A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs, with an English Translation; as also some Specimens of the Author's own Temne Compositions and Translations; to which is appended a Temne-English Vocabulary.

8vo. (219x140mm), pp:xxii+1-298, endpapers browned, sl. wormed, however contents very good condition, in original cloth, gilt title to spine, cloth worn, marked and stained. Very Scarce. The Temne, also called Atemne, Temene, Temne, Temine, . or Timni, are a West African ethnic group. They are predominantly found in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, as well as the coastal capital city of Freetown. Some Temne are also found in Guinea. The Temne constitute the largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone at 35.5% of the total population. They speak Temne, a Mel branch of the Niger-Congo languages. The Temne were one of the ethnic groups that were victims of slave capture and trading across the sub-Saharan and across the Atlantic into European colonies. The earliest mention of Temne and other ethnic groups of Sierra Leone are in the records of Portuguese financed explorers such as those of Valentim Fernandes and Pacheco Pereira who were traveling along the coast of Africa to find a route to India and China. Pereira's memoirs written between 1505 and 1508 mention Temne words for gold ("tebongo"), water and rice. The Portuguese records describe the culture and religion of the Temne people. English-Temne parallel text.…