WOLOF (WoLOFF, JOLOF)  , a Negroid people of Senegal, French West Africa . They occupy the seaboard between St Louis and Cape Verde and the south bank of the Senegal from its mouth to Dagana . Farther inland the districts of the Walo, Cayor Baol and Jolof (the last, the name of a chief division of the nation, being sometimes used as the national name) are almost exclusively peopled by Wolof . The cities of St Louis and Dakar are both in the Wolof country, and throughout the French Sudanno military station is without a Wolof colony, preserving national speech and usages . The name is variously explained as meaning " speaker " or " black." The Wolof justify both meanings, for they are at once far the blackest and among the most garrulous of all African peoples . They are a very tall race, with splendidly proportioned busts but weak and undeveloped legs and flat feet . The Wolof language is spoken throughout Senegambia, and numerous grammars, dictionaries and vocabularies have appeared since 1825 . There is, however, no written literature . The Wolof preserve their national songs, legends and proverbs by memory, but have little knowledge of letters beyond the Arabic characters on their paper spells and amulets . ' Wolof, a typical agglutinating language, differs from all other African forms of speech . The roots, almost all monosyllables ending in consonants, are determined by means of suffixes, and coalesce while remaining invariable in their various meanings . By these suffixes the meaning of the words is endlessly modified .

Most Wolof are nominally Mahommedans, and some near the

Christian missions profess Christianity, but many pagan rites are still observed . Animal worship is prevalent . The capture of a shark is hailed with delight, and family genii have offerings made to them, the most popular of these household deities, the lizard, having in many houses a bowl of milk set aside for it daily . The Wolof have three hereditary castes, the nobles, the tradesmen and musicians (who are despised), and the slaves . These latter are kindly treated . Polygyny is customary . The old kingdom of Cayor, the largest of Wolof states, has been preserved by the French . The king is elected, but always from the ruling family, and the electors, themselves unable to succeed, only number four . When elected the king receives a vase said to contain the seeds of all plants growing in Cayor, and he is thus made lord of the land . In earlier days there was the Bur or " Great Wolof," to whom all petty chiefs owed allegiance . The Wolof are very loyal to the French, and have constantly proved themselves courageous soldiers .