A BOOK OF THE BEGINNINGS

[1] [JAS, 1864, 2. 167. See Mitchell, Past in the Present, p. 287. '"These considerations, it will be seen, enable us to place the origin of man at a much more remote geological epoch than has yet been thought possible. He may even have lived in the Eocene or Miocene period, when not a single mammal possessed the same form as any existing species. For, in the long series of ages during which the forms of these primeval mammals were being slowly specialised into those now inhabiting the earth, the power which acted to modify them would only affect the mental organisation of man. His brain alone would have increased in size and complexity and his cranium have undergone corresponding changes of form, while the whole structure of lower animals was being changed. This will enable us to understand how the fossil crania of Denise and Engis agree so closely with existing forms, although they undoubtedly existed in company with large mammalia now extinct. The Neanderthal skull may be a specimen of one of the lowest races then existing, just as the Australians are the lowest of our modern epoch. We have no reason to suppose that mind and brain and skull-modification could go on quicker than that of the other parts of the organisation, and we must, therefore, look back very far in the past to find man in that early condition in which his mind was not sufficiently developed to remove his body from the modifying influence of external conditions, and the cumulative action of 'natural selection.' I believe, therefore, that there is no a priori reason against our finding the remains of man or his works in the middle or later tertiary deposits. The absence of all such remains in the European beds of this age has little weight, because as we go farther back in time, it is natural to suppose that man's distribution over the surface of the earth was less universal than at present. Besides, Europe was in a great measure submerged during the tertiary epoch, and though its scattered islands may have been uninhabited by man, it by no means follows that he did not at the same time exist in warm or tropical continents. If geologists can point out to us the most extensive land in the warmer regions of the earth, which has not been submerged since eocene or miocene times, it is there that we may expect to find some traces of the very early progenitors of man. It is there that we may trace back the gradually decreasing brain of former races, till we come to a time when the body also begins materially to differ. Then we shall have reached the starting-point of the human family. Before that period, he had not mind enough to preserve his body from change, and would, therefore, have been subject to the same comparatively rapid modifications of form as the other mammals."']

[3] [Sepher Hamunoth, f.65. C.i. Stehelin, Rabbinical Literature, vol. 2, p. 4.]

[4] [Gen. 2:13. 'And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.']

[5] [Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 165. 'Gori is an important and powerful river during the rainy season. It is said to rise in a north-easterly direction near Kavi. Far inland on the east, to a distance of twenty-five days' journey, the country is reported to be a continuous plain, dotted with low hills and containing water only in pools. About fifteen days' journey from the lake, the natives also report a region wherein are "low hills which discharge smoke and sometimes fire from their tops." This district is called Susa. and is a portion of the Masai Land. All concurred in stating that no stream runs north, but that all wafers for at least twenty days' journey enter the lake. Beyond that distance lies a small lake which discharges a stream eastward—supposed by me to be the Pangani.']

[6] [Tucker, Abbeokuta, p. 248. 'The estimation in which the white men were already held at Abbeokuta continued to extend in the countries round. In the summer of 1851 the chief of Ife, a town three days to the east of Abbeokuta, sent to propose an union between himself and the Abbeokutans with their English allies, and to request that missionaries might go and reside there. And this request was the more remarkable, as Ife has always been the stronghold of idolatry. All the deities are said to have come from thence; the sun and the moon rise there again after having been buried in the earth; and all the human race, white as well as black, were originally created at Ife. It must then have been a strong impulse that led this chief to send for Christian teachers.']

[7] [Stanley, How I Found Livingstone, p. 505. 'The Rusizi River—according to Ruhinga—rose near a lake called Kivo, which he said is as long as from Mugihawa to Mugere, and as broad as from Mugihewa to Warumashanya’s country, or, say eighteen miles in length by about eight in breadth. The lake is surrounded by mountains on the western and northern sides: on the south-western side of one of these mountains issues the Rusizi—at first a small rapid stream; but as it proceeds towards the lake it receives the rivers Kagunissi, Kaburan, Mohira, Nyamagana, Nyakagunda, Ruviro, Rofubu, Kavimvira, Myove, Ruhuha, Mukindu, Sange, Rubirizi, Kiriba, and, lastly, the Ruanda River, which seems to be the largest of them all. Kivo Lake is so called from the country in which it is situated. On one side is Mutumbi (probably the Utumbi of Speke and Baker), on the west is Ruanda; on the east is Urundi. The name of the chief of Kivo is Kwansibura.
After so many minute details about the River Rusizi, it only remained for us to see it. On the second morning of our arrival at Mugihewa we mustered ten strong paddlers, and set out to explore the head of the lake and the mouth of the Rusizi. We found that the northern head of the lake was indented with seven broad bays, each from one and a half to three miles broad; that long broad spits of sand, overgrown with matete, separated each bay from the other. The first, starting from west to east, at the broadest part, to the extreme southern point of Mugihewa, was about three miles broad, and served as a line of demarcation between Mukamba’s district of Ruwenga and Mugihewa of Ruhinga; it was also two miles deep. The second bay was a mile from the southern extremity of Mugihewa to Ruhinga’s village at the head of the bay, and it was a mile across to another spit of sand which was terminated by a small island. The third bay stretched for nearly a mile to a long spit, at the end of which was another island, one and a quarter mile in length, and was the western side of the fourth bay, at the head of which was the delta of the Rusizi. This fourth bay, at its base, was about three miles in depth, and penetrated half a mile further inland than any other. Soundings indicated six feet deep, and the same depth was kept to within a few hundred yards of the principal mouth of the Rusizi. The current was very sluggish; not more than a mile an hour. Though we constantly kept our binocular searching for the river, we could not see the main channel until within 200 yards of it, and then only by watching by what outlet the fishing; canoes came out. The bay at this point had narrowed from two miles to about 200 yards in breadth. Inviting a canoe to show us the way, a small flotilla of canoes preceded us, from the sheer curiosity of their owners. We followed, and in a few minutes were ascending the stream, which was very rapid, though but about ten yards wide, and very shallow; not more than two feet deep. We ascended about half a mile, the current being very strong, from six to eight miles an hour, and quite far enough to observe the nature of the stream at its embouchure. We could see that it widened and spread out in a myriad of channels, rushing by isolated clumps of sedge and matete grass; and that it had the appearance of a swamp. We had ascended the central, or main channel. The western channel was about eight yards broad. We observed, after we had returned to the bay, that the easternmost channel was about six yards broad, and about ten feet deep, but very sluggish. We had thus examined each of its three mouths, and settled all doubts as to the Rusizi being an effluent or influent. It was not necessary to ascend higher, there being nothing about the river itself to repay exploration of it.
The question, "Was the Rusizi an effluent or an influent?" was answered for ever. There was now no doubt any more on that point. In size it was not to be compared with the Malagarazi River, neither is it, or can it be, navigable for anything but the smallest canoes. The only thing remarkable about it is that it abounds in crocodiles, but not one hippopotamus was seen; which may be taken as another evidence of its shallowness. The bays to the east of the Rusizi are of the same conformation as those on the west. Carefully judging from the width of the several bays from point to point, and of the several spits which separate them, the breadth of the lake may be said to be about twelve or fourteen miles. Had we contented ourselves with simply looking at the conformation, and the meeting of the eastern and western ranges, we should have said that the lake ended in a point, as Captain Speke has sketched it on his map. But its exploration dissolved that idea. Chamati Hill is the extreme northern termination of the western range, and seems, upon a superficial examination, to abut against the Ramata mountains of the eastern range, which are opposite Chamati; but a valley about a mile in breadth separates the two ranges, and through this valley the Rusizi flows towards the lake. Though Chamati terminates the western range, the eastern range continues for miles beyond, north-westerly. After its issue from this broad gorge, the Rusizi runs seemingly in a broad and mighty stream, through a wide alluvial plain, its own formation, in a hundred channels, until, approaching the lake, it flows into it by three channels only, as above described.']

[9] [Pallme, Travels in Kordofan, p. 187. 'Eve, or as the negroes call our first mother, Hauve, bore daily many hundred children, which she was obliged to shew to the Abou, (God the Father) who sent them into all parts of the world there to multiply. It happened once that Hauve brought several hundred children into the world of a darker colour. When Abou came and saw these, he reproached Hauve, and said he would not have any more of these dark babes, took them immediately away from her, and transplanted them into the present Abyssinia. Shortly after this, Hauve brought forth another lot of similar children, which for fear of the Abou, she locked in an oven to secrete them; but Abou, on his arrival, had a suspicion of what had transpired, and as he did not receive a satisfactory answer from Hauve respecting the last children, hunted for them everywhere, and found them eventually in the oven. When they crept out of their place of confinement, they were all quite black with the soot. Abou in his wrath at this second offence on the part of Hauve, again took away her children, and swore that they should, in commemoration of their mother's crime, remain for ever as black as when they emerged from the oven, and that nothing in the world should be capable of wiping off the stain.']

[12] [Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 479. 'I learned from Warumli and Wazige, three months later, that the river that came from the west was the Ruanda, flowing into the Rusizi, thence into the Tanganika.']

[14] [Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 468. 'Hamed Ibrahim spoke and said:—"My slaves have travelled far, and they say that the Ni-Nawarongo River rises on the west side of Uhunhiro mountains, takes a wide sweep through Ruanda, and enters Akanyaru, in which lake it meets the Kagera from the south. United they then empty from the lake between Ulihn and Kishakka, and, flowing between Karagwe and Ruanda, going into the Nianza (Nyanza)."']

[15] [Ibid, vol. 2, p. 16. 'I made many attempts to discover whether the Wajiji; knew why the lake was called Tangamka. They all replied they did not know, unless it was because it was large, and canoes could make long voyages on it. They did not call small lakes Tanganika, but they called them Kitanga. The lake of Ueukuma would be called Tanganika, but the little lakes in Ubha (Musunya) would be called Kitanga. Nika is a word they could not explain the derivation of, but they suggested that it might perhaps come from Nika, an electric fish which. was sometimes caught in the lake.']

