THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM 1505 TO 1700.

CHAPTER VII.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BANTU (continued).

The Bantu were agriculturists. Millet of several varieties, all now called by Europeans kaffir-corn, was the grain exclusively grown. They raised large quantities of this, which they used either boiled or bruised into paste from which a very insipid kind of bread was made. In good seasons much millet was converted into beer. It was steeped in water until it began to sprout, then dried in the sun, and afterwards partly crushed in wooden mortars made by hollowing the end of a block of wood about seventy or eighty centimetres high. Two women, standing by the mortar, stamped the contents with heavy wooden pestles, keeping time with the strokes and usually lightening their labour by chanting some meaningless words. The malt was then boiled, and leaven mixed with it to cause it to ferment. Sometimes a bitter root was added to flavour it. It could be made so weak as to form a harmless and refreshing beverage, or so strong as to be intoxicating. In the latter case unmalted corn was crushed and mixed with water, which was then boiled, and malt was added afterwards until it was almost as thick as gruel, and to a European palate would have been nauseating. Millet beer was largely consumed at feasts of all kinds. It was used as soon as it ceased fermenting, for it speedily became sour. Some women were reputed to be able to make it much better than others, and on that account their services were largely in demand. In some parts of the country an intoxicating drink was also made from honey, which was plentiful in the season of flowers.

More pernicious was the custom of smoking dried leaves of wild hemp, which had the effect of producing violent coughing, followed by stupefaction. The usual pipe was a horn, but sometimes the smoke was inhaled through a clay tube made on the surface of the ground, and sometimes it was drawn through a vessel partly tilled with water. A number of men would sit round the smoking apparatus, and each in turn make use of it until all were helpless. Another means of intoxication was afforded by the same leaves of wild hemp, which, when dried and reduced to powder, were mixed with water and drunk. The practice, however, either of smoking or drinking bangue was confined to a small section of each community, and the baneful plant was only obtainable at certain seasons of the year. In the form of snuff the stalks as well as the leaves and fibres, dried and beaten into powder, could be preserved, and were more generally used.

Among the coast tribes a supply of grain sufficient to last until the next season was preserved from the attacks of weevil by burying it in air-tight pits excavated beneath the cattle-folds. When kept for a long time in these granaries, the grain lost the power of germinating, and acquired a rank taste and smell, but it was in that condition none the less agreeable to the Bantu palate. The interior tribes preserved their grain either in huge earthenware crocks or in enor- mous baskets, which were perfectly watertight, and which could be exposed to the air without damage to their contents.

Different kinds of gourds, a cane containing saccharine matter in large quantities, and a sort of ground nut were the other products of their gardens. Iu the country between the lower Zambesi and Sabi rivers rice and various foreign vegetables had been introduced by the Arabs long before the beginning of the sixteenth century, but the cultivation of these had not extended to the interior or the southern tribes. Everywhere wild bulbs and plants, the pith of certain shrubs, and different kinds of indigenous fruit formed no inconsiderable part of the vegetable diet of the people. Children at a very early age were taught to look for edible plants, and soon acquired such extensive knowledge in this respect that they were able to support themselves easily where Europeans would have perished.

As food they had also milk and occasionally flesh, though domestic cattle were seldom slaughtered except for sacrifices and feasts. The flesh of all that otherwise died was, however, eaten without hesitation. Milk was kept in skin bags, where it fermented and acquired a sharp acid taste. As it was drawn off for use by the master of the household, who was the only one permitted to touch the bag, new milk was added, for it was only in the fermented state that it was used. Amasi, or fermented milk, was exceedingly nutritious, and at the present day is relished by most Europeans. In warm weather, especially, it is a pleasant and wholesome beverage. The art of making butter and cheese was unknown.

Fish was consumed only by the tribes living along the large rivers in the interior and those on the eastern coast from Delagoa Bay northward. South of Delagoa Bay it was not used, except by offshoots from the northern tribes that had settled at a few places along the sea shore, possibly because in ancient times it may have been regarded as connected with the snake in whose form the ancestral spirits appeared. This, however, is mere conjecture, as the people themselves at the present day can give no other reason for not eating fish than that their fathers did not do so.

Occasionally large quantities of meat were obtained by means of the chase. The chief would select a day, and give instructions for all his people to assist in the hunt. A large tract of country would then be surrounded, and the game would be driven towards a deep pit, with a strong hedge extending some distance on each side of it. The pit was made in such a way that no animal forced into it by pressure of the herd behind could escape until it was full. By the warlike tribes the pit was often disdained as a means of capturing such game as antelopes and zebras, and they preferred gradually to contract the circle of hunters and drive the animals towards the centre, killing with their assagais all that could not break through the ring. After one of these hunts feasting was continued until not a particle of meat was left, as the palates of the people did not reject what Europeans would regard as carrion.

Very large animals, such as the elephant, the hippopotamus, and the rhinoceros, were generally captured either by means of snares that caused a heavily weighted spear to fall upon them as they passed under a tree, or by means of carefully covered pits with sharp stakes in them, made in the beaten tracks of the animals towards water. Sometimes, however, men were found sufficiently courageous to lie in ambush beside the paths and hamstring the animals as they went by, when their destruction was easy. North of the Sabi river the tusks of the elephant and the hippopotamus were always saleable to the Mohamedan traders along the coast, and everywhere among the Bantu ivory arm rings were esteemed as ornaments. The flesh of all these animals was much prized, especially that of the hippopotamus.

