Volume 1

Faiths of man : a cyclopædia of religions / by Major-General J. G. R. Forlong.

  • Forlong, James George Roche, -1904.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Faiths of man : a cyclopædia of religions / by Major-General J. G. R. Forlong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    certain moral precepts. See the Eeport of the Commission of the Cape Government on Native Customs.—Ed.] From what has leaked out in Australia (Howitt, Anthrop. Inst. Journal, xvi), as to the Intone-jane, or “ initiatory rites,” it appears that when a girl reaches puberty she is confined in a detached hut, the floor of which is strewn with grass; and a guard of girls, 12 to 14 years old, is set over her. The township holds high revels, and sacrifices an animal to ancestral spirits. Dancing, singing, and debauchery continues for several days, the girl sitting idle and alone, only allowed to tap on the wall of her hut and whisper her wants. She may not have bed-clothes, or wash, or change her garments, but may anoint herself with unguents; she may not hear or see a man. After this, youths and girls come to the hut, singing and clapping their hands; at nightfall the guard of girls leaves; and the new arrivals enter the Intone-jane hut, and pair off, “ sleeping together ” naked—which is a strictly ordained custom. Intercourse is not allowed, but only certain liberties called uku-metsha. The poor girl does not leave her hut for three weeks, when she runs to the nearest water to bathe ; her hut, and all she has touched, is then burnt or disinfected. She is brought back—as a sort of May- Queen—and sits in her home, while all sing and dance before her. At sunset appear certain “ wise-women,” who beat her finger-tips with wands, congratulate her, and make her lie down on a mat outside the house. They sit “ round her, and the men of the village stand a few paces apart. One by one the women kiss her cheeks, and the pudenda. I wo of the wisest examine the vulva, and perform a slight surgical operation. [This operation is always performed among the Bechuana of S. Africa.—Ed.] They then examine the girls who have attended her, and, should any be found with child, they spit on the pudenda, and cry to the men : “ Here is a thing; we spit on it.” I he men do the same, and the girl is thrashed with saplings by the women, whom they urge on ; after which she runs home in disgrace. I he African world, being highly religious, abounds in souls, shades, or Izitunzela, and spirits, not peculiar to men, but belonging to all that has life nay, to rocks, hills, streams and trees (see Soul). [ I he Zulus and Bechuana believe that ancestral souls enter the bodies of certain animals after death—serpents among Zulus, lions for Mashonas, the hippopotamus for Matabele, the elephant, quagga, deer, ape, fish, or crocodile among the Bechuana—each tribe having one sacred beast. I his, like Australian and American totemism, is a rude form of the doctrine of transmigration, and seems to explain the sacred beast-worship of Egypt, Siberia, Japan (Ainus), and others (see Animal Worship). Such beasts may not be killed or eaten.—