240 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



is very common amongst primitive thinkers, and it has found 

 a wonderful development in the modern system of spiritism. 

 Whatever is true in it, scientifically speaking, is another question. 

 But we ought not to be astonished at the Bantu superstitions when 

 we see so many philosophers of our time speak of astral bodies, 

 subliminal existence, and so on. That idea of a double life has no^ 

 doubt found some foundation in the fact of dreams. Dreams are 

 a very important thing for the natives. They are fully convinced of 

 their objective value, and no wonder if they explain a nightmare 

 by the action of the baloyi ; or if their dreams make them think that 

 they lead a second existence during the night. 



When did cannibalism disappear from South Africa? The 

 answer to this question is impossible to give in the present state of 

 our knowledge. But it is likely that the South African Bantu, as 

 well as the tribes of the Equator, passed through that stage and 

 were at a time cannibals. When the distasteful custom began to fade 

 away, it must have left in the minds of the new generations a feeling 

 of disgust, if not of horror. We find traces of it in the numerous 

 tales about ogres of the Bantu folklore, and I guess that if the baloyi 

 are accused of the crime of cannibalism it is for the same reason. 



Finally, if some people dare to attribute to members of their 

 tribe such awful acts as those of killing, and eating human flesh, it 

 is sufficiently explained by the terrible power of hatred which the 

 savages possess. They know that a native who hates would not shrink 

 from anything to satisfy his desire for vengeance. 



In conclusion, I would say : The origin of the theory of witch- 

 craft, the power of that absurd superstition on the Bantu mind, is 

 easily explained when we consider that it is but an application of the 

 animistic system to the problem of death, that it is in accordance with 

 the Bantu psychological conceptions of the duality of the human 

 being and of the objective value of dreams, the remembrance of 

 cannibalism, the intensity of hatred amongst savages; all these facts 

 and principles correspond perfectly with the various elements of the 

 superstitions which have been analysed now. 



The only way of getting rid of that dreadful theory which can 

 be really called the curse of the natives, is to replace in their minds 

 that primitive and dangerous animism by the spiritual, highly moral, 

 philosophical theism of Christianity. A Bantu when he becomes a 

 Christian has given the deathblow to his old belief of witchcraft. 

 However, that belief is slow to die ! It is one of the superstitions of 

 heathenism which sticks with the greatest obstinacy to his mind, and 

 how often do we see the accusation of baloyi thrown in the face of a 

 convert by another convert ! Every missionary understanding the 

 natives will agree that any apparition of the baloyi superstition 

 amongst those new congregations must be at once denounced as a sin 

 of heathenism, and punished as such by those measures of ecclesiasti- 

 cal discipline which these young Churches cannot yet dispense with. 



But there is another very eflficient way of putting a check to the 

 buloyi superstition. Buloyi is condemned as a crime, and the noi 



