Religion and Superstitions.
These are subjects which I should hardly have ventured to introduce into this book if I had had to rely exclusively upon enquiries made only during my stay among the Mafulu villages, without having the benefit of five years’ observation by the Mafulu Fathers of the Mission. And, notwithstanding this additional facility, my notes on these questions will be found to involve puzzles and apparent inconsistencies; and there is no part of the book which should be read and accepted with greater reserve and doubt as to possible misunderstanding. Subject to this caution, I give the information as I have obtained it.
I heard nothing to justify the idea of the Mafulu people having any belief in a universal God or All Father; but there is a general belief among them in a mysterious individual named Tsidibe, who may be a man, or may be a spirit (they appear to be vague as to this), who has immense power, and who once passed through their country in a direction from east to west. Wherever you may be, if you speak of this personage, and ask to be told in which direction he travelled, they always point out one which is from east to west. They believe that it was Tsidibe who taught them all their customs, including dancing and manufacture, and that he ultimately reached and remained in the land of the white man, where he is now living; and that the superior knowledge of the white man in manufacture, and especially in the making of clothes, has been acquired from him. The idea of his ultimate association with the white man can hardly, however, be a very ancient tradition. One of the Fathers was seriously asked by a native whether he had ever seen Tsidibe. They seem to think that he is essentially a beneficent being. They regret his having left their country; but they have no doubt as to this, and do not regard him as still continuing to exercise any influence over them and their affairs, have no ceremonies or observances with reference to him, and do not address to him any supplications. As traces of his passage through their country they will show you extraordinarily shaped rocks and stones, such as fragments which have fallen from above into the valley, and rocks and stones which have lodged in strange positions. But there are no ceremonies with reference to these and the natives have no fear of them, and indeed they will proudly point them out to you as evidences of this mysterious being having been in their country, and of his power. They would not hesitate to touch one of these stones, but they would never injure it. I learnt nothing about him which would justify me in suggesting that the Mafulu people deified him as an ancestor, or even regarded him as being one, though some of the matters attributed to him are perhaps not dissimilar from those often attributed to deified ancestors.[1]
They certainly have a lively belief in ghosts of people who have lived and died, and in spirits which have never occupied human form, all of whom (ghosts and spirits) are evil disposed, and in sorcery.
Every human being, male and female, has during life a mysterious ghostly self, in addition to his bodily visible and conscious self; and this ghostly self will on his death survive him as a ghost. There appears to be no idea of this ghostly self leaving the body in times of sleeping or dreaming; though, if a man dreams of someone who is dead, he thinks that he has been visited by that person’s ghost.
At death the ghost leaves the body, and becomes, and remains, a malevolent being. There is no idea of re-incarnation, or of the ghost passing into any animal or plant, though, as will be seen hereafter, it sometimes apparently becomes a plant; and there is no difference in their minds between the case of a person who has died naturally and one who has been killed in battle or otherwise, or between persons who have or have not been eaten, or who have or have not been buried, though in case of burial there are the methods of getting rid of the ghost; and there is no superstitious avoidance of graves or fear of mentioning a deceased person by name, and no superstition as to the shadows of living persons passing over graves and sacred places. Except as above stated, I found no trace of any belief in a future state.
When on the death of a man or woman or child, the ghostly self leaves the body, or at all events when the funeral pig-killing has been performed, the ghost goes away to the tops of the mountains, where apparently it exists as a ghost for ever. The shouting immediately after the death, and afterwards at the funeral, are steps towards driving it there; and the pig-killing ceremony completes the process. On reaching the mountains the ghost becomes one of two things. The ghost of a young or grown-up person up to, say, forty or forty-five years of age becomes the shimmering light upon the ground and undergrowth, which occurs here and there where the dense forest of the mountains is penetrated by the sun’s beams. It is apparently only the light which shimmers on the ground and undergrowth, and not that in the air. The ghost of an elderly person over forty or forty-five years of age becomes a large sort of fungus, which is indigenous to the mountains, where alone it is found. Any native who on a hunting expedition or otherwise meets with a glade in which this shimmering light occurs will carefully pass round it, instead of going across it; and any native finding one of these fungi will neither eat nor touch, nor even tread upon it; though indeed, as regards the eating, I understand that this particular fungus is one of the poisonous non-edible forms. A native who, after the recent death of another, is travelling in the mountains, and there finds a young fungus of this species only just starting into growth, will think that it is probably the ghost of the recently departed one.