[17] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.21. 'To signify the rising of the Nile, which they call in the Egyptian language NOUN, and which, when interpreted, signifies New, they sometimes pourtray a LION, and sometimes THREE LARGE WATERPOTS, and at other times HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER. And they depict a LION, because when the sun is in Leo it augments the rising of the Nile, so that oftentimes while the sun remains in that sign of the zodiac, half of the new water [Noun, the entire inundation?] is supplied; and hence it is, that those who anciently presided over the sacred works, have made the spouts [?] and passages of the sacred fountains in the form of lions. Wherefore, even to this day in prayer for an abundant inundation - - - - - - - - - And they depict THREE WATERPOTS, or HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER, because they make a waterpot like a heart having a tongue,—like a heart, because in their opinion the heart is the ruling member of the body, as the Nile is the ruler of Egypt, and like [a heart with?] a tongue, because it is always in a state of humidity, and they call it the producer of existence. And they depict three waterpots, and neither more nor less, because according to them there is a triple cause of the inundation. And they depict one for the Egyptian soil, as being of itself productive of water; and another for the ocean, for at the period of the inundation, water flows up from it into Egypt; and the third to symbolise the rains which prevail in the southern parts of Ethiopia at the time of the rising of the Nile. Now that Egypt generates the water, we may deduce from this, that in the rest of the earth the inundations of the rivers take place in the winter, and are caused by frequent rains; but the country of the Egyptians alone, inasmuch as it is situated in the middle of the habitable world, like that part of the eye, which is called the pupil, of itself causes the rising of the Nile in summer.' See previous ref: BB 2:586.]

[18] [Davis, Dictionary of the Kaffir Language, p. 143. 'NIKA, v.t.x.z To give; to transmit; to give one to another. This word does not mean to give a gift, or to bestow. The word Ukupa expresses this sense. Ukunika is to hand over to another.']

[19] [Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 12. 'I asked of Muini Klieri and Sheikli Mohamraed my impressions were not correct about the palm-trees, and they both replied readily in the affirmative. Muini Kheri said also, as corroborative of the increase of the Tanganika, that thirty years ago the Arabs were able to ford the channel between Bangwe Island and the mainland; that they then cultivated rice-fields three miles farther west than the present beach; that every year the Tanganika encroaches upon their shores and fields; and that they are compelled to move every five years farther inland. In my photograph of Ujiji, an inlet may be seen on a site which was dry land, occupied by fishing-nets and pasture ground, in 1871.']

[23] [Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, pp. 12-15. '"Years and years ago, where you see this great lake, was a wide plain, inhabited by many tribes and nations, who owned large herds of cattle and flocks of goats, just as you see Uhha to-day.
    "On this plain there was a very large town, fenced round with poles strong and high. As was the custom in those days, the people of the town surrounded their houses with tall hedges of cane, enclosing courts, where their cattle and goats were herded at night from the wild beasts and from thieves. In one of these enclosures lived a man and Ins wife, who possessed a deep well, from which water bubbled up and supplied a beautiful little stream, at which the cattle of their neighbours slaked their thirst.
    "Strange to say, this well contained countless fish, which supplied both the man and his wife with an abundant supply for their wants; but as their possession of these treasures depended upon the secrecy which they preserved respecting them, no one outside their family circle knew anything of there. A tradition was handed down for ages, through the family, from father to son, that on the day they showed the well to strangers, they would be ruined and destroyed.
    "It happened, however, that the wife, unknown to her husband, loved another man in the town, and by and by, her passion increasing, she conveyed to him by stealth some of the delicious fish from the Wonderful well. The meat was so good, and had such a novel flavour, that the lover urged her to inform him whence and by what means she obtained it; hut the fear of dreadful consequences, should she betray the secret of the well, constrained her to evade for a long lime his eager inquiries. But she could not retain the secret long, and so, in spite of all her awe for the Muzimu of the well, and her dread of her husband's wrath, she at lust promised to disclose the mystery.
    "Now one day the husband had to undertake a journey to Uviuza, hut before departure he strictly enjoined his wife to look after his house and effects, and to remember to be silent about the fountain, and by no means to admit strangers, or to go a-gadding with her neighbours, while he was absent. The wife of course promised to obey, hut her husband had been gone only a few hours when she went to her lover and said, 'My husband is gone away to Uvinza, and will not be hack for many dais. You have often asked me whence I obtained that delicious meat we ate together. Come with me, and I will show you.'
    "Her lover gladly accompanied her, and they went into the house, and the wife feasted him with Zogga (palm wine) and Maramba (plantain wine), Ugali porridge made of Indian corn, and palm-oil, seasoned with pepper—and an abundance of fish meat.
    "Then when they had eaten the man said, 'We have eaten and drunk, and we are now full. Now pray show me whence you obtain this wondrous white meat that I have eaten, and which is far sweeter than the flesh of kid or lamb or fowl.'
    "'I will,' said she, 'because I have promised to you to do so, and I love you dearly; but it is a great secret, and my husband has strictly warned me not to show it to any human being not related to the family. Therefore you, my love, must not divulge the secret, or betray me, lest some great evil happen to me and to us all.'
    "'Nay, have no fear of me; ray mouth shall be closed, and my tongue tied, lest danger should happen to the mistress of my heart.'
    "So they arose, and she took him to the enclosure, jealously surrounded by a tall thick fence of matete cane, and taking hold of his hand she led the impatient lover within, and showed him what appeared to be a circular pool of deep clear water, which bubbled upward from the depths, and she said—
    "'Behold! This is our wondrous fountain—is it not beautiful?—and in this fountain are the fish.'
    "The man had never seen such things in his life, for there were no rivers in the neighbourhood except that which was made by this fountain. His delight was very great, and he sat for some time watching the fish leaping and chasing each other, showing their white bellies and beautiful bright sides, and coming up to the surface and diving swiftly down to the bottom. He had never enjoyed such pleasure; but when one of boldest of the fish came near to where he was sitting he suddenly put forth his band to catch it. Ah, that was the end of all!—for the Muzimii, the spirit, was angry.
    "And the world cracked asunder, the plain sank down, and down and down—the bottom cannot now be reached by our longest lines—and the fountain overflowed and filled the great gap that was made by the earthquake, und now what do you see? The Tanganika! All the people of that great plain perished, and all the houses and fields and gardens, the herds of cattle and flocks of goats and sheep, were swallowed in the waters.
    "That is what our oldest men have told ns about the Tanganika, Whether it is true or not I cannot say."
    "And what became of the husband?" I asked.
    "Oh, after he had finished his business in Uvinza, he began his return journey, and suddenly he came to some mountains he had never seen before, and from the top of the mountains he looked down upon a great lake! So then he knew that his wife had disclosed the secret fountain, and that all bad perished because of her sin."']

[24] [Smith, Loch Etive, p. 55. 'Loudoun. The name is found also on the hills between Strathlachlan and Glendaruel, and Bera is said also to have made Loch Eck in Cowal above Holy Loch. Colonel Leslie draws attention to the connection of the word Bera (or, as aspirated, Vera) with the Hindu Vrita. "Indra strikes the earth, shaking Vrita with his rain-causing hundred-spiked Vagra thunderbolt." Certainly both Vrita and Vagra could run into a Gaelic Beir or Veir easily, and the resemblance of the qualities of the Hindu and the old Celtic goddess is interesting. Beir also appears in Ireland.']

[25] [Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 283. 'Before leaving the chief of Rahunga's presence, I asked him the name of the river, in a mongrel mixture of Ki-swahili, Kinynmwezi, Kijiji, Kiregga, and Ki-Kusu. He understood after a while, and replied it was 'Ibari.' But after he had quite comprehended the drift of the question, he replied in a sonorous voice, 'Ikutu ya Kongo.'']

[26] [Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. Unable to trace such a ref. But see p. 364. 'We started early in the usual manner; but, after working up and down the creek, inspecting the inlets for hippopotami, and tiring from want of sport, the king changed his tactics, and, paddling and steering himself with a pair of new white paddles, finally directed the boats to an island occupied by the mgussa, or Neptune of the N'yanza, not in person for mgussa is a spirit but by his familiar or deputy, the great medium who communicates the secrets of the deep to the King of Uganda. In another sense, he might be said to be the presiding priest of the source of the mighty Nile, and as such was, of course, an interesting person for me to meet.']

[28] [HL, 55. 'It is in vain, I believe, that the testimony of philology has been invoked in evidence of the origin of the Egyptians. The language which has been recovered belongs to a very early stage of speech, and is not, or at least cannot be shown to be, allied to any other known language than its descendant the Coptic. It is certainly not akin to any of the known dialects either of North or of South Africa, and the attempts which have hitherto been made towards establishing such a kindred must be considered as absolute failures. A certain number of Egyptian words, such as e, "go," tit, u "give, place," have the same meaning as the corresponding Indo-European roots. And a few other Egyptian words sound very like Semitic words of the same meaning. But the total number of words in the Egyptian vocabulary which have the appearance of relationship either with the Aryan or with the Semitic stock turns out, after passing through the necessary process of sifting, to be extremely small.']

[30] [Dictionary of the Kaffir Language, p. 246. 'Xoxo, n.x.z. 1. A general conversation about matters.
2. A toad; a large frog. This word is from uku Xoxa; To talk together; to converse; to join in a general talk about matters where several persons are engaged in conversation. It is Onomatopoetic, and refers to the sound expressed by Xoxa, as that which represents the confused noise of many persons speaking at the same time, which is often the case when the Kaffirs converse together in their houses. For the same reason i Xoaco denotes a toad, or large frog, because it is continually making a sort of deep croaking noise like Xoxo.']

