religion and myth
TRANSCRIPT
RELIGION AND MYTH
[All nghts ,'eserved]
RELIGION AND MYTH
BY THE
REV. JAMES MACDONALDAUTHOR OJ!'
U LIGHT IN AFRICA," ETO. ETO.
LONDON
DAVID NUTT, 270-271 STRAND
18 93
MY FRIEND
THE REV. JAMES STEWART, M.D.
OF LOVEDALE:
IN
A.DMIRATION OF IUB SERVICEB IN THE OAUBE
PREFACE
THIS volume is an effort to put into popular form anumber of facts connected with the religious ob
servances and social customs of Mrican tribes. No
attempt is made to treat the subject exhaustively,
and those who have made Ethnology a study willfind in it little that is absolutely new. But the
ordinary reader, who is interested in questions affect
ing a people slowly emerging from barbarism, may
have his sympathies quickened.
When I first began the study of Ethnology it
opened to me a new world of thought. Reading Mr.
J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough last winter, I found it
touched so many subjects which long- residence in
Africa had made familiar to me, that the idea of
putting the results of my own observations into
permanent form took shape. This has been supple
mented by facts gleaned from such authorities as
were at hand, and the result is the present volume.
I have, in foot-notes, acknowledged my indebtedness to various authors.
viii PREFACE
The facts have been gathered chiefly from Mr.
Frazer's volumes; Bishop Callaway's Nursery Tales,
Traditions and Histories of the Zulus; Miss C. G.
Gordon-Cumming's In the New Hebrides; W.
Mannhardt's Antike Wald-und Feld Kulte and his
other works; Winterbotham's The Nigel}'" and Laire
Tribes; Rowley's Africa Unveiled; Duff Macdonald's
·A.fricana; Schweinfurth's The Heart of Africa;
Chalmers' Tiyo Soga; Brownlee's MS. notes; Felkin's
Four Tribes of Central Africa; Ramseyer's and
KUhne's Four Years in Ashantee; Ashe's Two Kings
of Uganda; Arnot's Garanganze; the missionaries
New and Krapf, G. M. Theal, and several others,
without whose works my book could not have been
written.
Though living" at ~he back of the north wind,"
I still feel the African fever; that is to say, the
charm which it has to draw back to itself all who
have tasted its bitters and sweets.
My object throughout has been to stimulate an
interest ill African peoples.
If the book serves this purpose, I shall be amplyrewarded for the labour bestowed upon it; in the
fullest sense a labour of love.JAMES MACDONALD.
REAY FREE MANSE,
Ohristmas, 1892.
CONTENTSOHAP.
I. PRIMITIvE MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL
I. Religion defined.
2. Incarnate gods •
3. Sympathetic magic
4· Jt:in-making
5. Dangers of seeing divine persons
6. All property and subjects owned by ruler •
7. Lubare of Uganda
8. Departmental kings
II. GUARDING DIVINITY
I. Danger to man-god from exposure
2. The :Mikado.
3. Kings of Shark Point and Congo
4- Divine king may be deposed
5. Restrictions placed on king and heir to throne .
6. Separation of civil and divine functions
7. Killing the god •
III. EVOLUTION OF DEITY
I. Doctrine of souls •
2. Dangers of the soul
3. Worship of ancestors .
4. Other spirits than souls
5. Fetish.
6. Sengero selling Qf women .
7. Confusion of seasons •
8. Offerings to spirit of vegetation •
9. Offerings to goddess of fecundity.
PAGB
• 1-19
2
310
12
14
IS
17
20-32
20
21
23
24
252728
·33--60
33
35
36
37
38
39
39
40
42
x
CHAP.
CONTENTS
P.lGK
III. EVOLUTION OF DEITY-continued.
10. Muansa
II. Rites at puberty
12. Souls dwelling in objects
13. Toad day
14- Origin of national festivals.
