 - SHOWS
The clay models resemble the respective snakes and may be coloured red, white and black (see colour symbolism).The cobra is not shown at Thengwe. Tshitemahe (the night adder) is supposed to be shown at night during a spell of wet weather. It is described as "a very shy snake, which will not bite you unless you disturb it. Before it bites, it jumps up and stands on its tail." This is a fairly accurate description of the male organ, which the snake symbolizes, but it is not a true account of the behaviour of the night adder! It might be considered characteristic of a cobra, but I was assured that Tshitemahe is not a cobra. Lesson In addition to the explanation of the colour symbolism, two meanings are given for the night adder
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ano:
tsha vhutungu vhunzhi.
| The most obvious explanation is that this refers to the entry of the penis, and especially when a girl is a virgin. The other meaning, which was given to me by two masters of initiation, is that the entry of semen into the womb is said to be controlled by a snake, which acts like a door to let the sperm in and out; if the snake does not close the sperm in, they will come out agin. The snake causes pain by making a woman pregnant and hence precipitating child-birth. |
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