[31] [Muller, Chips From A German Workshop, vol. 2, p. 251. 'In Sanskrit the name of the frog is "Bheka," and from it a feminine was formed, "Bheki." This feminine, "Bheki," must have been at one time used as a name of the sun, for the sun was under certain circumstances feminine in India as well as in Germany. After a time, when this name had become obsolete, stories were told of "Bheki" which had a natural sense only when told of the sun, and which are the same in character as other stones told of heroes or heroines whose original solar character cannot be doubted. Thus we find in Sanskrit the story that "Bheki," the frog, was a beautiful girl; and that one day, when sitting near a well, she was discovered by a king, who asked her to be his wife. She consented, on condition that he should never show her a drop of water. One day, being tired, she asked the king for water, the king for got his promise, brought water, and "Bheki" disappeared.']

[32] [Ralston, Russian Folktales. I can find no parallels in this work to what Massey is referring to. It is as if he is using his own translation, or taking great liberties with the English, as there is no correlation between the quotes he has given and the text itself. However, Ralston does discuss Koshchei, so I give the full text here.]

[34] [Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, p. 241. 'She arose and took the water-pot, and went home. She took another pot, and fetched her things, and put them in the pot; she took her brass rod, and her ubenthle kilt, and a petticoat with a border of brass balls; and her fillet, and her brass, and her beads. She took these things, and went to the river, and threw them out on the ground.
The frog enquired, saying, "Do you wish me to take you to your own people?" The child said, "Yes." The frog took her things and swallowed them; he took her and swallowed her; and set out with her.' And poss. from Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1, p. 338, note: 'See also the story, p. 241, of the frog who swallowed the princess and carried her safe home.']

[38] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.11. 'To denote a mother, or vision, or boundary, or foreknowledge, or a year, or heaven, or one that is compassionate, or Athena [Neith], or Hera [Saté], or two drachmas, they delineate it a mother, because in this race of creatures there is no male. Gignuntur autem hunc in modum. Cum amore concipiendi vultur exarserit, vulvam ad Boream aperiens, ab eo velut comprimitur per dies quinque, during which time she partakes neither of food nor drink, being intent upon procreation. There are also other kinds of birds which conceive by the wind, but their eggs are of use only for food, and not for procreation; but the eggs of the vultures that are impregnated by the wind possess a vital principle. The vulture is used also as a symbol of vision, because it sees more keenly than all other creatures; and by looking towards the west when the sun is in the east, and towards the east when the god is in the west, it procures its necessary food from afar. And it signifies a boundary [landmark?] because, when a battle is to be fought, it points out the spot on which it will take place, by betaking itself thither seven days beforehand:—and foreknowledge, both from the circumstance last mentioned, and because it looks towards that army which is about to have the greater number killed, and be defeated, reckoning on its food from their slain: and on this account the ancient kings were accustomed to send forth observers to ascertain towards which part of the battle the vultures were looking, to be thereby apprized which army was to be overcome. And it symbolizes a year, because the 365 days of the year, in which the annual period is completed, are exactly apportioned by the habits of this creature; for it remains pregnant 120 days, and during an equal number it brings up its young, and during the remaining 120 it gives its attention to itself, neither conceiving nor bringing up its young, but preparing itself for another conception; and the remaining five days of the year, as I have said before, it devotes to another impregnation by the wind. It symbolises also a compassionate person, which appears to some to be the furthest from its nature, inasmuch as it is a creature that preys upon all things; but they were induced to use it as a symbol for this, because in the 120 days, during which it brings up its offspring, it flies to no great distance, but is solely engaged about its young and their sustenance; and if during this period it should be without food to give its young, it opens its own thigh, and suffers its offspring to partake of the blood, that they may not perish from want of nourishment:—and Athena [Neith], and Hera [Saté], because among the Egyptians Athena [ Neith] is regarded as presiding over the upper hemisphere, and Hera [Saté] over the lower; whence also they think it absurd to designate the heaven in the masculine, τν ορανν, but represent it in the feminine, τν ορανν, inasmuch as the generation of the sun and moon and the rest of the stars, is perfected in it, which is the peculiar property of a female. And the race of vultures, as I said before, is a race of females alone, and on this account the Egyptians over any female hieroglyph place the vulture as a mark of royalty [maternity?]. And hence, not to prolong my discourse by mentioning each individually, when the Egyptians would designate any goddess who is a mother, they delineate a vulture, for it is the mother of a female progeny. And they denote by it (οραναν) heaven, (for it does not suit them to say τν ορανν, as I said before,) because its generation is from thence [by the wind]:—and two drachmas, because among the Egyptians the unit [of money] is the two drachmas, and the unit is the origin of every number, therefore when they would denote two drachmas, they with good reason depict a vulture, inasmuch as like unity it seems to be mother and generation.' See also BB 1:142 for other refs to this verse.]

[39] ['Certain Reasons for believing that the Art of Music in Prehistoric Times passed through Three Distinct Stages of Development, etc,' in JAI 10. See full art. here.]

[40] [Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 413; fig. 9 is the guitar of Uganda.]

[44] [Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the Zaire usually called the Congo.]

[46] [A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Namaqua Hottentot Language, by Tindall.]

[51] [Bleek, A Brief Account of Bushman Folklore and Other Texts, p. 6. 'Another animal, the Blue Crane, differs in its speech from the ordinary Bushman, mainly by the insertion of a tt at the end of the first syllable of almost every word.']

[54] [Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 201. 'The villages on the right bank also maintained a tremendous drumming and blowing of war-horns, and their wild men hurried up with menace towards us, urging their sharp-prowed canoes so swiftly that they seemed to skim over the water like flying fish. Unlike the Luavala villagers, they did not wait to be addressed, but ns soon as they came within fifty or sixty yards they shot out their spears, crying out, "Meat! meat!' Ah! ha! We shall have plenty of meat! Bo-ho-bo-bo, Bo-ho-bo-bo-o-o!"']

[55] [Ibid., vol. 2, p. 200. 'Tippu-Tib before our departure had hired to me two young men of Ukusu—cannibals—as interpreters. These were now instructed to cry out the word, "Sennenneh!" ("Peace!"), and to say that we were friends. But they would not reply to our greeting, and in a bold peremptory manner told us to return.']

[59] [Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 385. '"Mundele," replied one of them, a tall fellow with a mop-head which reminded me of Mwana Saramba, who had accompanied me round Lake Victoria—"our people saw you yesterday make marks on some tara-tara" (paper).']

[60] [Muller, Chips From A German Workshop, vol. 2, p. 287. 'It is at this stage that M. Woepcke, an excellent Arabic scholar and mathematician, takes up the problem in his "Memoire sur la Propagation des Chiffres Indiens," just published in the "Journal Asiatique." He points out, first of all, a fact which had been neglected by all previous writers, namely, that the Arabs have two sets of figures, one used chiefly in the East, which he therefore calls the "Oriental;" another used in Africa and Spain, and there called "Gobar." "Gobar" means "dust," and these figures were so called because, as the Arabs say, they were first introduced by an Indian who used a table covered with fine dust for the purpose of ciphering. Both sets of figures are called Indian by the Arabs. M. Woepcke then proceeds to show that the figures given in the MSS. of Boethius coincide with the earliest forms of the Gobar figures, whilst they differ from the Oriental figures; and, adopting the view of Prinsep that the Indian figures were originally the initial letters of the Sanskrit numerals, he exhibits in a table the similarity between the Gobar figures and the initial letters of the Sanskrit numerals, giving these letters from Indian inscriptions of the second century of our era.']

[61] [Bleek, A Brief Account of Bushman Folklore and Other Texts, p. 6. 'The most prominent of the mythological figures is that of the Mantis, around which a great circle of myths has been formed. Besides his own proper name (tkággen) he possesses several others, and so also does his wife, whose most usual name is, however, Ihunntujattjattun (Ihunn means the "Dasse," Hyrax ...). Their adopted daughter, the Porcupine (whose real father is a monster named Ilkhivui-hemm, the All-devourer, with whom she does not live for fear of being herself eaten), is married to Ikwannmana, and has by him a son, the Ichneumon, who plays an important part in Bushman mythology, particularly in advising and assisting his grandfather, the Mantis, and in chiding him for his misdeeds. The same mythological figure, tkággen, is also the most prominent one in the mythology of the Bushmen of the Drakensbergen, as related to Mr. J. L. Orpen.']

[63] ['The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope,' in Astley, A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 3, p. 366.]

[64] [Rit. ch. 93. 'I should go, or I should pass, to the East, for all the evil things in the festivals of the wicked are known to me, if Khepera should twist the horns, or wish to take and eat the phallus of the Sun or the head of Osiris ... Khepera twists the horns.' Birch's tr.]

[65] [Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.10. 'To denote an only begotten, or generation, or a father, or the world, or a man, they delineate a SCARABÆUS. And they symbolise by this an only begotten, because the scarabæus is a creature self-produced, being unconceived by a female; for the propagation of it is unique after this manner:—when the male is desirous of procreating, he takes dung of an ox, and shapes it into a spherical form like the world; he then rolls it from the hinder parts from east to west, looking himself towards the east, that he may impart to it the figure of the world, (for that is borne from east to west, while the course of the stars is from west to east): then, having dug a hole, the scarabæus deposits this ball in the earth for the space of twenty-eight days, (for in so many days the moon passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac). By thus remaining under the moon, the race of scarabæi is endued with life; and upon the nine and twentieth day after having opened the ball, it casts it into water, for it is aware that upon that day the conjunction of the moon and sun takes place, as well as the generation of the world. From the ball thus opened in the water, the animals, that is the scarabæi, issue forth. The scarabæus also symbolizes generation, for the reason before mentioned—and a father, because the scarabæus is engendered by a father only—and the world, because in its generation it is fashioned in the form of the world—and a man, because there is no female race among them. Moreover there are three species of scarabæi, the first like a cat, and irradiated, which species they have consecrated to the sun from this similarity: for they say that the male cat changes the shape of the pupils of his eyes according to the course of the sun: for in the morning at the rising of the god, they are dilated, and in the middle of the day become round, and about sunset appear less brilliant: whence, also, the statue of the god in the city of the sun is of the form of a cat. Every scarabæus also has thirty toes, corresponding with the thirty days duration of the month, during which the rising sun [moon?] performs his course. The second species is the two horned and bull formed, which is consecrated to the moon; whence the children of the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the exaltation of this goddess. The third species is the one horned and Ibis formed, which they regard as consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], in like manner as the bird Ibis.' See also BB 1:6 for other refs to this site.]

