Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/76

62 called a "compound soul" (or a dual spirit), "one element of which leaves the body during dreams, and the other only leaves at death." Any native will tell you that he has a body (nitu or to), a soul or life (moyo), and a spirit (m wand a). It is the mwanda that is supposed to leave the body during dreams, but during the dream time the person has life, i.e. the moyo remains with him. Now moyo (life) is always used as the opposite of mfwa (death). Trees, vegetables, and animals have moyo while alive, and, when death comes, they say, as we do, "moyo ukatukidi" (the life is gone). Only the nkasa tree, the bark of which is used for the ordeal, is supposed to have a mwanda or spirit, and only very tame dogs and pigs are supposed to have a mwanda. I take it, therefore, that moyo is simply life or the principle of life, and is not to be regarded as one element of the "compound soul."

When they are about to cut off some of the nkasa bark for ordeal purposes,—(it is never cut for any other reason),—the man says "I come to get a piece of your bark, and, if the person for whom I am cutting it is really a witch, let my matchet bend when I strike you, but, if he is not a ndoki, then let my matchet go into you and let the wind stop blowing." It often happens that the air is very still, not a leaf stirring, for two or three hours before a storm, and this stillness of the air is credited to the above cause. Although the omens may be in favour of the person accused of witchcraft, they still proceed with the giving of the ordeal, and the results are often contrary to the omens, but their belief is unaffected by the contretemps.

When the natives see a dog, or a goat, or a pig very tame and obedient to its master, following him wherever he goes, they think the owner has put his mwanda into the animal, and hence its tameness and obedience.