THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM 1505 TO 1700.

CHAPTER IV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BANTU (continued).

The religion of the Bantu was based upon the supposition of the existence of spirits that could interfere with the affairs of this world. These spirits were those of their ancestors and their deceased chiefs, the greatest of whom had control over lightning. When the spirits became offended or hungry they sent a plague or disaster until sacrifices were offered and their wrath or hunger was appeased. The head of a family of commoners on such an occasion killed an animal, and all ate of the meat, as the hungry ghost was supposed to be satisfied with the smell. In case of the chief or the community at large being affected, the sacrifice was performed with much ceremony by the tribal priest, an individual of great influence, who had as other duties to ward off from the ruler the malevolent attacks of wizards and to prepare charms or administer medicine that would make the warriors who conducted themselves properly and bravely invulnerable in battle.

An instance may be given to illustrate the operation of this religion. Upon the death of Gwanya, a chief of great celebrity in the Pondomsi tribe, he was buried in a deep pool of the Tina river. The body was fastened to a log of wood, which was sunk in the water and then covered with stones. The sixth in the direct line of descent from this chief, Umhlonhlo by name, to save himself from destruction by an enemy became a British subject at his own request, but in October 1880 his clan treacherously murdered three English officials, and went into rebellion, which resulted in his being obliged afterwards to take shelter in Basutoland.

After eluding capture for twenty-three years, Umhlonhlo was at length arrested, though he made a desperate resistance. In 1904 he was put upon his trial for murder, but was acquitted, as it could not be proved, though it was morally certain, that he had personally taken part in the crime. In the interim through the agency of a Roman catholic missionary he had become a convert to Christianity. During his confinement and when on his trial he conducted himself with such dignity as to win the admiration of every one, a feature of character, howeve

In 1891 one of Umhlonhlo's sons ventured into the district where his father had lived, and there committed an assault, for which he was arrested and sent before a colonial court to be tried. It was a time of intense heat and severe drought, which the tribe declared were caused by the spirit of Gwanya, who in this manner was expressing displeasure at the treatment accorded to his descendant. As a peace- offering therefore, cattle were killed on the banks of the pool containing his grave, and the flesh was thrown into the water, together with new dishes full of beer. The prisoner was sentenced to pay a fine, which was at once collected by the people for him. A few days later rain fell in copious showers, which of course confirmed the belief of the tribe that what was right had been done, and that the spirit of Gwanya was appeased.

In all such cases the conception of the spirit was that it manifested its power by doing harm, and must therefore be propitiated. The idea of a God of love was foreign to the Bantu mind until introduced by the teaching of Christian missionaries, and even then the converts were very prone to reflect more on the anathemas than on the invitations contained in holy writ. It was a peculiar turn of mind, which was not quickly diverted to an opposite direction.

The Bantu had no idea of reward or punishment in a world to come for acts committed in this life, and thus there was no other restraint of religion upon their actions than was connected with loyalty to their chiefs dead and living. Except when compelled by circumstances to do so, they thought as little as possible of their own after fate, and seldom allowed reflection of any kind to disturb them.

A belief in the existence of spirits would seem to have as its consequence a belief in some special place where they resided, but the Bantu power of reasoning in such matters did not extend so far. Their minds in this respect were like those of little children, who are content to credit marvellous things told to them, without attempting to investigate any of the particulars. It is only since European ideas have been disseminated among them that such a question has arisen, and that one has said the spirits resided in the sky, another that their place of abode was a cavern under the earth. They acted as if the ghosts of the dead remained at or near their habitations when in life, and they were constantly fearful of meeting them at night. In all parts of the country there were localities, usually wild or secluded glens, which had the reputation of being haunted, and where no one would venture to appear alone after dusk. This might be said, however, of almost every part of Europe as well, so that in it the Bantu did not differ from the most highly civilised section of mankind.

No man of this race, upon being told of the existence of a single supreme God, ever denies the assertion, and among many of the tribes there is even a name for such a Being, as, for instance, the word Mukuru used by some, or Umkulunkulu, the Great Great One, used by the Hlubis and others. From this it has been assumed by some investigators that the Bantu are really monotheists, and that the spirits of their ancestors are regarded merely as mediators or intercessors. But such a conclusion is incorrect. The Great Great One was once a man, they all assert, and before our conception of a deity became known to them, he was the most powerful of the ancient chiefs, to whom, tradition assigned supernatural knowledge and skill.

