THE TALLENSI 245
every maximal lineage has its specific field of clanship, overlapping but not identical with that of any other maximal lineage of the same clan. It is both a constituent unit of a local clan and an intercalary unit linking that clan to another; and no clan is a closed unit. Thus any given sector of this network manifests an equilibrium of clanship and local ties balanced against genealogical and local cleavages. Loyalty to the local clan is balanced by the contrary loyalty to a component unit of a neighbouring clan. The resulting articulation of clan with clan gives the Talis a loose cohesion. They often speak of themselves as a unit differentiated from non-Talis by distinctive ritual and ceremonial observances. In fact, not all Talis have all these usages, and some non-Talis share them; characteristically, the Talis overlap with neighbouring aggregates of clans.
Interlocking with this nexus of clanship ties is an equally elaborate network of ties of ritual collaboration in the Great Festivals, the cult of the Earth and of the external boyar (see below, p. 262). Ritual collaboration implies joint mystical benefits and responsibility and therefore amity and solidarity analogous to that of clans-folk. The two sets of ties, though not congruent, reinforce one another.
Fights between Talis clans were never, in consequence, regarded as war. Mediators linked to the combatants by ties of clanship, contiguity, or ritual collaboration immediately intervened. War to the Talis meant fighting their traditional enemies, the people of Tongo and their allies. Yet two Talis clans usually supported Tongo (see below, p. 257) and the Talis were and are bound to Tongo by stringent ritual ties, as will appear later.
By contrast with the Talis, their neighbours, the people of Tongo, are called Namoos. This nomenclature reflects the fundamental cleavage in Tale society. It is universally accepted that the founder of Tongo, Mosuor, was a fugitive from Mam-purugu, where he had been forcibly ousted from the paramount chief ship. Mosuor found the primordial ancestors of four of the Talis clans occupying the country. Chief among them was the primordial Gbizug tmdaana, who, the myth relates, terrified of the red turban, the flowing gown, the horses and the guns of Mosuor—these are the insignia of chiefs—fled to the Tong Hills. By a ruse, Mosuor caught him and declared that he had come to settle peaceably and to bring benefits to the community.