RELIGION AND MYTH

[All nghts ,'eserved]

RELIGION AND MYTH

BY THE

REV. JAMES MACDONALDAUTHOR OJ!'

U LIGHT IN AFRICA," ETO. ETO.

LONDON

DAVID NUTT, 270-271 STRAND

18 93

MY FRIEND

THE REV. JAMES STEWART, M.D.

OF LOVEDALE:

IN

A.DMIRATION OF IUB SERVICEB IN THE OAUBE

PREFACE

THIS volume is an effort to put into popular form anumber of facts connected with the religious ob­

servances and social customs of Mrican tribes. No

attempt is made to treat the subject exhaustively,

and those who have made Ethnology a study willfind in it little that is absolutely new. But the

ordinary reader, who is interested in questions affect­

ing a people slowly emerging from barbarism, may

have his sympathies quickened.

When I first began the study of Ethnology it

opened to me a new world of thought. Reading Mr.

J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough last winter, I found it

touched so many subjects which long- residence in

Africa had made familiar to me, that the idea of

putting the results of my own observations into

permanent form took shape. This has been supple­

mented by facts gleaned from such authorities as

were at hand, and the result is the present volume.

I have, in foot-notes, acknowledged my indebted­ness to various authors.

viii PREFACE

The facts have been gathered chiefly from Mr.

Frazer's volumes; Bishop Callaway's Nursery Tales,

Traditions and Histories of the Zulus; Miss C. G.

Gordon-Cumming's In the New Hebrides; W.

Mannhardt's Antike Wald-und Feld Kulte and his

other works; Winterbotham's The Nigel}'" and Laire

Tribes; Rowley's Africa Unveiled; Duff Macdonald's

·A.fricana; Schweinfurth's The Heart of Africa;

Chalmers' Tiyo Soga; Brownlee's MS. notes; Felkin's

Four Tribes of Central Africa; Ramseyer's and

KUhne's Four Years in Ashantee; Ashe's Two Kings

of Uganda; Arnot's Garanganze; the missionaries

New and Krapf, G. M. Theal, and several others,

without whose works my book could not have been

written.

Though living" at ~he back of the north wind,"

I still feel the African fever; that is to say, the

charm which it has to draw back to itself all who

have tasted its bitters and sweets.

My object throughout has been to stimulate an

interest ill African peoples.

If the book serves this purpose, I shall be amplyrewarded for the labour bestowed upon it; in the

fullest sense a labour of love.JAMES MACDONALD.

REAY FREE MANSE,

Ohristmas, 1892.

CONTENTSOHAP.

I. PRIMITIvE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL

I. Religion defined.

2. Incarnate gods •

3. Sympathetic magic

4· Jt:in-making

5. Dangers of seeing divine persons

6. All property and subjects owned by ruler •

7. Lubare of Uganda

8. Departmental kings

II. GUARDING DIVINITY

I. Danger to man-god from exposure

2. The :Mikado.

3. Kings of Shark Point and Congo

4- Divine king may be deposed

5. Restrictions placed on king and heir to throne .

6. Separation of civil and divine functions

7. Killing the god •

III. EVOLUTION OF DEITY

I. Doctrine of souls •

2. Dangers of the soul

3. Worship of ancestors .

4. Other spirits than souls

5. Fetish.

6. Sengero selling Qf women .

7. Confusion of seasons •

8. Offerings to spirit of vegetation •

9. Offerings to goddess of fecundity.

PAGB

• 1-19

2

310

12

14

IS

17

20-32

20

21

23

24

252728

·33--60

33

35

36

37

38

39

39

40

42

x

CHAP.

CONTENTS

P.lGK

III. EVOLUTION OF DEITY-continued.

10. Muansa

II. Rites at puberty

12. Souls dwelling in objects

13. Toad day

14- Origin of national festivals.

