NATivj:: ji)i:as uf ( (js-Mologv. i8i 



they tell whether they were always with Modimo. Of course, 

 where natives have been under Christian influence> for any 

 length of time, they unhesitatingly say it was Alodimo who made 

 •nerything. '1 hus when studying the book of Genesis upon one 

 •>ccasion with a class of young men. one of them said to me that 

 »hey had a tale of the origin of the world something like that 

 jjiven in Genesis, and then he related to me the following : " In 

 the beginning Modimo made all things, and he made men and 

 women out of reeds, and gave them the animals of the world 

 to feed upon, and they had many children, who became the na- 

 tions." 1 asked him if the old people spoke of Modimo in the 

 sense of Creator, but he was not sure. Modimo has the same 

 root as ledimo, a canniljal, but whether there is any connection 

 between the words I cannot say. 1 have seen no satisfactory 

 derivation of it yet. The idea of water occurs in other cosmo- 

 gonies such as in the Arapaho and Wyandot mythologies of North 

 America, but these stories do not mention any great hole. In con- 

 nection with the statement of Moffat that the feet of .Modimo 

 were distinguished from the others, by the absence of toes, I 

 may mention that a coloured man resident in Basutoland told 

 me that he had discovered a number of human footprints in 

 rock, not far from where I resided at the time. J had the 

 curiosity to ride over to the place, and found that the said foot- 

 ])rints were natural depressions in Molteno sandstone, due to 

 weathering. Some of them looked not unlike the impression of 

 a human foot without toes, and I am inclined to think that a 

 similar discovery was the origin of the Bechuana tale. At Morija, 

 Tsikuane, Qalo, and other places in Basutoland, there are slabs of 

 sandstone and mudstone detached from the cliff's, mostly belong- 

 ing to the Red Beds of the Stormberg System, containing the 

 tracks of dinosaurs and theromorphous reptiles, some of them 

 (jf large size. These are fairly numerous, and in the minds of 

 primitive people such as the Basutos, would be just such as 

 would give local colour and verisimilitude to this part of a crea- 

 ti(^n story. 



A friend of mine who knows the nati\es well has sugj4:ested 

 that the reeds, stones and cave may have a phallic meaning, 

 but I confess I cannot see any traces of such in any of the creation 

 myths that I have heard. It is quite possible to argue in such 

 a way, but I ne\er heard the natives^ suggest such an explanation. 



The Zulu traditions as given by Calloway are somewhat 

 similar- 



Unkulunkulu is no longer known. It was he who was the first man- 

 He broke off in the beginning. . . . We hear it said that Unkulnnknhi 

 broke off the nations from Uhlanga ; they say he is the Uhlanga from 

 whicli all men broke off. The old men say that Unkulunkulu is ; he made 

 the first men. the ancients of long ago; the ancients of long ago died; 

 there remained those that had been begotten by them, sons, by whom we 

 hear that there were ancients of long ago who knew the breaking-off of 



the w'orld What 1 have heard is that man sprang from 



Cnkulunkulu, as if he made them, because he existed (before them). . . 

 W^e have heard it said that Unkulunkulu sprang from a bed of reeds. 



