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+Project Gutenberg's Fetichism in West Africa, by Robert Hamill Nassau
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fetichism in West Africa
+       Forty Years' Observations of Native Customs and Superstitions
+
+Author: Robert Hamill Nassau
+
+Release Date: November 17, 2011 [EBook #38038]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FETICHISM IN WEST AFRICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.)
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+
+
+FETICHISM IN WEST AFRICA
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FETICH MAGICIAN. (With horns, wooden mask, spear, and
+sword; dress of leaves of palm and plantain.)]
+
+
+
+
+  FETICHISM IN WEST AFRICA
+
+  _Forty Years' Observation of Native Customs
+  and Superstitions_
+
+
+  BY THE REV. ROBERT HAMILL NASSAU, M.D., S.T.D.
+
+  FOR FORTY YEARS A MISSIONARY IN THE GABUN DISTRICT
+  OF KONGO-FRANCAISE
+
+  AUTHOR OF "CROWNED IN PALM LAND," "MAWEDO"
+
+
+  WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  YOUNG PEOPLE'S
+  MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
+  156 FIFTH AVENUE
+  NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+  _Copyright, 1904_
+  BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+  Published October, 1904
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+On the 2d of July, 1861, I sailed from New York City on a little brig, the
+"Ocean Eagle," with destination to the island of Corisco, near the
+equator, on the West Coast of Africa. My first introduction to the natives
+of Africa was a month later, when the vessel stopped at Monrovia, the
+capital of the Liberian Republic, to land a portion of its trade goods,
+and at other ports of Liberia, Sinoe, and Cape Palmas; thence to Corisco
+on September 12.
+
+Corisco is a microcosm, only five miles long by three miles wide; its
+surface diversified with every variety of landscape, proportioned to its
+size, of hill, prairie, stream, and lake. It is located in the eye of the
+elephant-head shaped Bay of Corisco, and from twelve to twenty miles
+distant from the mainland. Into the bay flow two large rivers,--the Muni
+(the Rio D'Angra of commerce) and the Munda (this latter representing the
+elephant's proboscis).
+
+The island, with adjacent mainland, was inhabited by the Benga tribe. It
+was the headquarters of the American Presbyterian Mission. On the voyage I
+had studied the Benga dialect with my fellow-passenger, the senior member
+of the Mission, Rev. James L. Mackey; and was able, on my landing, to
+converse so well with the natives that they at once enthusiastically
+accepted me as an interested friend. This has ever since been my status
+among all other tribes.
+
+I lived four years on the island, as preacher, teacher, and itinerant to
+the adjacent mainland, south to the Gabun River and its Mpongwe tribe,
+east up the Muni and Munda rivers, and north to the Benito River.
+
+In my study of the natives' language my attention was drawn closely to
+their customs; and in my inquiry into their religion I at once saw how it
+was bound up in these customs. I met with other white men--traders,
+government officials, and even some missionaries--whose interest in
+Africa, however deep, was circumscribed by their special work for,
+respectively, wealth, power, and Gospel proclamation. They could see in
+those customs only "folly," and in the religion only "superstition."
+
+I read many books on other parts of Africa, in which the same customs and
+religion prevailed. I did not think it reasonable to dismiss curtly as
+absurd the cherished sentiments of so large a portion of the human race. I
+asked myself: Is there no logical ground for the existence of these
+sentiments, no philosophy behind all these beliefs? I began to search; and
+thenceforward for thirty years, wherever I travelled, wherever I was guest
+to native chief, wherever I lived, I was always leading the conversation,
+in hut or camp, back to a study of the native thought.
+
+I soon found that I gained nothing if I put my questions suddenly or
+without mask. The natives generally were aware that white men despised
+them and their beliefs, and they were slow to admit me to their thought if
+I made a direct advance. But, by chatting as a friend, telling them the
+strange and great things of my own country, and first eliciting their
+trust in me and interest in my stories, they forgot their reticence, and
+responded by telling me of their country. I listened, not critically, but
+apparently as a believer; and then they vied with each other in telling me
+all they knew and thought.
+
+That has been the history of a thousand social chats,--in canoes by day,
+in camp and hut by night, and at all hours in my own house, whose public
+room was open at any hour of day or evening for any visitor, petitioner,
+or lounger, my attention to whose wants or wishes was rewarded by some
+confidence about their habits or doings.
