BANNTJ

[s. 81] : A town in the Northwest Frontier S. of Peshawar; station of the CMS (1864), 1 mi ionary physician and 4 native workers, 1 high school, 1 hospital, 1 Also called dispensary and 33 communicants. Province of India, Edwardesabad. BANSA MANTEKE A town in the Congo Free State, West Africa, 160 miles from the (1879), mouth of the river; station of the with 7 mi ionaries and 48 native workers, men: ABMU To be sure, the languages of the difference. tribes differ from each other in many respects, especially in many of their words, or in the forms of their words, but the grammar is e entially the same in all. The more the comparative philologist comes to know of this Bantu family of languages, the more does he find of beauty, compa , flexibility, and plastic power. All the best known dialects whether on the east, south, or west, or in the interior, are found to be soft, pliant, easy flowing, regular and systematic in forms, philosophical in structure and principle, and wonderfully rich in ability to expre all the shades of thought and feeling of which the people who speak them have knowledge. And it is specially interesting to note that this great field of underlying, substantial onene of speech is the one in which great Christian mi ions are being extensively planted, and are finding unexpected facilities the widene of the region where the Bantu lanm guages prevail. In respect to the origin of the Bantu race, and how, whence, or when they came into the part of Africa they now occupy, the people themselves can tell us nothing. Nor does ancient And yet history throw light on the subject. we are not without some good reasons for opin- Some hold, with plausions in relation to it. ible show of reasons, that the Hottentots of S. Africa are of the same race as the ancient Egyptians, or at least that the two families were one in origin, and if so, then the fact of their being so widely separated points to the probable incoming of another people, as from the east, by which they were divided, and a portion pushed on to the southern exof them tremity of the continent. Inquiring now to which particular branch of the great families of men such an incursive, immigrating race belonged, we can hardly doubt that it was Hamitic, having its origin probably in some branch of the Cushites. The descendants of this line were numerous, and some of them settled, for a time at least, in Asia. Others settled in Arabia, and doubtle many went at an early date to Africa. Hero dot us speaks of two cla es of Ethiopians, one in Many of the former Asia, the other in Africa. served as soldiers under Xerxes, tho their home is not easily determined. The historian,, however, tells us that the Asiatic Ethiopians were black, like those of Libya, but differed from them in language, and had straight hair; whereas Now, those of Libya had very curly hair. between the Bantu tribes and the proper negro race, there is, to a certain extent, just this kind To be sure, of difference at the present time. the Bantu race is not white, and yet their hue negro, is not so dark as that of the Nigritian nor is their hair so woolly; and as to their language that most decisive mark of an aflinity or of a difference there is a wide difference between the Bantu languages and those of the Taking, then, all real negro of the Sudan. these suggestive facts together, it does not seem improbable that the immigrants who pushed the Hottentots before them to the southward were from Asia. If this was the case, it is easy to see why the Bantu peoples should be found — 64 Bantu Race Bantu Languages — at this day more robust, taller, of a lighter color, with hair le woolly, with a nose more elevated, of a much greater facial angle, a higher forehead, and altogether of a more intel their Nigritian ligent, Caucasian look than At the same time we see in the neighbors. whole Bantu race so much of the true negro type that we must come to the conclusion that, the Bantu family originated in any wise if other than the negroes of Nigritia, it mingled with these until it was largely fashioned after their type. The appearance, color, and customs of the Zulu are so like those of the other tribes of the Bantu family that a description of the former The better cla es will give a good idea of all. of these tribes, especially of the Zulu and the Kafir, are somewhat slender, erect, of good stature, and well proportioned; it is easy for them on occasion to be graceful, dignified, commanding. They are made to be agile and swift rather than strong; and yet their women often carry heavy burdens on their heads for long distances. Their color varies from a reddish copper or light bronze to a pure black. The latter, with just a little tinge of the red, pleases them best._ A few have the regular features of the Caucasian; some, the pure negro; but most of them are of some grade between the two. Their black eyes often twinkle with merry humor, their beautifully white teeth are well set, their general exPhysically pre ion is pleasant and confiding. considered, the Bantu tribes are a well-built, fine-looking race. In respect to natural affection, mental traits, and social life, the Bantu family afford an inter Except when provoked to anger esting study. by insult or injustice, they are mild, gentle, kind, not wanting in either parental or filial affection; are helpful and sympathetic toward the suffering; and yet, under a sense of being wronged or in the excitements of war, they can be wild and fierce in the extreme. They