NATIVK IDEAS OF eOSMOLOCV. 185 



beliefs of the Abenanzwa tribe. They are exceedingly interest- 

 ing in themselves. 



The Abenanzwa believe in a single beneficent Supreme Being, who 

 rewards men for their good actions and punishes them for their evil 

 deeds. .\fter death their spirit leaves the liody. and goes to the Mhmo 

 (God) in heaven.' Thus all people meet after death, and continue to live 

 indefinitely in heaven. They have no idea of the life hereafter except 

 that it will be a pleasant state of existence. They worship and pray 

 to the spirits of their ancestors. if they have been leading good lives, 

 they believe that the spirits will intercede for them with the Mlimo for 

 the granting of their prayers. 



They have not, nor at any time during the history of the tribe have 

 they had, "priests," who conduct religious ceremonies. . . They 



do not believe in the existence of evil spirits as such, but they do believe 

 that the spirit of one who was their enemy before death will, if possible, 

 do them harm. • . The religion of the Abenanzwa is thus a 



monotheism of a simple and rational kmd, unmixed with anything in the 

 nature of superstition, and far removed from myths and nature worship. 

 There is a sense of devotion and dependence on a Superior Being. 



It has certainly not been taught by white men, as the Abenanzwa have 

 been isolated for the last 100 years (there have never been any mission- 

 aries among them), and it cannot have been handed down by their fore- 

 fathers from the teachings of the Portuguese Roman Catholic Fathers of 

 old, as there exists no trace of any Christian influence. 



It does not come from the blast, where nature worship prevails, 

 neither is it Christianity from the West, nor is it Arabic (Mohammedan- 

 ism), as not only do the .Xlienanzvva ))elieve that the spirit of a woman 

 exists after death equally with that of a man, but in their story of the 

 creation the woman was made first, which is quite opposed to Moham- 

 medan ideas. 



.Vlthough ni\- knowledge of the Abenanzwa is not nearly 

 so intimate as that of Mr. Hemans, I venture to offer the fol- 

 lowing observations on these paragraphs. ^Ir. Hemans states 

 that this legend of Creation conld not have bsen derived from 

 the Roman Catholic Fathers, for the Abenanzwa have been iso- 

 lated for the last lOO years, and show no trace of Christian 

 influence at the present time. While 1 am on the whole disposed 

 to aiiree with him, it must be remembered that deri\-ation from 

 this source is not impossible. The Abenanzwa, accordnig to their 

 own statements, migrated from the neighbourhood of Zim'babwe 

 about 150 years ago. The\ came by way of Selukwe, and would 

 thus be within reach of the early Portuguese missionaries- The 

 early Dominican and Jesuit missionaries travelled over a large 

 part of Eastern Rhodesia, as far west as Bulawayo at least, and 

 although little or no traces now remain of their influence, still it is 

 conceivable that the upper classes of the old Varoswe may have 

 imbibed a considerable amount of their teaching, and have re- 

 tained it till to-day, even in distorted and mutilated form. The 

 old missionaries concentrated their efforts on the upper classes, 

 and we read in the old I'ortuguese chronicles that they made 

 strenuous efforts to convert the King of Alocaranga. Thus some 

 of their teaching must have remained with the people. I agree 

 with what Mr. Hemans has said regarding Mohammedanism. I 

 have not discovered for myself any signs of old Moslem propa- 



