1^2 NATIVES OF AFRICA IN THE i6tH CENTURY. 



Which he translates by: 



The ox has leather to make sandals, the s?oat has no leather to make 

 sandals. 



Combe mi.i^ht be Nwonibe, a word which Tong'a-Xyemliane use 

 to say ox. I Jut the Baiiyai also employ it and the word mbuze, 

 or mbudzi, for g"cat, is not Tonga, but distinctly Xyai ; the Tonga 

 and the Chnpi say phongo. Again the word ^luzimo (Alud- 

 zimc)), wliich the missionaries fotmd meaning the spirits of the 

 departed, is X}'ai. Strange to say. to-day the Gwambe clan 

 speaks the regular Chopi language. This fact is most interesting 

 to note. It confirms the supposition to which I was led when 

 inquiring into the past history of those tribes, -vi.r., as a rule, in 

 this part of the world, the immigrating clans lose their idioms 

 and adopt those of the primitive inhabitants in the course of time. 

 Consequently, the languages whidh we find in these regions are 

 the oldest monuments of human activity. Tribes and clans may 

 have come and gone: fhe language has remained, whatever fluc- 

 tuations and changes it may have undergone. Though it may 

 form many dialects, it keeps its identity througbcut the ages. 

 Thus the study of the language helps to penetrate more deeply 

 into the past than any other study. 



Let us draw the following conse(|uence of this rule regard- 

 ing the Delagna tribes. Diogo de Couto. speaking of tlie inhabi- 

 tants of the Lebombo hill.-,, says: 



The people of these forests speak the same language as the Vumo and 

 the Anzete, their neiehhoiirs. rnd are all, men as well as women, of such 

 a size that they seem giants. 



The \'um') and the Anzetes arc tlie Mpfumo and Tembe 

 clans. According to all the traditions, the ]\Ipfinuo came from 

 Ztihdand and the Tembe from the Alakalanga country." ■ If 

 the report is true, in 1580 already, they liad both a(lopte<l the 

 language of the Bay. the Ronga which is a dialect of the Thonga- 

 Shangaan. If it is so, their arrival in the country must have 

 taken place a long time before that date, as such a change of 

 language cannot be acccmplished in one generation. (The Ba- 

 Ngoui of Ciungunyane have still more or less preserved their 

 idiom eighty years after their invasion of 1820-1830). This 

 argument, which seems decisive, leads us to assert that the Tembe 

 and Alpfumo clans were already settled in Delagoa P.ay in 1450 

 (perhaps 1350), and that, before that date, the primitive popu- 

 lation already spoke a language akin to the Ronga of to-day. I 

 <lo not think any scientifically accurate statement can be made 

 regarding Natives of South-Eastern Africa reaching fiu'ther 

 l^ack in the past than this. 



2. Political and Social Life. 



If the Natives of 350 years ago were nearly the same tribes 

 as to-day, were they very different as regards their form of gov- 



* See "The Life of a South African Tribe." I, p. 21-23. 



