242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sliadows, Tlie beclioe of women who liave died in childbed are 

 sui^posed. to seize men's arms and. try to twist them around and 

 set them wrong side foremost. A kind, of angelic being is ap- 

 pointed to convey the souls of the dead back to the soul-stock 

 or string from which they were cut off and allotted to their 

 personages at the time of their birth. Next in order are those 

 ancestors who are honored on sjoecial occasions, and after them 

 the near ancestors, of whom images are made, which the m6k6- 

 m6k6 accepts as its abode. Offerings are made most usually in 

 a propitiatory shape, as when Latoere is asked to choose an- 

 other man instead of the one he has made ill, or the shadow of a 

 pig or of a hen is offered to the bechoe instead of the shadow of 

 a man. 



The priests form a separate class. The sign of the calling to 

 the office is a fit of insanity or some illness. After a spell of 

 wandering, the candidate qualifies himself for his functions by 

 means of a short course of instruction from an active priest. 



The minor divinities, or adoes (idols), are very numerous ; and 

 in order to make sure of accosting the right one for a particular 

 occasion, the priest institutes a kind of ordeal. One of the test- 

 forms is to name the list of the divinities while trying to make an 

 egg, rest on a bottle : the one at whose name the egg stands is the 

 right one. A new adoe or idol has to be carved for every case of 

 illness ; and the offering is made while the patient is holding the 

 image in his hand, with drumming and prayers. In invocations 

 of Latoere, three mediators are employed between the priest and 

 the god ; the adoe, which is asked to transmit the matter ; Salio, 

 who was formerly a man on the earth, but has been translated to 

 the sky, who intercedes with the third mediator, a being whose 

 part in the affair is not very clear. 



If the prayers find a hearing, Saho reveals the . sign, which is 

 manifested in a great wave or cloud floating above, but can be 

 received only by sunlight. The priest intercepts it with a cloth, 

 upon which it is reflected, in a shape like that of a glow-worm, 

 and puts it upon the patient's brow, whereupon he is made well. 

 This sign, called soemange, is also received in answer to many 

 other offerings which are not made to Latoere, but it always 

 comes from him, uj^on whom life or death ultimately depends. 

 Offerings to the ancestral gods are seldom made in cases of ill- 

 ness, but usually to ask a blessing or avert misfortunes, or on 

 special occasions, as the birth of a child or a marriage, in the way 

 of announcement. These divinities are held in very high honor, 

 and all manner of evil is predicted against any one who re- 

 nounces them and goes over to Christianity. 



A sin-offering is made for a chief who in any aft'air or case 

 of offense has not done right, and is afraid that he will be made 