Another occasional article of food was dried locusts. Swarms of these destructive creatures sometimes appeared, when every one engaged in capturing and preserving them, the legs, when dried, being regarded as not only nutritious, but pleasant to the taste. By the people of the interior a species of caterpillar was considered a special dainty, and the little field mouse was eagerly sought for as another. Boys before being circumcised were permitted to eat any kind of meat, even wild cats and other carnivora, but after that ceremony was performed the flesh of animals of prey was usually rejected.

Ordinarily two meals were eaten every day : a slight breakfast in the morning, and a substantial repast at sunset. Anyone passing by at that time, friend or stranger, provided only that he was not inferior in rank, sat down without invitation or ceremony, and shared in the meal. So great was the hospitality of the people to equals and superiors that food could almost have been termed common property.

When reduced to great extremity of want by the ravages of enemies, sections of the Bantu sometimes resorted to cannibalism, but the horrible practice was by no means common. Portuguese writers indeed mention tribes whose habitual food was human flesh, still everything related concerning them shows that they were war-stricken hordes driven from their homes and wandering about with their hands against every man and every man's hands against them. In just the same manner in the early years of the nineteenth century parties of absolutely destitute people in the Lesuto and in Natal, driven into the forests and mountains by the devastations of Tshaka, preyed upon their fellows, whom they pursued as game ; but as soon as a condition of comparative peace was restored, most of them returned to their normal way of living. A few indeed, who had acquired a taste for human flesh, though they were held in execration by all others, continued to exist as cannibals until they died out or were exterminated. It must have been the same in olden times with the tribes along the Zambesi of whom information is given by Dos Santos and other Portuguese writers : it was the direst necessity, not by any means their own choice, that led them to adopt a mode of maintaining life so different from that of their race in general. They may have continued longer in that con- dition than those in the south in the days of Tshaka, but it is certain that no tribe depended permanently upon human flesh for its subsistence.

The Bantu had an admirable system of land tenure for people in their condition. The chief apportioned to each head of a family sufficient ground for a garden according to his needs, and it remained in that individual's possession as long as it was cultivated. He could even remove for years, with the consent of the chief, and resume occupation upon his return. He could not lend, much less alienate it. But if he ceased to make use of it, or went away for a long time without the chief's permission, he lost his right. Under the same con- ditions he had possession of the ground upon which his huts stood, and of a yard about them. All other ground was common pasture, but the chief had power to direct that portions of it should be used in particular seasons only. No taxes of any kind were paid for land, air, or water.

The gardens were not enclosed by hedges or fences, and they were very irregular in outline, as were also the different cultivated plots within them, for the eyes of the women were indifferent as to straight rows of plants. If the crops were damaged by cattle at night, the owner of the cattle was required by law to make good the loss, because he should have seen that his herds were either confined in a fold or guarded on a pasture so distant that they could do no harm. But if the damage was done in the daytime there was no redress, because some member of the family of the owner of the garden was then supposed to be watching it. So sensible and practical was the common law of these people.

Kraals were usually built in situations commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country, and always on ground with good natural drainage. The brow of a hill, with a clear flowing stream at its base and fertile garden ground beyond, was the site most favoured. Sanitary arrangements, even of the simplest kind, were unknown and uncared for, as the sense of smell was much duller with these people than with Europeans, and an impure atmosphere did not affect their health. Their superstition too required them to remove their residences whenever a man of importance died, so that kraals seldom remained many years on the same site.

Clans exposed to sudden attack by powerful enemies had naturally little or no choice in selecting sites for kraals. They were under the necessity of constructing their habitations in the best possible defensive position, which was usually the crown of a steep hill difficult of approach. Such hills are found in different parts of the country, often with sides so precipitous that the top can be reached by only one or two paths. When these were barricaded with rough stone walls, the space above became a fortress, impregnable or nearly so. Such sites for kraals were, however, only resorted to as a last means of defence, on account of the occupants being cut oft from gardens and pasture for their cattle as well as from easy access to water. Along the Zambesi some clans lived in stockaded enclosures, but these were unknown farther south.

The huts of the tribes along the coast were shaped like domes or beehives, and were formed of strong frames, thatched with reeds or grass. They were proof against rain or wind. The largest were about seven or eight metres in diameter, and from two metres and a fifth to two and a half in height at the centre. They were entered by a low, narrow aperture, which was the only opening in the structure. A hard and smooth floor was made of antheaps, moistened with water and then kneaded with a round stone. When this had set, it was painted with a mixture of cowdung and water, which was the material used afterwards for keeping it in good order. In the centre of the floor a fireplace was made, by raising a band three or four centimetres in height and a metre or so in diameter, and slightly hollowing the enclosed space. Many women bestowed a great deal of attention upon their fire-circles, often enclosing them with three bands, a large one in the centre, and a smaller one on each side of it, differently coloured, and resembling a coil of large rope lying between concentric coils of less thickness. Against the wall of the hut were ranged various utensils in common use, the space around the fire-circle being reserved for sleeping on. Here in the evening mats were spread, upon which the inmates lay down to rest, each one's feet being towards the centre. Above their heads the roof was glossy with soot, and vermin swarmed on every side. It was only in cold or stormy weather that huts were occupied during the day, for the people spent the greater portion of their waking hours in the open air.

