Topic: African Mythology

[Prometheus]

AFRICAN


Citation by author’s name refers to the same in the Bibliography. Where
an author has written several works they are distinguished as [a], ,
[c], etc.

Introduction

1. The type is what strikes the newcomer among any people, just
as a stranger will often perceive the family resemblance between
brothers and sisters who are considered most unlike by their own
relatives. A Welsh schoolfellow once told me that “ all English
people looked alike ” to her, when she first came out of Wales into
England.

2. Chatelain, pp. 16,17.

3. Ibid., p. 2 2. Chatelain, after stating what I believe to
be perfectly true, that “ the myths and tales of the negroes in
North, Central and South America are all derived from African
prototypes,” goes on to say: “ Through the medium of the American
negro, African folk-lore has exercised a deep and wide influence
over the folk-lore of the American Indian.” This I take leave to
doubt. It will scarcely apply, one would think, to remote tribes in
the Amazon basin; and, since I have found how closely the adventures
of the Mouse-deer in the Malay Peninsula correspond to those of
Brer Rabbit (see Mythology of All Races, Boston, 1916, ix. 203),
and have been told of parallels in Gaelic folk-lore (unpublished as
far as I know), I incline more and more to the view that the same or
similar incidents may occur to people independently all over the
world, and receive in each case the appropriate local setting. Of
course this is not to deny the possibility of derivation in other cases.

4. The “ semi-Bantu ” or “ Bantoid ” languages, which are dis-
cussed and illustrated in Sir. H. H. Johnston’s Comparative Study of
the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages, may prove to be a series of
connecting links which will leave the linguistic dividing-line less clear
than we had supposed. Meinhof and Westermann’s theory as to the
origin of the Bantu languages would, if substantiated, tend in the same
direction.

5. Colenso, s. v. inkata.

6. Roscoe, [a], p. 369.

7. D. A. Talbot, p. 157. See also two interesting letters on


NOTES


399


this subject by Mr. James Stuart (a magistrate of many years’
experience among the Zulus) and Mr. N. W. Thomas in the
Athenceum for May 29, 1915.

8. This word is not, in South Africa, applied to unmixed “ na-
tives,” such as Zulus or Basuto. Most Cape Hottentots are of
mixed blood, as a result of slavery in the past.

9. JAS, xii. [1913], 74.

10. Hollis, [a], p. 330. The smiths are spoken of by Hollis as
though they were Masai, but it is probable that they were originally
a distinct tribe.

11. E. g. y Nyanja, mi-zimu; Chwana, ba-dimo ; Chaga, wa-rlmu ;
Duala, be-dimo; Swahili, wa-zimu. It is worth noting that the
same root, with a different prefix, is used to denote the monstrous
cannibals or ogres who figure in so many Bantu fairy-tales — ama-
zimuy madimoy mazimwi , marimu, etc. Duala, exceptionally, uses
the same word for both.

12. Tylor, i. 328-41, where these stories are explained as nature-
myths.

13. Meinhof, [c], p. 110.

14. This, as we have seen, must not be taken too absolutely, but
it would be interesting to ascertain if, and how far, legends of the
“ dreadfulness ” of the Abatwa exist in parts where the earlier
population has been peaceably absorbed.

15. Ellis, [a], p. 208.


Chapter I

1. Ellis, [a], p. 28.

2. Rattray, [c], pp. 10, II.

3. Taylor, , p. 47.

4. Irle, pp. 72, 73.

5. Dennett, , p. 167.

6. Rattray, [c], pp. 20, 21. Ellis spells Nyankufon , Rattray
Onyankofong. The diacritic marks used by the latter have not been
reproduced.

7. Torday and Joyce, pp. 20, 24, 38, 41, 120. “ Bumba ” is

evidently from the verb bumba ( umba ) used in many Bantu lan-
guages for “ make,” in the sense of shaping, moulding, as clay, etc.
Lubumba is the name of the Creator among the Baila and other
people living east of the Bushongo.

8. Irle, p. 73.

9. Chatelain, p. IO.

10. Dennett, [a], p. 2.


400


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


11. Ibid., p. 133.

12. Smith, p. 300.

13. Macdonald, i. 59-75, esp. pp. 66-7.

14. Hetherwick, JRA1 xxxii. [1902], 89-95.

15. Bleek, C omfarative Grammar, § 390.

16. Ibid., [a], p. 1 12.

17. Junod, [c], ii. 405.

18. Ibid., ii. 281.

19. Ibid., ii. 390.

20. Ibid., ii. 392.

21. Ibid., ii. 327-8.

22. Dundas, JRAI xliii [1913], 31.

23. Callaway, , pp. 7, 16, 19, etc. As to Unkulunkulu, there
has never been any doubt that this means “ the great, great one,”
being a reduplication of the root -kulu, “ great.” But why is it not
“ Umkulumkulu,” as one would expect, for a noun of the person-
class? Perhaps inkosi was originally understood, — inkosi-enkulun-
kulu would be “ the great, great chief ”; and to make this adjective
into a proper name, the initial vowel alone, not the whole prefix,
would be dropped and u substituted.

24. Literally “ reed.” The connection between reeds and human
origins will be considered in the next chapter.

25. Van der Burgt, p. 214.

26. Roscoe, [a], p. 290L

27. Ibid., p. 312L That is, officially recognized under the old
regime, prior to the introduction of Mohammedanism and Christianity.

28. Ibid., pp. 146, 313.

29. Junod, [c], ii. 281.

30. Chatelain, p. 10.

31. Torday and Joyce, p. 20.

32. Jacottet, , iii. 1 18.

33. Ibid., ii. 102.

34. Fiilleborn, p. 316.

35. Jacottet, , iii. 1 18.

36. Macdonald, i. 295.

37. Orpen, quoted by A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion , 2
London, 1906, ii. 3 5 f .

38. Dennett, [a], p. 74. In an Angola story (Chatelain, No. xiii)
“ the Sun’s people ” descended to earth by a spider’s thread, to fetch
water. Can there be a hint here of the sun’s rays drawing up moisture?
English country people speak of “ the sun drawing water,” when the
rays become visible as pencils of slanting light in a cloudy sky.

39. Callaway, [a], p. 152 ( ubani ongafot } igodi lokukufuka aye


NOTES


401


ezulwinti ) ; , p. 56. The spider’s thread or a rope or a vine
as a means of ascent occurs in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Indonesia
(see Mythology of All Races, Boston, 1916, ix. 66). Descent or
ascent by a basket or cord or spider’s thread occurs among American
tribes, north and south ( ibid ., x. 290 ; W. H. Brett, Legends and
Myths of the Aboriginal Tribes of British Guiana , London, 1880,
p. 29.)

40. Junod, [c], ii. 410; [a], p. 237, note 2.

41. Ibid., [a], p. 237.

42. Callaway, [a], p. 147, and see note at end of the story.

43. Gutmann, [a], pp. 5, 6.

44. Ibid., , p. 153. The word translated “kraal” is itimba
in Ovir’s version, which means the little pen in which lambs and kids
are placed for safety during the daytime, while the flocks are grazing.
Raum has tembo , as to the translation of which he seems doubtful.
Gutmann renders it by “ Hof des Mondes.”

45. See Mythology of All Races , Boston, 1916, ix. 72, 78.

46. Gutmann, , p. 152.

47. Ibid., pp. 149, 150.

48. See note 41, supra.

49. Fulleborn, p. 335.

50. Macdonald, i. 298.

51. Gutmann, [a], p. 34.

52. Cronise and Ward, p. 265.

53. Tremearne (No. 84), p. 401.

54. Ibid. (No. 93), p. 424.

. .55. Gutmann, , p. 132.

Chapter II

1. Junod, [c], ii. 28b.

2. Macdonald, i. 74.

3. Ibid., i. 284.

4. Torday and Joyce, p. 20.

5. Ibid., p. 39.

6. Information obtained from Bwana Amiu, an old Somali trader
living at Mambrui, who had had dealings with the Wasanye and knew
them well. He said the tree was that called Mkupa by the Swahili
and Garse ( a pronounced almost like u in “ but,” though the
Wasanye give it the broad sound of a in “ father”) by the Galla,
and that it played an important part in marriage and funeral cere-
monies. This last statement was confirmed by the Wasanye at
Magarini.


402


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


7. Callaway, , pp. 9, 15, 3 iff., 41.

8. Ibid., pp. 15, 42.

9. Colenso, p. 213, last note, under Hlanga ([/); cf. the Chwana
use of the corresponding form, lo-tlhaka , which clearly means “a
reed.”

10. Callaway, , p. 42.

11. Casalis, , p. 254.

12. Junod, [c], ii. 326.

13. SAFJ ii. [1880], 92L ; also Irle, pp. 28, 75.

14. Casalis, , p. 54.

15. Quoted in Werner, p. 71 ; for Kapirimtiya see Scott, p. 215,
and Macdonald, i. 279. Cf. Moffat, p. 263.

16. Stow, pp. 37, 47.

17. Ibid., p. 3.

18. Hollis, [a] , p. 226.

19. Irle, p. 75.

20. Hollis, [a], p. 266.

21. Stannus, JRAI , xliii. [1913] I2lf.

22. Roscoe, [a], p. 214. Here it is only said that Kintu was “ sup-
posed ” to be descended from the gods. The Galla (with whom the
royal house of the Baganda is believed to have affinities) distinctly
state that the progenitor of the Uta Laficho (their principal clan)
came down from the sky.

23. Manuel , p. 149; Roscoe, [a], p. 460.

24. Emiumbo — i.e., bundles of plantains tied up in leaves for
cooking.

25. The list includes maize and sweet potatoes, which, as they
were introduced into Africa by the Portuguese only in the 1 6th century,
must have been inserted in modern recensions of the legend.

