346 THE LAKE REGIONS OP CENTRAL AFRICA. 



otherwise than in their faith a something to emotionise 

 and to agitate them. 



The East African's Credenda — it has not arrived at 

 the rank of a system, this vague and misty dawning of 

 a creed — are based upon two main articles. The first 

 is demonology, or, rather, the existence of Koma, the 

 spectra of the dead ; the second is Uchawi, witchcraft 

 or black magic, a corollary to the principal theorem. 

 Few, and only the tribes adjacent to the maritime 

 regions, have derived from El Islam a faint conception 

 of the one Supreme. There is no trace in this country 

 of the ancient and modern animal- worship of Egypt and 

 India, though travellers have asserted that vestiges of 

 it exist amongst the kindred race of Kafirs. The 

 African has no more of Sabasism than what belongs to 

 the instinct of man : he has a reverence for the sun and 

 moon, the latter is for evident reasons in higher esteem, 

 but he totally ignores star-worship. If questioned con- 

 cerning his daily bread, he will point with a devotional 

 aspect towards the light of day ; and if asked what 

 caused the death of his brother, will reply Jua, or 

 Eimwe, the sun. He has not, like the Kafir, a holiday 

 at the epoch of new moon : like the Moslem, however, 

 on first seeing it, he raises and claps his hands in token 

 of obeisance. The Mzimo, or Fetiss hut, is the first 

 germ of a temple, and the idea is probably derived from 

 the Kurban of the Arabs. It is found throughout the 

 country, especially in Uzaramo, Unyamwezi, and Karag- 

 wah. It is in the shape of a dwarf house, one or two feet 

 high, with a thatched roof, but without walls. Upon 

 the ground, or suspended from the roof, are handfuls of 

 grain and small pots full of beer, placed there to pro- 

 pitiate the ghosts, and to defend the crops from injury. 

 A prey to base passions and melancholy godless fears, 