[66] [Skertchly, Dahomey, As It Is, p. 56. 'Ordinary snakes may be killed with impunity, but beware of meddling with the Danhgbwe! A great palaver would certainly be the result of any white man meddling with the sacred reptile, and a fine will be rigorously imposed upon the offender. The Danhgbweno are usually engaged in instructing the neophytes in the mysteries of their faith, and in feeding their deities upon fowls. The priests are recruited in a singular manner. Should a child be touched by a snake on one of its nocturnal peregrinations, the priests immediately demand the child from its parents, who have to impoverish themselves to pay for its support in the various ceremonials appertaining to the worship. After a certain lengthy instruction, the neophyte is allowed to practise priestcraft for himself.']

[67] [Bleek, A Brief Account of Bushman Folklore and Other Texts, pp. 13-4. 'A male ostrich is killed and carried home by a Bushman. One of its little feathers, stained with blood, is lifted up by a gentle whirlwind, and falls into the water; where it gradually becomes an ostrich. It leaves the water as a young ostrich, grows up, and returns to its wives as their resaved husband. As such, he guards the nest against the attacks of the jackals and hyenas, who are thereby driven to seek for the nest of a she-ostrich who will not be fierce, and who runs away.—This is followed by a very lengthy and still unfinished dialogue between the hyena and the jackal in their flight, etc.
This idea of the revival of a dead male ostrich, in and through one of its little feathers, is also mentioned in other places, and is compared to the coming to life of the Moon; whilst, with the exception of the Moon and the Male Ostrich, all other things mortal are said to die outright, and not to come to life again.']

[68] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 2. 118. 'When they would symbolise a man who distributes justice impartially to all, they depict THE FEATHER OF AN OSTRICH; for this bird has the feathers of its wings equal on every side, beyond all other birds.']

[69] [Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, vol. 2, p. 148. From Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1, p. 294. 'The Rainbow, coming out of a river or pool and resting on the ground, poisons men whom it meets, affecting them with eruptions. Men say, 'The Rainbow is disease. If it rests on a man, something will happen to him.' Lastly in Dahome, Danh the Heavenly Snake, which makes the Popo beads and confers wealth on man, is the Rainbow.']

[70] [In Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. 16, p. 226. From Lubbock, The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man, p. 363. 'Merolla tells us that in his time the wizards of Congo were called Scinghili, that is to say, Gods of the Earth. The head of them is styled Ganga Chitorne, 'being reputed God of all the Earth.' He further asserts that his body is not capable of suffering a natural death; and, therefore, to confirm his adorers in that opinion, whenever he feels his end approaching, either through age or disease, he calls for such a one of his disciples as he designs to succeed him, and pretends to communicate to him his great power.' See also my essay.]

[72] [Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 392. 'After the conclusion of the story, the Emperor says briefly, "Drink, if thou darest."
Pokino rises, advances to the test-pots, receives the ladle, and dips it into the pombe; then taking it up, he holds it aloft, and, turning to the warriors who followed him, cries aloud, "Tekeh?" ("Am I worthy or not?")
"Tekeh!" ("Thou art worthy!") responds the multitude with a shout.']

[73] [Dan. 5:25. 'And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.']

[75] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.27. 'To denote speech they depict a TONGUE, and a BLOODSHOT EYE; because they allot the principal parts of speech to the tongue, but the secondary parts thereof to the eyes. For these kinds of discourses are strictly those of the soul varying in conformity with its emotions; more especially as they are denominated by the Egyptians as different languages. And to symbolize speech differently, they depict a TONGUE and a HAND BENEATH; allotting the principal parts of speech to the tongue to perform, and the secondary parts to the hand as effecting the wishes of the tongue.']

[76] [Maspero, 'Inscription of King Nastosenen,' TSBA, 4:2. See BB 2:289, 512. See also RP, 10. 55.]

[78] [Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 229. 'Concerning the Ainos the Japanese have a story of a woman, dwelling by herself on a certain island, who was visited by a dog, and thus gave birth to the ancestors of the wild men.']

[83] [Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, vol. 5, p. 73, note. 'The Iroquois have impressed themselves very strongly on our history; but in nothing has their internal organization been more remarkable than in their ingenious and complicated system of totems. Earth of the six tribes or cantons, of which the league consisted, in its most perfect state, had eight totems, being five secondary and three primary totems. There were thus eight classes of warriors and hunters, including their entire families, in each tribe or canton. Families of the same totem, in each canton, could not intermarry. They were totemically related. The union must be between diverse totems. The bear band of a Mohawk could not marry in the bear band of the Oneida, but might in either of the other seven totems. There were thus created forty-eight totemic ties, by which the tribes were socially and politically bound together. (It is to be observed that the Tuscaroras have lost one totemic clan, consisting now of but seven.)']

[84] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 176. 'Among the tribes in the neighborhood of Trinity River is found a legend relating to a certain Wappeckquemow, who was a giant, and apparently the father and leader of a prehuman race like himself. He was it is said, a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought after by all men, they making her presents of corn and skins and all that they had; but the fastidious beauty would accept nothing of them but their gifts. In process of time a season of drought brought on a famine and much distress; then it was that the rich lady showed her charity to be as great in one direction as it had been wanting in another. She opened her granaries, and the gifts of the lovers she had not loved went to relieve the hungry she pitied. At last with rain fertility returned to the earth; and on the chaste Artemis of the Pueblos its touch fell too. She bore a son to the thick summer shower, and that son was Montezuma, who was expelled from the country that lie inhabited near the mouth of the Klamath for disobeying or offending some great god, and a curse was pronounced against him, so that not even his descendants should ever return to that land. On the expulsion of these Anakiln, the ancestors of the people to whom this legend belongs came down from the north-west, a direction of migration, according to Judge Roseborough, uniformly adhered to in the legends of all the tribes of north-west California. These new settlers, however, like their predecessors of the giant race, quarrelled with the great god, and were abandoned by him to their own devices, being given over into the hands of certain evil powers or devils. Of these the first is Omaha, who, possessing the shape of a grizzly bear, is invisible, and goes about everywhere bringing sickness and misfortune on mankind. Next there is Makalay, a fiend with a horn like a unicorn; he is swift as the wind, and moves by great leaps like a kangaroo. The sight of him is usually death to mortals. There is, thirdly, a dreadful being called Kalicknateck, who seems a faithful reproduction of the great thunder-bird of the north; thus Kalicknateck "is a huge bird that sits on the mountain-peak, and broods in silence over his thoughts until hungry; when he will sweep down over the ocean, snatch up a large whale, and carry it to his mountain-throne, for a single meal."']

[86] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 177. 'The coast people in northern California have a story about a mysterious people called Hohgates, to whom is ascribed an immense bed of mussel-shells and bones of animals still existing on the table-land of Point St George, near Crescent City. These Hohgates, seven in number, are said to have come to the place in a boat, to have built themselves "houses above ground, after the style of white men" all this about the time that the first natives came down the coast from the north.']

[88] [The Lake Regions of Central Africa, vol. 2, p. 333. From Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1, p. 176. 'When the African negro cries out in fear or wonder mama! mama! he might be thought to be uttering a real interjection, 'a word used to express some passion or emotion of the mind,' as Lindley Murray has it, but in fact he is simply calling, grown-up baby as he is, for his mother.']

[90] [Rowley, The Religion of the Africans, p. 51. 'The Hottentots used to say that their first parents came into the country through a window, or door; that the name of the man was Noh, and the name of the woman Hingnoh; that they were sent into their country by God Himself; and that they taught their descendants to keep cattle, and to do a great many things. Kolben thinks that this tradition looks extremely like a fragment of the story of Noah. It may be so, but, nevertheless, I fear he has been led to see a connection where none exists.' This is cited by Grant. See Nightside of Eden.]

[92] [Osburn, The Monumental History of Egypt, vol. 1, p. 239. 'On the former part of it, that there is no trace of Noah, or the Deluge, in the hieroglyphic legends, we have no hesitation whatever in stating our conviction that Lepsius is mistaken. Our proof is a very direct and plain appeal to the senses; not an elaborate exercitation of the intellectual powers. It is to be found in the name of one of the most ancient gods of Egypt, who was entitled "the father of the gods," "the giver of mythic life to all beneath him." Birch has truly identified this god with water. He was in reality the mythic impersonation of the annual overflow of the Nile. His name is written [glyphs] which is ordinarily transcribed nb in Roman characters. It seems, however, to have escaped the notice of most students of hieroglyphics, that, in the tomb of Nahrai, at Beni-hassan, which belongs to the times of the 12th dynasty, the change [glyphs] constantly takes place in the orthography of this group. This variation shows the phonetic power of the ram (which, like the water-vase, is used as a symbol, as well as a sound, in this group) to have been h or u, and not b, as had been inferred from its occurrence with that sound in the Roman name Tiberius. Champollion and Birch had, therefore, with perfect truth, identified the name of this god with the word, nou, or nh, which signifies, "the primordial water," "the abyss," So that the name of the divine impersonation of the annual overflow in the Egyptian mythology was Nh, or [glyphs] Nuh, as it is not unfrequently written.']

[93] [Pausanias, Description of Greece, 'Bœotia,' bk. 9, 12.2. 'Now the oracle of the god had said that Cadmus and the host with him were to make their dwelling where the cow was going to sink down in weariness. So this is one of the places that they point out. Here there is in the open an altar and an image of Athena, said to have been dedicated by Cadmus. Those who think that the Cadmus who came to the Theban land was an Egyptian, and not a Phoenician, have their opinion contradicted by the name of this Athena, because she is called by the Phoenician name of Onga, and not by the Egyptian name of Sais.' Frazer's tr.]

