138 APPENDIX. [sect. 



Morimo for the name of the true God, yet. according to 

 Mr Moffat, the natives themselves never previously used it 

 in such a sense. They considered it to represent a malevo- 

 lent Selo, or thing, existing in a hole ; describing it as some- 

 thing cunning or malicious, but few attributing to it any 

 power, and none granting it eternity of existence. Some 

 people in the south say that Morimo came out of a cave in 

 the Bakone country, leaving its footprints on the rock ; 

 others assert it to be a noxious reptile. 



Barimo is an answer to the question u Where do men go 

 when they die ?" but heaven is not its meaning. It does 

 not convey to the Bechuana mind the idea of a person or 

 persons, but of a state or disease, that of being bewitched. 

 These people call a person who may be delirious or in a 

 fit " Barimo," = liriti, shades or manes of the dead. Going 

 to Barimo signifies among them, passing onward, not to im- 

 mortality, but to death 1 . 



The tribes in the north have more definite ideas about 

 these objects of worship, regarding them as departed spirits. 

 In this sense the diviners of Angola pretend to hold com- 

 munication with them ; a sect is reported to exist in this 

 country who are said to kill men in order to present their 

 hearts as offerings to the departed spirits. 



At funerals the Balonda beat drums in order to lay the 

 Barimo asleep ; on like occasions, a man fantastically dressed 

 runs, like a scape-goat, into the woods, as a representative 

 of these imaginary deities. On our traveller inquiring of 

 one of his men, on one occasion, if the halo round the sun 

 did not betoken rain, the man replied "O no, it is the 

 Barimo (gods, or departed spirits), who have called a picho; 

 don't you see they have the Lord (sun) in the centre 2 ?" 



The conclusion to be arrived at is, that most of the 

 South African tribes have more or less clear idea of a 



1 Moffat's Missionary Labours, p. 261. 

 3 Travels, p. 220. 