26. Roscoe, [a], pp. 136, 214.

27. Stanley, pp. 218-220.

28. JAS xii. [1912— 13], 363-4.

29. Hollis, [a], p. 153.

30. Ibid., , p. 98.

31. Melland and Cholmeley, p. 21. See also the Nyanja tale of
“ Kachirambe ” in Rattray [a] p. 133.

32. Hahn, pp. 37, 38, 48, etc.

33. Ibid., p. 61 ; Moffat, p. 258.

34. Ibid., p. I22ff.

35. Kroenlein, p. 329.

36. Schultze, p. 447.

37. Hahn, p. 61 ; see also pp. 65-74, 86-89, 9 2 > an ^ Schultze
p. 448.


NOTES 403

38. Kerr Cross in Nyasa News, No. 6 (Nov. 1894), p. 189;
also Fiilleborn, p. 316; Merensky, pp. 112, 212.

39. Melland and Cholmeley, 20.

Chapter III

1. Callaway, , p. 3.

2. Scott, p. 419.

3. Fiilleborn, p. 15.

4. Junod, [c], ii. 328.

5. Occasional Pafer for Nyasaland , No. 2 [1893], p. 3 ^*

6. Taylor, , p. 136.

7. Macdonald, i. 288.

8. Jacottet, , ii. III.

9. Ibid., , iii. Il6.

10. Ibid., , ii. 109 (a different story from that referred to
in note .

1 1. Kropf, [a], p. 156.

12. Krapf, , s. v. m'fisikafri (sic), p. 230, and gisikafiri
(sic), p. 83.

13. Duala stories given in MSOS iv. [1901], 223 ( Afrikanische
Studien), cf. also, p. 18 1.

14. Christaller, in Buttner [a], i. 53ff.

15. Globus, Sept. 23, 1909, p. 174.

16. Meinhof, , p. 19.

17. Wundt, cited by Meinhof, , p. 18.

18. Meinhof, [c], p. 38. cf. MSOS iv. 183.

19. Bleek, , pp. 69-73.

20. See Schultze, pp. 147-8.

21. Lloyd, , p. 37.

22. Hollis, , p. 98.

23. For an illustration of this tube see Hollis, , p. 26. More
ornamental ones are made by the Baganda.

24. See Man, xiii. [1913], 90.

25. Abarea did not say, but on reflection I think that he must have
meant, that the bird was afterwards deprived of his topknot, as having
proved a faithless messenger. The species of hornbill with which
I am tempted to identify him, has no crest.

26. Gutmann, [a], p. 124; , pp. 1 1 9, 156.

27. A Masai and Nandi “ burial ” custom, borrowed by the
Kikuyu and others. The ceremonies connected with this exposure
(see Hollis, [a], p. 304, , p. 70). show that it is not a case of
callous indifference.


404


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


28. Gutmann, [a], p. 125.

29. Ibid., [a], p. 125, , p. 40.

30. Gutmann, [a], pp. 124-5; > p. 65.

31. This suggests the practice of witches (see infra, ch. xiv). But
there is a close connection between hyenas and witches.

32. In this case it was not the woman who was to blame.

33. Roscoe, [a], p. 315 and, for Mpobe, p. 465; Manuel , pp.
16 1 , 179.

34. Seidel , iii. (1897), P- 3^3 : “ Mugosha, bana bamwe
babili ne Lirufu.” With this notion of Lirufu , cf. M. Kingsley,
p. 1 17: “One side of him” — a spirit supposed to haunt the Bush
in Calabar, Cameroons and the Ogowe region — “ is rotten and
putrefying, the other sound and healthy, and it all depends on which
side of him you touch whether you see the dawn again or no.”

35. Chatelain, pp. 95, 225, 274 (note 251), 304, 308.

36. Ibid., p. 249, cf. also p. 223, story of “ King Kitamba kia
Xiba.”

37. Ibid., pp. 11, 274 (note 245), 283-4.

38. Thomann, pp. 134, 138, 143.

39. “ Tom Tit Tot,” “ Rumpelstilzchen,” etc. The motive
occurs in al Jamaica story given by Jekyll, p. 1 1 (cf. also “ Mr.
Titman ” in Smith, p. 20), but this is probably of European origin.

Chapter IV

1. See Kingsley, especially chapters 5 to 9; Spieth and Ellis,
; passim .

2. Raum, pp. 334 ff. Cf. Gutmann, [a], pp. 142-7.

3. Gutmann, , p. 152.

4. Mzimu or mu-zimu as a locative appears to be used in Swahili
for a place in which offerings are made to the spirits (see Krapf,
s. v.). Zimwi (originally li-zimwi, and therefore cognate with
Zulu i-zimu, Sutu le-dimo ) means a kind of ogre or demon, like
the irimu of the Wachaga, Wakikuyu, etc. The word is more or
less obsolete in ordinary Swahili, having been replaced by the im-
ported shetani or jini.

5. See Callaway, , p. 148, note. Perhaps the meaning may
be “people of our stock” (“seed”), see i-dlozi in Kropf’s Kaffir
Dictionary.

6. .In Swahili, the names of animals, whatever their grammatical
form — they usually have the ninth prefix or its equivalent — are
given the concords of the person-class. In some languages, while


NOTES


405

retaining their own class in the singular, they are given a special
plural prefix.

7. Werner, p. 46.

8. Callaway, , p. 144.

9. Raum, p. 338.

10. Gutmann, [a], p. 129.

11. Ibid,., , pp. 104, 1 3 1-2.

12. Ibid., [a], p. 130.

13. Casalis, , p. 261.

14. Callaway, [a], p. 318.

15. Ibid., p. 317.

16. Obst, in Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten , ii
[1900], 130.

17. Melland, p. 24.

18. Gutmann, , p. 105, etc.

19. Raum, p. 336.

20. Gutmann, , p. 107.

21. Ibid., [a], pp. 1 6 gff.

22. Raum, p. 336.

23. Ibid., loc. cit.

24. Gutmann, , p. 109.

25. Ibid., p. 106.

26. Ibid., loc. cit.

27. Velten, [c], p. 180.

28. Scott, p. 416.

29. Junod, , p. 387.

30. Ibid., [c], ii. 350.

31. Ibid., ii. 379.

32. Ibid., ii. 356, 358.

33. Scott, s.v. nkalango, p. 450.

34. Strychnos sf.

35. Junod, , p. 305.

36. Ibid., pp. 385, 388.

37. Rehse, p. 388.

38. Junod, [c], ii. 359.

39. See Meinhof, , p. 18.

40. Callaway, , p. 142.

41. Ibid., p. 198.

42. Macdonald, i. 62.

43. Callaway, , p. 199.

44. Junod, [c], ii. 312, 358.

45. Callaway, , p. 215.


4 o6


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


Chapter V

1. Gutmann, , p. 104.

2. Some of these stories, relating rather to an upper than an under
world, have already been mentioned in Chap. 1.

3. Junod, [a], p. 264; but see his note on this story.

4. Callaway, [a], p. 331.

5. Tylor, i. 338.

6. Callaway, [a], p. 296.

7. As we shall see in Chapter XIV, certain animals (or familiar
spirits in their shape?) are employed as messengers by witches. The
leopard is certainly counted as one of these in Nyasaland — though
not so prominent as the owl and the hyena; and this is given as a
reason why the Zulus never mention his proper name, ingwe, in
ordinary conversation — calling him isilo “(the) wild beast,” far
excellence. At the same time, Isilo was a title of the Zulu kings and
(as in Uganda) no one outside the royal house might wear or use
a leopard-skin. See also (for the Lower Congo), Dennett [a], p. 69.
Is there any connection between these two ideas? or do they belong to
entirely separate streams of tradition?

8. A legend attached to a ruined site, near Kipini, called Kwa
W aanawali Sabaa, relates how seven little maids, pursued by Galla
raiders, called to God for help, when the earth opened and swallowed
them up. (Information obtained on the spot in 1912.)

9. This “ False Bride ” motive recurs in various African stories;
a good example (combined with the “ Holle ” motive) is the tale of
the Kirondovo in Gutmann, [a], pp. 34-6.

10. Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmarchen , No. 24, with some (not
all) of the variants enumerated in Bolte and Polivka, i. 207ff; Hausa,
“The Ill-Treated Maiden,” Tremearne, p. 426; Temne, “The
Devil’s Magic Eggs,” Cronise and Ward, p. 265.

11. J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie , Gottingen, 1835, p. 164,
etc. English variants of the Holle story in Halliwell-Phillips, p. 39,
J. Jacobs, English Fairy Tales , London, 1890, No. 43, More English
Fairy Tales, lb., No. 64; West India, in Smith, p. 31, “Mother
Calbee.”

12. Gutmann, , p. 117, Nos. 63, 68; Junod, [a], p. 237.

13. Co-wives, in “Three Women,” p. no; in Chaga tale,
Gutmann, [a], pp. 34-6; Duala, in Lederbogen, MSOS vi. [1904],
82; Konde, a tale mentioned by Fulleborn, p. 335.

14. Tremearne, p. 401.

15. “ Kgolodikane,” SAFJ i. [1879], HO.

16. Notes 9 and 13, sufra.


NOTES


407


17. Gutmann, , p. 1 1 8.

18. See Note 16, to Chapter IV.

19. Gutmann, , p. no, cf. also [a], p. 36.

20. Probably a tabu affecting one returned from the spirit-world.

21. Zimmermann, i. 163, cf. “ Candoo ” in Smith, p. 28.

22. This no doubt refers to the retribution which was to follow
disobedience. But it is not clear why, after coming to pieces and
being restored to life, Anansi should be let off with a beating after
his second transgression. Perhaps the incident is intended to account
for the spider’s patched and mottled appearance.

23. SAFJ , i. [1879], 75.

24. Wolff, p. 135.

25. Chatelain, p. 127.


Chapter VI

1. Cf. Mythology of All Raees , Boston, 1916, x. 255, 298.

2. Junod, [c], ii. 327-8, see also pp. 279-80; Merensky, in
Mitteilungen der geogr. .Gesellschaft •zu Jena , vi. [1888], III— 4;
Meinhof, , p. 33; [c], p. 117.

