imply the identity of these latter with Qamata. If you ask a man where the Luqwitela lives, he will say, "It goes along with me, but nevertheless I cannot see it." When the spirits (Izinqwitela, pl. of Luqwitela) come out of men at death, they are said to go to Qamata, but no one knows the place where he lives. "The dead body (isidumbu) does not go to Qamata; only the Luqwitela goes to him; the body remains in the earth."
In all this—except in the mention of Umdali as an equivalent for Qamata, there is no reference to a Creator; and indeed, in another MS., we get a distinct statement that "Qamata is like Utixo, but he is not the Creator."
Other notes indicate the well-known confusion between High God and First Ancestor. Sometimes Uhlanga, usually treated impersonally as "the origin of things," if not an actual reed, or reed-bed,[1] is spoken of as if a person. "Uhlanga is Utixo," says one, and another, "Uhlanga was the creator, according to the Xosas." The word Udaba also seems to have been used by some people; but the notes on this head are scanty, and further inquiry would appear to be necessary—if, indeed, it is still possible, for two generations have passed since Callaway wrote.
With regard to "doctors," there are three "orders" (izindidi): those who deal in medicine proper (inyanga), those who divine (bulula—more especially applied to discovering hidden poisons), and those who recover lost property (vumisa). They go through a period of initiation during which the ancestral spirits appear to them in the form of animals—the elephant, lion, leopard and crocodile, as well as the fabulous lightning-bird, are mentioned—and reveal to them (we are not told how) the mysteries of the art. The lightning-bird is here called Impundulu, a name which, Mr. Gumede tells me, is peculiar to the
- ↑ I am more and more inclined, since considering the evidence adduced from various quarters by Casalis, Junod and others, to think that originally, at least, an actual reed was meant.
