PRESIDKXTIAL ADDRESS SECTIOX E. 81 



This crown is put on one of the niealie stalks. Now, should 

 a thief enter the garden, these tinhlamalala sticks will all be 

 transformed into the kind of snakes which also bear that 

 name of tinhlamalala. They will anorily attack the intruder, 

 who will fly and throw away the cobs he has already stolen. 

 Notice here a double similarity which makes the remedy al] 

 the more effective — the similarity of form — the slender 

 nervnles with a knot at their extremity resemble a snake with 

 its head, and the similarity of name — both the nervules and 

 the snakes are called by the same name, tinhlamalala. 



All nonsense I every reasonable person will say. This 

 will never hajipen, of course. But that is not the question. 

 The imijortant thing- is that the native will believe it at once, 

 as the story is quite on the lines of those magic principles 

 which are evident, unquestionable to his mind. 



Hundreds of cases like these migdit be quoted. The life 

 of the Bantu is full of magic. It is at the base of all his 

 pharmacoptea, of most of his hunting" and agricultural 

 customs; it mixes with his religion. But nowhere does the 

 power of these magic principles appear more plainly than in 

 the well-known custom of 



Boxi: TiirowixCt. 



I have devoted considerable time to the study of that 

 practice amongst the Thongas, and found that it is impossible 

 to exaggerate its importance in the social, moral and religious 

 life of the natives. The throwing of bones — hlahluba in 

 Thonga, timgula in Venda — is both a splendid illustration of 

 magic, as it is entirely based on the principle of similarity, 

 and the most elaborate product of the magic instinct. 



Amongst tribes of the Suto group the divinatory bones 

 are mainly four in number, being four bits of carved ivory or 

 bone, two male and two female. Amongst Zulus and Thongas 

 the bones are mostly astragalus bones taken from the legs 

 of different animals, a number of dift'erent objects being 

 added to them. The famous basket of the bone-thrower, such 

 as I received from one of my best informants after he had 

 initiated me into his wonderful art, must be shown. The 

 contents of the basket are very varied. Sometimes as many 

 as fifty dift'erent pieces are found in it. 



There are hrst the astragalus bones taken from the legs 

 of domestic or wild animals. According to the law of 

 similarity or of correspondence, the domestic animaJs will 

 represent the inhaJ)itanfs of the village, whilst the irilrl 

 animals represent the various powers and influences of the 

 hush. Astragali of goats are the most numerous. The he-goat 

 corresponds to the father, the head of the kraal ; the she-goat 

 is the mother; the astragalus of a goat which had only one kid 

 is the y(ning married Avoman; whilst a number of sinall bones 

 coming from the kids of different ages represent the boys and 

 girls, weaned or not. The correspondence is perfect. Then 

 there are the astragali of sheep — these represent the royal 

 family, as sheep are more valuable and less common than goats. 



