At death the ghost leaves the body, and becomes, and remains, a malevolent being.  There is no idea of re-incarnation, or of the ghost passing into any animal or plant, though, as will be seen hereafter, it sometimes apparently becomes a plant; and there is no difference in their minds between the case of a person who has died naturally and one who has been killed in battle or otherwise, or between persons who have or have not been eaten, or who have or have not been buried, though in case of burial there are the methods of getting rid of the ghost; and there is no superstitious avoidance of graves or fear of mentioning a deceased person by name, and no superstition as to the shadows of living persons passing over graves and sacred places.  Except as above stated, I found no trace of any belief in a future state.

When on the death of a man or woman or child, the ghostly self leaves the body, or at all events when the funeral pig-killing has been performed, the ghost goes away to the tops of the mountains, where apparently it exists as a ghost for ever.  The shouting immediately after the death, and afterwards at the funeral, are steps towards driving it there; and the pig-killing ceremony completes the process.  On reaching the mountains the ghost becomes one of two things.  The ghost of a young or grown-up person up to, say, forty or forty-five years of age becomes the shimmering light upon the ground and undergrowth, which occurs here and there where the dense forest of the mountains is penetrated by the sun’s beams.  It is apparently only the light which shimmers on the ground and undergrowth, and not that in the air.  The ghost of an elderly person over forty or forty-five years of age becomes a large sort of fungus, which is indigenous to the mountains, where alone it is found.  Any native who on a hunting expedition or otherwise meets with a glade in which this shimmering light occurs will carefully pass round it, instead of going across it; and any native finding one of these fungi will neither eat nor touch, nor even tread upon it; though indeed, as regards the eating, I understand that this particular fungus is one of the poisonous non-edible forms.  A native who, after the recent death of another, is travelling in the mountains, and there finds a young fungus of this species only just starting into growth, will think that it is probably the ghost of the recently departed one.

As regards the use by me with reference to both sunbeams and fungi of the word “becomes” I recognise that it may justify much doubt and questioning.  The idea of actually becoming the flickering light or the fungus, as distinguished from that of entering into or haunting it, is a difficult one to grasp, especially as regards the flickering light.  I tried to get to the bottom of this question when I was at Mafulu; but the belief as to actual becoming was insisted upon, and I could get no further.  I cannot doubt, however, that there is much room for further investigation on the point, which is of a character concerning which misapprehension may well arise, especially in dealing with such simple and primitive people as are the Mafulu natives.