NATIVES OF AFRICA IN THE i6tH CENTURY. 1 39 



Native to tile place where the sheep lie had given to Xuiia X'elho 

 had been skinned. He ordered this man (who was no doubt the 

 priest of the family) to take some half digested grass in the 

 bowels of the animal, and he threw it into the sea with words 

 of thanksgiving, " for having brought Portuguese to his land as 

 he expected great gain from them." Xo\v, this is exactly the 

 rite which takes place in most of the sacrifices of South African 

 Bantu. This grass is called psanyii in Thonga, and its impor- 

 tance is fully shown in my description of Thonga Ancestrolatry.* 

 The habit of throwing [>sonyi into the sea is practised exactly in 

 the same way amongst some Thonga. It is an invocation to the 

 ."'Pirits of the ancestor, who are buried near the sea. and are more 

 (;r less confounded with the impersonal power of the sea itself, 

 this rite showing the transition between a ]mrely ancestrolatric 

 and a naturist sacrifice. f 



It i> natural that the travellers had no 0]5portunity (jf wit- 

 nessing many manifestations of the ancestor worship, as thev are 

 generall\ purely private acts of the family 'ite. Even the Jesuit 

 fathers did not notice the details of it. They, however, heard 

 Gamba people speak about " Muzimo." spirits v;hich come at 

 night to ask for food and they give them food and drink, placing 

 it at the foot of a big green tree." These Muzimo are certainly 

 the Manes, the spirits of the departed. Besides these Fernandez 

 speaks of " Umbe " as being the name of God in the tril^e. Thi< 

 IJmbe is probably Mumbi, the Creator, or rather the " Former " 

 of the world, from the root kn bitmba, to make pots, a -root very 

 widespread in the Bantu languages. This God is often con- 

 founded with the Sky and the Su)i, and Natives have a number 

 of curious ideas about him which constitute ^\'hat I called their 

 deistic notion. 



According to the Reports. White men are called by the 

 Natives Sons of the Sun, " because they are white like the sun." 

 Heaven is inhabited by . mysterious beings which cause the 

 thunderstorms and rain. This is almost the same superstition 

 as that of the " balungwane " still met with amongst the Thonga- 

 Shangaan ; balungwane, . little men who are said to inhabit 

 heaven and look down to us. When they see a man walking on 

 earth they sometimes discuss \vho h.e is. If not agreeing, they 

 spit on the traveller; he looks to the sky to see where this un- 

 expected drop of rain comes from ; they then see his face, and 

 thus they know himj. 



The fact that these mythical beings are called baluus^'icaua, 

 diminutive of baliin^s^o, the name given to White people in Zulu 

 and Thonga is interesting to note, and shows that the meaning 

 of the word balungo might have been precisely: people of heaven. 



The rescued people of the San Thome having left a few sick 

 Portuguese in the village of the chief of Inhampula, this man 



*Cf. of. cit.. Vol. IT, p. 361-385- 



t Vol. II, p. 29Q. 



t See op. cit., Vol. II, p. 405- 



