As Wealth
In The Delta Consists Of Women And Slaves I Do Not Believe The
Under-World Gods Of The
Niger would understand the status of a chief
who arrived before them, let us say, with ten puncheons of palm
Oil,
and four hundred yards of crimson figured velvet; they would say,
"Oh! very good as far as it goes, but where is your real estate?
The chances are you are only a trade slave boy and have stolen these
things"; and in consequence of this, killing at funerals will be a
custom exceedingly difficult to stamp out in these regions. Try and
imagine yourself how abhorrent it must be to send down a dear and
honoured relative to the danger of his being returned to this world
shortly as a slave. There is no doubt a certain idea among the
Negroes that some souls may get a rise in status on their next
incarnation. You often hear a woman saying she will be a man next
time, a slave he will be a freeman, and so on, but how or why some
souls obtain promotion I have not yet sufficient evidence to show.
I think a little more investigation will place this important point
in my possession. I once said to a Calabar man, "But surely it
would be easy for a man's friends to cheat; they could send down a
chief's outfit with a man, though he was only a small man here?"
"No," said he, "the other souls would tell on him, and then he would
get sent up as a dog or some beast as a punishment."
My first conception of the prevalence of the incarnation idea was
also gained from a Delta negro.
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