Hans Cory (1888-1962) was a self-taught ethnographer and social anthropologist who settled permanently in Tanganyika in 1926. Born originally in Vienna, Austria, and later naturalised as a British subject, in 1943 he became Sociologist to the Government of Tanganyika. Hans Cory was musical, interested in the arts and an excellent linguist composing Swahili poems for his own pleasure and that of his friends. He become very knowledgeable about African songs and dances and tribal ceremonies including those of secret societies and to collect figurines and plants used in the ceremonies.