CHAPTER XI

RELIGIOUS TEACHING
The Theology of the Schools — A Supreme Deity — Messenger Gods — Tribal Gods — Family Guardians — Companion Spirits — The Imps, Sprites and Fairies — After- Death Spirits.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE SCHOOLS
The African has always been religious. The earliest travellers to come into contact with him also came into contact with his god or gods, or their symbols. When the ancient Egyptians were building up their own religious beliefs they borrowed largely from those of negro slaves in their midst, whom they recognised as intensely religious, and as more sensitive than most in certain respects to religious influences. Proof can be gained from a study of the Ammon-Ra (Amen-Re) rites, that were practised thousand of years ago by the Amun cult, whose oracle was established in the Libyan oasis of Siwa, and whose best-known headquarters was Thebes.
The religious teaching of the schools still makes a profound impression upon African youth. This may be partly due to the practice of hypnotism by the tutors to augment the instruction, and to aid the scholars to more readily grasp, or penetrate, the mysteries presented (and the part that hypnosis and autohypnosis, conscious and unconscious, play in these schools cannot be overestimated) ; also partly to the fact that it is given at a time when
the minds, as well as the bodies, of the pupils are
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strongly influenced by the atmosphere of the sacred enclosure.
Here they are taught pride in their ancestry, the pride that is the foundation of most religions, ancient and modern, civilised or barbaric, the pride that fosters admiration and reverence, and suggests regulations for the conduct of life ; and here they are taught the theology of their people and the ritual used in the worship of their various gods, some afar off, some near, some good and some bad.
A Supreme Deity. Most teach the presence, some- where in the universe, of an all-hearing, all-pervading, all-powerful deity, who may be known under a single or under a combination of names, who may be a person or have human attributes, or an idea only, or a phenomenon of nature, or — as is most general — an amalgamation of all these things.
Those designated Creators are Chambi of the Bakuba, " the one who made all things and who has the form of a man with the tail of an animal and who is of white colour " ; Nyongmo of the Accra, to whom the prayer is made, " We see every day how the grass and the corn and the trees spring forth through the rain and the sunshine sent by thee, 0 Nyongmo : thou art their creator, and we are thy grateful servants " ; Nyankopon of the Ashanti, whose best manifestation is the sun ; Ardmje of the Ibo ; and Eleda of the Egba, of whom it is said, " The creator of all is Eleda, and the greatest of all."
The Kagora call their supreme deity Gwazi, the almighty and all-beneficent, helping mankind against the powers of evil, preserving the health of men and advancing their fortunes. He is ever busy, for he rules the sun in its rise and decline, the moon in her changes, the seasons in their successions, the stars and the spirit world. To win his favour one
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must be faithful and good, such being " the favourites of Gwazi."
The Temne call him Kuru or Kurumasaba, the god of the sky, who is one of the few worshipped by both good Pagan and Mussulman alike. The Senufo of the Ivory Coast call him Kuluikieri. " High above, far along, and deep below went the great Kuluikieri, God and Creator. His every step created earth : his glance cast before him created stars : his anxieties, the sun : his gladness, the moon : his tears, the sea : his thought, the insects, birds, animals and — men. When Kuluikieri had done all this he threw over his creations the blue cloak of heaven, hid himself behind it for ever, and rested. He does not see the world he created : he does not hear the sound of the thunders, the roar of the waves ... or our prayers. . . ."
That last sentence, and the cry of the Kagora people, " Gwazi is very busy, he sometimes forgets man," gives the reason why the African teaches that there are other gods besides the supreme ones. These, they say, are the children of the supreme ones, the interpreters of the wish and the defenders of the law of the supreme ones. " The supreme spirit," say the Bushongo, is too high above all to interfere. He is the dynamic principle ordering and controlling the universe, and it is that great task that prevents him doing anything else. He has established the law and has created lesser gods to preserve it. And they go on to illustrate their thought by the working of the civil law established by the European powers. You cannot see this civil law, it has no abiding place, it is intangible, but if you break it or forget it the Tulu (chief police- man) " puts your neck into his forked stick." Tulu represents the civil law ; the lesser gods represent the law established by the creator-god.
