THE RELIGIOUS IDEA, 68 1 



The growth of ancestor-worship, thus far illustrated under 

 its separate aspects, may be clearly exhibited under its com 

 bined aspects by quotations from a recent book, Africana, by 

 the Eev. Duff MacDonald, one of the missionaries of the 

 Blantyre settlement. Detached sentences from his account, 

 scattered here and there over fifty pages, run as follows : 



&quot;The man may be buried in his own dwelling&quot; (p. 109). &quot;His eld 

 house thus becomes a kind of temple&quot; (p. 109). &quot;The deceased is now 

 in the spirit world, and receives offerings and adoration&quot; (p. 110). 

 &quot; Now he is a god with power to watch over them, and help them, and 

 control their destiny &quot; (p. 61). &quot; The spirit of a deceased man is called 

 his Mulungu &quot; (p. 59). The probably correct derivation of this word is 

 &quot; stated by Bleek [the philologist], which makes it originally mean 

 * great ancestor &quot; (p. 67). u Their god appears to them in dreams. 

 They may see him as they knew him in days gone by &quot; (p. 61). &quot; The 

 gods of the natives are nearly as numerous as their dead&quot; (p. 68). 

 &quot; Each worshipper turns most naturally to the spirits of his own de 

 parted relatives &quot; (p. 68). A chief &quot; will present his offering to his own 

 immediate predecessor, and say, Oh, father, I do not know all your 

 relatives, you know them all, invite them to feast with you &quot; (p. 68). 

 &quot;The spirit of an old chief may have a whole mountain for his residence, 

 but he dwells chiefly on the cloudy summit &quot; (p. 60). &quot; A great chief 

 that has been successful in his wars does not pass out of memory so soon. 

 He may become the god of a mountain or a lake, and may receive 

 homage as a local deity long after his own descendants have been driven 

 from the spot. When there is a supplication for rain the inhabitants 

 of the country pray not so much to their own forefathers as to the god 

 of yonder mountain on whose shoulders the great rain clouds repose &quot; 

 (p. 70). &quot; Beyond and above the spirits of their fathers, and chiefs 

 localised on hills, the Wayao speak of others that they consider supe 

 rior. Only their home is more associated with the country which the 

 Yao left ; so that they too at one time may have been looked upon 

 really as local deities&quot; (p. 71). (Vol. I, pp. 59-110.) 



Let us pass now to certain more indirect results of the 

 ghost-theory. Distinguishing but confusedly between sem 

 blance and reality, the savage thinks that the representation 

 of a thing partakes of the properties of the thing. Hence 

 he believes that the effigy of a dead man (originally placed 

 on the grave) becomes a habitation for his ghost. This 

 belief spreads to effigies otherwise placed. Concerning &quot;a 

 rude figure of a naked man and woman&quot; which some Land 