3. Callaway, [a], pp. 3-40.

4. Macdonald, i. 297.

5. Chatelain, p. 13 1, “The Son of Kimanaueze,” especially pp.
I 33 » I 4 I -

6. Dennett, [a], pp. 7, 74. For Duala, see Lederbogen in MSOS
iv. [1902], pt. 3, fassim.

7. Rehse, pp. 134, 371. Ryang’ombe, the “Eater of Cattle,”
seems to be known also among the Bahima (Roscoe, , p. 134,
speaks of “ the fetish Lyagombe ”), the Warundi (Van der Burgt,
p. 216), and the Wanyaruanda (idem., and P. Loupias in Anthrofos,
iii. [1908], 6). Van der Burgt explains his name as meaning possibly
“ celui qui coupe les cordes du prisonnier”; he is the chief of
departed spirits (so also Rehse, p. 134), and was once a man, but
after his death took up his abode in the Kirunga volcano. As the
word ng > ombe is still used for “ cattle ” in Kiziba, where also the
legend of his ox-eating exploits (on the day of his birth!) is current,
but not among the other peoples named, it is possible that his name
and cult were adopted by the latter, while the meaning of the name
and perhaps of the legend was forgotten. It is remarkable that,
while Rehse says his cult in Kiziba is confined to the Bahima (the
Hamitic ruling race who came in from the north), in Ruanda, ac-
cording to P. Loupias, the royal family (with one exception expressly
mentioned) and high chiefs are never initiated into his mysteries,

[Prometheus]

AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


408

which belong to the Bahutu, the Bantu people previously in occupation.

8. Dempwolff in Ehrenreich, iv. 249, Rattray, [a], p. 133;
Macdonald, ii. 336.

9. A hyena in two cases, which is no doubt the earlier form of
the incident. In the Nyanja version (Rattray, [a], pp. 54,: 133)
there is an unexplained peculiarity; a girl finds a hyena’s egg and
carries it home to her mother, who puts it into the fire. The Hyena
comes to demand the egg and has to be appeased with the promise
of the unborn child. I have come across no other reference to the
eggs of the hyena, though there seems to be a widespread idea that
its reproductive organs are abnormal.

10. Hahn, p. 134; Schultze, p. 447.

11. Hahn, pp. 65-7; Bleek, , pp. 77, 7 8—9 ; Meinhof, [a],
pp. 172-7; Schultze, p. 447.

12. Meinhof, [a], p. 177.

13. Hahn, p. 66; Bleek, , p. 77; Schultze, pp. 448, 450.

14. Bleek, , p. 78.

15. Hahn, pp. 85, 86, 92.

16. Schultze, p. 450.

17. Meinhof, [a], p. 172.

18. Probably it is a hole dug in a sandy river-bed during the
dry season, when the water trickles out so slowly that it takes a long
time to secure a supply.

19. Hahn, pp. 42, 43, 45, etc., and references there given to
Kolbe and others.

20. Bleek, , p. 80; Meinhof, [a], p. 174. The berries called
“ wild raisins ” are the fruits of a shrub called by the Herero omu-
vafu.

21. Properly lUriseb (with cerebral click and high tone on first
syllable), also spelled Urisib and Urisip. It is symptomatic of the
chaotic state into which Hottentot traditions have fallen, that
Schultze’s informants make Uriseb the son of Ga-gorib, the
“ Thruster-down,” whom, as a matter of fact, they only mention
as “ Uriseb’s father” (p. 448). There is also considerable con-
fusion between Tsui-Goab and Haitsi-aibeb, if the two are not identi-
cal, as Hahn thinks.

22. Junod, [c], ii. 327-8.

23. Merensky, “ Till Eulenspiegel in Afrika,” in Mitteilungen
der geogr. Gesellschaft xu Jena , vi. [1888], Ilif.

24. Callaway, [a], p. 3.

25. Ibid., pp. 37-40. This story is elsewhere given to the hare
(for variants see FL xv. [1909], 344; African Monthly , vii. [1910]
247). Since writing the article in the latter I have discovered several


NOTES


409


other versions, notably a Hottentot one (Schultze, p. 415), and “ The
Hare’s Hoe,” to which Junod ([c], ii. 223) says he knows of no
African parallel. The existence of well-marked Berber and South
European variants seems to point to its having come into Africa from
the Mediterranean region, and to have been adapted by the natives
in some cases (not in all) to the myth of their favourite animal.
Thus the Hottentot, the European, and the Berber versions make
the protagonist a human being or the jackal; the Bantu usually tell it
of the hare, though sometimes of a boy (Luyi), a girl (Herero), an
old woman (Bena-Kanioka), or a man (Nyasaland, Elmslie, FL iii.
[1892], 92), and West Africans of the spider, cf. Tremearne, pp.
237, 367, 380, and reff. there given; Schultze, p. 415.

26. Rehse, p. 155.

27. Baumann, , p. 186.

28. Tylor, ii. 335R

29. See Breysig, pp. 10, 17, etc.

30. Jacottet, [c], p. 70, another version, p. 76; see also [a], p. 204,
and Casalis, [a], p. 97.

31. Cf. Khwai-hemm of the Bushmen (infra, p. 289); Isiququ-
madevu und Usilosimapundu of the Zulus (Callaway [a], pp. 34,
86, 184); Seedimwe of the Subiya (Jacottet, , ii. 54, 61, 67), etc.
In Kikuyu (Routledge, p. 309) 'the Swallower is the Rainbow.

32. Junod, [a], p. 201 ; cf. also Kachirambe (Rattray, [a],
P- 133 )-

33. Breysig, p. 12.

34. Thomann, p. 145.

35. A fumfkin of similar character is found in a Shambala tale
(Seidel, , p. 174), in Swahili ( Kibaraka , p. 25), and in Hausa
(Rattray, , pp. 300, etc.).

36. Similarly, Kalikalanje (Macdonald, ii. 339 ) kills his mother,
after destroying the demon Namzimu.

Chapter VII

1. Schultze, p. 387.

2. Breysig, pp. i8f., 39; for Marduk, pp. 105, 108,

3. Meinhof, , p. 20, see also p. 17.

4. Spieth, in Abhandlungen des deutschen Kolonialkongresses,
for 1905, p. 504.

5. S. Reinisch, Sitzungsberichte der fhilos. histor. Klasse der Kais.
Akad. der Wissenchaften in W ein, cxlviii. [1904], Abh. v. 93, cited
by Meinhof, , p. 17.

6. Lloyd, , p. 67.


4io


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


7 * Ibid., pp. 38, 53.

8. Bleek, [c] , p. 9; Lloyd, , pp. 38-9, 51, 53.

9. Lloyd, , p. 399.

10. Barnes, p. 1 1 1.

11. Taylor, , p. 97.

12. Bentley, pp. 16 1, 381.

13. Ibid., p. 370.

14. Hahn, pp. 23, 43, 74, etc.

15. Plural of Kimia = Swahili Kilimia, “ the hoeing star,” from
lima, “ hoe.” The name is almost universal among Bantu tribes,
from the Tana to the Great Fish River. The Pokomo and the Yaos,
and possibly a few others, make the word a plural: the group is gen-
erally treated as one body.

16. Lloyd, , pp. 85-98. Bleek, [c], p. 11, gives a somewhat
different version, quoted in Lloyd, p. 96. The two versions have been
combined in the text.

17. Torrend, p. 314; Theal, [a], pp. 56-66, , p. 323.

18. Lloyd, , pp. 73ff.

19. Gutmann [a], p. 149.

20. Lloyd, , pp. 45-55.

21. Hollis, , p. 97.

22. Gutmann, [a], p. 178. Ellis ( , p. 65) records a similar
notion of the Ewe, but it is possible that he misunderstood his infor-
mants, as nothing is said of it in Spieth’s more recent work, based
on much fuller material.

23. Gutmann, [a], p. 177. For greeting of new moon, see
Taylor, , pp. 49, 63. (Giryama); Van der Burgt, p. 235
(Warundi); Dennett, [a], p. 7.

24. Gutmann, [a],p. 180, ,p. 144.

25. Dennett, ,pp. 113, 142.

26. Spieth, p. 533; Ellis, , pp. 47-9. For a Hausa tradition,
see Fletcher, p. 94.

27. Cf. Dahse in ZE xliii. [1911], 46-56.

28. Jacottet, , ii. 146, cf. also for Luyi, iii. 139.

29. Callaway, [a], pp. 293-5.

30. Gutmann, , p. 153, “ Der durchhauene Regenbogen.”

31. Routledge, p. 308.

32. Ibid., p. 309.

33. Jacottet, [c], p. 56, and note on p. 58.

34. Callaway, , p. 383, cf. Mythology of All Races, Boston,
1916, x. 287L

35. Rehse, pp. 129, 146. Kayurankuba is said to be a son of the
lake-spirit Mugasha (apparently identical with the Mukasa of the


NOTES


411

Baganda). According to some, Kayurankuba causes thunder by
striking the rocks (with his spear?). Cf. the legend given by Rehse,
P- 329 -

36. Hewat, p. 91.

37. Gutmann, [a], p. 178.

38. Dennett, [a], p.7; the story given below is also referred to
in , p. 1 19.

39. Gutmann, , p. 149, and the curious legend in Rehse, p. 388.

40. Dennett, , p. 120.

41. Ibid., [a], pp. 133-4.

42. See pp. 1 17, xi8, 132, supra.

43. Hollis [a], pp. xix, 264-5, cf- P* 278. Merker, however,
(p. 197), says that the expressions Ng’ai nanjugi and Ng’ai narok
are not to be taken in the sense given in the text, but really mean,
“the divine red” and the “divine black” (or “blue”), being ap-
plied to the red of sunrise and sunset, and to the cloudless sky.
“ Tatsachlich sehen die Leute in diesen Erscheinungen keine Gotter,
auch nichts Gott ahnliches oder gleich ihm zu verehrendes.” At
the same time he admits that God is often called Ng’ai narok in
prayers, but the Masai themselves are unable to explain this epithet.
Thunder and lightning, according to this authority, are not inde-
pendent beings, but the phenomena produced by Ng’ai’s eldest son,
Ol gurugur, who thus “ verkiindet . . . dass Gott den Menschen
wegen ihres schlechten Betragens grollt, und ermahnt sie zugleich
zur Besserung.” Barsai, Ng’ai’s eldest daughter, is responsible for
the rain, which is a sign that God is well pleased with the state of
things on earth. Others have taken Ng’ai as a personification of rain.

