Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/816

796 convulsions. In this manner the West African negroes seek to account for epileptic and similar seizures; they are what used to be termed cases of "possession," but they are not directly attributable to the departure of the kra, per se.

When, however, the soul quits the body, the latter falls at once into a motionless and lifeless condition. Sometimes, though but rarely, the soul returns, and then the man has been in a swoon or trance; more frequently it does not return, and then the man is dead. It is in the hope that the soul may return that appeals to the dead to come back are always made, and that the corpse is kept until the signs of corruption show that the soul has gone forever. The difference, then, between the results of departure is clear. When the kra departs, there is no direct and immediate result, though the departure may lead to "possession"; but when the soul departs, the direct and immediate result is suspended animation or death.

The Ewi-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast the—Awunas, Krepis, Dahomis, Mahis, etc.—hold exactly similar views; the third element, or indwelling spirit of man, being by them termed a luivo. The Ga-speaking peoples of the eastern districts of the Gold Coast have modified the more original conception, and believe that each individual has two kla (the Ga-term for kra), a male and a female, the former being of a bad disposition and the latter of a good.

By all the tribes of these three lingual groups the indwelling spirit is believed to afford some protection to man. It receives occasional thank-offerings, and the anniversary of each individual's day of birth is held as a day sacred to the spiritual tenant. On this account the kra may be regarded in some respects as a guardian spirit, dwelling in the body of the man; but it is more than that. Its close connection with the man himself is indicated by the fact of its nocturnal adventures during its absence from the body being remembered by the man when he awakes. The latter even feels physically the effects of his kra's actions; and when the negro awakes from sleep feeling stiff and unrefreshed, or with limbs aching from muscular rheumatism, he invariably attributes these symptoms to the fact of his kra having been engaged in some struggle or some severe toil. If, moreover, a man dreams of other men, he believes that his kra has met theirs; consequently, the kra is held to have the outward appearance of the man whose body he tenants. Hence the kra is more than a mere tenanting or guardian spirit. He has, though doubtless only in a shadowy form, the very shape and appearance of the man; and both the mind and body of the latter are affected by and register the results of the kra's actions. How the notion of such an existence came into being it is beyond the province of this paper to inquire. It is