418 SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS OF THE LUMBWA 
are allowed ‘ Oiik,’ and that the ‘ Oindet ’ of the woman 
passes equally into the grandchildren — the grandchildren 
thus inheriting the characteristics of the grandparents. (Now 
the modern study of heredity shows this to be actually the 
case, viz. that the hereditary transmission of characteristics 
is rather from grandparent to grandchild than from parent 
to child.) 
A custom corresponding closely to Christian baptism 
combines both the Sun worship and Spirit belief. Thus, 
when a child is born, the father must call the spirits of the 
grandparents, or — if not dead — of some other suitable near 
relation to enter into the child. If this is not done, the child, 
lacking an ‘ Oindet,’ will not thrive and will probably die. 
Thus the ‘ Maboita,’ a small stack of sticks specially selected, 
six varieties of small trees, tied with a special creeper, is erected 
outside the hut (if not already in existence for other purposes 
referred to later) and in the morning, while the sun is still in 
the east, the baby is brought out and held with its face towards 
the sun. Asista, God of the Sun, is asked to accept the 
child and look after its welfare ; at the same time, milk and 
beer (made from honey) are sprinkled on the child. If a person 
becomes sick it is attributed to the ‘ spirit ’ of the patient, 
and a goat is sacrificed in order — I am told — to scare away 
the spirit, but it would seem more probably to pacify it. If 
possible, the goat is sacrificed on the spot where the grand- 
father (or whoever the spirit was supposed to emanate from) 
died. 
When it was pointed out to one man who was making a 
sacrifice that the custom of only giving a small part of the 
meat to the spirit, and taking the rest home to eat, might 
anger the spirit, the suggestion was accepted seriously, and 
the total sacrifice was made — with a great moral struggle. 
The ‘ Oiik ’ are occasionally supposed to enter into animals, 
usually ‘ unclean ’ ones, such as hyenas, mice, leopards, i.e. 
those that eat the dead bodies when persons are thrown out 
into the bush after death. They never enter into cattle and 
the like. 
I know one family whose common ‘ Oindet ’ is supposed 
to originate from a leopard. There are several such families, 