15. Khond sacrifices to Tan
16. Story of Balder •
17. Midsummer fires.
IV. SACRIFICE
I. Putting king to death.
2. Substitution
3. Soul of ancestor entering person •
4. Kamr methods of directing course of nature
5. Propitiation •
6. Thanksgiving.
7. Substitution for murderer
8. Offerings to Lubare
9. Parading victim before sacrifice •
10. Festival and sacrifices of BantamS.
I I. Messages to spirit-land •
12. Descent of priest to the lower world
V. TABOOS
I. Charms against witchcraft
2. Banning by curses.
3. Sprinkling to exorcise evil
4. Eating in private •
5. Position of divine persons
6. Power of superstition •
7. Ceremonial purity.
8. Objections to iron •
9. Power of iron against evil
10. Sanctity of objects belonging to sacred persons.
43
44
47
4950
56
5757
• 61-83
61
63
64
65
66
67
71
7376
78
79SI
84-98
84
8586
8788
89
9°go
92
93
COKTENTS
CHAP.
V. TABOOS--continusa.
I I. Dangers of barber's art •
12. Rise of evil spirits.
VI. EXPULSION OF DEMONS •
I. Taboos insufficient protection
2. Animals messengers of evil •
3. Stone-throwing and cursing .
40 Expulsion of guile •
5. Expulsion by carrying out in wicker baskets
6. "Raising" the devil
7. "Laying" the devil
VII. WITOHCRAFT
I. Crime of witchcraft
2. Persons presumed to practise the al t •
3. Power of witchcraft
4. Methods of practising the art
5. Witch-doctoring
6. Prophetess as discoverer of witches
7. Magic roots •
8. Wltchcraft prosecutions by ordeal
9. Mosaic trial by ordeal •
10. History of witchoraft •
I I. Fairyland
12. Growth of idea of supreme spirits
VIII. HARVEST FESTIVALS
I. Yam festival •
2. Pondo festival of first-fruits
3. Honour done to powers of nature .
4- Maize mother.
5. The" Maiden" a t:lurvival
IX. PROPHECY •
I. The office and its development
xi
PAGB
94
97
99-112
99101
102
103
1°5108
110
113-135
114
liS116
117
118
121123126
128
129
130
132
136-145
136
137138
139
14°
:xii CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGB
IX. PBOPHECY-co1ltinued.
2. Causes of its gradual decay
3. False prophets
4. Converse with the unseen
5. Second sight •
6. Foretelling events •
7. Guarding against soul-sna.tching •
8. Funeral rites
9. Guilds and sacred orders
10. Reading omens
II. Heresies
12. Reforms among the order
13. Prejudices against religious teachers
X. SOCIAL USAGES •
I. Ceremonial acts
2. Seeking a lady's hand3. Succession to the throne
4- Courtesies to guests
5. Sanctuaries •
6. Eating and drinking
7. Friendship
XI. ACTS OF DEVOTION-MYTHS.
I. Acts of ordinary life-religious
2 Caring for the soul
3. Soul dwelling apart from body
4. Giants and their souls .
5. Sacred animals and objects •
6. Mermaids ashore
XII. WOMAN
I. Woman's position.
2. Woman as regent .
3. Danger of touching woman's blood
4. Dangers of girlhood
149150
152
153
154
155156
157160
164166
170
173-180
173
174175176
177178
J79
180-193
180
185186
188
190
192
194-203
194
195
:1;95
197
CONTENTS xiii
CRAP. PAG.E
XII. WOM.A.N-continuea.
5. Uncleanness. 198
6. Woman's in:O.uence 199
7. Aggressiveness 200
8. Dog language ~02
9. Public morality 203
XIII. COUBTESIES OF LIFE-DRESS 204-21 3
I. Hospitality 204
2. Loyalty to chief 205
3. Right and wrong 206
4- Cannibalism • 208
5. Clothing 209
6. Ceremonial courtesy 210
7. Tein-egin 212
8. Juju and the fairy bull • 21 3
XIV. REFORMS . 214-234
I. Man's tenacity in holding fast all he started with 214
2. How wide a gulf between savage and civilised. 215
3. Blanket!!, Bibles, or work 215
4. Claims of commerce 216
5. In:O.uence of clothing 219
6. Work and conditions of soil. 220
7. MisSIons and how conducted 224
8. Jews and ancients. 225
9. Difficulty of understanding new ideas . 229
10. Ideas become common as thought advance!! 232
INDEX • 235-240