+
+In 1865 I was transferred to Benito, where I remained until the close of
+1871. Those years were full of travels afoot or by boat, south the hundred
+miles to Gabun, north toward the Batanga region, and east up the Benito
+for a hundred miles as a pioneer, to the Balengi and Boheba tribes,--a
+distance at that time unprecedented, considering the almost fierce
+opposition of the coast people to any white man's going to the local
+sources of their trade.
+
+After more than ten uninterrupted years in Africa, I took a furlough of
+more than two years in the United States, and returned to my work in 1874.
+
+I responded to a strong demand on the part of the supporters of Foreign
+Missions in Africa, that mission operations should no longer be confined
+to the coast. Unsuccessful efforts had been made to enter by the Gabun, by
+the Muni, and by the Benito.
+
+On the 10th of September, 1874, I entered the Ogowe River, at Nazareth
+Bay, one of its several embouchures into the Atlantic, near Cape Lopez, a
+degree south of the equator. But little was known of the Ogowe. Du
+Chaillu, in his "Equatorial Africa" (1861), barely mentions it, though he
+was hunting gorillas and journeying in "Ashango Land," on the sources of
+the Ngunye, a large southern affluent of the Ogowe.
+
+A French gunboat a few years before had ascended it for one hundred and
+thirty miles to Lembarene, the head of the Ogowe Delta, and had attached
+it to France. Two English traders and one German had built trading-houses
+at that one-hundred-and-thirty-mile limit, and traversed the river with
+small steam launches in their rubber trade. Besides these three, I was the
+only other white resident. They were living in the Galwa tribe, cognate in
+language with the Mpongwe. I settled at a one-hundred-and-fifty-mile
+limit, in the Akele tribe (cognate with the Benga), building my house at a
+place called Belambila.
+
+Two years later I abandoned that spot, came down to Lembarene, and built
+on Kangwe Hill. There I learned the Mpongwe dialect. I remained there
+until 1880, successful with school and church, and travelling by boat and
+canoe thousands of miles in the many branches of the Ogowe, through its
+Delta, and in the lake country of Lakes Onange and Azyingo. In 1880 I took
+a second furlough to the United States, remaining eighteen months, and
+returning at the close of 1881.
+
+My prosperous and comfortable station at Kangwe was occupied by a new man,
+and I resumed my old _role_ of pioneer. I travelled up the Ogowe, one
+hundred and fifty miles beyond Lembarene, ascending and descending the
+wild waters of its cataracts, and settled at Talaguga, a noted rock near
+which was subsequently established the French military post, Njoli, at the
+two-hundred-mile limit of the course of the river. There I was alone with
+Mrs. Nassau, my nearest white neighbors the two French officers five miles
+up river at the post, and my successors at Kangwe, seventy miles down
+river. The inhabitants were wild cannibal Fang, just recently emerged from
+the interior forest. It was a splendid field for original investigation,
+and I applied myself to the Fang dialect.
+
+I remained at Talaguga until 1891, when I took a third furlough to the
+United States, and stayed through 1892, during which time the Mission
+Board transferred my entire Ogowe work, with its two stations and four
+churches and successful schools, to the French Paris Evangelical Society.
+
+In March, 1893, at the request of the Rev. Frank F. Ellinwood, D.D.,
+LL.D., I wrote and read, before the American Society of Comparative
+Religions, a forty-minute essay on Bantu Theology.
+
+At the wish of that Society I loaned the manuscript to them, for their use
+in the Parliament of Religions at the Chicago Exposition; but I carried
+the original draft of the essay with me on my return to Africa in August,
+1893, where I was located at Libreville, Gabun, the Mission's oldest and
+most civilized station. There I found special advantage for my
+investigations. Though those educated Mpongwes could tell me little that
+was new as to purely unadulterated native thought, they, better than an
+ignorant tribe, could and did give me valuable intelligent replies to my
+inquiries as to the logical connection between native belief and act, and
+the essential meaning of things which I had seen and heard elsewhere. My
+ignorant friends at other places had given me a mass of isolated
+statements. My Mpongwe friends had studied a little grammar, and were
+somewhat trained to analyze. They helped me in the collocation of the
+statements and in the deduction of the philosophy behind them. It was
+there that I began to put my conclusions in writing.
