// / / Aberdeen University Studies : No. 34 Proceedings of The Anatomical and Anthropological Society University of Aberdeen. COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS. Convener : Professor JAMES W. H. TRAIL, F.R.S., Curator of the University Library. UNIVERSITY STUDIES. General Editor : P. J. ANDERSON, LL.B., Librarian to the University and Clerk of the General Council. 1900. No. i.— Roll of Alumni in Arts of the University and King's College of Aberdeen, 1596-1860. Edited by P. J. Anderson. , M No. 2.— Records of Old Aberdeen, 1157-1891. A. M. Munro, F.S.A. Scot. Vol. I. „ No. 3. — Place Names of West Aberdeenshire. James Macdonald, F.S.A. Scot. 1901. No. 4.— The Family of Burnett of Leys. George Burnett, LL.D., Lyon King of Arms. H NO. 5.— Records of Invercauld, 1547-1828. Rev. J. G. Michie, M.A. 1902. No. 6.— Rectorial Addresses in the Universities of Aberdeen, 1835-1900. P. J. Anderson. No. 7.— The Albcmarle Papers, 1746-48, Professor C. S. Terry, M.A. 1903. No. 8.— The House of Gordon. J. M. Bulloch, M.A. Vol. I. „ No. 9.— Records of Elgin. William Cramond, LL.D. Vol. I. 1904. No. 10. — Avogadro and Dalton. A. N. Meldrum, D.Sc. „ No. ix. — Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire. David Littiejohn, LL.D. Vol. I. „ No. 12. — Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Society, 1902-04. 1905. No. 13. — Report on Alcyonaria. Professor J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., and others. „ No. 14. — Researches in Organic Chemistry. Prof. F. R. Japp, F.R.S., and others. „ No. 15. — Meminisse Juvat : with Appendix of Alakeia. Alexander Shewan, M.A. „ No. i6.—The Blackballs of that Ilk and Barra. Alexander Morison, M.D. 1906. No. 17. — Records of the Scots Colleges. Vol.1. P. J. Anderson. „ No. 18. — Roll of the Graduates of the University of Aberdeen, 1860-1900. Colonel William Johnston, C.B., LL.D. „ No. 19. — Studies in the History and Development of the University of Aberdeen. P. J. Anderson and others. ,, No. 20. — Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire. Professor Sir W. M. Ramsay, D.C.L., and pupils. No. 21. — Studies in Pathology. William Bulloch, M.D., and others. , No. 22. — Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Society, 1904-06. ,, No. 23. — Subject Catalogues of the Science Library and the Law Library. P. J. Anderson. . „ No. 24.— Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdecnshire. David Littiejohn, LL.D. Vol. II. '' / 1907. No. 25. — Studies on Alcyonarians and Antipatharians. Prof. Thomson, M.A., and others. /,, No. 26. — Surgical Instruments in Greek an I Roman, Times. J. S. Milne, M.A., M.D. .„ No. a^. — Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdecnshire. David Littiejohn, LL.D. Vol. III. /,, No. -28. — Flosculi Graeci Boreales. Ser. II. Professor John Harrower, M.A. ,/ No. 29. — Record of the Quatercentenary, 1906. P. J. Anderson. „ /Jo. 30.— The House of Gordon. J. M. Bulloch, M.A. Vol. II. 1908. No. $i.~The Miscellany of the New Spalding Club. Vol. II. „ No. 32. — Tie Religious Teachers of Greece. James Adam, Litt.D. (Giffbrd Lectures, 1904-06) „ No. 33. — The Science and Philosophy of the Organism. Hans Driesch, Ph.D. (Gifford Lect.) „ No. 34. — Proceedings of the A natomical and A nthropological Society, 1906-08. Proceedings of the Aberdeen Un i versi ty Anatomical and Anthropological Society President Robert William Reid, M.D., F.R.C.S. Professor of Anatomy 1906-08 Aberdeen Printed for the Society 1908 ABERDEEN : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS CONTENTS. PAGE Some Native Customs and Beliefs in Central Africa ....... 2 Kecord of Anatomical Variations 18, 53, 76, 95, 112 Anthropological Notes from British New Guinea ^ . 22 A Synopsis of a Report by G. A. Turner, M.B., D.P.H., on the Natives of Portuguese East Africa, South of Latitude 22° 34 On Two Additional Short Cists from Aberdeenshire . . • . . . . .54 Some Remains of Buddhist India .... 65 Notes on the Brain of an Imbecile 80 On Certain Physical Characters of Aberdeen Medical Students 82 Description of a Human Embryo of 13-14 Mesodermic Somites 98 On Three Bronze Dagger-Blades found in Aberdeenshire 115 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE 1. Fig. 1. Native Weaver at Work. Fig. 2. Yao Woman Wearing Headvvig, Necklace, Anklets, etc. Fig. 3. Mang'anja Hut on the Lower Shire River. Fig. 4. Yao Woman Grinding Flour. 2. Fig. 5. Yao Boy showing Small Notches on the Upper Incisor Teeth. Fig. 6. Yao Boy showing Notches on the Upper Central Incisor Teeth. Fig. 7. Anguru Boy showing the Upper Incisor Teeth Filed to a Point. Fig. 8. Chikunda Boy from Lower Zambesi, Single Notch cut between the Upper Central Incisor Teeth .... To face pay?. 16 3. Figs. 1 and 2. Face and Profile Views of a Man of the Toro Tribe, Bensbach River. Fig. 3. A Papuo-Melanesian from Goodenough Bay. Fig. 4. Two Types of Men from Kwaiawata. 4. Fig. 5. A Man of Go-aribari, Aird River Delta. Fig. 6. A Binandere Man, Lower Mamba River. Fig. 7. Naro Woman with Wavy Hair, Valley of the St. John River. Fig. 8. A Man of the Ikoro Section of the Sinangolo (Eastern Papuan) „ 30 5. Fig. 1. Hut showing Mutswa Painting. Fig. 2. Mtyopi Piano. 6. Fig. 3. Native Distillery in full working order concealed in the Bush. Fig. 4. Bark Canoe on Lake Suli. 7. Fig. 5. Woman Wearing Mourning Chaplet. Fig. 6. Makua Decorations produced by Cicatrisation. Fig. 7. Mtyopi Married Woman. Fig. 8. Shangaan Married Women ,, 50 8. Cist at Gateside of Scotstown, Old Machar, Aberdeenshire . „ 62 vii viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE 9. Fig. 1. Asoka's Railing at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh-Gaya. Fig. 2. The Bo-Tree, Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh-Gaya. Fig. 3. Figure of Buddha from Excavations at Sarnath. Fig. 4. Interior of Rock-cut Temple at Karli. 10. Fig. 5. Rear View of East Gateway of Great Stupa at Sanchi. Fig. 6. Front View of Left-hand Pillar of East Gateway of Great Stupa at Sanchi. Fig. 7. Side View of Right-hand Pillar of East Gateway of Great Stupa at Sanchi. Fig. 8. Part of Railing of Smaller Stupa at Sanchi. . . . To face page 74 11. Model of Human Embryo, left side (enlarged 60 times). 12. Model of Human Embryo, front view (enlarged 60 times). 13. Model of Human Embryo, in sagittal section (enlarged 60 times). ,, 110 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. PAGE Anthropological Notes from British New Guinea— Fig. 1. Map showing Boundaries of British and German New Guinea . Fig. 2. Waga at Tube-tube ; Engineer Group - 30 On Two Additional Short Cists from Aberdeenshire— Fig. 1. Skull from Cist at Mains of Leslie (^) 56 Fig. 2. Skull from Cist at Mains of Leslie ($) 57 Fig. 3. Urn from Cist at Mains of Leslie (J) 60 Fig. 4. Flint Knife from Cist at Gateside of Scotstown (|) 62 Description of a Human Embryo of 13-14 Mesodermic Somites — Fig. 1. Right Half of a Transverse Section of the Embryo through the region of the Eleventh Mesodermic Somite ......... 100 Fig. 2. Notochord in region of First Pair of Mesodermic Somites, and Fig. 3 in Caudal region ............. 101 Fig. 4. Model of Heart. x75, viewed from the front and left; Fig. 5, seen from behind 102 Fig. 6. Transverse Section in region of Second Pair of Somites. x50. . . 103 Fig. 7. Model of Pharynx. x75 103 Fig. 8. Section through region of Hind-brain. x50 . . . . . . 105 Fig. 9. Section through region of Sixth Somite. x50 . . . . . . 106 Fig. 10. Section through region of Hind Gut. x50 . . . . . . 106 Figs. 11 and 12. Model showing Septum Transversum from above . . . 107 Fig. 13. Section through Optic Vesicle 108 Fig. 14. Section through Head of Embryo. x50 108 Fig. 15. Section through region of First Visceral Cleft. x50 . . . .108 On Three Bronze Dagger-Blades found in Aberdeenshire — Fig. 1. Bronze Dagger-Blade (about i). A, face view ; B, edge view . . . 116 Figs. 2 and 3. Bronze Dagger-Blades ; face view (£) 117 ORDINARY MEETING. 17th NOVEMBER, 1906. Professor R. W. REID, M.D., F.R.C.S., President, in the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Professor Reid introduced Rev. Alexander Hetherwick, M.A., D.D., of Blantyre, who delivered a lecture on " Some Native Customs and Beliefs in Central Africa ". The lecture was illustrated by a series of lantern slides and Dr. Hetherwick was heartily thanked for his address. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOME NATIVE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. By REV. ALEXANDER HETHEBWICK, M.A., D.D., Blantyre, British Central Africa. (Read 17th November, 1906.) My purpose in this paper is to lay before you a few of the characteristic customs and beliefs of the tribes of Central Africa amongst whom I have been living for the past three and twenty years. These tribes inhabit the country lying along the banks of the Shire River and round the south end of Lake Nyasa, the Southern Division of what is known geographically and politically as British Central Africa. The first of these tribes is that which calls itself the Mang'anja- a branch of the large Nyanja tribe which covers the whole southern half of our Central African Protectorate. The Mang'anja live along the Shire Valley from near its junction with the Zambesi River to the south end of Lake Nyasa, They are the people whom Livingstone met on his first expedition into the Lake District, and whom he describes in his book, The /ntiihcxi mid iff Trilitituric*. They arc the original inhabitants of the country, and long ago formed a large and powerful kingdom under the sway of one chief or king. But among all Central African tribes the tendency is to break up into petty chiefships jealous of each other, and often hostile, and the Mang'anja were no exception to the rule. The second tribe is the Yao as it calls itself, who inhabit the hill country to the east of the Shire Valley and the south of Lake Nyasa. From there they stretch away along the valleys of the Lujenda and Rovuma Rivers to within a hundred miles of the sea coast. Originally SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 3 they lived to the north-east of their present habitat, but were driven to the south by pressure of the tribes from the east and north, and so about fifty years ago part of them came down into the Shire Highlands and drove out the original Mang'anja inhabitants, who fled to the Shire Valley for safety among their fellow-tribesmen there. The third tribe is that known as the Angoni who live on the lofty tableland to the west of the Shire River and Lake Nyasa. They are really a branch of the Nyanja tribe and closely allied to the Mang'anja already alluded to, both in language and general characteristics. But about forty years ago they were subjugated by the Angoni, a raiding tribe of the Zulu race, who came into the country from the south, and from whom they took the name Angoni. Along with the name they took a few of the habits and customs of their conquerors, but they still retain so many of their own, and these so different from their neighbours the Mang'anja and Yao, that it is better to class them as a distinct tribe. The fourth of the tribes I would refer to is known to outsiders as the Anguru. They live in the country between the east shore of Lake Shirwa and the coast, and within what is now a Portuguese Protectorate. But so many of .them have fled within the past five years from Portuguese methods of government and taken refuge in British territory, that a large part of the south-east corner of our Protectorate is now inhabited by them. They are the least known of the tribes I have mentioned, having only lately come into contact with us, and consequently I shall have only rarely to allude to them in this paper. In order to give you the best idea of native African habits of life and thought, I shall deal to-day chiefly with one of the tribes I have mentioned, and only refer to the others when they present some marked diversity of custom or belief. The tribe I have selected is the Yao, because, in