Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/535

Rh the answer is "wenda leka kiambote" (go, and sleep well).

There are two kinds of spitting:—1. "Taulwila nsambu," to spit a blessing or to utter a blessing, to pretend to spit on one as a blessing, as a parent will on a child, etc. When this is done, the one who blesses says "ovwa kiuma kiavwidi muntu, ovwa nsambu yo malau, wata diambu ditonda muntu," (may you possess all that a person should possess, may you have blessings and good luck, and may your words find favour with people). 2. "Taulwila mete," to spit saliva at any one. This is equal to cursing them, and is resented accordingly.

To hit or kick against another's foot in passing, if intentional, is equal to a curse, and will cause a bad quarrel. The man who does it unintentionally must ask forgiveness. The showing of the sole of the foot to a person is considered extremely rude, and to touch another with the sole of the foot is bitterly resented.

Visitors who have been sitting in a town must not brush the dust and dirt off their cloths until they get outside the town, as such an action is regarded as putting a curse on the town.

When a number of people are leaving a town to build another town, or to live somewhere else, the folk remaining wish them good health, good journey, luck, etc., and finish by saying,—"Do not any of you return to bewitch us." Those leaving reciprocate the good wishes, and say,—"Do not any of you follow us to bewitch us." When a caravan starts on a trading expedition, the members of it say to those left in the town,—"Good health, and let no one follow us to give us bad luck in trading"; and those left behind say,—"Good journey, and do not any of you return to bewitch us, or carry us to sell to the white trader." The idea behind these requests is that a living person who is a ndoki or witch can visit a place by his "nkwiya" (evil spirit) and take a person away by