LITERATURE OF THE AFRICAN NEGROES. 243 



who hears their music for the first time is annoyed, but as he becomes 

 accustomed to it he enjoys it. Bishop Steere says that the music 

 of a very popular song among the Suahelis resembles that of the 

 Gregorian chants. 



While the proverbs and the riddles are generally too truthful in 

 expression to let the personality of the authors be seen in them, in 

 the songs, on the other hand, the man appears behind his work; he 

 relates by preference adventures in which he has been the hero — vic- 

 tories over his enemies or great successes in hunting. 



Sometimes the author gives a pompous eulogy of himself; and 

 even when he sings the praises of the lady of his heart he begins 

 with proclaiming that he is no less a brave champion than an excel- 

 lent poet, and declares himself ready to defend his double reputa- 

 tion in single combat. He takes the part of one or another of the 

 personages he puts in the scene, and makes personal observations of 

 his own concerning their conduct — as, for example, in mentioning 

 some horrible crime, he says, " So it is told, but it is hard to believe 

 that the story of such a crime can be true." 



The higher classes of the blacks, as the caste of the Magi, or of 

 the doctors and noble families from whom the members of the 

 government are chosen, are jealous custodians of the history of the 

 tribe and its cosmological traditions. These cosmological myths, in 

 which are unfolded the origin of the universe, the creation of man, 

 the entrance of death into the world, the alternations of the seasons, 

 and other natural phenomena, undoubtedly date from a very remote 

 antiquity; it is not certain that they have always existed in the 

 same form they have now, but it is probable, from the veneration 

 with which they are regarded, that they have been preserved sub- 

 stantially intact. They confirm the opinion that primitive mankind 

 had a common fund of ideas which varied very little in different 

 places; and, indeed, the mythological representations of the negroes 

 may often lead us back to a prototype which is also that of similar 

 representations among the Aryan peoples. 



The Timmi, for example, have a giant who resembles the Atlas 

 of our mythology. He has to sustain the earth, which is disk- 

 shaped. In the long course of the bearing of this burden the head 

 of the giant and the earth have become one body; the grass which 

 we tread upon and the trees that cover us with their shade are the 

 hair of the giant; and the animals of every kind are the unwelcome 

 guests of his hair. When the giant, tired of standing all the time 

 in the same position, turns quickly, there is an earthquake. The 

 traditions of the Timmi, like those of the Judseo-Christians, teach 

 that evil and death came into the world in consequence of the sin 

 of one man, while there was nothing terrible in the matter at first. 