[94] [Dahomey, As It Is, pp. 461-8. 'The Dahoman religion consists of two parts, totally distinct from each other. First, the belief in a supreme being, and, second, the belief in a whole host of minor deities.
    The supreme being is called the Mau, and is vested with unlimited authority over every being, both spiritual and carnal. He is supposed to be of so high a nature as to care very little for the circumstances of men, and his attention is only directed to them by some special invocation. He resides in a wonderful dwelling above the sky, and commits the care of earthly affairs to a race of beings, such as leopards, snakes, locusts, or crocodiles, and also to inanimate objects, such as stones, rags, cowries, leaves of certain trees, and, in short, anything and everything.
    This deity is said to be the same as the God of civilization; but the white man has a freer access to Him than the negro, who is therefore obliged to resort to mediators. Hence the origin of fetichism. Mau is in every respect an anthropopathical deity, having his likes and dislikes, and being influenced in his actions by the prayers and offerings of his worshippers. Mau has an assistant who keeps a record of the good or evil deeds of every person by means of a stick, the good works being notched on one end, and the bad ones on the other.
    When a person dies, his body(!) is judged by the balance struck between the two ends of the stick. If the good preponderates, it is permitted to join the spirit in Kutomen, or "Dead land;" but if, on the contrary, the evil outweighs the good, it is utterly destroyed, and a new body created for the use of the spirit. With this single exception, all rewards and punishments are given in "this world." No matter how bad a man's life may be, if he can only escape punishment on earth, his spirit is released from all the consequences of its wrong-doing, and whatever may be the social condition of the person at the moment of his death, so will he remain for all eternity. Hence, earthly kings are kings in spirit-land, and the slave on earth is the slave hereafter. There is no Hell in the Semitic sense, and the place of judgment of the body hardly corresponds to the Purgatory of the Roman Catholic faith.
    In short, the "hereafter" of the Dahoman is an eternal continuance of the state of being enjoyed by the deceased when on earth. The ghosts are supposed to take a great interest in worldly affairs, and to secretly impress the mind of their protégés with the good advice that their knowledge of the future enables them to impart. These protégés arc invariably the descendants of the ghost, unless some flagrant act of disobedience against the commands of the father, on the part of the child, causes the enraged parent to withdraw his protection, and to confer it upon a stranger.
    This belief is the one great stumbling-block against the abolition of the human sacrifices at the Customs. The suppression of these would be looked upon by the popular eye as a direct insult to the protecting spirits of the country, and a general revolt would be the inevitable consequence.
    Besides the ghostly advice that is administered in secret, the Dahoman monarchs have special mediums in the Bassajeh already mentioned. An application to these holy women, on the part of the monarch will ensure a reply. The common folk must supply to a fetiche priest of great sanctity, who will act the part of a medium between the present and the future world Perhaps it may be a comfort to the "spiritualists" of the present day, to know that their hobby is no new thing. Nihil sub lumiue novum.
    The Dahomans are to a certain extent fatalists, since they imagine that to each person a double set of deeds are appointed, the one being good, and the other evil. Each person, however, has the power to avert the consequence of the evil deeds, by certain offerings paid to the deity, not direct, but through the medium of one of the interlocutory mediators.
    The Dahoman therefore considers this present life as only a means of attaining an eternal status. Earth is only a temporary dwelling-place; Hades is their "home." There is nothing of the Sadducee in the Dahoman; on the contrary, the most trivial actions are mixed up with ghostly influence. Certain priests pretend to have visited Kutomen, just as in every Popish monkery there is a picture of Purgatory painted under the instruction, or from the sketches, of some Saint who has visited it. The priests who most frequently take these infernal journeys are those of the Dalm, the Sapatan, the Gbwejeli, the Attin Bodun, and the Guh.
    Of course, the medicine-man and the priest are allies, in general one individual combining the two offices in his person. When a patient is afflicted with a disease which has resisted the application of any of the "all-powerful" medicines of the doctor, he usually announces that the sufferer is not labouring under disease, but has been summoned to Dead land by one of his spectral friends. The morbid fear of death usually impels the patient to pay the doctor or priest a handsome fee for him to visit Kutomeli and beg to be excused from attending to the summons. If the patient recovers, it is of course owing to the intercession of the priest, whose fame goes abroad; but if he dies, the subterfuge is that the ghostly inquirer would not accept any excuse for the non-attendance of the person subpoenaed.
    Upon one occasion, I saw a priest who was about to depart on a visit to Hades. He received his fee beforehand, cautious fellow, and then went into an empty shed near the patient's house. He then drew a circle on the ground, and took out of his "possible sack" a number of charms, all tied up in blood-stained rags. Squatting down on the centre of this magic circle, and bidding us upon no account to step within it, he covered himself with a large square of grey baft, profusely ornamented with tufts of magic. In a few minutes, he commenced to mutter some unintelligible sounds in a low voice, his body and limbs quivering like an aspen. Half an hour of this farce ensued, when the fetichcer uncovered himself, and prepared to deliver the message. He said that he had found considerable difficulty in obtaining access to the ghost who had summoned the patient, as when he knew that a priest was coming he hid in the bush. He said that the ghost was that of Nuage (one of the sick man's dead uncles), and that he was much offended by this summons not being answered in person, but in consideration of certain sacrifices offered to Guh he would think over the matter, rather an ambiguous answer, but just In the prevaricating way affected by all priests, whether in Japan or on the Yellow-stone. From the statements of these priests, it appears that life in the other world is much the same as in this,"—wars, palavers, feasts, dances, and other incidents going on much in the same style as on earth. It appears that the clothes in which the deceased is huricd accompany him to Kutomen, for sometimes a priest will bring back with him a necklace, bead, or other small article, known to have been buried with the corpse of the person who summons the sick man. Burton mentions the case of a man who, "after returning with a declaration that he had left a marked coin in Dead land, dropped it from his waist-cloth at the feet of the payer, while drinking rum." A very careless priest that.
    Another singular belief is that of the possibility of the same spirit being in more than one place at the same time. This was exemplified in the So-Sin Custom, where Gezu's ghost was in his shed, on his war-stool, and in his own Bassajeh at one and the same instant of time. Again, a ghost will sometimes remain in Dead land, and also come back to earth in the body of a new infant; and, in fact, nearly all the king's children are but the transmigrated spirits of the old kings. Hahansu, for example, was declared to have the spirit of Agongolu, his grandfather, within him. Agongolu's name, when a prince, was Hahansu, wherefore the heir to the throne of Dahomey took that name.
    The mediators between the Mau and humankind arc propitiated through the various objects they inhabit. The occurrence of these go-betweens with their material existence mainly owes its existence to the fact of the mind of the African not being able to grasp the fact of a deity asomatous and ubiquitous. The deity must either be worshipped through the medium of an intervener, who has a tangible form, or the religion must be reduced to anthropomorphism. Dahomans deny the corporeal existence of the deity, but ascribe human passions to him; a singular medley. Their religion must not be confounded with polytheism, for they only worship one God, Mau, but propitiate him through the intervention of the fetiches, who are not inferior deities, but only beings of an Intermediate order, like the angels of Christendom, who have powerful influence for good or evil with Mau.
    Of these fetiches, four hold a superior rank to the others. They are Danh-gbwe, Atin-bodun, Hu, and Khevyosoh. Danh, the first in order, is the most powerful fetiche in the country. It is the tutelary saint of Whydah, and its worship was introduced into the national religion when that kingdom was conquered. Its emblem, the snake, and its temple have been described. Ophiolatry is a prevalent form of fetichism in Africa. I have noticed it amongst the Mpongwes and Bakali of Gaboon, and it exists among the Niger tribes and amongst the Ashantees. Though so powerful, its aid was insufficient to protect the Whydahs from the conquering Agajah; but the old worshippers still held faith in their deity, and were highly pleased when it was introduced at Abomey. Snake-worship, indeed, appears to have been one of the earliest forms of idolatry, for we find it amongst the Ancient Egyptians, and the brazen serpent which Moses "lifted in the wilderness" was no doubt a symbol derived from the religion of the Pharaohs. "We hear of it in the earliest accounts of the Allemanic nations, and Brahminism still bears it as one of its emblems. Even among the Moslem Feloops and Mandingoes traces of ophiolatry exist, and Burton mentions the King Snake of Sierra Leone.
    The snake is supposed to be almost omnipotent in procuring the welfare of its devotees, and no undertaking of any importance is commenced without sacrificing to it. It has no image, the worship being confined to the adoration of the living snakes, which are kept in the Danh-gbwehweh in all the principal towns. The devotee goes to the temple and pays a heavy fee to the priest, who dismisses the worshipper with the assurance that his wishes shall be attended to. These snakes are a nuisance to the people residing near their temples. My house in Coomassie was so situated, and at night the reptilian deities often wandered into my courtyard. Upon one occasion I had been sleeping on the Pwe earth bed, and at midnight awoke, as was customary, and prepared to rise to look at my meteorological instruments. While sitting half asleep, with, my legs hanging over the edge of the Pwe bench, I noticed something white and shining on the ground beneath my feet. A closer inspection revealed a fine python, eighteen feet long, slowly crawling along on his way back to the fetiche-house. Lucky was I not to have trodden upon the creature, for he would certainly have avenged himself upon me, and my people would have been too frightened of his magic powers to have rendered me any assistance. I roused out Joe, who brought a light, and we examined the splendid reptile as it slowly crawled out of the courtyard.
    The Snake Priests, or Danh-si (snake wives), are extremely numerous. Burton says 1000. Strange is the fact that the most profitable fetiches generally have the most priests. These are of both sexes—married or single—and of various ranks. The high officials, after a preliminary course of instruction at Whydah, finish off at the fetiche town of Somorne, near Alladah.
    The next deity in importance is Atin-bodun, whose earthly form is that of various trees, while its domestic abode is in some curious specimen of ceramic art. First is a red cullender, stuck bottom upwards, on a little earthen step at the foot of some bush or young tree growing at the house door; on the right of this is a small goolah-shaped vessel, with a narrow neck, and generally whitewashed outside. The worship of Atin-bodun consists in faith in its power of averting and curing disease, especially fever, and in offering small quantities of water, which is poured into the little pot. Of course this is the tutelary saint of all physicians. Any tall tree is considered to be inhabited by this deity, but those especially sacred to it are the Hun, or silk-cotton tree, and the Loko, or poison tree, a decoction of whose leaves is used as an ordeal to detect any hidden crime. We find an analogy to this worship) in the mistletoe of the Druids, nay, even in the holly and May-pole, and among foreign nations in the sacred tree of the ]Mohammedans, the holy fig of Buddhists, and the aklakan of the Cherokee Indians. The Atinb-odun-si, or priests, number almost as many as those of the snake, but they are not of so high an order.
    Next in precedence is Hu, the Dahoman Neptune. Like the former two fetiches, this is also a Whydah deity, and still holds the head-quarters of his worship at that town, where the high-priest or Huno resides. A temple near the snake-house is the great shrine of this deity, a dilapidated hut, with hones, skulls, sharks' jaws, and other curiosities suspended from the thatched roof within the bare walls.
    Hu is supposed to have no particular dwelling, but has given the sea at Whydah in charge of Agbweh. At the end of the dry season the Huno marches in great state, accompanied by a long train of priests, to the beach, and propitiates the goodwill of Agbweh by an offering of maize, bananas, rum, cloth, &c.
    The little huts erected on the beach are small temples sacred to this god, where canoe-men offer donations of food to induce the deity to give them a smooth sea. Formerly the king was accustomed to send a man, dressed as a caboceer, with umbrella, stool, beads, and other insignia of his rank, to the beach, where he was placed in a canoe by the Huno, and, after sundry offerings and prayers, carried out to sea and thrown overboard. I believe this practice is now happily discontinued. The emblems of this deity are small canoes stuck over with shells and mounted on a little heap of swish.
    Last of the four principal fetiches is Khevyosoh, the thunder-god, who may be taken as the Dahoman Jupiter. He presides over the weather, and punishes those who do not please him with the abi, or lightning. A person killed by lightning is supposed to have fallen under the especial displeasure of the deity, and a ban of excommunication is passed upon the body by the Khevyosoh-si. The corpse is not allowed to be buried, but is brought to the Khevyosoh-ho, or thunder temple, and there stripped stark naked. A heap of beaten earth outside the temple is then deluged with water and the body laid on it. The priests, male and female, then march round it.']

