Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/239

Rh the night at a town called Z, near Kimpese, and saw the funeral of the late chief of the town, at which a native band played. The officer wanted the band's ivory trumpets, and attempted to take them by force. The people resisted, and tied him up. Some desired to kill him and pour his blood over the new grave, but, fortunately for him, others would not agree to this. As a compromise, they shaved off his hair, eyebrows, and beard, and let him go. He never knew how narrowly he had escaped sacrifice on a native chief's grave.

Future life and abode.—The sun was the place of punishment for bad people. When natives want to punish a child they put it out in the strong sun, and men and women were often tied in the scorching sunshine as a penalty for wrong-doing. The moon was supposed to be the place where good people talked (moka) with God. They believed that after death there was a mavambu ma njila, or dividing of the roads, one road leading to the sun, and the other to the moon. The bad people always went the former road, and the good people the latter one. When they see a halo round the sun, they say the mbaji a nkanu, or judgment court, is being held there, and the punishment is being confirmed (sikidiszva). When a circle is seen round the moon, the mbaji a nkanu is being held there, and the reward is being confirmed to the good, so that the family which buries a relative about that time is very happy. There is a native proverb that indicates that punishment in the sun does not kill:—"The bad are tormented like a locust on burning grass. It wants to die but cannot die; it wants to be saved, but cannot be saved." This figure of speech is taken from seeing the locusts, when the bush is burning, jumping from stem to stem of the grass in the smoke.

It will be observed that the sun and moon theory as to the places of punishment and reward is opposed to their belief concerning the great spirit town in the forest so fully described in a previous paper. I am inclined to think that the sun and moon theory may be a corruption of the old Roman Catholic teaching on purgatory etc., and that the spirit town in the forest is the original native belief. Sometimes a curious mixture of both ideas will be found. For example, if there is, as often happens, no halo round either