¹ We are using ‘nomoli’ here in a general sense for all stone figurines found in certain parts of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia (see below); stylistic and areal differentiations will be discussed later.

² In most cases they are isolated, but there occur pieces with bodies or heads (Janus head) doubled. There is a group sculpture of a large central figure with several small figures around it in the collection of the Sierra Leone Museum (no. 622278 of the Museum Record). Artistically this is a masterpiece, and stylistically very uncommon.

³ For example, lizards with human heads (see Kunz, Dittmer, ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische Zusammenhônge der “prôhistorischen” Steinfiguren aus Sierra Leone und Guinée’, Baessler Archiv, xv, no. I (1967), 190;Google Scholar see also Rütimeyer, L., ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, xiv (1901), 199–200).Google Scholar

⁴ Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 199–200;Google ScholarRütimeyer, L., ‘Weitere Mitteilungen über westafrikanische Steinidole’, Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, xviii (1908), 169.Google Scholar

⁵ See Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 199–200;Google ScholarJoyce, T. A., ‘Steatite figures from West Africa in the British Museum’, Man, v, no. 57 (1905), 100;Google ScholarRütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 169;Google ScholarStanley, Brown, ‘The Nomoli of Mende Country’, Africa, xviii, no 1 (01 1948), 18–19.Google Scholar

⁶ See below.

⁷ Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 100.Google Scholar

⁸ Alldridge, T. J., The Sherbro and Its Hinterland (London, 1901), 163.Google Scholar

⁹ Le Cesne, in Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 198;Google Scholar see also Jérémine, E., ‘étude des statuettes kissiennes au point de vue mineralogique et pétrographique’, J. Société des Africanistes, xv (1945), 11.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 100; ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 168.Google Scholar

¹¹ Crone, G. R. (trans. and ed.), The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century (London, 1937), 87–8. The ‘groves of trees’ to which Malfante makes reference here are undoubtedly the ‘bushes’ of the secret societies so common in this part of West Africa.Google Scholar

¹² Th., Monod, Teixeira da Mota, A. and Mauny, R. (trans. and eds.), Description de la Côte Occidentale d'Afrique (Sénégal au Cap de Monte, Archipels) par Valentim Fernandes (1506–1510). Centro de Estudos da Guiné Portuguesa, Memórias, no. II (Bissau, 1951), 75.Google Scholar

¹³ George, Thompson, Thompson in Africa, An Account of the Missionary Labours, etc., of George Thompson in Western Africa at the Mendi Mission (New York, 1852), 276 (emphasis Thompson's).Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ Alldridge, , The Sherbro, 163–4.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Rütimeyer, ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’.

¹⁷ Person, Y., ‘Les Kissi et leurs statuettes de pierre dans le cadre de l'histoire ouestafricaine’, Bull. IFAN, XXIII, sér. B, nos. 1–2 (Janvier–Avril 1961);Google ScholarDittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische…’; Phillip Allison, African Stone Sculpture (New York, 1968), 36–41.Google Scholar

¹⁸ See Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrika Steinidole’, 199–200;Google ScholarNéel, , ‘Statuettes en pierre et en argile de l'Afrique Occidentale’, L'Anthropologie, XXIV (1913), 441–2.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 175.Google Scholar

²⁰ See Eva, L. R. Meyerowitz, ‘The stone figures of Esie in Nigeria’, The Burlington Magazine, LXXXII (02 1943), 35;Google ScholarKunz, Dittmer, ‘Zur Herkunft und Bedeutung der altyorobischen Kronen und des ôthiopischen kalatcha’, Festschrift für Ad. E. Jensen (München, 1964), 88;Google ScholarDittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische.…’, 213.Google Scholar

²¹ Dittmer found similarities with Indian art in strange collars combined with neck- rings of pearls. This occurs in some nomoli in quite elaborated forms; in simpler manner it is represented, according to Dittmer, by metallic rings (Dittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische’, 204–6),Google Scholarmahei yafei (see below). But the combined collars are also very conspicuous in some Ife sculptures (Dittmer, Ibid.. 204–6; Frank, Willett, Ife in the History of West African Sculpture (London, 1967), 49, 65, 119,Google Scholar plates 40, 74) and Benin pieces (Willett, , Ife, 116–17).Google Scholar Another strange feature in some nomoli are crossed legs which, according to Dittmer, are typical of Indian art. Further, hair curls in the form of a disk, various plaited work and S-knots appear in nomoli and also in Benin and Yoruba art (Dittmer, Ibid.. 204–6). It may be interesting to note in this context that some other authors also considered the hypothetical connection in quite different forms from those of Dittmer:thus Hornell found striking similarities in African and Indian string games (see Hornell, J., ‘The string games and tricks of Sierra Leone’, Sierra Leone Studies, XIII (1928), 7;Google ScholarHornell, J., ‘String figures from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Zanzibar’, J. Royal Anthropological Institute, LX (1930), 14), while Homburger considered linguistic similarities between Dravidian and African languages.Google Scholar

