The Amatongo make revelations by Dreams.
IF during sleep you dream of a man whom you do not
thoroughly know to be of such a character that he may do you an injury;
yet in your sleep you dream that he suddenly stabs you, not openly, but
by stealth, when you awake you are much amazed and say, "Oh! Forsooth I
thought such a one a really good man. And does he hate me? I thank the
Itongo of our people which has revealed the man to me, that I may know
him. Now I know him, for the Itongo has caused him to approach me. And
he came to kill me. I do not know in what respect I have injured him."
And you continue on your guard against the man, believing that the dream
does not lie, but that there is something in the man with which you are
not acquainted.
Again, if in your sleep you dream of a beast pursuing you and trying
to kill you, when you wake you wonder and say, "How is this that I
should dream of a wild beast pursuing me?" And if in the morning they
are going to
p. 229 hunt,
whether wild beasts or game, you go knowing that you are in jeopardy;
you know that the Itongo brought the beast to you, that you might know
that if you do not take care you may die. If you go to the hunt, you are
on your guard. Perhaps you do not go, saying, "Isalakutshelwa hears
through trouble.82
Let me stay at home." And you stay at home and take care of yourself,
saying, "What do I want further, when the Itongo has already told me
that I am going into danger?"83
Again, if during sleep you dream of returning to your people from
whom you separated a long time ago; and see that So-and-so and So-and-so
are unhappy; and when you wake your body is unstrung;84
you know that the Itongo has taken you to your people that you might see
the trouble in which they are; and that if you go to them you will find
out the cause of their unhappiness. And you continue listening and
expecting to hear news if any one comes. And truly a man may come from
the neighbourhood, and you ask after the welfare of your people. If he
tells you they are in bad circumstances, you say, "O, I merely
p. 230 ask. I
have already heard the news in my dream." And if one dies, and there is
one who laughs at his death and does not mourn for him, and if the dead
man return again and enquire of another who is still living, saying,
"Does So-and-so laugh at my death because he will not die?" it is known
by the dream that the other laughs. It is said the shade of the dead
comes with the message.
Further, among black men, when enemies are numerous, many people are
saved by the Itongo; it comes in a dream; perhaps in the middle of the
night a man dreams that one of his people who is dead wakes him, saying,
"So-and-so, awake, and take your children and cattle, and go away. An
enemy is coming into this village." And through despising it and
thinking it a mere dream, he goes to sleep. And the Itongo comes again
and says, "Awake." And at length he cannot sleep well. And he begins to
see there is something real in the dream. Perhaps just as he has got out
of the way the enemy surrounds the village, and he hears the people
crying. He then returns hearty thanks to the Itongo of his people.
When a dead man comes he does not come in the form of a
p. 231 snake,
nor as a mere shade; but he comes in very person, just as if he was not
dead, and talks with the man of his tribe; and he does not think it is
the dead man until he sees on awaking, and says, "Truly I thought that
So-and-so was still living; and forsooth it is his shade which has come
to me." And when he returns he has the same clothes on as those in which
he died, and the clothes are known.
Sometimes among black men a snake enters the house; when it is seen
they call one another, saying, "There is a snake." All the people hurry
to look at the snake if it does not run away. They say if it were a wild
snake85 it would
run away when it sees men. But as it does not run away, it is a tame
snake.86 Others
say, "It is a beast; let it be killed." They dispute, and one kills it
and throws it away. They go to sleep, and a dream comes, and the dead
man says, "How is it that you kill me when you see me? It is me whom you
have killed. I am So-and-so." The man awakes, and tells his dreams, and
the people wonder. It is on this account, then, that they say that the
Itongo is a snake. They say so because the dead man tells them in dreams
that he is the snake which they have seen.
p. 232
Ecstasy and Dreams.
ECSTASY is a state in which a man becomes slightly
insensible. He is awake, but still sees things, which he would not see
if he were not in a state of ecstasy.
