Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/352

344 lizards, as there is among the Coast-tribes against puff-adders. A Coast-man will not kill a puff-adder if he can catch it alive. He likes to torment it, and this he does by passing a string through its jaws to close its mouth, and then suspend it on a branch to wriggle out the remainder of its life as a kind of grim punishment for the injuries it inflicts.

South Africans are fatalists, and what is to be must be. There is no such thing as death from natural causes, except in extreme old age, when "the breath goes away". All others die from foul play, the work of wizards and witches; the "calling" of the river, of seeing an incanti. These evils may be avoided for a time, but sooner or later fate overtakes the victim, and there can be no respite then. Such protection as can be had is got from charms, but there is always the danger of the evil worker being able to circumvent the doctor, and defeat the guardian spirit. This latter is generally the spirit of one's father, hence the Kaffir who escapes from danger says, "The soul of my father saved me." This guardianship may be represented by living creatures or objects. The guardian spirit of a Kaffir chief is an ox, but any animal may be such, as a baboon, a bird, especially those deemed sacred, or even a snake. This spirit is especially watchful when one is on a journey, and it is wonderful the feats of travelling that can be done by creatures in these circumstances. A baboon, which was the messenger of evil in this case, in Giakaland, travelled forty or fifty miles in an hour, and no one doubted the fact except the European magistrate who tried the culprit, and refused to release a rank impostor and rogue, because the whole evil was done by someone else's familiar.

A very wise man, a kind of African prophet, had once upon a time to make a long journey. He had to ford large and deep rivers, and traverse wide deserts. His friends urged him to carry a supply of food with him, and take a few personal attendants for his comfort and safety.