hich are dealing with immediate and practical
problems. It is only in this way, for example, that the knowledge we
have gained of the Negro in Africa will contribute to the solution of
the race problem in America.

Interesting as is the prospect which opens with the first volume of
the African Studies, the untechnical reader will probably be more
impressed with imposing appearance of the volume, with the character
of its illustration and its general typographical appearance than with
its contents. These consist of twelve articles of an average length of
23 pages dealing with the following types: _Siwan customs_, _Oral
surgery in Egypt during the Old Empire_, _Worship of the Dead as
practiced by some African Tribes_, _The Paleoliths of the Eastern
Desert_, _Notes on the Nungu Tribe_, _Nassawara Province_, _A study of
the Ancient Speech of the Canary Islands_, _Benin Antiquities in the
Peabody Museum_, _The Utendi of Mwana Kupon_, _Notes on Egyptian
Saints_, _Dafur Gourds_, _An Inscription from Gebel Barkal_, and
_Ancient Egyptian Fishing_.

Perhaps the most interesting of these articles, for the sociologist,
is that of R. H. Blanchard entitled _Notes an Egyptian Saints_.
Sainthood, as the author remarks, "is not a difficulty of achievement
in the Islamic world." Every hamlet has its shrine and in the larger
villages there will usually be found two or three such sanctuaries.
Once a year, on his birthday, a festival and religious fair in honor
of the saint is held. The primitive character of these religious
celebrations is attested by the orgiastic and often licentious
performances that accompany them. For example on the occasion of the
festival of el-Hamal et-Rayah, a purely local celebrity, "the whole
adult male population of the town, in defiance of all orthodox Moslem
sentiment, intoxicated themselves with whatever alcoholic beverages
they could procure. Half a dozen prostitutes, hired for the occasion,
set up their booths or tents in the town, and received all comers.
There was among the revelers a great deal of horseplay of the most
licentious character, particularly in the vicinity of the booths if
the _sharamit_. Drunken men were dragged into the lanes by their
friends, and there left lying, exposed to the village wags and wits.
In 1914 this festival was modified by Government, which suppressed the
more offensive features of the celebration."

One of the most interesting of these saints referred to was "an old