hey use a vessel
for divination."(2) The makers of rain are known in Zululand as
"heaven-herds" or "sky-herds," who herd the heaven that it may not break
out and do its will on the property of the people. These men are, in
fact, (Greek text omitted), "cloud-gatherers," like the Homeric Zeus,
the lord of the heavens. Their name of "herds of the heavens" has a
Vedic sound. "The herd that herds the lightning," say the Zulus, "does
the same as the herder of the cattle; he does as he does by whistling;
he says, 'Tshu-i-i-i. Depart and go yonder. Do not come here.'" Here
let it be observed that the Zulus conceive of the thunder-clouds and
lightning as actual creatures, capable of being herded like sheep. There
is no metaphor or allegory about the matter,(3) and no forgetfulness of
the original meaning of words. The cloud-herd is just like the cowherd,
except that not every man, but only sorcerers, and they who have eaten
the "lightning-bird" (a bird shot near the place where lightning has
struck the earth), can herd the clouds of heaven. The same ideas prevail
among the Bushmen, where the rainmaker is asked "to milk a nice gentle
female rain"; the rain-clouds are her hair. Among the Bushmen Rain is a
person. Among the Red Indians no metaphor seems to be intended when it
is said that "it is always birds who make the wind, except that of the
east". The Dacotahs once killed a thunder-bird(4) behind Little Crow's
village on the Missouri. It had a face like a man with a nose like an
eagle's bill.(5)

(1) Callaway, p. 340.

(2) Callaway, Religions System of the Amazules, p. 343.

(3) Ibid., p. 385.

(4) Schoolcraft, iii. 486.

(5) Compare Callaway, p. 119.

The political and social powers which come into the hands of the
sorcerers are manifest, even in the case of the Australians. Tribes and
individuals can attempt few enterprises without the aid of the man who
listens to the ghosts. Only he can foretell the future, and, in the case
of the natural death of a member of the tribe, can direct the vengeance
of the survivors against the hostile magician who has committed a murder
by "bar" or magic. Among the Zulus we have seen that sorcery gives the
sanction to the power of the chief. "The winds and weather are at the
command" of Bosman's "great fetisher". Inland from the Gold Coast,(1)
the king of Loango, according to the Abbe Proyart, "has credit to make
rain fall on earth". Similar beliefs, with like political results, wil