es of severe famine, it has never been
regularly eaten, and the use of it excites disgust.

Whether the Kafirs had any idea of a supreme being is a question which
has been much discussed. In several tribes the word, differently spelled
"Umlimo" or "Mlimo" or "Molimo" (said to mean "hidden" or "unseen"), is
used to denote either a power apparently different from that of the
nature sprites or ghosts of the dead, or else the prophet or soothsayer
who delivers messages or oracles supposed to emanate from this power.
The missionaries have in their native versions of the Bible used the
term to translate the word "God." Sometimes, among the Tongas at least,
the word _tilo_ (sky) is used to describe a mysterious force; as, for
instance, when a man dies without any apparent malady, he is said to be
killed by the _tilo_.[11] On the whole, after many inquiries from
missionaries and others who know the natives well, I was led to the
conclusion that the Kafirs have a vague notion of some power
transcending that of common ghosts, and able to affect the operations of
nature (as, for instance, to send rain), but far too dimly conceived to
be properly describable as a divine being.[12] Or to put the thing in
other words, the ordinary and familiar nature-sprites and ghosts of the
departed do not exhaust the possibilities of super-human agency; for
there remains, as among the Athenians whose altar St. Paul found (Acts
xvii. 23), an "Unknown God," or rather unknown power, probably
associated with the heavens above, whose interference may produce
results not attainable through inferior spiritual agencies. One of the
difficulties in reaching any knowledge of the real belief of the people
is that they are usually examined by leading questions, and are apt to
reply affirmatively to whatever the querist puts to them. Their thoughts
on these dark subjects are either extremely vague and misty or extremely
material; the world of abstract thought, in which European minds have
learned to move with an ease and confidence produced by the possession
of a whole arsenal of theological and metaphysical phrases, being to
them an undiscovered country.

Since there were no deities and no idols, there were no priests; but the
want of a priesthood was fully compensated by the presence of wizards;
for among the Kafirs, as among other primitive peoples, there was and is
an absolute belief in the power of spells, and of sorcery generally.
These wizards, like the