²² In the plaited work (see note 21 above) and in some motives in a unique ivory cup from Benin (see Dittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische…’, 204–6).Google Scholar

²³ See Dittmer, ibid. 213.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 175–6.Google Scholar

²⁶ Néel, , ‘Statuettes’, 441–2.Google Scholar

²⁷ Joyce, T. A., ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, Man, ix, no. 40 (1909), 67. ‘Nomori’ is a variation of the word ‘nomoli’.Google Scholar

²⁸ The records of the Sierra Leone Museum tell us that on one occasion as many as fifty-one nomoli were found in one place.

²⁹ See also Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from West Africa’, 99, who quoted an informant ‘that knew “a hill” where “plenty” had been found, but declined to locate it’.Google Scholar

³⁰ Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 197; ‘Weitere Metteilungen’, 167–8.Google Scholar

³¹ D'Arcy Anderson, B., in Alldridge, T. J., A Transformed Colony (London, 1910), 118.Google Scholar

³² Joyce, ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ George, Schwab, Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland (Cambridge, Mass., 1947), 21, footnote 5.Google Scholar

³⁵ Northcote, W. Thomas, Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone, 2 vols. (1916), 11, 39–40.Google Scholar

³⁶ ‘I was informed by Mendi and Timni alike that they were of supernatural origin (‘God made them’) and that no one in their country could make anything like them,’ Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from West Africa’, 99. ‘The traditional view that God made these things is easily accepted and all affirm they are Ngewo gbate hani, i.e. “of God's creation” …He is believed to work through the media of spirits (ngafeisia)’Google Scholar (Brown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 19).Google Scholar See also Rütimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 197;Google ScholarAlldridge, , The Sherbro, 163–4;Google ScholarRütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 168;Google ScholarAlldridge, , A Transformed Colony, 289.Google Scholar

³⁷ ‘The Ndogbojusui.…. lives on the top of a mountain by day, and roams the bush and bush paths by night. He appears as a man with a white skin and a long white beard to lonely travellers…. is also associated with the bush in an agricultural sense. The steatite nomoli which the farmer turns up when he is hoeing in old bush are looked upon as the genii's handiwork’ (Little, K. L., Tile Mende of Sierra Leone (London, 1951), 223).Google Scholar

³⁸ Allison, , African Stone Sculpture, 39.Google Scholar

³⁹ See Walter, Rodney, ‘A Reconsideration of the Mane Invasions of Sierra Leone,’ J. Afr. Hist. VIII, no. 1 (1967).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Frederick, William Hugh Migeod, A View of Sierra Leone (London, 1926), 204.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Migeod, , A View, 174.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See below.

⁴⁵ Migeod, , A View, 180.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Quoted in Beatty, K. J., Human Leopards, (London, 1915), 96.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ See William, Fagg, The Art of Western Africa (Milano, 1967), 6.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ See, for example, Rüutimeyer, , ‘über westafrikanische Steinidole’, 199–200; ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 169, 175–6;Google ScholarDittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische’, 200–1;Google ScholarFrank, Willett, Ife, 113–14.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ See Kup, A. P., A History of Sierra Leone 1400–1787 (Cambridge, 1962), 141.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ For example 1920. 10–21. 1 and 1920. 10–21.2 in the British Museum.

⁵¹ See Jean-Paul, Lebeuf and Masson Detourbet, A., La Civilisation du Tchad (Paris, 1950), figs. 37–39Google Scholar it is interesting to note that a few ‘pomdo’-type nomoli have apparently been found in the Dogon area of Mali, 600 miles away! (Allison, , African Stone Sculpture, 38.)Google Scholar

⁵² Clay figurines have been made and still are being made in the area. See John, Barbot, A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea…. (London, 1746), 104;Google ScholarTh., Monod, et al. , Description de la Côte, 85;Google ScholarPierre-Dominique, Gaisseau, Forét Sacrée: Magie et rites secrets des Toma (Paris, 1953), 21. Also of interest in this connexion is the stone figure found near Freetown, Sierra Leone (now in the Cuttington College Museum in Liberia) which was covered with clay when found (Bill Siegmann, personal communication).Google Scholar

