polygamy. Once rooted in a state it necessitates a double system of
laws, since civilised law is quite unable to cope with the cases daily
arising from its practice. It is sometimes argued that the law employed
is a matter of indifference, provided that substantial justice is done,
according to the ideas of people concerned, and this is doubtless very
true if it is accepted as a fact that the Zulu population of Natal is
always to remain in its present condition of barbarism. To continue
to administer their law is to give it the sanction of the white man's
authority, and every day that it is so administered makes it more
impossible to do away with it. I say "more impossible" advisedly,
because I believe its abrogation is already impossible. There is no
satisfactory way out of the difficulty, because it has its roots in,
and draws its existence from, the principle of polygamy, which I believe
will last while the people last.

Some rely on the Missionary to effect this stupendous change, and turn a
polygamous people into monogamists. But it is a well-known fact that the
missionaries produce no more permanent effect on the Zulu mind than a
child does on the granite rock which he chips at with a chisel. How many
real Christians are there in Zululand and Natal, and of that select and
saintly band how many practise monogamy? But very few, and among those
few there is a large proportion of bad characters, men who have
adopted Christianity as a last resource. I mean no disrespect to the
missionaries, many of whom are good men, doing their best under the most
unpromising conditions, though some are simply traders and political
agitators. But the fact remains the same. Christianity makes no
appreciable progress amongst the Zulu natives, whilst, on the other
hand, no one having any experience in the country will, if he can avoid
it, have a so-called Christian Kafir in his house, because the term is
but too frequently synonymous with that of drunkard and thief. I do not