BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
418 
Native names almost invariably have some meaning; that is to say, with the 
exception of inherited names which have come down for many generations. 
The name of nearly every individual is a living word of plain meaning. 
The birth of twins is not ordinarily well received and in some tribes one 
of the two children is killed. I have never heard of any case of triplets or 
quadruplets ; and when I have told natives that such cases occurred in England 
occasionally, they expressed the greatest horror. 1 
After the mother begins to go about again she usually takes part in a dance 
which is attended by women only, if she has borne a child for the first time. 
Children early enter upon the duties of life. Little girls soon begin to assist 
their mothers in preparing food and in garden work. The little boys mind the 
goats or the fowls or scare away the baboons from the crops, and when they 
are seven or eight years old commence to follow their fathers on short journeys. 
The little girls amuse themselves by dancing and singing, even playing with 
monstrous dolls that are hardly to be recognised as imitations of the human 
baby. Little boys, if they dwell near the river, play with toy canoes, or they 
throw wooden spears and shoot with tiny bows and arrows. The initiation 
ceremonies more or less attendant on puberty have been already described, 
and it has been related how both girls and boys at that time change their 
childish names for other appellations. In the case of the boys the names 
are sometimes given by the persons who preside over the ceremonies or by 
the headman or chief of the village from which the boys come; or the 
youths themselves may insist on choosing their own names. 
The Rev. D. C. R. Scott writes in his dictionary: “A person is supposed to 
change so radically at puberty that the utterance of his first name is a very 
great insult. A boy called by this name will probably answer, ‘ There is no 
such person here.’ ” But even after puberty the names are changed with the 
greatest facility. Persons who are very great friends may interchange names, 
or a man may go on a journey and prefer to call himself by a new appellation, 
on his return, which refers to some important event which has occurred in his 
travels. 2 
The age of puberty amongst the girls is usually eleven years: with the boys, 
twelve to fourteen ; but neither sex attains its full maturity till about sixteen 
years in the woman and twenty years in the man. The beard and moustache 
in men make their appearance relatively late, not beginning to show much 
before twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. 
Neither boys nor girls wear clothing (unless they are the children of chiefs) 
until nearing the age of puberty. Amongst the Wankonde, except in such few 
of those people as have come under European influence, practically no covering 
is worn by the men except a ring of brass wire round the stomach. It is the 
custom now, however, amongst the Wankonde men who frequent trading or 
mission stations to suspend a piece of cloth from this brass girdle or if there is 
1 A curious custom obtains amongst the Wankonde if twins are born. Both parents are put into 
a grass hut in a secluded part of the village and there they abide for one month. No villager can see 
the face of the secluded persons. The father hides himself lest his enemies should kill him. 
The Atonga consider the birth of twins a most unlucky circumstance, and although they will not 
admit it I think that one of the twins is very frequently killed. The belief on their part is that if 
both live then both will suffer double, for the tie between them is so strong that even although separated 
by distance each will feel the other’s pain in addition to his own sicknesses and hurts. On the other 
hand the Anyanja and the Yao do not seem to care very much one way or the other whether twins 
are born. 
2 Names are most changeable amongst these negroes. Sometimes for mere caprice they will say, “ I 
intend to call myself so-and-so,” and henceforth the new name out of politeness is scrupulously remembered. 