The habitations of the people of the interior were much better than those of the people of the coast. With them the hut had perpendicular walls, and consisted of a central circular room, with three or four small apartments outside, each being a segment of a circle. It was surrounded with an enclosed courtyard, but was destitute of chimney or window. On the coast no effort was made to secure privacy.

Horned cattle constituted the principal wealth of the Bantu, and formed a convenient medium of exchange throughout the country. Great care was taken of them, and much skill was exhibited in their training. They were taught to obey signals, as, for instance, to run home upon a certain call or whistle being given. Every man of note had his racing oxen, and prided himself upon their good qualities as much as an English squire did upon his blood horses. The horns of the animals were trained into the most fantastic shapes, and were often divided into two, three, or more parts, which was effected by slitting them as soon as they appeared on the young animal. The intelligence displayed by some of these oxen was as wonderful as the patience and skill shown by their trainers. They were taught to lie down at an order, to run in a circle, or to dance in rows. Ox racing was connected with all kinds of festivities. The care of cattle was considered the most honourable employment, and fell entirely to the men. They milked the cows, took sole charge of the dairy, and would not permit a woman so much as to touch a milksack.

The other domestic animals were goats, dogs, and barnyard poultry everywhere, and in the north sheep of the large-tailed hair-covered breed.

The descent of property was regulated in the same manner as the succession to the chieftainship, and disputes could not easily arise concerning it. Every head of cattle a man acquired was immediately assigned to a particular branch of his family, that is either to the house of his great wife, to that of his wife of the right hand, or to that of his wife of the left hand. If he had more wives than three, the remainder were in a subordinate position in one or other of these houses. When he died, the eldest son of each of the three principal wives inherited everything that belonged to his mother's house. But the distribution of wealth was more equal than in any European society, for each married man had a plot of garden ground, and younger brothers had a recognised claim upon the heirs of their father for assistance in setting them up in life.

The Bantu of the coast were more warlike in disposition and braver in the field than those of the interior. The universal weapons of offence were wooden clubs with heavy heads and assagais or javelins, and shields made of ox-hide were carried, which varied in size and pattern among the tribes. The assagai was a slender wooden shaft or rod, with a long, thin, iron head, having both edges sharp, attached to it. Poising this first in his uplifted hand, and imparting to it a quivering motion, the warrior hurled it forth with great force and accuracy of aim. The club was used at close quarters, and could also be thrown to a considerable distance. Boys were trained from an early age to the use of both these weapons. To those above named the northern and central tribes added the battle-axe and bow and arrow, which, though known to, were not used by the men of the south.

In the most warlike of the Bantu communities the men were formed into regiments, and were trained to act in concert and to go through various simple military evolutions, but in the others the warrior knew nothing but the use of his weapons. With these a battle was a series of individual engagements, in which it sometimes happened that a man would challenge a noted adversary by name, and a duel would take place in presence of the others on both sides as mere spectators. In such cases the victor was presented by his chief with a crane's feather to be worn on his head, and he was thereafter a man of note among his people. A classification thus arose of the plumed and the unplumed in the following of a chief, though the former did not thereby become leaders or officers, that distinction being reserved exclusively for members of the ruling house. It was a custom for a man to be marked, usually with a scar from a gash or a brand, for every adversary slain, and warriors prided themselves relatively upon the number of these.

Among the military tribes reviews in presence of the chiefs and mock combats were of frequent occurrence. The warriors were in full dress on such occasions, with their kilts of animals' tails around them, and their ornaments on their persons. Everything was conducted with as much order and ceremony as were observed by our own ancestors in their tournaments. At the command of the chief one regiment would be pitted against another, and each would attack, retreat, skirmish, and go through all the evolutions of a real battle until the weaker side became exhausted, when the other was pronounced the conqueror. Or it might be a general skirmish of the whole army against an imaginary enemy, or an attack upon a hill supposed to be fortified, or simply a march of the regiments past the commander in chief. Sometimes oxen were brought to take part in the manoeuvres and to prove the skill of their trainers. A feast and a dance invariably followed the review, but often jealousies had been roused by the events of the day which led afterwards to engagements in real earnest between different regiments.

The dress of the people between the lower Zambesi and Sabi rivers at the beginning of the sixteenth century was partly composed of skins of animals and partly of cloth either obtained in barter or manufactured by themselves of wild cotton or the fibres of a certain bark. The home made cloth was coarse but strong, and was woven in the simplest manner in squares large enough to be fastened round the loins. The art of weaving, though not much more difficult than mat making, was not practised by all the clans, but by certain of them who traded with their productions. At a much earlier date the Arabs and Persians had introduced Indian calico, and squares of this material, obtained in exchange for ivory and gold, were in common use in that part of the country.

Elsewhere the ordinary dress of men when the air was chilly was composed of skins of wild animals formed into a square mantle the size of a large blanket, which they wrapped about their persons. The skin of the leopard was reserved for chiefs and their principal counsellors, but any other could be used by common people. Married women wore a leather wrapper like a petticoat at all times, and big girls at least an apron of leather strings, usually much more. In warm weather men and little children commonly went quite naked.

They were fond of decorating their persons with ornaments, such as necklaces of shells and teeth of animals, arm-rings of copper and ivory, head bands, etc. They rubbed themselves from head to foot with fat and red ochre, which made them look like polished bronze. Their clothing was greased and coloured in the same manner.

