coast Colony. The result of combined English and Fanti laws is peculiar, though not necessarily hard to follow. Succession is through the female line,—this is one of the customs which is so un-English as to have led to much con- fusion when the missionaries introduced English marriage law, for of course Fanti customs bad to be maintained. It is difficult to make some people understand that such customs are the pro- duct of accumulated habits and the exigencies of climate, and that violent interference with them upsets the social fabric and disorganises family life completely. There is a table of events and a good introduction and appendix. We have found Mr. Sarbah's work interesting, though the title and the price are not very attractive.
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