312 TV. Hammond Tooke. — The Star Lore, ^c- 



nected in classic lore ; and it may be here mentioned ttat while rain-: 

 is prevalent all tlie year around San Salvador, the heavy rains com- 

 mence about the middle of October. 



However this may be, we have evidence that the Eshi-Kongo- 

 regarded the movements of the Pleiads as betokening the succession 

 of the seasons ; and this gives weight to that view which would 

 associate the term Khunuseti, among the Xamaqua, with the arrival of 

 spring. 



Stronger proof on this point may, however, be obtained from con- 

 sulting the vocabularies of the Bantu languages of the South and 

 East Branches. 



In Xosa and Zulu the word for the Pleiads is isilimela, a term in 

 Zulu bearing the additional signification of " the breaking-up time," 

 i.e., "the ploughing time," and the beginning of spring. Closely 

 connected with this word is the Zulu and Xosa uku-lhnela " to hoe, 

 plough, or break up the land." 



The Kafirs would seem therefore, at one time, to have marked the 

 first appearance of the Pleiads as the signal for commencing ploughing 

 operations and as the harbinger of spring. 



It is not probable that they applied the term isilimela to the Pleiads 

 recently, for their first spring rains and therefore their ploughing- 

 season usually commences on the frontier about the beginning of 

 October, while Dr. Gill and Mr. Finlay have very kindly told me 

 that at 32^ S. Lat. the Pleiads would be seen rising just after sunset 

 about November the loth. 



Probably therefore the name was first given some centuries ago,, 

 when our frontier tribes were in more northern latitudes, before they 

 drove the Hottentots from the banks of the Bashee and Kei. 



Perhaps also this word was formed before the South-east Bantu 

 split up into the tribes as we now know them. For the Betshuana 

 use almost exactly the same term for Pleiads, selemela and possibly 

 their word for summer, selemo, is connected therewith. At Sena, 

 Mozambique, and among the Makoa, pa-ku-Uma, ilimue, ulima all 

 have the sense of ploughing or cultivation, but the writer is not aware 

 whether any form of this word is applied by these tribes to the Pleiads.. 



Among the Wa Swaheli this is the case ; the Pleiads being in 

 Ki Swaheli Kilimia ; Kilimo meaning cultivation or planted crops, 

 and Kulimo, to hoe or cultivate. 