These " serving " gods they divide into groups
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some of them being messengers, some tribal pro- tectors, some . family guardians, some companion spirits, and some that may best be denominated imps.
Messenger Gods. The Messenger Gods are many, some of the supreme deities being credited with as many as fifty serving sons. The Yoruba Ardmfe has for firstborn Oduzua, to whom he gave " the five-clawed bird " and " the sand of power," and for a favourite Orisha, to whom was given the " bag of wisdom's guarded lore and arts, for man's well- being and advancement." (It was the struggle between these two that " called forth a world of envy and of war.") Orisha had a cult, now the society of the same name, and amongst other sons of Ardmfe who have become guardians of societies are Olurun, said to be his father's chief lieutenant, of Org ; Ora of Oshorbo ; Ifa of Afa ; and Ikun of Ikung.
Mazuu, one of the messenger gods of the Ewe- speaking peoples, is said to know the thoughts and hearts of men, to be the giver of all good, to be very patient and never angry, and to be the righteous punisher of the brother who deceives, the king who is false to his people, and the man who burns down his neighbour's house without offence.
Female deities are found amongst this group, generally being given Athene-like attributes of manly resolution and womanly wisdom. They preside, paired usually with a male deity, over the fertility cults, and some of their " images," that are so often oiled and given floral offerings, are said to be amongst the most ancient of the possessions of the societies. Eka Abassi, the Great Mother of the Ibibio, superin- tends births and deaths, being " especially glad when a man-child is born." When death approaches the Ibibio say, " The Great Mother desires to take me." " Being a woman she knows what is good
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for man, what they should desire and what they should avoid."
Tribal Gods. This group is very distinct from the last. Very rarely are they given human attri- butes. Although the idea of their association and their power is intermingled into every bit of the social system of tribal life, although their presence and their participation supply the principle on which tribal law is dispensed and morality adjusted, and although they are so interwoven into the common life that there is not any escape from them, they remain the vaguest and most shadowy and least known of all the deities.
They may be " manifested " in such things as storms or epidemics of fever or small-pox. They bring drought. They are responsible for irksome laws of conduct. They are the guardians of the bridge that spans the river of death, and death itself, some think, is entirely their concern, having power to allow or repulse the passing of the spirits that seek to cross that bridge, only, however, say others, after consultation with the ancestral spirits of the seekers.
The Abosom, the gods of this group commemo- rated in the ritual practices of Katahwira and Katahwiriba, are mostly manifested in light- ning and fire, storm and deluge, and the dangers connected therewith. The Nkita of the Bakongo, whom Ndembo use as " threatening " powers, employ their strength to cripple unsuspecting persons " deforming a being in the making or crippling a being in accident," or " refraining from inflicting either misfortune as a reward for faithfulness and devotion." The Gye of the Agni-Ashanti are known by their bull-like, horned heads, and small fiery eyes.
They are good and they are bad in disposition, but none of them are as bad as some of those in the
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next group to be described, and the bad are not as powerful as the good. Thus the good Chukwu of the Ibo is superior in every way to the evil Ekzuensu. Those bad may prevail for a time, as did Set (the Greek Typhoon) in his attempt to slay Osiris, as night does in its fight with day, but the victory is of short duration ; finally good triumphs, as comes again the day, renewed in strength, mighty in power, and glorious in benignancy. And not only are those of bad disposition inferior to those of good, but they are as much hated by the beneficent deities as they are by good men, and because of this every evil-disposed one is watched and followed by one of good intent, who, if not able altogether to prevent, at least tries to counteract the baneful influence.
To these tribal deities are most of the sacrifices made of fowls, goats and cattle, to them the oblations poured of fruit-wines or trade-spirits, and gifts made of fruit and grain, bread and herbs, flowers and oils, aromatic gums and resins and incense. When the Luapula River, Belgian Congo, was closed in the year 1909, owing to sleeping sickness regulations, certain snakes were said to have appeared in some villages on the river-bank, sent by Songo, the tribal deity of the Batwa, as a token of his anger that his sacrifices had been neglected. He ordered them to be revived at once, and that all those who desired a successful harvest must send their seed to him to be blessed. And it was done, even against the government regulations. Traffic was surreptitiously restarted on the river by the BuTWA officials, the society of whom Songo is one of the guardians, and all along its banks his sacrifices were again seen.
