i>Ki:mi)i:NTi \i. \iiiiki:ss — siicrioN d. i 19 



l>o suiiploiiKMitecl by animal food jirochicts. .\> 1 said, tlu- plouj^h 

 Mas hcoinniiii;- to take tlu' ])lacc of the piek, and l)hinkel> were 

 in i^eneral nse. hut at home tlie nati\e did not wear clothing-. The 

 old men would sit in the sun with their blankets wrap])ed round 

 them; the youn"- men wore little but the nnitya, and the clotliinfj 

 of the girls consisted almost entirely of beads. An ini])orted 

 fabric of muslin-like texture, called in the trade " tonga salem- 

 pore,"' was beginning to hv worn in graceful folds weighte'i w 'tb 

 rows of beads, but ! distinctly remember walking one hot day 

 from the Inanda. 7'ia N'eru'am. to Durban, and in this long ilis- 

 tance noted that 1 did not meet any girls w^earing anything beyond 

 the beads. The costume of the children was then, as it is to-dav, 

 what Adam and Eve wore before the h'all. 



In addition to the native labour re(|uired by the white man 

 on the farms and roads, there was a demand in the towns. It 

 was a general complaint that the native w-as so well off at his 

 kraal that he did not turn out to satisfy even the limited demand, 

 and this was certainl\- the case at times, and it led to the first 

 im])ortation of Intlian coolies in the sixties. Rut things went 

 easily in those days ; there \vris no rush to get rich (juickly, and 

 generally sjieaking the native turned up a little late, and the 

 white man grumbled but wa- satisfied. 



The natives still strongl\ adhered to their tribal system and 

 ancient customs. So long as the native turned out to work in 

 what he considered reasonable numbers in reasonable time, the 

 white man did not bother with what went on in the reserves, and 

 there is no doubt but that witchcraft and smelling-out still con- 

 tinued, and in some cases there was still an attempt at a military 

 system. The native conserved the old social customs and lived 

 generally much as he did before the white man came. 



In Zululand. Rasutoland. Pondoland, and .Swaziland, the 

 natives still had their jxiramount chiefs and were independent. 

 A few missionaries and traders lived in these countries, but I 

 remember when a trading tri]) to Swaziland took months, and was 

 regarded as an adven;^ure only to be entered upon with fasting 

 and ])rayer. ( )utwardl}- the life of these inde])endent ])eoples 

 was that of their fathers, but the subtle i)ressure of the white 

 man had effected two great changes. No longer was war 

 l)etween the tribes ])ossible, and the loss of life due to this cause 

 had stO])ped, and with it the internal killings, which had to a 

 certain extent ke])t down the numbers of the ])eo])le l)efore the 

 white man came. 



Taking a .wide survey of the I'.antu ])eo]»le at this time, it 

 may be said that the influence of the white luan had been in their 

 fa^•our. The few articles of Kuro))ean make he had introduced, 

 the i)lough and the l)lanket. had made for additional comfort and 

 security, the introduction of the wagf)n and the use of the ox for 

 draft purposes, had lessened the danger of famine. Xative cus- 

 toms, sanctions, and controls still kept the i)eoi)le moral and 

 healthy, and the i)reveniion of war and killing customs had 



