Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/459

Rh "God." I might have translated the mourners' cry thus: "Our Great Spirit hear us! May the old Great Spirit pray to the new Great Spirit for us!" But as it seemed to me that they wished to express God and our Saviour, I used the word God. They most certainly believe in an Eternal Being who will one day come from the East, and consequently they bury their people in a sitting position facing the East. They also, it seems to me, believe in a lesser spirit proceeding from the great one, and this I took to represent our Saviour. It is very difficult now to get to the bottom of their original belief, as they have forgotten or confused with other beliefs much of their former religion, but they have no fear of death. Every native I have spoken to, whether heathen or Christian, has used the word Molimo to express "One above," or "the Great One," and always with the greatest reverence. Golimo means "above, heaven, the sky," Melimo, "those above." From what I could gather, the heathen Basuto seemed to look upon their departed ancestors as Melimo, who were endowed with eternal life, and had the power of entering the living bodies of certain animals or reptiles, such as cattle, snakes, &c., but that greater even than these Melimo, there exists Molimo, the Father of all.

As to the name "Mose la 'ntja," there may be in parts of Basutoland the idea which Mr. Hartland quotes from M. Christol (whom my husband knew very well and I slightly), but every native I have asked about it has always told me it is given as a sign of contempt, lest the dead child should be jealous of the newcomer and harm it, or should be hurt by his or her place being so easily filled by another. My own youngest child bears the name, and over and over again I have been warned not to show my love for her too openly lest the dead child should suffer and resent my apparent forgetfulness of herself.

Lastly, let me say that I have never seen any of my native stories in print. They were told me by the natives themselves in different parts of the country, and I have translated them as exactly as I could. They are often very poetically expressed, and I felt that I did not do them justice, but I was afraid to alter the wording at all. I have not read any translations of Basuto stories, nor did I know that any had been written; but if they are less picturesque than those I have given, I can only suggest that perhaps the French missionary failed to