The Caffirs never carried on wars in order to make slaves, and the slave-trade and slavery are unknown to them. Neither have the 1\lakololo anything of the kind. In the east and west the slave-hunts, which are now common, originated from foreign influence. This is not the place to speak of the inhumanity of the slave-hunters and slave-traders: it suffices to point out the manner in which the unfortunate victims are transported (pl. 83, Jig. 6). They are tied in pairs, with the slave-yokes about their necks, and are fastened together with chains (pi. 83, fig. 6; pl. 86, fr. 12). The lot of the slaves among the tribes of the interior is not a severe one, as they belong to the family. It is much harder along the coast. War-prisoners are enslaved by the southern tribes, and constitute a sep arate caste from the free persons.
Death and at his death the chieftain's lot is better than that of others. He is always solemnly buried. The other dead were simply carried to desert places, where the beasts of prey devoured them. This is frequently the case even at present; but generally the dead are buried in narrow ditches, either within the kraal (among the Betchuanas in the animals' kraal) or near it, in a squatting position, the face turned to the north or cast (p. 85, fig. 81. Among the Betchuanas the corpse is not carried out through the ordinary door, but through another made for the purpose, and is placed in a side-vault of the tomb. Loud lamenta tions of the women are heard at the death and at the funeral. The graves of princes arc guarded for a while, sometimes for a year. These tribes cut off their hair as a sign of mourning, and wear a necklace made of the hair from the tail of an ox—one is also put on new-born children—until it falls off (Lichtenstein): in the same manner the Manganyas hang strips of palm-leayes about themselves (Livingstone).
The Manganvas break all the utensils and destroy all the provisions belonging to the deceased, and Lichtenstein reports that the Amakosa have the same peculiar custom. We have already seen this custom in Polynesia (p. 201). The house of the dead is no longer used; perhai s also the whole kraal if the deceased has died within it. This is the practice among the Hereros at present, but in other places the custom has been modified. They take particular care to let no one die 11•1111111 a house, and consequently the dying are carried into the open air. There is no lack of offerings for the dead: his weapons arc placed in the grave with hi iii, and in the case of a chief several animals from his herd are left at the grave for his use. Formerly, at the grave of the Cazembe
—and also among some tribes—slaves, and even wives, were slain, and human skulls were heaped upon the grave.
Religious these descriptions we have indicated some of the religious views of the Bantu tribes. That the people were originally considered unclean in comparison with the chief is shown by many cus toms. Women and children are held to be less pure than men, and all women are impure during parturition and menstruation. Defilement is produced by touching a corpse or anything relating to the dead, and by slaying a lion or an elephant. If the kraal is struck by lightning, the entire kraal becomes impure. Water and the blood of animals of sac rifice are used for cleansing the impurity.
This condition of " uncleanness" should rather be called a state of consecration or interdiction, for those who have been consecrated by contact with anything sacred are excluded from ordinary people. Thus, those who have slain lions are consecrated by their relation to the lion. Similarly, their relation to the dead consecrates widowers and widows. They are restored to ordinary communion with their fellow-beings only by a ceremony of secularization.
The men are considered more sacred than the women and the chil dren; consequently, the latter must be consecrated at the feast of manhood before being received among the adults, and for the same reason women are excluded from many things that are prominent in the lives of the men. But they also have their periods of consecration (the time of giving birth, etc.), from which they must be liberated. Here, as in Poly nesia, objects are interdicted or "tabooed," being thereby made holy and withdrawn from use.
belief in the future lire and in guardian spirits gen erally prevails. The latter usually show themselves in the guise of animals, and thus the prohibitions of food which we have already men tioned (p. 315) may be explained, for to eat the animal which is the incarnation of a guardian spirit would be a crime which would be punished with sickness—that is, with being possessed by evil spirits. The Caffirs eat no fish, because they imagine them to be water-snakes; and snakes are everywhere in South Africa believed to be one shape assumed by the guardian spirits or souls. The crocodile and hippopotamus are believed to be evil spirits.