Traditions and Customs of S.A. Races. 151 



when he found out that the term designating " the fowl " was the 

 same amongst all the Bantu tribes, came to this wonderful conclusion : 

 The primitive Bantu tongue which was spoken by the natives before 

 it split into all its present dialects, and which must have con- 

 tained that common word, must have been spoken some time later 

 than the fourth century before the Christian era, because that is the 

 date when the fowls were introduced in Egypt, during the Persian 

 domination. Therefore all the migrations which resulted in the 

 present dispersion of the Bantu were posterior to the year 400 before 

 Christ. This remark, though it is founded on a somewhat narrow 

 basis, shows at least what an immense use Ethnology will be able 

 to make from scientific linguistic monographies. 



(5) The Book on Physical Features of the South Africans. 



"Anthropometric data are everywhere wanting; very few 

 natives have been measured, and the measurements which have been 

 made are insufficient,"' says Dr. Haddon in his address to the 

 Anthropological Section in Cape Town. The importance of that 

 information is evident to anybody who has some idea of Anthropology, 

 and science wants them as much as any other hitherto described. Of 

 course, there is some difficulty in obtaining from natives their consent 

 to being measured in a way which would be useful to science. But 

 could not the compound managers of Johannesburg and the medical 

 supervisers of the natives working in the mines have all their boys 

 undergo this examination when they are hired ? The medical 

 missionaries also might render service in that branch of Anthropology. 

 But these are practical suggestions. Before dealing with them we 

 have still to consider shortly three other theoretical methods by which 

 science w'ill be put in pos.session of the extensive knowledge which 

 it wants. 



B. Museums. 



Our chief South African towns possess museums, and every- 

 where a place has been reserved for Anthropological collections. 

 Those of Cape Town and Pretoria are worth studying. But, in 

 order to have their full scientific value, ethnographical museums 

 must be more than a gathering of curios. They must be an illustra- 

 tion of the life of the tribes themselves, and not only a collection of 

 the products of their arts and crafts. First of all the origin of each 

 object, implement, piece of clothing, etc., ought always to be indi- 

 cated. An ethnographical sample without the knowledge of its origin 

 is of no more use than a fossil without the indication of the locality 

 or the geological stratum from which it comes. A separate place 

 ought to be given to each tribe for the sake of comparative 

 studv. Secondly, those objects must be genuine, not made for the 

 trade, but found on the spot. Thirdly, an explanation about them 

 ought to be given, and books quoted in reference to them, to enable 

 the student to understand their use and their signification. Take, for 

 instance, the divinatory bones : If you exhibit only the set of 20 to 30 