one particular feature, to be noted later, it presents such a marked contrast to the others as to call for special reference. And in all I have to say to-day I must be understood as 4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL dealing with the native in his primitive state, before he was brought into contact with the new ideas and customs of Christianity or civilisation. Physically the Yao is the most powerful of the tribes I have mentioned. His tall strong frame, his broad-shaped skull, his features often with little of the negro type about them, his general air of strength and intelligence easily mark him off from his neighbours. The Yao tribal mark consists of a few short tattoo lines running down the centre of his forehead, and one or two similar marks on either temple. The Mang'anja, on the other hand, displays a broad cicatrix — sometimes two or three — drawn from the middle of his forehead down over his cheeks and neck to meet in the middle of his back. His lips and chin, as well as his breast, are not unfrequently covered with such marks. The Angoni is recognised by a hole bored in the lobe of the ear, into which a small plug of horn or wood is inserted, while the Anguru makes a large crescent-shaped cicatrix on either cheek, and often also in the middle of the forehead, sometimes cut so deep that I have known a man take the quid of tobacco from his mouth and lay it in the hollow of the cicatrix while he was speaking. The Yao women bore the upper lip and gradually distend the opening till a piece of wood, ivory, or even stone, an inch and a half or two inches in diameter, may be inserted, causing the lip to protrude in what to us is a hideous custom, but to them is the fashion — and fashion reigns supreme there as elsewhere. The Mang'anja women also follow this custom, and so too the Anguru, but the latter, in order to further enhance their charms, bore the under lip and insert a brass nail five or six inches long which hangs down over the chin. Sometimes the weight of the lip ornament breaks through the flesh of the upper lip. In this case the defect is repaired by plastering the two ends together with a piece of India- rubber— a rough method of surgery which has the desired effect of keeping the ornament in its place. The primitive garment of the Yao is made of bark cloth. A roll of bark of the mjombo tree is stripped off by beating it with a piece SOCIETY -OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 5 of wood. It is then steeped in water for some days. When soft it is hammered on a log of wood by means of a wooden mallet. In this way the fibres are separated one from the other, and the bark stretched to five or six times its original breadth. It thus forms a soft fibrous matting which affords a considerable amount of protection to the skin of the wearer. By steeping the bark in water into which a quantity of black loam has been stirred, the cloth is dyed black. It is worn kilt-fashion suspended from the waist, while a larger piece is thrown plaid-wise over the left shoulder and under the right arm. The Angoni, probably owing to the scarcity of wood in their country, dress themselves in the skins of small game — goats or sheep — which they wear tightly bound round the loins and thighs. In most villages one used to see a loom at work on which a rough kind of cotton cloth was woven (Plate I., Fig. 1). The cotton plant was grown in small patches on the outskirts of the village, and by means of a small distaff and spool was spun into a coarse thread. This was stretched on the loom frame, and the weft was thrown by means of a hand shuttle. But the process was slow and tedious, and only chiefs and head men could afford the possession of a piece of such cloth. The introduction of the products of our Manchester looms has thrown all such forms of apparel out of fashion, and barkcloth is now worn only at funerals by the chief mourners as a sign of grief, by mothers during and immediately after childbirth, and by boys and girls at the ceremonies of entering the state of puberty. In remote districts it is also worn over the ordinary calico dress to protect it from damage or during a shower. The chief ornaments worn by both men and women are beads of various sizes, shapes and colours. They are worn in the form of necklaces, waistbelts, and anklets. The women also wear them strung on the hair or plaited into a wig (Plate I., Fig. 2). Coils of brass wire are also worn on the legs and arms. Such articles were procured from the coast through the Arab or coast trader, and must have been only of recent import. Till the introduction of European coinage they formed the main articles of barter with the natives. Among the Yaos the head is frequently shaved either wholly or in patches, and 6 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL the hair is always kept short. The Angoni man, on the other hand, ties his hair into little tufts which are bound round with thread, and gradually lengthened till the head, at a distance, looks as if it were covered with matches stuck on endwise. The Anguru not only never cuts his hair, but tries to make it appear longer than it really is by adding long threads to its length. The Yao files little notches on his front teeth (Plate II., Figs. 5 and 6). The Anguru files his to a point (Plate II., Fig. 7). The Mang'anja and Angoni leave theirs alone. The operation is done in youth, and is performed either by means of a file or by chipping with a small axe. By way of arms the Yao carries a bow and arrows and a long light spear for stabbing. The Anguru and Mang'anja are similarly armed, only the Anguru spear is barbed and inflicts a nasty wound. The Angoni on the other hand has learned from his Zulu conquerors the use of the assegai and shield, and thus has made himself the terror and scourge of all his neighbours. He also uses the knobkerry which he can throw with great accuracy at a fleeing foe, and thus stun or maim him. With the advent of the Arab trader the use of guns and ammunition became common, and almost every man you met carried an old Tower flintlock. But the possession of a gun did not always mean the possession of a charge of powder, and so the Angoni wisely preferred his assegai and shield, the very sight of which was enough to drive the surrounding tribes in terror to the hills for refuge. The Yao house is of the usual native African type — circular and thatched with grass (Plate I., Fig. 3). The circle is drawn by means of a string from a fixed central pin. The circle is the only regular geometrical figure the African is acquainted with — to teach him the value of a straight line is to make a vast step in his education. The walls of the hut are made of poles stuck into this circle at the distance of two feet apart. To these are fastened strips of split bamboo running round the house, and to these again are tied bunches of grass by means of other strips of bamboo. The string used in tying the bamboos and poles is got from the bark of the mjombo tree which is torn into long strips and used as ropes or string. The roof SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 7 is a flat cone made of bamboo tied with bark string and lifted bodily on to the walls. This is then thatched with grass so carefully laid on that the hut is wonderfully rainproof. Generally a verandah is made round the house by projecting the roof beyond the walls, and support- ing it on an outer circle of poles. A door two feet broad and about three feet high is made in the wall, and is closed by means of a framework of bamboo laid against the opening from the inside. A crossbar kept in its place by two supports fastens the door on the inside. In most houses there used to be a small back door on the other side from the main door. This was used in case of a night attack when the usual entrance would be doubtless watched by the enemy. The walls and floor are plastered with mud and sand. A hollow is scooped in the middle of the floor for the tire, and round this are placed three stones for the pot to rest on. A raised platform is made on one side of the house, and forms the sleeping place of the family. On this is laid a mat of split reeds woven together with bark string. A fire is kept burning during the night, and no special covering is used during sleep unless the sleeper is the happy possessor of a large piece of native cloth or calico. In this case he tucks one end under his feet and draws the other over his head and so goes to sleep. The implements used in house building consist of an axe which may be used also as an adze, and a knife. In addition to this the native has his hoe fastened into a short handle by means of a prong projecting from one side. For long the native of Central Africa has been acquainted with the manufacture of iron, which in certain districts he digs from shallow pits and smelts in a rude clay furnace by means of charcoal fuel and a goatskin bellows. The blacksmith's shop used to be seen in almost every village and, like the Scotch smithy in the olden days, was a great centre of the social life of the inhabitants. The Mang'anja and Anguru were noted blacksmiths and with their stone anvils and rough hammers produced wonderful specimens of skill. Welding iron they were incapable of, and so they had to resort to riveting. But the iron was poor and soft at the 8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL best, so that with the advent of civilised trade the old native hoe, axe and knife were soon superseded by the manufactured articles from British and American forges. With the hoe and the axe the native does all his agriculture. He has the virgin forest before him from which to choose, for there is no private ownership of land in native law, and the chiefs country is open to the chiefs people. But once a man has fixed on a piece of ground and marked it off for his own by tying the grass into tufts or placing a stone in the fork of a tree to mark the boundary, the ground becomes his till he vacate it or sell his rights to another. The system of agriculture is destructive in the extreme. A piece of virgin forest is felled and the timber burned on the spot. The ashes are gathered into heaps and covered with a thin layer of soil. On the fall of the early rains the seed is planted in these heaps, and in a few days germinates. It is twice hoed before it is ready to be reaped, and when reaped the stalks are left on the ground to be burned for next year's manure. But every year a new piece of forest is felled and burned, and added to the old garden. After three or four years' cultivation the soil is exhausted and is abandoned to lie fallow for years. In this way vast tracts of land in Central Africa are deforested, and in consequence the rainfall is yearly decreasing. With this decrease the level of the great lakes and rivers is slowly falling. Within the last thirty years the level of Lake Nyasa has fallen eleven feet, and there are watermarks on the rocks which show it once stood at a still •higher level. The chief food-crops are maize, kaffir corn, rice and beans. Pumpkins, ground nuts, and cucumbers are also grown in their season, but the staple crops are those I have mentioned. When the crop is reaped by cutting the heads off the stalks, it is stored in large bins made of plaited strips of bamboo and thatched over with grass. Part is stored on a shelf in the roof of the hut where it is protected from the moths and weevils by the smoke. This is used for seed in the next year's sowing. As required the grain is taken from the store, and threshed by beating with a stick, while the maize is separated SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 9 from the cob by means of the finger and thumb. The grain is broken up in the mortar by means of a wooden pestle, then steeped in Avater to soften it, and finally pounded into flour in the mortar or ground fine between two flat stones (Plate I., Fig. 4). The flour is boiled into a stiff pasty porridge which is eaten