These gods may be located in the sea or the lake, in the sky or the rain, or in the earth, the mountain, or the rock. To the Temne the " mascu- line " good is symbolised by sunshine and growing
^^■
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crops and flowers, and the ''feminine " evil by dry- earth and stagnant water. Their memorials may be ombzviri, heaps of stones at the gate of a village, that are more added to by passing strangers than by the villagers themselves, or by the red-painted pillars erected by the long-dead ancestors of the present Diula, Bobo and Lobi peoples of the Upper Volta. The memorials of the last-named are often
clay altars, of varied shape, surrounded by conical pillars or shaped clay erec- tions. Three "male" spotted red or white, with shells for eyes and other organs of pebbles, and three " female " decorated significantly. It is in these sacred places that there can be seen the trays of seed and ashes, and dry branches loaded with offerings — pieces of hand-woven material, skins, ringlets of hair, and feathers.
It is to these gods that the sacred dances are held, and the prayer-dramas taught in the puberty schools. These dances are prayers in the best sense of that word, for in them is expressed the deepest longing of the African, the desire to be no longer the sport of power, chance and circumstance ; the wish for self-expression and self-determination ; and the request to the gods to assist in this. Just as the Egyptian hymnist told in lofty terms the majesty of his deities, and the Nilitic psalmist sang of the divine encompassing love, so the negro celebrates his association with the powers that rule his life
Lobi Sacred Place.
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in the only way he knows — the way of the dance. In the rhythmic movement of body and limb the man prays that his manhood may be a success, the woman that she may be fertile, the husband claims protection for his family, the wife craves safety for her husband, and the children demon- strate their wants and wishes. For the last are trained to understand that the spending of their little strength in such dancing helps the safety of all.
Family Guardians. Most African families are as rich in protecting powers, here termed " Family Guardians," as were the Gnostics of Alexandria, who boasted the possession of one for every day of the year. Images of them are found in multitudes of homes, grotesque in shape, proportion and aspect because of the maker's desire to picture a combination of the natural and the supernatural. The ikenga of I bo families are half-men, half -angel, heavy of body but winged, seated, but looking as if resting between flights. To these images a great deal of attention is paid. They are oiled and tended, garlanded and given food, praised when the luck of their owners is good and blamed when it is not, but it is not right to say that they are worshipped. They are " sacred " in the same way as are the enclosures and the trees, also the fetishes. A fowl may be sacrificed to them and the blood sprinkled on the lintels of the door.
They are the " household gods " whose special duty it is to fully sympathise with, care for, protect, heal, strengthen, and grant ease and gladness, and they are expected to inculcate esteem and love between the members of the family. They centre little private services of a sacramental nature, con- ducted by society officials, like the one of Egbo, where the priest hands round, loving-cup fashion, a speci- ally prepared medicinal drink. Each member of
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the family drinks from the vessel, from the father to the youngest child, all supposed to wish good to the others as they do so. The ceremony may be accompanied by the enforcement of a new tabu, only known to the official and the family, the carry- ing out of which keeps the members in memory of one another when separated by the exigencies of daily life.
They are the " interpreters," the gods who keep the household informed of what the greater gods are doing or are intending to do. They are con- sulted upon domestic matters in much the same way as Odysseus, anxious about his return home, gave himself assurance by friendly converse with the spirits. They are the " knowing ones." In some way, hard to explain but easy to believe, they understand family life, and the knowledge is mani- fested in ever ready and complete sympathy.
Companion Spirits. Every man and woman, also child has one or more " companion spirits," intimate minor deities personally concerned with the individual, familiars of even more intimate type than those last described. (The word " spirit " is here used for its convenience only ; but these deities must not therefore become confused with the " after-death " spirits, the ghosts afterwards to be explained.)
