The dedication is at the same time an introduction. It contains an exposition of the author's attitude to science and to the native Bantu. "To be truly scientific," he says, such a description as he here attempts "must be limited to one well defined tribe. I go even further: all the data must be localized; in the tribe itself there are different clans; customs vary from one to another. It is of the greatest importance that all the facts be classed geographically… The essential Kafir will not be known till a scientific and thorough study of all the tribes has been completed." He insists on the value of this study for the purposes of government and of Christian missions. "To govern savages, you must study them thoroughly in order both to recognise the wrong conceptions against which you have to contend and to avoid hurting their feelings unnecessarily. This is imperative if you wish to win their confidence and maintain a friendly understanding between them and the alien European Government. How many native wars might have been avoided if the Native Commissioner had had a better knowledge of Bantu ethnography, and, on the other hand, how much good has been done by those who have taken the trouble to study the Natives with sympathy in order to be just to them! And this is equally true of Missionaries,"—which he illustrates by reference to the native taboos, denouncing the conception of former times when heathenism was considered a creation of the devil through and through. This is the doctrine preached for years by the Folk-Lore Society and by all anthropologists. It is the only rational doctrine, and the pity is that it has been so slow in making its way into the crass official mind and dispersing the prejudices of Christian teachers. Happily times are changing. The work before us is a signal proof of the advent of a better state of things. It ought materially to help the progress of true methods in science, in administration, and in Christian missions.
The name Thonga is of Zulu origin, probably the Zulu form of Ronga (East), the name by which the clans around Lourengo Marquez used to call themselves as being the eastern division of the tribe. It is not adopted by the people themselves, who have no word to express their collective unity. Under the name of Shangaans the Thonga of the northern clans are well known in