with the fingers. Always with the porridge there is eaten some relish such as beans, fowl, fish or game. The relish is indispensable to the meal, and a native will not infrequently go hungry rather than eat his porridge without its accompanying relish. Salt when procurable is always added to the relish, and some of the most widespread superstitions are connected with the adding of salt by the wife to the husband's food. The porridge is served in one dish and the relish in another. The men always eat by themselves and the women by themselves. By way of grace before meat a little of the porridge is picked up with the fingers and thrown over the shoulder or at the foot of the nearest tree as a thank-offering to the spirits. Hitherto I have spoken of the division of the people into tribes, and have been referring chiefly to the Yao tribe. The distinctive features of a tribe in Central Africa may be classed as three in number : (1) language, (2) locality, and (3) certain customs which are peculiar to one tribe and are unknown among others. But there is a further division of the people which plays a far larger part in their daily life, and dominates their social life to a far greater extent, and this is the division into clans. I use the word " clan " as the nearest approach to the idea which we have in our language. It denotes blood relation- ship through descent, and is distinct from our ideas of the family or tribe. In the members of the family there may be more than one clan, and the members of a clan are to be found scattered through various tribes. This system of clanship is dominated among the Yaos by two features, (1) descent through the mother, and (2) marriage outside the clan. Descent through the mother means that the children take the clan of the mother and not of the father, while marriage outside the clan means that a man must not take a wife from his own clan 2 10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL but from another. To illustrate it from our own clan names, I should put it in this way. A Mackenzie must not marry a Mackenzie, but a woman of another clan, say a Macleod, and the children of the marriage would be not Mackenzies but Macleods. Under a system of polygamy a man may marry several wives who among the Yaos must be themselves of different clans, and so the children of a Mackenzie would be none of them Mackenzies but Macleods, Mac- phersons, Mackintoshes, according to the number and clans of his wives. Now all the relationships are counted through the clan and not through the family as among ourselves, and the law of kinship among the natives may be roughly laid down as follows : All members of the same clan who are of the same generation are either brothers or cousins, those of the older generation are either fathers or mothers or uncles, while those of an older genaration still are either grandfathers or grandmothers. Hence a man's brother means any fellow-clansman of the same generation as himself, his father means any clansman of the older generation, while grandfather denotes any male clans- man of any older generation still. Thus a man may have many grandfathers, still more fathers and mothers, while his brothers are legion. Among the Yaos, descent being through the mother, it follows that all property is inherited by the younger brother born of the same mother, because he is the nearest relation of the same clan. Failing him it is the sister's son who succeeds. Thus a man's heirs are never his own family but either his younger brothers, or nephews by his sister. With the property the heir takes the name of his predecessor and also his wives. And not only so but he takes also all the relationships of his predecessor and leaves his own original ones behind him. Thus those who before were his mother or mothers are now his sisters, while his original brothers now become his children or even grandchildren. This system holds with slight modifications among the Mang'anja and Anguru, but among the Angoni — due probably to the influence of SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. i i their Zulu conquerors — descent is counted through the father, and it is the oldest son who is the heir. Into the origin of the clan system it is not possible for me to enter to-day. It is enough to say it is traced by some to the belief in the descent of the clan from certain animals which gave their names to the various clans. Thus the antelope clan ascribe their origin to the antelope, and in consequence they abstain from eating the flesh of the antelope. But many of the names of the clans among the Yaos are not names of animals at all, nor does any system of taboo from special meats or other articles of food seem to be due to such a belief. If such a system existed, the Yao has lost it now, and can himself give no account of the origin of his clan system of relationship. Among the Mang'anja and Angoni there are several names of animals among those of the clans, and the flesh of the animal is abstained from by those who bear its name. Marriage is consummated among the Yaos in three ways: (1) by inheritance of the wives of uncle or grand uncle ; (2) by purchase of a slave woman who is afterwards promoted to the status of a wife, and (3) by betrothal. The betrothal is always arranged by a third party who thus becomes the " surety " for the good behaviour of the couple, and to whom any complaint of ill-treatment or infidelity is made. Separations are common and must be made through the " surety," and any property given by one of the parties to the other is given back. Among the Angoni the husband pays a sum to the father-in- law previous to the marriage as a sort of compensation to him for the loss of his daughter, but this custom has been derived from the Zulu conquerors and is not original to any Central African tribe. At childbirth the mother retires to the bush with some woman friend, and in two or three hours may be seen returning to the village with the new-born baby strapped on her back. She retires to her hut and remains for some days in complete seclusion save for the presence of her women friends who have the case in hand. She remains there till the remains of the umbilical cord drops off, and during this time no man body dare approach the hut. The baby is weaned only when 1'J PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL the next child is born — even if then. It grows up without discipline or training of any kind. " The child is not my slave," is all the excuse the mother gives for any act of disobedience on the child's part. Towards the age of puberty the boys are made to pass through the ceremony of initiation, and at this time the rite of circumcision is administered. The Yao alone of all the tribes I have mentioned ob- serves this rite : he has in all probability obtained it from the Moham- medan Coast people who are the nearest neighbours of the Yao on that side of his country. It is now, however, universal where no trace of its Mohammedan origin is to be found. By a similar ceremony all girls are initiated into the rites and customs of womanhood and wife- hood, and then they are eligible for marriage. They are generally, however, betrothed long before this, sometimes even before birth, on the understanding that the expected child is of the opposite sex to the contracting party. The common diseases prevalent among the natives are those which have their origin in malaria, and the native is certainly as sus- ceptible to malaria and its effects as the European — if not more so. Dysentery is a fatal disease common among them, due to their eating flesh and fish in a very high condition, and especially to the first rains of the rainy season washing all filth and effluvia from the villages into the streams and pools where the drinking water is drawn. Pneu- monia is also prevalent, and very fatal in the cold season. Measles and small-pox are periodical epidemics, but by dint of vaccination the Government and mission doctors have largely succeeded in stamping out the disease in recent years. The " jigger " has wrought sad havoc of late, and many are the limbs that have been maimed by this new pest. The sleeping sickness has not yet made its appearance in the Protectorate, but it is reported to have broken out on the northern frontier, and as it seems to follow the great trade routes across Africa, we may prepare ourselves for a visitation from this most dread of all African maladies. Of medical knowledge the native possesses but little. Where dis- ease and death are ascribed to the influence of witchcraft, it is hardly SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 13 to be expected that medical research would advance very far. Still the native doctor does possess a few herbal remedies which are cer- tainly efficacious, but the most trusted of his nostrums are prescribed in the form of charms or amulets. These I shall have to allude to pre- sently, as they deal with the most abstruse and mysterious of all forms of native belief — the presence of spirit possession in material objects. Let me first refer, however, briefly to the native belief in witch- craft, a part of the native creed which influences most powerfully his daily and social life. So strong is the native horror of this crime of witchcraft that it is very difficult to get him to discuss it at all, and it is only through actual charges that have been brought against indi- viduals in the native law courts that one has been able to get any insight into this subject. To put it briefly, the native " witch " is a member of a secret cult which feeds on human flesh, and thereby obtains its occult powers, and the deaths of their victims are said to be brought about for the purpose of obtaining the human flesh on which the " witches " feast at their midnight orgies. The powers thus obtained enable them to produce disease, misfortune and death. They are worked through the means of charms or " medicines" which are administered by secreting them about the hut or village or garden of the individual whom they wish to injure. The result is that some mysterious illness befals this individual and unless his "doctor" can provide some more powerful charms, the case must end fatally. The result is as follows :— As soon as a death occurs, the relatives and friends gather round the corpse, and watch it night and clay, while the young men and women dance and sing to the accompaniment of drums and the firing of guns — all this to keep the " witches " from their supposed victim. The corpse is first washed and prepared for burial by bending the knees to the chin, and wrapping it up in a sleeping mat. When the near relatives have assembled, generally the morning following the death, the corpse is slung on a pole and carried to the grave. A grave is dug, and a recess scooped out at the bottom on one side of the pit. In this the corpse is laid on its side, with the face to the east, and, in 14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL the case of chiefs or headmen, much of the personal property of the deceased is torn or broken up and laid alongside. The mouth of the recess is then closed by a mat supported by a few poles, so that the earth may not fall on the corpse, and the grave is filled in. If a chief, the grave is then hung round with offerings to the dead, and a pot is sunk in the ground to receive the sacrifice of native beer which from time to time the survivors will make to the spirit of their dead relative or friend. The mourners then return home, and have their heads shaved as a sign of mourning. The chief next calls a meeting to con- sult with his headmen, and the relatives of the deceased as a rule make complaint of witchcraft as the cause of death, and demand an ap- peal to the divining " lots ". Two or three are selected to approach the divining oracle, and he, after consulting the lots, names one or more individuals as the cause of the death of their relative. The ac- cused is then confronted with the charge, and