A man going out of his house in the morning happens to strike his foot against a stone, and immediately inquires, "Art thou there ? " accepting the accident as the expression of a desire on the part of his companion spirit to communicate with him. A woman's millet-beater slips from her hands and quickly she makes the same request, quite sure that this is a signal that must be attended to at once. A Kufong member is said to know of their near presence by an itching in his palm or in the sole of his foot.
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There is little attempt to give them form or personality. They are the " near things." Always and everywhere they are described as " near." Questioned about them the Poro member waves his hand vaguely and says, " 0, just something behind my shoulder." (It is interesting that the Jews share that description.) The Ora member says, " They are everywhere." The Kufong mem- ber declares they come when he calls their name aloud seven times ; but he will not say what the name is he uses. The Egugu officials state that they are as interested in the society as the human members.
They may be like the man, the woman or the child they accompany, good-looking or plain, good- humoured or irascible ; they may be the water- pixies that drive the fish into the fisherman's net, or the sunbeams that warm an ague-shivering person ; they may even be the sharks or the crocodiles that by their presence keep away other dangers ; but generally they are just good influences, always within call, and ever employed in labours of warning and protection.
If there is but one of them that is enough, but if two, then the benefits of their presence are doubled. If there are three, they may be, as the Yoruba say, " one for the head, one for the body, and one to guide both." Any number may take charge of a single individual, and it is a fortunate man who has enough to control each finger and each toe.
These are they who give tips for the improvement of business and hints as to the efficacy of medicines, who soothe sorrow, inspire hope, and ensure the desired sex at births. " Amongst them there is what, for convenience, we may call a Scotland Yard department for giving the criminal his just due ; a Red Cross and Medical department to deal with mishaps, aches, and pains ; a Judicial department
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which fines and flays after the manner of the Star Chamber or the Inquisition ; a Trading department ; a Sporting department ; a Freemasonry section so secret that even a ' master ' knows not all its cere- mony ; in fact, a department or party or section for every purpose which lies within the compass of native thought."
In ordeals these are the deities to whom prayer is offered by the victims. There is a belief that faithfulness to them ensures safety at such critical times. According to the Ashanti the companion spirit enters the body with the compulsory draught, looks about to find evidences of guilt, and, if he finds none, returns with the vomit that saves the victim from being poisoned. Many West Coast people call them " the personal gods," meaning the gods who bestow personality. The African is a great believer in himself. He requires no assur- ance that he is of personal importance. Un- known as he may be beyond a few miles from his village he yet believes he is an important person. Perhaps that is why Buddhism has made so few converts in this land. He is a personality ! Has he not a god, or gods, to do him service ?
Sacrifices are made to these deities, generally a fowl. The blood may be smeared on the portion of the anatomy supposed to be under protection. If it is an internal organ, the blood may be swallowed. The sacrifices may be irregular and infrequent, but the devotion is not. At the start of a journey and at its conclusion, upon going hunting and returning, and sometimes in the very middle of these, or whilst building or planting or marketing or feasting or marrying or even dying, a moment of thought is given to them ; a moment of propitiation. For they are quick to resent neglect. The man whose axe slips and cuts him, the woman who burns herself as she lifts the pot from the fire-stones, the child
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who trips and falls, knows that this is his or her punishment, and, grateful for the lightness of it, warmly vows to be more faithful in the future.
The Imps. This group, a very large one, is of minor deities ranging from those strong enough to be devils to those which might be likened to sprites and fairies. Such makes a fair classification of them, they are imps and sprites and fairies.
The imps are so distinctly hostile and so con- tinuously evil-minded that they may be denominated devils, but not after the order of the Christian Satan or the Moslem Iblis. They have nothing like the power of those majestic but malignant deities. Their inferiority is not through lack of initiative but through lack of freedom. They are the servants of other and greater gods. The utmost they can do is to torment, although that can be hard to bear, as is illustrated by the cry of a sorely troubled Congolese, who, not being able to explain why fate was so unkind to him, declared his life was nkadi ampamba, as bitter, as nasty, as distasteful, as objectionable, as if ruled by the white man's devil !
