Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/540

476 go near it tie a single bow to avert a like misfortune from themselves. There is another statement respecting the origin of fire, according to which fire was first made by wood friction, and then by flint and steel. There is a native legend that once there was no fire on the earth, and a man sent a jackal, (which at that time was tame and lived in the villages), to where the sun sets to bring some fire from it, but the jackal found so many good things there that he never again returned to the abode of man.

Salt must never be thrown on the fire, or it will prevent the rain from ever coming again. Neither may a person spit in the fire, or he will suffer from a sickness in which "the blood will become thin, the hair turn reddish, and dropsy of the stomach will appear."

"Nienie" or shooting stars are believed to be "matombola" (ghosts or spirits) travelling or playing, and anyone seeing them will rush into a house from fear of one of them falling on him and entering him. Mothers will not allow their children outside the house when there are many shooting stars to be seen, lest one should enter one of them. "Matombola" comes from "tomba," to ascend. It is thought that the "matombola" are spirits that have ascended from their graves. Mouse-holes are regarded as the exits of these spirits. Having ascended from their graves, they are now looking out for a body to enter, and upon entering one they become "nkwiya" (the evil spirit in a man that is the source of all witchcraft). There is the "mwanda" or spirit of a man which is buried with his corpse, and also the "etombola" or ghost which enters a person and becomes a "nkwiya" or evil spirit, and the person who has the nkwiya becomes a ndoki, or a witch who causes sickness and death. Now no one wants to be a witch, so they get out of the way of shooting stars. The "matombola" are not confined to