HANTi; MirnidDs oi'" i)i\i nation. 405 



3. Srlnnii (a technical term c(|tii\alciu to " t(.t)th-));ittcrn." 



which may be translated literally as " the biter "). 



4. Lengi^ana. 



The g'cneral rules of interpretation resemble those of astra- 

 galomancy. and the various positions are described in detail in j 

 former, volume.-* 



A comparative study of the desiii;ns on these tablets re\eals 

 a striking uniformity in nomenclature, and in many cases pat- 

 terns from widely separate tribes are of a similar nature. The 

 conventional designs on the Churinga of the Artmta of Central 

 Australia--' are said to be symbolic representations of the tribal 

 or personal totems of their owners, and it is possible that these 

 Bantu designs may serve the same purpose. At any rate, they 

 are symbols expressing ideas, and bear the same relation to 

 writing as potter's marks,-'' or the incised patterns of ancient 

 divining tablets do to our own alphabet.'-' Their discussion, 

 however, is beyond the scope of this paper. excei)t in so far as 

 they introduce us to another system of divination known and 

 practised by the initiated in certain Bantu tribes, namely:— 



Divination by Bowls. 



In the course of a witchcraft trial a few years ago in the 

 Northern Transvaal, two curious old bowls were produced as 

 corpus delicti, and subsequently confiscated. They are now in 

 the possession of C. A. Wheelwright, Esq., and Alajor C. Man- 

 ning respectively (Plates 9 and 10). Each bowd is carved 

 from a solid block of wood, with a fairly wide rim, which is 

 divided into sections, each section being marked by a distinct 

 symbol carved in relief. The bed of the bowl, in like manner, 

 is divided into areas marked by embossed figures. The designs 

 on the rim were said by the owner to represent " all the nations 

 of the earth " — in other words, they are probably conventional 

 sym.bols representing tribal totems Several of these crude 

 figures will be recognised by students of symbolism and heraldry- ; 

 e.g., there is a fine exainple of the r:rocodile disappearing into 

 the water — an ancient symbol of " night " or " death." One of 

 the tablets forming fart of the com.plete set is embossed with 

 a battle-axe, another ancient symbol representing " power," hence 

 royalty, or " the Chief." (See photographs, Plates 9 and 10.) A 

 solid cone of a hard, black, wax-like substance rises from the 

 centre of each bowl almost level with the sides, the apices being 



^^ Report South African Association for Advance of Science, Kim- 

 berley (1914), ^,67-2,70. 



" Spencer and Gillen, " Native Tribes of Central Australia." 146 If. 

 Cf. also " Northern Tribes of Central AustraHa," 729-736. 



T/. A. Moc,so, "Dawn of Meditt. Civil," 12; Flinders Potrie, -The 

 formation of the Alphabet," etc. 



"'"Formerly," says John Exarch of Bulgaria, who wrote in the ninth 

 century, " the Slavonians had no books, but they read and made divina- 

 tions by means of pictures and figures cut on wood, being pagans "' 

 (Edward Clodd, "The Story of the Alphabet," 215). 



