232 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



The activity of the baloyi is almost entirely nocturnal. In fact, 

 they possess the faculty of getting out of themselves, during the 

 night; they fly, have large wings, and, after having got out of the 

 hut by the crown of grass which covers its top, or by the closed 

 door, they fly through the air and go to their horrible work. The 

 little flying flames which are seen sometimes in the marshes, the 

 will-o'-the-wisp, are considered as being one of the forms under which 

 they go. * 



Two questions arise here. Does the native mind think that a 

 true unsheathing (dedoublement) of their personality takes place then, 

 or that they get out of the hut themselves, as entire beings, with their 

 ordinary " ego"? As far as I could make out, the Suto theory is 

 different from the Thonga view. The Ba-Suto say : The witch is 

 going entire, soul and body. Nothing remains on the mat, when he 

 has departed for his nocturnal ride ! He throws charms on the other 

 inhabitants of the hut, and they sleep so heavily that they do not 

 notice anything. The Ba-Thonga speak differently. According to 

 them, the noi is but a part of the personality. When he flies away, 

 his " nthuti," his shadow, remains behind him lying down on the 

 mat. But what is this shadow ? If we could make it out, we would 

 learn something worth knowing about native psychological concep- 

 tions. It is not truly the body which remains. It appears as such 

 only to the stupid non-initiated. In reality what remains is a wild 

 beast, the one with which the noi has chosen to identify himself. The 

 fact has been disclosed to me by the following striking confession 

 made to me by a very intelligent Nkuna. " Suppose," he said, " my 

 father is a noi and I am not. I want to marry a certain girl because 

 I love her. My father knows that she is a noi because they know 

 each other, and he tells me : ' Don't do that ! She is clever ; you 

 will repent ! ' However, I persist in my idea. He urges me to leave 

 that plan, and threatens me with great misfortune. I marry her. 

 One night, my father enters my hut and awakens me. He says to 

 me : ' What did I tell you ! Look ! Your wife has gone ! ' I look 

 at her place and find her sleeping calmly. ' No. Here she is. ' ' It 

 is not her ! She is away ! Take this assegai and stab her.' ' No, 

 father, I dare not.' ' Do, I say ! ' And he puts the assegai in my 

 hand and makes me violently hurt her leg. A cry, the cry of a wild 

 beast, is heard. And a hyena appears instead of my wife, a hyena 

 which deposits its ' faeces,' because it is frightened, and which escapes 

 from the hut in howling. iSIy father gives me some powder to 

 swallow and I shall be able to see the baloyi and their ways and 

 habits. He leaves me — very much trembling from fear — and goes 

 home. When the sun is going to appear, I hear a noise like <hat 

 of the wind in the branches, and suddenly something falls down from 



* Amongst Christian natives you will find some who believe that the will-o'- 

 the-wisps are the spirits of the deceased which come back on the earth. 

 But I strongly suspect this idea of being of European origin. For the 

 Bantu, the ghosts of their ancestors, which are their gods, appear some- 

 times, but under the form of snakes, around the graves, near the village 

 in which they lived, and the will-o'-the-wisps are the haloyi. 



