KELIGIOX OF THK BA-VKXI)A. 213 



ask kim : " Where is the assagai of your father? " " I do 

 not know," answers the man, " How is it? You have lost 

 it ? You are exceedingly guilty ! Gro and fetch one at once 

 to take its place." And a blacksmith will be called in haste 

 and will forge an assagai which will replace the lost one. 

 Then that man, the father of the sick child, will go to the 

 entrance of his hut, either on the right or on tlie left side. 

 Half buried in the soil there a curious elongated stone is 

 standing. It is the altar. The worshipper will put tlie assagai 

 against that stone, take a little water in his mouth, emit it 

 on the weapon with a sound similar to " Pha ! " This is the 

 *' pliasa," the true sacrificing act. And he will pray: " Pha I 

 My father! This is your assagai. I have found it again. 

 Leave the sick child that he may live. Pha I If it is you, 

 grandfather; if it is you great-grandfather; if it is you, my 

 paternal aunt (makhadzi), or anybody else amongst you whom 

 I do not know, please have pity on me and give us life! 



This is the typical Venda family sacrifice, and it reveals 

 to us the main features of their ancestor worship. 



]!^otice the part played by the assagai. At the death of 

 a headman his assagai is solemnly remitted to his elder son. 

 He will take a very special care of it, and it is rare that a 

 man should be so neglectful as i\\e one of whom we just heard 

 Ihe story. This assagai belonged to tlie father, the g-rand- 

 father. the great-grandfather, as far back as one_ can 

 remember. They have used it ; a part of their personality is 

 still attached to it. No wonder that it should be the means 

 of entering into communication with them. Amongst the 

 Tlicnga, in some clans, one keeps a sacred object formed of 

 all the nails and hair of the deceased chiefs glued together 

 bv a kind of wax in order to introduce the prayers addressed 

 to them. (See " The Life of a South African Tribe," vol. i, 

 p. 360.) Tt is the same idea, based on one of the main 

 principles of magic : Pars pro tofo. You possess a portion of 

 something; through it you may act on the whole. The bow, 

 the arrows, the axe of the forefathers are also used for the 

 purpose, and may be placed on the altar. But tlie assagai is 

 tabooed more than any other object. 



Curious to say, women also have their assagai ; it is called 

 " Ludo." The blade is not fixed on the top of the stick (it is 

 taboo!), but on the side, at the extremity, in the same way 

 as a Kaffir pick on its handle. The Ba-Venda are more 

 " feminist " than any other South African tribe I know. 

 Amongst them women can possess cattle, and their last son 

 inherits it, whilst the elder inherits from the father. And 

 amongst them women also frequently perform religious acts. 

 This may happen amongst Thongas, but it is rare, whilst 

 amongst Yendas feminine sacrifices are of regular occurrence, 

 as we shall see. When called upon to preside over such a 

 religious ceremony — for instance, when the bones have revealed 

 that the disease has been caused by a god of the mother's 

 family, and that the offerine- has to be made by a feminine 

 ao-ent — the elder woman takes her ludo, which she has 