+
+In 1895 Miss Mary H. Kingsley journeyed in West Africa, sent on a special
+mission to investigate the subject of freshwater fishes. She also
+gratified her own personal interest in native African religious beliefs by
+close inquiries all along the coast.
+
+During her stay at Libreville in the Kongo-Francais, May-September, 1895,
+my interest, common with hers, in the study of native African thought led
+me into frequent and intimate conversations with her on that subject. She
+eagerly accepted what information, from my longer residence in Africa, I
+was able to impart. I loaned her the essay, with permission to make any
+use of it she desired in her proposed book, "Travels in West Africa." When
+that graphic story of her African wanderings appeared in 1897, she made
+courteous acknowledgment of the use she had made of it in her chapters on
+Fetich.
+
+On page 395 of her "Travels in West Africa," referring to my missionary
+works, and to some contributions I had made to science, she wrote: "Still
+I deeply regret he has not done more for science and geography.... I beg
+to state I am not grumbling at him ... but entirely from the justifiable
+irritation a student of fetich feels at knowing that there is but one copy
+of this collection of materials, and that this copy is in the form of a
+human being, and will disappear with him before it is half learned by us,
+who cannot do the things he has done."
+
+This suggestion of Miss Kingsley's gave me no new thought; it only
+sharpened a desire I had hopelessly cherished for some years. In my many
+missionary occupations--translation of the Scriptures, and other duties--I
+had never found the strength, when the special missionary daily work was
+done, to sit down and put into writing the mass of material I had
+collected as to the meaning and uses of fetiches. Nor did I think it right
+for me to take time that was paid for by the church in which to compile a
+book that would be my own personal pleasure and property.
+
+Impressed with this idea, on my fourth furlough to America in 1899, I
+confided my wish to a few personal friends, telling them of my plan, not
+indeed ever to give up my life-work in and for Africa, but to resign from
+connection with the Board; and, returning to Africa under independent
+employ and freed from mission control, but still working under my
+Presbytery, have time to gratify my pen.
+
+One of these friends was William Libbey, D. Sc., Professor of Physical
+Geography and Director of the E. M. Museum of Geology and Archaeology in
+Princeton University. Without my knowledge he subsequently mentioned the
+subject to his university friend, Rev. A. Woodruff Halsey, D.D., one of
+the Secretaries of the Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Halsey thought my
+wish could be gratified without my resigning from the Board's service.
+
+In November, 1899, the following action of the Board was forwarded to me:
+"November 20th, 1899. In view of the wide and varied information possessed
+by the Rev. Robert H. Nassau, D.D., of the West Africa Mission, regarding
+the customs and traditions of the tribes on the West Coast, and the
+importance of putting that knowledge into some permanent form, the Board
+requested Dr. Nassau to prepare a volume or volumes on the subject; and it
+directed the West Africa Mission to assign him, on his return from his
+furlough, to such forms of missionary work as will give him the necessary
+leisure and opportunity."
+
+On my return to Africa in 1900, I was located at Batanga, one hundred and
+seventy miles north of Gabun, and was assigned to the pastorate of the
+Batanga Church, the largest of the twelve churches of the Corisco
+Presbytery, with itineration to and charge of the sessions of the Kribi
+and Ubenji churches.
+
+During intervals of time in the discharge of these pastoral duties my
+recreation was the writing and sifting of the multitude of notes I had
+collected on native superstition during the previous quarter of a century.
+The people of Batanga, though largely emancipated from the fetich
+practices of superstition, still believed in its witchcraft aspect. I
+began there to arrange the manuscript of this work. There, more than
+elsewhere, the natives seemed willing to tell me tales of their folk-lore,
+involving fetich beliefs. From them, and also from Mpongwe informants,
+were gathered largely the contents of Chapters XVI and XVII.
+
+And now, on this my fifth furlough, the essay on Bantu Theology has grown
+to the proportions of this present volume.
+
+The conclusions contained in all these chapters are based on my own
+observations and investigations.
