AFRICA IN THE STONE AGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1924, Page 4

AFRICA IN THE STONE AGE.

l-IXDS l! K RR EM'STORK W K A BOX'S. LUX DUX. Xuv. 2d. A coHeelii.n of puleuhihie and ueoiilhii- axe-in ads ami other implements, found by forest weeks in Vies*. Airiea. are among the trophies which have been bn light- home hv ait* I*. Vi . li. Migeod, the explorer, who has just returned from a journey through the British Caniei'oons. a I'ermcr German {'olnn.v. Hunters of the Stone Age. making

ilnir way into a forest of wood in how dim 11 in os or branches, dropped axchcads Lore and I here alongisde primeval tracks, am! oil the same spots, untouched amt unregarded through suci essivo ages, thee have lain, for the Englishman at last to pick them up.

Mr Aiigeod ha< some curious stories to toll oi' the marriage customs i,I some of ihe tribes. The Mbeni people of British Camerooiis and the Altimhi, who live south of the Benue River, a tributary of the Xiger, practise a curious form of double marrigae. Vi hen a. man marries his sister weds the brother of his bride. Should a sister he unavailable, which is rare, he Inis to give equivalent service to his brother-in-law hv working for him. The average value of a sister is about throe years’ not very hard work. The .Munsbi have laws against in-ter-marriage which are so strict that heMde them the British table of affinities is stark simplicity. When a marriage is afoot a family council is convened. composed generally ol elders with long memories, whose business it is to see that there is no impediment of relationship between the bride ami bridegroom. Air Migeod puis the matter more .scientifically, and the names are not his. hut it i- clear that amid the elders the discussions must have quite a British flavour. "She was a AfJuinga. hut her grandfather on the mother’s side was one of Die Okilolo* of C'Buuga. They do ay that there i-- a strain of that Xixoxo blood, and so on.

The impediments are so difficult to unravel and surmount that often the councils break up for lengthy private discussion, like an .Allied Conference. One tribe lias traditional names for all twin*, varying they are both hoys or girls or mixed. "These names were given them 1»y God." they say. they say. One tribe buries its dead, like the ancient Egyptians, in a niche opening oil to a shaft sunk in the ground. The* bodies are protected with bamboos, so that- no earth may fall into the chamber and press on them, and then the shaft is filled up. The British Cameroon* are passing through a severe crisis, says Air Migeod. There are great cocoa plantations on which the Germans lavished much money. Xow they arc largely going begging. A British capitalist is understood to have made the Government an offer for them, but it was thought

insufficient. The Germans arc asking to be allowed to buy bar-!: their plantations. The only difficulty is the labour question. The Germans conscripted labour, but the natives would probably be "lad to work to-dav, as they are anxious to make some money.