⁵³ This is supported by the view of William, Fagg and Margaret, Plass (African Sculpture (London, 1966), 22) that ‘the nomoli forms lack stylistic qualities specially appropriate to stonecarving.’Google Scholar

⁵⁴ John, H. Atherton, The Later Stone Age of Sierra Leone, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon (Eugene, 1969).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Lebeuf, et Detourbet, La Civilisation, figs. 19, 23, 17;Google ScholarJean-Paul, Lebeuf, Archéologie tchadienne, (Paris, 1962), planches v-x;Google ScholarAtherton, , The Later Stone Age, 125–38.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Atherton, , The Later Stone Age, 40. The dates are composite samples of two 1 metre square, 10 cm. deep excavation units.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Marcel, Griaule and Lebeuf, J.-P., ‘Fouilles dans la région du Tchad’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, XVIII (1948), 30–5. This fragment, along with others, was found exactly on the border between levels 3 and 4 in a single excavation unit at Kamabai Rock Shelter in which we have dates for both levels. Averaging the dates for the two levels, both composite samples, we get an approximate date of A.D. 1050 for these ‘croissants’.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Lebeuf, , Archéologie tchadienne, 99–100.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid. planche IX, no. 720; planche x, no. 864.

⁶⁰ Atherton, , The Later Stone Age, 109.Google Scholar These nests seem to have some supernatural importance also (see Thomas, , Anthropological Report, 32;Google ScholarMonod, et atl, Description, 75).Google Scholar

⁶¹ Atherton, , The Later Stone Age, 109–10.Google Scholar

⁶² Dietrich, Drost, Töpferei in Afrika (Berlin, 1967), 19, 21.Google Scholar

⁶³ Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, 67.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Brown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 19–20.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ ‘Sansevieria Liberica…. Bow-string Hemp. Mende Nomoli; Sherbro Wokole; Gola Nomoni; Vai kPotore, Koeboya; Kisi Nomoliyo’ (Deighton, F. C., Vernacular Botanical Vocabulary for Sierra Leone (London, 1957), 73).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Brown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 39–20.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ ‘The other practice for securing a good harvest is by growing a plant which bears the magical name NOMOLI in the farms. It is believed that this plant has the power of stealing crops from other farms into the farm in which it is planted… Nomoli is transferable from farm to farm in accordance with shifting culture year after year’ (Frank, G. Musa, ‘Farming and superstition in Sierra Leone’, Sierra Leone Studies, no. 21, (01 1939), 104).Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, 66–67.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ See collections of the Sierra Leone Museum. See also Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 170.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Brown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 19.Google Scholar See also Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 171.Google Scholar

⁷¹ ‘Metallic rings that…. are discovered….with these farm devils…. are never separated or rather kept apart once they are found….The metal rings are sometimes six, seven, and eight inches in diameter, and the nomoli is placed in the middle, but the one I secured was only about 2 inches, and fitted so close to the nomoli that it served to prop it up in an upright position.’ Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, 66–7.Google Scholar See also Addison, W., ‘Steatite figures from Moyamba district, Central Province, Sierra Leone, West Africa’, Man, XXIII, no. 109 (1923), 177.Google Scholar

⁷² Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 171;Google ScholarJoyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, 66–7.Google Scholar

⁷³ ‘One of these rings…. was very black with exposure of the weather…. On scratching it with a knife, it appeared…. to be either brass or bronze’ (Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, 66–7). ‘With the heads, the Paramount Chief gave me two bracelets. One appears to be made of iron and the other of a metal which might be brass’Google Scholar (Ibid. 177). See also Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 170.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 170.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷⁶ Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’, 66–7.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Greensmith in Rütimeyer, ; ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 171.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from Sierra Leone’ 66–7.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Addison, , ‘Steatite figures’, 177.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Rütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 171.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Denise, Paulme, Les Gens du Riz (Paris, 1954), 144.Google Scholar

⁸² Néel, H., ‘Statuettes’, 436–40.Google Scholar

⁸³ Kup, , A History, 141.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ See Person, ‘Les Kissi’.

