Difficulties on Entering on a Mission
Difficulties on entering on a mission — Atheism of the Kafirs — Re¬ marks of Pringle and Kay — Testimony of a sorcerer — The pray¬ ing Mantis — The Morimo of the Bechuana — Absurd notions of Morimo and Barirno — Notions of the origin of man, etc. — A woman sees Morimo — Rain-maker’s sagacity — Opinions of Divines — Deplorable ignorance — Incredulity of a chief — Testimony of a convert.
When a mission is commenced among a barbarous people, it is a novelty; every thing about the stranger is new. His person, dress, and implements ex¬ cite their surprise. His manners are the subject of conversation; his temporary abode continues to be visited by persons from a distance, to see the show; but instead of paying for their entertainment, and the annoyance their presence and cravings inflict on all occasions, they think they have a right to beg, if not to steal; that they may have some tangible proof that they have seen the stranger, and experienced his kindness. His resources must soon fail, and distance and poverty prevent him from replenishing his exhausted stores. He finds that he is only commencing his hardships, while he hears their hosannas changed to away with him, away with him I” This reverse assumes a more serious aspect, when they perceive what is the real object of the missionary. and anticipate the probable result of the doctrines taught. The natural man in the grosser form of a savage, broods over the terrible havoc the new system will make with bis darling pleasures, and violently rebels at the axe being laid at the root of bis sensual enjoyments, without which life would be a grievous burden to him. This is a period in which the faith and the patience of the missionary are put to the test; and surely no where more so than among a lawless rabble.
The next barrier to be noticed, before concluding this subject, is, the entire absence of theological ideas, or religion, which has already been briefly glanced at. Dr. Vanderkemp, in his account of the Kafirs, makes the following remark: “If by religion we mean reverence for God, or the external action by which that reverence is expressed, I never could perceive that they bad any religion, nor any idea of the existence of a God. I am. speaking nationally, for there are many individuals who have some notion of His existence, which they have received from adjacent nations. A decisive proof of the truth of what I here say with respect to the national atheism of the Kafirs, is, that they have no word in their language to express the idea of the Deity; the individuals just mentioned calling him ’Thiko, which is a corruption of the name by which God is called in the language of the Hottentots, literally signifying one that induces pain.’’
To the above description given by Dr. V., I may add, that, (though I am aware Uhlanga is also used by the Kafirs to denote a Supreme Being,) from what
I know of the habits of the interior tribes, I perfectly REMARKS OF PRINGLE AND KAY.
agree with the Rev. S. Kay in his account of the Amakosa genealogy, that Uhlanga or Thlanga is the name of the oldest of their kings, by whom they swore in former times; a custom which obtains universally in the interior. ‘‘ It seems to me, there¬ fore,” says the late Mr. Pringle, in his “African Sketches,” “doubtful whether the God Uhlanga be not merely a deified chief or hero, like the Thor and Woden of our Teutonic ancestors;” and the same writer adds, “The Hottentot word Uti’ko is now used, by all the frontier (Kafir) tribes, to denote the Christian’s God.” These remarks will equally apply to the Hottentots and Namaquas, who are one people. While living among the latter, I made many inquiries respecting the name they had to denote the Divine Being, but could not come to any satisfactory conclusion on the subject, though I had the assistance of Africaner in my researches. The name they use is Tsui’kuap, or, as some tribes pronounce it, Uti’kuap: the Uti’ko of the Hottentots is articulated with the click or cluck peculiar to that language.
In my journey to the back parts of Great Namaqualand, I met with an aged sorcerer, or doctor, who stated that he had always understood that Tsui’kuap was a notable warrior of great physical strength; that in a desperate struggle with another chieftain, he received a wound in the knee, but having vanquished his enemy, his name was lost in the mighty combat, which rendered the nation independent; for no one could conquer the Tsui’kuap (wounded knee). When I referred to the import of the word, one who inflicts pain, or a sore knee, expressing my surprise that they should give such a name to the Creator and Benefactor; he replied in a way that induced a belief that he applied the term to what we should call the devil, or to death itself; adding, that he thought “death, or the power causing death, was very sore indeed.” To him, as to many others, this Tsui’kuap was an object neither of reverence nor love. During tremendous thunder-storms, which prevail in that climate, and which it might be supposed would speak to the mind of man with an awful voice, I have known the natives of Namaqua-land shoot their poisoned arrows at the lightning, in order to arrest the destructive fluid.* May not the Tsui’kuap of these people be, like the Thlanga of the Kafirs, an ancient hero; or represent some power which they superstitiously dread from its causing death or pain? The praying Mantis, as it is called, from the erect position and motion it assumes when alarmed, which is said to have been worshipped by the Hottentots, has no homage paid to it in Nam¬ aqua-land; at least, Africaner’s people knew nothing of it.
