Il8 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 



and Greek now used in schools, having similar forms under like- 

 numbered paragraphs — an arrangement lending itself admirably 

 to Bantu, the dialects of which are so extraordinarily consistent. 

 This plan had been adopted, both in German and in English, by 

 Meinhof, for grammars, before the war. The grouping of 

 these dialects is a problem scarcely touched, which would be 

 greatly helped by such comparative methods ; the relation of 

 Bantu to Hamitic and to the Soudanese group might then 

 approach solution, and the place be found of the sundry Pygmy 

 dialects as well as of the remnants of Bushman. All kinds of 

 subjects standing between philology and anthropology would thus 

 more easily be attacked. Personally, I hope wide-reaching re- 

 sults from the study of those branches in which I am specially 

 interested, and have had the privilege of speaking about them 

 before you in the past, viz., native music and poetry, fauna and 

 flora names, star-names and place-naimes — these, having reference 

 to objective facts, observed by all the tribes, must certainly throw 

 new light, if widely enough studied, on the wanderings of the 

 peoples and on cultural borrowing. 



In this connection we welcome the large increase of know- 

 ledge of native praise-songs and similar traditions, which this 

 section owes to Mr. Stuart, of Natal, and others. 



Again, wide research into chief's genealogies would not be 

 difficult to record and compare, and would lead, as in my own 

 experience, to much access of knowledge about tribal history, 

 and so contribute to- that of Africa in general. The South 

 African Historical Society, now, I fear, suspended for the time, 

 show^ed this in the care Prof. Cory and others took to collect in- 

 formation, both from natives and Europeans. 



An admirable illustration of the use of such work is pro- 

 vided by M. Ellenberger's book (and that of his translator. Mr. 

 McGregor) on the Basuto tribes, upon which French and Swiss 

 missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, have settled with so 

 great effect for more than <So years, and number among them 

 scholars, in Suto^ and kindred tongues, such as M. Dieterlen and 

 M. Jacottet, the latter distinguished for his comparative and eth- 

 nological work. 



I trust that the strong language I have used in this paper, 

 about a work which is very near my heart, and in which I was 

 actively engaged until March. 191 /, and the somewhat ex cathedra 

 manner, as it may seem, of my allusion to many such topics, 

 will not be misunderstood as overweening confidence : I know too 

 many old-experienced missionaries, who say, the longer they 

 work with natives, the less they feel they understand, for that. 

 The cause is. indeed, quite other : I am so weighted with the 

 imperfection of my own training, and the sense of the very little 

 way I and most have gone among the roots of native life, that 

 I am driven (after long being " meek and humble-mouthed "), by 

 saying unpleasant but true things, about such delinquencies, both 

 in missionary conclave, and crying upon the high places of the 