44. Lloyd, p. xv.

45. Steere, SAFJ , i. [1879], 121.

46. Swahili sea-lore, of course, is largely borrowed from the Arabs
and perhaps from Indonesia, whence came the outrigger canoe and,
no doubt, the coconut. There are some mysterious beings: Makame,
— whose rock is at the back of Mombasa Island, between the Indian
burning-ghat and Mzizima — and Sheikh Manamana, to whom
boatmen make offerings as they pass, throwing some trifle into the
water. I have not been able to discover anything about Makame
of Mombasa, but a legend (too vaguely and fragmentarily heard
to be recorded) about a similar person near the north point of Zan-
zibar Island, suggests that he was originally a drowned man. The
sea is called Mbu by the Congo Bavili (Dennett, [a], p. 8; ,
pp. 1 14, 123) and its indwelling spirit (who is also the North Wind)
Chikamasi.

47. See pp. 126, 179, supra.


412


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


Chapter VIII

1. Klamroth, “ Die religiosen Vorstellungen der Saramo,” ZKS
i. [1910], 37, 1 18, 189. A most valuable document.

2. Spieth, p. 684.

3. A. Werner, “ Pokomo Folk-lore,” FL xxiv. [1913], 469-72.

4. By a writer in Blackwood’s Magazine , November, 1917, who,

however, calls the creature ngoloko. (This name I heard applied,
by the Pokomo, to a certain fabulous serpent of gigantic size. See
the above-quoted paper in FL p. 467.) The writer of the article
was shown a curious footprint alleged to be that of the “ ngoloko ” ;
but I learn from a correspondent that a European who had seen a
tracing made from this footprint pronounced it to be that of an
ostrich, and this is confirmed from the testimony of another person,
who had himself examined the footprint. A Swahili correspondent
at Lamu writes: “As to the Ngoloko, it is true: the Lamu people

call him by the name of milhoi ; people sometimes see him, and the
man who sees him — if the milhoi does not succeed in killing him —
loses his senses. The milhoi is tall and has one leg like that of an
ass.” If he meets a man, he begins by asking him the names of
all his relations, and then, if he stands still in astonishment, he
strikes him with his claw. But if you recognise him in time, you
can put him to flight by threatening to strike him with a saw — the
only thing he fears. (The reason for this is that he has seen huge
trees sawn through in the forest and cannot understand how so
small an instrument produces so great an effect — a touch of actu-
ality which must have been introduced in recent times.) The writer
goes on to say that he knows an old man at Witu, who has seen
and wrestled with the milhoi (this, not explicitly stated elsewhere,
is a point of contact with Chiruwi) and lost his senses in consequence.
“And in the books of Islam there is the account of him: they say
he originated with the jinn who ascended to heaven to listen to
the voices of the angels ” [the MS. has “of the jinn’’ but I feel sure
this is a clerical error], “and were struck down with zimwondo ”
[presently explained to be shooting stars] “ by the angels.” (See
also Steere, 1884, p. 240, s. v. milhoi .) Of course this account is
coloured by various — no doubt partly literary — influences.

5. Hollis, [a], pp. 127, 265.

6. Schultze, p. 392.

7. Ibid., pp. 404, 448.

8. Taylor, , p. 32.

9. FL xxiv. 472.

10. Scott, p. 97.


NOTES


4i3


11. Krapf, , pp. 162, 387.

12. Colenso, p. 592; Kidd, [a], p. 127.

13. Chatelain, p. 91. For one-legged beings in Celtic folk-lore
(the Fachan ), see J. F. Campbell, Pofular Tales of the West High-
lands, Edinburgh, 1890, iv. 298. For Melanesian one-legged
beings see C. E. Fox and F. H. Drew, JRA 1 xlv. [1915], 188.

14. MS. notes.

15. Scott, uhi sufra; Macdonald, i. 71 ; Stannus in Man, xv.
[1915], 132.

16. Smith, pp. 284, 457.

17. Jacottet, , ii. 138, cf. p. 122.

18. Junod, [a], p. 197, and , pp. 291, 313, 363; also Calla-
way, [a], p. 199 and note; Tremearne, pp. 123, 212, 401, 454;
Chatelain, pp. 32, 254, 279, 334 note; Irle, p. 76; Fiilleborn,
pp. 55, 335; Cronise and Ward, pp. 21, 179. For Mugasha, the
one-legged lake-spirit of the Baziba, see Rehse, pp. 129, 146.

19. Jacottet, [a], p. 246 (and note), [c], p. 160. With this
story it is interesting to compare that of “ Mbukwana’s Wife and
Daughter,” in Junod, , p. 241, and that of “ Umxakaza-Wako-
gingqwayo ” in Callaway (where the Half-men are called Amadh-
lungundhlebe ') .

20. See Jacottet’s note on “ Hase fuhlaele fu, ha u na tema fu,”
[c], p. 164: He gives up this sentence as unintelligible, but the clue
supplied by his rendering of the latter half, together with the hint
that “ the words are probably meant to be Zulu,” suggested the
conjectural equivalent given in the text.

21. See Colenso, p. 705, s. v., and Bryant, p. 756 ( uMdava ).

22. P. 1 1 8, note 11, and p. 18 1, note 4, sufra.

23. Gutmann , p. 73, No. 37, “ Der wandelnde Dornbusch.”
The following tales, Nos. 38—45, deal with the Irimu in his
various manifestations: in some of them he shows affinity with the
Werewolf. One remarkable point (p. 75) is the possession of a
second mouth at the back of the head. This feature is known to
the Baronga (Junod, [a], p. 257), and something like it is attributed
to witches by the Hausa (Tremearne, pp. 154, 425, 433).

24. Watoto na Zimwi, in Kibaraka, p. 25. Variants: Tselane,
Jacottet, [a], p. 69, and [c], p. 62; U situngu-sobenhle , Callaway,
[a], p. 74; Demana and Demazana and “ The Cannibal’s Wonderful
Bird,” Theal, [a], pp. 111, 125; “The Child and the Drum”
(Gazaland), Kidd, , p. 233; Kgolodikane (Chwana), SAFJ
i. [1879], 1 10; a Herero one recorded by Buttner under the title
“ Die alte Frau welche die Kinder in den Sack steckt,” ZAS i.
[1887], 189; Duala, Lederbogen in MSOS ( Afrikanische Studien)


4 H


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


vi. [1903], 78 (“ Der Madchen und der Mann”) and numerous
others. The Hausa “Mender of Men” (Tremearne, p. 401)
resembles these in its opening incident: some girls, picking herbs in
the forest, take refuge from a shower in a hollow baobab-tree; the
Devil (here called “ Iblisi,” — an Islamized conception) closes the
tree and refuses to let any of them out unless she gives him her
cloth and her necklace. All do this, except one, who accordingly
remains imprisoned, but is fed through a hole by her mother. Here
the tale coincides with “ Tselane ” (the reason for the girl’s being
shut up alone is more intelligible than in the latter), and the Hyena
who is subsequently introduced behaves exactly like the Ledlmo can-
nibal, except that he eats his victim on the spot instead of carrying
her round in a bag. The sequel, relating how the mother took her
daughter’s bones to “ the City where Men were Mended,” brings
the story into the “ Holle ” group.

25. Cronise and Ward, pp. 172, 178. The first of these intro-
duces the “ Debbie ” as the Swallower (cf. Kholumodumo , etc.), with
the additional details that he can only be split open by an enchanted
thorn, and that an old woman among the people released insisted on
going back for her possessions and perished in consequence. The
“ debble ” in three other stories (pp. 152, 160, 167), while less cer-
tainly identifiable with the izimu, is sufficiently curious; his power of
shape-shifting is a conspicuous feature, and in one he assumes the
form of a bearded stone which causes every passer-by making audible
remarks on its peculiarity, to fall down unconscious.

26. Routledge, pp. 315, 324.

27. Gutmann, , p. 73.

28. Ibid., p. 87, No. 44, “ Die Frau des Rimu.”

29. In the variant given by Raum, the wife accidentally discovers
his cannibal propensities, by going into his compartment with a
lighted torch. Here the lrimu is a hyena, and a genuine versipellis,
for every night, he says, “ Skin, turn inside out! ” and becomes a
hyena. Every morning, at dawn, he says, “ Hair, turn inward! ” and
becomes a man. The Were-Hyena will reappear in Chapter XIV.

30. No explanation is given of how she escaped: it would seem
from what has gone before that a knowledge of the password would
not avail to open the rock from the inside. Perhaps some detail has
been omitted by the narrator. The device by which discovery is
delayed (the original crudity has been softened in the text) not infre-
quently occurs in African tales, and is well known in European folk-
lore. Sometimes, by way of euphemism, the fugitive is made to spit
on the threshold, the hearth-stone, etc, with the results indicated above.

31. Gutmann, ,p. 92.


NOTES


4i5


32. Apparently growing wild — an abnormal occurrence, for
though a wild banana-tree is not uncommon in some parts of Africa,
it never bears fruit. In Nyasaland it is called msorokoto (while the
cultivated banana-plant is mtochi ), and the children collect its black,
shining seeds to string into necklaces.

33. Supra, p. 250. Cf. also the story of “ Sultan Darai ” in Steere’s
Swahili Tales, where a pumpkin or cucumber-plant springs up from
the dead mother’s grave. Here, however, the connection between the
plant and the deceased is not immediate.

