Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/18

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Form of government of the tribes.—Military despotism.—Patriarchal rule.—Position of the members of ruling families.—Position of the common people.—Checks upon arbitrary rule.—Law of succession to the chieftainship.—Manner of formation of new tribes.—Position of the chief in the life of the people.—Standard of virtue of the Bantu.—Form of oath.—Revenue of the chiefs.—-Charges upon the government.—Ancestral spirit worship.—Sacrifices to the spirits of the dead.—Vague nature of this belief.—Ideas concerning death.—Form of burial of chiefs—Funeral customs of the Ovaherero.—Slaughter of attendants on the death of a great military ruler.—Xosa belief in Qamata.—Reason for certain animals being regarded as sacred.—Meaning of the word siboko.—Cause of some tribes having more than one siboko.—Mode of formation of many tribal titles.—Belief in hobgoblins and water spirits.—Belief in wise people living under the water.—Regard paid by some of the tribes to fire.—Views regarding the origin of life and death.—Unlucky days.—Rejoicing over the appearance of a new moon.—Ceremony after the gathering of crops.—Duties of the tribal priests.—Influence of religion on the government.—Belief in witchcraft.—Demented seers.—Phallic charms.—Note on brother-sister marriage.

Profession of Rainmakers.—Herbalists.—Method of drawing blood.—Surgical operations.—Use of charms.—Divination attended by revolting cruelty.—Superstitious customs of the interior tribes.—Superstitious use of a skull.—Hereditary belief in witchcraft.—System of common law and tribunals of justice.—Communal responsibility.—Form of lawsuits.—Modes of punishment.—Trials for dealing in witchcraft.—Trials by ordeal.—Mode of reckoning time.—Preservation of traditions.—Official praisers.—Dynastic titles.—Mode of naming individuals.—Circumcision of lads.—Corresponding rite for girls.—Form of marriage.—Position of women.—Marriage festivities.—Preliminary arrangements for a marriage.—Restrictions as to the females a man of the coast tribes might marry.—Greater liberty of men of the interior tribes.—Marriages of the Ovaherero.—Revolting custom of the Makaranga.—Custom of a childless woman.—Custom