They may be distinguished by colours, as the black god of the Mende people who brings disease, and by ugliness of shape, as are the Ta Ch^a of the Chinese and the Takshas of the Hindoos. The Ibo know them as mmoatia, tiny, distorted things, humped and without necks, with limbs far too long for their bodies, feet turned backward, and animal body between human head and extremities. The Ashanti call them sasabonsam, creatures of fearsome aspect, with long, bristly hair and bloodshot eyes with feet pointing both ways, that inhabit the densest of the forests and that are the most hostile of all the minor deities. They are also the Ibo obunikes^ the servants of the evil Ekzvensu and mischief- makers of malignancy, outrivalling that of the Chinese shen.
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They can be deceived. They can be made to believe that a parcel of grass and a few human hairs thrown into the river is the drowned body of the child they have been troubling, and so be diverted to other quarries, or that a little fowl's blood on the path is that of the man or the woman to whom they have brought disease, and so think their work is done. The mothers of ailing children make a doll, and nurse and wash, oil it and feed it and croon over it, in the open air, their own weaklings being safely hidden all the time, and this they do because the imps will think the doll is the baby and expend upon the senseless thing all their malignity. They are said to be most susceptible to these " mistakes " at certain hours, notably at sunset and sunrise.
They are themselves deceivers. A Belgian Congo story illustrates this. " When the chief of Kisala was dying a priestess of the dead {ngang' a mvumbi) held a seance for him. At the beginning of the ' manifestations ' she enquired the name of the spirit communicating.
" ' Nsingi,^ came the answer.
" ^ Why are you angry with the chief ? '
" * Because when he went to Lala's funeral he misbehaved himself at the graveside.'
" ' What must we then do to save his life ? '
" ' You must get such and such a medicine,' replied Nsingi, ' and when he has taken it he will get well again.'
" They procured the medicine at once, but it did not save the chief, and when he died the wits and wags of the town did not hesitate to impeach, not the genuineness of the priestess or her craft, but the veracity of Nsingij'^
There is little or no cohesion amongst them. They are always at feud, individually or party against party. And, like the legionaries of old, they can
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be set against each other in battle, or like the gladi- ators in fights to the death, in the interests of those who pay them.
These are the deities who are said to " inhabit " the sacred medicines of the societies, that of Katah- wiRA being described by a word, suman, meaning the imp's home. Like Asmodeus in his bottle, their release can only be consummated by the per- sonal touch of a Gil Bias-like priest.
The sprites most often furnish characters and themes for the folklore stories. They may also be mischief-makers, but they are jocular and irrespon- sible in its accomplishment. They inflict petty annoyances, upsetting boiling pots, pulling off the garments of the severely respectable, and frightening people out of their wits by sudden and unexpected appearances. Some merit the title of " a regular bad lot " for they come stealthily by night and " seize the heart of a sleeper," which they " squeeze with all their might ... if the sleeper wakens in time all is well and he may call it a nightmare, but if he does not, his life is pressed out of him and he is found dead in the morning."
This propensity for "practical joking" is because these sprites are human as well as divine. They know how to irritate men and they know how to please men because of a " bit of humanity in them." No attempt is made to explain how and why they gained, or were given, this dual nature.
It is believed, as it is amongst the Japanese, that there are more good sprites than bad.
The fairies are wholly for the benefit of mankind. Those known to the Lobi of the Upper Volta, Kponin- tan, Dakon, Zogra, Lampo^ Suga, Timpo and their companions, pursue robbers, frighten talebearers and punish slanderers. Images are made of them, of wood or stone, spotted with red and white washes as are made also of the Temne Nomori and the Mende
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Nomoli, squat elfish little beings with queer-shaped heads, who are said to eat red rice from a bowl they carry on their knees and to commune with their beneficiaries in dreams. Some families in Sierra Leone make quite clever images of these in steatite or soap-stone, that became familiar to many in England during the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
These are the children's special Temne Nomori. friends, and therefore most seen by them and by the sympathetic eyes of mothers. The Congolese describe them as tiny, old men with extravagant ears and sprightly little ladies dressed in blossoms, who make homes out of fungus, flit over the countryside like butterflies, and vanish at the first breath of mis- trust. A Congo mother takes her new-born babe to the nearest stream to watch her drop a sprinkling of salt and chalk and flour, " the three white things " or things of innocence, on a leaf and launch it on the tide. Then, as that frail laden barque floats away, she murmurs a prayer of gratitude to the fairies for the gift of her babe and of appeal to them to accept and to bless her offering.
