Traditions and Customs of S.A. Races. 155 



that a lot of precious material might in the course of time come from 

 that source. 



But suppose a Native Commissioner, or a missionary, struck by 

 the amount of unrecorded and picturesque material at his reach, begin- 

 ning to put questions to intelligent natives, to understand the reason, 

 of their strange habits : he feels in himself the desire to gather all 

 that information, notwithstandmg the pressure of his daily work; 

 he writes what he has observed : he does not know what use he will 

 make of his notes; he simply obeys an internal call, that desire 

 of knowing and of making known, which is the basis of every 

 scientific inquiry : but nobody offers his help to put those precious 

 materials at the disposal of Anthropology. All his trouble will be in 

 vain, and science will for ever be ignorant of his work. Callaway, the 

 author of the two classical books on the Zulu, had written other 

 manuscripts. He could not afford to publish them at his own expense 

 and they are lost ! Still later, a German missionary amongst the 

 Ba-Venda, Rev. Beuster, wrote very interesting notes about the tribe 

 in which he laboured for more than 30 years. He died, and all 

 those materials, which he alone could have put into proper 

 form, remained useless ! If he had been encouraged we might have 

 now a full description of that highly characteristic branch of the 

 Suto tribe. What is wanted is a central agency which would receive 

 the material collected by people on the spot and publish them in a 

 way which would make them available for science at large. 



The Investigating Cotmnission. — There ought to be created with- 

 out delay a South African Anthropological Commission, which would 

 answer to the need just pointed out. The elements to compose it would 

 not be so difficult to find. The Committee of the Anthropological Sec- 

 tion of the S.A.A.A.S., which worked in the various towns of South 

 Africa, especially in Cape Town and in Johannesburg, might form the 

 nucleus of it. Cape Town, with its University, with its splendid 

 Museum, with the work already accomplished by men like Dr. Bleek 

 and Dr. Theal, with its Philosophical Society, is already a scientific 

 centre, and might take the lead. I am not aware of the existence of 

 much interest for Anthropology in Natal, but there ought to be at least 

 some people disposed to collaborate in the work in that Colony. With 

 its dense native population, it must be aware of the importance of 

 all questions connected with aborigines. In the Transvaal, Johannes- 

 burg is in a way an immense native town, and there are hundreds 

 of white men who know the vernacular amongst them, and there are 

 sure to be some who would be in sympathy witK such a Commission. I 

 would suggest two other elements to introduce into it ; the members 

 of the Inter-Colonial Native Affairs Commission, who have done 

 such splendid work during past years ; the evidence which they 

 took, the knowledge which they acquired, was essentially meant for 

 practical purposes, and they might be disposed to continue their 

 study for the benefit of science : (2) another important element would 

 be the staff of the future Inter- State Native College, which is about 

 to be founded. It is the intention of the promoters of that scheme 



