Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-08-08
ALL ABOUT MATABELEIAN1n
AND IT'S PEOPLE IN 1903

to be divinely appointed and especially
authorized to use magic for the good
of the tribe. Every witch doctor
has TO undergo n course of training
before he can practise, and he must
exhibit certain idiosycracies which
prove him fitted for his job. He falls
into frances and pretends to have seen
spirits He has special hoaddress,o {
fur and feathers and has charms of
many kinds about his neck. He must
be able to handle poisonous snakes. He
must be n sloight.of-hnnd performer
and able to make the people bellev.
he has miraculous powers. AS rule
he kills more than he cures, hut this
does not seem to affect his reputation.
A TALK WITH A NATIVE COM
MISSIONER
The government has white officers
who watch out for the interests of the
natives. | talked with one of these,
q Mr.. Tabcrer, who has been managing
the negroes for many years. He tolls
me that the whites are now respected
and that the natives are better off than
they were in the days of Lobengula.
SO far, comparatively little of the
country has been taken up by whit,
settlers, and they plant their corn and
Craze their cattle about where they
please. They I've in little kraals or
villages ranging in size from 20 to 100
huts each, and their cornfields are scat
tered over the country outside the vii
lagos. They gather their crops at har-
vest time, and store them in little
granaries made of mud matched with
straw. such grunary is about as
big around as n hogshead and four oil
five feet in height. 1t is raised upon
stones and Is entered by hole neti
the roof the hole being stopped UP
when the corn is put in, and openGc
from time TO time as the grain is need
ed These granaries are often built
on the tops of high rocks such as arc
found throughout Rhodesia This aids
IN keeping out the damp and the YER
min.
WIVES SOLD FOR CATTLE.
The native commissioner tells mo
that marriage among these negroes is
largely matter of bargain and sale,
The groom pays the brides father q
certain sum for his daughter. The
usual price for strong and good
looking girl is four cows, or IL she
be the daughter of a chief, she may
bring as much as five or six. 1t used
to be that girls were often betrothed
and bought when they were babies,
the grooms paying part of the pur-
chase price at that time and the rest
by instruments. In such cases the
fathers agreed to rear the girls. This
practise has been stopped by the gov
eminent, as it resulted in many an old
man possessing several young wives;
and also as the girls frequently fell
in love with young men, and the
strife between their old prospective
husbands and the young lovers, whom
they wanted as husbands, was great.
As it is now, a girl must be of q
certain age before she can be sold. In
some tribes she is married at IS. and
in others she must be II before she is
ready for wedding. / suppose that IA
or might be put as the average age
OF marriage among the Matabeles.
The native women are gradually ac-
quiring more rights under the rule of
the white men. In the past they had
but few that their husbands were
bound to respect, but today the gov
eminent grants divorces on the ground
of infdelity and cruelty and a woman
may bring her husband into court.
Among the various tribes of South
Africa divorces are frequent. There
are some in which woman can be
divorced If she takes milk out of the
family supply without asking her
husband, and some in which infidelity
is punished by death. In such case
the husband can demand back the
cattle he paid for his wire, or II ne
cannot get the cattle he can claim all
the children az his possession. AS
rule most of the natives think quite