Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/273

Rh and hither from time to time come old and young with offerings of bead-work, money, food, dolls, &c., hoping by these gifts to propitiate the spirit within and to receive a favourable answer to their prayers.

Once while we were stationed at Butha-Buthe there was great excitement amongst the people, for the streak of smoke was again seen slowly ascending from the Khapong. It was a pouring wet day, when one would have found it impossible to light a fire out of doors, yet the rain had no effect on this mysterious fire. My servants called me to look, and there most certainly, most unmistakably it was—a thin column of smoke steadily mounting towards the clouds; but on this occasion it only lasted a few hours, during which time it was far too wet for me to venture down to investigate. Afterwards I thoroughly searched the place with my husband, but beyond seeing a small strip of black peat-like soil on the edge of a small sluit, and finding money, bangles, beads, and clay dolls laid underneath a projecting piece of the bank, I saw nothing. There was absolutely no trace of a fire. Some of the dolls had evidently been lying there for years. There are several similar spots in various other parts of the country.

The customs with regard to a woman's first child are decidedly quaint. The wife must leave her husband's house fully a month before the expected arrival of the child, as it must be born in the home of its maternal grandparents, otherwise it will not live to grow up. If the infant should be a boy the rejoicings are judiciously mixed with regret. The news-carriers start at once to carry the news to the father, who has remained at his own village. Upon arriving at their destination they attack the unsuspecting