the trial takes place. Originally among the Yaos the result of the appeal to the lots was suf- ficient proof of guilt, and the accused was forthwith put to death by burning upon a tire of thorns, but of late, owing doubtless to their contact with the Mang'anja, an appeal is allowed to the poisoned or- deal. This is prepared from the bark of the mwabve tree, and is ad- ministered in the presence of the accusers. If the victim dies of the poison, he is deemed guilty, and his body is forthwith mutilated and cast out unburied to the bush, while his relatives have to pay com- pensation to the relatives of the original deceased for the crime of their friend. If the accused vomits the poison he is deemed innocent, and the accusers have to pay him compensation for the charge they brought. They will then appeal again to the lots, the diviner, of course, finding some good excuse for the failure of his first appeal, and another will be accused, and so the case will go on till either some one dies of the poison or the relatives desist from further proceedings. Among the Angoni the poison is administered to the whole village, whose inhabit- ants thus hope to clear themselves of any complicity in the crime. Only last year I knew of eleven who thus died of the poison in the hope of establishing their good name. SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 15 When we speak of native charms and " medicine " —for charm and medicine are synonyms in the native tongue — we enter on a new region of native thought. The charm consists of small pieces of wood worn on a string tied round the affected part, or the ashes of plants or bones of animals or hair tied up in small packages and worn about the person. What the power of these charms consist in I have never got any native to give me any theory of his own. They are " just medi- cine," and that is enough for him. Taking into consideration analo- gous beliefs of the natives of other parts of Africa, I think I am justified in holding that these charms are simply degraded forms of the com- mon fetich of native belief. A fetich is some material object which is possessed of miraculous powers because of its being the abode of some spirit which gives it vitality and power. Now these Yao charms and medicines would appear to be just the fetich of the West African with- out the faith in the inherent spirit. The Yao clings to his faith in the miraculous powers of the contents of these horns and amulets, but is utterly unable to assign any reason why such material objects should produce such results. On this subject the Mang'anja and Anguru hold beliefs similar to the Yaos, but among the Angoni we find a firm belief that material objects may be taken possession of by the spirits of the dead. Thus an ox or goat or fowl or even a doll or basket or piece of cloth may become the abode of the spirit of some departed chief or relative, and this object is consequently cherished and made the medium of com- munication with the spirit inhabiting it. It thus becomes a fetich or charm and would appear to be the original type of which the Yao charm or medicine is the degraded materialism. As we enter further into his beliefs in the region of spirit, we find that the Yao stands entirely alone among his neighbours in the nature of his faith in the unseen world. Briefly put, his creed is as follows :— Every human being has a spirit or soul. This spirit inhabits the body but may leave it during sleep and visit other individuals or scenes, and thus produce the phenomena of dreams. At death the 16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL spirit leaves the body and goes into the spirit world. It then makes its abode near the house where he lived, or about the village council yard, or more generally at the grave where the body is buried. This spirit of the departed becomes the " god " of the surviving relatives, and is worshipped by offerings of cloth or food. When the Yao speaks of " God," he therefore means the spirit of some departed chief or relative, or he at times seerns to mean the aggregate of all the spirits in the spirit world rather than any individual spirit. This is the Yao •' Mulungu " — God. It is spirit ; it is not personal. Beyond this the Yao does not go. The Supreme Being in his universe is this Mulungu— this spirit world — and this alone. In this faith the Yao is alone among his neighbours, for the Mang'anja and Angoni hold that, in addition to the world of departed spirits or souls, there is a Being Supreme over all — the Creator. He is Mpambe, the "Lightning," Leza, the "Nurse," Chiuta, the " Great Bow ". He is worshipped by offerings as the spirits of the dead are. The Yao has no such faith. He is a pure animist — a spirit worshipper. He has forgotten his faith in a Supreme Being and contents himself with the spirit worship alone. To the spirit of the departed chief or ancestor he makes his offering in the time of his trouble ; when he goes on a journey or ventures on any exploit which may lead him into danger he asks the protection of the spirit world. For his worship he may erect a shrine over the grave, or at the hut where the dead used to live, or he may hang his offerings on the village tree — a relict this of an older faith in the possession of the tree by the spirit of the dead, a faith now forgotten — or if on a journey he may lay his offering of flour in a tiny heap by the wayside. On these occasions he is his own priest, but on great occasions when some village offering is made, it is the village chief who is the priest, or the nearest relative of the dead, or the two friends who bore his body to the grave and laid it there. Those who befriended him on earth are those who are supposed to have the greater influence with his soul in the world of the departed, and all offerings to the dead are made through their hands, PROC. ABERD. UNIV. ANAT. AND ANTHROP. Soc., 1906-1908— PLATE I. Fig. 1. — Native Weaver at Work. Fig. 2. — Yao Woman Wearing Headwig, Necklace, Anklets, etc. Fig. 3.— Mang'anja Hut on the Lower Shire River. Fig. 4. — Yao Woman Grinding Flour. PROC. ABERD. UNIV. ANAT. AND ANTHROP. Soc., 1906-1908— PLATE II. Fig. 5. — Yao Boy showing Small Notches on the Upper Incisor Teeth. Fig. 6. — Yao Boy showing Notches on the . Upper Central Incisor Teeth. Fig. 7. — Anguru Boy showing the Upper Incisor Teeth Filed to a Point. Fig. 8. — Chikunda Boy from Lower Zambesi. Single Notch cut between the Upper Central Incisor Teeth. SOCIETY OP THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 17 These are but a few glimpses at a subject of which only a small part has been dealt with. Beneath the surface of native life there lies a world of thought and feeling and speculation that has only been partially explored. Professor Henry Drummond used to say he would give all he possessed to " get inside a native for half an hour " just to see the world through the native's eyes. For three and twenty years I have been trying to get at the heart of the native mind, and I feel as if I were as far away from it as ever. But the whole subject is full of intense and living interest, and if the lot of any of the members of this Society should in their after career be cast among such people, they will find no subject more worthy of their study than the habits of native life and the working of the native mind. The students nowadays are to be congratulated on having the opportunities which this Society affords of becoming acquainted with such questions as are discussed here. They will learn what to look for and what to observe in any future investigations they may make. At every step they will find something new, and each fresh discovery adds to the sum of our knowledge and under- standing of that most entrancing of all subjects of study — our common humanity. 18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ORDINARY MEETING. 15TH DECEMBER, 1906. Professor R. W. REID, M.D., F.R.C.S., President, in the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Anatomical variations found in the course of practical work in the Anatomy Department of the University were described by Messrs. A. M. Brown, N. J. Calder, A. M, Geddes, R. Richards and D. H. W. Williamson. Mr. Alexander Low, M.B., described the contents of a short cist recovered on the farm of Mains of Leslie, parish of Premnay, and presented to the Anatomical Museum by C. E. N. Leith-Hay, Esq., of Rannes and Leith Hall (see p. 54). EECOED OF ANATOMICAL VAEIATIONS. Date of observation, November, 1906. Sex, Female. Abnormal muscular slip in forearm. From the middle of the flexor longus pollicis on its ulnar side there arises a fleshy slip. This slip becomes tendinous about two inches above the anterior annular ligament and joins the tendon of the deep flexor of the index finger beneath that ligament. (Signature of observer) A. M. BROWN. Date of observation, November, 1906. Sex, Male. Absence of depressors of liyoid bone. The sterno-hyoid muscles on both sides are absent. They are represented by a few fibres that run upwards from the back of the SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 19 manubrium stevni to become lost in the deep fascia below the hyoid bone. The absence of these muscles is in no way compensated for by the development of the other muscles. The omo-hyoid and sterno- thyroid muscles are poorly developed. (Signature of observer) N. J. CALDER. Date of observation, November, 1906. Sex, Male. Presence of a pyramidal lobe in the thyroid body. The pyramid arises from the junction of the right lateral lobe with the isthmus and is conical in shape. A few muscular bands con- nect this pyramid with the hyoid bone and together form the muscle, named by Sommerring, levator glandulae thyroideae. The muscle is attached above to the body of the hyoid bone and below to the pointed extremity of the pyramid ; it is enclosed in fascia and has rather a tendinous appearance. (Signature of observer) N. J. CALDER. Date of observation, November, 1906. Sex, Male. Groove on liver. The liver has a distinct groove, running from its upper to its an- terior surface, parallel with the mid line of the body. Its greatest depth is 1 cm. and its length is 6 cm. There is no corresponding mark on the diaphragm. (Signature of observer) ALEX. M. GEDDES. Date of observation, November, 1906. Sex, Male. High division of great sciatic nerve. The pyriformis is composed of two parts which unite and are in- serted by one tendon. The great sciatic nerve is also divided into two, one part coming between the two heads of the pyriformis and '20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL passing superior to the lower half of that muscle, the other being in- ferior. On the left side there is no abnormality. (Signature of observer) ROBERT RICHARDS. Date of observation, November, 1906. Sex, Male. Measurement of frontal sinuses. Maximum depth (antero-post) Minimum depth (antero-post) Maximum width Approximate height - Right sinus. 14 mm. 11 mm. 30-2 mm. 29 mm. Left sinus. 13 mm. 10 mm. 30-2 mm. 28 mm. The superciliary ridges are well developed and the ethmoidal cells are large. The frontal sinuses lead by a large opening into the middle meatus. (Signature of observer) D. H. W. WILLIAMSON. SOCIETY OP THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 21 ORDINARY MEETING. 18TH FEBRUARY, 1907. Professor R. W. REID, M.D., F.R.C.S., President, in the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The President introduced Dr. C. G. Seligmann, who gave an ad- dress on " Anthropological Notes from British New Guinea," with lantern illustrations and exhibition of specimens from the Anthropo- logical Museum of the University. On the motion of Professor J. Arthur Thomson a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Dr. Seligmann. 