42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



pianos, played very rapidly, or else by two or three men beating drums. 

 This was kept on continuously, and with endless zeal, as long as boys 

 could be got to beat the drums or play the pianos for them. Among 

 the Shangaans the dances consisted chiefly of a warlike display. 

 The men armed with kerries, battleaxes, etc., formed themselves into 

 circles, and at intervals one of their number rushed into the centre 

 and chanted some song, at the same time taking most violent exercise 

 in the way of killing imaginary foes. 



Marriage Regulations. Polygamy, as among all other Bantu 

 races, is universal among the East Coast natives the number of 

 wives a man has depending entirely on the amount of wealth he has 

 with which to buy them. To the women's share falls all the hard 

 work of the kraal, so the more wives a man can afford to buy, the 

 greater the ease in which he lives. Marriage among the natives is 

 frequently arranged by the father of a girl, in some cases even while 

 she is still in infancy. Usually she is not altogether disregarded in 

 the matter of the choice of her future husband, and if forced to 

 marry some man against her will, she sometimes takes the law into 

 her own hands by running away from a husband she does not like. 



A man almost invariably pays for his wife. In the Inharnbane 

 district about fifteen pounds is the average price, while among the 

 Shangaans as much as forty pounds is paid. A daughter is thus of 

 considerable value to her father, and consequently it is her duty to get 

 married. It sometimes happens that a man, through his friends, enters 

 into negotiations for marriage with a girl whom he has never seen. 

 He may even go so far as to leave money with his father or brothers 

 to buy a wife for him, just before he leaves for work in Johannesburg, 

 in which case the girl is bought and taken to the kraal of her hus- 

 band's father to await the return of her rightful owner. The money 

 a man receives for a daughter he uses to buy his son a wife. After 

 the price to be paid has been settled, a day is arranged for the hus- 

 band to go and fetch her, though in some cases she is simply sent to 

 his kraal. Besides the price of his wife, in some districts the future 

 husband has to pay an extra pound to buy a sheep in order to cele- 