AFTER-DEATH SPIRITS
The continuity of the spirit called life, or what is better known as the immortality of the soul of man, is a strongly-held tenet in the religion of the African.
Death may bewilder and perplex him for a moment, but it cannot destroy this fundamental of his faith. It is unthinkable to him that his father
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or his mother, the headman of his village or the chief of his tribe, can be here with him to-day, and to-morrow have abruptly vanished for ever. The one who has exercised an important influence upon him, whatever the nature of that influence, will go on exercising it, must go on exercising it, no matter what difference death makes in the medium of that influence. To think otherwise would be treachery to the dead.
Influence is only another word for personaUty. They have no word for the ego, but they believe in it. It may be breath, for a breathing body is a live one, and when breathing stops it is a dead one ; or it may be intelligence (the idiot is one who has no intelligence and, therefore, he ends altogether at death), but whether breath or intelligence, or any other thing, that which makes the man is eternal. Eternal because indestructible.
That is what is taught in die puberty schools, and whatever else may be added that belief never fails.
There may be an attempt made to explain the spirit of man in other terms. The Tshi-speaking tribes say that there is a superior spirit, the Kra, or life-power, and an inferior one, the Srahman, ghost or shadow. Their Ga-speaking neighbours divide the Kra into two Kla^ one male and one female, one good and one bad. The superior spirit, say the Yoruba, is the one that leaves the body at death, the inferior the one that wanders away during sleep. During sleep, say the Temne, the lower spirit has adventures, and these we call dreams. It returns, and the body wakens. Therefore, it is dangerous to wake anyone suddenly lest this spirit should be too much occupied by its pleasures to return quickly. The feeling of drowsiness on awaking is because of a tardy return, as is also the dull look that remains for a moment in the eyes.
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But sleep is one thing and death is quite another, say the Congolese. Only when the superior spirit leaves the body does death occur.
Death is a journey to Gcd, say the Batwa. The okra, soul or life, of the Ashanti-Akan leaves its ntorOy familiar place or body ; it climbs the steep hill to Asamandozu, the place of ghosts. The ilazv- mazo, life-principle, of the Ibo goes on a " great adventure." The journey is first to the river that ends the world of this life, there to be interviewed by the tribal gods who guard the bridge that spans the river. There is always a little delay by that bridge. The tribal gods must interview the ancestral spirits. The tribal gods are not kind. They frighten the seeking spirit. More than that, they may beat and injure the seeking spirit. They may drive it back again to its body. When that happens, the illness is prolonged and intensified ; there may be loss of will-power, leading to what is known as " second childhood," or loss of body-power, that may be called paralysis, or the beaten spirit return- ing, frightened, languid and nervous, may induce in the body that bruised feeling that malarial sufferers know so well.
" Crossing the bridge," as the Koranko call it, is part of the journey. On the other side is the place of the spirits, the place where they stay until they are given guidance along their road. They are not confined to that place, they can wander back to the scenes of their earthly life, but they cannot get further along the road for a time.
They can communicate with those they left behind, the earth-living members of their family or those specially gifted as mediums, explaining their condition and making known their wants and wishes. These communications may come as dreams, or as a " voice " that can only be interpreted by officials of the local society. Such officials may be trained
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or they may be members of families long known as able to " honour the message." They may be of either sex. Generally they " translate " whilst in a cataleptic state of trance. The messages received vary from peevish complaints about personal dis- comforts to lengthy prophecies concerning coming disaster.
Some mediums say that the spirits emanate a slight glow, like a far-off fire seen through the night.
At first the after-death spirits seem to be merely homeless members of their one-time families. They retain the old form and voice. They suffer hunger and thirst. They like the same food that they used to do. They are afflicted with pain, know loss of strength, and are liable to accident. That of crippling may be very lamentable to them because rarely recovered from. They keep, too, the instincts and prejudices that marked their former character. There- fore food is put in conspicuous places for their sustenance, items of village news are narrated to them, and advice is both sought from them and given to them. Yet all know that this period is a temporary one.