22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANTHBOPOLOGICAL NOTES FEOM BEITISH NEW GUINEA. By CHARLES G. SELIGMANN, M.B., M.E.C.P., F.Z.S. (Bead 13th February, 1906.) r The following paper is compiled from notes taken during the Daniels Expedition to British New Guinea in 1904. Owing to limits of time and space it has seemed best to confine my remarks to two of the etlmographically least known portions of the country visited by the expedition, and so I have selected the extreme Western and Eastern parts of the Possession as the subject of this communication. One of the main objects of the recent expedition was to study the physical characteristics of the natives of the country west of the Fly delta, as it was important to determine whether the common be- lief, that in British New Guinea near the Dutch boundary there were natives resembling Australians, was true or not. In order to deter- mine this the natives from two localities, both west of the delta of the Fly, were examined. Those seen at Bugi consisted of the remains of a number of tribes from the neighbourhood of Bugi and from Strachan Island who had escaped death at the hands of Tugere raiders over the Dutch border, farther west on the Netherlands boundary the Toro tribe were seen three days' journey up the Bensbach River and a number of these people were carefully measured and photographed. The natives seen at Bugi physically resembled the Toro in many respects, but were slightly shorter and on the whole less long headed. Culturally too they seemed closely related to the Toro, though as they were extremely timid it was not easy to make sure of this in the short time at our disposal. The members of the expedition had the advantage of accompany- SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 23 ing a Government party during a partial ascent of the Bensbach River forming the Anglo-Dutch boundary, and to the officers of this party thanks are due for much courtesy and consideration. Three whale- boats were towed by the steam launch Ruby. West of Bugi the country is a vast flat swampy plain presenting for the most part a uniform edge of mangrove swamp to the sea, broken only by the mouths of sluggish rivers and creeks whose banks are as a rule covered with mangrove in the lower reaches. Here and 146 1*8 150 192 Fig. 1. — Map showing boundaries of British and German New Guinea. there, however, a sandy foreshore occurs, as is the case at Wallarter Point, the eastern extremity of Jerai Bay, where behind a sand beach there rises to a height of about four feet a plain of loosely compacted sand and grit from the edge of which we obtained recent semi-fossil shells of land and marine genera, Heli,r, Area and Ceritkium. Some forty miles west of Wallarter Point the mouth of the Bensbach River appears as a break in the green-grey mangrove line, which hitherto had stretched as far as the eye could see, marking the junction of 24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL grey sea and greyer mud. For the first nine ni'Ies the banks are fringed with mangrove and present the appearance of a typical rhizophora swamp and above this Nipa palms become common and the mangroves disappear. A little beyond this the banks are raised at intervals as much as two to three feet above the river and bear a fairly open jungle con taining many eucalyptustrees, some of which resemble the larger Australian ti. On one such raised area our first camp was made. Farther up lengths of this kind of jungle alternate with open, grassy swamps which, without any definite margin, seem to fuse with the reeds and sedges of the river bed. Above this a few coconut trees appear at some distance from the river bank, and soon native gardens with a few patches of forest trees occur on the higher banks. Throughout the distance ascended, the river, which presents a very winding course, varies considerably in width, some reaches being very noticeably broader than others. About half a mile up stream from its mouth Lieutenant Meyjesof the Dutch Navy (bund that the river was 150 yards broad, and had narrowed to between 50 and 60 yards where the mangrove belt began to give place to other vegetation. After the first day's travel there was enough drifting weed to obstruct the screw and necessitate frequent stoppages to free it. We met natives belonging to the Toro tribe on the third day of our ascent of the river, soon after scattered clumps of coconuts had become frequent on the higher ground at a little distance from the river. Camp was pitched on the right bank of the river, on a small knoll on which grew an isolated clump of bamboo. The natives were living at a place which appeared to be called Tivi, some three miles from our camp in a north-easterly direction and thus on the opposite side of the river. This was stated to be a recent, perhaps temporary, settlement made among the marshes on account of the fear inspired by Tugere raiders from over the Dutch border. The track to the village ]>assed through extremely rich taro gardens, the ground being drained by many cuttings about a foot deep and eighteen inches to two feet across, Tibi itself seemed a poor SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 2~> village with few things except the bare necessities of life. The houses stood upon the ground and were not more than five feet high and nine feet long. Their rounded roofs were made of ti tree bark ; all the houses were open in front, many were also open at their opposite end, so that they were in fact mere roofed sheds. In the better built houses the bark roof was continued over what must Vie regarded as the back of the house to within a foot or eighteen inches of the ground. The Toro, for this appeared to be the tribal name for these Bensbach River natives, are spare and moderately tall, with thin legs and often thin bony faces, projecting zygomata and marked supraorbital ridges. Facially they seem to vary more than other western tribes, some of them closely resembling examples of the less intelligent European types. The hair of all was frizzly and the nostrils were generally bored, in some cases in two places. In many these holes have become very small, so that the plugs that some men wore were evidently not considered important articles of toilette. Their noses are generally long and coarse with moderately broad bridges and often coarse fleshy tips which are never hooked. Generally speaking the Toro appear long faced.1 In some of the older men the front teeth had gone, in others the fangs were exposed by receding gums, but in every case their teeth were white and no sign of betel chewing was seen, nor were any lime gourds noted. One of their favourite attitudes was to stand on one leg, the sole of the other applied just above the knee of the leg which supports the weight of the body ; in fact they assumed the attitude figured by Grogan for the Dinkas of the Nile swamps. With the exception of nose, hair and arm ornaments, most of the men went naked. A few, however, wore a pubic shell. These pubic shells were said not to have been traded, but to have been fetched by the Toro themselves from the coast between the Bensbach and Morehead Rivers. As a rule the shells were not ground or in any way worked, though in one Melo shell the curve had been so 1 Measurements bear out the impression of variability already referred to; the cephalic index of 21 men varied from 69 to 86 with an average of 74 4 2(> PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ground away as to expose the columella. Even this scant covering was as often as not worn at the side of the hip or at the back. Many of the men had tinea and the only baby seen had yaws. The women, of whom we saw very few, wear two kinds of covering, one that is practically a perinfeal bandage, as on the Fly, the other a true petticoat. Their weapons are bows, arrows and clubs. The latter were few and extremely rough and were certainly imported. Their bows are made of bamboo and with these they make fairly good practice as the following details show. A target about three feet long by two feet broad was put up at a convenient height at a distance of about forty yards. Sixteen men had each one shot at this and though no hits were recorded, many of the arrows went very near the target. It appeared that the time the arrow took to traverse the forty paces was between one and one and a fifth seconds. Each of four of the best shots then fired four arrows with the result that all but one of these hit the target once. The same men shooting at eighty yards, scored no hits, but there was no general falling off in the shooting, their arrows being pretty thick all round the target. Their bows were strung with strips of rattan, and their release is that known as " secondary ". During our stay we saw a fair number of canoes. These consist of a hollowed tree trunk, are pointed at each end and have no outrigger ; they pole along with bamboos. As far as could be determined paddles were unknown ; we saw none, nor could we hear of any, but in spite of this the pace was good even when in deep water, their unsplit bamboo poles being used as paddles by men standing in the bows and stern respectively. At Tivi we saw a number of tobacco pipes of the same type as those common throughout the Possession ; but in spite of this tobacco did not prove good trade. A twist of their own tobacco was light coloured and seemed extremely mild. The only musical instruments met with were the drum and whistle. The latter consisted of an excavated nut-like fruit, and a SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 27 note was produced by directing the breath into a small opening in the way that a note may be produced with a key. The tympana of their drums consist of kangaroo skin and the drums themselves were larger than those I had elsewhere seen west of the Fly River. It should, however, be noted that far larger mammal skin covered drums are said to be used some distance up the Bamu River. The Toro are a totemistic folk with descent of the totems in the male line. Perhaps the majority of the totems are birds. A number of palm-wood bullroarers were collected, but we could learn nothing about their use. Since, however, the Morehead River natives, whom the Toro closely resemble, use the bullroarer in their initiation ceremonies, it is probable that the Toro do the same. Figures 1 and '2, Plate III., show full face and profile views of a Toro man, 1,748 mm. (about H8 inches) tall, with a cephalic index of 72, and facial and nasal indices of 91 and 81 respectively. Many of the Toro wear beards, and in all the hair was frizzly. The same applies to the natives seen at Bugi, so that the physical evidence at present available fails to connect the natives of the western extremity of British New Guinea with those of Queensland, or indeed any part of Australia. Throughout the whole of the south-eastern extremity geographical conditions differ entirely from those found at the western extremity of the Possession. The south-eastern district corresponds very closely to the eastern and south-eastern division of British New Guinea, being bounded on the west by a line which roughly follows the 150th parallel of longitude and extending eastwards to include the numerous islands and archipelagos which extend in that direction for more than four degrees of longitude. As a whole this district is hilly and often mountainous, and throughout its extent there are to be found numerous raised beaches and even islands which are rather recently raised atolls. Such are Gawa and Kwaiawata in the Marshall Bennet group, perfect atolls elevated to a height of about 400 feet, and presenting to the sea a steep terraced cliff covered with forest which represents the seaward face of the old atoll. The inhabitants of 28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL these islands live in the central depression formed by the bed of the old central lagoon which lies some sixty feet lower than the edge of the old reef, and therefore out of sight and sound of the sea. On the physical side the natives of the south-eastern district, though probably essentially of one stock, differ within tolerably broad limits owing, as I