What  one  finds  is  merely  a  few  customs  and  usages,
having  nothing  of  the  precision  of  written  law.  So  ac-
customed are  we  to  a  highly  developed  legal  system  and
judical  procedure,  that  it  is  diflScult  to  refrain  from  pro-
jecting into  our  notions  of  primitive  law  and  judicature
a  definiteness  of  structure  and  function  not  really  found
there.     De  Cardi  makes  the  suggestive  remark  :

**  One  often  bears  people  who  know  a  little  about  West  Africa  talk
about  native  law,  but  tbey  forget  to  mention,  if  they  happen  to  know

*  Ellis,  "  Ewe-speaking  peoples,**  p.  188.
*  Their  warfare  is  well  described  by  Du  Chaillu,  "  Equatorial,  etc.**,
p.  57,  et  seq.
86  American  Economic  Association.  [492

it,  that  in  a  powerful  chief's  house  there  is  only  one  exponent  of  the
law,  and  that  is  the  chief  himself ;  for  him  native  law  begins  to  have
effect  only  when  it  is  a  matter  between  himself  and  some  other  chief
or  combination  of  chiefs,  whose  power  is  equal  to  or  superior  to  his
own."  '

Thus  in  every  case  among  the  common  people  the  chief
may  interpret  the  law  and  the  facts  almost  to  suit
himself.
