SUPERSTITIONS OF THE WEST AFRICAN TRIBES. 
503 
indicating about 1 or 2 o’clock), “ then he may die when the sun catch 
here ” (pointing to the east); “ come back when the sun catch here” 
(pointing to the west). “If lie can do that, he may come back at any 
time.” 
So far as they know, such a thing may be possible for years, and 
hence they fear the dead ; but they have no belief in the future state 
of the soul, and to them such a thought is utterly impossible. 
The doctrine of the Trinity does not appeal to them, either as a 
fact or a fallacy ; they do not grasp it at all ; it simply makes no 
impression on them, because it involves the power of abstraction in 
too high a degree. The idea of omnipotence, omnipresence, or eternity 
is simply a universal blank without a shadow. 
They have no theory as to the origin or destiny of man, or auy 
other creature ; they have no belief regarding the creation or collapse 
of the earth; they have no thought of the beginning or end of time 
or nature ; they have no traditions connecting them with the past- or 
promises for the future ; the present is the only grand division of 
time in their chronology. Such problems never arise in the African 
mind; the African never asks himself such useless questions; he 
never had any reason to inquire. To him it is clear that all men were 
created in the same way, and all of them die in the same way, and 
that is the end. Many natural phenomena appeal to their fears, and 
they have some strange opinions regarding them. 
I once spent some days in an Oruugo village, and one evening 
about dusk I heard the sound of a human voice at the other end of 
the town. In a moment it was followed by a perfect chorus of voices, 
screaming in a peculiar manner, accompanied by the clapping of 
hands. I stepped out of the house where I was to ascertain the 
cause, and found the people in the open plaza screaming and clapping 
their hands at the moon, over which was passing a small, fleecy cloud. 
On inquiry I learned that the cloud was mbuiri , and when seen in 
that manner the people regarded it as a bad omen for their town, and 
they screamed and clapped their hands to drive it away. When the 
new r moon’s face was again free from the cloud the people rejoiced, 
and told me it was good for them, and that the moon would like them 
and give them light because they had driven away m huiri. 
On one occasion I was in a canoe in the Bay of Manji ; it was 
quite dark, and the water was smooth and still. At each stroke of 
the oar there was a display of phosphorescent light in the salt w r ater. 
It was bright and beautiful as it broke into fragments, glancing and 
.whirling in little vortices at the side and in the wake of our canoe. I 
asked one of the natives what caused this strange sight, and what the 
lights were made of ? He explained to me that it was the “ moon’s 
fire” ; but I insisted that there was no moon, and he kindly proceeded 
to enlighten me about moons and moonlight. I thought what he told 
me w T as one of the most natural solutions possible to the simple mind, 
and at the same time quite poetical. 
He said : “ The moon does not stay at Manji all the time, but he 
keeps his fire in the water of the bay, so that he can get it when he 
w r ants it. He comes and goes at intervals. Sometimes he only uses a 
small bit of fire, and at other times a great deal. When he uses much 
fire there is but little of it in the bay, but when he is not using much 
there is plenty, plenty, and to-night he is not using much, so there is 
