H4 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



unfortunately succeeded only too well. The enraged 

 " Creator " cast the three children down to the earth, 

 where they became the progenitors of the Batutsi. 1 



At Butha-Buthe in the north of Basutoland there is 

 a piece of swampy ground called the Khapong, which 

 we are told is regarded as " sacred to the spirit of 

 maternity." A woman who has no children makes a 

 wooden or clay doll, straps it on her back and bears it 

 about like a living child for six months, after which it 

 is laid in the Khapong as an offering to the spirit, 

 together with bangles, beads or even money. If no 

 child be born the woman has not yet found favour 

 with the spirit ; so she removes the doll from the 

 Khapong and straps it on her back again, until the 

 spirit is satisfied and the child is born. The lady to 

 whose report we owe the mention of this practice knew 

 of one woman who carried the doll for five years before 

 her wish was granted. 2 Casalis, writing about fifty 

 years ago, speaks of these dolls as rude effigies of clay, 

 and says that " the name of some tutelary deity " 

 (apparently some deceased ancestor) is given to them. 

 The women " entreat the divinity to whom they have 

 consecrated them, to give them the power of concep- 

 tion. They may often be seen all out of breath running 

 from one village to another, to have dances performed 

 in honour of their patron." 3 Here also simulation is 



1 Fath. Loupias, Anthropos, iii. 2. 



2 Martin, Basutoland, 18, 93. Some further inquiries should be 

 made about this "spirit of maternity": the Basuto are ancestor- 

 worshippers. Compare, however, the Zulu belief (doubtless 

 common to other tribes) that mankind came out of a bed of reeds 

 (Callaway, Rel. Syst. passim). 



3 Casalis, 265 (Eng. Ed. 251). A figure of the doll is given. 

 These dolls are worn from the time the bride-price is settled until 

 pregnancy (Endemann, Zeits.f. Ethnol. vi. 39). 



