EKLIGIOX OF THE BA-VEXDA. 219 



dies, becomes a baLooii and goes to the sacred hill of Loiiioiido 

 to dwell there. There is a specially big- baboon amongst 

 them. It never utters a cry. It is very old. It is the chief of 

 the flock, and the principal ancestor god. Only when a great 

 misfortune threatens the tribe one Avill hear it coming- out 

 of the forest and shouting- loudly. Should a member of the 

 clan die far away from the Lomondo, it is the old baboon 

 which will go, accompanied by others, to fetch the new 

 Mudzimu, who has been transformed into a baboon, and it 

 will bring the new god to the sacred hill. At the time of 

 the first fruit ceremony, the consecrated beer will not only 

 be pouied on the back of the ox-grandfather, but part of it 

 will be brought to the forest of the gods and poured on a rock 

 for the baboon god. And whea the party which went into 

 the forest returns to the village, one will hear a loud cry. It 

 is the old baboon, who once more has abandoned its obstinate 

 mutism to express its thankfulness for the offering-. Then 

 all the women assembled in the villages at the foot of the hill 

 will burst into cries of joy, those same peculiar yells with 

 which they greeted Ealuvimbi when he visited the country. 



Similar customs are prevalent among-st the Ba-Xngwe, 

 the clan of the leopard, who have their mountain in the north 

 of the country. It is strongly forbidden to them to kill a 

 leopard : it will mean killing the ancestor god, and the man 

 guilty of such an oifence would die. 



The Ba-Shidzive have the lion as totem. Their mountain 

 is situated in the place called Thathe, and is the residence of 

 Xethathe, the big lion, who is also their great ancestor god. 

 It is believed that, though all the members of the clan become 

 lions at their death, most of them spread all over the country 

 where it is not prohibited to kill them. The only one which 

 is taboo is the lion chief in the forest. However, men of this 

 clan do not eat lion's meat at all. 



If I were treating the subject of totemism fully, there 

 would be much to say about the Ba-ila-singo, viz., those who 

 taboo the elephant's tinimp, who are the members of the royal 

 family; the Ba-ila-lSTdowu, who venerate the elephant itself, 

 and have many sub-divisions ; the Ba-!N^goba taboo the mush- 

 room; the Ba-Keebo, tbe wild boar and the pig; some clans 

 have birds as totems. Yenda totemism, I venture to say, is 

 a M-ide subject of inquiry, which I am far from having fully 

 studied. I wanted only to explain the striking relation estab- 

 lished in some clans between the totem animal and the ancestor 

 god, and on the belief in a kind of transmigration of souls, 

 which is by no means common amongst Bantu of these parts. 



Will it be possible here to find the explanation of totemism, 

 this complex of ideas and superstitions so curious, so vag-ue, 

 so incoherent? It has often been thought that the veneration 

 showed to the totem animal came from the assumption that 

 he was the originator of the tribe which has adopted it. 

 Would it not be more probable that, on the contrary, the 