Dr. Sparrrnan, who had better opportunities of ascertaining the fact than any one else, remarks, that so far from worshipping this genus of insects, they have more than once caught several for him, and assisted him in sticking pins through them. ‘‘ There is, how¬ ever,” he adds, “a diminutive species of insect which some think it would be a crime, as well as dangerous, to harm; but this we have no more reason to look upon as any kind of religious worship, than we have
* I knew a man who, though warned by myself and others of this daring practice, persisted, and was struck dead by the lightning. I have also heard of Bushmen throwing old shoes at it, or any thing they may happen to lay hold of.
to consider in the same light a certain superstitious notion prevalent among many of the more simple people in our own country, (Sweden,) who imagine that their sins will be forgiven them if they set a cock¬ chafer on its feet, that has happened to fall on its back,” This will equally apply to the lady- bird and caterpillar, which children in England were wont to be afraid of injuring lest it should rain, though it was not an object of religious veneration. Some travellers have made a reference to the moon as an object of worship by the Africans, because they dance in her light; but this is no proof that they Vvorship her, any more than a countryman, in our own father-land, who prefers a moonlight night to a dark one to perform a journey. To those who have not been in warm climates, no idea can be formed how delightful the cool and silver moonbeams are. No wonder, then, that the natives, after sleeping soundly during the heat of the day, employ that refreshing season in the dance and song. The moonlight not only tranquillizes but exhilarates, while her bright horns are to them what lamps and chandeliers are to our splendid assemblies at home. It is impossible for any but an eye-witness to conceive of the dismal darkness which pervades a native village where neither lamp nor candle was ever thought of.
Among the Bechuanas, the name for God, adopted by the missionaries, is Morimo. This has the advantage of the names used by the Kafirs and Hottentots, being more definite, as its derivation at once determines its meaning. Mo is a personal prefix, and rimo is from gorimo, ‘ above.’ From the same root logo rimo, ‘ heaven,’ and its plural magorimo, are derived. The genius of the Sechuana language warrants us to expect a correspondence between the name and the thing designated; but in this instance the order is reversed. Morimo, to those who know any thing about it, had been represented by rain-makers and sorcerers as a malevolent selo, or thing, which the nations in the north described as existing in a hole, and which, like the fairies in the Highlands of Scotland, sometimes came out and inflicted diseases on men and cattle, and even caused death. This Morimo served the purpose of a bugbear, by which the rain-maker might constrain the chiefs to yield to his suggestions, when he wished for a slaughter-ox, without which he pre¬ tended he could not make rain.
Morimo did not, then, convey to the mind of those who heard it the idea of God; nor did Barimo, al¬ though it was an answer to the question, “where do men go when they die?” signify heaven. According to one rule of forming the plural of personal nouns beginning with mo, Barimo would only be the plural of Morimo; as Monona, “a man Banona, “men.” But the word is never used in this form: nor did it convey to the Bechuana mind the idea of a person or persons, but of a state or disease, or what superstition would style being bewitched. If a person were talking foolishly, or wandering in his intellect, were delirious, or in a fit, they would call him Barimo; which, among some tribes, is tantamount to liriti, shades or manes of the dead. ‘‘ Going to Barimo,” did not convey the idea that they were gone to any particular state of permanent existence; for man’s immortality was never heard of among that people; hut, simply, that they died. They could not describe who or what Morimo was, except something cunning or malicious;
and some who had a purpose to serve, ascribed to him power, but it was such as a Bushman doctor or quack could grunt out of the bowels or afflicted part of the human body. They never, however, disputed the propriety of our using the noun Morimo for the great Object of our worship, as some of them admitted that their forefathers might have known more about him than they did. They never applied the name to a human being, except in a way of ridicule, or in adulation to those who taught his greatness, wisdom, and power.
