Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/162

146 the entire group over which he rules, and which is called by his name. Officially, it would appear, his ancestors are regarded as the ancestors of the group, though as a matter of fact the real ties between the chief and his group are rather political than consanguineous. The point of interest is that their relations to one another are modelled on consanguinity, and that the religious implications follow the presumption of the blood-bond.

M. Junod discusses once more, and with some additional evidence, the Thonga idea of Tilo (Heaven), on which he had given much information in his previous book on the Baronga. He hardly carries the true interpretation, however, further than Callaway was able to do in dealing with the Zulu belief, though he adds some curious details. His account of Thonga magic is full of interest, especially the section dealing with possession and exorcism. Exorcism is a special branch of the medicine-man's profession. Nobody can exercise it who has not been himself at one time possessed. Indeed, possession is the only method of initiation into the business of an exorcist. The spirits who are active in possession are, it should be noted, not the ancestral spirits, the ordinary objects of worship, but alien spirits; and they subsequently receive a cult from the patient. The exorcists form a separate guild or society, though they often combine the functions of exorcist with other branches of the medicine-man's business. When they die special rites are paid, possibly, I may suggest, because of their special cult. The funeral is attended by other exorcists; the corpse is unusually taboo; it is not laid in the grave in the manner of ordinary corpses; a species of urticaria growing in the water is laid on its head, "to cool him" and prevent the deceased from coming out of the grave to trouble the survivors. A little hut is built on the grave for the same purpose; one of his followers dances on the grave, and, when the mourning is ended, he burns the drugs at the annual feast and succeeds to his master's place. M. Junod's account of the practice of divination is also very detailed, accompanied with diagrams (one of them reproduced from his previous work), and the result of much careful enquiry.

Lastly, a section is devoted to an examination of Thonga taboos. The author distinguishes between taboos properly so