Many of them worked lines and simple patterns on different parts of their bodies — chiefly the breasts, shoulders, cheeks, and stomachs — by raising the skin in little knobs with a sharp iron awl and burning it, a process that to European eyes disfigured them much more than tattooing would have done, but which they regarded as ornamental. Each community that adhered to this custom favoured a. form of cicatrice different from that of its neighbours, but there were numerous tribes that were without such markings. So with the front teeth: some clans filed them to a point, a few removed the two upper, but most allowed them to remain in their natural state. The hideous boring and plugging the lips and cheeks, so common north of the Zambesi, was not practised south of that river.

More attention was bestowed upon the hair than upon any other part of the body. Each tribe had its own fashion of wearing it, so that at first sight the nationality of an individual was known. Some worked it with wax and strings into imitations of horns, others into arches, others into circles, and so on. This necessitated the use of a peculiar head rest when sleeping, to prevent the hair from becoming disordered. The rest was made of a single piece of wood, according to the fancy of its owner. Some were forty-five centimetres long, six or seven centimetres wide, and as many deep, with a slightly concave surface. Others were only fifteen or twenty centimetres long, ten to twenty centimetres high, and five to eight centimetres wide, with a deep concave surface for the head to lie in. Some of these were beautifully carved out of a block of hard wood, and were highly polished by being frequently rubbed with grease. In no other manufacture of wood was so much ingenuity displayed in designing patterns. An elaborate head rest used by a chief, for instance, might be a carved band supported by two, three, four, or even six columns standing on an oval or oblong base, each column fluted or otherwise decorated, and the base covered with little knobs or marked with a herring-bone pattern. Or it might be of almost any con- ceivable design between that and a plain block of wood of the requisite shape. It was never more than seven or eight centimetres wide, because it was necessary for the head to project beyond it, in order that the horns or other forms into which the woolly hair was trained might remain undisturbed.

Their manufactures, however, were not of a very high order when judged by a European standard of the present day. Foremost among them must be reckoned metallic wares, which included implements of war and husbandry and ornaments for the person. In many parts of the country iron ore was abundant, and this they smelted in a simple manner. Forming a furnace of clay or a boulder with a hollow surface, out of which a groove was made to allow the liquid metal to escape, and into which a hole was pierced for the purpose of introducing a current of air, they piled up a heap of charcoal and virgin ore, which they afterwards covered in such a way as to prevent the escape of heat. The bellows by which air was introduced were made of skins drawn from the animal with as little cutting as possible. These were inflated by opening the ends which were then closed, when the air was pressed through horns of large antelopes tightly fixed at the other extremities. Two skins were worked by one man, using his hands alternately, and thus a continuous current was kept up. The molten iron, escaping from the crude yet effective furnace, ran into clay moulds prepared to receive it, which were as nearly as possible of the same dimensions as the implements they wished to make. These were never of great size, the largest being the picks or heavy hoes required for breaking up ground for gardens.

The smith, using a boulder for an anvil and a hammer of stone, next proceeded to shape the lump of metal into an assagai head, an axe, a pick, or whatever was wanted. The occupation of the worker in iron was hereditary in certain families, and was carried on with a good deal of mystery, the common belief being that it was necessary to employ charms unknown to those not initiated. But the arts of the founder and the blacksmith had not advanced beyond the elementary stage. Instead of an opening for inserting a handle in the hoe, it terminated in a spike which was driven into a hole burnt through the knob of a heavy shaft of wood. The assagai was everywhere in use, and in addition the interior tribes made crescent-shaped battle-axes, which were fastened to handles in the same manner as the hoes. On these implements of war they bestowed all their skill, and some of them really produced neatly finished articles. They worked the metal cold, and were unable to weld two pieces together.

Knives, or more properly daggers, for the ends were pointed and both edges were sharp, were also made of iron. The handles, which were of wood, bone, horn, or even occasionally of ivory, were frequently ornamented, as were also the sheaths of wood or bone in which they were carried. The amount of labour required to make one of these imple- ments and its sheath was very considerable, so that its value relatively to other articles was high, and it was not every man who was so fortunate as to possess a knife. It was carried about by means of a thong round the neck, and lay on the chest a little lower than the charms and strings of teeth and othjer ornaments, so that it was always ready for use. It was not regarded as a weapon of war, and indeed was unfit for much real service in combat.

Copper was found in several parts of the country, and was distributed over it by means of barter. It was used only for making such ornaments for the person as large beads, earrings, and armlets. Much less skill was employed in working this metal than in manufacturing iron implements, the articles produced being of a very rough kind, not to be compared in point of finish with a battle-axe or an assagai. The armlet was a mere bar bent until its ends met, and the earring was of no better workmanship. The beads were nothing more than drilled lumps of metal globular in shape, and were strung with bits of wood and teeth of animals on a thong. The neater ornaments of copper and brass wire now in use, and exhibited in various museums as specimens of Bantu industry, are of modern date, made of materials obtained from Europeans.

In the manufacture of wooden articles, such as spoons, bowls, fighting sticks, mortars, etc., they were tolerably expert. Each article was made of a single block of wood, requiring much time and patience to complete it, and upon it was frequently carved some simple pattern or the figure of an animal. Standing on the handle of a spoon might be seen a lizard, an ox, or an elephant, though always stiff in attitude; encircling the fighting stick might be seen two or three snakes with spots burnt upon them to make them resemble the living reptiles.

