696 SMALL-POX AMONGST THE IJA-RONGA. 



superficial observer would call queer, absurd, but which find 

 their explanation in such deep, more or less conscious, intuitions 

 of their mind. It is evident that in this case the prohibition has 

 no scientific foundation whatever, and is the direct outcome of 

 superstition. 



2. The Way of Proceeding to the Inoculation. 



The next act is the consultation of the bones and the choice 

 of the nepheivs, and here we shall meet again with two of the 

 characteristic customs of the Ba-Ronga. 



Those nephews (batukulu) are the sons of the chief's 

 sisters. They call the chief Malume, a term which, according 

 to Bantu etymology, means the male mother: he is the brother 

 of their mother. At a remote time in the evolution of the kinship 

 system, when the actual patriarchy was absent, that man probably 

 was the protector of the children of his sister. At any rate, this 

 is the supposition in the matriarchy theory. Nowadays the 

 state of things has totally changed, but the relations of a 

 child with his maternal uncle still bear quite a peculiar character, 

 and are wholly different from what they are with his paternal 

 uncle. They are most free and friendly ; a uterine nephew, as 

 he is called in ethnography, can do all that he likes to his 

 maternal uncle ; this want of resoect will never be taken in bad 

 part and be considered as unbecoming: Is he not the ntukulu? 

 This is one of the most striking features of family relations 

 amongst the Ba-Ronga; in other tribes the prerogatives of the 

 H'tukulu are pushed even further: for example, amongst all the 

 Ba-Suto, including Ba-Pedi and Ba-Venda, he has a primordial 

 right of marrying his cousin, the daughter of his malume. Now, 

 as it is necessary that somebody be chosen to act as an inter- 

 mediary to bring the virus to the clan, who could better perform 

 that office than the uterine nephew whose heart is pure towards 

 the chief, and who will certainly act in a spirit of friendliness? 

 That is the reason why the batukulu are first of all put apart ,0 

 go and fetch the virus. 



But the sons of the chief's sisters are many, and a choice 

 must be made amongst them. Who will have to go, and who is 

 the one who will play the principal part ? That question has to 

 be solved by the divinatorv bones. The importance of the 

 divinatory bones in Native aft'airs is enormous. Scarcely anvthing 

 is done without asking their guidance. I cannot enter into the 

 description of the marvellous system of divination of the Ba- 

 Ronga. A full explanation of the principles and practice of 

 Thonga astragalomancy has been published elsewhere.* The set 

 of bones is much more complete than amongst Ba-Suto and 

 Ba-Venda, who use only their four dice of carved ivory, two 

 male and two 'female ones. Here one counts as many as 25 or 

 30 different objects, most of them being astragalus bones of 

 domestic or wild animals, and each bone represents one or more 

 of the components of the village life. When ritually projected 



* See " The Life of a South African Tribe," 2. 



