Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
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Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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en very graceful, though frequently overloaded with detail (fig. 185). The chief weapons are the throwing-assegai with tanged blade (fig. 164. 16), and the bow with sinew string. The AWemba and ALungu not long ago adopted Zulu methods and arms (stabbing-assegai and oval hide shield; but the latter shortly afterwards abandoned them. Missile clubs are universal, and also axes with very narrow blades passing through knobbed shafts. 210 AFRICA The eastern tribes live under the personal rule of chiefs; the BaRotse empire is administered by means of an elaborate organization of officials with the king at the head. The clan system exists among BaRotse and MaNganja. Marriage is by purchase. Initiation ceremonies are performed on boys and girls at puberty: burial customs are too various for description: contracted burial is found among the AwaNkonde and AJawa, upright burial among the MaKorikori. The poison ordeal is very prevalent. All these tribes are fond of music and dancing, especially in the
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Fig. 18.5.--Knives with wooden sheath?, and wooden pillows. MaKalanga, Mashonaland. south and west. Drums, rattles, xylophones, and pianos with iron keys (e. g. fig. 201) are universal; flutes and horns (Nyassa) and the musical bow (in the south and west) are also found. A form of mancala (see p. 202) is general throughout Nyassaland. Ancestor-worship is universal, and the mus^imo (ancestral spirits) are of primary importance, though a vague supreme divinity, to whom no offerings are made, is usually recognized. Belief in trans-migration is common (lower Zambesi, MaKalanga, BaRotse). Divination by means of wooden dice or knuckle-bones is also frequent, especially among the BaRotse and MaKalanga: black magic is much feared, and many hundreds have fallen victims to the charge of sorcery. AFRICA 211 The tribes next to be considered are those inhabiting a more southerly region of British South Africa than those last described,and German South-West Africa. They can be divided into three main groups.

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