ABSTRACT
Ancestors have various attributes. Disease cannot enter nor epidemics break out if only the ancestors are watchful enough and well-disposed. There can be no success without the co-operation of the ancestors. The ancestors are responsible for the fertility of the crops. The ancestors desire mainly to be remembered: they want their beads worn, their name revived, a beast or goat dedicated to and named after them. Certain objects which were once in the possession of the ancestors are used in religious ceremonial and are thought to have special powers of protection and healing. There are, first, killings specially for the ancestors, but they are so rare that many people have never seen them. People pray to ancestors as man to man, scolding them or reminding them of their duties to their children. The experts say that the sickness from which the ancestor suffered before its death and which presumably causes the patient to suffer, goes into the goat.