When a person was killed by lightning no lamentation was. made, as it would have been considered rebellion to mourn for one whom the great chief had sent for. In cases of death within a kraal the relatives and friends of the deceased often exhibited the most passionate symptoms of grief, which, however, seldom lasted long, though they generally shaved their heads as a sign of mourning. There was an idea that something connected with death attached to the personal effects of the deceased, on which account whatever had belonged to him that could not be placed in the grave, his clothing, mats, head rest, &c, was destroyed by fire. The hut in which he had lived was also burned, and no other was allowed to be built on the spot. If he had been the chief, the whole kraal was removed to another site. Those who touched the corpse or any of the dead man's effects were obliged to go through certain ceremonies, and then to bathe in running water before they could associate again with their companions. Except in cases of persons of rank, however, very few deaths occurred within kraals. As soon as it was seen that any one's end was near, the invalid was carried to a distance and left to die alone, in order to avert the danger of the presence of the dreaded something that could not be explained.

If it happened that a common person died within a kraal, the corpse was dragged to a distance, and there left to be devoured by beasts of prey; but chiefs and great men were interred with much ceremony. A grave was dug, in which the body was placed in a sitting posture, and by it were laid the weapons of war and ornaments used in life. When the grave was closed, such expressions as these were used : Remember us from the place where you are, you have gone to a high abode, cause us to prosper. To prevent desecra- tion of any kind, watchers were then appointed to guard the grave, who for many months never left its neighbour- hood. In some instances it was enclosed with a fence large enough to form a fold, within which selected oxen were confined at night. These cattle were thenceforward regarded as sacred, were well cared for, and allowed to die a natural death. The watchers of the grave also were privileged men ever afterwards.

The funeral customs of the Ovaherero were somewhat different from those of the other tribes. The backbone of a dead man was broken, to prevent his spirit from practising mischief, and the body was then doubled up and buried in a deep grave with the face towards the north, the home of his ancestors. These people believed that the eyes of the spirit of a dead man were in the back of the head. They slaughtered the favourite oxen of the deceased, in order that the shades of these might accompany him to the spirit world, but they did not eat the flesh of the dead animals, as was the practice with other Bantu. In such cases the Ovaherero killed the oxen by shedding their blood, whereas cattle killed by them on all other occasions were bound fast and suffocated, with their faces turned towards the north.

Before the interment of the paramount chief of a powerful tribe, especially of a great military ruler, a number of his attendants were killed, and their bodies were placed around his in the grave in such a way as to keep it from contact with the earth. The object was to provide bim with servants in the spirit world. His principal wives either took poison voluntarily or were killed, to serve him as companions. If he had a favourite dog, ox, or other animal, that was also slaughtered, to give him pleasure. It does not follow that such animals were regarded as immortal, but there was something unexplainable connected with them that the dead chief could enjoy, just as there was with his assagais and his metal bracelets. Afterwards, especially when drought occurred or any disaster overtook the people, sacrifices were offered at the grave, and prayers were made to him for assistance. When a number of chiefs had thus been interred, a tacit selection was made of the one who had been the wisest and most powerful in his day, and the others were neglected and gradually forgotten except by the antiquaries who preserved their names.

The custom of slaughtering wives and attendants upon the death of a great chief was not observed by the less important tribes, nor upon the death of mere chiefs of clans or of other individuals of position ; but a practice carried out to the present day shows that it must at one time have been general. When a man of what may be termed aristocratic rank died his widows betook themselves to forests or lonely places, where they lived in seclusion as best they could for a month or longer, according to the time of mourning customary among their people. During this period no one even spoke to them, and when, as sometimes — but not always — happened, they were supplied with food, it was done by leaving a little millet in a place near their haunts where they would probably find it. Death from exposure and starvation was frequently the result of this custom. At the end of the time of mourning the emaciated creatures returned to their kraals, when ceremonies of purification were observed, their clothing and ornaments were burned, and their relatives supplied them with the new articles that they needed. This method of mourning must have been developed from the prac- tice of slaughtering such wives of a man of rank as could not make their escape when he died, in order that they might accompany him to the land of spirits.