+
+Obligation is acknowledged to a number of writers on Africa and others,
+quotations from whose books are credited in the body of this work. I quote
+them, not as informants of something I did not already know, but as
+witnesses to the fact of the universality of the same superstitious ideas
+all over Africa.
+
+By the courtesy of the American Geographical Society, Chapters IV, V, X,
+and XI have appeared in its Bulletin during the years 1901-1903.
+
+I am especially obligated to Professor Libbey for his sympathetic
+encouragement during the writing of my manuscript, and for his judicious
+suggestions as to the final form I have given it.
+
+ROBERT HAMILL NASSAU
+
+PHILADELPHIA, _March 24, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+  CONSTITUTION OF NATIVE AFRICAN SOCIETY--SOCIOLOGY                      1
+
+     I. The Country                                                      2
+
+    II. The Family                                                       3
+
+          Family Responsibility.--Family Headship.--Marital
+          Relations.--Arrangements for Marriage.--Courtship and
+          Wedding.--Dissolution of Marriage.--Illegitimate Marital
+          Relations.--Domestic Life.
+
+   III. Succession to Property and Authority                            13
+
+    IV. Political Organization                                          13
+
+     V. Servants                                                        14
+
+    VI. Kingship                                                        15
+
+   VII. Fetich Doctors                                                  16
+
+  VIII. Hospitality                                                     17
+
+    IX. Judicial System                                                 17
+
+          Courts.--Punishment.--Blood-Atonement and Fines.--
+          Punishable Acts.
+
+     X. Territorial Relations                                           22
+
+          Tenure.--Rights in Movables.
+
+    XI. Exchange Relations                                              23
+
+   XII. Religion                                                        25
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  THE IDEA OF GOD--RELIGION                                             26
+
+    Theology, Religion, Creed, Worship.--Source of the Knowledge
+    of God; outside of us; comes from God; Evolution of Physical
+    Species.--Materialism; Knowledge of God not evolved.--
+    Superstition in all Religions.--Dominant in African
+    Religion.--No People without a Knowledge of at least the Name
+    of God.--Testimony of Travellers and Others.
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  POLYTHEISM--IDOLATRY                                                  42
+
+    Religion and Civilization.--Worship of Natural Objects.--
+    Polytheism.--Idolatry.--Worship of Ancestors.--Fetichism.
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN AFRICAN RELIGION                                  50
+
+     I. Origin                                                          50
+
+          Coterminous with the Creator.--Created.--Spirits of
+          Deceased Human Beings; in Unity, Duality, Trinity, or
+          Quadruplicity.
+
+    II. Number                                                          55
+
+   III. Locality                                                        58
+
+    IV. Characteristics                                                 62
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN AFRICA--THEIR CLASSES AND FUNCTIONS               64
+
+     I. Classes and Functions                                           64
+
+          Inina.--Ibambo.--Ombwiri.--Nkinda.--Mondi.
+
+    II. Special Manifestations                                          70
+
+        Human Soul in a Lower Animal; the Leopard Fiend.--Uvengwa,
+        Ghost.--Family Guardian-Spirit.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  FETICHISM--ITS PHILOSOPHY--A PHYSICAL SALVATION--CHARMS AND
+  AMULETS                                                               75
+
+    Monotheism.--Polytheism.--Animism.--Fetichism.
+
+    The Salvation Sought: its Kind, Physical; its Source, Spirits;
+    its Reason, Fear.
+
+    The Means used: Prayer, Sacrifices, Charms; Vocal, Ritual,
+    Material, Fetiches.
+
+    Articles used in the Fetich.--Mode of Preparation: A Fitness in
+    the Quality of the Object for the End desired; Efficiency
+    depends on the Localized Spirit; Misuse of the Word "Medicine";
+    Native "Doctors"; Connection of Fetich with Witchcraft.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+  THE FETICH--A WORSHIP                                                 90
+
+     I. Sacrifice and Offerings                                         91
+
+          Small Votive Gifts.--Consecrated Plants; Idols and Gifts
+          of Food.--Blood Sacrifices.--Human Sacrifices.
