slaves, riches, and health, and that I may be brisk and swift!' the fetish-man will often in the morning take water in his mouth and say, 'Heaven! grant that I may have something to eat to-day;' and when giving medicine shown him by the fetish, he will hold it up to heaven first, and say, 'Ata Nyongmo! (Father Heaven!) bless this medicine that I now give.' The Yebu would say, 'God in heaven, protect me from sickness and death. God give me happiness and wisdom!'[1] When the Manganja of Lake Nyassa were offering to the Supreme Deity a basketful of meal and a pot of native beer, that he might give them rain, the priestess dropped the meal handful by handful on the ground, each time calling, in a high-pitched voice, 'Hear thou, O God, and send rain!' and the assembled people responded, clapping their hands softly and intoning (they always intone their prayers) 'Hear thou, O God!'[2]
Typical forms of prayer may be selected in Asia near the junction-line of savage and barbaric culture. Among the Karens of Burma, the Harvest-goddess has offerings made to her in a little house in the paddy-field, in which two strings are put for her to bind the spirits of any persons who may enter her field. Then they entreat her on this wise: 'Grandmother, thou guardest my field, thou watchest over my plantation. Look out for men entering; look sharp for people coming in. If they come, bind them with this string, tie them with this rope, do not let them go!' And at the threshing of the rice they say: 'Shake thyself, Grandmother, shake thyself! Let the paddy ascend till it equals a hill, equals a mountain. Shake thyself, Grandmother, shake thyself!'[3] The following are extracts from the long-drawn prayers of the Khonds of Orissa: 'O Boora Pennu! and O Tari Pennu, and all other gods! (naming them). You, O Boora Pennu! created us, giving us the attribute of hunger; thence corn food was necessary to us,