34. Jacottet, [c], p. 4.


Chapter IX

1. Taylor, , p. 32.

2. Beech, in Man xv. [1915], 40.

3. Krapf, , s. v. Mbilikimo , p. 214.

4. Taylor, , p. 35.

5. Johnston, [a], p. 53.

6. Stannus, in Man xv. [1915], 1 3 1 .

7. Callaway, [a], pp. 352—5. Much the same account was given
to Chatelain (pp. 269—70) of the Batwa in Angola. In the text
Callaway translates the word given as “ arrow ” by “ bow,” but the
original is ngomcibitsholo. It is worth noting that the bow is an
essentially Bushman weapon, and that this word for “ arrow,” con-
taining a click and having no recognisable Bantu analogue, probably
belongs to the Bushman language.

8. F. Boyle, The Savage Life, London, 1876, p. 36.

9. Torrend, p. xv.

10. Rosen, pp. 88ff. In the Pokomo language h corresponds to
the cerebral t of Swahili: thus, -tatu, “ three,” becomes -hahu. These
same people are called Wat by the Galla. This word cannot be
supposed to have any connection with Wa-twa, unless it were the
original form and the Bantu had mistaken the initial Wa for a
prefix. But this is a question of etymology, which has no place here.

11. Van der Burgt, p. 4.

12. Torday and Joyce, pp. 22, 39, 52.

13. Gutmann, [a], p. 6.

14. Ibid., , p. 1 3 1, No. 81.

15. Ibid., , p. 132, No. 83.

16. Ibid., , p. 1 3 1 , No. 82. Neither of these last says any-
thing about the big heads of the dwarfs, who seem to have in all
respects the appearance of ordinary children.

17. Junod, [c], ii. 405.


416


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


1 8. Macdonald, i. 291.

19. Jacottet, , ii. 141, gives a Subiya account of the Tulala-
Madindi, “ those who sleep in holes ” — a race of pygmies much
like those described in the text, but with a physiological peculiarity,
not elsewhere mentioned: they live only on the juices of meat, and
their digestive arrangements are unlike those of ordinary human
beings. In a note to this passage (p. 142), he mentions a Basuto
legend of the little men called Lujara Marete , who are described as
asking the usual question, “ Where did you see me first? ” Jacottet
demurs to Chatelain’s account, as the Little People are never can-
nibals, and the Amazimu never small.

[Prometheus]

Chapter X

1. Frazer, i. 1.

2. See Livingstone, p. 12: “The different Bechuana tribes are
named after certain animals. . . . They also use the word £ bina,’
to dance, in reference to the custom of thus naming themselves, so
that, when you wish to ascertain what tribe you belong to, you say,
‘ What do you dance? ’ ” He does not further mention the dances,
which, no doubt, were intended to influence the totems.

3. Frazer, iv. 4.

4. Roscoe, [a],p. 320.

5. Dundas, JRAI xliii. [ 1 9 1 3 ] , 66.

6.. Ibid., p. 32.

7. Ellis, , p. 100, cf. pp. 71, 74.

8. Gutmann, [a], pp. 37-44.

9. MS., written out for me (in the “ Nyika ” dialect of the
Warabai) by a native teacher at Kisulutini. I heard a similar story
being related to my porters by an old woman at Fundi Isa, but was
not able to take it down. A variant, in which the sexes are reversed,
is given by Velten ( , p. 71) under the title “ Geschichte von
Sultanssohn der ein Affenkind heiratete.” The ape-maiden’s tail
is taken charge of by her grandmother, who magnanimously says, “ I
will wear two tails, that she may become a human being and we may
be saved.” When she becomes proud and refuses to feed or recognise
her relations, the grandmother returns at the head of the clan and
hands over the tail in the face of the Sultan’s family.

10. Gutmann, [a], p. 38.

11. Hollis, , p. 6.

12. Junod, [c], i. 336.

13. Junod, “ Le chat de Titichane,” [a], p. 253, “ Le gambadeur
de la plaine,” , p. 353, also [c], i. 338.


NOTES


4i7


14. Frazer, iv. 52-55, see also i. 125, ii. 293, 552, 561, in. 451.

15. Possibly we are to understand that he was invisible by day,
as the husband, when watching the gardens at night, sees and shoots
him. It is to be noted that the failure of the wife’s incantations
is only final when dawn appears before the totem is completely
resuscitated.

16. Mansfeld, pp. 220-3.

17. Hollis, , p. 8.

18. Where two totems are mentioned, the clan has been sub-
divided.

19. Bentley, p. 353, s. v. mfangu.

20. Macdonald, ii. 366. The title of this story, “ The Girl that
refused a Husband,” and its opening sentences belong to an entirely
different one and have no connection with what follows.

21. Junod, [a], pp. 138-42.

22. Wolff, pp. 120, 132. There is a totemic touch, also, in
Uvwikeve (/£., pp. 112, 132) where directions are given not to kill
the lice on an infant’s head, on the ground that they are “ its soul ”
( ntima gwa mwere). I have not, so far, come across a louse totem.

23. An even better illustration is the story of Unyandemula
(Wolff, pp. 123, 145), where the girl, who has run away from home
after being punished by her parents, is swept off by a flooded river
and discovered in the way mentioned above, when her younger sister
comes to fetch water. She is restored to her home through the agency
of a witch, who warns the parents that she must on no account be
scolded, or she will turn into water — which ultimately happens. This
is a link with the European group of <£ Undine ” stories; cf. also
the Xosa “ Tangalomlibo ” (Torrend, p. 314; McCall Theal,
p. 56). We are also reminded of the numerous legends in which
totem-ancestresses, on being reproached with their origin, resume their
former shape and are lost to their husbands. The Twi legend referred
to in Chapter I shows quite clearly the totemic character which is quite
obscured in the cases given in the text.

24. Weeks, p. 361.

25. Johnston, [c], ii. 921.

26. Chatelain, pp. 157, 183, 197, 209.

27. Jacottet, [c], p. 32, note.

28. Merker, pp. 214-5.

29. Hollis, [a], p. 107.

30. Harris, [a], p. 61.

31. Meinhof, , pp. 29, 30.

32. E.g. Cronise and Ward, p. 296.

33. I.e. in the tales, as distinct from his place in the myth already


4i 8


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


discussed. He sometimes wins a race by a trick, in a variant of the
famous Hare and Tortoise (the European Hare and Hedgehog) story.
He is also found in Ronga stories (cf. Junod, [a], pp. 89 117, 136).

34. See Junod, [a], p. 87, and further, “ L’Epopee de la
Rainette,” p. 109. This frog is locally called chinana. I have seen
it at Blantyre, in the Shire Highlands, where the Anyanja call it
chiswenene or kaswenene (the ordinary frog is chule ), but never
heard of its figuring in folk-tales.

35. The Parrot (Fang), the Crowned Crane (Zambezi), the
Honey-guide (Ila), the Dog (Benga and Duala), the Gorilla (Mpon-
gwe), the Zebra, the Swallow, etc.

36. Theal, , p. 275.

37. Junod, “ Le petit deteste,” [a], p. 170.

38. Nassau, “ Borrowed Clothes,” , p. 198.

39. Related in conversation by Dr. Sanderson of Nyasaland.

40. It seems clear, from Stow’s account (pp. 32, 33), that the
Bushmen had totems. Each tribe had its “ emblem ” (e.g., the
Python, Eland, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Ostrich, etc.), “conspicuously
painted in some central part of the great cave of the chief of the
clan.” Stow does not mention the Mantis among these “ emblems ”

— but he may have outgrown the status of a mere clan totem;
and he appears to be represented in some of the cave-paintings.

41. I have heard the same term used for a butterfly — I think
at Lamu. The Mantis is also called 1 junda-jungu, “ break the pot.”

42. Tunod, [c], ii. 312.

43. Ibid., p. 358.

44. Hahn, pp. 42, 45, and reff. there given.

45. Kidd, [a], p. 183; , p. 210. .

46. By the Anyanja, and the Swahili (see above, Note 41).
The Giryama call it “ break the bow ” ( vundza uha ), probably
with some similar notion. But the Zulu isitwalambiza simply means
“ the pot-carrier,” from the attitude of the forelegs, which are
raised as though carrying a burden, or — as the European prefers it

— as if praying. (One of my earliest recollections is being told that
the people near Trieste used to say the mantis was “ praying for rain.”)

47. Bleek, [c], pp. 6-9; Lloyd, [a], p. 5; Bleek in his 1873
Report, gives a list of twenty-four texts relating to the Mantis, most
of which, unfortunately, are still unpublished. For Orpen’s account
of the Maluti Bushmen’s “ Cagn ” (not apparently recognised as the
Mantis), see his article in Cafe Monthly Magazine, July, 1874, and
Bleek’s comments thereon.

48. Lloyd, , p. 53.

49. Bleek [c], pp. 6-9.


NOTES


50. A. Lang “ Natural Theology,” in Ballades in Blue China ,
London, 1883, p. 108.

51. Lloyd, , pp. 3-15.

52. Ibid., pp. 23-33.

53. Lloyd, [a], p. 5.

54. Bleek, [c], p. 9.


Chapter XI

1. Lloyd, , p. 61.

2. Junod, , p. 280.

3. Cf. Junod, [a], pp. 89, 90.

4. Beech, p. 58; cf. Krapf, , p. 152. “ Kipanawazi (sic), a

kind of hare. The Kipanawazi is believed by the Mohammedans to
ferry souls over a river. It will ask them who has beaten it with a
muiko [ mwiko , wooden spoon] . . . and will then say a-ku-findusha
[he overturns you].” The above is sufficiently obscure, and I have
never come across any other reference to this belief. But mwiko also
means “ a taboo,” and possibly the meaning is that the infringement
of such would upset the ferryman’s boat.

5. E.g., the order to produce eggs; the building of a house in the
air, etc.

6. Jacottet, [c], p. 33.

7. Hollis, [a], p. 107.

8. There does not seem to be any rabbit, properly so called, indig-
enous to Africa, though there are several species of hares, and possibly
one or more of these may have intermediate characteristics. It is
curious that, in some stories ( i . e . , a Giryama one printed by Taylor),
we hear of the Hare having “ a house with several entrances,” which
can only be a burrow. It is possible that the animal meant in these
cases is that known in South Africa as the “ Jumping Hare ” ( Pedetes
caffer: Sfiringhaas of the Boers), which is not really a hare at all,
and “ constructs complex burrows in which several families live
together” (Lydekker). The “ Steppenhase ” (Gutmann), Kilyo-
dang > a of the Wachaga, who attribute to him most of the usual hare
stories, may be an East African species of Pedetes.

