NATIVE CUSTOMS IN RELATION TO SMALL-POX 

 AMONGST THE BA-RONGA. 



By Rev. Henri A. Junod. 

 (Read, July 9, 1918.) 



There has latelv been a serious outbreak of small-pox around 

 Lourengo Marques. The authorities tried to vaccinate the popu- 

 lation, which readily consented to the inoculation ; but it seems 

 that the serum w^as of bad quality ; at any rate, it had no result. 

 The disease was spreading- w^ith alarming rapidity. The Natives 

 then decided to have recourse to the remedy which they have 

 employed for many decades, viz., to inoculation with the virus 

 itself. This is their old way of coping with that dreadful 

 disease. They practise " variolisation," just as it was done 

 in European countries before Jenner's wonderful discovery. 

 They mostly fear smallpox when it " flies to somebody " 

 {hahela), as they say. When inoculated, they think it is much 

 niilder, and such is certainly the case, as I was able to ascertain 

 myself ; however, many deaths have taken place. 



As regards the history of the disease in the country, old 

 people speak of " the small-pox of Mawewe " as having been 

 the most serious outbreak on record. This Mawewe was the 

 son of Manukosi, the Ngoni invader of the Ba-Thonga Country. 

 He reigned over the Lower Limpopo plain from 1859 to 1862. 

 Some say that this was not the first epidemic, and that other 

 outbreaks took place before. Information is, however, not per- 

 fectly clear on this point. The fact that a great number of 

 people died on that occasion seems to show that this was the 

 first visit of the terrible scourge, for it is well known that, as 

 regards these infectious diseases, the first meeting of the virus 

 with a tribe is the most deadly. One of my informants, how- 

 ever, puts the matter in a different light. Hesay.s: " It is because 

 at that time people did not yet know how to cope with the disease. 

 They did not proclaim the law of continence : hence the 'frightful 

 mortality !" 



What are the powerful means which Ba-Ronga Natives 

 found to fight the scourge? Studying them will prove a most 

 interesting illustration of native medical art ; more than that : it 

 will throw a curious light on some of the most important features 

 of the Native mind. 



This study, if it pretends to be of scientific value at all, 

 must be complete, and describe the rites from the first to the last, 

 entering into all the details, even those which are generally 

 omitted as belonging to subjects of which one does not like to 

 speak. I must ask pardon if I mention some of those in this 

 paper : Ethnography must be as precise and complete as Phy- 

 siology. 



I. The Initial Proclamation. 



When small-pox (nyedsana) has invaded the country and 

 reached the border of the territory of the clan, headmen assemble 



