THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN NATAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1756, 1 November 1905, Page 1

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN NATAL.

The members of the British Association in South Africa visited Pietermarizburg on August 24. Next day an excursion was made to the native locations at Henley. Here the delegates witnessed a Kaffir dance performed by 1,000 natives, in the presence of Sir Henry McCullum, the Governor, (as Supreme chief. This was followed by the marriage of the hereditary chief Mhlola to a young woman, daughter of a commoner who is ,to become the' chief wife and mother of the principal heir. The principals were variously clad in skins, feathers, beads, and cloths of gaudy colours. The majority,. including the women were wearing ~ the scantiest apology for a custume, some of the girla wearing nothing but narrow bead belts. The ceremony included such dancing, stamping, and capering to shrill cries and whistling. The bridegroom sat on a mat, his party and the bride’s party facing each other. The bride did not appear till after , the women and girls of her party had given a dance. She then entered! the arena, accompanied on each side by lie Kaffir equivalent to groomsman and bridesmaid. All three were concealed under open umbrellas till they reached the bridegroom, when the bride raised him from the ground and sat him in a chair. She then joined in a dance Mhlola remaining seated. The important part of the ceremony was the question whether the brid® would accept the husband. She answered, er I love him, 10 head of -cattle have been given for me.” A parade of wedding presents followed, the gifts which were carried aloft including a modern travelling trunk and many mysterious bundles. An important feature was also the robing of the bridegroom by the bride with bead belts and a headdress made by herself. Finally there was a general dance and* a banquet, for which oxen Aver© slaughtered on the spot. An interesting incident of the .tour has been the wedding of a young lady member of the party at Pietermaritzburg before the departure of the visitors. The wedding was celebrated at the cathedral by a clergyman, who likewise is a member of the party, and the wedding breakfast ivas served on board the train, en route. Reaching Colenso on August 26 the party visited the battlefields. Noting the keenness Avith which mementoes were sought, a Kaffir woman offered an Oxford professor a 6in. shell lying outside her kraal. Her anxiety for its removal Avas explained when it was found that the shell was still unexploded. The offer was not accepted, the professor preferring to continue his pursuit after butterflies, beetles and lizards. Ladysmith was reached ion Aug. 27 and the majority of the members drove to Caesar’s Camp and Wagon Hill. On the 28th the travellers arrived at Johannesburg, the day being devoted to excursions to the mines and to the native and Chinese compounds. In the evening a reception was held in the Wanderers’ hall, at which the Bari of Selborne and Mr Goch, mayor, were present. Work Avas resumed in the different sections on the 29th. Colonel D. Bruce, president of the physiological section, in dealing Avith the cattle plagues of South Africa, said with regard to the tsetse flv investigation had . shown that the disease was not caused by a simple poison elaborated by the fly. but by a minute blood parasite known ad trypanosoma, which signified a screwlike body. The fly merely acted as a carrier. The latest trypanosome disease was "sleeping sickness,” which was in all respects similar to the tsetse fly disease of South Africa, except that it was caused by another species of trypanosome, and carried from the sick to the healthy by means of another species of tsetse fly "named the glossina palpalis. He Avas sorry to say that, in spite of many experiments, no method of vaccination or inoculation had so far been discovered to combat these trypanosome diseases. Professor Darwin on the 30th delivered the second part of his presidential address, and dealt Avith various theories of celestial evolution. He advanced the theory that sun and planets originated from gradual accretions of meteoric stones. Speaking of radium, he said they knew the earth contained radio-active materials, and it was almost certain that the sun was radio-active also.