RELIGION OF THE UA-VENUA. 215 



is at the top of the cane, and say: " Eat the flower with joy, 

 grandfather, and leave ns the stem, that Ave also slionld eat 

 it with joj'ful heart." 



13nt should the oxen die, or should the headman be poor, 

 he will consult the bones, which will say: " Never mind, if 

 you have no ox, go and fetch a stone in the river ; it, will be 

 your ox." The man will choose a well-polished, cylindrical 

 stone, and put it somewhere near his hut. The regular place 

 is at the entrance. The stone is half buried in the red soil, 

 and the i)lace all round is well smeared. Some bulbs of an 

 Amaryllida, called " Lohonie " or " Muthangwana " (belong- 

 ing, I think, to the genus Hypoxis) are planted also on the 

 spot. Shifaladzi could not tell me why. Is it in order to 

 introduce some j^uetry in the religion V I do not know. 



Consultation of bones, possession of the assagai of the 

 ancestors, consecration of an ox which is a human being, or 

 of a stone which is an ox, that ox which is a human being — 

 one can see that there are many conditions to fulfil to reach 

 the gods, even for the headman of a family. And for his 

 younger brothers there is still the necessity of passing through 

 their elder to obtain a hearing from the all-powerful ancestors. 



On the other hand, Bantu, and especially Ba-Yenda, do 

 not make the worship particularly difficult as regards the 

 nature and the value of offerings. Water is generally all 

 that is required. Yet there are occasions on which it is not 

 sufficient. Let us return to the case of the sick child. If the 

 offering of water thrown from the mouth on the altar has 

 not been successful in curing him, the bones consulted for a 

 second time may say: " The angry god is not satisfied. He 

 asks for a goat to clothe him " (mbudzi ya u dzwindisa). 

 This will be a real sacrifice, and it will be performed in this 

 very curious and significant manner. 



A goat will be provided. It is put before a basin of 

 water mixed with certain drugs and forced to drink, to drink 

 till it is full of it, till it dies. It is then skinned and cut 

 open. The large intestine is extracted from the body, a part 

 of it is cut and stitched at one of its extremities so as to form 

 a kind of pouch. From each limb a bit of meat is taken, and 

 quite a provision of seeds of " mufoho " corn, millet, mealies 

 brought on the spot, together with drugs. All these kinds 

 of food are introduced into the pouch, this filling up being 

 accompanied with prayers to the ancestor spirit. And wdiilst 

 the father proceeds Avith it, he puts seeds in the goat's intestine 

 with one hand, and, Avitli the other, he takes other seeds and 

 places them apart. These he Avill keep carefully, to sow them 

 later on. And he goes on praying: "Eat plenty and be 

 satiated," do?s he tell the ance,;tor, " and leave us some for 

 our use." This part of the goat's intestine has become a 

 person. It is henceforth identified with the deceased grand- 

 father. Thus the god has been fed. duly stuffed. The pouch 

 is then stitched at the other extremity. But hoav the ancestor 

 must be clothed also ! A strap is cut out of the goat's skin, 

 and the sacrificer winds it all round the pouch. Cariying the 