The tribes bordering on some of the rivers of the interior and along the eastern coast north of Delagoa Bay were able to construct canoes out of the trunk of a single tree, and knew how to propel them with paddles, but this simple art was not practised elsewhere. No means for crossing a swollen river, other than carrying a stone under each arm if the water was not too deep, had been devised by the Bantu of the coast below Delagoa Bay, and ocean navigation was of course untb. ought of.

A product of some ingenuity was a little vase used for various purposes. It was made of the scrapings of skins which when soft were spread over clay moulds, and when dry became solid cases. The clay was then taken out with an isilanda or large iron pin which every man carried about with him to extract thorns from his feet, and the vessel was ready for use. Some were in the shape of animals, others of gourds, or whatever else the moulders desired. Usually while the gluey matter was still soft it was creased, or raised in ridges, or pricked all over with a sharp piece of wood, which greatly improved its appearance. Some of these articles, especially those in the form of European vases or decanters, were really extremely neat and pretty.

Skins for clothing, when the fur was preserved, were prepared by scraping them carefully and then thumping them with the hand and rubbing them for a length of time with a very smooth stone, by which means they were made nearly as soft and pliable as cloth. The interior tribes excelled in the art of dressing skins, and were able to make beautiful fur robes, which they stitched with sinews by the help of an awl. When the hair was removed from skins to make wrappers for women the process of preparing them was different. They were steeped in water, scraped on both sides, then dried, and afterwards beaten and rubbed with grease till they were soft. Finally they were cut into shape and sewed together with sinews to the required size, when the wrapper was coloured with red ochre and was ready for use.

In one comparatively small district of South Africa, — the territory between the lower courses of the Zambesi and Sabi rivers, — men were sometimes engaged in an occupation altogether unknown to their kindred elsewhere. This was the collection of gold. The chiefs were induced by the Mohamedan traders of the coast to employ bands of their subjects in searching for the precious metal, principally by alluvial washing in the rainy season, though sometimes by mining and extracting quartz from reefs by the aid of fire. The quartz when brought to the surface was crushed, and the gold was then obtained by washing. This gold was inferior to the other in quality, and was known by a different name. According to Dos Santos the diggers were termed botonghi, which is evidently an approximation to the Sekalanga word for gatherers, from the root uhu buta, to collect or gather. This industry must have come down from remote times, when it was practised to a much greater extent than at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

The industries above mentioned were confined to males, but in other departments the women were equally skilful. Earthenware vessels containing from a quarter of a litre to three hectolitres were constructed by them, some of which were almost as perfect in form as if they had been turned on a wheel. Though they were frequently not more than a third of a centimetre in thickness, they were so finely tempered that the most intense heat did not damage them. These vessels were used for beer pots, grain jars, and cooking utensils. The potter's art has now become nearly if not wholly lost by the Bantu of South Africa, owing to the cheapness of importations from abroad. The women have found by experience that with much less labour they can earn sufficient money to purchase earthenware crocks, iron pots, and wooden kegs, and so contact with European civilisation has had the effect in this respect of diminishing their former skill.

Baskets for holding corn, rush mats for sleeping on, small mats used like plates to serve food on, and grass bags were made by the women. The bags were so carefully and strongly woven that they were used to hold water or any other liquid. In general none of these articles were dyed, nor was any attempt made to ornament them, though by a few of the people of the interior simple patterns were occasionally worked in the best of their mats with materials of different colour.

Of the use of stone for building purposes, the coast tribes knew nothing, and the interior tribes very little. None of them ever dressed a block, but the cattle-folds, which along the coast were constructed of branches of trees, in parts of the interior were made of round stones roughly laid together to form a wall. The quern, or handmill for grinding corn, which was in common use, consisted of untrimmed stones, one flat or hollow and the other round or oval.

When not engaged in the industries that have been mentioned, the men were habitual idlers. A great portion of their time was passed in visiting and gossip, of which they were exceedingly fond. They spent days together engaged in small talk, and were perfect masters of that kind of argument which consists in parrying a question by putting another. Though not pilferers, they were inveterate cattle thieves. According to their ideas, cattle stealing except from people of their own clan was not so much a crime as a civil offence, and no disgrace was attached to it, though if it was proved against a man the law compelled him to make ample restitution. But any one detected in the act of lifting cattle might be killed with impunity by the owner, and a chief punished with death any of his subjects whose conduct as a robber from other clans had a tendency to involve his own people in war.

The interior tribes were the more advanced in skill in such handicrafts as were common to them all. Their males sometimes aided the females in agriculture, though the hardest and most constant labour was by them also left to the women. But with these exceptions, all comparisons between the tribes must be favourable to those of the coast. The Bantu of the interior were smaller in stature and less handsome in appearance than the splendidly formed men who lived on the terraces facing the sea. In all that is comprised in the word manliness they were vastly lower.

Truth is not a virtue of barbarian life. In general if a man could extricate himself from a difficulty, escape punishment, or gain any other advantage by telling a falsehood, and did not do so, he was regarded as a fool. Many of the chiefs of the coast tribes, however, prided themselves on adhering faithfully to their promises; but the word of an interior chief was seldom worth anything.