If it lasts too long, remonstrance is made. " Spirit of So-and-So," says the society official brought in to tackle the problem, " Remember your friendship with us. Be reasonable. Be gracious. Accept your fate, and take your leave of this village (or home or body). Go free. None here wish you harm and none here should receive harm from you." If there is no response to this entreaty, command is used, and if that fails various ceremonies may be indulged in to teach the spirit its duty. If the corpse is still unburied, it is taken away from the house some distance, placed on a bier and a thatch put over it. Then at midnight all the family arise, wash themselves in a specially prepared fluid, and march about.
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They march round the house within and without, as did the bereaved family during the Lemuria Festival of ancient Rome, as described by Ovid, seven times (Koranko) or nine times (Bakongo). They make sweeping motions with their arms, or link hands in a circle about the house and shout a warning to the recalcitrant spirit. Some of the prepared fluid is sprinkled on the threshold, or a trail of fruit and berries may be made from the house door to the nearest bush, or the building may be circled by fetishes, or black and white cloth may be tied about the kingpost and that and the floor sprinkled with the blood of a fowl. If all this is unsuccessful, the family, helped by their neighbours, may spend the next night in creating a fearful din by hand and tongue or drum, and, if the " haunting " does not then cease, the house may be burned to the ground.
Similar scenes may be witnessed around graves. During this period some spirits remain near where their bodies have been buried. That is why food is so often found placed there. There may also be a bamboo rod thrust through the earth to facilitate communication. There may also be articles of clothing, both in the grave and on it, domestic utensils and ornaments. But since the various protecting European authorities have made general cemeteries compulsory the old ceremonies around the grave have fallen into disuetude, for " the law " may consider them " brawling " and punish those taking part.
The chiefs belonging to Poro and Mannekeh have a person on their staff who is said to be their spirit or kriji. This person, sometimes known as Sanko, lives apart, and when appearing in public wears a mask of leather and brass, with fibre and strips of leopard skin hanging from the base, also decorations of fibre ruffles and net anklets with
MANNEKEH SANKO
(The SMrit oj a Chief)
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fibre tops. He carries four sticks tied together {bonkolomd) , like those supporting the Poro axe. When the chief dies his Sanko disappears, walking out of the village backwards, and is said never to be seen again.
There are many theories as to what next happens to the after-death spirits. There may be a pro- bationary period of some years ; three, say the Lobi, seven, say several Nigerian and Sierra Leonean tribes. This may be spent in servitude, as messengers from gods to men, or it may be a period of reincarnation. If the last, the spirits of those who lived evilly on earth are condemned to inhabit the bodies of base things like sharks, crocodiles or bush-pigs, whilst those who were of good character in life may re- enter human bodies. This belief gives rise to various ceremonies in which the society officials play con- spicuous parts.
" Thy home is not here with human beings ; it is with the beasts ! " declares the official in such directional ceremonies, and he may add, if the spirit is of one who was especially objectionable in life, " Leopards await thee ; their young require a nature like thine ! Away to thine own, and let them welcome thee ! " To the spirit of someone remembered as of gracious temperament he will say, " There is a babe born in this thy village, and there are babes about to be born : choose for thyself : but be not hasty in choice, for soon there may be a child in the household of the chief : but whatever your choice we shall be satisfied : for the babe you choose will become a person of honour and of good report." If there is a doubt in the case, the petition may be, " Before thee lie many paths : choose the one most fit for thee to travel : if it leads thee to what is is distasteful, bear with patience thy lot : if to what is pleasing, remember thy responsibilities : thy strength will be meted to thy need." Or it may
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be put into this form, " The helpless are at thy feet : remember that innocence merits the gift of simplicity, and weakness should invite strength and soundness : remember also that craft should couple with cruelty and subtlety with savagery : thine is the choice and thine is the power and thou wilt go as the gods intended, but go in peace, and remember mercy." (All the above are actual petitions taken down as they were uttered by Ampora, Egbo, Si'mo, Tilang, and Yassi officials.)