believe, to local infusions of foreign blood. If a line be drawn obliquely from the north-west to the south- eastern corner of this district it will divide it roughly into two equal areas, the southern half comprises by far the greater part of the land area, and is inhabited by a short broad-nosed people with moderately dark skin and frizzly or sometimes wavy hair and a mouth which is sometimes " snouty ". In the northern half of the area, that is to say in the Trobriands, the Marshall Bennet group and Murua the natives are sometimes somewhat lighter coloured and often have curly or wavy hair ; many of the men are of taller stature and less prog- nathous ; their skulls are rounder and their noses often longer, the bridge being often high and narrow. But these characters are shown only by a portion of these islanders, and even in these the degree in which they occur is not constant, in fact if skin colour be ignored it is possible in the Trobriands to meet with individuals making a complete series from the typical Papuo-Melanesian of the district to a tall good- looking man, at least as Polynesian in appearance as many Micro- nesians. Broadly speaking the Papuo-Melanesians ' of South-Eastern British New Guinea are dolichocephalic with a tendency to mesati- cephaly which becomes especially obvious in measurements on the living, though, as far as our present knowledge goes, a varying number of brachycephals occur everywhere, though the proportion of these may be locally very small. The inhabitants of the D'Entrecasteaux group, composed of the three big islands of Goodenough, Fergusson and Normanby, appear to be the most dolichocephalic of the Papuo- Melanesians. Of 118 skulls of both sexes, collected by Loria from the 1 I apply this name to the rather short predominantly frizzly-haired, cafc-an-lait coloured race of South-Eastern British New Guinea and the neighbouring archipelagos. Lancet, 1906, p. 422. SOCIKTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 29 villages fringing the straits between Fergusson and Goodenough, 93 (78'8 per cent.) are dolichocephalic, 'I'l (18'6 per cent.) are inesati- cephalic, and only 3 (2-6 per cent.) are brachycephalic. These figures agree fairly well with the measurements of 34 skulls with an average index of 73, collected by the Daniels Expedition from a cave at Awaiama in Chads Bay. The natives of the D'Entrecasteaux group, and especially the men of Fergusson Island, were the shortest we met in New Guinea, the average of eleven Fergusson Island men was about 1,530 mm. (about 60^ inches) and two of these men were under 1,470 mm., i.e., considerably under 58 inches. The coast and bush folk of Goodenough and Bartle Bay present as a rule very much the same appearance as the men of Normanby or Goodenough Island, and Fig. 3, Plate III., shows a fairly typical Pa- puo-Melanesian, a native of Goodenough Bay. Passing eastwards, the cephalic index begins to rise and brachycephalic individuals become less rare, although dolichocephaly is the typical condition until Tube- tube in the Engineer group is passed. In the Louisiades, lying farther west, of nine men examined only one was dolichocephalic, while three were brachycephalic, and the average of this small group was 79. The tendency towards brachycephaly becomes even more marked in the northern half of the area under consideration, that is to say, in that part of the area in which there is reason to believe there has been an infusion of Polynesian blood. The Marshall Bennet group, although inhabited by a short people (average 1,577 mm., i.e., about OiJ inches), is an interesting example of this. The measurements of fifteen men from Gawa and Kwaiawata give an average cephalic index of 80, showing that these islanders are predominantly brachycephals or high mesaticephals. The same conclusion is supported by the measurements made by Mr. W. I. Pocock on 35 skulls collected upon Kwaiawata with an average cephalic index of 77. In this group the extremes of the inhabitants formed two types of men which could be distinguished at sight, one leptorhine or mesorhine and leptoprosopic, the other platyrhine and generally europrosopic ; the two types which also differ in stature are shown in Plate III., Fig. 4. Much the same condition of 30 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL things prevails upon the Trobriands and upon Murua, whereas on the Marshall Bennets the hair of the natives is often wavy, but it is note- worthy that both the men of the Trobriands group and of Murua are taller than the Marshall Bennet islanders. Sociologically the Papuo-Melanesian is characterised by the pos- session of a well-developed system of totemism, with descent in the female line of property and totems — in fact by being still in the age of mother-right. Cannibalism, except where it has been stopped by Government influence, is rife ; at Milne Bay the bodies are cut up in Fig. 2. — Waga at Tubetube, Engineer Group. stone circles specially built for this purpose. The marriage laws, at any rate in some parts of the area, approach closely to the Australian type, there being a dual grouping of the clans, each moiety in certain respects resembling an Australian phratry. On the technological side the most notable feature of the whole area is the elaborate way in which wood is carved, the predominant note being a conventional reproduction of totem animals, especially totem birds and snakes, the forms of which have often degenerated into the scroll and zigzag patterns so typical of the district. This is PROC. ABERD. UNIV. ANAT. AND ANTHROP. Soc., 1906-1908— PLATE III. F'g- l- Fig. 2. Figs. 1 and 2.— Face and Profile Views of a Man of the Toro Tribe, Bensbach River. Fig. 3. — A Papuo-Melanesian from Goodenough Bay. Fig. 4. — Two Types of Men from Kwaiawata. PROC. ABERD. UNIV. ANAT. AND ANTHROP. Soc., 1906-1908— PLATE IV. P'g- 5. — A Man o£ Go-aribari, Aird River Delta. Fig. 6. — A Binandere Man, Lower Mamba River. Fig. 7.— Naro Woman with Wavy Hair, Valley of the St. John River. Fig. 8.— A Man of the Ik-"-o Section of the Sinangolo (Eastern Papuan). SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 31 the only part of British New Guinea in which large built-up canoes occur, and certain islands in this area build and export large built-up sea-going craft called waga which may have a length of thirty feet or more, and a depth of almost six feet (Fig. 2). The bow and arrow and stone-headed club are everywhere absent, their place being taken by slings and the very characteristic hard wood sword, the blade of which is usually elaborately carved. In conclusion it remains only to express my indebtedness to the editors of the Lniu-rl and the Geographical Janriuil for permission to reproduce figures which have already appeared in these journals. 32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ORDINARY MEETING. 24TH MAY, 1907. A meeting of the Society was held in the new Anthropological Museum at Marischal College. There was a large attendance of members. Professor Reid gave a concise and interesting demonstration of the various sections, paying special attention to the local specimens. Thereafter F. W. Moir, M.B., Medical Officer of the Ashanti Gold Fields Corporation and of the Colonial Office, gave a short description of specimens from the West Coast of Africa and which he had presented to the Anthropological Museum. On the motion of Mr. H. E. Smith, Professor Reid and Dr. Moir were accorded very hearty votes of thanks. SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 33 ORDINARY MEETING. IOTH JUNE, 1907. Professor R. W. REID, M.D., F.R.C.S., President, in the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Professor Reid intimated the receipt of copies of papers upon Anthropological subjects by Dr. Deniker, of Paris, and presented by the author to the Society. Thereafter a paper was read by the Secretary consisting of a synopsis of "A report on the alleged prevalence of pulmonary tuber- culosis, and on some of the principal diseases existing in the kraals of the natives in Portuguese East African Territory, south of latitude •2'2°, with a description of the native's mode of life, and his principal habits and customs likely to affect his health,' by G. A. Turner, M.B., D.P.H., Medical Officer to the Witwatersrand Native Labour Associa- tion, Limited, Johannesburg. The report was sent by Dr. Turner to the Society by the permission of the Chairman of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, Limited. The paper was illustrated by numerous lantern slides. On the motion of Dr. Low, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Dr. Turner for his interesting report. 34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL A SYNOPSIS OF A EEPOBT BY G. A. TUENEE, M.B., D.P.H., ON THE NATIVES OF POETUGUESE EAST AFEICA, SOUTH OF LATITUDE 22°. By A. G. STEWART, M.A., Secretary of the Society. (Eead 15th June, 1907.) The natives of Portuguese East Africa belong mainly to four races : the Myambaams, the Mtyopis, the Shangaans and Lourenpo Marques boys. The Myambaams are a very mixed people. Of the Mtyopis some are pure, but the majority have Shangaan or other blood in their veins. The Shangaans are almost pure Zulus. In very early times an off- branch of the Zulu army marched north and settled, some in British Central Africa and Uganda, others farther south in Gazaland. From this latter group the Shangaans are descended. They marched south and settled in Portuguese East Africa, driving the former inhabitants before them. The natives are generally good- natured, lazy but honest, and form a law-abiding and well-behaved community. In common with most native races, they are exceedingly superstitious. No sickness is put down to natural causes ; witchcraft is always supposed to be at the bottom of the trouble. Judged from a European standpoint, they are absolutely devoid of morals, but they have a code of their own, to which they strictly adhere. Physically they vary somewhat. The Louren9o Marques boys and Shangaans are superior to the others. Apart from tribal differences in physique, natives from the coast are superior to those dwelling inland, perhaps depending on the fact that the former have a certain amount of Arab blood, derived from the old East Coast traders. Clothing and Diet. — Many of the natives now work in the mines SOCIETY OP THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 35 in Johannesburg and there acquire a large stock of European clothing, but this they soon discard on their return home, though they may retain a small waistcoat and an umbrella. The native garments are :— the Mtyeka, or loin cloth, which is the universal garment of the East Coast ; blankets, which are now mostly imported, although some are made from the bark of a tree called Mshala ; jackets made of skins, and worn when travelling. The Shangaans and Louren90 Marques boys feed mainly on mealies and Kaffir corn, while the Myambaams and Mtyopis depend more on ground nuts and mandioca (the tapioca of commerce). Beans, fruits of various kinds, and honey are also used. They eat flesh of all kinds, including snakes (except the Shangaans), with the exception of the crow, which is considered unclean, the owl, which it is unlucky to interfere with, and the hawk, the reason for abstinence in this case being unknown. They eat fish, both fresh and dried, when they can get it. Some, but not many, are mud eaters, since the natives, noticing the fertilising effect of the alluvial soil on the vegetation, believe that by swallowing it they will be able to increase their own powers of reproduction. The Myambaams and Mtyopis drink wine and spirits, while the Shan- gaans are more dependent on beers. The two former races are in- veterate drunkards, so much so that they refer to the various seasons of the year according to the drink which can be obtained at the time. The Myambaams and the Mtyopis use tobacco- in the form of cigars, while the Shangaans prefer it as snuff. They