NATIVE IDEAS OF COSMOLOGY. I 83 



sun from burning up the crops, an arrangement that would readily com- 

 mend itself to these philosophical children of the tropics.* 



At first there were no people, but God and the beasts. There was a 

 chameleon, and he wove his fish trap; when he had woven it, he went out 

 to snare in the river. The day after he went to take it out, and he found 

 fishes therein. He took his fishes to the village to eat them. Again in 

 the morning he went early and found others liad entered the trap, and 

 eaten the fishes, and he said: "To-day 1 have had bad luck. 1 just found 

 that the otters had eaten my fishes. I do not know to-morrow whether 

 I shall find they have eaten them again."' Then he departed to the village, 

 empty, without fishes, and he went to sleep. When it was dawn, he 

 went early again, and found man, male and female, entered into tlie 

 trap. He said : " To-day have entered things that are unknown. I 

 wonder whether 1 should take them." Mulungu (God) was staying down 

 here before he went away to heaven. And he said : " Father, behold 

 what I have brought to-day." And he (God) said:. "Place them there; 

 they will grow.'' Man then grew, both male and female. But his 

 father said. "' Gather the people together, and call your master.'' And God 

 was called, and he came and said : " Now, chameleon, where have you 

 brought these from?" He said: " But they have entered my trap." Then 

 God said, " Wait till 1 call my people," and he went away and called all 

 the beasts Qf the earth and the Iiirds. They assembled. When they 

 came, their master said : " We have called for tliose curious beings 

 that the chameleon went to briniJ: in his trap," and all the beasts said : 

 "We have heard,"t . . . . ' 



People came from Kapilimitya (an unsteady soft stone). 1 hen- 

 came forth two, a man and a woman, and they married and had children. 

 There was seen another man, who was sick, being a leper, who had come 

 from Kapilimitya. The sick man sent the woman to draw water, then 

 He opened a bag and took out maize and millet. On this earth there was 

 no grass, and he said, " You two may sleep in a cave." The sick man 

 died, and the other man put an ofifering on the ground, saying, " You 

 have left us here, now give us grass." So grass grew and trees ; and 

 his children grew and had children; hence the tril)e of the Yao.| 



We have here three different and to .some extent conflict- 

 ing accounts of the Creation, and of the relation of God to it. 

 It is also clear that Mulungu is a limited being, jttst as amongst 

 the Zulus, and does not possess omnipotence or eternity. The 

 tale of the chameleon and the fish-trap introdtices the magical 

 element. The Chameleon in many Bantu folk-tales is accused 

 of bringing a lying message to men regarding death, and hence 

 of introducing mortality into the world. This tale may be in- 

 tended to bring out his wncked conduct in deceiving mankind. 

 The location of the place of origin is no more definite amongst 

 the Yao than amongst the Bfechuanas, Basutos or Zulus. 



The Damara legend of Creation substitutes a great tree 

 for a great hole, but in essential features it is the same as the 

 others. " The natives in these parts have a strange tale of a 

 rock in which the tracks of all the animals indigenous to this 

 country are distinctly visible, moreover that man and beast lived 

 there in great amity ; but one day, from some cause, their deity 

 appeared and dispersed them. ... The Damaras and Bech- 

 uanas have nearly the same notion as to their origin. Thus the 

 latter believe that the founders of their nation and the animals 



*Macdonald: '' Africana," 1, 74. 

 t Ibid. 1 295. 

 tibid. 1, 280. 



