I shall curse you;
You shall be turned into dust, and turned into air,
And you shall also be turned into water.”
The separate personality of each individual grain is remarkably clear in the above passage. The names of the different kinds of seed are in allusion to the various shapes and sizes of the grains of ore.
Yet in the very same charm various kinds of lizards and centipedes are begged to “bring the tin-ore with them, some of them a grain or two, some of them a fistful or two, some of them a gallon or two, some of them a load or two,” and so on. No doubt the wizard was determined to allow the grains no loophole for escape.
The objects of the charms employed by the mining wizards are the following:—
(1) To clear the jungle of evil spirits (and propitiate the good ones?) before starting to fell, as is shown by the following passage:—
“O Grandfather King Solomon, Black King Solomon,
I desire to fell these woods,
But it is not I who am in charge of these woods,