368 SUPERSTITIONS 



diarrhoea, colds, headache, stomach derangements, 

 and so on, are well known, and always available. 

 A very efficient form of dry-cupping is also prac- 

 tised with the instrumentality of a small antelope's 

 horn. The use of astringent dressings for healing 

 is well understood, as is also the efficacy of the 

 inhalation of medicated steam for asthma and 

 diseases of the chest. 



There is one matter which I have overlooked in 

 relation to native superstitions, and that is the 

 complete absence of belief in any definite future 

 state or condition, or any faith in the resurrection. 

 They have, moreover, not the faintest conception 

 of immortality. As we have seen, the spirit is 

 supposed to be vaguely bound to the grave, or to 

 some area, where it is believed to spend an un- 

 certain period of time. Certainly no negro would 

 believe that the body which he has seen laid in the 

 ground, or, possibly, removed thence and deliberately 

 scattered in the forest, could rise again, and, in its 

 old aspect, or anything like it, put on incorrupti- 

 bility. At the same time, they cannot in the least 

 understand your question when you ask them if 

 they think the spirits of the departed live on " for 

 ever." Eternity is a phrase which the native mind 

 is incapable of comprehending. His expression for 

 eternity is " all days," * but it would be impossible 

 to make him grasp such a meaning in its full and 

 ilhmitable sense. He could not bring his mind to 

 perceive, even faintly, what was meant by a con- 

 dition in which time had ceased, could not be 

 measured any more by days or months, in fact 



* Siku Zonsene. 