The slaughter of attendants upon the death of a chief proves a belief in the continued existence of his spirit, but the burial of the weapons and ornaments of a warrior with his corpse is by no means such conclusive evidence. The fear of the mysterious power death was such that every one dreaded to come in contact with the personal effects of the individual smitten down, lest these also should partake of the infection. Whatever could be deposited in a grave was therefore disposed of in this manner, and the hut, mats, clothing, and everything else belonging to the deceased were destroyed by fire. To keep anything whatever as a memento of a departed relative or friend was an idea utterly foreign to the Bantu mind.

The tribes farthest in advance on the south - east had a dim belief in the existence of a powerful beiDg, whom they termed Qamata, and to whom they sometimes prayed, though they never offered sacrifices to him. In a time of danger one of them would exclaim : " O Qamata help me," and when the danger was over he would attribute his deliverance to the same being. But of Qamata nothing more was known than that he was high and mighty, and that though at times he helped individuals, in general he did not interfere with the destinies of men. Recent investigations have shown that this belief did not extend far among the Bantu tribes, and it is now supposed to have been acquired from the Hottentots. Not that the Hottentots venerated a deity thus designated, but that a knowledge of some other object of worship than their own ancestral shades having been obtained through Hottentot females whom they took to themselves, this name was given to the unknown divinity.

The Bantu believed that the spirits of the dead visited their friends and descendants in the form of animals. Each tribe regarded some particular animal as the one selected by the ghosts of its kindred, and therefore looked upon it as sacred. The lion was thus held in veneration by one tribe, the crocodile by another, the python by a third, the bluebuck by a fourth, and so on. When a division of a tribe took place, each section retained the same ancestral animal, and thus a simple method is afforded of ascertaining the wide dispersion of various communities of former times. For instance, at the present day a species of snake is held by people as far south as the mouth of the Fish river and by others near the Zambesi to be the form in which their dead appear.

This belief caused even such destructive animals as the lion and the crocodile to be protected from harm in certain parts of the country. It was not indeed believed that every lion or every crocodile was a disguised spirit, but then any one might be, and so none were molested unless under peculiar circumstances, when it was clearly apparent that the animal was an aggressor and therefore not related to the tribe. Even then, if it could be driven away it was not killed. A Xosa of the present time will leave his hut if an ancestral snake enters it, permitting the reptile to keep possession, and will shudder at the thought of any one hurting it. The animal thus respected by one tribe was, however, disregarded and killed without scruple by all others.

The great majority of the people of the interior have now lost the ancient belief, but they still hold in veneration the animal that their ancestors regarded as a possible embodied spirit. Most of them take their tribal titles from it, thus the Bakwena are the crocodiles, the Bataung the lions, the Baputi the little blue antelopes. Each terms the animal whose name it bears its siboko, and not only will not kill it or eat its flesh, but will not touch its skin or come in contact with it in any way if that can be avoided. When one stranger meets another and desires to know something about him, he asks "to what do you dance ?" and the name of the animal is given in reply. Dos Santosr a Portuguese writer who had excellent opportunities of observation, states that on certain occasions, which must have been frequent, men imitated the actions of their siboko ; but that custom has now almost died out, at least among the southern tribes.

Frequently two or more different animals were held in veneration by a tribe. This circumstance arose in some instances from the community being composed of fragments of others blended together, in a few instances from the name of its founder having been that of an animal. Thus from the crocodiles a section might separate and become inde- pendent under a chief named the baboon. The people would then in all probability venerate the baboon as well as the crocodile, for the twofold purpose of honouring their founder and giving themselves a distinctive title. Occasionally in recent times an inanimate object has been venerated, thus the Barolong have iron as their siboko, the Bamorara the wild vine. The sun, the sky, rain, &c. are thus used as the siboko of different tribes that have long since lost all knowledge of the belief of their remote ancestors. Owing to the many terrible convulsions these people have gone through, only a glimmering remembrance of the faith and practice of the distant past has remained to some sections of them.

