l82 NATIVE IDEAS OF ( DSMOLOGV. 



There first appeared a man. vvlio was followed by a wotnan — both are 

 named Unkiilunknlu. All things as well as Unkulunkulu sprang from a 

 bed of reeds, everything, both animals and corn, everything coming into 

 being with Unkulunkulu. . . . The earth was in existence first before 

 Unkulunkulu existed as yet. Fie had his origin from the earth in a bed 

 of reeds. ... Here sprang up a man and a woman. . • The 

 name of both was Unkulunkulu. . . . On the day the first man was 

 created he said as to what happened then in the bed of reeds, that they 

 did not see their own creation. When he and his wife first saw, they 

 found themselves crouching in a lied of reeds, and saw no one who had 

 created them.* 



It will be ol>served that these account.^, for I have combitied 

 several for brevity, are quite confused as to w'hether Unkulunkulu 

 was before the Creation, or was contemporary with it, or part of 

 it. Some of the narrators seem to think that the earth existed 

 before Unkulunkulu, and that he was the first human pair. I 

 think this is ])robably the prevailing opinion in the minds 

 of the natives. Such an idea is not confined to the 

 Bantu, but occurs amongst the North American Indians,, 

 where people were supposed to have existed in heaven 

 before God and the Devil. Similar confusion exists 

 in the minds of the Namaquas regarding Tstini-||goam. 

 I have several times asked natives this question. Since Unkulun- 

 kulu came out of the same hole with the animals, was he always 

 there? Did he made the animals himself? My in- 

 formants were always confused and cuald not tell. The answer 

 I usually got was : " We do not know, the old people never 

 told us." It may be inferred that the natives do not associate 

 either eternity or omnipotence with Unkulunkulu. There is. 

 moreover no trace in their accounts of the Creation of a struggle 

 between the powers of light and darkness, or of good and evik 

 I have also put this question : Did Unkulunktilu live in the 

 darkness with the animals in the cave? My informants could not 

 tell. I have also asked how he made the animals. One intelligent 

 native told me he was sure that Unkulunkulu luust have had 

 some powerful medicine. This probably' represents the average 

 native's opinion of the matter, if he thinks at all. It also im- 

 ports the element of magic into creation, as among the Egyptians 

 and other peoples, thus showing that it is a primitive explana- 

 tion of the origin of the world- I cannot see much indication of 

 ancestor worship in the Zulu accounts, although the origin of 

 things is pushed no further back than the creation of one of their 

 own ancestors. 



Amongst the natives of Nyasaland and Central Africa, the 

 accounts of creation are generally similar to those given above. 



Man, or at least the father of those Central African tribes, sprang 

 from a hole in a rock, from which the lower animals came also. Around 

 this hole were abundant footprints of all kinds of animals. It was closed 

 by the people of Mulungu, and is now a desert place towards the north 

 (Kumpoto). Subsequently to the appearance of man, many changes 

 occurred specially for his benefit. Thus the mist was sent to keep the 



* Callaway: "The Religious System of tlie Amazulu." r ct seq. 



