KILLINC] THE KIN'G IN SOUTH AFRICA. 39" 



Other. Regarding the Zuki custom of king-kilhng. Isaacs, a con- 

 temporary of Chaka, and a trader at his court, says that the 

 Zulus were accustomed to put their kings to death when they 

 showed symptoms of faihng |X)wers, such as the appearance of 

 grey hairs, wrinkles, or loss of teeth, and that Chaka was very 

 angry with him because he could not give him a specific to prevent 

 the approach of these signs of infirmity, as it would be an indica- 

 tion to him to quit this sublunary world, it being always followed 

 by the death of the monarch. I have not found any other refer- 

 ences to this custom among the Zulus in contemporary literature. 

 Neither Callaway nor Bryant mention it in their accounts of Zulu 

 customs. Isaacs was, however, a trustworthy observer, and he 

 is not likely to have been mistaken. 



Amongst the Varozwe the custom otf killing the king pre- 

 vailed. Absence of bodily blemishes w-as considered absolutely 

 necessary in the occupant of the throne. If a candidate for the 

 kingly office had any such defects, he was passed over in favour 

 of someone else. Even when in full ix>sssession of his powers 

 he was sometimes not allowed to reign very long. If he showed 

 any signs of physical decay, such as loss of teeth, grey hairs. 

 failure of sight or impotency — in fact, any of the indications of 

 advancing age — he was put to death, and a man was deputed to 

 carry the resolution into efifect. He was waylaid, on a path and 

 strangled with a thong of cowhide. I have heard it asserted 

 that any man who saw the king declining in strength had the right 

 to kill him, but I am not sure if this is true. The kings of the 

 Varozwe were buried in a national cemeter)'. This was some- 

 where in the vicinity of Manyanga,* according to Mr. E. G. How- 

 man, and was called Mtoro or Zimbabwe. Such a national ceme- 

 tery is mentioned by Dos Santos as having existed in his time. 

 It is no longer used, since the occupation of the cotmtry by Euro- 

 peans. At the death of the, Varozwe chief many slaves were 

 slaughtered to bear him company, and minister to his wants in the 

 next world. This was the usual practice at the death of great 

 chiefs in almost every part of the country before the advent of 

 the white man. Chaka was said to have ordered the slaughter of 

 every mother in Zululand when his own mother died, as a sign 

 of national mourning, but was satisfied to stop the massacre when 

 7,000 had been killed. This was, however, an extreme case, due 

 to the bloodthirsty instincts of the tyrant. Amongst the Awemba, 

 in Northern Rhodesia, wife-killing on a large scale accompanied 

 the burial of a paramount chief. The same custom ])revailed 

 amongst the people of Nyasaland- If we compare the description 

 of the Makaranga given by Dos Santos, who wrote in 1607, with 

 that given by Mr. Howman in his paper on the traditional histor>- 

 and customs of the Makaranga, f we shall see that tlie people have 

 changed little in the interval. Mr. Howman has made a study of 

 these people, and has discovered many interesting facts regarding 

 their history and customs. Dos Santos, speaking of the in- 

 habitants of Sofala, says : — 



* The mountain called Faba's ka Mainbo, near th^ Shangani River. 

 Y See ante, pp. 383-393- 