also smoke dacha which is the bhang of India, the hashish of the Arabs, and the Cannabis Indica of the British Pharmacopoeia. The dacha pipe may be seen hanging in the centre of the kraal, and is the common pro- perty of the inhabitants. It is usually produced when two or three men meet. Each one takes two or three inhalations, the result being a violent fit of coughing, sometimes so severe that the smoker spits blood. It is considered the correct thing, while coughing, to sing the praises of their chief. Habitations — The dwellings vary somewhat according to the tribe. The Myambaam kraals are circular clearances in the bush. The huts 36 PROCEEDINGS Of THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL in each kraal are placed in a semicircle, and in the centre is a large tree, which serves as a shade for the inhabitants. The kraals are small, consisting often of only three or four huts, probably occupied by a man and his wives. Usually a number of kraals are clustered together, communicating with one another by narrow and tortuous Kaffir paths. In some cases the whole kraal is surrounded by a rough fence. The huts are well built with walls about five feet high, and have a large door fitted with a wooden lock and key of native manu- facture. At the entrance of the kraal may often be noticed a small bunch of grass containing a handful of mealies hanging from a tree. This is supposed to prevent the evil spirits from attacking the inhabi- tants of the kraal, as it is expected that the witch will take the mealies and be satisfied without interfering with the good men of the kraal. Besides the dwelling houses there are usually also a corn store, a goat pen, and sometimes a pigeon cot. A fire for cooking smoulders under the big tree, the trunk of which is usually ornamented with skulls of buck, monkeys, and other animals. There is usually a dacha pipe hanging from the tree, and at the base a bow and collection of arrows. A Mtyopi kraal is generally larger, sometimes containing as many as seventy huts of the same variety as described among the Myambaams, and as a rule the kraal and a considerable area of sur- rounding ground is fenced by a strong hedge, in which there are stiles or rough gates. This hedge is for the purpose of confining the pigs. Sometimes there is also a stockade — a remnant of the old fighting days. The Shangaan kraals are small, consisting of only a few huts (Plate V., Fig. 1). They are not so well built, because the Shan- gaans being a warlike people look on their huts as more or less tem- porary abodes, liable to be destroyed in war at any time. The huts are cone-shaped, and the walls low and are really modi- fications of the Zulu type of hut. There is generally a cattle kraal in the neighbourhood. w Utvnxilx. — These consist of the stamp block, which has SOCIETY OP THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 37 a handle five feet in height, and is worked by two women ; water utensils, which, if clay is obtainable, are made of earthenware, being moulded to all sizes and burnt in the fire, but in the absence of clay are made from the bark of a tree, the bark being stripped and curved while wet, and held in position by pegs ; gourds, which are made from pumpkins ; cooking-pots made of clay ; spoons of all sizes, made of wood ; drinking-cups, carved out of wood, and often highly orna- mented (these, however, are being superseded by imported enamel mugs) ; wooden bowls of various sizes and shapes, which take the place of plates, and are sometimes made with two or even three com- partments to prevent the different kinds of food from mixing. Their tools are partly of native manufacture, such as the forge, and partly European. The carving and what we may call poker-work are done with great rapidity and exactness, but apparently the natives have no idea of going off a beaten track, as directly I asked a man I was watching to make some lettering on a bowl which I had bought, he " lost his head ". Unfortunately I h.id asked the chief carver's assistant to do this, and the question immediately arose as to whether by doing so I was not giving the assistant knowledge which his chief did not possess. The propriety of my having done so was keenly discussed and evidently aroused a certain amount of jealousy. They make wooden pillows carved out of Umkuhla wood. It sometimes happens that a particularly ingenious man will cut out of one piece of wood a walking stick, on the staff of which is a pillow for himself and one for his wife, and at the extremity a drinking cup. A good example of this is the case of a native who cut out an artificial limb for himself, and returned to the mines to become a policeman in one of the compounds. They make baskets of very fine work, sometimes so closely woven that they are watertight, and varying in size from that of a cigarette case to that of one into which a man could easily get. They have also conical baskets which the women carry on their heads, and small hand-bags beautifully decorated with beads, for carrying food, etc. Their agricultural instruments are the usual Kaffir hoe and a small axe for cutting wood. 38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL Weapons. — In the Inhambane and Mtyopi districts nearly all adults have large bows and arrows, while the children have smaller specimens. The bow is made of wood, the string of hide, and the shaft of the arrow of bamboo or light wood tipped with feathers. The head of the arrow is made of steel and is usually three or four inches long and sharp pointed. The Mtyopis, even nowadays, sometimes poison their arrows. They also use a pick like a battle-axe, assegais, knob-kerries, and the usual variety of sticks. They possess a certain number of trade-guns, which are dangerous at least to their owners. The barrels are used for the manufacture of spirit, which probably does not improve them (Plate VI., Fig. 3). Boats. — They have two kinds of boats. The first is the ordinary dug-out canoe — Uukumbe — which appears to be common in tropical South Africa. It is hollowed out from the trunk of a tree, holds ten people, draws very little water (not more than five or six inches), and is punted by means of a pole worked at the stern. The second is the Amatwabele, made from the bark of a tree. The bark is peeled off the tree for about five feet, the ends are curled up and pegged by a piece of stick driven through them. The centre of the canoe is supported by four sticks driven through the sides, and these serve as seats. Canoes so formed are exceedingly primitive looking, but do not easily upset and can be paddled at a considerable rate (Plate VI., Fig. 4). ' Ornaments. — Wire bangles are very common, especially among the women, who sometimes wear several pounds' weight on each ankle or wrist. Occasionally they are made of ivory, but more usually of solid brass, which must be very heavy and uncomfortable. However in a free fight the lady decorated with several pounds of brass on her wrists has a distinct advantage. Sometimes one notices on the men's heads the dried gall-bladder of a goat or sheep. It is worn as a sign that on his return from a journey his brothers killed a sheep or goat for him, and is evidence that he is considered a man worthy of distinction. They have necklaces made of every variety of article strung together, the scalps and bills of small birds SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 39 being favoured ornaments. Crocodiles' teeth are commonly worn round the neck, and lions' claws are great favourites, but as the supply of these is limited, it is usual for artificial claws to be worn. Strings of beads are often worn round the waists of both men and women. The Isococo is a heavy black ring worn by the older men as a mark of distinction. It is made of a mixture of beeswax and other materials. Red clay is greatly appreciated by the native women. They stamp it into a very fine powder, mix it with oil, and use it as a cosmetic on their faces. In common with those of many other tribes, the East Coast women paint their bodies with it when advanced in pregnancy and' while suckling a child. Red clay is also used to dress the hair, which they twist into tags. The Chase. — The natives stalk their game till they are very close at hand. They drive large game into soft swampy parts, where they sink in the mire and can be safely despatched with their assegais. Sometimes when the grass is dry they light fires in such a way that the game is driven towards hunters posted with assegais, and bows and arrows, etc., and a wholesale destruction occurs. Besides the regular methods of hunting, there are innumerable kinds of traps for catching game. Most of these depend on the ordinary noose or running snare principle. For fishing they have nets of a triangular shape. Two sides of the triangle are made of sticks of bamboo or some light wood about six feet long ; the base of the triangle is formed of stout string ; across the triangle a baggy piece of close meshed netting is fastened, forming a scoop net. When using these nets they usually fish in parties in fairly shallow water. They form themselves into a wide circle, each one dragging his net behind him, holding it by the bamboo sides, and in this manner advance to a central point to which they drive the fish, so as to be able to scoop them up. At other times the nets are dragged behind canoes up stream. They also make use of cone-shaped traps placed at the banks, into which fish go for food, but the narrow open mouth prevents them from getting out ; and again, wherever there are tidal waters, one sees traps so formed that 40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL the fish will enter them at high tide but will be left high and dry when it ebbs. Occasionally one sees natives fishing with a rod and line, but this method does not appeal to them very much. Musical Instruments. — The Mtyopis are the most musical of the East Coast natives. Each group of kraals appears to have its own trained band, which assembles at convenient times for practice. The most noticeable instrument is the Mtyopi piano, which consists of a number of wooden keys, suspended by means of leather thongs over gourds of various sizes. Across the mouths of these gourds a thin membrane of gut is stretched, which vibrates when the key is struck. The performer sits with his legs under the piano and beats the notes with two sticks, on the ends of which are lumps of native india- rubber (Plate V., Fig. 2). There are several sizes of pianos, some of which give the higher notes, and others, the big brass instruments, which are only used when a large band has assembled. If properly played they are undoubtedly musical, but one appreciates them far more when they are at some considerable distance. They have drums which vary in size from that of a fifteen gallon barrel to that of a quart pot. They are usually cut out of one piece of wood, and the drum surface is made of raw hide stretched over the mouth. They are beaten either with the flat of the hands or with sticks. Their rattles are two cases containing beads or pebbles, and are used by the bandmaster when he is beating time for a large band. There is also one made of a gourd, more commonly used as a child's plaything. Thirdly, there is one made of grass, containing numbers of seeds. Lastly, there are rattles worn on the legs when dancing. The boys occasionally use pipes of reed when they dance, each performer blowing a pipe incessantly. A band seen performing by Dr. Turner consisted of twenty pianos arranged in three rows, the operators sitting on the ground. Behind them were six big brass pianos which were raised on stands, the operators standing to manipulate them. In front of the small pianos were a number of drums, and presiding over the whole was a conductor, armed with a metal rattle with which he beat time, in what appeared to be quite a professional manner. SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 41 Danciwj. — Here