[98] [Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, p. 124. 'On the 31st of December, 1852, we reached the town of Sechele, called, from the part of the range on which it is situated, Litubaruba. Near the village there exists a cave named Lepelole; it is an interesting evidence of the former existence of a gushing fountain. No one dared to enter the Lohaheng, or cave, for it was the common belief that it was the habitation of the Deity. As we never had a holiday from January to December, and our Sundays were the periods of our greatest exertions in teaching, I projected an excursion into the cave on a week-day to see the god of the Bakwains. The old men said that every one who went in remained there forever, adding, "If the teacher is so mad as to kill himself, let him do so alone, we shall not be to blame." The declaration of Sechele, that he would follow where I led, produced the greatest consternation. It is curious that in all their pretended dreams or visions of their god he has always a crooked leg, like the Egyptian Thau. Supposing that those who were reported to have perished in this cave had fallen over some precipice, we went well provided with lights, ladder, lines, &c.; but it turned out to be only an open cave, with an entrance about ten feet square, which contracts into two water-worn branches, ending in round orifices through which the water once flowed.']

[99] [Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 67. This p. no. is incorrect, nor can I find a 'Ookoolukooloo,' in this work. Callaway's definition, after examining several aspects of the name Utixo (or Utikxo) from different authorities, is inclined to agree with Appleyard that the name is closer to the meaning 'broken knee' and concludes: 'Hence it appears certain that the word Utikxo is the laud-giving name of an ancient hero, and that it was given in consequence of some conflict in which he repulsed enemies more powerful from numbers than himself by the stratagem of kneeling, and so causing them to approach him under the impression that they could make an easy prey of him.' See p. 115.]

[101] [Tucker, Abbeokuta, p. 192. '"Olorun," which means, "the Lord of Orun or Heaven." This instance is another of the many proofs, that though these people have "gods many and lords many," yet that they have an idea of one supreme Being, the original author of all good.']

[107] [Callimachus, Hymn to Delos, hymn 4. 'And Apollo, yet in his mother's womb, was sore angered against them and he uttered against Thebe no ineffectual threat: "Thebe, wherefore, wretched one, dost thou ask the doom that shall be thine anon? Force me not yet to prophesy against my will. Not yet is the tripod seat at Pytho my care; not yet is the great serpent a dead, but still that beast of awful jaws, creeping down from Pleistus, wreathes snowy Parnassus with his nine coils. Nevertheless I will speak unto thee a word more clear than shall be spoken from the laurel branch. Flee on! swiftly shall I overtake thee and wash my bow in blood. Thou hast in thy keeping the children of a slanderous woman. Not thou shalt be my dear nurse, nor Cithaeron. Pure am I and may I be the care of them that are pure." So he spake.' P. 91 of Loeb Library ed.]

[108] [The Koran, Sale's tr., ch. 3. 'When the angels said; O Mary, verily GOD sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the Word proceeding from himself; his name shall be CHRIST JESUS the son of Mary, honourable in this world and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of GOD; and he shall speak unto men in the cradle.
Note: Besides an instance of this given in the Korân itself, which I shall not here anticipate, a Mohammedan writer, (of no very great credit, indeed) tells two stories, one of Jesus's speaking while in his mother's womb, to reprove her cousin Joseph for his unjust suspicions of her; and another of his giving an answer to the same person soon after he was born.']

[109] [Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, p. 6. 'A CERTAIN woman happened to be pregnant. When her time was fully come, the child spoke in the womb, and said, "Mother, give birth to me at once; the cattle of my father are devoured by the people." The mother said, "Just come and listen. Here is a prodigy. The child is speaking within me." They asked, "What does he say?" "He tells me to give birth to him at once; he says the cattle in the kraal are coming to an end."']

[111] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 546. 'According to yet another Neeshenam tradition, there lived long, long ago a very terrible old man, whose chief delight it was to kill and devour Indians. He had stone mortars in which he pounded the flesh to make it tender for eating. Far down on the Sacramento plains, thirty or forty miles away, he and his wife lived together, and around their wigwam the blood of Indians lay a foot deep. The Indians all made war on them and tried to kill them, but they could do nothing against them. Then at last the Old Coyote took pity on the Indians whom he had created, and he determined to kill this old man. He was accustomed to go into the great round dance-house when the Indians were assembled within it, and slay the chief. So the Old Coyote dug a deep hole just outside the door, and hid himself in it, armed with a big knife. The knife was just on a level with the ground, and when the old man came along, going into the dance-house, he saw it, and gave a kick at it, but did not notice the Coyote, who immediately jumped out of his hole, ran into the dance-house, and killed the old man.']

[114] [Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, vol. 2, p. 181. 'The pigeon hawk bantered the tortoise for a race, but the tortoise declined it, unless he would consent to run several days journey. The hawk very quickly consented, and they immediately set out. The tortoise knew, that if he obtained the victory it must be by great diligence, so he went down into the earth, and taking a straight line, stopped for nothing. The hawk, on the contrary, knowing that he could easily beat his competitor, kept carelessly flying this way and that way in the air, stopping now to visit one, and then another, till so much time had been lost, that when he came in sight of the winning point, the tortoise had just come up out of the earth, and gained the prize.']

[116] [Poss. in Myths of the New World. Massey here appears to be rather excessive in his estimation of the opinions of other authorities.]

[117] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, pp. 115-6. 'The Cahrocs hold that, when in the beginning the creator Chareya made fire, he gave it into the custody of two old hags, lest the Cahrocs should steal it. The Cahrocs, having exhausted every means to procure the treasure, applied for help to their old friend the Coyote; who, having maturely considered how the theft might best be accomplished, set about the thing in this way: From the land of the Cahrocs to the home of the old women he stationed a great company of animals, at convenient distances; the strongest nearest the den of the old beldames, the weakest farthest removed. Last of all, he hid a Cahroc in the neighborhood of the hut, and having left the man precise directions how to act, he trotted up to the door and asked to be let in out of the cold. Suspecting nothing, the crones gave him admittance; so he lay down in front of the fire, and made himself as comfortable as possible, waiting for the further action of his human accomplice without. In good time, the man made a furious attack on the house, and the old furies rushed out at once to drive off the invader. This was the Coyote's opportunity. Instantly he seized a half-burnt brand and fled like a comet down the trail; and the two hags, seeing how they had been outwitted, turned after him in immediate and furious chase. It had gone hard then with the hopes of the Cahrocs, if their four-legged Prometheus had trusted to his single speed; but just as he began to feel the pace tell on him, and just as the weird women thought they were about to recover the brand, the Cougar relieved him of it. Great was the satisfaction of our wise Coyote, as he sank down, clearing his sooty eyes and throat, and catching his breath, to see the great lithe cat leap away with the torch, and the hags gnash their choppy gums as they rushed by, hard in pursuit, on the dim trail of sparks. The Cougar passed the brand to the Bear, the Bear to his neighbor, and so on to the end. Down the long line of carriers, the panting crones plied their withered old legs in vain; only two mishaps occurring among all the animals that made up the file. The Squirrel, last in the train but one, burned his tail so badly that it curled up over his back, and even scorched the skin above his shoulders. Last of all, the poor Frog, who received the brand when it had burned down to a very little piece, hopped along so heavily that his pursuers gained on him, gained fast and surely. In vain he gathered himself for every spring, in vain he stretched at every leap till the jarred muscles cracked again. He was caught. The smoke-dimmed eyes stood out from his head, his little heart thumped like a club against the lean fingers that closed upon his body—yet that wild croak was not the croak of despair. Once more for the hope of the Cahrocs! one more struggle for the Coyote that trusted him in this great thing! and with a gulp the plucky little martyr swallowed the fire, tore himself from the hands that held him, leaped into a river, and diving deep and long, gained his goal; but gained it a mournful wreck, the handsome tail, which, of all his race, only the tadpole should ever wear again, was utterly gone, left, like that of an O'Shanter's mare, in the witch's grasp; only the ghost of himself was left to spit out on some pieces of wood the precious embers preserved at so great a cost. And it is because the Frog spat out this fire upon these pieces of wood that it can always be extracted again by rubbing them hard together.']

