Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/265

 Reviews. 227

ill-defined and impersonal, called Heaven, or Sky, the name given to the azure expanse. One of the most intelligent women of M. Junod's congregation said to him : " Before you came to teach us that there was a Good Being, a Father in Heaven, we already knew that Heaven [or the Sky] existed, but we knew not that there was anyone in Heaven [or the Sky]." Another man said : " Our fathers all believed that life exists in the Sky." The Ba-ronga regard it as a place. Stories of reaching it by a rope are told ; and this idea is expressed in a very old song, here quoted. When reached, it is found to be the counterpart of the earth, much as it appears in European tales. More than that, however, they some- times called it " hosi, un seigneur T It was a power which acted and manifested itself in various ways. But it was a power " en- visaged for the most part as essentially impersonal." To it are attributed strange diseases, storms, death by lightning. " Heaven loved him " is said of one who has escaped a deadly danger, or who has prospered in a remarkable manner ; " Heaven hated him " is said of one who has fallen into misfortune or died. Twins are taboo. Their mother is called Tilo, Sky, Heaven ; and they themselves are children of Tilo. Mother and babes are subjected to special rites of purification ; a variety of observances sets them apart from others ; and if any other child be specially perverse, he is told : " You are wicked, you are like a twin." Among the rain-making ceremonies is that of showering with water the mother of twins, and of pouring water over the graves of twins. In a ceremony directed against one of the scourges of the country, a small beetle, a number of these insects are caught and thrown by a twin-girl into a pool without looking behind. The lightning is also called Tilo ; or rather, says M. Junod, the Ba-ronga believe it is produced by an imaginary bird, which flies very rapidly and is itself called Ti/o. It is said to be found in the earth when a thunderbolt has fallen. A wizard employed to discover thefts makes use of powder, which he asserts to be made from the body of this bird, and invokes " Heaven that hast eyes which see by night as by day," to come and discover the thieves, that they may be consumed. A storm, it is believed, will thereupon burst forth, and the lightning will strike the thief and bring to light the objects he has stolen. In great rains, Lilliputian beings are believed to fall from the sky. They are called not merely little men, dwarfs, but also balotmgwana, little Whites.

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