The tribes along the south-eastern coast, though separated into distinct communities absolutely independent of each other since the beginning of the seventeenth century, as far back as their tradition reaches, are of common stock. They all regard the same species of snake as the form in which their ancestral shades appear. Further, their tribal titles, with few exceptions, are derived from the chief who left the parent stock, thus the Amahlubi are the people of Hlubi, the Abatembu the people of Tembu, the Amaxosa the people of Xosa, Hlubi, Tembu, and Xosa being the chiefs under whom they acquired independence. The exceptions are derived from some peculiarity of the people, but in these cases the titles, were originally nicknames given by strangers and afterwards adopted by the tribes themselves.

Nearer than the spirits of deceased chiefs or of their own ancestors was a whole host of hobgoblins, water spirits, and malevolent demons, who met the Bantu turn which way they would. There was no beautiful fairyland for them, for all the beings who haunted the mountains, the plains, and the rivers were ministers of evil. The most feared of these was a large bird that made love to women and incited those who returned its affection to cause the death of those who did not, and a little mischievous imp who was also amorously inclined. Many instances could be gathered from the records of magistrates' courts in recent years of demented women having admitted their acquaintance with these fabulous creatures, as well as of whole communities living in terror of them.

The water spirits were believed to be addicted to claiming human victims, though they were sometimes willing to accept an ox as a ransom. How this belief works practically may be illustrated by facts which have come under the writer's cognizance.

In the summer of 1875 a party of girls went to bathe in a tributary of the Keiskama river. There was a deep hole in the stream, into which one of them got, and she was drowned. The others ran home as fast as they could, and there related that their companion had been lured from their side by a spirit calling her. She was with them, they said, in a shallow part, when suddenly she stood upright and exclaimed "It is calling." She then walked straight into the deep place, and would not allow any of them to touch her. One of them heard her saying " Go and tell my father and my mother that it took me." Upon this, the father collected his cattle as quickly as possible, and went to the stream. The animals were driven into the water, and the man stood on the bank imploring the spirit to take the choicest of them and restore his daughter.

On another occasion a man was trying to cross one of the fords of a river when it was in flood. He was carried away by the current, but succeeded in getting safely to land some three or four hundred metres farther down. Eight or ten stout fellows saw him carried off his feet, but not one made the slightest effort to help him. On the contrary, they all rushed away frantically, shouting to the herd boys on the hill sides to drive down the cattle. The escape of the man from the power of the spirit was afterwards attributed to his being in possession of a powerful charm.

Besides these spirits, according to the belief of the Bantu, there are people living under the water, pretty much as those do who are in the upper air. They have houses and furniture, and even cattle, all of their domestic animals being, however, of a dark colour. They are wiser than other people, and from them the witchfinders are supposed to obtain the knowledge of their art. This is not a fancy of children, but the implicit belief of grown-up men and women at the present day. As an instance, in July 1881 a woman came to the writer of this chapter, who was then acting as magistrate of a district in the Cape Colony inhabited by Bantu, and asked for assistance. A child had died in her kraal, and the witchfinder had pointed her out as the person who had caused its death. Her husband was absent, and the result of her being smelt out was that no one would enter her hut, or so much as speak to her. If she was in a path every one fled out o£ her way, and even her own children avoided her. Being under British jurisdiction she could not be otherwise punished, but such treatment as this would of itself, in course of time, have made her insane. She denied most emphatically having been concerned in the death of the child, though she did not doubt that some one had caused it by witchcraft. The witchfinder was sent for, and, as the matter was considered an important one, a larger number of people than usual appeared at the investigation. On putting the ordinary tests to the witchfinder he failed to meet them, and when he was compelled, reluctantly, to admit that he had never held converse with the people under the water, it was easy to convince the bystanders that he was only an impostor.

By some of the Bantu tribes great regard was paid to fire. The Makalanga when first visited by Europeans four centuries ago were in the habit of extinguishing all the fires throughout their country on a certain day named by the chief, and lighting them again from a flame produced at his residence by friction of two pieces of wood, which observ- ance was attended with much ceremony. The Ovaherero keep a fire constantly burning at the place where cattle are sacrificed to the spirits of the dead at the principal ruler's kraal, which flame is considered sacred, and is guarded by the eldest unmarried daughter of the chief. When the kraal is removed the sacred fire is put out, and is lit afresh at the new place of settlement with much ceremony, when pieces of wood to represent their ancestors are set up. Symbolic figures of their ancestors are kept in their huts and are held in veneration by some of the Betshuana also, but the sacred fire, if ever it existed among them, has long since died out.

