16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



spirit leaves the body and goes into the spirit world. It then makes 

 its abode near the house where he lived, or about the village council 

 yard, or more generally at the grave where the body is buried. This 

 spirit of the departed becomes the " god " of the surviving relatives, 

 and is worshipped by offerings of cloth or food. When the Yao 

 speaks of " God," he therefore means the spirit of some departed 

 chief or relative, or he at times seerns to mean the aggregate of all 

 the spirits in the spirit world rather than any individual spirit. This 

 is the Yao ' Mulungu " God. It is spirit ; it is not personal. 

 Beyond this the Yao does not go. The Supreme Being in his 

 universe is this Mulungu this spirit world and this alone. 



In this faith the Yao is alone among his neighbours, for the 

 Mang'anja and Angoni hold that, in addition to the world of departed 

 spirits or souls, there is a Being Supreme over all the Creator. He 

 is Mpambe, the "Lightning," Leza, the "Nurse," Chiuta, the 

 " Great Bow ". He is worshipped by offerings as the spirits of the 

 dead are. The Yao has no such faith. He is a pure animist a 

 spirit worshipper. He has forgotten his faith in a Supreme Being 

 and contents himself with the spirit worship alone. To the spirit of 

 the departed chief or ancestor he makes his offering in the time of 

 his trouble ; when he goes on a journey or ventures on any exploit 

 which may lead him into danger he asks the protection of the spirit 

 world. For his worship he may erect a shrine over the grave, or at 

 the hut where the dead used to live, or he may hang his offerings on 

 the village tree a relict this of an older faith in the possession of the 

 tree by the spirit of the dead, a faith now forgotten or if on a 

 journey he may lay his offering of flour in a tiny heap by the wayside. 

 On these occasions he is his own priest, but on great occasions when 

 some village offering is made, it is the village chief who is the priest, 

 or the nearest relative of the dead, or the two friends who bore his 

 body to the grave and laid it there. Those who befriended him on 

 earth are those who are supposed to have the greater influence with 

 his soul in the world of the departed, and all offerings to the dead are 

 made through their hands, 



