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HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES

be supposed to live in such trees. They are convenient natural objects for them to occupy,
in fact practically the only ones to be found in villages. Trees may secondarily, therefore,
be looked upon as in some degree sacred. About such trees strings or pieces of calico may
be placed as an offering to the spirits of the departed. But the Yao do not erect little huts
in their vicinity, hung about with strips of calico as is the custom among the Anyanja.
Macdonald 1 mentions the spirits in connection with Soche and other hills round
Blantyre and supposes them to be the spirits of the places themselves. This I think is un-
likely; they would probably turn out to be spirits bearing the names of long departed
Anyanja chiefs whom the immigrant Amangoche Yao venerated just “ to be on the safe
side,” since they had-come and taken the country which long ago belonged to the former
tribe. When approaching or passing any spot held to be the dwelling place of spirits, salu-
tation is made by clapping the hands.
Spirits of the departed may enter into animals or may take the form of animals,
commonly lions and sometimes large snakes (python), but this belief is not so general
among the Yao as among other tribes, in my opinion. An animal which is so possessed is
called lisyuka, from ku-syuka, “to be transformed.”
Apart from this habitation of inanimate objects above mentioned by msimu, there is
nothing that points to a belief in Animism among the Yao, so far as I know. Neither hills,
rocks, streams, lakes, nor trees have their own spirits, nor are they endowed by the native
mind with life.
Deceased persons appear to the living in dreams, the native apparently believing that
the deceased appears in his material body.
They believe also in revelation of wishes of the deceased through the medium of the
living. The spirit of the deceased is supposed to enter into the medium. The medium, I
am informed, is always a woman, never a man. From the descriptions of some of these
revelation seances, there can be no doubt that they are manifestations of la grande hysteric.
The medium works herself up into a frenzy of excitement and in her delirium gives out the
name of the deceased, the voice which speaks being that of the spirit within her. She rolls
on the ground and foams at the mouth, uttering the word of revelation which is generally
to the effect that some deceased chief’s spirit is feeling aggrieved at the neglect of his
tomb; the voice may go on to say that certain practices are forbidden, or demand that cer-
tain rites be observed by the people. The spirits which possess her are generally spoken of
as masoka, a word which, though sometimes used as equivalent to msimu, usually seems to
have rather a sinister significance. Insane persons are called masoka and are thought to be
possessed by a spirit, and vapor baths with exorcism may be practiced for their cure. In
the case of the death of anyone who is possessed, in answer to my interrogation, I have
been told that both the spirit which has entered into the man and his own msimu leave
his body.

1 Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 70.
 
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