Have come like a whirlwind.”
The author goes on to say: “Now if the attentions of its friends on earth should cease and the soul should find nothing to eat and drink, then it was driven by force of hunger to come back to earth to demand its due.” This psalm-like utterance might equally well [[30]]have been made by a Kikuyu or a Kamba of the present day.
The intense desire of Africans for offspring is probably due to the fact that children are expected to sacrifice to the spirits of their dead parents, and the ghost of one who has left no posterity is therefore in a piteous plight. The spirits generally manifest themselves through certain women who, falling into a trance, give utterance to the message with which they are charged (“Ethnology of the A-Kamba,” p. 86). This reminds one of Saul going to Endor to visit a woman with a familiar spirit (Sam. xxviii. 7).
Spirits are also said to manifest themselves and give messages to men in dreams.
The Kitui people say that sometimes when a snake, crawling outside a hut, is attacked, it will suddenly vanish, and they then know that it was the imu of a deceased person which had either assumed the form of a snake or entered the body of a snake. A few days afterwards, a woman will become possessed and fall into a state of semi-trance, and the imu will speak through her mouth and say: “I came into the village the other day, and So-and-so wanted to strike me.” Whereupon the people think it just as well to sacrifice a goat to sooth the feelings of the injured spirit.
The Kamba people, unlike the Kikuyu, do not believe that spirits enter into kimbu or caterpillars.
When a hyæna comes and howls near a village, it is looked upon as an evil omen and as a token of death, and the beast is generally driven away and killed, if possible. They very probably believe that an evil demon has assumed the shape of a hyæna. In the Assyrian tablets mention is made of a spirit called Alu which slinks through the streets at night like a pariah dog and harms people.
There is a curious custom in Ukamba which throws some light on the spiritual beliefs of the people. If a young unmarried man is killed away from his village, his imu or spirit will return there and speak to the people [[31]]through the medium of an old woman in a dance (see p. 86, author’s work on the A-Kamba), and say, “I am So-and-so speaking, and I want a wife.” The youth’s father will then make arrangements to buy a girl from another village and bring her to his, and she will be mentioned as the wife of the deceased, speaking of him by name. She will presently be married to a brother of the deceased, but she must continue to live in the village where the deceased had his home.
If at any time the corporeal husband beats or ill-treats her, and she in consequence runs away to her father, the imu of the deceased will come and pester the people of the village and they will have bad luck; it will probably ask, through the usual medium, why his wife has been ill-treated and driven away. The head of the family will then take steps to induce the girl to return for fear of the wrath of the spirit of his deceased son.
To those who wish to obtain full insight into the sociology of these people, it is of the utmost importance to have a clear understanding of the native’s point of view, and to bear in mind that the ancestral spirits are a very real and vital thing to him and have a very deep influence upon his life.