Chapter I: Introduction

Having been for some time located in the border districts of the Cape Colony, and there coming into frequent contact with the natives; I was struck with the fact that there was a large field for investigation, and record of the “Medical Folk Lore” of the Bantu tribes, which was becoming more and more difficult of attainment as time went on, owing to the fact that the true unsophisticated native was rapidly becoming a thing of the past; or if one may put it so, becoming contaminated by the advance of civilization. Under the pressure of Colonial rule, Magistrates and Missionaries, the native character and ways are changing. Breeks and petticoats are endowed with positive virtues. They are made steps in the ladder that tends upwards, and the old fashioned Kaffir is fast disappearing.

Red clay and blankets or skins give way to veneer and varnish; outward conformity to a kind of civilization knocks off some objectionable, and some quite unobjectionable ways, and leaves the inside man as superstitious and as ignorant as ever.

The following pages are the result of an extensive study of the records available on the subject, combined with much valuable information supplied to me chiefly by educated Natives, Missionaries, and a large number of others, such as some of the Cape Civil Servants, who had to deal with the aborigine in the early days of European occupation of the country. To all of whom I wish to record my best thanks, more especially to Mr. W. Hammond Tooke for the Chapter on the Bantu Nation; Mr. Andrew Smith, of St. Cyrus, for assisting in gathering information, and for his valuable assistance in the preparing of the Chapter on the Herb treatment of Disease; Mr. W. C. Scully, of the Cape Civil Service; and to Mr. J. M’tombeni, Native Teacher, for gathering and editing much valuable information from amongst the Kaffirs.

I trust that the result here set forth, which they have assisted in producing, may be of some value, and not wholly disappointing to them.