In some parts of Western Africa if a negro
kills a leopard he is bound fast and brought before the chiefs for
having killed one of their peers. The man defends himself on the
plea that the leopard is chief of the forest and therefore a
stranger. He is then set at liberty and rewarded. But the dead
leopard, adorned with a chief's bonnet, is set up in the village,
where nightly dances are held in its honour. The Baganda greatly
fear the ghosts of buffaloes which they have killed, and they always
appease these dangerous spirits. On no account will they bring the
head of a slain buffalo into a village or into a garden of
plantains: they always eat the flesh of the head in the open
country. Afterwards they place the skull in a small hut built for
the purpose, where they pour out beer as an offering and pray to the
ghost to stay where he is and not to harm them.
Another formidable beast whose life the savage hunter takes with
joy, yet with fear and trembling, is the whale. After the slaughter
of a whale the maritime Koryak of North-eastern Siberia hold a
communal festival, the essential part of which "is based on the
conception that the whale killed has come on a visit to the village;
that it is staying for some time, during which it is treated with
great respect; that it then returns to the sea to repeat its visit
the following year; that it will induce its relatives to come along,
telling them of the hospitable reception that has been accorded to
it.
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