THE BANTU OF KAVIRONDO 211
Tributes to the rain-maker are rendered on a tribal scale by ;he Logoli, wrho do not have a rain-maker in their own tribe, but depend upon the goodwill of a powerful rain-maker living among i neighbouring and hostile people, the Nyole. The decision to :ollect offerings of grain and animals from the people is made by :he elders of the different clans, who set a day (either in a general neeting or by communication through messengers), when a delegation of the principal clan elders will go on an expedition ;o the rain-maker to implore him to send rain and to negotiate the imount of the tribute which they will have to pay.
The exchange of visits and gifts and the participation in common Feasts and ceremonial observances serve to maintain relationships and thus law and custom in a general way. But the absence of a codification of the law and especially of distinct legal authorities Dr bodies which could safeguard the validity of an agreement or slaim, creates the necessity for some corresponding arrangements by which rules and agreements, concluded between particular groups or individuals, can be maintained valid. This need is met in a variety of ways. Whenever a dispute arises which is not settled between the immediate partners concerned, the case is discussed by the elders of the sub-clan at great length. Previous cases which have a bearing on the case under dispute are recalled and the settlement which was then reached is restated. It is significant that the restatement of previous cases is not limited to those which directly bear on the present one, but that it usually embraces a much wider range of cases. Each legal dispute—provided that it is complex enough to offer scope for a difference of opinions—thus furnishes an occasion for recalling the juridical traditions of the tribe. Thus what to the casual observer appears as a straying away from the point and an indulgence in telling 'irrelevant' stories, actually serves the very important purpose of keeping known the body of traditional law.
Similarly, agreements between particular individuals are kept valid by their public restatement on occasions where people are assembled who may later be called upon as witnesses. Every economic transaction, such as the sale of a cow or the division of a garden, to begin with, takes place in the presence of witnesses, who are invited to a beer-feast which marks the transaction. Later on, when the non-fulfilment of some other obligation is discussed before the elders or when property is re-distributed