15. Khond sacrifices to Tan

16. Story of Balder •

17. Midsummer fires.

IV. SACRIFICE

I. Putting king to death.

2. Substitution

3. Soul of ancestor entering person •

4. Kamr methods of directing course of nature

5. Propitiation •

6. Thanksgiving.

7. Substitution for murderer

8. Offerings to Lubare

9. Parading victim before sacrifice •

10. Festival and sacrifices of BantamS.

I I. Messages to spirit-land •

12. Descent of priest to the lower world

V. TABOOS

I. Charms against witchcraft

2. Banning by curses.

3. Sprinkling to exorcise evil

4. Eating in private •

5. Position of divine persons

6. Power of superstition •

7. Ceremonial purity.

8. Objections to iron •

9. Power of iron against evil

10. Sanctity of objects belonging to sacred persons.

43

44

47

4950

56

5757

• 61-83

61

63

64

65

66

67

71

7376

78

79SI

84-98

84

8586

8788

89

9°go

92

93

COKTENTS

CHAP.

V. TABOOS--continusa.

I I. Dangers of barber's art •

12. Rise of evil spirits.

VI. EXPULSION OF DEMONS •

I. Taboos insufficient protection

2. Animals messengers of evil •

3. Stone-throwing and cursing .

40 Expulsion of guile •

5. Expulsion by carrying out in wicker baskets

6. "Raising" the devil

7. "Laying" the devil

VII. WITOHCRAFT

I. Crime of witchcraft

2. Persons presumed to practise the al t •

3. Power of witchcraft

4. Methods of practising the art

5. Witch-doctoring

6. Prophetess as discoverer of witches

7. Magic roots •

8. Wltchcraft prosecutions by ordeal

9. Mosaic trial by ordeal •

10. History of witchoraft •

I I. Fairyland

12. Growth of idea of supreme spirits

VIII. HARVEST FESTIVALS

I. Yam festival •

2. Pondo festival of first-fruits

3. Honour done to powers of nature .

4- Maize mother.

5. The" Maiden" a t:lurvival

IX. PROPHECY •

I. The office and its development

xi

PAGB

94

97

99-112

99101

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1°5108

110

113-135

114

liS116

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121123126

128

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132

136-145

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137138

139

14°

:xii CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGB

IX. PBOPHECY-co1ltinued.

2. Causes of its gradual decay

3. False prophets

4. Converse with the unseen

5. Second sight •

6. Foretelling events •

7. Guarding against soul-sna.tching •

8. Funeral rites

9. Guilds and sacred orders

10. Reading omens

II. Heresies

12. Reforms among the order

13. Prejudices against religious teachers

X. SOCIAL USAGES •

I. Ceremonial acts

2. Seeking a lady's hand3. Succession to the throne

4- Courtesies to guests

5. Sanctuaries •

6. Eating and drinking

7. Friendship

XI. ACTS OF DEVOTION-MYTHS.

I. Acts of ordinary life-religious

2 Caring for the soul

3. Soul dwelling apart from body

4. Giants and their souls .

5. Sacred animals and objects •

6. Mermaids ashore

XII. WOMAN

I. Woman's position.

2. Woman as regent .

3. Danger of touching woman's blood

4. Dangers of girlhood

149150

152

153

154

155156

157160

164166

170

173-180

173

174175176

177178

J79

180-193

180

185186

188

190

192

194-203

194

195

:1;95

197

CONTENTS xiii

CRAP. PAG.E

XII. WOM.A.N-continuea.

5. Uncleanness. 198

6. Woman's in:O.uence 199

7. Aggressiveness 200

8. Dog language ~02

9. Public morality 203

XIII. COUBTESIES OF LIFE-DRESS 204-21 3

I. Hospitality 204

2. Loyalty to chief 205

3. Right and wrong 206

4- Cannibalism • 208

5. Clothing 209

6. Ceremonial courtesy 210

7. Tein-egin 212

8. Juju and the fairy bull • 21 3

XIV. REFORMS . 214-234

I. Man's tenacity in holding fast all he started with 214

2. How wide a gulf between savage and civilised. 215

3. Blanket!!, Bibles, or work 215

4. Claims of commerce 216

5. In:O.uence of clothing 219

6. Work and conditions of soil. 220

7. MisSIons and how conducted 224

8. Jews and ancients. 225

9. Difficulty of understanding new ideas . 229

10. Ideas become common as thought advance!! 232

INDEX • 235-240