+
+    II. Prayer                                                          97
+
+   III. The Use of Charms or "Fetiches"                                 99
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+  THE FETICH--WITCHCRAFT--A WHITE ART--SORCERY                         100
+
+    A passively Defensive Art.--Professedly of the Nature of a
+    Medicine.--Distinction between a Fetich Doctor and a Christian
+    Physician.--Manner of Performance of the White Art.--The
+    Medicinal Herbs used sometimes Valuable.--Strength of Native
+    Faith in the System.
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+  THE FETICH--WITCHCRAFT--A BLACK ART--DEMONOLOGY                      116
+
+    Distinction as to the Object aimed at in the White Art and in
+    the Black Art.--Black Art actively Offensive.--The Black Art
+    distinctively "Witchcraft."--Witchcraft Executions; claimed
+    to be Judicial Acts.--Hoodoo Worship.--Christian Faith and
+    Fetich Faith Compared.--Deception by Fetich Magicians.--
+    Clairvoyance.--Demoniacal Possession.
+
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+  FETICHISM--A GOVERNMENT                                              138
+
+    Egbo, Ukuku, Yasi, and other Societies.--Their Power either
+    to protect or oppress.--Contest with Ukuku at Benita, and
+    with Yasi on the Ogowe.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+  THE FETICH--ITS RELATION TO THE FAMILY                               156
+
+    The Family the Unit in the African Community.--Respect for
+    the Aged.--Worship of Ancestors.--Family Fetiches; Yaka,
+    Ekongi, Mbati.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+  THE FETICH--ITS RELATIONS TO DAILY WORK AND OCCUPATIONS AND TO
+  THE NEEDS OF LIFE                                                    172
+
+    Hunting.--Journeying.--Warring.--Trading; Okundu and
+    Mbumbu.--Sickness.--Loving.--Fishing.--Planting.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+  THE FETICH--SUPERSTITION IN CUSTOMS                                  191
+
+    Rules of Pregnancy.--Omens on Journeys.--Leopard Fiends.--
+    Luck.--Twins.--Customs of Speech.--Oaths.--Totem Worship.--
+    Taboo; Orunda.--Baptism.--Spitting.--Notice of Children.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+  FETICH--ITS RELATION TO THE FUTURE LIFE--CEREMONIES AT DEATHS
+  AND FUNERALS                                                         215
+
+    Sickness, Death, Burial, Modes of Burial.--Mourning,
+    Treatment of Widows.--Witchcraft Investigations.--Places of
+    Burial.--Cannibalism--Family Quarrel as to Precedence in the
+    Burying.--Custom of "Lifting Up" of Mourners.--Ukuku Dance
+    for Amusement.--Destination of the Dead.--Transmigration.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+  FETICHISM--SOME OF ITS PRACTICAL EFFECTS                             239
+
+    Depopulation.--Cannibalism.--Secret Societies (Ukuku, Yasi,
+    Mwetyi, Bweti, Inda, Njembe).--Poisoning for Revenge.--
+    Distrust.--Jugglery.--Treatment of Lunatics.--The American
+    Negro Hoodoo.--Folk-Lore.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+  TALES OF FETICH BASED ON FACT                                        277
+
+     I. A Witch Sweetheart                                             278
+
+    II. A Jealous Wife                                                 281
+
+   III. Witchcraft Mothers                                             284
+
+    IV. The Wizard House-Breaker                                       287
+
+     V. The Wizard Murderer                                            289
+
+    VI. The Wizard and his Invisible Dog                               293
+
+   VII. Spirit-Dancing                                                 295
+
+  VIII. Asiki, or the Little Beings                                    299
+
+    IX. Okove                                                          302
+
+     X. The Family Idols (Okasi, Barbarity, The Right of Sanctuary)    308
+
+    XI. Unago and Ekela (A Proverb)                                    318
+
+   XII. Malanda--An Initiation into a Family Guardian-Spirit Company   320
+
+  XIII. Three-Things Came Back too Late                                326
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVII
+
+  FETICH IN FOLK-LORE                                                  330
+
+     I. Queen Ngwe-nkonde and her Manja                                332
+
+    II. The Beautiful Daughter                                         337
+
+   III. The Husband that Came from an Animal                           346
+
+    IV. The Fairy Wife                                                 351
+
+     V. The Thieves and their Enchanted House                          358
+
+    VI. Banga-of-the-five-faces                                        367
+
+   VII. The Two Brothers                                               372
+