Undayeni was a clever man, who used to say he was able to see things
afar off from him. He would sometimes see what was going on on the other
side of a hill, and tell the people, saying, "There is a man coming by
that path," whether it was a friend, or a stranger.87
Sometimes in our country they hunted buffalo. If he had slept at
night, he would awake in the morning and tell us, saying, "Sirs, if we
go to hunt buffaloes to-day, we shall be lucky. I saw some buffaloes
during the night; we were hunting them; they were just like cattle."
That was all such dreams made known to us. When we found the buffaloes,
they were just like cattle, as he had told us; we killed them, and did
not get so much as a scratch.
On another occasion, if there was a hunt, the men having already
agreed, saying, "Sirs, on such a day it is well for us to go and hunt
buffaloes by such a river."
p. 233 They
would agree, and when the morning arrived set out on their journey. As
they were setting out he would say to them, "Sirs, but I have seen in my
sleep, although we are going to hunt, do you hunt like men. For I say
the buffaloes are full of rage." And truly it was so when they came up
with them; although they did not kill any one, they tossed the men or
dogs continually. But they went to the hunt made cautious by his dream;
and escaped again and again by dodging.
We noticed that although he was not an inyanga, yet his dreams were
good. He was besides a brave man and courageous; if there were a buffalo
in an open spot, where was no tree upon which a man could climb, he
would say to the people, "Do you climb into the trees. I will go and
draw him towards you, that we may kill him." But the people could not
see that, but said, "How will he draw the buffalo towards us, for he
cannot fly, and is not able to run fast? What will he do? How will he
escape?" But he went to the buffalo, and began the attack by stabbing
it, and then ran away to where the people were, and climbed into a tree;
and if there were any men who had assagais, they killed it.
p. 234
The people used to say of him, that he was a diviner though he did
not divine; for he said what was true; and diviners sometimes say what
is not true. He was also an eloquent man, for what he said came to pass.
It was said, the Amatongo of his own people and the Amatongo of his
maternal uncle disagreed. Those of the maternal uncle wished to make him
a diviner; those of his own people did not wish it. After that he was
unable to divine like a diviner; but said what was true without
divination. But his habits were those of a diviner, though he was not
one; for he used to yawn and sneeze continually; and this is done by
diviners; although he did not divine, he was midway between divining and
not divining.
There is another thing which I remember of Undayeni. We were living
on the Umgeni; there was in the neighbourhood a rock, in which was a
hollow, where water stood; and that water was the looking glass in which
all we younger ones used to look at ourselves. One day on awaking from
sleep he asked us, saying, "Is there a place in the rock which you gaze
in as a looking glass?" We replied, "What harm is there in that?" He
replied, "No. I merely ask because I have seen
p. 235 what I
have seen during the night." Then we told him that there was such a
place. He replied, "I tell you never to go to that place again. There is
some one who for some time has seen that you are accustomed to look at
yourselves there. And he has put bad medicine88
into the hollow. Leave the place." And because he was a man whom we
knew, we saw that he spoke the truth, and did not refuse to obey, but
left the place. This he did not see in an ecstatic state, but during
sleep.
And even in disputes, if there was any one who was in fault, and
Undayeni said to him, "So-and-so, you will lose the case,"—if the man
knew Undayeni he would no longer want to go into court, but was now
ready to act rightly to the other without going into court.
Such then was the character of Undayeni. This is what I remember of
his acts.
And as regards the ecstasy into which he fell, he was a man who did
not like to sit in the midst of many people; but liked to sit alone, for
he was a man who, we said, spoke the truth.89
I do not
p. 236 mean
that he never sat amidst other people, but he did not usually do so.
In like manner among black men the real meaning of dreams is not
known. For some dreams have every appearance of reality, but they are
not true; others point out something which is about to happen. For among
black men it is supposed that if a man dream of a great assembly, where
they are dancing, if there is any one ill, we have no confidence that he
will get well; but immediately the man who dreamt of the dance is much
alarmed, and if he is not a man of the same village as that where the
man is ill, he continually listens, expecting to hear the funeral wail.