9. Madan, p. 57.

10. Campbell, ii. App. viii. p. 365. The seven “ Bootchuana ”
tales here given are described as “ absurd and ridiculous fictions, pre-
sented to the notice of the reader only because they exhibit, in a
striking manner, the puerile and degraded state of intellect among the
natives of South Africa.” The source of the tales is not indicated,
and it is clear from the style that they are not exact translations of


420


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


native texts. Those which are versions of well-known tales have
some interesting variations, suggesting that some features of older
tales have been preserved.

11. Junod, [a], pp. 90-109.

12. So Hlakanyana makes a whistle out of the Hare’s bones; and
the Hare, in one Suto version (see Jacottet, [c], p. 16 note), from
those of the “ Rabbit” ( hlolo ). In Jacottet’s version of the latter,
the Hare steals a flute belonging to a frog. There seems to be a
reminiscence of this in the “ quills ” which Brer Tarrypin made out
of “ de big een er Brer Buzzard’s wing-fedders ” (Harris, , No.
14, end), and on which he played a triumphant air. Cf. also the
following story (No. 15), “ Brother Fox Covets the Quills.”

13. So, with the Baganda ( Manuel , p. 279), the Hare induces the
Elephant to let him cut slices of flesh from his thighs, so that he can
dance more easily.

14. It is a common trick of the Hare to raise the alarm of war and
then rob the gardens; cf. Macdonald, ii. 332 (Yao), and a Makua
version (MS.) obtained from Archdeacon Woodward.

15. The Tar-Baby incident occurs in other connections, but this
is the most frequent.

16. Cf. Jacottet, [c], p. 26, and the references there given; also
Harris, , No. 20, p. 102, “ Brother Rabbit takes some Exercise.”
This theme occurs in European folk-lore as “ Chicken-Licken ”
(Halliwell-Phillips, p. 29; R. Chambers, Popular Rhymes of
Scotland, Edinburgh, 1847, P- 211).

17. See Harris, [a], No. 17, “ Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up the Butter.”

18. Ibid ., No. 12, “ Mr. Fox Tackles Old Man Tarrypin.”

19. The Baronga — at least the men of full age — wear head-
rings like those of the Zulus, but brightly polished, whereas the Zulus
consider a dull lustre the correct thing. The material is either beeswax
or a kind of gum found on mimosa trees, which is plastered over a
ring made of plaited grass or bullock’s sinews. Similar naive attempts
at disguise (invariably successful) are removing the skin (frequent in
Nyanja stories), cutting off the ears, plastering with mud, etc. Brer
Rabbit, when he victimises Miss Cow ( Uncle Remus , IX), adopts no
disguise, but is not recognised when he puts his head out of the brier-
patch, because “ his eyes look big as Miss Sally’s chany sassers.” So
in the Angola “ Jackal and Hare ” (Chatelain, p. 209), Hare is
unrecognisable because he “ opens big eyes in the hole.” The disguise
in “Brother Rabhit Frightens His Neighbors” ( Nights , XXII),
is probably a recent touch. “ Dey aint seed no man w’at
look like Brer Rabbit do, wid de cofFee-pot on he head, an de cups
a-rattlin’ on he gallus, en de platters a-wavin’ en a-shinin’ in de a’r.


NOTES


421

. . . ‘ I’m ole man Spewter-Splutter, wid long claws en scales on
my back! ’.”

20. The famous Tar-Baby episode occurs in this story, and else-
where in numerous variants, ranging from Mozambique (Makua) to
Cameroons (Duala), and even beyond the Bantu area. Weeks suggests
(p. 367) that “ the Tar-Baby is the fetish called Nkondi, but in the
story as we have it, a concession is made to civilization ... in what
I believe to be the original story, the Nkondi image causes the victim
to stick by its own inherent fetish power. ... It is apparent that
the narrators have lost faith in the magical powers of their fetish and
have introduced the wax and the tar to render their stories a little more
reasonable to themselves.” This explanation seems to be supported by
the independent testimony of a Duala native, who told Prof. Meinhof
that figures covered with pitch are set up in forest clearings as a protec-
tion against demons (Spukdamonen) . The figure holds a bowl of por-
ridge in its hand as a bait: the demons demand some, and, getting no
answer, strike it and stick fast ( [c], p. 1 19). Among the mischievous
tricks of these spirits is mentioned that of their setting up again the trees
which have been felled. A similar incident (grass and weeds coming
up again after hoeing) occurs in the Xosa story of “ The Bird that
made Milk” (Torrend, p. 296), where it is the bird that works the
magic. In the Kongo and Mbundu versions, it is the Leopard who is
caught by the Tar-Baby, with the Temne, Vai, etc., the Spider (Cro-
nise and Ward, p. 96, Johnston, , p. 1087). Ellis ( , p. 275),
gives an Ewe variant, where the adventure is ascribed to the Hare and
forms part of the tale to be given presently in the text.

21. Junod, who had not a complete version before him, fails to
recognise the importance of this incident and doubts ([a], p. 86)
whether it really belongs to the same Hare and should not rather be
attributed to some other species, not distinguished for intelligence.
As told e.g. by the Giryama, the episode appears in its true light.

22. The Ewe have the curious variation that the animals decided
to cut off the tips of their ears and extract the fat from them, which
was to be “ collected and sold, and with the money they would get
for the fat, they would buy a hoe and dig a well.” Most versions
agree in representing the Hare as fraudulently profiting by the work
of the other animals, which he has refused to share; but the Winam-
wanga (Dewar, p. 11) describe the animals as trying to procure water
by stamping on the ground. (This is not stated to be a magical
operation, but a Swahili parallel where they are described as singing,
makes it probable that it was.) All fail except the Hare, who is
ungratefully driven away and prevented from drinking by the rest.
He revenges himself in much the same way as described in the text


422


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


and is eventually caught by the Tortoise. The Winamwanga live to
the northwest of Lake Nyasa. A similar Nyanja story in Rattray,
[a]. P-139-

23. This is told by the Baganda in a different connection, but in the
Sumbwa version it follows on the Tar-Baby episode. Cf. Brer
Rabbit’s stratagem to get rid of Brer Buzzard, when the latter was
watching the hollow tree in which he was hidden ( Nights , p. 229).
“ ‘ I got de ’vantage on you, Brer Buzzard . . . kaze I kin see you
en you can’t see me! ’ Wid dat Brer Buzzard stuck he head in de
hole en look up, en no sooner is he do dis dan Brer Rabbit fill he eyes
full er san’.” ... I have been obliged to follow a somewhat eclectic
method in the text, as it is impossible to give in full, or even to
summarise, all the various Hare stories.

24. This story is related in Biittner [a], p. 95, of the Hare and
the Mongoose and explains why the former has long and the latter
has short ears: the adventure ended in a fight, in which the Hare tore
off his opponent’s ears and appropriated them.

25. For this incident in another connection, see supra , p. 215.
It is so widely distributed that one is inclined to think it one of the
primitive elements in the Hare legend; perhaps it has some ultimate
mythological significance, though hardly, I think, that attributed to
it by Prof. Meinhof. In a MS. Giryama version, which I owe to
the kindness of Mr. Hollis, the mothers are not to be killed but sold
to the Coast-men for bags of grain — cf. Monteil, p. 135, “ Le
Lievre, la Hyene et l’Autruche.” The Hottentots tell this story of
the Jackal.

26. The story was related to me with this finale by an old Swahili
named Mwenye Ombwe, at Maunguja, near Mombasa. The episode
which follows is given mainly from a version taken down in Pokomo,
at Ngao in 1912. (See FL xxiv. [1913], 475-) It occurs, in a
different connection, in Taylor, , p. 126, as the conclusion of
a tale, the earlier part of which is identical with “ The Hare and the
Lion,” in Steere.

27. Bleek , pp. 8-IO.

28. Taylor , p. 130. I have a MS. version dictated in Gir-
yama by Aaron Mwabaya at Kaloleni; but it wants the opening
incident given by Taylor, which supplies the motive for the
sequel. Other variants: Chinamwanga, Dewar, p. 129; Ronga (or
rather Makua), Junod, [a], pp. 1 3 1 , 135; and in America, “ Compair
Lapin et Michie Dinde,” in Fortier, p. 24, as well as a version pub-
lished in an American magazine by the late J. Chandler Harris. In
Nyasaland, the tale is told of the Cock and the Swallow, or of a bird
called ntengu and the wild cat; and elsewhere we find further
variations.


NOTES


423


29. Part of this story occurs as “ The Hare and the Elephant,” in
Hollis, [a], p. 107, with some additional touches. The Hare, after
finishing the honey, asks the Elephant to hand him up some stones for
throwing at the birds. He then puts them into the honey-bag that the
loss of weight may not be noticed, and asks to be set down. On find-
ing out his loss, the elephant pursues him, and he takes refuge in a
hole; the elephant, inserting his trunk catches him by the leg, and
the Hare calls out that he has got hold of a root. The Elephant lets
go and lays hold of what is in fact a root; the Hare groans and cries,
“You are pulling me to pieces! ” and finally makes his escape. He
takes refuge with the Baboons, who, on being questioned by the
Elephant, agree to betray him in return for a cup of the Elephant’s
blood. He allows them to shoot an arrow into his neck (as the Masai
do to their cattle) and bleed him into a small cup which — unknown
to him — has a hole in it: the cup is never filled, and the Elephant
bleeds to death.

30. Schultze, p. 451.

31. Ibid., p. 496.

32. Bleek, [a], p. 67; Metelerkamp, p. 78. The story of the
Animals and the Well is told of the jackal by the Hottentots: see,
inter alia , “The' Story of a Dam,” in SAFI i. [1879], 69, and
“ The Animals’ Dam,” in Metelerkamp, p. 88. There is a note-
worthy detail which affords a point of contact with the Tar-Baby
story: the Tortoise covers his shell with some sticky substance, in order
to catch the Jackal.

