SENTIENT MAN 53 



Digestion of food or assimilation of thought he 

 associates with his stomach Vuma (or the Xi or Ki 

 plural Bi or I class), and so certain foods are Xina, or 

 forbidden. The digestive stomach is also where the 

 power of witchcraft (lindoki} resides. 



Upon meeting the snake Nduma he asks himself the 

 question " Did I know my wife on the day of rest?" 

 " Have I looked upon women during their periods ? " 

 Ebene breasts, Ekoto the vagina, and other words of 

 the Li or E plural Ma class, refer to copulation. 



The manner or way he should go is pointed out to 

 him by the field rat Mbenda, which runs along in front 

 of him if all is well. If also he strikes his right foot 

 on setting out on a journey it is bad. This contact 

 causes an impression on his brain Tomfo. 



Action and feeling are all connected with the sense 

 of sight (the word Kumona means both sight and 

 feeling). When the native sees a fish eagle which is 

 all brown it is a bad sign, but when its wings are 

 tipped with white it is a good sign. Then there comes 

 a time when the bending winds shake the rest of the 

 dead and tasteless (Tozo tastelessness) fruit from the 

 trees ; when the winds cause the trees to fall with a 

 crash ; when the wife and forthcoming child may or 

 may not live ; when deadness ( Ufwa) is all around one ; 

 when witches do their worst, and the brown bird Mvia 

 reminds him of their being burnt to death ; when the 

 frog Xuula, croaks its impending death warning, or 

 the owl Mpawlo-Pawlo, hoots "be at rest, all is well." 

 All which points to death or coming life in the new 

 year. 