And although the wail is not heard on the same day, he is still fearful
and without confidence.
But a dream which produces confidence among black men, when any one
is ill, is one in which they dream that someone is dead and about to be
buried, and that they see the earth poured into the grave, and hear the
funeral lamentation for him, and see the destruction90
of all his things during the night. They say of such a dream, "Because
we have dreamt of his death he will not die."
p. 237
We do not understand how this happens. For as regards living and
dying, it would appear proper that he who is about to die should die, if
when he is ill people dream he is dead; and he who is is about to live
should live, if people dream that he is well. But in truth I have seen
both. I have dreamt of a wedding-dance, and the man died; again, I have
dreamt of the death of a sick man, but he got well. For example, when
some years ago our Teacher was ill, I dreamt that he was dead, and that
he had died at Pietermaritzburg. But he was not buried in a grave, but
was placed in the middle of a house which was white inside; and it was
full of dead men, and he was placed on the top of the dead men; his head
was directed towards the east, and his hair covered his eyes. This I saw
in my sleep. When I awoke, I waited, saying, "Let me look out for the
letter which will come shortly; it will came and say, 'O, it is so, he
is dead.'" I did not wait for that, but saw it was already really true,
and at once wept during the rest of the night; I was afraid for a letter
to come, thinking it would tell us of his death. I longed that it might
be a long time before it arrived. My eyes remained full of tears
p. 238
because of the dream. But when the letter came it was not so. But I
heard it said, "Our Teacher has sent for the waggon to go to
Pietermaritzburg, to fetch him." So I said, "O, truly, to dream of death
does not show that death will take place."
I have not yet come to a certain conclusion that this is true; for
some dream of death, and death occurs; and sometimes of health, and the
person lives. And I do not say that a dream turns out to be true;
sometimes I dream of something, and in fact the thing happens as I have
dreamed. But I speak especially of the death or life of one who is ill,
that the event turns out different from what it ought to, and goes by
contraries.
People say, summer dreams are true; but they do not say they are
always true; but they say that summer dreams do not usually miss the
mark. But they say the winter is bad, and produces confused
imaginations, that is, very many unintelligible dreams. And therefore it
is said that winter causes bad dreams, and if a man has dreamed and
tells another, he will at once answer him, saying, "O, So-and-so, that
is nothing but the confused imaginations caused by the winter." He says
thus
p. 239
because there is no sense in the dream. In like manner it is said there
is not much that is false in the dreams of summer. But when the winter
comes the people will bring much rubbish, that is, false dreams.
A dream which is said to be sent by the Itongo, is one which comes
with a message from the dead, enquiring why such and such a thing is not
done. For example, among black men, if one has an abundant harvest
sometimes the head of the village dreams that it is said to him, "How is
it, when you have been given so much food, that you do not give thanks?"
And as soon as he wakes he has no doubt as to what food the dream means.
But he perceives at once that the dream speaks to the point. And he
immediately commands his people to make beer, for he is about to
sacrifice. So he praises the Amatongo for the food which they have given
him. And if he has gained many cattle he does the same.
It happened once when the Amazulu had gone out to battle,91
the word was passed among the people telling them that the cattle were
standing without guard at
p. 240
Idhlokwe.92 And
all the people started up, thinking they should get cattle; and even old
men went out, leaning on their staves; and at length our father was
carried away by the infection. And as the news came in the afternoon, he
said to our mothers, "Make me some bread, that I may eat on the
journey." But whilst he was asleep a voice came to him, saying, "Do not
go where the others are going; not one will come back again." So in the
morning, as it was a shame to a man to say he was not going, he said,
"O, for my part, neighbours, when I lay down I had got ready to go; but
now my leg prevents me; I have become lame." In fact he pretended to be
lame.