The deceptive power of all these people was great. But there was one member which a man of the coast could not entirely control, and while with a countenance otherwise devoid of expression he related the grossest falsehood or the most tragic event, his lively eye often betrayed the passions he was feeling. When falsehood was brought home to him unanswerably, he cast his glances to the ground or around him, but did not meet the eye of the person he had been attempting to deceive. The man of the interior, on the contrary, had no conception whatever of shame attached to falsehood, and his comparatively listless eye was seldom allowed to betray him.

The man of the coast was brave in the field : his inland kinsman was in general an arrant coward. The one was modest when speaking of his exploits, the other was an intolerable boaster. The difference between them in this respect was great, and was shown in many ways, but a single illustration from an occurrence of the present genera- tion will give an idea of it. Faku, son of Gungushe, chief of the Pondos, by no means the best specimen of a coast resident, once wished to show his regard for a white man who was residing with him. He collected a large herd of cattle, which he presented with this expression : "You have no food to eat, and we desire to show our good will towards you, take this basket of corn from the children of Gungushe." An inland chief about the same time presented a half-starved old goat to his guest, with the expression "Behold an ox!"

This was unquestionably the case when Europeans first came into contact with the different tribes and placed on record the peculiarities of each, but it is not so in all instances at the present day. The chief of our time who possesses the highest moral qualities of any in South Africa is Khama, ruler of the Bamangwato. Bathoen, chief of the Bangwaketse, and Sebele, chief of the Bakwena, are also superior to most of the other Bantu rulers. All of these are heads of interior tribes. It is not only from the observations of others, but from personal experience, that the writer of these pages is able to state that the chiefs here named are capable of acting with such generosity and good feeling as would do credit to any European. But they are exceptions to the general rule, and unfortunately few of their followers come up to their standard.

Among the coast tribes the institution of slavery did not exist, but there could be no more heartless slave-owners in the world than some of the people of the interior. Their bondsmen were the descendants of those who had been scattered by war, and who had lost everything but life. They could not own so much as the skin of an antelope, and upon any caprice of their masters they were put to death with as little compunction as if they were vermin.

In a state of society in which women were drudges performing all the severest labour, in which a man carrying only an assagai and a knobbed stick walked in front of his wives and daughters all bearing heavy burdens on their heads, it might be supposed that the females were unhappy. Such a supposition, however, would be erroneous. Freedom from care to anything like the extent that is common to most individuals of our own race tended to make Bantu females as well as males far happier on the whole than white people.

The women were quite as cheerful as the men, and knew as well as Europeans how to make their influence felt. In times of peace, after working in her garden a great part of the day, towards evening a woman collected a bundle of sticks, and with it on her head and a child on her back, trudged homeward. Having made a fire, she then proceeded to grind some soaked millet upon a quern, humming a monotonous tune as she worked the stone. When sufficient was ground, it was made into a roll, and placed in the hot ashes to bake. Meantime curdled milk was drawn by the head of the household from the skin bags in which it was kept, and the bags were refilled with milk just taken from the cows. The men made a hearty meal of the milk and the bread, with sometimes the flesh of game and different vegetable products, and after they had finished the women and children partook of what was left. Then the men gathered round the fire and chatted together, and the young people sat and listened to the stories told by some old woman till the time for sleep arrived. Different games were also played occasionally, but as the only artificial light was that of burning wood, they were usually carried on in the daytime.

At a very early age boys commenced trials of skill against each other in throwing knobbed sticks and imitation assagais. They enjoyed this exercise in little groups, those of the same age keeping together, for there was no greater tyrant in the world than a big lad over his younger fellows. Commencing with an antheap at a distance of ten or fifteen metres for a target, they gradually became so perfect that they could hit an object thirty centimetres square twice or even three times as far off. The knobbed stick and the imitation assagai were thrown in different ways, the object with the first being to inflict a heavy blow upon the mark aimed at, while that with the last was to pierce it. This exercise strengthened the muscles of the arms and gave expansion to the chest. The result was that when the boys were grown up they were able to use their weapons with- out any further training. When practising, they kept up a continual noise, and if an unusually successful hit was made the thrower uttered a cry of exultation.

Boys above the age of nine or ten years were fond of sham fighting with sticks. They stood in couples, each with a foot advanced to meet that of his antagonist, and with a cudgel elevated in the right hand. Each fixed his eye upon the eye of his opponent, and sought to ward off blows as well as to inflict them. In these contests pretty hard strokes were sometimes given and received with the utmost good humour.

A game of which they were very fond was an imitation hunt. In this, one of them represented a wild animal of some kind, a second acted as a hunter, and the others took the part of dogs in pursuit. A space was marked off, within which the one chased was allowed to take hreath, when he was said to be in the bush. He tried to imitate as closely as possible the animal he was representing. Thus if he was an antelope he simply ran, but if he was a lion he stood and fought.

The calves of the kraal were under the care of the boys, and a good deal of time was passed in training them to run and to obey signals made by whistling. The boys mounted them when they were eighteen months or two years old, and raced about upon their backs. When the boys were engaged in any sport, one of the number was selected by lot to tend the calves. As many blades of grass as there were boys were taken, and a knot was made on the end of one of them. The biggest boy held the blades between the fingers and thumb of his closed hand, and whoever drew the blade with the knot had to act as herd.

They had also a simple game called hide and look for, exactly like our own. As a training for the eye and hand nothing could be better than their method of playing with little round pebbles. Each boy had a certain number, which he threw into the air one after another, catching them on his hand by turns as they fell, and throwing them up again before any touched the ground. He who could keep the whole longest in the air was the winner. Or they would try who could keep the greatest number of pebbles in the air at once.

