RELIGION 0¥ THE BA-VE>'J)A. 211 



the cave and inquired on the spot about the Xwali leg-end.* 

 At any rate, the Ba-Venda apply to their Raluvimbi all the 

 marvellous feats of his colleagues of Mashonaland. The 

 orig-inal figure of Ealuvinibi has certainly been transfonned 

 by this identification, which is no doubt the result of the 

 protracted sojourn of the Yenda tribe in the Bakalanga 

 country. 



Is really Raluvimbi, as the Eev. Gothschling- says, " the 

 rewarder of good and pxmisher of evil? " AVhen I asked a 

 Yenda heathen of the Mpefu clan if indeed their god punislied 

 evildoers, he laughed. It seems that he had never put the 

 idea of retributive justice to the credit of Raluvimbi. I think, 

 in fact, that Raluvimbi, as well as Khudzane, of tlie Pedi and 

 other Bantu deities, belong to an age in which the truly 

 moral god, the god of judgment, had not yet been conceived ! 



II. — ^Ancestoe, Worship: The Badzimu. 



If the monotheistic notion which found its expression in 

 the Raluvimbi belief is very vague, the ancestor worship of 

 the Ba-Yenda is much more concrete, consisting, as it does, 

 in precise rites, the meaning of which is not difficult to detect. 



The gods are called " Badzimu " (sing. Mudzimu), 

 evidently the same root as the Suto " Mudimo." Eveiy human 

 being becomes a Mudzimu at his death. However, he is not 

 worshipped for a number of years. It is believed, as we sliall 

 see, that if he dies far away from home, he returns to the 

 mountain of the clan to join his ancestors there. The rule 

 is that in such a case he will be buried in the place where 

 he died. A brancli of a tree which continues to live when 

 cut is then planted on the grave in order to remind where 

 the corpse lies, because, after a number of years, his bones 

 will have to be taken out of the ground and carried to the 

 sacred " thaba " (mountain). Nowadays the custom is 

 disappearing, because natives are afraid that the white people 

 who rule the country may object to such practices and arrest 

 the funeral party. Thus the residence of the Badzimu is on 

 the hill of the clan or in the dense forest which is generally 

 kept there. But in some cases they are believed to dwell in 

 the deep pools of certain rivers — for instance, in the Makonde 

 or at Pipiti. without speaking of tiie mysterious " Sidud- 

 wane," who are said to have only one eye. one arm, and one 

 leg, who stav in the waters of the Umfuncludzi Lake. But it 

 is very doubtful that these Sidudwana are real Badzimu. 

 They rather seem to belong to the category of the ogres or 

 other phantastic beings, Avhich are the product of folk-lore 

 rather than of religion. 



* At the meeting; in Bulawayo, Rev. Nevil Jones told me that Nwali 

 has two caves in the Matopo Hills, the first is the one in which he is 

 supposed to reside, the other is his bathroom. This latter one is 

 jealously hidden by the natives. These caves are no doubt different 

 from the Mbvumela cave. It would be a good thing if our Rhodesian 

 colleagues could gather all the data relating to the Bakalanga god 

 and \\rite the full legend of Nwali. 