They set out thinking they should gain very many cattle; and
forsooth death made a very great gain of them. O, one only came back,
whose name was Usichile; he came with an assagai wound by his ear. He
said, "You see me only." That was a confirmation to my father that he
had been truly warned by the dream. And after that he told the dream,
saying, "I too was going, but I saw what has happened in a dream."
p. 241
Again, if when making an incursion into another country one has
dreamt that he stabbed a man first and killed him, he murmurs saying,
"Oh, how is it that I have dreamt that I killed a man? No. The dream
goes by contraries. It is I who shall be killed." So he goes
cautiously—does not go in front, but behind the others; but when the two
armies have joined battle, then he enters into the engagement, when the
enemy is confused, and stabs someone. He does not forget the dream, but
bears it constantly in mind.
UMPENGULA MBANDA.
Uguaise's dream.
MY heart is heavy. I have had a bad dream. I dreamt of
a funeral lamentation; many people were weeping. How heavy my heart is
because I have dreamt of many things! I dreamt also of a wedding-dance;
many people were dancing.
I thought in my heart, a wedding is a bad dream. If you dream of a
wedding, there is something not right; there is someone who has died;
the wedding is a sign of lamentation; if you dream of men dancing, it is
a bad dream.
p. 242
And I woke in the morning and told the people, saying, "My heart is
heavy. I have dreamt of a wedding-dance, and of a funeral lamentation."
The people said, "You have dreamt of a bad thing. A wedding-dance is a
sign that there will be a funeral lamentation. Since when you left home
there was someone ill, the funeral lamentation is a good dream; the
dream of a wedding is of no consequence; your dream of a funeral
lamentation is good; the dream of a wedding is bad." They further said,
"And sometimes if you frequently dream of a wedding, it is nothing; or
if you dream of it once only, it is not a sign that can be depended on."
I said, "Some time ago I dreamt of a wedding. When I awoke I said,
'It is not right at home. My mother-in-law is dead.'"
Immediately after I had dreamt of the wedding, a man came, and I was
alarmed. As soon as I saw him I went out of the cooking house, and
saluted him, and said, "Although I thus salute you, as soon as I saw you
I felt alarmed; it felt as if there was something you have come to tell
me." For as soon as I saw him I felt alarmed. He said, "O, you felt
alarm with reason. There is bad news
p. 243 at
your home. Your mother-in-law is dead." I said, "Of what disease did she
die?" He said, "She complained of pain in her throat. And on that very
day we heard the funeral lamentation. We could not tell who had died.
But asked, 'What is it? Since there is lamentation, what has happened?'
They said, 'Uguaise's mother-in-law is dead.' We asked, 'What was the
disease? For only the day before yesterday we were with her, and she was
not ill?' They answered, 'O, we do not know, and we too are startled. We
too hear only by the lamentation.' We said, 'O, what disease is it said
to be?' They said, 'She complained of pain in her windpipe. Then her
head was affected, and she died.'"
The man wondered at death when the person was not ill. And some
said, "Let us go to the diviners, that we may hear what the disease is
which kills a man without his having been ill."
They went to the diviners. The diviners said, "She has been killed
by someone. He who has killed her is a great man; he wishes to destroy
the village; he is a great man, a captain of villages."
So I say, "I have dreamt to-day, and am alarmed. My heart
p. 244
remembers the dreams which I formerly dreamt; and my heart asks, 'Can it
be, since this dream of a wedding comes to me again, that it is not
right at my home? For when I left my home, my wife and mother were ill.
Why have I dreamt a dream which I dreamt formerly and it came true?'"
Our people, Umpengula and the rest, answered me, saying, "The dream
of a wedding is a bad sign. Your heart is heavy with reason; to dream of
a wedding is like dreaming that a man is ill. If you dream of him when
he is very ill, you may dream that he is fat, and decked in his fine
things; and that man is dead; he does not get well. When a man is ill,
it is well to dream he is dead, and that they are weeping for him; then
that man will get well; he will not die."
