PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 



539 



They have practically 

 no religion, and no trace 

 of spirit- or ancestor- 

 worship. They have some 

 idea that thunder, light- 

 ning, and rain are the 

 manifestations of a Power, 

 an Entity in the heavens, 

 but a bad Power ; and 

 when (reluctantly) in- 

 duced to talk on the 

 subject, they shake their 

 heads and clack their 

 tongues in disapproval, 

 for the mysterious Some- 

 thing in the heavens 

 occasionally slays their 

 comrades with his fire 

 (lightning). They have 

 little or no belief in a 

 life after death, but 

 sometimes think vaguely 

 that their dead relations 

 live again in the form 

 of the red bush-pig, 

 whose strange bristles are 

 anions: the few brightly 

 coloured objects that at- 

 tract their attention. 



They have no settled 

 government or hereditary 

 chief, merely clustering 

 round an able hunter or 



cunning fighter, and accepting him as law-giver for the time. Marriage 

 is only the purchase of a girl from her father; polygamy depends 

 on the extent of their barter goods* but there is, nevertheless, much 

 attachment between husband and wife, and they appear to be very fond of 

 their children. Women generally give birth to their offspring in the 

 forest, severing the navel string with their teeth, and burying the placenta 

 in the ground. The dead are usually buried in dug graves, and if men of 

 any importance, food, tobacco, and weapons are buried with the corpse. 

 * Such as honey, skins, arrow-heads, tobacco. 



2 95 



A PYGMY CHIEF AND HIS BROTHER (BAMBUTE). (THE CHIEF 

 IS THE INDIVIDUAL OX THE LEFT, AND IS 5 FEET I INCH 

 IX HEIGHT) 