33. A Khassonke (French Sudan) version, however, attributes
it to the Hare (Monteil, p. 29, “ Le Lievre et l’hyene a la peche
des mares de Doro ”). He induces the Hyena to let him mount by
telling him that no one is allowed to come to the fishing except on'
horseback, and that all the horses will be fed on dried fish. Thei
greedy Hyena falls into the trap at once, but gets no fish and is
driven away by the information that, as the catch has been so good,
it has been decided to sacrifice a horse to the water-spirit. The Hyena
is still running, adds the narrator.

34. Schultze, p. 461.

35. Gordon, p. 61.

[Prometheus]

Chapter XII

1. Cf. inter alia , Jacottet, [c], p. 32, “The Jackal.”

2. Harris, [a], p. 89, No. 18, and p. 130, No. 26.

3. Junod, [a], pp. 87, 109, 127, 149.

4. Cronise and Ward, p. 70.


424


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


5. Hobley, p. 1 14.

6. Some variants: Bakwiri (Schuler in MSOS xi. [1908], 201);
Duala (Lederbogen, Ibid., iii. [1901], 204); Subiya (Jacottet, ,
ii. 40); Ila (Smith, p. 116).

7. Bleek, , p. 32; see also “The Ostrich Hunt” in Mete-
lerkamp.

8. Ibid., p. 27; see also Introduction, p. xxvii. Bleek thinks this
story is “ probably of Hottentot origin.” Whether he had any evi-
dence for this beyond its “ striking resemblance ” to the undoubtedly
Hottentot tale of “ The Giraffe and the Tortoise,” and his own
assumption that Bantu tribes have no animal stories, does not appear.
(In the latter the Tortoise chokes the Giraffe which has swallowed it.)
It seems to me that its mention of the Rain as a person suggests deri-
vation from the Bushmen, to whom Hottentot folklore doubtless
owes a great deal, while the Herero and some other Bantu tribes
have also been directly in contact with them.

9. Supra , note 22 to p. 297.

10. In “The Girl who Ate Pork” (Kibaraka, p. 91), a story of
non-African provenance, though no doubt embodying some African
touches, the serpent to whom the woman has promised her first-born
child, on finding that she is prepared to keep her word restores the
infant to her, after twice “ putting it into his mouth and taking it
out at his nose ” — a performance of which I find no other cases re-
corded.

11. Monteil, p. 45.

12. Ellis, [c], p. 258.

13. E.g. Cronise and Ward, p. 231, “Mr. Spider pulls a supply
of beef.”

14. This feat is given by the Mandingo (Monteil, p. 49) and by
the Bemba ( JAS ii. [1902-03], 63) to the Hare; by the Temne
(Cronise and Ward, p. 117) to the Spider. But I think that it prop-
erly belongs to the Tortoise.

15. Nassau, [a],p. 37. Variants: Duala (MSOS iii. [1901], 170);
Yabakalaki-Bakoko of the Cameroons (Seidel, [a], iii. 275). This
version also adds that the two beasts subsequently discovered the trick,
and the Tortoise has been hiding from them ever since.

16. Jacottet, ii. 38 note. The various versions of this story
are as follows: Basuto (Jacottet, [a], p. 42, and see notes in Junod,
[a], p. 100); Bena Kanioka Kassai region ( Anthrofos , iv. [1909]
449); Subiya (Hare, Jacottet, ii. 38); Benga (Nassau ,p. 129,
No. 14. No. 16, p. 140, is to some extent a variant of this); Xosa
(Theal, [a], p. 115. In this case the Monkey is sent, and forgets
the name on the way back. No other messengers are mentioned, nor is


NOTES


425


it said that Hlakanyana succeeds in learning the name; but he pro-
ceeds to plunder the tree and inculpate the Monkey). Other variants
mentioned by Jacottet and Junod have nothing to do with the name
part of the story. These are: Ronga (Junod, [a], pp. g 8ff ., the
story of the Hare already alluded to in Chap. XI) ; North Transvaal
( Revue des traditions 'pofulaires , x. [1895], 383); Lower Ogowe
(Mizon in Ibid., iv. [1889], 648 — a variant of Nassau’s No. 16,
“ Tortoise, Dog, Leopard, and the Bojabi Fruit”). Jacottet also refers
to an Ewe story recorded by G. Hartler (in Seidel, [a], vi. [1901],
127); but this is a version of “ Chicken-Licken,” “ Henny-Penny,”
etc., so close to our own and told in a way so unlike the genuine
African story that I cannot help suspecting it to be a recent impor-
tation from Europe.

17. This does not apply to the Benga story given in the text, which
seems to me in several respects less primitive than Jacottet’s Suto
version.

18. Junod, [a], pp. 98 et seq.

19. Jacottet, [a], p. 43: “ Motlatladiane motlatla ne signifie rien,
ce sont de simples assonances.” The Subiya call it bundelemoo , the
Bena Kanioka muchiabanza — words of which no one seems to know
the meaning. Whether bojabi is the recognised name of a tree in
Benga at the present day, Nassau does not explain.

20. Nassau, , p. 129. In the Suto version the Lion, as chief
of the animals, sends off a succession of messengers (not particular-
ised by name) to Koko (the first ancestress of the tribe?) to ask the
name of the tree. They chant it on the way back, but all stumble
against an ant-heap and forget it. At last the Lion goes himself,
but fails likewise. The Tortoise then goes and stumbles like the rest,
but contrives to keep his wits and remember the name. The Lion,
angry that so insignificant a creature should be more successful than
himself orders him to be buried. All the animals then went to eat
the fruit of the tree, carefully leaving that on the topmost branch
untouched. (No order to this effect has previously been mentioned
but it is clearly implied in what follows — cf. Junod, [a], p. 102 “ la
branche du chef.”) During the night, the Tortoise comes out of his
hole, eats the fruit on the top branch and buries himself again. “ Le
lendemain le proprietaire de l’arbre leur demanda: c Pourquoi avez-
vous si mal agi, de manger les fruits que je vous avez dit de ne pas
toucher? ’ Les animaux lui repon dirent: ‘ Ce n’est pas nous qui
y avons touche, nous ne savons qui a pu les manger.’ On deterra
la tortue, et on lui demanda ce qui en etait: elle repondit: ‘ Comment
avais-je pu les manger, puisque vous m’aviez si bien enterree? ’ ”

The Subiya version, which, as already said, makes the Hare the


426


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


hero, names an Antelope ( unsa ) and the Chameleon as messengers,
and adds that, on the arrival of the second, Leza told him that, if
he forgot the name this time, the next who came to ask for it should
die. The Hare, however, found grace in his sight and was spared.
In the Bena Kanioka version, the only messenger sent prior to the
Tortoise is the ngulungu , Antelope. Maweza, when telling the Tor-
toise the name gives him a little bell which, he says, will recall it to him
if he forgets it. The animals show themselves ungrateful and refuse
the Tortoise a share of the fruit; after they have eaten of it themselves,
they kill him (probably, though this is not said, battering his shell
to pieces). But the little ants knead clay, make him a new body
(stick his shell together?) and restore him to life. The animals kill
him once more, and again the ants restore him. This time he uproots
the tree, and all the beasts perish. So far as I know, this conclusion
stands alone. The story has points of contact with the numerous
ones which try to account for the laminae of the Tortoise’s shell.

21. Seidel, [a], iv. [1898], 137.

2 2. These people, whose proper name is Luo (Jaluo), live near
the northeastern corner of the Victoria Nyanza. I regret to say that
I did not succeed in taking down a complete version of this tale, and
have had to trust largely to memory; but it strangely 1 resembles
“ L’homme au grand coutelas ” (Junod, [a], p. 144), except that the
Tortoise is substituted for the^Frog.

23. Nassau, , pp. 33, 34.

24. Callaway, [a], p. 339.

Chapter XIII

1. Anansi is the Twi name of the Spider. Rattray, , ii. 294,
says: “ The Ashanti name for a story, even when the Spider does not
appear in the narrative at all, is anansesem , literally ‘ words about a
spider.’ ” Hence the well-known expression “ Annancy ” (or
“ Nancy”) stories in the West Indies. Cf. Tremearne, pp. 31-33.

2. Chatelain, pp. 133, 135.

3. Dennett, [a], p. 74, OF p. 31.

4. Lederbogen, MSOS (A frikanische Studien), iv. [ 1 90 1 ] , 180.

5. Schon, p. 200.

6. Ellis, [a], p. 339, [c], p. 259.

7. Rattray, , i. 108.

8. Ibid., i. 128.

9. Cronise and Ward, p. 1 09.

10. Ibid., p. 279.

11. Rattray, , ii. 90, 92, 124, 306, 307; Jekyll, pp. 4, 9.


NOTES


427


On the Gold Coast he is said to talk through his nose. It may be
remembered that the Bushmen have a special dialect (with peculiar
clicks) for each of the animals figuring in their tales. Cf. also M.
Kingsley, p. 140, and Zimmermann, ii. 17.

12. Ellis, [c], p. 258.

13. Rattray, , ii. 106; Delafosse, p. 170. The latter has an
additional incident at the beginning; the Spider marries “ Heaven’s
daughter,” who had been promised to whatever suitor should succeed
in breaking up a plot of ground without scratching himself while the
work was going on. The Elephant and all the other animals fail
to pass the test; the Spider succeeds by a trick. “ Dodo ” is called
“ La Mort ” by the French writer, and the story ends with his swal-
lowing all the beef and leaving the Spider none. Concerning Dodo,
whose characteristics are somewhat variable, but who certainly belongs
to the tribes of Ogres, Mazimwi , etc., see Tremearne, pp. 124-6 and
tales Nos. 14, 32, 73, etc. Of these, No. 32, “ How Dodo fright-
ened the Greedy Man,” is virtually identical (except that a man takes
the place of the Spider) with the one in the text, though shorter.
Rattray’s version is literally translated from a complete Hausa text
and contains some crudities, necessarily softened down in our abstract.

