Note 908 — Chapter V · THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER

P. Reichard, “Die Wanjamuesi,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, xxiv. (1889), pp. 256 sq. Another African superstition as to twins may here be mentioned. On the Slave Coast when a woman has brought forth stillborn twins, she has a statue made with two faces and sets it up in a corner of her house. There she offers it fowls, bananas, and palm-oil in order to obtain the accomplishment of her wishes, and especially a knowledge of the future. See Missions Catholiques, vii. (1875) p. 592. This suggests that elsewhere two-faced images, like those of Janus, may have been intended to represent twins.