lk disappears as by magic among the self-invited guests.
Festivity, dancing, and singing are now the order of the day. Dancers,
male and female, their faces painted red and white or yellow, dance like
furies in a circle for hours together, singing ritual hymns at the top
of their voices, while an old sorceress besprinkles the troop with
lustral water. It is commonly believed that if these rites were omitted,
the twins and their parents would die. At the birth of twins it is
customary to buy two black sheep or lambs and to dedicate them to the
twins, one to each. These sheep are then left at liberty to run about as
they like by day and night, and to enter the fields and browse at will.
If one of them dies it is replaced by another. The animals are described
as the guardians of the children, the receptacle or symbol of their
spirits, in short, as their fetish.[86] To some extent, they are
analogous to the pig which an Areoi used to offer to the god at the
ceremony of his consecration; for, though sometimes the animal was
killed, at other times it was liberated, and, being regarded as sacred
or belonging to the god to whom it had been offered, was allowed to
range the district uncontrolled till it died.[87] Among the Baluba, a
tribe of the Belgian Congo, there is great joy at the birth of twins,
and special ceremonies are observed on the occasion. The twins are
invariably named Kyunga and Kahya, after the spirits of two ancient
kings, and to these spirits the twins are consecrated. After being
washed and decorated they are placed side by side in a winnowing-basket
and carried by the women of the family in procession through the
village, headed by the proud father. Dancing and singing they go to the
ash-heap of the village. There they all rub themselves with ashes and
perform another dance. After that, still led by the father of the twins,
they go to the houses of the chief people, and in front of each house
the father dances, while the women beat time with their hands. Wherever
the procession halts, the householder is expected to come and admire the
twins, to compliment the father, and to deposit a small present in the
winnowing-basket.[88] Among the Herero of South-West Africa the parents
of twins are looked on as sacred, and for a time they may not speak to
any one, and no one may speak to them. But after the lapse of some days
the family goes the round of the village, visiting three or four huts
every day. The father of t