Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/263

 of Contact with Inanimate Objects. 251

way of goods has been paid. She must, therefore, be taken great care of, and accordingly is honoured in many ways, even to the extent of being kept clear of contact with such a soiling thing as the ground. These ceremonies, therefore, have grown up and attach to her as an object of high value.

No. 3. Initiation into Secret Societies.

For initiation into secret societies, or into " medicine " as it may be called, there is a similar practice to that of initiating boys to manhood in Australia, though in this case it is in Africa.

Among the Baluba (R. P. Collet on the Baluba) near the Lualaba River, as the Upper Congo is called, there is a society called the Bakangala. The initiate meets the head of the society lying in the path and covered with branches of trees, and must walk on his body. In another society initiation is completed by the head of the society lying on the initiate head to feet, the same practice being adopted if the initiate be a woman. Among the Baluba also the women of a certain society were treated with great respect. There were many special observances with regard to them, among which was the one that they were not to walk about in pubHc. If the fetish-woman went anywhere a special man attached to the society carried her on his shoulders, and, as in other tribes, he received special privileges. Among the Mende I am informed that a necessary accom- paniment of a certain initiation is being walked upon. In Borneo, among the Sea Dyaks, in the initiation to the third grade of Manang there is a waving over the initiate, followed in the fourth by the Manang desiring promotion being stamped upon. It can be seen in these examples quoted that whereas the action in all is not very dissimilar the reason is totally distinct. In the Mende and Sea Dyak practices the reason may possibly be to stamp out any evil spirit, and so serve as an act of purification. The Baluba