POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



423 



trees ; one of a bird, and one of a cow ; four 

 of crosses ; three of circles or of impressions 

 of coins carried about the person; two of 

 horseshoes ; one of a nail ; one of a metal 

 comb ; one of a number or numeral ; one of 

 the words of a sentence ; one of the back of 

 an arm-chair. Many other instances of simi- 

 lar impressions are recorded. 



Diseases of Advancing Age. — Dr. J. F. 

 Alleyne Adams, in his Shattuck Lecture on 

 the Prevention of Diseases, considers some 

 of the causes of the increase of the diseases 

 of mature or advancing age. The first is the 

 natural tendency of an advancing but still 

 imperfect civilization. We have arrived at 

 nullifying the law of natural selection in 

 youth by the care we take of our weaklings, 

 but have not yet reached that high moral 

 condition and power of self-restraint which 

 are needed to enable us to carry out the con- 

 test to the end, and these weaklings conse- 

 quently succumb early in the downward 

 course. A second cause is found in the 

 rapid growth of cities, the influence of the 

 life in which is to degeneration. A third 

 cause appears in the influence of the war, 

 which took away our most vigorous men. 

 Other causes acting more directly are, the 

 general prevalence of digestive disturbances, 

 due in part to an improper diet and in part 

 to a weakness of digestion caused by lack of 

 exercise and mental strain ; a lack of gen- 

 eral vigor due to insufficient exercise ; the 

 excitement and anxiety which pervade all 

 occupations at the present day; and — most 

 potent and destructive — the intemperate use 

 of alcoholic stimulants. 



The People of Mashonaland. — A paper 

 concerning the country in South Africa 

 "which has somehow or another got the 

 name of Mashonaland " was read in the Brit- 

 ish Association by Mr. Theodore Bent. The 

 inhabitants are an oppressed and impover- 

 ished race who, raided upon from both sides 

 by Zulus, take refuge in the mountains. They 

 are obviously a race which has seen better 

 days, retaining traces of a higher civilization 

 in their skill in smelting iron, their ornaments, 

 their musical instruments, and many other 

 kindred points. Though of different tribes, 

 the inhabitants all call themselves by one 

 race name, Makalanga. This is philologically 



the same as Mocaranga, which a Portuguese 

 writer of the sixteenth century called the 

 people of the country ; and in the accounts, 

 given at that time, of the manners and cus- 

 toms of the tribes we recognize certain sali- 

 ent features which connect them with the 

 present race. They describe to us the tribal 

 witch-doctor, the ancestor-worship which is 

 still carried on, their methods of catching 

 game, the filing of their teeth, and numerous 

 other customs indubitably connecting them 

 with the present race. Hence it is very clear 

 to us that the country now called Mashona- 

 land has been inhabited for at least a thou- 

 sand years by the ancestors of the present 

 barbarous race — a race of men who at one 

 time became powerful and almost civilized, 

 owing to their intercourse doubtless with for- 

 eign traders, but who during the later centu- 

 ries have fallen away into barbarism. Among 

 the traits connecting them with external races 

 and pointing to Semitic influences, are : the 

 assumption of a dynastic or tribal name with 

 the disuse of his old name, by each chief, of 

 whatever degree, on his inheriting his chief - 

 dom. Such names are used just as the name 

 Pharaoh was used in ancient Egypt and con- 

 tinue for centuries. Each of the Makalanga 

 tribes has its totem. In M'Topo's country it 

 is the lion into which the spirits of their an- 

 cestors are supposed to go, and this animal 

 is believed to fight for them in battle. To 

 the lion they sacrifice annually, and the chief 

 priest of the tribe is called the lion priest, 

 the Mondoro. Other tribes have the croco- 

 dile, the leopard, and so forth. Totems of 

 similar nature are found, as Prof. Glover 

 demonstrates, among the tribes of southern 

 Arabia in remote antiquity. In religion the 

 present inhabitants of Mashonaland are dis- 

 tinctly monotheists. They believe in one god 

 whom they term Muali, a great and mysteri- 

 ous personage unapproachable by mortals ; 

 so they have elected as their intercessors Mo- 

 zimos, or spirits of their ancestors, to whom 

 they sacrifice annually, and offer prayers for 

 their well-being. The existence among the 

 Makalangas of a day of rest during the plow- 

 ing season is very curious. They call it " Mu- 

 ali's" or "God's day." In Mangwendi's 

 country the chief ordains it and orders that 

 his tribe abstain from work on every sixth 

 day during the periods of industry. This day 

 is invariably employed by the men in drink- 



