NATIVES OF AFRICA IN THE i6tII CENTL'RV. i6i 



disea-e of pos.^e.ssion was perhaps not yet known, as this kind of 

 nervons trouble seems to spread as an epidemic in certain times 

 and under certain circumstances only. 



The comparison might be pushed furtlier. but this rapid 

 survey is quite sufficient to jirove that in the middle of the six- 

 teenth century the Natives of South- East Africa, especially 

 those of the shores of Delag'oa Bay. were grouped in a manner 

 very similar to that of to-day, three centuries later; they had 

 the same customs, the same character, very nearly the' same 

 degree of civilisation. 



That condition, according to all probability, was alreadv an 

 aiicic-iit state of tJiin^s;s, at any rate nothing proves that it was of 

 recent origin, and the unity of language, as already pointed out. 

 proves that there had been no great change in the poi)ulation of 

 the country for a long time. The tribes lived in relative peace, 

 and the nu'grations had not the sanguinary character of the Zulu 

 raids of the last century: Gamba, the Afokalanga invader, was 

 respected and estimated by his Tonga neighbours. 



My conclusion is that we must be very prudent when we try 

 to make hypotheses on the remote past of the South African 

 tri1>es. Xative traditions are of no avail, as we saw ; com])arison 

 of the names of the ti'ibes is delusory, as these names often are 

 mere nicknames, or have not the same signification, or are merel_\' 

 designat'cns of cardinal i^oints, and mean, conse<|uently, people 

 of the East (Ba-Ronga\ of the North (Ba-kalanga ). etc.^ 

 The stuiiy of the language does not help nnich more, if really 

 the emigrating clans adopt more or less completely the dialect 

 of the people tliey subjugate, the men marrying the women of the 

 land, and the women are always the best preservers of the 

 kuiguage, at least amongst the uncivilised. Dialectic differences 

 occasionally may help to trace the origin of certain clans. For 

 all these reasons I ask to be allowed to remain sceptical when I 

 see splendid maps showing the road which our tribes bave 

 followed since the time they severed from the Ur-Bantu stem 

 till they reached their present abode. The Bantu tribes of 

 South Africa are very, very old; their peculiar rites I am con- 

 vinced, especially the belief in Heaven, are really primitive and 

 not modern importations. This was the conclusion of my study 

 of the life of a South African tribe. f I am glad to have found 

 in the<e precious documents a confirmation of that impression. 



* Thus, as regards the name Ba-Tonga. — There is a large tribe 

 bearing tliat name on the Zambesi, in Northern Rhodesia, a much smaller 

 group near Tnhambane, the Tonga- N3^em1)ane group, and the Thonga- 

 Shangaan, of Delagoa Bay, the Zontpansberg and Gazaland ; but this sinn"- 

 larity of name is no proof at all of a common origin or of special relations 

 between these various tribes. Thonga, in Delagoa Bay, seems to be only 

 the Zulu pronunciation of Ronga, the name of the clans round the Bay. 

 and Ronga means East or dawn. They are the people of the East — 

 for their Western neighbours! Kalaiiga means North, or- at any rate, for 

 the Ronga, Bakalanga people are the tribes of the North, irrespective of 

 their origin, they say that their kinsmen of Khosen (Cossine or Magude) 

 soeak tlie Shikalani>a, x'/^.. the language of the Ba-kalanga. 



t Vol. II, p. 535. 



