200 STUDY OF NATIVE PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



sionary societies could be asked to draw the attention of their 

 agents to such a language school, and a bonus should be given 

 by them for knowledge of native dialects and lore. Ciovernment 

 should also afford facilities for travel to some research worker in 

 Bantu. A man phonetically and philologically equipped can do 

 in a few weeks an immense amount of work froin some native 

 centre. 



A South African University is alone ca]>able of studying this 

 branch of philology, growingly recognised by the few experts 

 as most important for general philology (owing to the unity of 

 the group, the unex])ectedly logical character of the grammar, 

 and the surprising conhrmation often given to the hypotheses of 

 Aryan philology), not to mention its enormous importance for 

 the due consideration of practical native problems. The hind- 

 rance of the war does not apply to this sj^ecially South African 

 subject; it rather heljis by gathering contingents drawn from 

 various tribes. The science is new to English and Dutch-speaking 

 people, as to most, and we have a splendid opportvmity for 

 developing studies which have hitherto been almost a monopoly 

 of Germany and her Colonies, as shown in the use she has made 

 of her native material in East Africa- 

 Work at King's College, London, and at Cambridge and 

 C^xford, has been done in these subjects ; and it is absurd to have a 

 University in South Africa which ignores the language and 

 custom of five-sixths of her population, while it has, for example, 

 (very rightly) a Chair of Hebrew. The delay due to the war 

 is the opportunity of getting this subject its due place while there 

 is still time. The neglect of Bushman relics, and of the treasures 

 of folk-lore which explain them, is felt by many as a 

 permanent disgrace to South A-frica, and a failure to 

 pay her imique contribution to the interpretation of 

 primitive art, and to the philology of a most interesting 

 group of dying languages ; but the Bantu, and their lan- 

 guage and psychology, form a living, instant and most 

 practical problem, to the solution of which we, alone able, are 

 contributing very little scientifically, or perhaps otherwise ! We 

 need no mere scientists to deal with it, but those in living touch 

 with the native. On the other hand we do not want mere 

 administrators or missionaries, even if they may know several 

 languages, but those who will exhibit the laws of development 

 and correlation of those tongues with one another, and with the 

 lives and customs of the people ; and we need, under the guidance 

 of specialists, more and more enlightened co-operation between 

 different workers in Government administration and missions of 

 all denominations in the various fields, to provide material for 

 scientific research and to apply the result to the best advantage of 

 religion and of the State. 



In connection with this paper, may I be allowed, by way of 

 illustrating its statements, to refer to my former papers before 

 this section : — Puberty Rites, Early Geography, Bantu Philology 

 and Primitive Life. Star-names, and Music and Folk Custom 

 (all 1909), Study of African Languages (1914), Melodies 

 (1915), Place Names (1916)? 