Of the origin of life or of the visible universe the Bantu never thought, nor had any one of them ever formed a theory upon the subject. There was indeed a story told in all the tribes of the cause of death, but it is in itself an apt illustration of their want of reasoning power in such matters. The chameleon, so the tale was told, was sent to say that men were to live for ever. After he had gone a long time the little lizard was sent to say that men were to die. The lizard, being fleet of foot, arrived first at his journey's end, and thus death was introduced. But in whom the power lay of forming these decisions, and of sending the animals with the messages, they did not trouble themselves to inquire, nor did it strike them that the narrative was incomplete without this information until Europeans questioned them concerning it.

Some of the eastern Bantu had a legend that men and animals formerly existed in caverns in the bowels of the earth, but at length found their way to the surface through an opening in a marsh overgrown with reeds. They always pointed to the north as the direction in which this marsh lay. The Bantu of the interior believed that men and animals first made their appearance from a fissure in a large rock far away in the north. Wizards had power to cause this rock to open and shut at will, but whether it was the entrance to a cavern, or merely itself hollow, no one could say. The legends collected in different parts vary greatly in detail as to the manner in which the men and animals made their appearance, the special gifts bestowed on each — by whom is never stated — and the mode of their dispersion subsequently. The Bushmen in these tales are not included in human beings, they were already in existence when the men and cattle appeared.

The Ovaherero and their kindred believe that the first man and woman came out of a tree similar to a particular species found in the country they now inhabit. From this couple were born the ancestors of the Hottentot and Bantu tribes, but not of the Bushmen, the Berg Damaras, or the baboons, classifying the three latter as equal. Cattle also and game animals first came from the same tree, but emerged from it in herds, not in couples. They pay such respect to every tree of this species that they will not even lop a twig from it, but when passing by one make an offering to it by throwing a bunch of grass or some sticks at its foot. For this reason it is now commonly called by the Europeans in the country the Damara mother tree, Damup, corrupted by the Dutch colonists into Damara, being the Hottentot name of all the black people living north of Walfish Bay, who are distinguished merely as Cattle Damaras, that is Ovaherero, and Berg Damaras, or those who live like Bushmen.

This belief of the Ovaherero is possibly of Hottentot origin, for the people that hold it have strangely mixed up the worship of Heitsi - Eibib with that of their own ancestral shades. Wherever barbarous races intermingle, even as enemies as in this instance, each derives something from the beliefs of the other. Mr. Stow gives a legend of some of the Bushmen near the mouth of the Orange river, that men and animals first came forth from a hole in the ground at the foot of a great tree, which may also have had a Hottentot origin.

Dos Santos states that the people of his time in the Zambesi basin observed certain fixed days as holy, and abstained from labour upon them ; but this custom was certainly not universal, and very likely the friar was mistaken. At any rate modern observers in that part of the country as well as in the south have noticed that no days or seasons are considered more sacred than others, though there are times marked by particular events when it is considered unlucky to undertake any enterprise, and even movements in war are delayed on such occasions.

Still it must be observed that, though no days were considered holier than others, or were specially dedicated to religious observances, with the Bantu, as probably with all uncivilised people, the time of a new moon was one of special rejoicing. Next to the apparent course of the sun through the sky, the changes of the moon are those which to every one are most striking. This is particularly so in a country like South Africa, where a moonlit evening, when the winds are lulled and the air is deliriously fresh and cool, is to Europeans the pleasantest part of the twenty-four hours, far more so to people who knew of no other artificial light than that of burning wood. It is no wonder therefore that the new moon was hailed with shouts of joy, that its praises were chanted in set words, and that among some of the tribes dances and other ceremonies took place in its honour. With all this, however, the moon was not regarded as a deity, nor was the evening of rejoicing considered more holy than any other. After the crops were gathered, many of the tribes were accustomed to offer special sacrifices to the spirits of their dead chiefs, though there was no fixed day in every year set apart for the purpose, and indeed they did not even know how to reckon time as we do. A chief who considered that his people, male or female, needed rest, might issue an order that no work was to be done on a particular day, but that did not cause it to be regarded as holy.

