PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. Ill 



outside the pages of our journal with notes on the Bantu of the 

 loth century as described in extracts from the " Golden 

 Meadows of Mas'udy," and these were published by the African 

 Monthly in 1907. 



I had originally intended to discuss the early geographers 

 and explorers of Africa in connection with this paper, but to 

 avoid undue length, have already read those pages as a separate 

 paper before my section. In them I drew attention to the fact 

 of the great importance of philology in regard to all research 

 into the testimony of the early and present writers about our 

 country. I cannot doubt (and in this I find I have the agree- 

 ment of Dr. Theal), that much material still remains to be dis- 

 interred : not only from the libraries and other hiding places of 

 the West, but also from Oriental sources ; and, for the interpre- 

 tation and use of such authorities, philology will be indispensable 

 — not only knowledge, and in so wide a field, necessarily com- 

 parative knowledge, of Semitic and other groups made use of 

 in ancient geography and kindred subjects, but also comparative 

 knowledge of the dialects of Africa, which will certainly throw 

 much light upon the records of the past, as can be seen, for 

 example, in the case of Mas'udy, whom I treated in my ex- 

 cerpted pages, alluded to above ; but to this point I will again 

 return. 



I have, in the other paper, used Mr. Tooke's work on the 

 Arab geographer as a starting point for a resume of the earlier 

 writers on Africa. I may now use his paper before your Asso- 

 ciation in 1905 as a starting-point for the later and contemporary 

 work with which I am in the briefest outline to deal. It is, of 

 course, as I said before, impossible to attempt to mention, not 

 to say appraise (even if the present speaker were worthy to do 

 so), all the recent work upon native Africa or South Africa. 

 I can but endeavour to say a few words about our debt to some 

 of those writers who have come in any way before our Associa- 

 tion. 



V. 



Let me begin by paying a tribute to the industry and effec- 

 tiveness with which our President in this section last year — 

 Mr. Roberts — largely in conjunction with Mr. C. A. T. Winter, 

 has set before us the results of their research into the tribes of 

 the Northern Transvaal. Would that he were here to-day to 

 assist our deliberations, though we must not grudge his services 

 at the seat of war. We will hope that his presence in Europe 

 may procure the publication of his papers in a more permanent 

 form than the present, and we shall look forward, please God, 

 to a speedy return of him and all our heroes. I need not specify 

 his manifold work here, nor that of Mr. J. A. Winter. The 

 latter contributed in 191 2 the " History of Sekwati," the " Tradi- 

 tions of Ralolo." the "Praises of the Chiefs," and "Circum- 

 cision among Sekukuni's Folk," followed in 1914 by his " Men- 

 tal and Moral Capabilities of the Natives." Mr. Junod, to travel 



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