_gabi_ fig-tree, used for burial of chiefs. [110] It does
not necessarily follow that every specimen of any one of these trees
and creepers is spirit-haunted; but some are known to be so, and all
are apparently so much under suspicion that, though the natives will
speak of them and will pass them, they are afraid to cut them down.

At the time when the path near the newly erected Mission Station at
Mafulu was being opened some of these creepers had to be cleared away,
and the Mission Fathers had the utmost difficulty with the natives,
only two or three of whom could be persuaded to help in the work,
whilst the others stood aloof and afraid. In the same way, when
the Fathers wanted to cut down some of the special palms, only two
natives were induced to help in this, and even they only did so on the
condition that the Fathers themselves made the first strokes; and the
Fathers were warned by the natives that evil would befall them. It was
a curious coincidence that the Father who did this tree-cutting, being
then and having been for a long time past perfectly well in health,
was that evening taken ill with a bad sore, which nearly necessitated
his being carried down to the head Mission Station on the coast.

There is a very common ceremony performed when natives, in travelling
through the country, pass a spirit-haunted spot. The leader of the
party turns round, and in a low voice tells the others that they are
approaching the spot, whereupon they all become silent, though up to
that point they have been chattering. The leader then takes a wisp of
grass and ties it in a knot, and all the others do the same. They then
walk on in silence for a period, which may be anything from five to
fifteen minutes, after which, as they pass the spot, the leader turns
round and throws his bunch of grass on the ground, and the others do
the same. In this way they avert the danger and afterwards chatter
as before. [111] Another somewhat similar ceremony commences, like
the former one, with silence; but, instead of throwing grass down as
they pass the haunted spot, the visible sign of which in this case is
a hole in the ground, the leader stops and looks round at the others,
and then presses the palm of his hand down into the interior of the
hole, and the others do the same; and after this all is safe and well,
as in the former case. In travelling through the country these holes
with numerous impressions of hands in them are to be seen; and y