As regards the use by me with reference to both sunbeams and fungi of the word “becomes” I recognise that it may justify much doubt and questioning. The idea of actually becoming the flickering light or the fungus, as distinguished from that of entering into or haunting it, is a difficult one to grasp, especially as regards the flickering light. I tried to get to the bottom of this question when I was at Mafulu; but the belief as to actual becoming was insisted upon, and I could get no further. I cannot doubt, however, that there is much room for further investigation on the point, which is of a character concerning which misapprehension may well arise, especially in dealing with such simple and primitive people as are the Mafulu natives.
The foods of these ghosts in both their forms are the ghostly elements of the usual native vegetable foods (sweet potato, yam, taro, banana, and in fact every vegetable food) and the ghostly elements of the excrement of the still living natives; and the ghosts come down from the mountains to the villages and gardens to procure these foods. Here again the difficulty as to meaning above referred to arises, as they can hardly imagine that the flickering lights cease to flicker in their mountain glades, or that the fungi cease to exist in their mountain habitats during these food-seeking incursions; and yet, unless this be so, the superstitious difficulty is increased. A ghost is also sometimes for some reason or other dissatisfied with his mountain abode; and he will then return to the village (not apparently in the visible form of a flickering light or a fungus).
As the intentions of the ghost towards living humanity are always evil, his visits, whether for procuring food or in consequence of dissatisfaction with his habitat, are feared by the people; but I could not ascertain what was the nature of the injuries by the ghost to themselves of which they were afraid, nor could I hear of any actual instance of a disaster or misfortune which had been attributed to the machinations of such a ghost. When sleeping in their dark enclosed houses, however, the people fill up all openings by which the ghost might enter (this does not apply to the emone, the entrance openings of which are not closed at night; but perhaps the fact that a number of men are always sleeping together there gives them confidence); and when the Mission Station at Mafulu was started the natives were amazed at the missionaries daring to sleep alone in rooms with open doors and windows, through which the ghosts might enter.
Having by the shouting prior to and at the dead man’s funeral wholly or partially driven his ghost to the mountains, and in some way, as it would seem, further placated or influenced the ghost by the subsequent pig-killing over or by his grave at the funeral feast, there is no method of which I could gain information by which the people can actually keep him there, or prevent his periodic returns to the village and gardens for food, or his return from a mountain home with which he is dissatisfied; and there are apparently no prayers, incantations or other ceremonies for the purpose of placating, or intimidating, or in any way influencing the ghost. This statement is subject, however, to the existence of the practice of pig-killing at the various other ceremonies before described (always apparently done under or by or on the site of a chiefs grave), which is evidently superstitious in character, and must have reference to the ghosts of the departed chiefs and notables, being intended, or having originally been intended, to placate or influence them in some way or other; and especially it would seem that this must be so as regards the dipping of the mourner’s string necklace in dead pigs’ blood at the mourning-removal ceremony, and as regards the pig-killing at the big feast, at which the skulls and bones of all the then departed chiefs and notables are carefully collected, and made the objects of ceremonious dipping in blood, or touching with bones so dipped, and after which these skulls and bones may be thrown away, as not requiring further ceremony. And concerning all these ceremonies, if we bear in mind the special fear which many primitive people seem to have of the ghosts of their great men, as distinguished from those of the unimportant ones, it seems, I think, to be natural that the graves and the skulls and bones of the great ones should be those which are specially dealt with, and the dealing with which may possibly, so far as the big feasts are concerned, have been the original purpose for which the feasts were held.
The mental attitude and conduct of the people towards ghosts may have originated in some form of ancestor worship, but I found nothing now existing to indicate this; and in particular I could learn nothing of any recognition of, or ceremonial observances with reference to, the individual ghosts of known persons, as distinguished from the ghosts generally.
I could find no direct information as to any belief in ghosts of animals or plants; but the fact that the living edible plants have a ghostly self, upon which the human ghosts feed, seems to involve the idea during the life of those plants; and in that case one sees no reason why the ghost of the plant should not survive the plant itself, just as the ghost of the living person survives him at his death. Also the existence of a ghostly element in human excrement opens out a wide field of ghostly possibilities.
Spirits which have never been human beings are also malevolent; though when we come to the operations of magic men or sorcerers, and to incantations and the use of charms, the powers in connection with all of which appear to be ascribed to spirits, it will be noticed that these are by no means necessarily and invariably engaged or used for malevolent purposes.