If they chanced to be disinclined for active exercise, they amused themselves by moulding clay into little images of cattle, or by making puzzles with strings. Some of them were skilful in forming knots with thongs and pieces of wood, which taxed the ingenuity of others to undo. The cleverest of them sometimes practised tricks of deception with pebbles. They were so sharp that although one was sure that he actually saw the pebble taken into the right hand, that hand when opened would be found empty, and it would be contained in the left, or perhaps it would be exhibited somewhere else.

The above comprised the common outdoor sports of boys up to the age of fourteen or fifteen years. At that time of life they usually began to practise the different dances which they would be required to take part in when they became men. These dances differed from one another almost as much as those practised by Europeans.

The commonest indoor game of the extreme southern tribes at the present time is the iceya, but this is of Hottentot origin, so need not be described here. A game of Bantu children everywhere was the imfumba. One of the players took a pebble or any other small substance in his hands, and pretended to place it in the hands of the others, who were seated in a circle around him. He might really give it to one of them, or he might keep it himself. One after another then guessed in whose possession it was. A variation of this game was played by men in rows of holes in the ground, but it was much more complicated.

Another common indoor game of children was called cumbulele. Three or four little ones stood with their closed hands on top of each other, so as to form a column. They sang cumbulele, cumbulele, pangalala, and at the last la they drew their hands back sharply, each one pinching with his thumb nail the hand above.

Toys as playthings were few in number, and were almost confined to clay oxen, wooden darts, bows and arrows, and the nodiwu. This was a piece of wood about fifteen or twenty centimetres long, four or five centimetres wide, and a third or half a centimetre thick in the middle. Towards the edges it was bevelled off, so that the surface was convex, or consisted of two inclined planes. At one end it had a thong attached to it by which it was whirled rapidly round. The other end of the thong was usually fastened to a small round piece of wood used as a handle. The nodiwu, when whirled round, gave forth a noise that could be heard at a consider- able distance. Besides the use which it was put to by the lads, when a little child was crying inside a hut, its mother or nurse would sometimes get a boy to make a noise with it outside, and then induce the child to be still by pretending that a monster was coming to devour it. There was a kind of superstition connected with the nodiwu, that playing with it invited a gale of wind. Men would, on that account, often prevent boys from using it when they desired calm weather for any purpose. It was much in evidence when the millet crops were ripening, and women and children were engaged from early dawn until darkness set in keeping the birds away. Little stages were then erected in the gardens, and on the appearance of a flock of finches each watcher shouted, clapped hands, whirled a nodiwu, or otherwise made as much noise as possible.

The form of greeting when people met varied greatly among the tribes. In the north clapping hands was the commonest form, accompanied by prostration of an inferior before a superior. "I see you" was the expression used by others on the coast. Among some of the interior tribes one person on meeting another asked the question "what are you eating?" and received as a conventional reply "nothing at all." In the south, on meeting a chief the salutation was "ah!" There was no general custom observed in this respect by all the branches of the race.

This was the condition of the Bantu at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Europeans became acquainted with a section of the race, and it is the condition of the great majority of them today, except where their customs have been modified by the authority or influence of white people. The opinion of those who have most to do with them now — four hundred years after their first contact with Caucasian civilisation — is that an occasional individual is capable of rising to a high standard, but that the great mass shows little aptitude for European culture. In mission schools children of early age are found to keep pace with those of white parents. In some respects, indeed, they are the higher of the two. Deprived of all extraneous aid, a Bantu child is able to devise means for supporting life at a much earlier age than a European child. But while the European youth is still developing his powers, the Bantu youth in most instances is found unable to make further progress. His intellect has become sluggish, and he exhibits a decided repugnance, if not an incapacity, to learn anything more. The growth of his mind, which at first promised so much, has ceased just at that stage when the mind of the European begins to display the greatest vigour.

Numerous individuals, however, have emerged from the mass, and have shown abilities of no mean order. A score of ministers of religion might now be named as earnest, intelligent, and devoted to their calling as average Europeans. Masters of primary schools, clerks, and interpreters, fairly well qualified for their duties, are by no means rare. One individual of this race has translated Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into the dialect of the Xosa tribe, and the translation is as faithful and expressive as any that have been made in the languages of Europe. Plaintive tunes, such as the converts at mission stations love to sing, have been composed by another for a considerable number of hymns and songs in the same dialect. Still another edits a newspaper, and shows that he has an intelligent grasp of political questions.

As mechanics they do not succeed so well, though an individual here and there shows an aptitude for working with iron. No one among them has invented or improved a useful implement since white men first became acquainted with them. And the strong desire of much the greater number is to live as closely like their ancestors as the altered circumstances of the country will permit, to make use of a few of the white man's simplest conveniences and of his protection against their enemies, but to avoid his habits and shut out his ideas. Compared with Europeans, their adults are commonly children in imagination and in simplicity of belief, though not unfrequently one may have the mental faculties of a full-grown man.

