All Bantu tribes regard the passage from childhood to adult life as a solemn event to be marked by more or less elaborate ceremonies. These vary in different places, and some may have disused them altogether, either through European influence, or because they have been so harassed by enemies and driven from place to place as to have lost many of their old usages. But it is safe to speak of the custom, in one form or another, as universal among them. Indeed, it exists, or has existed, all over the world; and the rejoicings over the ‘coming of age’ of the heir to an estate, or the pleasant little excitement of a girl ‘coming out’ at her first ball, represent it to this day among ourselves. These things, with us, are mainly a matter of sentiment—that is to say, they are not supposed to exercise any mysterious influence on the future life of the boy or girl—to ensure good luck or avert disaster. But among the people whom, for want of a better word, we call ‘savages’—it is an unsatisfactory name for various reasons which I am not concerned to discuss here—they are the outcome of a feeling that life is surrounded by unknown and incalculable forces which must in some way be propitiated and made harmless. Besides this, there is the desire to give their children such instruction as may give them some help through the difficulties that lie before them. In fact, in many tribes, the only systematic teaching of any sort is that given at the ‘mysteries.’ Every year, during the dry season, and before the grass is burnt, if arrangements have been made to hold one of these ceremonies, the Yaos send people out into the bush, to clear a space of ground and build some huts and booths for the _unyago_. The boys who have reached the age of sixteen or thereabouts go there, carrying their sleeping-mats with them, and stay, under the charge of one or more elderly men, for perhaps two months. They are armed with sticks, to be thrown at any person who may intrude; for no one but the boys and their instructors is permitted to be present. Various dances are said to take place, the opening one lasting three days, and the boys are given advice about the conduct of life, and instructed in the traditions of the tribe. The story of the origin of Lake Nyasa, mentioned in Chapter IV., is one said to be told at the mysteries.