PLANTS AND FERNS OF PORT ELIZABETH. 1/5 



A ret otis, L. 



523. Arctotis stwchad/ifolia Berg., flowers in July. 

 Printsia, Lass. 



524. Printsia Bergii, Cass., flowers in August. 



Social Life in a South African Tribe. The tribe 

 referred to is the Thonga nation, a group of Bantu elans whose 

 habitat comprises portions of Natal. Transvaal, Rhodesia and 

 Portuguese East Africa, extending along a littoral from the 

 vicinity of St. Lucia Bay to the Sabie River mouth near 21 ° south 

 latitude. The social customs and other interesting details re- 

 garding this tribe are described by the Rev. H. A. Junod in the 

 first volume of his work, which has recently issued from the 

 press.* In a preliminary chapter the author considers the Thonga 

 tribe geographically and historically, lie estimates its numbers 

 a 1 750.000. Excellent though the Thonga memory may be, the 

 tribal traditions down to the beginning of last century are so 

 characterised by legendary traits that all events of earlier date 

 must be regarded as belonging to the tribe's prehistoric period. 

 The main body of the volume is divided into three parts. In 

 one of these the career of the individual Thonga is followed from 

 birth to death, first in the case of a typical man. and then of a 

 typical woman belonging to the tribe, including specially all 

 customs and ceremonies pertaining to such important events as 

 birth, marriage, the incidence of old age, death and burial, after 

 which comes the rites associated with the great mournings and 

 the destruction of the deceased's hut. In the second part of 

 the volume Mr. Junod proceeds from the unit to review the social 

 organism, and treats of Thonga family and village life. The 

 kinship system is a marvel of complication : it extends far beyond 

 the simple relationships of grandparents, uncles, aunts and 

 cousins, which form the limits for most civilised folk, .and enters 

 into many minutiae of detail. These refinements bring in their 

 train taboos upon marriage within certain degrees of consan- 

 guinity, and so marriage is permissible only to parties outside 

 the eighth degree of relationship. AYhile dealing with this part 

 of his subject. Mr. Junod strongly animadverts on the practices 

 of polygamy and lobola (or wife purchase), and calls on the 

 South African Governments to aid the missionaries in the re- 

 pression of these evils. The closing section of the book is devoted 

 to the national life of the tribe. The villages make up the clan, 

 the clans together make the tribe, and particularly is the tribal 

 authority of Chief, with Court, and Army, here discussed. Of 

 the ethnographical worth of Mr. Junod's compilation there can 

 be but one opinion, and great service has been rendered to science 

 in securing such a record ere the opportunity slips away. That 

 it will soon thus pass the author warns us as an ethnographer, 

 even while, as a missionary, he feels impelled to indicate the line 

 along which the Thonga race must be guided in order to escape 

 shame and degradation. 



* Vide tin's volume, p. n8, ante. 