14. Rattray, , ii. p. 1 14. The bag looks like a more civilized
substitute for the actual swallowing of the older and cruder story.
The same may be the case in such stories as that of “ Tselane,” “ The
Child in the Drum,” etc., where, too, it may be meant to make the
rescue more plausible.

15. Cf. the curious incident of the Elephant and the Tortoise re-
ferred to on p. 313.

16. In Tremearne, the conclusion is different; the son, left by
Dodo to watch the bag, lets his father out, and they make their escape.

17. Sufra y note 14 to p. 314.

18. Rattray, , ii. 124.

19. Ibid., ii. 81, where this incident forms the conclusion of “ The
Spider and the Lion.” Cf. also Thomas, p. 63.

20. Spieth, p. 573.

21. Similar tricks occur in “ The Spider and the Crows ” (Rattray,
, ii. No. 28), where he (a), lights a fire to make them think day
is breaking, (b) beats the fowls to make them raise an outcry, (c)
gives the Moslem call to prayer.

22. Barker, p. 84.

23. Spieth, p. 34*. (Starred references to this work denote pages
in the Introduction.)

24. Spieth, p. 584.

25. A Hausa tale given by Tremearne (p. 397) mentions a town
where no one is allowed to sleep. No explanation is given.


428


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


26. Literally “ drink-names.” Ewe chiefs and warriors, at drink-
ing-bouts, take “ great names, greater than themselves,” which they
shout on these festive occasions, and also in battle, in order to keep
up their courage and terrify their enemies. See Spieth, p. 622.

27. Spieth, p. 590.

28. Smith, p. 69; Jekyll, p. 31.

29. Jekyll, p. 33. This version differs from Miss Smith’s in mak-
ing the barrel full of quicklime, instead of flour.

Chapter XIV

1. Bleek, , p. 25.

2. Jacottet, [c], p. 266.

3. Tremearne, pp. 153-156.

4. Ibid., p. 154.

5. Gutmann, , p. 75; Tremearne, p. 397.

6. Junod, [a], p. 247.

7. E.g. Craster, pp. 302, 31 1, 317. On this, see M. Kingsley,
pp. 163, 168, 21 1, etc.

8. See M. Kingsley, p. 162.

9. Scott, p. 345.

10. Rehse, p. 131.

11. Scott, p. 312 ( manchichi ), 45 1 ( nkandwe ), 345, 648; Miss
D. M. Abdy in JAS xvi. [1917], 237. The Leopard’s employment
in this capacity may be distinct from the quasi-sacred character which
attaches to him all over Africa (a subject not yet fully worked out),
marked, e.g., by the skin being reserved for chiefs, in some cases for
the Supreme Chief only. Among the Zulus of Natal, the proper
name of the leopard, ingwe , is tabu: the reason given being his con-
nection with wizards. But it is curious that another of these “ famil-
iars,” the hyena, should, in East Africa (where, however, as far as
I know, he is not associated with witchcraft), be regarded as more or
less sacred. Cf. inter alia , Krapf, , p. 68, s. v. fisi, and Hollis,
, pp. 7, 11.

12. Miss Abdy, JAS, xvi. [1917], 237.

13. For details, see Scott, pp. 345, 648; Miss Abdy, of. cit., p.
235; and cf. Craster, pp. 254, 299. Nassau, [a], p. 123, says that
when the “ witchcraft company hold their meetings, an imitation
of the hoot of the owl, which is their sacred bird, is the signal call.”

14. Craster, p. 300.

15. Nassau, [a], p. 123, [c], pp. 150-168.

16. Colenso, p. 282.

17. Bryant, p. 322.


NOTES


429


18. Natal Colonist , Dec. 27, 1873. I remember being told by a
native in Nyasaland that, if addressed by a mfiti at night, one must
on no account answer him; however, testimony was by no means uni-
form on this point, some saying that the right course was to defy him
and threaten him with the muiavi ordeal. Baboons are said in Natal
to be witches’ familiars, and a solitary “ rogue,” turned out of the
troop when old and vicious, might have given rise to some of the
stories about imikovu , but they are not nocturnal in their habits.

19. Jacottet, [c], p. 266, and Casalis, , p. 289.

20. This seems to be a common condition of witch-revels. It is
sometimes mentioned as a means of recognising witches when sur-
prised by night. See Abdy, loc. cit., p. 234; Krapf, , p. 260.

21. Dayrell, p. 32.

22. Such touches are not common in African folk-tales, not so
much so as in Grimm. But a study of these Ikom stories reveals a
crudity and ferocity which are not typically African. One may per-
haps conjecture that Calabar, being one of the principal foci of the
slave-trade, attracted to itself, in the course of three centuries, the
worst elements in two continents.

23. Johnston, [a], p. 439.

24. Scott, p. 562 (Anyanja); JAS v. [1906], 267.

25. Schultze, p. 450 (Nama). See also Nassau, [a], pp. 201-3;
Du Chaillu, pp. 52—3.

26. J. R. Werner, pp. 277, 320.

27. See refs, in J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough , 3 x. 308—14,
especially p. 313. It seems scarcely possible to maintain in Africa the
distinction drawn by this eminent authority between werewolves and
witches.

28. Pearce, i. 287—8, note.

29. Ibid., ii. 340-1.

30. MS. notes.

31. In the variants, the child who effects the rescue usually suffers
from some skin disease or other disability, which is given as a reason
for not desiring his or her presence.

32. Nassau, , p. 68, “Leopard of the Fine Skin.”

Chapter XV

1. For these and similar stories, see FL xxv. [1915], 45 7 f.

2. The four Pokomo tribes of the Lower Tana are Ngatana,
Dzunza, Buu, and Kalindi: the second being comparatively unimpor-
tant. See FL xxiv. [1913], 456—7. The Tana has repeatedly
changed its course during its annual inundations; the last important


430


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


occasion of its doing so seems to have been about sixty years ago,
when (as related in the sequel to the legend), the Buu tribe had to
shift to their present abode in the neighbourhood of Ngao.

3. Gutmann, , p. 151, “ Der Glockenbote.”

4. Ibid ., p. 109, see supra, p. 188. As to the bringing up to date
and imparting local colour to either imported or native stories see
Junod, [a], pp. 274-6, 284 (note 1), 291 (note).

5. See Monteil, pp. 166-202. The legends there given do not
include those of Moses and the beggar whom God refused to help
( Kibaraka , p. 38), and of David and the old woman who laid a com-
plaint against the wind for carrying off her flour ( ib ., p. 130). I
have been unable to get any information about the originals of these.

6. Steere, p. 3. See FLJ iii. [1885], 128, 1 30.

7. Notes and Queries, Ser. xi. iv. [1911], 82.

8. FL xxvi. [1915], 63.

9. M. Pickthall, Oriental Encounters, London, 1918, p. 275. Mr,*
Pickthall informs me, in a private letter, that most of the Abu Nuwwas
stories referred to in the text “ in Syria and Egypt are ascribed to
Johha (or Hajj Johha). Abu Nuwwas was always the court jester in
the stories that I used to read and hear. The greatest yarn of all —
nearly interminable — is of how he extracted money out of Haroun-
er-rashid by the news of his own death and escaped the proper punish-
ment of such a fraud. How far these stories correspond to the actual
history of Abu Nuwwas ... I do not know; but all the stories I
have heard concerning him had something of the colour of history.”
Some of the genuine Abu Nuwwas stories are certainly current in
Swahili.

10. Junod, [a], p. 292. Some Abu Nuwwas stories in Beech, ,
pp. 58-85.

11. See A. Campbell, Santal Folk-Tales, p. 25, quoted by Hindes-
Groome, p. 263.

12. See Moulieras, ii. 4, 12, 13. The Berber stories published by
Moulieras seem to be derived from a very old Arabic collection. It
is interesting to observe that those stories have spread into Sicily and
Italy, where the name Joha has become Giufa or Giucca. But the
latter seems more of a simpleton than Joha, who is a mixture of cun-
ning and imbecility, the latter no doubt assumed in many cases. “ Les
anecdotes oil il figure sont en effet de deux sortes: dans les unes, il
cache sous une sottise apparente un esprit caustique et narquois; dans
les autres, il nous apparait comme le niais le plus ridicule ” (Basset, in
Moulieras, ii. 6).

13. Moulieras, ii. 89.

14. Ibid., ii. 18. It is a favourite incident in Italy.


NOTES


43i


15. Ibid.y ii. 143.

16. Groome, p. 9.

17. Ibid.y p. 12.

18. Bolte and Polivka, i. 188—202.

19. Junod, [a], pp. 274—322. The stories are: “ Les aventures
de Djiwao,” p. 276; “ Bonaouaci,” p. 291 ; “ Les trois vaisseaux,” p.
304; “ Le jeune garqon et le grand serpent,” p. 314, and “La fille
du roi.”

19a. An enchanted horse figures in a Mpongwe tale (see p. 347
supra), showing that, in this form, it must be of fairly recent origin.

20. Bolte and Polivka, iii. 80; cf. also “The Three Girls,” in
Groome, p. 14 1.

21. Chatelain, pp. 43, 53.

22. Evidently an Indian, as appears later on.

23. A. Werner, pp. 247-9.

24. There may, however, have been some misapprehension on the
translator’s part: mundu ( — homo , not vir) may equally well mean a
man or a woman, and if the intention of marriage was not explicitly
stated, the mistake might easily arise.

25. Dennett, [a], pp. x-xii.

26. Thomann, p. 136. Here the conclusion is sufficiently repug-
nant to the moral sense: “ Mais le pere dit a son tour: ‘ Tous trois vous
avez le meme merite et il n’est impossible de donner trois maris a ma
fille. Je ne peux done que vous autoriser a etre ses amants.” It is only
fair to say that this conclusion would not be generally accepted by
Africans. In the only other case where a decision is stated the girl is
compelled to remain single (I have unfortunately lost the reference).

27. Dennett, [a], p. 32.