It was Umpengula who answered me thus; and he said, "Yes, yes,
Uguaise, but since you have dreamed of a wedding-dance, a wedding-dance
is a bad dream." And Uklass answered, "O, as to that, Uguaise, one dream
will turn out to be a bad omen; and a man may dream the same dream
another time, and it turn out to be but a dream, and nothing come of
it."
Umpengula answered, "Yes,
p. 245 yes,
you say truly, Uklass, it is so sometimes; a man dreams merely of
another, and nothing comes of it. And I too, Uguaise, once dreamt a
dream. Undayeni was ill. During his illness I dreamt I saw him dressed
in his best attire, with his umuntsha of wild cat's skins, and having
put on his tails; I dreamt there was a dance. I awoke in the morning,
Uguaise, with my heart depressed. I told the people my dream, and
remained waiting, my eyes filling with tears. I said, 'If Undayeni is
dead—' As I was saying those words,—for I was working with the white
men,—I said, 'I will turn my eyes towards the road,' and I saw a lad
coming; it was a lad belonging to us. I said, 'O, Undayeni is dead. The
lad is coming to tell us.' As soon as he came I said to him, 'Lad, you
have come because Undayeni is dead.' The boy said, 'Yes, yes; I come
merely for the purpose of telling you that Undayeni is dead.' I replied,
'I too had already seen that it was so.'"
My heart is no longer heavy. But it says if there is any thing the
matter, I shall see someone coming to tell me. My heart sees that what
the men of the place say is true; and I too now see that if
p. 246 there
is any thing the matter I shall see a messenger coming to tell me. But I
am still in deep expectation, and my heart will be satisfied when many
days have passed after the dream. Then I shall say, "No, there is
nothing the matter. But sleep has filled my mind with mere senseless
images."
UGUAISE.
Subjective Apparitions.
As regards those wild animals which a man sees when he is going to
pray in secret, I too have seen them again and again. When I was
beginning to kneel, or when I was saying the first word perhaps, there
was something beginning to approach me; as though it said, "Now he has
closed his eyes, and will no longer see me; let me draw near and bite
him, or lay hold of him, or stab him." If I steadily refused to arise,
O, at once there came a great noise which took away all my courage, and
led me to say, "This is something real. The first was a little thing;
now there is coming a great thing to kill me."
When these things come to any one they always come separately; there
comes a snake with great eyes and very fearful; so that
p. 247 when I
have knelt, I could not remain firm, but rose up again. If it was not a
snake, a leopard would come on stealthily to lay hold of me, for I could
not see, but was looking on the ground, intending to pray to the Lord.
But my prayer was no longer steady; I began to pray a little in my
heart, praying and stopping that my ear may not only listen to my
prayer, but also to the crackling made by the leopard as it came to
seize me. When I saw that it was something real, and that the leopard
was preparing itself to seize me, I arose.
And if it was not a leopard, it would be a man who hated me, with a
long assagai in his hand, approaching to kill me, that I may die in that
place; and he too went stealthily, that I might not hear him.
For under these circumstances a man who went out to pray would not
pray with the heart only, but speak aloud; therefore those animals saw
me because they heard the murmuring of my voice; and drew near. And I
saw the man when he raised his arm to stab me, or when he really tried
to thrust the assagai into my body.
p. 248
When I prayed under such circumstances I no longer prayed with
singleness of heart, but in hurry, wishing to look without delay to the
place from which the danger threatened me, for I was in danger.
And when the man was now stabbing me, I would arise, the sentence
which I was uttering being unfinished; it was already begun but not
ended, but cut in two. I arose that I might escape. When I arose I arose
with a start, and looked to the place whence the man came; but did not
see him.
