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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the magician actually, control affairs; the AKambaare purely patriarchal; the WaGiriama possess a system of graded initiation under a body of elders, within which is a paramount council consisting of a few members called * Hj^aenas and regarded with much superstitious fear. Marriage is by purchase, and, among the military tribes, forbidden to the warrior class. Most tribes merely expose the dead, reserving burial solely for individuals of importance. A man's heir is his son or brother. As to musical instruments, horns (Masai and Turkana), drums (Turkana, AKamba, Suk and Nandi), the friction-drum and zither (Nandij are all found; the Arab game of mancula is almost uni- 203 AFRICA versal. This game is a variety of backgammon, played with counters on a board furnished with a number of holes. It appears to be of Arab introduction and is found under various names in many parts of Africa. Religion is indefinite in this area, and based on a vague belief in a sky-god (Masai. Nandi). Ancestor-worship
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Fig. 178. -Masai warrior with spear shield,and lion-skin head-dress. occurs among the Bantu tribes, but those of Nilotic blood believe in annihilation at death, except in the case of magicians. Divination is practised by the latter by means of pebbles and haruspication, and they also prepare various protective charms. Rain-making is important among the agricultural peoples. The Masai, like the Galla, hold grass sacred because the cattle feed on it, and employ it ceremonially on various occasions. AFRICA 203 The tribes next to be described are those of (mainly) Bantu blood settled round Victoria Nyanza, and those inhabiting the area between that lake and the Zambesi, between Tanganyika and Nyassa, and the sea. These last belong chiefly to the early migration of the Bantu, and the reflex movement northwards had already made itself felt among them when the Arab slave-raids and the incursions of wandering Zulu tribes spread ruin and desolation throughout the district. It will be unnecessary to giv

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