Note 1. — The first account of the southward migration of the Zulu, Tembu, and Xosa tribes that I am acquainted with is that given by the reverend J. L. Dohne, of the American board of missions, in the introduction to his Zulu-Kafir Dictionary, published at Capetown in 1857. In 1852 he found a small section of the Amaxosa, that had been left behind when the main body moved on, still living in Natal. He believed these tribes to have come from some place opposite the Mozambique coast, but of course he knew nothing of the invasion from the north-west and the terribly destructive wars towards the close of the sixteenth century, of which the Portuguese on the Zambesi have left accounts. Those narratives picture the events to which all the dim traditions of the tribes along the south-eastern coast collected during the nineteenth century point, and solve questions that could not be answered satisfactorily before they were published in accessible form.

Note 2. — Mr. Dohne mentions a fact well known to every one con- versant with any Bantu dialect that the language contains a considerable number of words whose roots are identical with those of words with the same or nearly the same meaning in other tongues. He gives a list of over forty akin to words in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin, English, Dutch, and German, though the identity of some of them is not very clear. A gentleman of my acquaintance long resident among the Xosas and Tembus occupied much time in making a similar list of Xosa and Latin words with the same roots, and he informed me that he had succeeded in obtaining over thirty. The early French missionaries in Basutoland were astonished to find the people there sacrificing to the Barimo, a word identical with Baalim, the l in other dialects being often changed by the Basuto to r, and the noun requiring a vowel ending. How can these facts be explained ? As to the last, the identity of words I think is accidental. The Barimo are the spirits of the dead, Baalim are forms of the sun god. The meaning is thus not the same. Then Barimo is found only in a highly specialised dialect of the Bantu language, and before any certainty can be arrived at, it will be indis- pensable to know what the primitive form was, that is the form in common use by the ancestors of all the Bantu before the division into branches took place. As for the numerous words with roots common to many languages, I can only offer an opinion of little or no value, as I have never had time to study the subject even carelessly, much less thoroughly. Taking the human species as of one origin, no matter where that origin may have been, there must have been a time, however remote, when all mankind, then a small community, used the same language. That language was probably very limited in words. Then a division of the people took place, when some migrated in one direction, some in another. Each section added new words to the old vocabulary to express new ideas, and each put the words together to form sentences in a different manner. Very soon there would be many distinct languages, varying from each other not only in the words used, but in grammatical construction. But is it not allowable to suppose that the original words common to mankind would be retained by all to express the same meanings, and that though modified and distorted, abraded in some instances, enlarged in others, many of these primitive words may have come down even to the present day in such a form that their identity can be recognised by diligent observation 1 Is it not possible at least that when a Zulu or a Xosa says ngena and an Englishman says enter, the en in both instances is a relic of a far off age, when a little group of human beings, perhaps in Southern Asia, perhaps in some land now buried beneath the ocean waves, could look around in every direction without seeing others of their kind, and could claim the whole world as their own?

Note 3. — A knowledge of the origin of the Bantu race and of its early intercourse with other peoples would be exceedingly interesting, but I have neither time nor opportunity for making the necessary investiga- tions, which indeed would be the work of a long life. For my purpose it would be of much greater practical importance to ascertain when the pioneers of this race first crossed the Zambesi, and to be able to trace the movements of all the tribes south of that river thereafter. A large field is open here for investigation, but it is not in my power to explore it. It will need a careful search for Arabic manuscript records, as well as an intimate acquaintance with printed Arabic books, and it will require to be made by some one with a previous knowledge of Bantu speech and habits, in order to be able to recognise any references to those people which may not otherwise be clear. It was to me a matter of the deepest regret that I was obliged to abandon research beyond the beginning of the sixteenth century, but it may be hoped that some competent person, with more leisure and greater means than I have had, will take the matter in hand and zealously carry it out.

Note 4. — After the description of the Bantu given above was sent to the publisher, I received a letter from an ethnologist in Europe, asking me what influence, if any, the mother's relatives exercise over Bantu children. I had not thought of describing this before, as it is a mere corollary of the marriage customs. The eldest brother of a married woman in most of the tribes exercises greater influence over his sister's children than any of her husband's brothers until all the cattle to be given for her have been transferred. The reason is obvious : the woman does not fully belong to her husband's family until that time, and her children are in the same position. Her eldest brother is considered their natural guardian. Except with chiefs, in whose case it is necessary that there should be no question whatever as to the family each child belongs to, it very seldom happens that the whole, or even the greater number of the cattle are transferred until many years after the marriage. It might almost be said it never happens, because at the birth of a child a claim is made upon its father by the father or brother of its mother for an ox or a cow, and this claim is recognised as one of right. Thus it is usually the case that a woman of the commoner class is well advanced in life before the guardianship of her brother over herself and her children ceases and she and they are entirely incorporated in her husband's family. In the meantime her sons grow up, when this maternal uncle of theirs has the right of control over them to a. considerable extent, with the corresponding duty of giving protection and assistance if necessary. Her daughters grow up and get married, when some of the cattle given for them go to this maternal uncle, who has been in a way their guardian and has kept them supplied with clothing if they needed it. With some tribes the principal malume, that is the eldest full brother of the mother of any one, has much more authority over his sister's children than with others. But with all it rests upon the principle that a woman is a member of the family of her father — provided of course that her mother has become so — until she is fully incorporated in the family of her husband. But there will be a long period of her life when her position will not be perfectly assured, and it is for this time, when protection is most needed, that Bantu law pro- vides by the custom here described. It is where the position of a woman's mother, or even her grandmother, is uncertain, that complications arise which tax the ingenuity of a court of Bantu law to clear.

CHAPTER VIII.

ARAB AND PERSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA.