Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/338

 266 SOUTH AND EAST AFEICA. haN-ing been broken by expatriation and the military life, the Matebeles no longer remembered either the songs, the sayings, or the beliefs of the various races whence they sprang. Having no religious rites of their own, they left the sacrifices, charms, and incantations to the professional wizards of the various distiicts over which they roamed. Nevertheless a certain sentiment of nationality has at last been developed amongst these heterogeneous communities, while the state of chronic war has at the same time had to give place to a social system more in harmony with that of the surrounding agricultural tribes. Even before the close of Musselekatsi'e reign the laws forbidding the fighting men to marry had already fallen into abeyance. Family groups have now been formed, and the warriors have become field labourers. But they still retain their peculiar headdress, now become the emblem of their manhood. Through the influence of the missionaries and traders commercial routes have been opened across Matebeleland, while the neighbourhood of disciplined British and Dutch troops inspires counsels of prudence in the heir of the great conqueror. He may even have reason to fear that the coveted auriferous deposits abounding in his territory may be the means of at last reducing him to a state of vassalage. When envoys from the Transvaal Republic came to ask Musse- lekatsi's authorisation for European miners to survey the land they were met with a flat refusal. " Take these stones," he said, " and load your waggons with them. But I will have no Dutch women, cattle, sheep, or goats brought here, nor any houses built in my country ! " The Ba-Nyai, Makalaka, and Mashoxa Nations. A certain number of tribes tributary to the Matebeles are still so far removed from the royal residence, or else so well protected by their natural defences, that they have been able to preserve some measure of political independence. Such are the Ba-Nyai people, who occupy the southern slope of the Zambese valley above the Kafukwe confluence, and who usually select rocky strongholds as the sites of their settled abodes. The Ba-Nyai are generally a fine race of men, tall, strong, and somewhat proud of their relatively light complexion. They are also dis- tinguislied from most of the neighbouring populations by their love of cleanliness, and, like so many others, pay great attention to their hefjddr«^ss, dividing the hair into little tresses, which they twine round with the bark of a tree dyed red. The hair thus disposed in stiff little tufts gives them an aspect somewhat recalling that of the Egyptians of three or four thousand years ago. When travelling they gather all the locks in a single knot on the crown of the head. Unlike their more servile neighbours, the Ba-Nyai choose their chief by general suffrage. The electel king is no doubt as a rule the son of the last king's sister ; but the electors, dissatisfied with this candidate, have not unfrequently sought a ruler amongst some other communities. When the popular choice is announced the new chi( f at first declines the honour, as if the burden were too great to be borne. But this is merely a formality or a legal fiction ; the authority