Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/679

Rh by Striebel and myself, and as far as possible I have dove-tailed the two accounts together.

(a) A woman waked shortly after midnight and saw that there was a strong light. Believing that it was morning she rose and picked up her bag and hoe. As she did so a number of ghosts appeared before her and sang, "This woman saw that the moon was shining brightly and believed that it was morning." As they sang they beat her, and then left the hut.

(b) A woman was dying, and when she realised this she sent for her daughter and made her promise that she would tend and care for her grandmother, who was still living. The daughter forgot this promise after her mother's death, and went to live with a friend. One day after she had been working in the fields all day the mother's ghost appeared before her just at dusk, and asked her: "Did you not promise to care for your grandmother?" The daughter became speechless and unable to move through fear, and could not leave the farm. Late that evening her father, accompanied by some friends, went in search of her. Although they approached her quite closely she was invisible to them. In the early morning the ghost left her and she hurried back to her hut. Then she went to her grandmother, whom she tended until the latter died.

(c) A woman of Bamendjing who was working in the fields was told by a sorcerer to leave her work, as the head-chief's ghost was in the vicinity. She refused to take any notice, and immediately fell down dead.

(d) Late one evening a man was on his way to a hut, and as he approached it he heard the sound of singing in the market-place. He at once proceeded there and saw a great number of people assembled on the spot. He joined in the dancing and singing, and when they were all tired he sat down with them in order to drink palm-wine. Each man held in his hand a drinking horn which was filled by an attendant. As this man approached him it was noticed