Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/268

 256 Mystical and Ceremo^iial Avoidance

day in lieu of glasses and bottles human beings are substituted.

This ceremony, on account of there being a historical reason assigned, is one of very considerable importance when one endeavours to explain similar ceremonies in other lands, even though they may differ in some par- ticulars.

There is a curious custom similar to the foregoing among the Watusi in Ruanda, which is between lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, but with the addition of bloodshed. In addition to many human sacrifices being performed on the accession of a new king there used to be a very special one. A man, presumably of one of the subordinate tribes, was laid on the ground and covered with bark cloths. Then a herd of cattle was driven over him till he was pounded to death. The newly succeeding king had then to walk on the body its full length.

Perhaps if it were possible to observe all the surrounding rites on such a rare occasion it might be possible to arrive at some explanation of this central rite. It may be emblematic of the high position of the king with regard to his subjects, whom he can tread in the dust and at the same time kill with impunity. If, however, the sacrificed man is invariably a member of one of the subordinate tribes, as there is every reason to suppose, it may be emblematic and equally a warning to all subjects that the Watusi and their cattle are all equally superior to the subject agricultural aborigines whose country they invaded in remote times, and that the latter must regard the cattle as sacred.

It must not be overlooked that one of the prerogatives of kingship, at all events in Africa, is to have the power to take life at will and with no reason assigned. No king is a great king who has not the absolute power of life and death. He is not great if there are any limitations to his caprice. The treading on the corpse indicates this, and the means of doing it, namely employing cattle, further indicates the