368 Repokt 8.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



widower and an old polygamist, i-eniarked liiniself witli a smile, that 

 after all the first wife alone is a wife, and the others are hayibi, viz., 

 thieves I It is interestino; to find this homage rendered to monogamy 

 amongst tribes which are practising polygamy with such conviction. 

 The mystic, deep unity of marriage exists only between a husband 

 and his first wife. There is still an obscure remembrance of that 

 principle amongst the Ba-Ronga, and it would not be preposterous to 

 suppose that once in former times these races have been monogamists, 

 and that pol3'gamy is but a degeneration. 



If I were treating of the mourning ceremonies as such, I ought to 

 explain how, during these five days, the old fire of the deceased is 

 lawfully extinguished and replaced by a new one, how the food of his 

 granaries is purified by the curious law of himisa milonio, how his 

 gardens also are cleansed from the filth of death by the procession of 

 women going with a torch during the night to "lighten the mealies" 

 {hanrnya mabele), how the doctor comes on the last dav and sprinkles 

 the whole of the village with a medical decoction. Tlie men have to 

 stand with their assegaies and receive drops of the medicine as they 

 brandish them. They will again be fit for fighting ; fighting was 

 " taboo " as long as that sprinkling had not taken place. After that 

 the village is clean and relatives go home. 



There is nothing special fen- the widows in those last ceremonies, 

 but theii- fate remains to be fixed, and the whole of the widowhood is 

 still before them. 



(4) The Provisional Fixation of the Fate of the Widows. 



A few days after the expiration of the great mourning the relatives 

 of the deceased husband assemble again in the mortuary village. The 

 sisters of the dead have a special part to play in this gathering. To 

 their care is committed the fate of the widows. 



Having been bought, they belong to the family which payed for 

 them the lohola. But it is a nice custom amongst the natives to let 

 other women decide who shall be their new husbands. The sisters of 

 the deceased gather together in a hut for discussion. They have not 

 an unrestricted power, however, in this (|uestit)n. The law has pro- 

 %"ided a certain rule for the repartition, and one seldom departs from 

 it. Should the husband have possessed a true harem — that is, at least 

 five wives — they will most likely be given to the following heirs : the 

 great wife, being the "pole of the village," must remain in it, and 

 belongs to the first of the younger brothers, who becomes the master 

 of the kraal. The second one goes to the second brother, the third one 

 to the third brother, the fourth to the iitv-knlu, viz., to the son of the 

 sister of the deceased. (As we shall see, the iitiiku/n, in the family 

 right of the Ba-Ronga, possesses certain prerogatives, though they are 

 not so extended in this tribe as amongst the liaPedi of the Transvaal.) 

 The fifth then will become the wife of one of the sons of the deceased. 

 This might seem shocking, and is really shocking even to the sense of 

 the natives; but let it be remembered that she is the youngest of the 



