404 HANTU METHODS OF DIVINATION. 



This practice lias survixed among the Bantu, and was 

 (le.scril)ed by Bent in almost the same words as Ennemoser : 

 " On the evening of a new moon they will seat themselves in 

 a circle, and the village doctor will go round tossing each man's 

 set of dolosses in the air, and by the way they turn up he w'ill 

 divine the fortune of the individual for the month that is to 

 come."'-' Mr. H. W. Garbutt, in a most interesting paper read 

 before the Rhodesian Scientific Society in 1909,-'^ showed the 

 widespread tise of tablets for divination in the coimtry north 

 of the Limpop<i, and the following description by Dr. Theal 

 iproves the existence of a similar practice along the East Coast : 



The tribes of the interior were more superstitious than those of the 

 roast, as they were guided in nearly all their actions l)y the position in 

 which some pieces of !ione or wood of the cliaracter of dice fell when 

 they were cast upon the ground. . . . On each tablet a different pattern 

 was carved, and each had a signiiication different from mat of the others. 

 Sometimes, instead of tablets, pieces of bone or of ivory carved in 

 various shapes were used, in the manufacture of which a great deal of 

 patient labour was expended. The usual number employed was tive, 

 but more were sometimes found in a set. If an ox strayed, the daiila "' 

 was thrown to ascertain in what direction it had strayed ; if a hunt was 

 to take place, it was consulted to indicate in what quarter game was 

 most likely to be found — in short, it was resorted to in every case of 

 doubt. Each individual carried with him a set of these mystic articles 

 strung on a thong, to be used whenever required. This superstitious 

 practice, just as it was described more than tliree hundred years ago by 

 the friar Dos Santos, is still prevalent and tirmly believed in.-- 



H. A. Dryden-" describes " four curious-looking pieces of 

 ivory, three triangular in shape, the fourth rather long and 

 pointed at either end," which " were flat, and had a sort of 

 pattern rtidely worked upon them." which were used by the 

 Masarwa diviners, and in Plate 8 1 figure a set in my own col- 

 lection used by the Ovambo, still further west. 



In the Northern Transvaal, ivory tablets resembling those 

 of the Makalanga and Mashona are used by the chiefs and their 

 indunas, bttt, as far as I am aware, only in conjunction with 

 one or more astragali. These tablets are usually fotir in nttm- 

 ber, and are cut from the tusks of the wild boar. The individual 

 pieces in a set are similar in size and shape, but are differen- 

 tiated by symbols incised on one surface, the female sex being 

 expressed by a " V "-shaped nick at one end. Those used by 

 the Malaboch {vide Plate 8) are marked with ^ymliols closely 

 akin to those used in Southern Rhodesia, and are called by the 

 f.)llowing names: — 



1. Kuami, representing the Chief of the Tribe or Clan. 



2. Titadima or Tsuadima, his wife. 



1" Theodore Bent, "' Ruined Cities of Mashonaland." 



'^ IT. W. Garlnitt, " Proceedings of the Rhodesian .Scientific Asso- 

 ciation," 9, 50, ff. 



"The same word " da-ula " is used in tlic Xdrtliern Transvaal to 

 signifv "throw tlie bones" or "divine." N.R. 



^ Theal, "Dark and YclIow-skinncd Peo]>le of Africa." p. 20T. 



^^ IT. A. Dryden, "Gun and Camera in Soulheni Africa." p. .?S.S. 



