TRANSFORMATION 169 



father in the other world. 1 The Zulu, not less pious, 



has no doubts. A chief after death turns into an imamba 



(a poisonous snake), a woman or an ordinary man 



turns into a thin brown whip-snake called umhlwazi, a 



very old woman into a mabibini, or little black snake. 



Such snakes are treated with respect when they visit 



the kraal. They are praised and offerings are made 



to them. 2 Other forms may also be assumed. That 



of dead queens is the tree-iguana ; some men become 



wasps. 3 All the Bantu peoples indeed believe that the 



dead may become animals of various kinds, from 



elephants lions and hippopotami downwards ; but the 



snake is the form most commonly ascribed to them. 4 



Whether the animal, whatever it may be, reincorporates 



the soul of the deceased or is on the other hand a new 



manifestation of the body, the soul undergoing mean- 



while a distinct and separate destiny, does not appear 



without doubt. The reincorporation of the soul is 



affirmed so circumstantially and by so many authors who 



have had opportunities of ascertaining the belief of the 



peoples of which they speak, that it is impossible to 



reject their testimony. Yet we have some evidence 



equally positive, that the animal manifestation is 



neither to be confounded with the soul nor is a re- 



incorporation of it. Thus a recent writer says : 



" Both the Angoni and the Achewa believe in reincar- 



1 Vergil, &n. v. 84. In Greece the Hero was frequently 

 honoured under the form of a snake : Harrison, 325. 



2 S. A. F. L.Journ. ii. 101 ; Callaway, Rel. Syst. 140, 196, 199. 



3 Leslie, 213 ; Callaway, op. cit. 200. 



4 Thomas, Eleven Years, 280 ; /. A. I. xxi. 377 ; xxxvi. 50, 281, 

 291 ; Miss Werner, 64, 85 ; H. Trilles, Bull. Soc. Neuchat. Geog. 

 xvi. 64 and many other authorities, some of which are enumerated 

 by Dr. Frazer, Adonis, 73. 



