his protection from the poison, or from whatever else is to be the means of death.
The people also believe in good and evil spirits, the latter of which they endeavour to exorcise, or at least to propitiate, by means of charms, such as bones of men or beasts, hippopotamus’ teeth, bits of wood, pieces of bark, and calabash-gourds, which are enclosed in baskets made of bast, and hung up on poles three or four feet high.
Most of the Marutse-Marunda tribes hold the belief of continued existence after death, and the principal reasons alleged by the Masupias for depositing great elephants’ tusks on the grave of a chief are that he may be consoled for his separation from his property, and may be induced to extend to them his protection, now more powerful than ever by reason of his nearness to Nyambe.
Besides ascribing their calamities to the operation of evil spirits, they often think that they arise from the displeasure of a departed chief, who consequently has to be propitiated by certain ceremonies at his grave. For instance, if a member of the royal family is ill, he is carried, by the permission of the authorities, to the grave of the most important chieftain deceased in the neighbourhood, and there some dignitary, not unfrequently the king himself, will repeat a form of prayer supplicating the departed on behalf of the patient, and entreating him to intercede with Nyambe that he may be restored to health.
The mode of living throughout the empire is certainly less rude than that of the tribes south of the Zambesi. Agriculture is so remunerative, and cattle-breeding in two-thirds of the country is
