Now I think that will be enough about the spirits for you to understand a little of what many of the African children believe about the Great Spirit who made everything. It is only when the children are big that they are told all these things about the spirits. The people do not like to talk about such things, and the children avoid the places where the spirits are supposed to come and visit. They are afraid to give offence to the spirits, I think, and, in fact, all their sacrifices seem to be made with the idea of appeasing the anger and earning the good will of the spirits.
Sometimes the sacrifices are made at the base of a tree. Very often a small hut is built in which sacrifice is offered up. The offerings are of flour or native beer, and at other times of animals. Only small bits of the flesh of the sacrificed animal are offered, the rest of the meat being eaten by the people. The bits offered up are wrapped in leaves and placed at the root of the sacrificial tree. It is the chief who offers up the sacrifice and says the prayers. In times of great calamity large sacrifices are held in which several chiefs join their people together and make prayer to the departed ones. Sacrifices are also made for rain, for success in hunting, for safety in travelling, and for freedom from sickness.
The prayers are generally very simple requests like the following one for safety, “Watch over me, my forefather, who died long ago, and tell the great spirit at the head of my race from whom came my mother.” Here is a short account of a sacrifice for rain. “The chief goes to the spirit hut to offer sacrifice for rain and the people stand round about having brought the meat for the sacrifice. Then the chief begins to complain to the spirits saying, ‘Give us rain and do not harden your heart against us.’ With many other prayers he continues to implore, while the people round about clap their hands, and some of the women sing:—
‘Kokwe Kolole, Kokwe Kolole
Mbvula ya kuno sikudza
Kokwe Kolole.’
which means:—
‘May there come rain, sweeping rain,
The rain here has not come;
May there come rain, sweeping rain.’”