[118] [Ibid., vol. 3, p. 549. 'I conclude with a sun-myth of the Pallawonaps, who lived on Kern River in southern California. Pokoh made all things. Long ago the sun was a man. The sun is bad and wishes to kill all things, but the moon is good. The sun's rays are arrows, and he gives a bundle to every creature, more to the lion, fewer to the coyote, etc.; but to none does he give an arrow that will slay a man. The coyote wished to go to the sun, and he asked Pokoh the road. Pokoh pointed out to him a good road, and the coyote travelled on it all day, but the sun turned round, so he travelled in a circle, and came back at night to the place whence he had started in the morning. A second time he asked Pokoh, and a second time he came back in a circle. Then Pokoh told him to go straight to the eastern edge of the earth, and wait there until the sun came up. So the coyote went and sat down on the hole where the sun came up, with his back turned to the east, and kept pointing with his arrow in every direction, pretending he was going to shoot. The sun came up under him, and told him to get out of the way. But the coyote sat there until it became so warm that he was obliged to coil up his tall under him. Then he began to get thirsty, and asked the sun for water. The sun gave him an acorn-cup full, but this did not satisfy the coyote s great thirst. Next his shoulders began to get warm, so he spat on his paws and rubbed his back with them. Then he said to the sun, Why do you come up here, meddling with me? But the sun said, I am not meddling with you; I am travelling where I have a right to travel. The coyote told him to go round some other way, that that was his road, but the sun insisted on going straight up. Then the coyote wanted to go up with him, so the good-natured sun took him along. Presently they came to a path with steps like a ladder, and as the sun went up he counted the steps; when they got up above the world, the coyote found it getting hot and wanted to jump down, but the distance was too great. By noon the sun was very hot and bright, and he told the coyote to shut his eyes. He did so, but he opened them quickly again, and so kept opening and shutting them all the afternoon, to see how fast the sun was sliding down. When the sun came down to the earth in the west, the coyote jumped off onto a tree, and so clambered down to the ground.']

[119] [Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 231. 'They should rather be interpreted by the curious custom of the Toukaways, a wild people in Texas, of predatory and unruly disposition. They celebrate their origin by a grand annual dance. One of them, naked as he was born, is buried in the earth. The others, clothed, in wolf skins, walk over him, snuff around him, howl in lupine style, and finally dig him up with their nails. The leading wolf then solemnly places a bow and arrow in his hands, and to his inquiry as to what he must do for a living, paternally advises him "to do as the wolves do rob, kill, and murder, rove from place to place, and never cultivate the soil."' Quoting Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, vol. 5, p. 683.]

[120] [Rit. 125. 'I do not let you cross over me, says the Floor of the Door unless you tell me my name. The Bow of Seb is thy name.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf.]

[123] [Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 105. 'The natives of Zuni, in New Mexico, employed four of its feathers to represent the four winds in their invocations for rain (Whipple), and probably it was the eagle which a tribe in Upper California (the Acagchemem) worshipped under the name Panes.' From Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 2, p. 244.
Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 168. 'The Acagchemems, like many other California tribes, regard the great buzzard with sentiments of veneration, while they seem to have had connected with it several rites and ideas peculiar to themselves. They called this bird the panes, and once every year they had a festival of the same name, in which the principal ceremony was the killing of a buzzard without losing a drop of its blood. It was next skinned, all possible care being taken to preserve the feathers entire, as these were used in making the feathered petticoat and diadem, already described as part of the tobet. Last of all, the body was buried within the sacred enclosure, amid great apparent grief from the old women, they mourning as over the loss of relative or friend. Tradition explained this: the panes had indeed been once a woman, whom, wandering in the mountain ways, the great god Chinigchinich had come suddenly upon and changed into a bird. How this was connected with the killing of her anew every year by the people, and with certain extraordinary ideas held relative to that killing, is, however, by no means clear; for it was believed that often as the bird was killed it was made alive again, and more, and faith to move mountains that the birds killed in one same yearly feast in many separate villages were one and the same bird.']

[124] [Rit. ch. 17. 'The Bennu [Phoenix] is Osiris who is in Annu [Heliopolis].' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf.]

[127] [Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, p. 145. 'The cannibals were tired, and sat down. She went on; but she was tired too. She saw a very high tree; it was a great tree. She went to it, and climbed into it, and sat on a bird's twig. The cannibals arose and pursued their journey, she being now a great way off; They came to the tree; they being now again tired, they sat down at the foot of the tree, resting and saying they would presently pursue her again, when they had rested.
The girl was carrying a vessel of water, which leaked; it leaked upon the cannibals; they heard a sound, "Kho! kho!" They were frightened, and said, "What is that?" They looked up, and saw the girl sitting on the very top, on a mere bird's twig. They were glad, and began to cut. down the tree with their axes, for they had axes in their hands: they hewed the tree, some standing on one side, and some on the other. When the tree was now about to fall, it worked backwards and forwards, became still, and then sank down and became firm, and was just as it was at first. Again they hewed, some before and some behind, some on each side. They hewed it; and when it was about to fall, it did the same again; it settled down and became firm, and was again just as it was at first. Again they hewed; and when it was about to fall, again it settled down and became firm, and was again just as it was at first.']

[128] [Ibid., p. 1477. 'In the morning he went out, taking with him his very great dogs; he went to hunt in the direction of the place of which he had dreamed. As be was hunting he saw a crowd of cannibals under a tree, hewing the tree. He went to them with his great dogs; he came to them, and said, "What are you hewing here, my friends?" They said, "Come and help us hew, our brother. There is our game on the top of the tree." He looked up, and saw that it was his sister. His heart sunk. He turned away their attention from his agitation, and helped them hew the tree. He tried very little to hew; and then said, "Just let us take some snuff, my friends." They sat down. He made his dogs come to his side. He poured out some snuff, and gave them; and when they were taking it, he set his dogs on them; they laid hold of them, and drove them, the dogs running and killing them. They all died. So there is an end.']

[133] [Rit. ch. 125. 'Come, come in peace, say those who see them, because the Osiris has heard the great words said by the Ass and the Cat in the house of Pet, whose mouth is twisted when he looks, because his face is behind him.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf.]

[134] [Rowley, The Religion of the Africans, pp. 58-9. 'They have their tutelary deities, concerning one of whom I gained some information. The Manganja suppose that a spirit, whom they call Bona, dwells on the top of a mountain called Choro, and though they regard him with awe, they think him to be a beneficent deity. He is looked upon as the dispenser of peace and plenty, and the giver of wise counsel. He is said to have a visible presence, but, save in dreams, no one is supposed to have seen him. A priestess, not necessarily a virgin, though from the time she is selected she, on pain of death, must eschew the society of men, is devoted to his service; and through her Bona communicates with his worshippers. In vulgar language, this woman is spoken of as Bona's wife, and being compelled to live alone on the mountain-top, a wife is often needed for Bona, for such an isolation proves speedily fatal to African women.
When the spirit's advice is required, the chief, or his representative, and a retinue of drum-beaters and horn-blowers, and the bearers of the necessary offerings, ascend the mountain. On their approach to the sacred ground, the priestess secludes herself in her hut, in front of which the offerings are laid, and the difficulty requiring the aid of the spirit's counsel to solve, is stated. The people then retire, the priestess proceeds to the hut devoted to Bona, who during the night appears to her in a dream, and declares his will with respect to the subject upon which his advice is sought. In the morning the people again resort to the priestess, and hear the message which she has been commissioned to deliver.']

[135] [Harris, 'Some Remarks on the Origin, Manners, Customs, and Superstitions of the Gallinas People of Sierra Leone,' MRAS, 2, 31. 'One of the most noteworthy of their institutions is the porra, which, under different names is, I believe, common to most parts of Africa. Amongst the Gallinas, the porra is of two kinds, religious and political: the women have also a similar institution of their own, called boondoo, to which men are not admitted. The porra is to my knowledge practised as far as Sugary. I have been in "porra bushes" at Sugary, on the sea-board, and at Firo, in the interior, to the east, where I have met messengers from the chiefs of the Vey country, which lies, as I have before said, between Cape Mount and Cape Mesurado; and from this I infer, that they have also the porra in that country. No person is admitted into the religious porra without being circumcised; he must also live in the porra bush, apart from the rest of the population, for a certain time, during which time no female must set eyes on him, and he is supposed, in country parlance, to have been eaten by the porra devil. After his initiation, when he is about to be released from the porra bush, a porra name is given to him, such as Banna Cong, etc., etc., and he is then supposed to have been delivered from the belly of the porra devil. The ceremony of the initiation of neophytes is only performed twice a year, and the number of men and boys brought out in this manner at one town, upon each occasion, frequently amounts to fifty. It is a time of great rejoicing; a holiday is kept at the town in which it takes place, and dancing, drinking, feasting, firing of guns, etc., is kept up, night and day, until their supplies are exhausted.']

[137] [Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 187. 'The Porrobung of Eastern Australia was truly a mystic dance in a mystic ring. Mr. Threlkeld tells us that the word por means both to drop down and to be born. In some dances the chief performer was believed to be inspired, and uttered strange tongues in his frenzy.']

[138] [Dugmore, 'Rev. H.H. Dugmore's Papers, as published in the Christian Watchman during 1846, 1847,' in Maclean, A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, p. 159.]

