because Death had again made good his escape into the
earth, and he went to the first man and told him that he was weary of
hunting Death and wished to return home to heaven. The first man thanked
him kindly for all he had done, and said, "I fear there is nothing more
to be done. We must only hope that Death will not kill all the people."
It was a vain hope. Since then Death has lived on earth and killed
everybody who is born into the world; and always, after the deed of
murder is done, he escapes into the earth at Tanda in Singo.[103]

[Sidenote: In the preceding story Death is distinctly personified. Death
personified in a West African story of the origin of death. Death and
the spider and the spider's daughter.]

If this curious tale of the origin of death reveals no very deep
philosophy, it is at least interesting for the distinctness with which
Death is conceived as a personal being, the son of the Lord of Heaven,
the brother of the first man's wife. In this personification of Death
the story differs from all the others which we have examined and marks
an intellectual advance upon them; since the power of picturing abstract
ideas to the mind with all the sharpness of outline and vividness of
colour which are implied by personification is a faculty above the reach
of very low intelligences. It is not surprising that the Baganda should
have attained to this power, for they are probably the most highly
cultured and intellectual of all the many Bantu tribes of Africa. The
same conception of Death as a person occurs in a story of the origin of
death which is told by the Hos, a negro tribe in Togoland, a district of
West Africa. These Hos belong to the Ewe-speaking family of the true
negroes, who have reached a comparatively high level of barbarism in the
notorious kingdom of Dahomey. The story which the Hos tell as to the
origin of death is as follows. Once upon a time there was a great famine
in which even the hunters could find no flesh to eat. Then Death went
and made a road as broad as from here to Sokode, and there he set many
snares. Every animal that tried to pass that way fell into a snare. So
Death had much flesh to eat. One day the Spider came to Death and said
to him, "You have so much meat!" and she asked if she might have some to
take home with her. Death gave her leave. So the Spider made a basket as
long as from Ho to Akoviewe (a distance of about five miles), crammed it
full of meat, and dragged it home.