+  VIII. Jeki and his Ozazi                                             378
+
+
+  GLOSSARY                                                             387
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Fetich Magician                                           _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                               Facing Page
+
+  Native King in the Niger Delta                                        16
+
+  English Trading-House--Gabun                                          24
+
+  Fetich Doctor                                                         86
+
+  Elephants' Tusks and Palm-leaf Thatch. Two Hundred Miles
+  up the Ogowe River                                                   148
+
+  War Canoe.--Calabar, West Africa                                     174
+
+  Natives Trading in Plantains and Bamboo Building
+  Materials.--Gabun                                                    182
+
+  Travelling by Canoe.--Ogowe River                                    198
+
+  A Civilized Family.--Gabun                                           236
+
+  Njembe. Female Secret Society.--Mpongwe, Gabun                       254
+
+  Ekope of the Ivanga Dance.--Gabun                                    296
+
+  A Street in Libreville, Gabun                                        300
+
+
+  Map of the West African Coast                                          1
+
+
+
+
+FETICHISM IN WEST AFRICA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CONSTITUTION OF NATIVE AFRICAN SOCIETY--SOCIOLOGY
+
+
+That stream of the Negro race which is known ethnologically as "Bantu,"
+occupies all of the southern portion of the African continent below the
+fourth degree of north latitude. It is divided into a multitude of tribes,
+each with its own peculiar dialect. All these dialects are cognate in
+their grammar. Some of them vary only slightly in their vocabulary. In
+others the vocabulary is so distinctly different that it is not understood
+by tribes only one hundred miles apart, while that of others a thousand
+miles away may be intelligible.
+
+In their migrations the tribes have been like a river, with its windings,
+currents swift or slow; there have been even, in places, back currents;
+and elsewhere quiet, almost stagnant pools. But they all--from the Divala
+at Kamerun on the West Coast across to the Kiswahile at Zanzibar on the
+East, and from Buganda by the Victoria Nyanza at the north down to Zulu in
+the south at the Cape--have a uniformity in language, tribal organization,
+family customs, judicial rules and regulations, marriage ceremonies,
+funeral rites, and religious beliefs and practice. Dissimilarities have
+crept in with mixture among themselves by intermarriage, the example of
+foreigners, with some forms of foreign civilization and education,
+degradation by foreign vice, elevation by Christianity, and compulsion by
+foreign governments.
+
+As a description of Bantu sociology, I give the following outline which
+was offered some years ago, in reply to inquiries sent to members of the
+Gabun and Corisco Mission living at Batanga, by the German Government, in
+its laudable effort to adapt, as far as consistent with justice and
+humanity, its Kamerun territorial government to the then existing tribal
+regulations and customs of the tribes living in the Batanga region. This
+information was obtained by various persons from several sources, but
+especially from prominent native chiefs, all of them men of intelligence.
+
+In their general features these statements were largely true also for all
+the other tribes in the Equatorial Coast region, and for most of the
+interior Bantu tribes now pressing down to the Coast. They were more
+distinctly descriptive of Batanga and the entire interior at the time of
+their formulation. But in the ten years that have since passed, a stranger
+would find that some of them are no longer exact. Foreign authority has
+removed or changed or sapped the foundations of many native customs and
+regulations, while it has not fully brought in the civilization of
+Christianity. The result in some places, in this period of transition, has
+been almost anarchy,--making a despotism, as under Belgian misrule in the
+so-called Kongo "Free" State; or commercial ruin, as under French monopoly
+in their Kongo-Francais; and general confusion, under German hands, due to
+the arbitrary acts of local officials and their brutal black soldiery.
+
+
+I. THE COUNTRY.
+
+The coast between 5 deg. and 4 deg. N. Lat. is called "Kamerun." This is not a
+native word: it was formerly spelled by ships' captains in their trade
+"Cameroons." Its origin is uncertain. It is thought that it came from the
+name of the Portuguese explorer Diego Cam. The tribes in that region are
+the Divala, Isubu, Balimba, and other lesser ones.
+
+The coast from 4 deg. to 3 deg. N. Lat. has also a foreign name, "Batanga." I do
+not know its origin.
