} 



224 



Males. Females. Children. 



JBeltara ... Goniara ... Bunanka 



\Pungata ... Mbutjana ... Knuraia 



{Gomara ... Beltara ... Purula ^ 



Mbutjana ... Pungata ... Ngala / 



jBunanka ... Purula ... Beltara ) 



\ Knuraia ... ISTgala ... Pungata / 



rPurula ... Bunanka ... Gomara ^ 



\Ngala ... Knuraia ... Mbutjana/ 



The rule is that those who stand on the same line marry firsts 

 but under certain circumstances marriages in a diagonal line are 

 permitted to take place, for example, a Beltara may marry a 

 Mbutjana, and a Pungata a Gomara. But whether the Beltara 

 has a Gomara or a Mbutjana for his wife is immaterial to the 

 classification of the children, who are Bunanka according to 

 paternal descent. The same rule applies to the other classes. 

 That two classes have the right of intermarriage, I think may be 

 accounted for in the following way, viz., that formerly this 

 people had been more numerous, when class intermarriage was 

 not allowed. But when subsequently it became much reduced 

 in number, one class may have contained only a few men, and the 

 other a few women, they then resorted to this relaxation of the 

 rule to avoid extinction, and permitted intermarriage between 

 two definite classes. At present their numbers are so reduced 

 that, even with this, marriages can scarcely take place within the 

 prescribed limit, especially as many white people attach to them- 

 selves native women. Polygamy makes wives still scarcer, as 

 some men acquire two or three. A bachelor has, therefore, to wait 

 until he is lucky enough to get a wife, i.e., until some render a or 

 gamena gives him his daughter. The gamena can only do this 

 when the aspirant is not the brother of his mother. For if his 

 mother is not from the direct line, but the indirect one, he calls 

 her brothers also gamena, and may not marry her daughters. 



Among Christians the family is formed by the various degrees 

 of consanguinity ; among these natives it is constructed on the 

 class system. The family is supported by it, or rather born out 

 of it ; for a youth has not the right to choose a bride for himself, 

 but must take the one selected for him by some rendera or 

 gamena, as stated above. He makes no demur at this. Such a 

 marriage only gives rise to a few new degrees of relationship. 

 Neither the man nor the woman assume any new title, the 

 connubial relationship being only indicated by aflixing the word 

 iltja to the names, while the afiinity of the class is denoted by the 

 affix lirra. Thus noa means spouse or partner ; noa iltja, real 

 spouse, with whom he cohabits. Again, kata signifies the father 

 of the class ; kata iltja, sexual father. Ordinarily they leave out 



