102 HOME LIFjci: OF THE AFRICAN. 



One of the liveliest towns in South Africa is Kimberley. It is 

 also considered one of the dreariest. It is the center of the great 

 diamond fields of South Africa, as stated elsewhere, and is the 

 second in size to Cape Town. It was the scene of the greatest and 

 most desperate struggles during the Boer-British war. 



An African Negro baby on first opening its eyes in its mother's 

 low, dark, smoky, bamboo-palm hut, is saluted with a din of excited 

 men, women and children — perhaps as many as twenty of its grand- 

 mothers, uncles, aunts and cousins. 



Outside, in the village street, are the more distant relatives 

 with the husband, and the other townspeople, slaves and visitors. 

 The father is not admitted into the hut; his mother-in-law is there 

 as chief directress, and he is afraid of her. As soon as word is 

 brought to the father, he and the other men in the street join in 

 the shouts of welcome, drums are beaten and guns are fired, to 

 show their joy, and also to drive away any malignant spirits that 

 may happen to be in the vicinity, and which are supposed to be sent 

 on errands of evil against the child's life. 



CARE OF THE NEW-BORN BABE. 



On this same line of protection from witchcraft, the babe is 

 not many hours old before amulet fetishes are tied about its neck 

 or loins. The washing immediately after its birth is in cold water, 

 and the baby is then dusted over with powder of the red dye-wood 

 tree. Perhaps its astringent tonic properties are beneficial. The 

 mother is not allowed to nurse her baby for three days, which is a 

 cause of needless suffering to both mother and child. African 

 women will not be persuaded of this. 



Often baby goes for months without a name, the final giving 

 of which is performed with some ceremony and in the presence and 

 by the authority of the father. In the meanwhile, all babies in most 

 tribes are called "Ndindo." This means nothing, except that in 

 one tribe it is the word for dirt; perhaps a playful insult, as one 

 might say, laughingly, "You Rascal." Naming is governed (as 

 with us) by family considerations, and (as with the Israelites) by 

 some striking incident precedent to or connected with the birth. 



