l8o THE SACRIFICE Ol- RECONCILIATION. 



solemn declaration is the djieta. Some time elapses j^ that man is 

 called with all the other men of the district to go " Ku tjehen," 

 viz., to kill the fish in the lake. The water has dried up and the 

 whole male population is summoned to a kind of fishing which is 

 a favourite and very productive sport. All the fish being- im- 

 prisoned in the small pool, the natives plunge into the water coni- 

 cal baskets opened at the top, cover the fry and catch the fish 

 in that way. But the man who has pronounced a djieta dare 

 not enter the water. He is bound by his oafh. Should Tie break 

 it he would meet with a terrible accident. To avoid this misfor- 

 tune he must hahlela djieta. He will pray thus : " You, 

 djieta, I had said that I would no more enter this lake, but I want 

 to eat fish. Do not cause me to suffer from it." Then he takes 

 some water in his hand and throws it into the pool. 



Or suppose the same man has been followed by a crocodile 

 when crossing the river ; he has been very near death ; yet having 

 escaped, he utters the same words : " Never again shall I cross 

 this river ! " He has pronounced a djieta. When he finds him- 

 self again on the border of this river, obliged to cross it, he must 

 conjure the calamity in that same way. If he does not do so, 

 the boat will be unable to get through. It will only turn and turn 

 again on itself and make no advance. The boatman will bring 

 back the man who bound himself by imprecation, and he will have 

 to pray to his djieta while he throws some water into the boat. 



This prayer, it is strange to say, is not addressed to spirits of 

 the ancestors, but to the imprecation itself as if the oath had 

 become a kind of independent being who must be propitiated like 

 a god. The water thrown is evidently a kind of offering. So far, 

 the sacramental act which is performed has nothing to do with 

 ancestor worship which is the religious sphere, properly speaking. 



But suppose the imprecation has been pronounce3 against some 

 member of the family ; then, at once, the regular gods are affected 

 by it in one way or another. Let me give two instances to show 

 that connection :-r- 



I. One of my informants, Mboza, told me the following- story 

 which is a very good illustration indeed. Mboza is the eldest 

 brother of Komatane. He is a poor man, Komatane is rich. He 

 has many daughters ; amongst the Ba-Ronga that means cattle or 

 pounds sterling. Mboza asks his brother to help him in his 

 misery. But Komatane refuses to do it. He sells his daughters 

 without saying a word. The elder brother gets angry ; he re- 

 proaches Komatane for his unbrotherly behaviour. The younger 

 brother does not accept these reproaches ; he loses his temper and 

 says : " You are a dog, a wretch ! What I am eating is my 

 own and it is no business of mine to help you. I shall never go 

 again to your village " ! In pronouncing these words Komatane 

 has sinned (doha) gravely. He was the younger ; to insult his 

 elder brother by djieta was a great fault indeed. The two men 

 avoid each other henceforth. But later on, Komatane falls into 

 misfortune. Somebody is taken ill in his village and he throws 

 the divinatory bones in order to know what he has to do. The 

 bones reveal that he must offer a sacrifice to the spirits of the 