again the Mtyopi is more advanced than the Myambaam or the Shangaan. The natives of the district, having been informed that there is to be a dance at a certain kraal, assemble and in some instances travel twenty or thirty miles on foot to attend. When approaching the scene of the festivities, they blow a horn to announce their approach, and a small band of three or four drums is sent out to play them into the village. When it is thought that most of the people have arrived, a somewhat more elaborate band plays round the village, in much the same way that is done at a circus, to warn the people that the dance is about to begin. In the dance seen, the large band of pianos with drums, etc., had already been placed in position, and in front of the instruments the dancers arranged them- selves in rows, as if for a war-dance. Altogether there were about six hundred dancers, consisting of adults and children. The adults were in the front row, and they wore ostrich feather headgear, and had ox-tails ornamenting their knees, and were armed with shields and battleaxes. In the space between the band and the dancers were a few women, and a man dressed up as a woman, who acted as a buffoon. When the band commenced to play, the performers sang, dancing at the same time. They appeared to act a complete scene, dancing with tremendous energy, and evidently prepared to go on for an indefinite period. At one time, one could see they were pretending to kill imaginary foes ; at other times retreating or defending them- selves ; finally they stood to the salute. Occasionally a dancer rolled in the sand from exhaustion. While the men were dancing in this way, the few women referred to before danced in their own manner, though they appeared to be taking some part in the scene which was being acted. After this dance had gone on some time, another was started in which unmarried girls and married women took a leading part. The former borrowed the men's ostrich head-dresses. The girls and women took it in turns to dance, while the men looked on and sang. Following the two big dances, a number of small ones were commenced, as side shows, in which women were the only performers. They were accompanied either by a couple of Kaffir 42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL pianos, played very rapidly, or else by two or three men beating drums. This was kept on continuously, and with endless zeal, as long as boys could be got to beat the drums or play the pianos for them. Among the Shangaans the dances consisted chiefly of a warlike display. The men armed with kerries, battleaxes, etc., formed themselves into circles, and at intervals one of their number rushed into the centre and chanted some song, at the same time taking most violent exercise in the way of killing imaginary foes. Marriage Regulations. — Polygamy, as among all other Bantu races, is universal among the East Coast natives — the number of wives a man has depending entirely on the amount of wealth he has with which to buy them. To the women's share falls all the hard work of the kraal, so the more wives a man can afford to buy, the greater the ease in which he lives. Marriage among the natives is frequently arranged by the father of a girl, in some cases even while she is still in infancy. Usually she is not altogether disregarded in the matter of the choice of her future husband, and if forced to marry some man against her will, she sometimes takes the law into her own hands by running away from a husband she does not like. A man almost invariably pays for his wife. In the Inharnbane district about fifteen pounds is the average price, while among the Shangaans as much as forty pounds is paid. A daughter is thus of considerable value to her father, and consequently it is her duty to get married. It sometimes happens that a man, through his friends, enters into negotiations for marriage with a girl whom he has never seen. He may even go so far as to leave money with his father or brothers to buy a wife for him, just before he leaves for work in Johannesburg, in which case the girl is bought and taken to the kraal of her hus- band's father to await the return of her rightful owner. The money a man receives for a daughter he uses to buy his son a wife. After the price to be paid has been settled, a day is arranged for the hus- band to go and fetch her, though in some cases she is simply sent to his kraal. Besides the price of his wife, in some districts the future husband has to pay an extra pound to buy a sheep in order to cele- SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 43 brate the occasion with a feast. In other places, the wife's father supplies this, and there is, of course, an excuse for a good deal of drinking. The fact that a man has bought one daughter in a family entitles him to take her next sister, more or less as his first wife's ser- vant, as it is considered that since he has bought one daughter, he is the man with the first claim to her sister, provided he is eventually able to pay for her, and she is taken on credit. In the event of a man dying, his wives are passed on to his eldest son, if he be an adult, and failing him to his brother. The eldest son's own mother has a hut put aside for her in her son's kraal ; it is only his stepmothers whom he takes for wives. This levirate marriage system among natives is an important question, because, with the rite of cir- cumcision, it is one of the principal arguments used to prove the Jewish descent of the Bantu races. But the custom is so widely spread throughout the world that, as with circumcision, one has only to look at the list of tribes which adopt it to see that it is no more proof that the Bantus are descended from the Jews than that they came from Australian stock. Their Dead. — When any one dies it is not considered by the natives as a matter to be talked about, and the burial is carried out quietly by one or two of the relatives, and the grave concealed as far as possible. The grave is a circular hole about four feet deep. The corpse is tied in the position of the anthropoid ape, with the elbows on the knees and the neck bent, and is placed in such a position that it looks towards its former kraal. If a man dies of a disease from which he has been continually gasping for breath — i.e., consumption— the man performing the burial rite has to open the thorax in the middle line and remove both the lungs and heart. The thorax is kept open by a couple of sticks. On top of these sticks is placed a piece of cloth which supports the viscera so that they do not slip back into the thorax when they are laid on it. This performance is carried out to prevent the person who is burying the deceased from contracting the disease. A rather fuller kind of pont-mortem is carried out by the Wankonde of British Central Africa, to ascertain the cause of death 44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL in the case of every person not dying in warfare. One of the village elders makes an incision from the end of the sternum to the umbilicus, and carefully examines the mesentery, and according to the distribu- tion of the blood-vessels, he confirms or denies the supposition that death has been due to witchcraft. On the death of a person, although the actual burial ceremony is kept as secret as possible, the mourning rites which are carried out are extensive, varying somewhat with the importance of the deceased. The mourning has to be observed at the place or kraal where the death actually occurred. It sometimes happens that if a man dies a long way from home, the news may not reach his people for some time, and even in that case the women of his kraal have to walk to the place of his death, carrying with them corn to make beer with. Every evening they commence wailing from sunset until midnight, and this is kept up for various periods, sometimes only a few days, sometimes a whole month. While wailing, some of the beer is poured on the ground, while the rest is drunk. In different parts of the country various signs of mourning are worn, such as bark bandages of different shapes among the Myambaams and Mtyopis. The elliptical chaplet of green bark is one of the commonest forms (Plate VII., Fig. 5). The men seem to prefer to mark their mourning simply by narrow strings of green bark tied closely round their necks. At other times grass neatly plaited and fitting closely round the ankles and wrists is used as a sign. Among the Shangaans white cloth is tied round the mourners' heads. Xative Markings. — These may be divided into cicatrisation and tattoo marks and into incisions. The native of the East Coast, south of latitude 22°, who most generally uses cicatrisation to distinguish himself, is the Mtyopi. Taking first the males of this tribe, they may be divided into three classes : the old generation of men who used to cicatrise their faces, making a series of lumps on the forehead and cheeks, in the same manner as the women will be seen to do on their abdomens (Plate VII., Figs. 6 and 7) ; then we have a younger gen- eration who in place of these swellings disfigure themselves with SOCIETY OP THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 45 linear marks on the face and chest ; and, lastly, the present generation who have clean faces, because the other boys on the mines laughed at these disfigurements. In the first class the cicatrisation took the form of a series of lumps about the size of two peas on the forehead and down the cheeks. In the second form it is interesting to note that certain of these scars have a definite significance. A mark drawn from the external auditory meatus transversely across the cheek under the eye as far as the nose is known as the Sinsanga, and indicates that the man has killed another in a fight. If there is more than one mark, it shows that he has killed more than one. A line down the side of the cheek is known as the Bin Nanga. It is sometimes said this is put on after the boy has been circumcised, but this is probably not correct. Thirdly, there is an arrow-shaped mark on the right side of the forehead known as Lembombo. It is characteristic of the Mtyopis, but its significance is not known. The most noticeable feature amongst the Mtyopi women is the extraordinary manner in which they mark their abdomens (Plate VII., Fig. 7). By means of cicatrisation they raise a series of lumps, varying in size from a walnut to a pea. These are arranged sym- metrically in lines, the largest being in the centre. They extend from between the breasts, over the whole surface of the abdomen, over the pubes, and over the front and internal surface of the legs, reaching to within five inches of the knee-joint, and there are also slighter mark- ings arranged in curves on both buttocks. These markings are known as Tindorba. They are commenced when the girls are about six years of age, and are carried out with a great deal of ceremonial, the girls dancing to music, in order that they may for the time being forget the pain they are suffering. The ceremony takes part in a lonely part of the bush, and no males are admitted. This proceeding is not alto- gether devoid of danger, sepsis and even syphilis sometimes occurring. Besides the Tindorba, the Mtyopi women have the Sinsanga, but the meaning is different from what it was in the case of the male, and indicates that she has aborted a male child. Shangaan and Myam- baam women have lighter markings than the above. Cicatrisation 46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL consists in making a number of slits in the skin with a sharp knife and rubbing into the wounds the juice of an irritant plant which prevents it from healing, and causes it to assume the appearance of a raised scar. As regards the second form of native marking — the incision — the most noticeable feature among the East Coast natives is the slit in the lobe of the ear seen among the Shangaan males. This mark is com- mon to all races who are off-shoots of the Zulu race, e.