THE BANTU OF KAV1RONDO 203
performance of sacrifices, he is socially ostracized and, in an extreme case, killed.1
There is, accordingly, no recognized authority which wields legislative powers; law is, in theory at least, unchangeable, and the degree to which an action, a claim, or an obligation are in line with the age-honoured tradition is the only criterion of their merits*
Nevertheless, there are a number of legendary traditions and even historical data which indicate that the system of laws and customs was not as rigidly closed against changes and innovations as one is at first led to believe. Apart from norms observed throughout the tribal group, there are numerous clan rules which differ from clan to clan, but which, within each clan, are made valid by the same type of sanctions as tribal law. Most important among such clan rules are certain food taboos or rules of avoidance concerning certain forms of behaviour. While in many cases the origin of these rules is unknown, in others the time is still remembered when the rule was not yet in force, and the account given for its origin often bears the stamp of a true historical tradition. Thus among the Vugusu a certain clan refrains from wearing finger-rings of coiled iron wire. In explanation of this rule, it is said that some generations ago a member of that clan suffered from a sore and swollen finger caused by his ring, which gradually became worse until he died without having been able to remove the ring from his finger. Before his death, he is supposed to have said that *it was a bad thing for the people of his clan to wear iron finger-rings, and that all who would do so in future should die as he was now going to die*.
Numerous ceremonial rules, especially details of ritual in connexion with sacrifices, purification rites, &c., which are observed by some clans but not by others have probably been enacted in the same way. Although neighbouring clans are aware of the existence of such sacrificial rules, it would not ordinarily occur to them to copy them *as they were not theirs'. If, however, an exceptional situation arose, e.g. the repeated and conspicuous failure of the traditional ritual procedure to achieve its desired ends, a man would either tentatively vary the procedure or copy a ritual detail from a neighbouring clan or tribe. More probably
1 This attitude differs from that adopted towards a person who breaks a particular norm for obvious purposes; cf. J. H. Driberg, 'Primitive Law in Eastern Africa*, Africa^ vol. i (1928), p. 66.