Traditions and Customs of S.A. Races. 149 



explanation of various diseases, are believed in almost everywhere, 

 and would afford a wide field of investigation. Divination, with all 

 its various means, is also a wonderful subject, and v>e should recom- 

 mend especially the study of the divinatory bones which differ between 

 one tribe and another, but which seem to be used all round according 

 to the same animistic representations. The system, though more or 

 less esoteric, is readily revealed even bv h<-athen divinators, if one 

 knows how to deal with them. 



There is a word which exists in most South African tongues, 

 ila or yila, and means " what is prohibited " or the Taboo. A collec- 

 tion of the things which yila in each tribe would be most valuable. 

 It would form a kind of book of Leviticus, very complicated indeed, 

 and full of surprises ! Some of these prohibitions are quite childish, 

 some of them reveal the presence of astonishing conceptions of nature 

 (for instance, the intimate relation established by the native mind 

 between premature births and the fall of rain !) ; but, beside the 

 superstitious " yila," an intelligent searcher would soon find a 

 number of moral intuitions much higher than one thinks, and these 

 would no doubt provide us with a connecting point for the more 

 .spiritual moral ideas which Christianity tries to instil into their 

 minds. 



The question of moral ideas is already outside the proper sphere 

 of Ethnography. But it would be best studied here, and I should 

 even attempt, as a conclusion, a description of Bantu psychology. 

 This would be a most delicate but most curious subject. How do the 

 reason, the feelings, the will of the native work? What is the differ- 

 ence between their mind and ours ? The difference is wide, w-e all 

 feel it. But in what does it precisely consist? It requires a good 

 deal of shrewd observation to point it out ! 



The plan which we have suggested for the book on Ethnograi)hy 

 is intended especially for Bantu tribes, which form more than nine- 

 tenths of the South African native population. It would, of course, 

 have to be altered very much if we were dealing with Bushmen or 

 Hottentots. 



(2) The Book 071 Folklore. 



A full collection of the " Nursery Tales of the Bantu," as 

 Callaway calls them, will be of great value to science, provided they 

 are gathered from all tribes, and in a genuine way, as much as 

 possible in the vernacular, with a faithful translation. Everybody 

 knows about the " Romance of the Hare," which plays in the animal 

 tales of the natives the part of Renard, the Fox, in the European 

 folklore. A complete collection of all the episodes, numbered, and 

 a comparison between the material found amongst the various tribes, 

 would be extremely interesting for the Ethnology of the Bantu. The 

 legends relating to the begnnings of mankind are another important 

 feature of Bantu folklore, and they should be gathered with a view 

 of composing a kind of African Genesis.. Moreover, those charming 



