246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the lake region, for, after all, is not the Earth the mother of us 

 all, Mulunga himself included? In the more private devotions of 

 the people of the Nyassa region Mulunga does not appear, but a 

 man may not only pray and sacrifice to his own ancestors, but 

 also to the old inhabitants who occupied the country before his 

 forefathers took possession of it. The people are gone, all dead, 

 but their spirits live, and dwell in the old place, and see all that 

 goes on in which they take an interest. There do not seem to be 

 family and tribal distinctions as such among spirits ; in any case, 

 they do not fight about territory as men do. No Milton has yet 

 appeared in Central Africa to set the spirits by the ears. 



The dead, however, may reappear in the form of animals, but 

 only for pure mischief.* Widows are often held in bondage and 

 terror by their lords returning in the guise of a serpent. This 

 brute will enter the house, hide in the thatch, and look at its vic- 

 tim from between the rafters. It will coil itself by the fire and 

 steal into the beds ; it will glide over articles of food and explore 

 the interior of cooking utensils. For this persistent persecution 

 there is but one remedy, and that is to kill the serpent, when there 

 is nothing left but " pure spirit," which can not appear in material 

 form any more. 



A Yao spirit appearing in material form is different from a 

 spirit's messenger, which also appears in animal guise. The lat- 

 ter may be a bird, a form which a spirit can not assume, but which 

 can be sent as a messenger, to make known the spirit's will, some- 

 what after the manner of those sacred chickens which the stout 

 old Roman threw over the side when they refused to eat. The 

 African, too, can deal somewhat summarily with bird messages 

 when his interests and inclination lie in that way, but this im- 

 plies a degree of courage which is phenomenal. 



Among the Angoni and the people dwelling on the western 

 side of Lake Nyassa there is a common belief that demons hover 

 about the dying and dead before burial, to snatch away their souls 

 to join their own evil order. By the beating of drums and firing 

 of guns such evil spirits are driven away, but a more certain 

 method of avoiding their machinations is to have a mock funeral, 

 and so mislead and confound them. When it is determined to 

 have such a funeral, an artificial body is manufactured of any 

 convenient substance, and treated exactly as is done with the 

 bodies of the dead. This lay figure is carried a considerable dis- 

 tance to a grave, followed by a great crowd, weeping and wailing 

 as if their hearts would break. Drums are beaten, guns fired, and 

 every species of noise made. Meantime the real corpse is interred 

 near the dwelling as quietly and stealthily as possible. The evil 



* Angoni, Mauganga, Waomba, Anyasa, etc. 



