^{page 349 note 1} I have to thank Professor Daryll Forde for a number of very helpful comments on my original draft of this article.

^{page 350 note 1} These excerpts from Fernandes and d'Almada are both taken from Fyfe's, ChristopherSierra Leone Inheritance, 1964, pp. 27, 32.Google Scholar

^{page 351 note 1} Ordinance no. 14 of 1897. To protect and safeguard the trade of the Colony of Sierra Leone and its Protectorate and those engaged and interested in the same.

^{page 354 note 1} Mary Kingsley, one hastens to add, is an exception to the rule. Not only did she regard the tribal secret societies as ‘admirable engines of government’ but she strenuously rebutted the notion of there being anything very repulsive about their rites and ceremonies (1901, pp. 448–9).

^{page 355 note 1} According to Schwab (op. cit.) masks served as Poro medicine among the Mano. A certain mask was always left outside the camp in which the boys were being initiated. See also p. 359, footnote.

^{page 356 note 1} For the distinction between Poro as a general institution and a ‘poro’ see p. 364.

^{page 356 note 2} Mary Kingsley adds that this Sande representative was not allowed to speak at these meetings, and was supposed to be invisible to all except the head of Poro. I am unable to vouch for this. It may just possibly be a misreading of the fact that women members of Poro (see later paragraphs) are regarded ritually as men.

^{page 356 note 3} This is a matter about which there is very much more material for the Liberian side of the Poro than exists for Sierra Leone. (See Harley, 1941, passim, and Schwab, 1947, pp. 266–78). Details of Sande and its organization have been omitted for the sake of brevity, but a description may be found inter alia in Little, 1951, pp. 126–30.

^{page 357 note 1} The term kassi implies a ritual sanction, and, according to Augustus Cole, it should only be used in connexion with Poro. Tying grass upon plants or fruit-trees, ‘with the notification that Poro is on it, makes the tree from that moment sacred, and picking fruit from it is to be guilty of the Purrah laws, or to buy Kasey’ (1866, pp. 49–53).

^{page 357 note 2} Augustus Cole says that there are three kinds of salutation. The first is given by scratching the palm of the hand of the stranger with the middle finger of the grip, the second, by kneeling, laying the right hand on the ground, and in this position moving round and nodding the head gracefully to all the members; the third is used by a person who, though not a member of Poro, belongs to a kindred society. Such a person coming in contact with Poro, quickly picks the leaves of a certain common herb. With these leaves in his right hand, which he places flat on the ground, he kneels, uttering words to the effect that Poro secrets will remain as sealed up in his heart as the leaves in his hand (Ibid.).

^{page 358 note 1} However, the extent to which the initiate's abrupt removal terrified him probably depended upon whether he appreciated that this experience, like his subsequent ordeal, was all part of the Poro ritual.

^{page 358 note 2} Vernon R. Dorjahn has provided a contemporary account of the initiation of Temne Poro officials (1961, pp. 1–5).

^{page 359 note 1} There are a number of references to the Poro ‘inner circle’ in the literature, but Harley is the only author to attempt a detailed treatment of this complex but still obscure matter (1941 and 1950). Harley came to doubt if the pinnacle of power, represented by the inner circle, was within the Poro. He suggests that it was within the cult of the masks of which the Poro was the most highly developed form for manifesting the power of the ancestors toward the people (1950, vii).

^{page 363 note 1} Many lodges use a tortoise-shell for calling Poro together. Any Poro man, hearing the sound of the tortoise-shell being beaten, has to go at once and attend the meeting (Warren, 1926).

^{page 364 note 1} A town in middle Mende country well known as a warlike centre in pre-colonial times.