Each ruling family had an individual connected with it, one of whose duties can properly be described as that of a priest, for it was he who in times of calamity sacrificed cattle for the tribe to the spirits of the dead chiefs. Another of his duties was by means of charms and incantations to ward off evil influence of every kind from the reigning ruler. When a community was broken in war and compelled to become a vassal clan of some other tribe, it retained its priest until by time or circumstances a thorough incorpor tion took place. That was a process, however, not usually completed until several generations had passed away.

As a factor in the government of a Bantu tribe religion was more powerful than in any European state, for the fear of offending the spirits of the deceased chiefs, and so bringing evil upon themselves, kept the clans loyal to their head. He was the representative, the descendant in the great line, of those whose wrath they appeased by sacrifices. A tribe all of whose clans were governed by offshoots of the family of the paramount chief was thus immensely stronger in war than one of equal size made up of clans brought together by chance. In the one case the religious head was the same as the political, in the other they were separate.

The belief in witchcraft was deep-seated and universal. The theory was that certain evil-disposed persons obtained power from the demons to bewitch others, and so to cause sickness, death, or disaster of some kind. They were believed often to use snakes, baboons, and other animals as their messengers. They could only be discovered by individuals who went through a very severe novitiate, and to whom the necessary knowledge was imparted by people who lived under water. Undoubtedly some of the witchfinders were impostors ; but many of them were really monomaniacs, and had the firmest conviction in their ability to do what they professed.

Occasionally a person believed that he had received revelations from the spirit world. If his statements were credited, his power at once became enormous, and his commands were implicitly obeyed. Crafty chiefs sometimes made use of such deranged beings for the purpose of exciting the people to war, or of inducing them to approve of measures which would otherwise have been unpopular.

There were individuals who professed to be able to make rain, and whose services were frequently called into use when any part of the country suffered from drought. If it happened soon afterwards that rain fell they received credit for it, and were amply rewarded, while if the drought continued they asserted that some unknown powerful wizard was working against them, a statement that was in most cases believed. Sometimes, however, the chief and people lost faith in them, when they were pronounced guilty of imposture, and were tied hand and foot and thrown over a precipice or into a stream.

There were also persons who were skilful in the use of herbs as remedies for diseases, and who were well acquainted with different kinds of poison. This knowledge was transmitted in certain families from father to son, and was kept profoundly secret from the mass of the people. Some of their medicines were beyond doubt of great efficacy, such as those used for the cure of dysentery, for causing virulent sores to heal, and to counteract snake bites. But with these, and classified as of equal value, they professed to have medicines that would cause love from a woman, favour from a chief, &c. The writer of this was once so fortunate as to come into possession of the whole stock in trade of a famous Xosa herbalist. Each article in it was afterwards submitted to different practitioners, under exceptionally favourable circumstances for eliciting information, when most of them were at once recognised and their uses pronounced. Some were cures for various diseases, one was a love philter, and one was a piece of wood which was to be burned and the smoke inhaled, when the person using it would find favour in the eyes of his superior. But there were several whose use no one would divulge, their properties being regarded as secrets upon the strictest maintenance of which the fortunes of the herbalist families depended. In every case, in addition to the medicine, charms were made use of, and the one was as much relied upon as the other by the people at large.

The remedies used by these people would have been more efficacious if they had understood how to prepare them in proper doses, but this was never considered as of consequence, nor had they the knowledge necessary to repeat the doses at regular intervals. Very often when a man of importance was ill, instead of taking the medicine himself he would require one of his attendants to swallow it, in the full belief that if it was taken by some one about him it would answer as well as if taken by himself. Of course in such cases faith, or the influence of the mind upon the body, was the real healer.

It often happened that the three offices of witchfinder, rain-maker, and herbalist were combined in the same person, but this was not always the case, and the occupations were distinct. When practising, these individuals attired themselves fantastically, being painted with various colours, and having the tails of wild animals suspended around them.

