not respect his daughters-in-law, but treats them badly, they will no longer respect him gladly, but only so far as they are compelled. So, if the father-in-law strikes a daughter-in-law, he will have to pay a fine—even with a cow or a goat. It is not pleasant to show respect to a man who acts like that towards women. It is very bad, and they hate him greatly—they will never get over their grudge (against him), if they see that he treats them as if they were his own wives. And they too, in their turn, by the doing away with the respect (they would feel for him), it being destroyed by the father, then they say, "This husband," speaking to the father, therefore the sons very soon separate from their father, through not respecting one another. Then, if the father lifts his hand to a daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law will say: "To-day it is at an end to say 'Father' because my father-in-law has taken off my fillet (=veil, which hides her face from him)"; she takes the fillet from her head and puts it down on the ground; she unties her isikaka and puts it on the ground, she says, "Now you have become a husband to me here." It is like that. If the father is a respectable man, he goes out, feeling remorseful and ashamed, until he has made atonement with something to the daughter-in-law, that he may finish that matter, so that it may be (considered) settled.
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Some Notes on Zulu Religious Ideas.
A. Werner.
