  We present the results of our monitoring of the halo black-hole soft X-ray
transient (SXT) XTE J1118+480 during its decline to quiescence. The system has
decayed 0.5 mags from December 2000 to its present near quiescent level at
R=18.65 (June 2001). The ellipsoidal lightcurve is distorted by an additional
modulation that we interpret as a superhump of P_sh=0.17049(1) d i.e. 0.3%
longer than the orbital period. This implies a disc precession period P_prec=
52 d. After correcting the average phase-folded light curve for veiling, the
amplitude difference between the minima suggests that the binary inclination
angle lies in the range i=71-82 deg. However, we urge caution in the
interpretation of these values because of residual systematic contamination of
the ellipsoidal lightcurve by the complex form of the superhump modulation. The
orbital--mean H-alpha profiles exhibit clear velocity variations with ~500 km/s
amplitude. We interpret this as the first spectroscopic evidence of an
eccentric precessing disc.
