_imbele_ or clan relationship as a social one, as well as one of
actual blood, a statement which is illustrated by the fact that,
if a member of one clan leaves his village to reside permanently in a
village of another clan, he will regard the members of the latter clan,
and will himself be regarded by them, as being _imbele_, although he
does not part with the continuing _imbele_ connection between himself
and the other members of his original clan.

On the other hand the association between members of a clan
is exceedingly close, so much so that a serious injury done by
an outsider to one member of a clan (_e.g._, his murder, or the
case of his wife eloping with a stranger and her family refusing to
compensate him for the price which he had paid for her on marriage)
is taken up by the entire clan, who will join the injured individual
in full force to inflict retribution; and, as already stated, the
members of a clan share in one common chief and one common _emone_,
intermarriage between them is regarded as wrong, and apparently each
group of villages occupied by a single clan has in origin been a single
village, and may well have a common descent. I think, therefore, that
I am justified in regarding these internal sections of a community
as clans.


Chiefs, Sub-Chiefs and Notables and Their Emone

At the head of each clan is the _amidi_, or chief of the clan. He is,
and is recognised as being, the only true chief.

He is the most important personage of his clan, and is treated
with the respect due to his office; but, though he takes a leading