Frequently a sapling is tied horizontally near the ground across the
entrance. Dr. Nassau could not tell me why, but says it must never
be trodden on. When the smallpox, a dire pestilence in these
regions, is raging, or when there is war, these gateways are
sprinkled with the blood of sacrifices, and for these sacrifices and
for the payments of heavy blood fines, etc., goats and sheep are
kept. They are rarely eaten for ordinary purposes, and these West
Coast Africans have all a perfect horror of the idea of drinking
milk, holding this custom to be a filthy habit, and saying so in
unmitigated language.
The villagers eat the meat of the sacrifice, that having nothing to
do with the sacrifice to the spirits, which is the blood, for the
blood is the life. {306}
Beside the few spirits that the Bantu regards himself as having got
under control in his charms, he has to worship the uncontrolled army
of the air. This he does by sacrifice and incantation.
The sacrifice is the usual killing of something valuable as an
offering to the spirits. The value of the offering in these S.W.
Coast regions has certainly a regular relationship to the value of
the favour required of the spirits.
