File:Natal province - descriptive guide and official hand-book (1911) (14780454093).jpg

Identifier: natalprovincedes00tatl (find matches)
Title: Natal province : descriptive guide and official hand-book
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Tatlow, A.H South African Railways. Publicity Dept
Subjects: Railroads
Publisher: Durban, Natal : South African Railways Printing Works
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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teristics. They believe that the earth, moon, sun, stars, and indeed everything, was created by a Supreme Being called Mvelingqangi, i.e., The First Appearer, though there seems to be no idea as to within what period all these things were made. There is a tradition to the effect that all people originally came from a single pair, and this pair sprang from a bed of reeds, but where such bed is to be found tradition does not say. At the same time, if pressed, a Zulu would probably locate it somewhere in the north, seeing a deep-rooted tradition of their having descended from that direction is widely prevalent, not only among them, but other allied peoples like the Basutos, Xosas, Swazis, and Tongas. A certain fairly well-defined section declares that its ancestors rolled down from the north in a large basket (isilulu). Food, in the shape of mealies and pumpkins, was first discovered by a woman growing near the said reeds, after which people, by degrees, became acquainted with the other varieties.
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Kraal Life; Photo by Trappist
It is believed that, in the remote past, animals, birds and monsters of different kinds were able to converse like men and women. This is proved by many interesting and even exciting nursery tales, in which animals, etc., are made to talk and behave like ordinary human beings. Some of the tales are about cannibals and thrilling adventures in connection there-with, whilst others tell of ghosts, baboons and abatakati, or those who practise "black arts" to the fatal injury of others. It is customary for the tales to be told around the fireside hy old women after dark and shortly before the children have to go to bed. Anyone telling them in daylight will, it is alleged, have horns growing out of his or her head, unless a certain doggerel be repeated with the object of warding off the threatened calamity. The following is a tradition common to all Bantu tribes in South Africa. It is an account as to how death came into the world. In the beginning the Creator, Mvelingqangi, directed the

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