Charms were largely depended upon to preserve the wearers against accident or to produce good luck. They were merely bits of wood or bone, which were hung about the neck, and were regarded just as lucky pennies and fortunate days are by some silly Europeans. But the belief was firm in charms and medi- cines which gave to an assagai the property of hitting the mark, to an individual the property of winning favour, and such like. The issue of warlike operations was divined by revolting cruel- ties practised on animals. At the commencement of hostilities, and often before an engagement, two bulls were selected to re- present the opposing parties. These were then skinned alive, and success was foretold to the combatant represented by the one that lived longest. By some means, however, each band of warriors was made to believe that the result denoted victory to its side. While this was taking place pieces of flesh were cut from other living bulls, which the warriors devoured raw, in the supposition that by this means their courage in battle would be increased. Cruelty of so dreadful a kind shocked no heart among the spectators, for the Bantu in general were utterly indifferent to the sufferings of animals, except favourites such as a man's own race-ox or his pet dog.

The tribes of the interior were more superstitious than those of the coast, as they were guided in nearly all their actions by the position in which some pieces of bone or wood of the character of dice fell when they were cast on the ground. The largest made of wood were oblong tablets, about fifteen centimetres in length, five centimetres in width, and a centimetre and a half in thickness, but usually those of wood, and almost invariably those of bone, were smaller, the commonest being about six centimetres long, two centimetres and a half wide, and a third of a centimetre in thickness. On each tablet a different pattern was carved, and each had a signification different from the others. Sometimes instead of tablets pieces of bone or of ivory carved in various shapes were used, in the manufacture of which a great deal of patient labour was expended. The usual number employed was five, but more were sometimes found in a set. If an ox strayed the daula was thrown to ascertain in what direction it had gone, if a hunt was to take place it was consulted to indicate in what quarter game was most readily to be found, in short it was resorted to in every case of doubt. Each individual carried with him a set of these mystic articles strung on a thong, to be used whenever required. This superstitious practice, just as it was described more than three hundred years ago by the friar Dos Santos, is still prevalent and firmly believed in.

With many of the tribes there was a custom upon the accession of a chief to kill the commoner with the largest head among the people, in order that his skull might be used by the priest as a receptacle for the charms against witchcraft employed in the protection of the ruler. Such a receptacle was regarded as requisite for that particular purpose. Only a generation ago a man was killed with this object by a section of the Xosa tribe that was not then under British rule, but that had been to some extent for many years under European influence. The writer has heard his grandchildren speak of the event without the slightest feeling of horror, with as much indifference, in fact, as if they were relating any ordinary occurrence.

The Bantu had a system of common law and perfectly organised tribunals of justice, which, however, were sometimes set aside by the great military tribes. Their laws came down from a time to which even tradition did not reach, and those which related to ordinary matters were so well known to every member of the community that trials were mere investigations into statements and proofs of occurrences. When complicated cases arose, precedents were sought for, antiquaries were referred to, and celebrated jurists even in other tribes were consulted. If all these means of ascertaining the law failed, and the chief before whom the case was being tried was not a man of generally recognised ability, it often happened that no judgment was given, for fear of establishing a faulty precedent. From the decisions of the minor chiefs there was a right of appeal to the head of the tribe.

The law held every one accused of crime guilty, unless he could pi'ove himself innocent. It made the head of a family responsible for the conduct of all its branches, the kraal col- lectively in the same manner for each resident in it, and the clan for each of its sub-divisions. Thus if the skin of a stolen ox was found in a kraal, or if the footmarks of the animal were traced to it, the whole of the residents were liable to be fined. There was no such thing as a man's professing ignorance of his neighbour's doings : the law required him to know all about them, or it made him suffer for neglecting a duty which it held he owed to the community. Every individual was not only in theory but in practice a policeman.

A lawsuit among these people was commonly attended by all the men of the kraal where it took place. Nothing was more congenial than to sit and listen to the efforts of the querists to elicit the truth, or for the ablest among them to assist in the investigation. The trial took place in the open air. The person charged with crime or the defendant in a civil suit underwent a rigorous examination, and anything like warning him against criminating himself was held to be perversion of justice.

The accuser or plaintiff or a friend prosecuted, and a friend of the individual on trial conducted the defence ; the counsellors, who acted as assessors, or any individual of recognised legal ability who happened to be present, put any questions they chose ; and the mass of spectators observed the utmost silence and decorum. At the conclusion of the trial, the counsellors expressed their opinions, and the chief then pronounced judgment.

