Traditions and Customs of S.A. Races. 147 



The third part of the Book on Ethnography would attempt to 

 describe the life of the nation. The person of the chief occupies 

 the centre of this subject : The story of his evolution from his birth 

 to his death is a long one ; there are special customs observed for 

 him during his infancy ; his marriage also is submitted to a number 

 of rules. His crowning, with all its complicated ceremonial, the 

 apparel of his chieftainship, his right of levying taxes, his presiding 

 over the tribunal of the tribe, the respect which he inspires, and 

 which has given rise to many peculiar habits of the tribe, the laws 

 of succession, are some topics to be introduced here. The court and 

 the tribunal which gravitate around him ought to be studied with 

 a special care, and it would be extremelv useful to try to codify, 

 not only for a practical use, but from a scientific point of view, the 

 native law in each tribe as it has been transmitted from time 

 immemorial. The comparison between those unwritten legislations 

 would throw a very interesting light on the beginning of human 

 social life. A third subject in this part of the book would be the 

 Army, its composition, its mobilisation, its costumes and peculiar 

 weapons, its strategy, its war songs, its special charms, etc. As 

 original impis are to be soon a thing of the past, the chance of 

 getting true information on the military system of those tribes will 

 soon be lost I We would suggest to introduce here an account of 

 the circumcision rites as being the recognised and immenselv praised 

 initiation by which boys become adult members of the tribe. The 

 knowledge of these rites is an esoteric one, and the heathen try to 

 keep it absolutely secret. But nowadays they do not succeed a'ly 

 more in hiding them, and those who have won the confidence of the 

 natives, especially of the Christianised ones, can easily enough be 

 initiated into all the formulas, customs and ideas connected with 

 that most curious part of the Bantu life. 



We should then pass to the agriculture and industry as mani- 

 festations of the intellectual life of the tribe. Under the title of 

 agriculture the following subjects would present themselves : Land 

 teiiure, laws of commcn property, use and ill-use of the soil, products 

 of the fields, cereals cultivated, fruits and vegetables used, tilling 

 and harvest. Thei: the cattle-rearing, of which the Bantu are so 

 fond, nnd which they understand remarkably well. The industrial 

 life Avould include the manner of dressing, the habitation, the imple- 

 menib, the rudiments of trade which can be traced amongst the 

 natives. Each of these subjects requires a good deal of observation. 



The literary and artistic life would prove a still wider and 

 richer topic. For many people, to speak of literature amonest those 

 primitive tribes is nonsense. But if they have no written literature, 

 thev possess anv amount of folklore ; the materials which one might 

 gather in this domain is so plentiful that I would advise students 

 of South African ethnography to consecrate a special volume to it, as 

 it might destroy by its mere bulk the proper arrangement of the Book 

 on Ethnographv. We shall see presently what is the special interest 

 Iving in that studv of folklore. But the music of the natives might 



