This Medicine
Enables The Pondoro To Change Himself Back Into A Man, Return To The
Village, And Say, "Go And
Get the game that I have killed for you."
Advantage is of course taken of what a lion has done,
And they go and
bring home the buffalo or antelope killed when he was a lion, or
rather found when he was patiently pursuing his course of deception
in the forest. We saw the Pondoro of another village dressed in a
fantastic style, with numerous charms hung round him, and followed by
a troop of boys who were honouring him with rounds of shrill
cheering.
It is believed also that the souls of departed chiefs enter into
lions, and render them sacred. On one occasion, when we had shot a
buffalo in the path beyond the Kafue, a hungry lion, attracted
probably by the smell of the meat, came close to our camp, and roused
up all hands by his roaring. Tuba Mokoro, imbued with the popular
belief that the beast was a chief in disguise, scolded him roundly
during his brief intervals of silence. "You a chief, eh? You call
yourself a chief, do you? What kind of chief are you to come
sneaking about in the dark, trying to steal our buffalo meat! Are
you not ashamed of yourself? A pretty chief truly; you are like the
scavenger beetle, and think of yourself only. You have not the heart
of a chief; why don't you kill your own beef?
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