There were only two modes of punishment, fines and death, except in cases where an individual was charged with having dealt in witchcraft, when torture, often of a horrible kind, was practised. In this class of trials every one was actuated by fear, and was in a state of strong excitement, so that the formalities required on other occasions were dispensed with. The whole clan was assembled and seated in a circle, the witchfinder, who was fantastically painted and attired, went through certain in- cantations, and when all were worked into a state of frenzy he pointed to some individual as the one who had by bewitchment caused death or sickness among the people, murrain among cattle, blight in crops, or some other disaster. The result to the person so pointed out was confiscation of property and torture, often causing death. The number of persons who perished on charges of dealing in witchcraft was very great. The victims were usually old women, men of property, persons of eccentric habits, or individuals obnoxious to the chief. Any person in advance of his fellows was specially liable to suspicion, so that progress of any kind towards what we should term higher civilisation was made exceedingly difficult by this belief.

No one except the chief was exempt, however, from being charged with dealing in witchcraft. The cruelties practised upon the unfortunate individuals believed to be guilty were often horrible, but a single instance, which occurred in July 1892, will be sufficient to exemplify them. A wife of the Pondo chief Sigcawu being ill, a witchfinder was directed to point out the person who caused the malady. He declared that Ma Matiwane, sister of the Pondomsi chief Umhlonhlo and widow of Sigcawu's father, was the guilty person, and that she had a lizard and a mole as her servants in the evil work. By order of Sigcawu, a number of young men then seized Ma Matiwane, stripped her naked, fastened her wrists and ankles to pegs driven in the ground, and covered her with ants irritated by pouring water over them. She suffered this torture for a long time without confessing, so they loosed her, saying that her medicines were too strong for the ants. They then lashed her arms to a pole placed along her shoulders, and taking her by the feet and the ends of the pole, they held her over a fire. Under this torture she confessed that she was guilty, but as she could not produce the lizard and the mole, she was roasted again three times within two days. No European could have survived such a burning; but she was ultimately rescued by an agent of the Cape government, and recovered. This woman had taken care of Sigcawu after the death of his own mother, yet on the mere word of a witchfinder she was thus horribly tortured. And instances of this kind were common events in the olden times.

Frequently, when a great calamity had occurred, or the life of a chief was believed to be in danger, not only the individual pointed out by the witchfinder, but his or her whole family was exterminated, and even entire kraals were sometimes wiped out of existence on such occasions. So strong was the belief in witchcraft and in the power of witchfinders to detect those guilty of practising it that instances were not rare of persons accused admitting that the charge against them must be correct and that they ought to suffer death, because some evil emanation over which they had no control must have gone forth from their bodies and caused the disaster, though they had done nothing directly to produce it.

The Bantu were seen in the most favourable light at ordinary lawsuits before the chiefs and counsellors, and in the most unfavourable light at trials for the discovery of wizards and witches. In the one case men were found conducting themselves with the strictest gravity and propriety, in the other case the same people were seen as a panic-stricken horde, deaf to all reason, and ready to perform most atrocious acts of cruelty, even upon persons who just previously were their companions.

The sentences pronounced in ordinary cases were often such as would have seemed unjust to Europeans, but that was because our standard of comparative crime is not the same as theirs, and because with us there is supposed to be no difference of punishment according to the rank of the criminal. With them the ruling families in all their branches had the privilege of doing many things with impunity that commoners were severely punished for. Bribery was not unknown, but in courts as open as theirs, and where there was the utmost freedom of enquiry, it could not be practised to any great extent. When a case was talked out, every one present was usually acquainted with its minutest details.

Among the northern tribes trial by ordeal was resorted to in cases where personal or circumstantial evidence was wanting, and in appeal from decisions of witchfinders. The form of ordeal varied. In some instances the accused person was required to lick or to pick up a piece of red-hot iron, and if he was burnt he was condemned as guilty. In other cases he drank the poisonous juice of a certain herb, and if it had effect upon him he was doomed to immediate death. In others again he was forced to drink a huge basin of hot water mixed with a bitter emetic, and if he could not retain it the charge against him was regarded as proved. Yet so confident were innocent persons that no harm would come to them from the iron, the poison, or the emetic, that they accepted the ordeal with alacrity. Among the southern tribes this practice was not common, though it was well known.

CHAPTER V. DESCRIPTION OF THE BANTU (continued)