I made enquiries, through Mr. Gouldsbury, as to some of their customs, and was informed that a sick person is allowed to die in the hut and not removed before death. When dead, he is taken out by the ordinary door and buried "far away" on the veld. There is no ceremony at burial, but about three months later there is a "drink." In case of a chief (Mambo), a head of cattle is killed, for a common man a fowl or a goat is killed, on this occasion. The hut is not pulled down or abandoned on a death. If the deceased were a married man, his nearest in blood would take over the widow and the hut. Succession is traced exclusively through males.[1]
- ↑ I have had little opportunity for comparing the foregoing extracts from my notes with the information previously collected by travellers, missionaries and others, and scattered in a hundred volumes. Possibly, even probably, there may be little new in them. They are however, a brief record of some of the things seen and heard in a memorable, but all-too-hurried, visit to a land of deep and abiding interest.
I should like to add that the warmest thanks of the anthropologists who had the privilege of being members of the party are due especially to the officials of the Native Departments of the various Colonial Governments, and to Mr. Newton, the Acting Administrator, and the Government officials of Rhodesia, for all their trouble and often for their patience under the fire of cross-examination to which we mercilessly subjected them. Several of these gentlemen have been named above, but we were hardly less indebted to others. One and all were not merely courteous, but tireless; anxious to ascertain what we wanted to know and see, and to gratify us accordingly. Their kindness will not easily be forgotten.
I am indebted to Mr. Henry Balfour for permission to reproduce the photographs of the wedding at Henley, Plates X. to XIV., and to Dr. H. W. Marett Tims those of the Macharanga village and grain store, Plate XVI.
