50 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES 



And as the woman after she has got over the fear 

 caused by the passionate man's shouting and struggling 

 is angry, so man is apt to resent the feeling of fear 

 and dismay caused by the thunder. And in this way 

 anger (Ekaxi or Ekudi] is the meeting-place. When 

 woman conceives, and she and her husband hear the 

 thunder, they think that they have done something 

 wrong, and that God is speaking to them, so they run 

 away (as the season Wangala or Bangala suggests) 

 and make aprons of leaves Lunkumfu before answer- 

 ing the call, just as the men and women one meets in 

 the fields working in a naked condition will run to 

 their clothes when the White man calls them. Or as 

 our guide when we are travelling before entering a 

 stranger's town will pluck a small branch of a tree or 

 shrub and tuck it under his belt in front of him. 

 Shame, as represented by the apron, is the manner in 

 which thunder helps to make man conscious of wrong- 

 doing. 



Now if man feels he has done wrong, Kubanza or 

 repentance is the action that should follow. His wife 

 is now pregnant, remember, and all their thoughts are 

 concentrated on whether it is the will of God that she 

 shall produce a child or not. 



Then as he repents or not, or as his wife endures 

 the next season (the seventh and eighth months of 

 the rainy season) of bending and strong winds or 

 not, so comes great misery and grief Bititi or joy 

 Wete. 



Thus do the winds, and lightning, the God of 

 Marriage, make propagating man emotional. 



