Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/339

 THE MASHONAS. 267 remains in his hands, and with it the wives, children, and effects of his predecessor. In no other African tribe do the women enjoy so much influence as amongst the Ba-Nyai. In all domestic affairs the decision rests with them. When a young man seeks a girl in marriage he addresses himself to the mother, and if accepted by her, quits his own roof and comes to reside with his mother-in-law, whose faith- ful servant he becomes, and towards whom he is expected always to pay the greatest deference. In hor presence he dare not be seated, but falling on his knees squats on his heels, to show his feet being regarded as a great offence. The children are the mother's property, and the husband, whenever tired of his domestic life, may return to his own home. But in that case he has to renounce all paternal claims and privileges, unless they have been purchased by the gift of a certain number of cows and goats. The Makalakas and Mashonas, former masters of the land now ruled by the Matebeles, have been for the most part exterminated, while the few warriors are reduced to a state of servitude. The Makalakas were the greatest sufferers. Dis- persed by the Mat«bele irruption, some towards the Zambese, some to the Limpopo or the Kuluhari Desert, they have forgotten their very language, and now speak only a debased Zulu dialect. Although formerly excellent husbandmen and skilled blacksmiths, they have in many |)lace8 lapsed to the primitive condition of hunters, living on the spoils of the chase, or even on pillage. They have thus, in two or three generations, reverted to such a state of savagery that they are no longer able to build themselves huts. Nevertheless the Makalakas still continue, as of old, to be honourably distinguished above all their neighbours for their domestic virtues and consideration for their women. The wife is highly respected, and oaths are taken in the name of the mother. Soon after birth, however, the women are sub- jected to an extremely cruel process of tattooing. On the breast and lower parts alone the operators make over four thousand incisions disposed in thirty parallel lines, and if the skin is not then sufficiently ridged and blistered the scarification has to be repeated. The Makalakas bury their dead in caves, but never allow strangers to be interred in their territory. Hence the followers of the two explorers Gates and Grandy, who had died in the country, were obliged to carry their bodies beyond the frontier. The Mashonas, who constitute the substratum of the population on the Zambese or northern slope of the uplands, have been better able to resist oppression, because their industry renders them indispensable to their new masters. Although, like the Makalakas, much degenerated, and by the Matebeles regarded and spoken of as Manholes — that is, " slaves," they alone practise the industrial arts, till the rice- ticlds, make the household implements, weave the cotton fabrics, cut and embroider the leather shields, and forge and sharpen the assegais and other weapons. Small- pox has made fearful ravages amongst them, and this disease is so dreaded that its victims are often thrown alive into the bush. Some of the Mashona communities, protected by the mountainous nature of the land, have been able to set up independent republics. But they live in constant