NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 415 
relations with his wife until five or six months after the birth of the child. If in 
this interval of some nine months he has connection with any other woman the 
popular belief is that his wife will certainly die. The Atonga widower seldom 
remarries until five months after the death of his wife. 
Amongst the Wankonde at the north end of Lake Nyasa men seldom marry 
out of their own tribe but avoid marriage between cousins. Polygamy is 
prevalent among them. As one amongst many reasons given for polygamy 
it is stated that as a man cannot cohabit with his wife during the menstrual 
period or during pregnancy, he must have more than one wife, as once married 
he cannot exercise self-restraint. 
When desirous of marrying a girl the young Munkonde approaches her 
parents through a comrade or friends. If the parents are willing to treat of 
marriage, and the girl herself consents, the young man gives the father or 
guardian a present of one or more cows 1 (some tribes give goats, hides, cloth,' 2 
&c.). Then the parents on both sides meet and agree to the union. They 
deny that this is purchase : it is merely a token of good will and good faith. 
Should the married persons quarrel in after days and the young woman run 
away to her father’s house her husband can demand the return of the goods. 
Contrary to the custom that prevails in the greater part of Southern 
Nyasaland, where the husband invariably goes away to live with the people of 
his wife, among the Wankonde the husband takes his bride to his own village, 
though Dr. Cross has heard of cases where this custom has been reversed. 
Among the Wankonde a man’s widow usually becomes the wife of the next 
brother. The Wankonde have that curious custom by which a man is practically 
forbidden to speak to or even look at his mother-in-law. This also obtains 
amongst the A-nyanja to some extent; yet here the son-in-law has to hoe his 
mother-in-law’s garden and assist her in many other ways. The Rev. D. C. R. 
Scott states, “ The children endeavour to heal the breach between their father 
and his mother-in-law (their grandmother).” 
Apparently the A-nyanja are less “emancipated” than the other tribes of 
British Central Africa. Among the A-nyanja if a man commit adultery during 
the pregnancy of his wife and the wife or child should die in the delivery, the 
wife’s people gather together and demand compensation, sometimes asking for 
the sister of the husband. Amongst the A-nyanja also the custom prevails 
that if a man be caught in adultery he is obliged to get another man as a 
substitute to cohabit with his wife before he can return to her, and he must pa}/ 
his substitute for this service four yards of cloth or an equivalent present, or 
else the substitute can claim and carry away the wife. 
The marriage customs amongst the A-mambwe and A-lungu of Lake Tan¬ 
ganyika and the Tanganyika plateau are very similar to the Wankonde. Those 
of the Angoni resemble the customs amongst the Zulus of South Africa. 
Among the Aba-bisa, the A-senga, and the Awemba, and, indeed, most of the 
tribes between Nyasa and the Luapula River, there are similar customs to the 
rites which prevail amongst the Atonga; but those of the A-lunda (a people 
dwelling on the south shore of Lake Mweru and the banks of the Luapula 
River) present, as might be expected, features more similar to the marriage 
customs of West Central Africa and Angola, since the A-lunda came from 
that direction. 
1 In the case of a chief’s daughter fifteen to twenty head of cattle may be the present given. 
2 Mr. Yule states that in some of the poorer Wankonde tribes the usual gift is three hoes, two brass 
waist-rings, and a few yards of cloth. 
