Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/541

 Reviews. 5 ' 7

the 'I'ransvaal. There are also other names, none of which are, however, applicable to the whole people. Thonga, therefore, is a convenient term, which can hardly fail to find acceptance among anthropologists. The Ba-Thonga are called by M. Junod a tribe. They comprise a number of subdivisions, for which he uses the words clan and group. Clan, however, is not used strictly in the sense lately current in anthropological words of a kin or gens. It applies to all who " bear the name of the old chief, who is more or less considered as being the ancestor of them all." A group consists of those clans which occupy the same tract of country and speak the same dialect of the common tongue. These various groups have no political unity. They did not necessarily enter the country at the same time or by the same road. They are simply united by the possession of a common language (though broken up into dialects), and to a great extent of common traditions. The tribe thus roughly corresponds to what in another country and a different social condition Messrs. Spencer and Gillen call a na'tion, and the group to what ihey call a tribe. An excellent little map shows the distribution of the groups and (as far as they can be defined) of the clans.

In this first volume the life of the individual, of the family and village, and of the nation (if so loose an organization can be said to have a national life), is minutely described. The agricultural and industrial life, the arts and traditions, the religion, and magical beliefs and practices are reserved for the second volume. It is of course impossible to draw an accurate line of this kind. Consequently many subjects are unavoidably anticipated, though their full exposition is deferred. Thus, in connection with birth, marriage, death, the installation and position of the chief, the rites preliminary and subsequent to war, and those of building and removal of a village, we have many references to the cult of the dead and to witchcraft which await more complete treatment hereafter.

Among the many subjects dealt with here may be mentioned the minute analysis of the custom of lobolo, the payment of a bride-price, its origin, its various steps, and its social and moral effects. As a missionary M. Junod has a special interest in this matter. For anthropological purposes we need only refer to one