Cases have been known where the sex of the chosen babe has not been that of the spirit taking possession of it, proved, of course, by " the likeness in the child's face," and wealth has been lavished in external fetish and internal medicine to correct the error ; but whenever such happens there is no real remedy. " It was done with the best of intentions," they say, " and the result is in the keeping of the future."
There is a large consensus of opinion that either some of the after-death spirits, or all of them, after certain other experiences, inhabit a world of their own, in some element other than earth, and far removed from their former haunts. The Ibo spirit- land has its rivers and forests, its hills and towns and roads, all situate somewhere below the ground. They are of the same shape, size and colouring as those above ground, yet in an atmosphere so gloomy that eyes have to serve long apprenticeship before becoming accustomed to it. Both the Temne and Mende have sacred groves that take the place of houses, and Eden-like camps instead of towns in their spirit-land. Many tribes agree to mountains and abundance of water, and to the presence of domestic animals. There are music and drums, dancing, and laughter.
The " life " there is much the same as here.
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There are enemies to avoid, for earthly feuds con- tinue on the other side ; there is fighting to enjoy, with woundings, defeats and victories, cowardice and courage ; there are feasts and beer-drinks, hunting and marketing, labouring and resting, with times of pain and times of ease, and disappointment to sustain and pleasure to gain and keep. There are the same sorts of relationships, man and wife, father and mother, children, relatives, but a chief wife here may not be so there, and the mother of a chief or a headman may not be the ruler there that she is here. A result of the teaching of the European missions is seen in the adopted thought that " there " man is monogamous. There are the same dispositions as are known in this world. What- ever these spirits are, essence, vapour, shadow, sense, spirit, breath, force, fluid (the word varies but the meaning remains the same), and what- ever their new surprises, their new changes of scene, their new joys or miseries, their new suc- cesses or troubles, triumphs or misfortunes, songs or lamentations, they go on for ever and ever with the inherent nature, the disposition known on earth.
This state of Elysium gained, the ghosts are now ancestral spirits, and as such play the impor- tant part of heavenly mediators for their earthly brethren. All their experiences have been to fit them for this and they now have understanding far beyond anything possible in this life, under- standing and sympathy that never fail. Hence the prayers already noted in this chapter, and these which follow —
Mende prayer uttered at the birth of a child.
(All assembled) " 0 fathers and ancestors, and all who are of the near and far past : we cry to thee to let this child be safely born."
(Father) " If I have sinned, be merciful, and
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if thou canst not be merciful then punish me, slay me : but heal this woman and let this child live."
(Father of the woman) " This Is my daughter : she Is In your hands : spare her life, and give her a living child."
Aro prayer uttered when a child was sick.
(Mother) " 0 spirits of the past, this little one I hold is my child : she Is your child also, therefore, be gracious unto her." (Women, chanting) " She has come into a world of trouble : sickness Is In this world, and cold and pain : the pain you knew : the sickness you were familiar with."
(Mother) " Let her sleep In peace, for there Is healing In sleep : let none among you be angry with me or with my child."
(Women) " Let her grow : let her become strong : let her become full-grown : then will she offer such a sacrifice to you that will delight your hearts."
Kafu-BuUom prayer during the Illness of a man.
(Wife) " 0 spirits of my husband ; his fathers of the long ago : let thy breath be cool upon his brow."
(Relatives) " We pray you, 0 friendly ones : gain for this our sick one the goodwill of those that bless and heal."
A general prayer uttered, with others, by the Grand Tasso of Poro at the opening of an annual Festival.
" 0 good and Innocent dead, hear us : hear us, thou guiding all-knowing ancestors : thou art neither blind nor deaf to this life we live : thou didst thyself once share It : help us therefore for the sake of our devotion, and for our good."
Dom Henrique Nteyekenge, the late King of Congoland, whenever he mobilized his army for war used to lead them first to the graves of his predecessors,
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and there, on his knees, pray for success. Said a traveller who saw this, " To see a whole clan of heathens on their knees at a graveside holding com- munication with the dead is one of the most im- pressive sights seen in Africa."