Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/138

114 birth to twins, if they were of different sexes the female was thrown away, if they were of the same sex the weaker of the two met that fate.

The Hottentots were polygamous in the sense that their customs admitted of a wealthy man having more wives than one, that is when his first wife became old or infirm he was allowed to take another, who was termed the young wife, but he was required to provide for the maintenance of the first, and did not discard her. Thus a rich man could have two legal wives at the same time, but the practice was by no means general. There were many kraals in which there was not a single case of polygamy. It was common with them, though not imperative, to take their wives not from their own but from a different clan, and in all cases men were prohibited from marrying any woman to whom they were related by blood, no matter how distantly.

The marriage customs required that cattle should be given by the bridegroom to the nearest relatives of the bride, but temporary unions were common, and indeed a system almost as bad as that of free love prevailed among at least some of the clans, for chastity on both sides between persons not related by blood was very lightly esteemed. One of the principal objects in their wars with each other was to take females as prisoners, who were generally treated and regarded as mere concubines, but were sometimes raised to the dignity of wives. The difference from a European point of view may seem obscure, but it involved a right over the distribution of the milk, and upon it depended the inheritance of the sons, the daughters, except in the ruling families, inheriting nothing. Female captives of Bushman blood occupied the lower position. There was no religious or moral scruple in operation against conduct of this kind, for they had no conception that it was in any way wrong. To their ideas it was simply the natural right of the strong to take from the weak.

Captain Alexander, who managed to ingratiate himself with the Namaquas, obtained from a party of old men a large