Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/47

Rh chiefs procure charms for the purpose of attracting these "goats" to them.

If a person borrows a sum of money of another, he gives the creditor a nephew, or a brother, or a sister to be held as a pledge. He cannot give his own child, as that child belongs to its mother's family, and he has no control over it. When he has collected sufficient money to redeem the pawn, he takes a calabash of palm wine, the money, and a white fowl or a white goat, and goes to his creditor. The fowl or goat, whichever he takes, must be white. The money is paid, the wine is drunk, and the white fowl or goat is presented. This white gift is called "nkuswa mpemba" (a being rubbed white). The man who holds the pledge rubs some chalk with his fingers by the side of the right ear of the pawn, and his redemption is completed, the chalk being a sign that he is "clean" and there is nothing against him. If, however, the borrower cannot collect sufficient money to redeem his pledge, he takes a calabash of palm wine and a goat and goes to the lender and asks for the remainder of the price of the pawn he holds. Upon that being paid the goat is killed; one half is divided among the witnesses to the transaction and the other half is given to the creditor, and the pawn is no longer a free person but a slave, and belongs to the family of the purchaser.

Before the arrival of missionaries no native knew any way of writing down his business transactions. All accounts respecting money, etc., were retained in the memory. One way of helping the memory was to tie knots in a piece of twine. A man on a journey would tie a knot in a piece of string for every day he was on the road, and thus know for certain at the end of his travels how many days he had been en route. If two or more men wished to meet on a certain day, fifteen days hence, they would each take a piece of string and tie fifteen knots in it, and as each day passed they would