[140] [Histories, bk. 7.69. 'The Arabians wore loose mantles girt up, and they carried at their right side bows that bent backward of great length. The Ethiopians had skins of leopards and lions tied upon them, and bows made of a slip of palm-wood, which were of great length, not less than four cubits, and for them small arrows of reed with a sharpened stone at the head instead of iron, the same stone with which they engrave seals: in addition to this they had spears, and on them was the sharpened horn of a gazelle by way of a spear-head, and they had also clubs with knobs upon them. Of their body they used to smear over half with white, when they went into battle, and the other half with red. Of the Arabians and the Ethiopians who dwelt above Egypt the commander was Arsames, the son of Dareios and of Artystone, the daughter of Cyrus, whom Dareios loved most of all his wives, and had an image made of her of beaten gold.' Tr., Macauley.]

[141] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1. 26. 'When they would denote an opening, they delineate a HARE, because this animal always has its eyes open.']

[145] [Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities, (3rd ed.), vol. 1, p, 23. 'To the account given by Le Roux of the French way of choosing King and Queen, may be added that in Normandy they place a child under the table, which is covered in such a manner with the cloth that he cannot see what is doing; and when the cake is divided, one of the company taking up the first piece, cries out, "Fabe Domini pour qui?" The child answers, "Pour le bon Dieu:" and in this manner the pieces are allotted to the company. If the bean be found in piece for the "bon Dieu," the king is chosen by drawing long or short straws. Whoever gets the bean chooses the King or Queen, according as it happens to be a man or woman.']

[148] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 2.21. 'A STAG shoots its horns every year, and when depicted, signifies anything of long duration.'
Ibid., bk. 2.10. 'The BONE OF A QUAIL when delineated symbolizes permanency and safety; because the bone of this animal is difficult to be affected.'
Note 3: 'Bone with flesh upon it is common. Probably "Son." Sh. 1012.' See plate 2.
Note: 'This plate, sketched by Mr. Bonomi, from a tomb in Thebes, represents a judgment scene in which, as explained by Champollion, different souls are ascending the steps to judgment by Osiris. The soul of a glutton last condemned is departing in the boat in the form of a swine. See book II. chapter 37: and for the inverted stags’ heads, which seem to have some connection with eternity, see book I. chapter 69, and book II. chapter 21. A similar judgment scene appears upon the sarcophagus from Belzoni's tomb in Sir J. Soame's museum.' Note by Cory.]

[150] [Tanner, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, p. 192. 'The Chipewyans of North America also make their magic drawings of shoulder-blades, which they then threw into the fire.' From Lubbock, The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man, p. 239.]

[152] [Hyde, Historia Religionis veterum Persarum, ch. 2. Al Beidawi's commentary on the Koran. From Sale, The Koran, ch. 21. 'Abraham took his opportunity to do this while the Chaldeans were abroad in the fields, celebrating a great festival; and some say he hid himself in the temple: and when he had accomplished his design, that he might the more evidently convince them of their folly in worshipping them, he hung the axe, with which he had hewn and broken down the images, on the neck of the chief idol, named by some writers, Baal; as if he had been the author of all the mischief.']

[153] [Rowley, The Religion of the Africans, p. 96. 'At the present time the observances at funerals are everywhere similar in character. When the Bechuana perceive indications of death they throw a net over the body, and hold it in a sitting posture, with the knees brought in contact with the chin, till life is gone. The grave, which is frequently made in the fence surrounding the cattle-fold itself, if for a man, is about three feet in diameter, and six feet deep. The body is not conveyed through the door of the courtyard, but through an opening made in the fence for that purpose. It is carried to the grave, having the head covered with a skin, and is buried in a sitting posture, with the face facing the north. The grave is gradually filled in with many ceremonies and much lamentation; and in every act and word on these occasions they show that they have some idea that the dead are not annihilated. Indeed, when they dream of a deceased relative, they believe that he has really visited them, and they make offerings at his grave to satisfy his supposed wants.']

[154] [Rit. ch. 163. 'Oh Paru! [the Lion] glorious, tall plumes! Lord of the Crown, flogging [turning back] with a whip. Thou art Lord of the Generation, growing as the morning light without limit when it shines. Thou art Lord of the numerous Transformations of Skins, hiding them in the Eye at its birth. Thou art the settler of quarrels among the Gods, the great runner, the swift of foot. Thou art the God, the protector of him who has brought his cry to thee. I complain, I protest against, those who hurt me; my cry has come! I am the Cow, thy name is in my mouth. I will tell it, Penha kahakahar is thy name. Aur au aa karusa ank, Ruba ta is thy name. Kher mau ser is thy name! Rhnrusata is thy name. I have adored thy name. I am the Cow listening to these words the day I have made thee warmth under the head of the Sun, placing it in the Gate of the God of Time in Annu [Heliopolis]. Let him be as if he was on earth. He is thy soul, let him have no harm. The Osiris has come. Let warmth be placed under his head. Yes! He is the Soul of the body of the Great One who is at rest in Annu [Heliopolis] Light, Great Creator, is his name! Barukatatau is his name. Go thou, let him be as one of thy flying servants. Thou art he, he is thou.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf.]

[155] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 2. 69. 'When they would symbolise a man overcome by his inferiors, they depict TWO SKINS, one of an HYÆNA, and the other of a PANTHER; for if these two skins be placed together, the panther's shoots its hair, but the other does not.']

[156] [Rit. ch. 166. 'Thou makest to me a skin; thou wishest to say what is well known. Hidden is thy name, Ruta sa shaka.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf.]

[157] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.40. 'When they denote government, or a judge, they place close against the dog a ROYAL ROBE, the undress garment: because like the dog, who, as I said before, gazes intently on the images of the gods, so likewise the minister, being in the more ancient times a judge also, used to see the king naked, and on this account they add the royal garment.']

[158] [The Heart of Africa, vol. 1, p. 301. 'The graves are always close to the huts, their site being marked by a number of long forked branches, carved, by way of ornament, with numerous notches and incisions, and having their points sharpened like horns. Of these votive stakes I saw a number varying from one to five on each grave. The typical meaning belonging to these sticks has long since fallen into oblivion, and notwithstanding all my endeavours to become acquainted with the Bongo, and to initiate myself into their manners and customs, I could never discover a satisfactory explanation. The sticks reminded me of the old English finance-budgets in the time of William the Conqueror. In answer to my inquiries, the Khartoomers merely returned the same answer as they did to my predecessor, Heuglin; they persisted in saying that every notch denoted an enemy killed in battle by the deceased. The Bongo themselves, however, repeatedly declared that such was by no means the case, and quite repudiated the idea that they should ever think of thus perpetuating the bloodthirstiness of the dead.']

[159] [Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the Zaire, p. 380. 'Besides the individual fetiches which are selected by a priest, or by the caprice of the wearer, various striking objects of nature are held in general estimation. The Taddi Enzazzi, or lightning stone, and the fetisch rock, are objects of this kind. The latter is considered as the peculiar residence of Seembi, the spirit which presides over the river. On the side of some rocks inhabited by fishermen, round the point of Soonda, are a number of raised figures, formed apparently with sand and ashes and laid on wet, which, when indurated, appear like stone sculptured in low relief. The annexed plates are fac-similes of those figures copied by Lieutenant Hawkey, respecting which, lie observes, that he could not learn, from any inquiries he was able to make, whether they had any connection with the religious notions of the people, though they went by the name of fetiches.'

1. A gentleman in his hammock and guard.
2. A gentleman borne by his slave.
3. Unknown.
4. Unknown.
5. Unknown.
6. A lizard.
7. An alligator.
8. Unknown.
9. Unknown.
10. A hippopotamus.
11. Unknown.
12. A buffalo.
13. A chasseur.
14. A buffalo.
15. A bird.
16. Unknown.
17. An alligator.

18. A hunter killing a deer.
19. A bird.
20. A gentleman in his hammock.
21. A snake.
22. Unknown.
23. A man shooting a bird.
24. An old man and a young one killing an alligator.
25. Unknown.
26. A hunter and hippopotamus.
27. An elephant.
28. Unknown.
29. A hunter, a deer, and an alligator.
30. Tattooing figures.
31. A man and snake.
32. A gentleman in his hammock.
33. A ship.

[161] [Ez. 37:7. 'So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.']

[163] [Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the Zaire, p. 375. 'Ignorance has always been accounted the prolific mother of superstition. Those of the negroes of Congo would be mere subjects of ridicule, if they were harmless to society; which however is not the case. Every man has his fetiche, and some at least a dozen, being so many tutelary deities, against every imaginable evil that may befal them. The word is Portuguese, fetiço, and signifies a charm, witchcraft, magic, &c.; and what is remarkable enough, it is in universal use among all the negro tribes of the Western Coast.']

[164] [The Last Journals of Dr. David Livingstone. I can find no ref. to red-and-white beads. Plenty of mention is made of beads (and cowrie shells) as being commodities in much demand and used for bartering. But see:
Ibid., p. 379. 'Public punishment to Chirango for stealing beads, fifteen cuts; diminished his load to 40 lbs., giving him blue and white beads to be strung.
Ibid., p. 179. 'She replied that she would, and I duly sent for two strings of red beads, which I presented.']

[167] [םימצע, Eccles. 11:5. 'As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.']

[168] [Casalis, The Basutos, p. 251 From Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ch. 6. See p. 109.]

[169] [Rowley, The Religion of the Africans, p. 118. 'Perhaps the most remarkable phase of belief in transmigration of souls is found amongst the Ashantees, who think that the Kla, i.e. the soul of man, exists before the body; that it has had a very long existence indeed, having passed from one human body to another from remotest periods. So thoroughly has this become an article of faith with them, that when a woman finds that she is about to become a mother, she resorts to the priestly oracle, that she may obtain particulars from the Kla of her future child as to its ancestry and intended career.']

[172] [Other fables compiled by L. C. Lloyd from Bleek's collection were later published after his death as Specimens of Bushman Folklore, 1911.]