I was not able to obtain any satisfactory information as to these spirits, or their supposed attributes, nor, except as regards illness and death, as to the nature of, and ground for, the fears which the natives feel concerning them; indeed, this is a subject upon which most natives all over the world are inclined to be reticent, partly or largely from fear. Even as regards the sacred places which these spirits are supposed to haunt, though the natives are not unwilling to pass them, and will mention the fact that they are sacred, they are unwilling to talk about them. My notes as to spirits, other than those in connection with sorcery producing illness and death, must therefore be practically confined to the sacred places haunted by the spirits, and the demeanour and acts of the natives with reference to, and when they pass, these places.
Speaking generally, any place which has something specially peculiar or unusual in its appearance is likely to be regarded as the abode of a spirit. A waterfall, or a deep still pool in the course of a river (but not the river itself), or a deep narrow rocky river ravine, or a strangely shaped rock come under this category. There are also certain trees and creepers which are regarded as implying the presence of a spirit in their vicinity, although that vicinity has in itself nothing unusual. I can, however, only give a few illustrative examples of this general idea.
There are three special trees and two or three special creepers which imply the presence of a spirit. What the creepers are I could not ascertain; but the trees are a very large palm which grows on the mountains and not on the coast, a form of pine tree,[2] and the gabi fig-tree, used for burial of chiefs.[3] It does not necessarily follow that every specimen of any one of these trees and creepers is spirit-haunted; but some are known to be so, and all are apparently so much under suspicion that, though the natives will speak of them and will pass them, they are afraid to cut them down.
At the time when the path near the newly erected Mission Station at Mafulu was being opened some of these creepers had to be cleared away, and the Mission Fathers had the utmost difficulty with the natives, only two or three of whom could be persuaded to help in the work, whilst the others stood aloof and afraid. In the same way, when the Fathers wanted to cut down some of the special palms, only two natives were induced to help in this, and even they only did so on the condition that the Fathers themselves made the first strokes; and the Fathers were warned by the natives that evil would befall them. It was a curious coincidence that the Father who did this tree-cutting, being then and having been for a long time past perfectly well in health, was that evening taken ill with a bad sore, which nearly necessitated his being carried down to the head Mission Station on the coast.
There is a very common ceremony performed when natives, in travelling through the country, pass a spirit-haunted spot. The leader of the party turns round, and in a low voice tells the others that they are approaching the spot, whereupon they all become silent, though up to that point they have been chattering. The leader then takes a wisp of grass and ties it in a knot, and all the others do the same. They then walk on in silence for a period, which may be anything from five to fifteen minutes, after which, as they pass the spot, the leader turns round and throws his bunch of grass on the ground, and the others do the same. In this way they avert the danger and afterwards chatter as before.[4] Another somewhat similar ceremony commences, like the former one, with silence; but, instead of throwing grass down as they pass the haunted spot, the visible sign of which in this case is a hole in the ground, the leader stops and looks round at the others, and then presses the palm of his hand down into the interior of the hole, and the others do the same; and after this all is safe and well, as in the former case. In travelling through the country these holes with numerous impressions of hands in them are to be seen; and you may in one day’s journey pass several of these signs of haunted places, of either or both sorts, within a comparatively short distance of one another. The hole in which the people put their hands may not have originally existed, and may have been produced by the oft-repeated pressure of hands on the ground as natives passed the haunted spot; but on this point I am unable to make any statement. Nor have I been able to ascertain what the difference, if any, is, or has been, between the places where they put grass and those in which they merely press the hands.
I found no evidence of any general idea of supernatural powers being possessed by natural inanimate objects, such as rivers or rocks; but, as already stated, fishers are in the habit of addressing the stream in supplication for fish, and it is possible there are other examples of the same sort of thing, which I did not discover.
Magic or sorcery, and those who practise it, and incantations and charms, and those who supply charms, are naturally associated with either ghosts or spirits, or both. Among the Mafulu people they are, I was assured, associated solely with spirits, and not with ghosts; and, though I have no confirmatory evidence of the accuracy of this statement, I can only in these notes assume that it is correct. It may well be, however, that in the minds of the people themselves the distinction between the ghost of a person who has lived and died and the spirit which has never lived in visible human form is not really quite clearly defined; or that powers which are now regarded by them as spirits have had an origin, possibly long ago, in what were then believed to be ghosts. I shall revert to this point at a later stage.