+
+The coast from 3 deg. to 2 deg. N. Lat. is called, by both natives and foreigners,
+"Benita"; at 1 deg. N., by foreigners, "Corisco," and by natives, "Benga." The
+name "Corisco" was given by Spaniards to an island in the Bay of Benga
+because of the brilliant coruscations of lightning so persistent in that
+locality. The Benga dialect is taken as the type of all the many dialects
+used from Corisco north to Benita, Bata, Batanga, and Kamerun.
+
+From 1 deg. N. to 3 deg. S. is known as the "Gabun country," with the Mpongwe
+dialect, typical of its many congeners, the Orungu, Nkami (miscalled
+"Camma"), Galwa, and others.
+
+From 3 deg. S. to the Kongo River, at 6 deg. S., the Loango tribe and dialect
+called "Fyat" are typical; and the Kongo River represents still another
+current of tribe and dialect.
+
+In the interior, subtending the entire coast-line as above mentioned, are
+the several clans of the great Fang tribe, making a fifth distinctly
+different type, known by the names "Osheba," "Bulu," "Mabeya," and others.
+The name "Fang" is spelled variously: by the traveller Du Chaillu, "Fan";
+by the French traveller, Count de Brazza, "Pahouin"; by their Benga
+neighbors, "Pangwe"; and by the Mpongwe, "Mpanwe." These tribes all have
+traditions of their having come from the far Northeast.
+
+Before foreign slave-trade was introduced, and subsequently the ivory,
+rubber, palm-oil, and mahogany trades, the occupations of the natives were
+hunting, fishing, and agriculture. They subsisted on wild meats, fish,
+forest fruits and nuts, and the cultivated plantains, cassava, maize,
+ground-nuts, yams, eddoes, sweet potatoes, and a few other vegetables.
+
+
+II. THE FAMILY.
+
+The family is the unit in native sociology. There is the narrow circle of
+relationship expressed by the word "ijawe," plural "majawe" (a derivative
+of the verb "jaka" = to beget), which includes those of the immediate
+family, both on the father's as well as on the mother's side (_i. e._,
+blood-relatives). The wider circle expressed by the word "ikaka" (pl.
+"makaka") includes those who are blood-relatives, together with those
+united to them by marriage.
+
+In giving illustrative native words I shall use the Benga dialect as
+typical. All the tribes have words indicating the relationships of father,
+mother, brother, sister. A nephew, while calling his own father "paia,"
+calls an uncle who is older than himself "paia-utodu"; one younger than
+himself he calls "paia-ndembe." His own mother he calls "ina," and
+his aunts "ina-utodu" and "ina-ndembe," respectively, for one who is
+older or younger than himself.
+
+A cousin is called "mwana-paia-utodu," or "-ndembe," as the case may
+be, according to age. These same designations are used for both the
+father's and the mother's side. A cousin's consanguinity is considered
+almost the same as that of brother or sister. They cannot marry. Indeed,
+all lines of consanguinity are carried farther, in prohibition of
+marriage, than in civilized countries.
+
+1. _Family Responsibility._ Each family is held by the community
+responsible for the misdeeds of its members. However unworthy a man may
+be, his "people" are to stand by him, defend him, and even claim as right
+his acts, however unjust. He may demand their help, however guilty he may
+be. Even if his offence be so great that his own people have to
+acknowledge his guilt, they cannot abjure their responsibility. Even if he
+be worthy of death, and a ransom is called for, they must pay it: not only
+his rich relatives, but all who are at all able must help.
+
+There is a narrower family relationship, that of the household, or "diya"
+(the hearth, or fireplace; derivative of the verb "diyaka" = to live).
+There are a great many of these. Their habitations are built in one
+street, long or short, according to the size of the man's family.
+
+In polygamy each wife has a separate house, or at least a separate room.
+_Her_ children's home is in that house. Each woman rules her own house and
+children.
+
+One of these women is called the "head-wife" ("konde"--queen). Usually
+she is the first wife. But the man is at liberty to displace her and put a
+younger one in her place.
+
+The position of head-wife carries with it no special privileges except
+that she superintends; but she is not herself excused from work. In the
+community she is given more respect if the husband happens to be among the
+"headmen" or chiefs.