It was no longer possible for me to return to my prayers and finish
what I had begun to say. No! There was now an end of it, and I could no
longer say what I wanted for the false alarm which had frightened me. O,
this was repeated again and again. It happened continually in my
prayers. I arose ashamed because I had been frightened by fantacy, and
believed in it. But at length I saw that it was fantacy, and that it
happened because I went out before it was light, leaving the people
still asleep, doing so because I should then have time to pray for
myself to the Lord; for if I went out while it was day, they too would
have gone out to do their daily work, and would hear,
p. 249 and
whisper about me one to another, saying, "O, that man is now a believer;
I heard him praying; it is well for us to go to the place where he
prays, and arouse him, or beat him, that he may not repeat such things."
The animals I saw because I went out whilst it was still dark,
before the day had fully dawned. But at last I saw that it was not real
because they appeared continually for many days, until I despised them,
saying, "O, of what use will it be if when I pray I am made to arise
from my knees by beasts which devour me, when forsooth they are not
real? for I cannot get that for which I awake early to pray to the Lord,
being prevented by the beasts which I see. Just let me strengthen myself
until I feel them really seizing me, and persevere in prayer without
ceasing."
And indeed when I was kneeling there came a snake to do as on other
days. I said, "No! To-day let me feel by my body that it has already
seized me." Then I conquered. There came a huge leopard. I said also to
it, "Let me feel by my body." I conquered. There came a man, running to
stab me at once. Since I had despised the leopard, I said too of the
man, "Let me feel by my
p. 250 body."
I conquered him. I went home having ascended a rock of safety, saying,
"O, forsooth I have been hindered by fantasies."
I did so again, and the things no longer continued to frighten me.
And at last they ceased altogether, and have not returned to the present
day. Many are hindered by such things; when they merely begin to pray,
they see these beasts which come to devour them, and they at once start
and go up, and no one thinks of going to the same place again; but a man
says, "To-morrow it will be well for me to go to such a place, and see
if the same thing will happen again." It does happen again; and he is
afraid ever after. Thus it happens with some. But with the generality
these things are known to be fantasies; for if a man is hindered by
them, he tells some one else, saying, "O, I wonder, for I am impelled to
pray to the Lord. But before I begin to open my mouth, lo, there is a
beast, a snake, or a man; these come to kill me, and I start up and am
hindered by these things." He is encouraged by the other to whom the
same thing has happened; he says, "It is nothing; though you do see such
things, do not look; it is proper
p. 251 to be
firm; you will go home uninjured; you will not be really devoured as it
appears to you that you will be." And so it turns out; and he tells his
friend, "O, So-and-so, forsooth I was deceived by fantasies."
UMPENGULA MBANDA.
IT happened when I was being instructed for baptism, I
used habitually to pray at all times in secret. I did so because when I
prayed it was as if I really saw the Lord; and I went away from prayer
with my heart very white indeed. I did so because I saw that it would be
well for me too to believe in the Lord, and to become His child. But
once when I was praying I saw a venomous beast coming to me as though it
was about to injure me. I started up and left off praying. But forsooth
I saw nothing. This happened twice; but on the third time I strengthened
myself and said, "Let me just see if it will injure me or no." I
strengthened myself till I had ended my prayer. And I saw nothing when I
had finished. I doubted about it, and asked what it meant. But I had
already heard from believers that when a man prayed alone, venomous
creatures came to him when
p. 252 they
were urged on by Satan. I saw by that that I was merely tempted by
Satan. But this continued without cessation, until I took courage, and
saw that it was nothing. And then there came with power a great light to
me; and when I found myself full of light, I reproved myself for being
continually startled by nothing. But I strengthened myself with the
strength of the Lord, and saw that He was with me always. After that
when I prayed I saw that the Lord is, and it was as if I could fly away
to Him for the joy which overflowed my heart. So it was. But I do not
say that I have mentioned every thing that I saw at that time before the
time came for me to be baptised.95
USETEMBA DHLADHLA.