As to the eternity of this existence, they appear never to have exercised one thought. Morimo is never called man. As the pronouns agree with the noun, those which Morimo governs cannot, without the greatest violence to the language, be applied to Mogorimo, a heavenly one,” which refers to a human being. This power is, in the mouth of a rain-maker, what a disease would be in the lips of a quack, just as strong or weak as he is pleased to call it. I never once heard that Morimo did good, or was supposed capable of doing so. More modern inquiries among the natives might lead to the supposition that he is as powerful to do good as he is to do evil; and that he has as great an inclination for the one as for the other. It will, however, he found that this view of his attributes is the result of twenty-five years’ missionary labour; the influences of which, in that as well as in other respects, extend hundreds of miles beyond the immediate sphere of the missionary. It is highly probable, however, that, as we proceed farther into the interior, we shall find the natives possessing more correct views on these subjects.
According to native testimony, Morimo, as well as
ORIGIN OF iMORIMO. man. with all the different species of animals, came out of a cave or hole in the Bakone country, to the north, where, say they, their footmarks are still to be seen in the indurated rock, which was at that time sand. In one of Mr. Hamilton’s early journals, he records that a native had informed him that the foot¬ marks of Morimo were distinguished by being without toes. Once I heard a man of influence telling his story on the subject. I of course could not say that I believed the wondrous tale, but very mildly hinted that he might he misinformed; on which he became indignant, and swore by his ancestors and his king, that he had visited the spot, and paid a tax to see the wonder; and that, consequently, his testimony was indubitable. I very soon cooled his rage, by telling him, that as I should likely one day visit those regions, I should certainly think myself very fortunate if I could get him as a guide to that wonderful source of animated nature. Smiling, he said, Ha, and I shall show you the footsteps of the very first man.” This is the sum-total of the knowledge which the Bechuanas possessed of the origin of what they call Morimo, y)rior to the period when they were visited by missionaries. Thus their foolish hearts are darkened; and verily this is a darkness which may he felt. Such a people are living in what Job calls ‘‘ a land of darkness and the shadow of death,” spiritually buried, and without knowledge, life, or light.
AYlien the rain-maker wanted something to do, he would pretend to work, or rather hnd work, for those who would chide him with having a cloudless sky instead of rain. To gain time was his grand study; and he was ingenious in inventing causes for the
drought. I remember the wife of a poor man who returned from the hills with a bundle of firewood, bringing wondrous tidings that she had seen Morimo. This moment was eagerly seized by that arch-official, and turned to account. He was an adept in the study of human nature, and knew that he was tolerably safe if he could keep the ladies employed; for he had heard murmurings in the towns. He delivered his mandate, and thousands of women from the towns and villages followed their oracle to the side of a neighbouring hill, where all began to work; and though many had empty stomachs, an extensive garden was cleared and cultivated for Morimo. Happy the poor woman who thus, without being a ventrilo¬ quist or Pythoness, had enabled the rain-maker to fall on so lucky a stratagem. She fared well, whoever fasted; and though the heavens continued as brass, and the earth as iron, she became, by the gifts of rich and poor, a spectacle of obesity, and soon died. This may account for the town people knowing some¬ thing about the name Morimo, where the inhabitants of many villages and hamlets, being without rain-makers, are in perfect ignorance.
Even the rain-maker, when asked by the missionary why he could thus honour the little malicious thing which they called Morimo, that only came out of a hole to indict pain, taking advantage of our Christian views as to the meaning of the word, would promptly reply, “Do not you say Morimo is the governor of the heavens, and that he only can make rain? why then should we not honour him?” This showed his skill in the appropriation of our principles to serve his own purposes. H^ also exhibited considerable rain-maker’s SAGACITA^ cunning in this transfer; for, should rain not come at his call, he could bring in the Morimo of the teachers for some part, if not the whole, of the blame. Thus, when hail injured their crops, or rain fell in the cold and unseasonable part of the year, they would use the vilest epithets, and curse both the missionaries and their Morimo. When we assured them that God was in the heavens, and that He did whatever He pleased, they blamed us for giving Him a high position beyond their reach; for they viewed their Morimo as a noxious reptile. ‘‘ AYould that I could catch it, I would transfix it with my spear,” exclaimed S., a chief, whose judgment on other subjects would command attention.
