finds, “carefully delivering” them to the person to whom they originally appertained, supposing, according to their theory, that as they derived their support from the blood of the man from whom they were taken, should they be killed by another the blood of his neighbour would be in his possession, thus placing in his hands the power of some superhuman influence.”[1] Amongst the Wanyoro of Central Africa all cuttings of the hair and nails are carefully stored under the bed and afterwards strewed about among the tall grass.[2] In North Guinea they are carefully hidden (it is not said where) “in order that they may not be used as a fetish for the destruction of him to whom they belong.[3] In Bolang Mongondo (Celebes) the first hair cut from a child’s head is kept in a young cocoa-nut, which is commonly hung on the front of the house, under the roof.[4]
Sometimes the severed hair and nails are preserved, not to prevent them from falling into the hands of a magician, but that the owner may have them at the resurrection of the body, to which some races look forward. Thus the Incas of Peru “took extreme care to preserve the nail-parings and the hairs that were shorn off or torn out with a comb; placing them in holes or niches in the walls, and if they fell out, any other Indian that saw them picked them up and put them in their places again. I very often asked different Indians, at various times, why
- ↑ A. Steedman, Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of Southern Africa (London, 1835), i. 266.
- ↑ Emin Pasha in Central Africa, being a Collection of his Letters and Journals (London, 1888), p. 74.
- ↑ J. L. Wilson, West Afrika, p. 159 (German trans.)
- ↑ N. P. Wilken en J. A. Schwarz, “Allerlei over het land en volk van Bolaang Mongondon,” in Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschaf, xi. (1867) p. 322.