⁸⁵ Paulme, , Les Gens, 145.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Barbot, , A Description, 104;Google ScholarRütimeyer, , ‘Weitere Mitteilungen’, 173.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ See footnote 43 above; see also Butt-Thompson, F. W., West African Secret Societies, (London, 1929), 112;Google ScholarPaulme, , Les Gens, 145.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Leo Frobenius, ‘Tagebuch—Ethnographie IV—Zweite Reise’(MS from the Leo Frobenius Institute, Frankfurt, S. 66–7); see also Paulme, , Les Gens, 149: ‘A la mort de son gardien, le pomdo passe aux mains du frère cadet ou du fils; á défaut d'héritier direct, la statuette sera deposée dans la tombe.’Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Ibid.; see also Néel, ‘Statuettes’, 435.

⁹⁰ Thomas, Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone…, 2 vols. (London, 1803), 1, 241.Google Scholar See also Schlenker, C. F., A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs, x (London, 1861);Google ScholarThomas, , Anthropological Report, 41;Google ScholarMigeod, , A View, 37.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Among the Eastern Temne, if a man dies some distance from his home he will be buried there and a pebble will be brought back and buried in his home village. The pebble represents the spirit and makes it possible to offer sacrifice to that deceased without having to travel. (Vernon R. Dorjahn, personal communication.)

⁹² Beatty, , Human Leopards, 83–4.Google Scholar

⁹³ Dittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische’, 185.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Harris, W. T. and Harry, Sawyerr, The Springs of Mende Belief and Conduct (Freetown, 1968), 71.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ ‘They are consulted upon questions of war, the getting of wealth, the procuring of good crops, and the success of proposed journeys. It is believed that if one of these images is secreted…. in a rice field, its presence will secure a crop double in quantity to the ordinary yield. Each of these steatite devils is thought to be attended by many satellites who circle around him and carry out his command’ (Alldridge, , The Sherbro, 163–4;Google Scholar see also Brown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 19).Google Scholar

⁹⁶ See Alldridge, , The Sherbro, 163–4;Google ScholarBrown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 19;Google ScholarCarl, Kjersmeier, Afrikanske Negerskulpturer, African Negro Sculptures (Copenhagen, 1947), 32.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ See Addison, , ‘Steatite figures’, 176–7;Google ScholarBrown, , ‘The Nomoli’, 19.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ ‘Because they maybe sleeping’ (Little, K. L., ‘The Mende Upland Rice Farming’, (Typescript, Fourah Bay College Library), 50).Google Scholar

⁹⁹ ‘The food is usually cooked rice, with a lot of palm oil mixed with dried meat and fish. Scaled fish are scarcely permissible’ (Musa, , ‘Farming and superstition’, 103).Google Scholar See also Joyce, , ‘Steatite figures from West Africa’, 99;Google ScholarLittle, , The Mende, 50;Google ScholarHarris, and Sawyerr, , The Springs, 71.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ D'Arcy Anderson, in Alldridge, , A Transformed Colony, 287.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Ibid.

¹⁰² Thomas, , Anthropological Report, 33.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Ibid., 31.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., 32. Among the eastern Temne, at least, the term krifi is not used for strictly ancestral spirits. (V. R. Dorjahn, personal communication.)

¹⁰⁵ Thomas, , Anthropological Report, 34.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Dittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische’, 184–5; also of interest in this connexion are the strange reports circulated as to the nature of birth or to the physical peculiarities of the heads of secret societies. ‘Claims that they were supernaturally born are frequently made, and many assertions may be heard…. that suggest that among these men (and women) are more hermaphrodites and monstrosities than ever Pliny knew’Google Scholar (Butt-Thompson, , West African, 75).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Thomas, , Anthropological Report, 35.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Although the authors do not wish (at least at this time) to draw any conclusions from a relationship between features of the nomoli and those of stone figures in another part of the world, we feel that it is of some interest, at least, to make a few comments on some of the stonc carving found on Easter Island. The larger stone carvings, for which the island is famous, are carved in exactly the same way as were the nomoli, i.e. they were completely finished before being detached. But it is not these figures which interest us, but the more recently discovered small figures in the secret caves on the island. The resemblance between nomoli and some of these figurines seems to be closer than to any of the stone figures found in other parts of West Africa. These cave figures were hidden in secret family caves and handed down from one generation to the next. Not only is there an amazing stylistic (and apparently functional) resemblance between these figures and nomoli, but holes in the head are common among both groups of figures (see Thor, Heyerdahl, Aku-Aku (London, 1957)).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Beale, P. O., ‘The stone circles of the Gambia and the Senegal’, Tarikh, 11, no. 2 (1968), 11.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Dittmer, , ‘Bedeutung, Datierung und kulturhistorische’, 215.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Paulme, , Les Gens, 144.Google Scholar

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