CHAPTER XII 



THE NATIVES [continued) : ethnology 



The habits and mode of life of the natives of 

 Zambezia contain much of interest, and although, 

 generally speaking, their peculiarities of custom are 

 not unlike those of neighbouring tribes in the 

 British Sphere, they nevertheless present many 

 curious distinctive points for which it is at times 

 difficult to account. 



I propose in this chapter to describe in their 

 order the various events in the life-time of a native 

 of ordinary type, and to lay bare, so far as my 

 inquiries have enabled me to penetrate into them, 

 the usages and observances which, as I have often 

 remarked, encompass the life of the African just as 

 relentlessly as the daily round of things which have 

 to be done, and from which there is no escape even 

 for the European. 



As soon as a young woman is found to be 

 enceinte, the village is acquainted of the circum- 

 stance by the first female to whom she discloses 

 her condition, whereupon the matrons proceed to 

 her house in a body, each one making that peculiar, 

 shriU, tremulous cry, which is quite indescribable, 

 but must be familiar to all who know Africa. 



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