SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 3 



they lived to the north-east of their present habitat, but were driven 

 to the south by pressure of the tribes from the east and north, and 

 so about fifty years ago part of them came down into the Shire 

 Highlands and drove out the original Mang'anja inhabitants, who 

 fled to the Shire Valley for safety among their fellow-tribesmen 

 there. 



The third tribe is that known as the Angoni who live on the lofty 

 tableland to the west of the Shire River and Lake Nyasa. They are 

 really a branch of the Nyanja tribe and closely allied to the Mang'anja 

 already alluded to, both in language and general characteristics. But 

 about forty years ago they were subjugated by the Angoni, a raiding 

 tribe of the Zulu race, who came into the country from the south, and 

 from whom they took the name Angoni. Along with the name they 

 took a few of the habits and customs of their conquerors, but they 

 still retain so many of their own, and these so different from their 

 neighbours the Mang'anja and Yao, that it is better to class them as 

 a distinct tribe. 



The fourth of the tribes I would refer to is known to outsiders 

 as the Anguru. They live in the country between the east shore of 

 Lake Shirwa and the coast, and within what is now a Portuguese 

 Protectorate. But so many of .them have fled within the past five 

 years from Portuguese methods of government and taken refuge in 

 British territory, that a large part of the south-east corner of our 

 Protectorate is now inhabited by them. They are the least known of 

 the tribes I have mentioned, having only lately come into contact 

 with us, and consequently I shall have only rarely to allude to them 

 in this paper. 



In order to give you the best idea of native African habits of life 

 and thought, I shall deal to-day chiefly with one of the tribes I have 

 mentioned, and only refer to the others when they present some 

 marked diversity of custom or belief. The tribe I have selected is 

 the Yao, because, in one particular feature, to be noted later, it 

 presents such a marked contrast to the others as to call for special 

 reference. And in all I have to say to-day I must be understood as 



