TRANSFORMATION 199 



to build upon a solitary phrase of a single man the 

 affirmation that the Kulin tribe had reached the creed 

 implied in the Hindu ceremony ; but, as we shall see 

 hereafter, some at any rate of the Australian peoples 

 were familiar with the theory that children were new 

 manifestations of the dead. 



Traces of the notion that a child is neither more nor 

 less than the reappearance of an ancestor are found 

 almost all over the world. It seems to be a general 

 opinion among the Negroes of the western coast of 

 Africa that the ghostly self of a dead man enters the 

 body of a new-born babe belonging to the same family. 

 In Guinea, as well as among the Wanika, a Bantu tribe 

 of the eastern side of the continent, the resemblance, 

 physical or mental, borne by a child to its father is 

 attributed to this cause. The Yorubas inquire of 

 their family god which of the deceased ancestors has 

 returned, in order to name the child accordingly ; and 

 they greet its birth with the words " Thou art come ! " 

 as if addressing some one who has returned. 1 Some 

 hold that the soul of a dead person comes back in the 

 next-born child ; while others think it necessary to 

 ascertain by divination who it is. Miss Kingsley has 

 given an amusing account of the divination, which 



soul common to the members of a single family; it is rather a 

 " support " for the patronymic which is transmitted from father to 

 son (Rev. Hist. Ret. xlix. 374, citing and reviewing Chantepie de la 

 Saussaye, Religion of the Teutons, translated by Vos). Compare a 

 speculation by Mr. A. B. Cook, as to the reincarnation of the manes 

 of the old Italian clans (F. L. xvi. 293). 



1 Tylor, Prim. Cul. ii. 4, citing several authorities ; Ploss, Kind, i. 

 259, citing Bastian. Ellis (Yoruba, 128) says the inquiry is made 

 of a priest of Ifa, the god of divination. See also Dennett, Black 

 Man's Mind, 268, quoting Yoruba Heathenism, by Bishop James 

 Johnson. 