are fond of visiting, fond of society, cannot bear to work alone or be alone. They hospitable, proverbial for politene , have numerous rules of etiquette, which are generally sensible. They are quick to see the difference between right and wrong, ever ready to decry injustice, and to submit gracefully to the suffering of deserved punishment. During the writer’s resiare dence of many years among the Zulus, with almost no lock and key in use, his grain, tools, everything they most desired being cattle ever open to acce , he was not aware that any He once thing was ever stolen from him. thought they had taken a hatchet, but after months had elapsed and the annual burning of the gra had occurred he found it in a field And yet just where he had used and left it. the common, social life of the Zulu is far from As one has said, “He is far from being p-irfect. He is prone as honest in word as he is in acts. to have very large reservations in his own mind when he is avowedly giving a full account of some occurrence, and manages to disguise and distort facts with exceeding cleverne and skill. A Zulu will excuse a fault with such ready plausibility that he will make an intentional act of wrong doing seem but an undesigned — — He expects his hospitality to be accident.” reciprocated, his kindne to be rewarded. Indeed he is said to have it for a proverb that “it is It is easy for better to receive than to give.” him to get very angry and try to settle his dispute with a club. And yet he can hardly be If said to be vindictive in his resentments. the storm of pa ion is quick to rise, it is also quick to abate and be forgotten. It would take a volume to describe the super Of all their supers tis tit ions of these people. tions, none have upon them a stronger or more hurtful hold than their belief in what is called They believe certain evil-minded witchcraft. men, whom they call abatakati, have it in their power to hurt, kill, or destroy anybody or anything, by the use of poisonous powder, incantation, or even by the force of mere will or purpose. Of these so-called witches the people have great And so it is that any calamity, sickne , or death is often ascribed to some influence of this kind; whereupon some inyanga, witch doctor, is called to “smell out” the author of the evil. And inasmuch as all the po e ions, wives, fear. 65 children and cattle of the man found guilty are to be confiscated and portioned out the chances are that the sentence will fall upon one of the more wealthy men, especially if he may happen to be unpopular. The Zulu word inyanga is a term of wide import and use. It may denote one who has a trade, as a blacksmith, a basket-maker, or one whose busine is to help others acro a river. Its more proper use is to designate those who are.skilled in higher pursuits, as a medical doctor, a witch doctor i.e., one qualified to find out the cause and cure of evil by communicating with the shades of the departed. A Zulu’s mode of preparing himself for one of these higher profe ions is to go through a long-continued course of rigorous training, by means of fasting self-inflicted sufferings, diving and staying under water, wanderings in wild and weird places, that he may come into contact and communion with the amahlozi, or fall into a swoon and have strange visions of the spirits, about which he has been talking and thinking so long. Then he makes his appearance in public, all besmeared, perhaps with white clay, his hands full of snakes, his head covered with feathers, singing, dancing, reciting his visions, and so is prepared to be recognized as having attained to the degree of a medical priest, or a diviner. The religious views and practises of the Zulus correspond, in a measure, to all the e ential elements of the true faith; only on a false basis. They have their divinities, their sense of obligation and dependence, sense of guilt, belief in need of help, need of a Savior, need of sacrineed of prayer, the fices, even unto blood, •duty of worship and service, and a belief that the present life is to be followed by another. In their ignorance of the true God and in their search for some kind of divinity, they turn to the spirits of the departed, the shades of their ancestors, especially the ghosts of the great ones For here too Ancestor-Worship of their race. is practised. They call these shades by various names, as ihlozi, plural amahlozi; itunga, or isilumi. Ask them about the end of man, where he goes when he dies, and they say he becomes an ihluzi and goes off to live somewhere underground, there to build and abide with his ancestral friends. Sometimes they say the dying man becomes an isitunzi (spirit) and reappears from time to time in a smoke; and so it is that they stand in awe of a serpent, and say, when it appears about their houses, that the spirit of their friend has come back to visit them, and see how they fare. Lions and leopards are sometimes looked upon as the embodiment of the spirit of a departed friend. To the shades of the dead, they look for help in time of trouble, confe their sins, pray, and offer sacrifices. Such for substances is the origin, kinship, appearance, and such are the religious ideas and sup erst i tut ions of the many tribes which form the Bantu race of Africa. Zululand, Grant (L.), London, 1865; Journal of the Anthropological Inst, of Great Britain and Ireland, N. S., Vol. 1, pp. 37-47, London, 1898; Globus (German), Vol. 77, pp. 193-195, Vol. 80, pp. 384-386, Braunschweig, 1900, 1901. 83