Mabch 30, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



493 



animal, an old and tried friend ; its woi'- 

 shippers (if we may call them so) did not 

 hunt or eat it or wear its skin, but avoided 

 it as far as possible; they sang songs and 

 danced in its honor. In the old days there 

 is no doubt that the totem was regarded as 

 the supernatural friend and ally of the 

 tribe; it was respected and protected and 

 men swore by it as by a sacred thing; but 

 this sacredness had begun to vanish before 

 the white man came. There is no trace in 

 philology, customs or folk-lore of any sacri- 

 ficial rite connected with the totem animals 

 of these tribes. The author described cus- 

 toms associated with useful plants and do- 

 mestic animals which, in his opinion, were 

 connected with totemism ; an account was 

 also given of the girls' initiation cere- 

 monies, in which it is evident there is a 

 close connection between food and sexual 

 relations. 



Very interesting was the account given 

 by Mr. C. A. Wheelwright, C.M.G., on the 

 circumcision lodges of the natives of the 

 Zoutpansberg district of the Transvaal. It 

 is extremely difficult to get any information 

 on this subject, so these ' Notes ' are of espe- 

 cial value. The lodges usually last three 

 months and public opinion forces the youths 

 to attend. The lads are taught to sing, 

 dance and drill, sexual matters are fully 

 gone into and the laws and customs of the 

 tribe are inculcated; they are subjected to 

 cold, whipping and privations to harden 

 their physique and make them manly. 



The Rev. E. Gottschling gave a sketch of 

 the history and customs of the Bawenda. 

 The Bawenda inhabit the northeast corner 

 of the Transvaal, between the Limpopo and 

 the Levuva, but it is not yet known where 

 was the original Wenda, the cradle of the 

 tribe; the people, who are typical Bantu, 

 apparently come down from the lake dis- 

 trict of eastern Africa. Owing to their 

 mountainous country they have been little 

 affected by outside influences. The moun- 



tain kraals are protected by stone walls 

 six to eight feet in height and from four 

 to six feet thick at the base; the two faces 

 of the walls are carefully built, the inter- 

 mediate space being filled up with earth. 

 The huts of the chief occupy the highest 

 terrace in the kraal. Near the entrance of 

 a chief's kraal is an oblong, fortress-like, 

 walled enclosure, or tondo, which is the 

 'school' where the initiates are made into 

 men, and in times of unrest it serves as a 

 watch-house for the town guard. In the 

 tondo stands a little round shed in which 

 all the fetishes of the tribe are kept, to- 

 gether with a carved wooden image of their 

 totem and images of a man and his wife ; 

 these are carved in ebony and are about two 

 feet in height; they are called votamho, or 

 'feast.' The Bawenda have a dim idea of 

 a Creator, Kosane his executive officer is 

 the god Balowimba, and Thovela is a be- 

 nign mediator. They pray at the annual 

 sacrifices to Modziine, who is the totality of 

 the good souls of their ancestors with the 

 founder of their tribe as head and the rul- 

 ing chief as living representative. Prayers 

 at these sacrifices are never directed to 

 the three gods above mentioned, but always 

 to the ancestors ; but in every-day life they 

 pray to Ralowimba. Three phases of re- 

 ligious development are here seen existing 

 at the same time : totemism, ancestor wor- 

 ship and the acknowledgment of gods. 

 These people would repay a more careful 

 study as it is possible that they are con- 

 nected in some way with the erecters of 

 the stone buildings of Rhodesia. 



Mr. I. Randall Maclver, of Oxford, gave 

 a lecture on the ancient ruins of Rhodesia, 

 which he had been commissioned to report 

 upon to the British Association. These 

 widely spread and most interesting ruiiLS 

 have of late received a considerable amount 

 of attention, especially Zimbabwe, the most 

 elaborate of them all. The generally ac- 

 cepted view is that the oldest of them were 