As the science of rain -making, and the character of one of whom it might have been said he had got a patent, will be described in a following chapter, I shall confine myself in this to replying to many questions which have been put to me in this country, as to the extent of the knowledge of Divine things among the natives of South Africa. I am aware that the popular opinion is, that ‘‘man is a religious creature;” that “wherever he is to be found, there also are to be traced the impressions and even convictions of the existence of a God.” It is also commonly believed, that wherever man is found scattered over the wide spread surface of earth’s domain, the knowledge of a “vicarious offering,” or sacrifice, by way of atonement, has retained its seat in the human mind. Such were my own views when I left my native land; and entertain¬ ing such views, I persuaded myself, or rather tried to ])ersuade myself, that I could discover rays of natural light, innate ideas of a Divine Being, in the most untutored savage; — that I could never he at any loss to make appeals to something analogous to our own faith in the religious notions even of those among whom not a vestige of temple altar, image, idol, or shrine, was to be found. When I was unsuccessful, I attributed it to my ignorance of the language, or the pau¬ city of competent interpreters. So great was the force of early prejudices, that it was a long time before I could be induced to embrace what I once considered an erroneous view of ‘the subject. Living among a people who were not in the habit of metaphysical disquisitions, which so often bewilder the understanding, I had only to draw conclusions from facts, which, according to the proverb, are “stubborn things,” though even these sometimes fail to convince. Having asked the opinion of Mr. Campbell, as we were walking together, upon the views of a native Christian from Namaqua-land, with whom we had beem conversing on this subject, and who had been giving us an ample and descriptive account of his former ideas, Mr. C. remarked, in his usual pithy style, ‘‘ Ah, sir, the people in England would not believe that men could become like pigs, eating acorns under the tree, without being capable of looking up to see from whence they came. People who have had the Christian lullaby sung over their cradles, and sipped the knowledge of Divine things with their mothers’ milk, think all men must see as they do.”
One of the most convincing proofs that the minds of the people are covered by the profoundest darkness, is, that after the missionary has endeavoured for hours to impart to them a knowledge of the Divine Being, they not unfrequently address to him the question, “What is it you wish to tell me?” And if any thing were wanting to confirm this conviction, surely this fact will be sufficient, that even where he has succeeded in conveying to the vacant mind of the savage, ideas which he considers as paramount to all others, he is told that certainly these fables are very wonderful, but not more so than their own.
Incpiiring one day of a group of natives whom I had been addressing, if any of them had previously known that Great Being which had been described to them; among the whole party I found only one old woman, who said that she remembered hearing the name Morimo when she was a child, but was not told what the thing was. Indeed, even in towns, the general reply on that subject is, that these are things about which the old people can speak; but as they are not in the habit of instructing the rising generation on such topics, it is easy to see how even these vague notions become extinct altogether, as they have done in many parts of the country. Nor is it surprising that a chief, after listening attentively to me while he stood leaning on his spear, should utter an exclamation of amazement, that a man whom he accounted wise should vend such fables for truths. Calling about thirty of his men, who stood near him, to approach, he addressed them, pointing to me, “There is Ra-Mary, (father of Mary,) who tells me, that the heavens were made, the earth also, by a beginner, whom he calls Morimo. Have you ever heard anything to be compared with this? He says that the sun rises and sets by the power of Morimo; as also that Morimo causes winter to follow summer, the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the grass to grow, and the trees to bud;” and casting his arm above and
around him, added, God works in every thing you see or hear! Did ever you hear such words? ’’ See¬ ing them ready to burst into laughter, he said, “Wait, I shall tell you more; Ka-Mary tells me that we have spirits in us which will never die; and that our bodies though dead and buried, will rise and live again. Open your ears to-day; did you ever hear litlamane (fables) like these?’’ This was followed by a burst of deafening laughter, and on its partially sub¬ siding, the chief man begged me to say no more on such trifles, lest the people should think me mad!
But it is to the testimony of such as have been brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel, that we must look for decisive evidence on this point. The following is one example out of many which could be given. The question being put to one whose memory was as tenacious as his judgment was enlightened, How did you feel in your natural state, before hearing the Gospel? How did you feel upon retiring from private as well as public crimes, and laying your head upon the silent pillow? Were there no fears in your breast, no spectres before your eyes, no conscience accusing you of having done wrong? No palpitations, no dread of futurity?” ‘“No,” said he. How could we feel, or how could we fear? AVe had no idea that an unseen eye saw us, or that an unseen ear heard us. What could we know be^ond ourselves, or of another world, before life and immortality were brought to us by the word of God?” This declaration was followed by a flood of tears, while he added, “You found us beasts, and not men.”