+
+Each wife is supplied by the husband, but does not personally own her own
+house, kitchen utensils, and garden tools. She makes her own garden or
+"plantation" ("mwanga").
+
+There is no community in ownership of a plantation. Each one chooses a
+spot for himself. Nor is there land tenure. Any man can go to any place
+not already occupied, and choose a site on which to build, or to make a
+garden; and he keeps it as long as he or some member of his family
+occupies it.
+
+2. _Family Headship._ It descends to a son; if there be none, to a
+brother; or, if he be dead, to that brother's son; in default of these, to
+a sister's son. This headship carries with it, for a man, such authority
+that, should he kill his wife, he may not be killed; though her relatives,
+if they be influential, may demand some restitution.
+
+If an ordinary man kills another man, he may himself be killed. For a debt
+he may give away a daughter or wife, but he may not give away a son or a
+brother. A father rules all his children, male and female, until his
+death.
+
+If adult members of a family are dissatisfied with family arrangements,
+they can remove and build elsewhere; but they cannot thereby entirely
+separate themselves from rule by, and responsibility to and for the
+family.
+
+A troublesome man cannot be expelled from the family village. A woman can
+be, but only by her husband, for such offences as stealing, adultery,
+quarrelling; in which case the dowry money paid by him to her relatives
+must be returned to him, or another woman given in her place.
+
+3. _Marital Relations._ Marriages are made not only between members of the
+same tribe but between different tribes. Formerly it was not considered
+proper that a man of a coast tribe should marry a woman from an interior
+tribe. The coast tribes regarded themselves as more enlightened than those
+of the interior, and were disposed to look down upon them. But now men
+marry women not only of their own tribe but of all inferior tribes.
+
+Polygamy is common, almost universal. A man's addition to the number of
+his wives is limited only by his ability to pay their dowry price.
+
+He may cohabit with a woman without paying dowry for her; but their
+relation is not regarded as a marriage ("diba"), and this woman is
+disrespected as a harlot ("evove").
+
+There are few men with only one wife. In some cases their monogamy is
+their voluntary choice; in most cases (where there is not Christian
+principle) it is due to poverty. A polygamist arranges his marital duties
+to his several wives according to his choice; but the division having been
+made, each wife jealously guards her own claim on his attentions. A
+disregard of them leads to many a family quarrel.[1]
+
+If a man die, his brothers may marry any or all of the widows; or, if
+there be no brothers, a son inherits, and may marry any or all of the
+widows except his own mother.
+
+It is preferred that widows shall be retained in the family circle because
+of the dowry money that was paid for them, which is considered as a
+permanent investment.
+
+Ante-ceremonial sexual trials (the ancient German "bundling") are not
+recognized as according to rule; but the custom is very common. If not
+followed by regular marriage ceremony, it is judged as adultery.
+
+While a man may go to any tribe to seek a wife, he does not settle in the
+woman's tribe; she comes to him, and enters into his family.
+
+4. _Arrangements for Marriage._ On entering into marriage a man depends on
+only the male members of his family to assist him. If the woman is of
+adult age, he is first to try to obtain her consent. But that is not
+final; it may be either overridden or compelled by her father. The
+fathers of the two parties are the ultimate judges; the marriage cannot
+take place without their consent, after the preliminary wooing. The final
+compact is by dowry money, the most of which must be paid in advance. It
+is the custom which has come down from old time. It is now slightly
+changing under education, enlightenment, and foreign law. The amount of
+the dowry is not prescribed by any law. Custom alters the amount,
+according to the social status of the two families and the pecuniary
+ability of the bridegroom.
+
+The highest price is paid for a virgin; the next, for a woman who has been
+put away by some other man; the lowest price for widows. It is paid in
+instalments, but is supposed to be completed in one or two years after the
+marriage.
+
+But the purchase of the woman by dowry does not extinguish all claim on
+her by her family. If she is maltreated, she may be taken back by them, in
+which case the man's dowry money is to be returned to him. Not only the
+woman's father, but her other relatives, have a claim to a share in the
+dowry paid for her. Her brothers, sisters, and cousins may ask gifts from
+the would-be husband.
+
+If a husband die, the widow becomes the property of his family; she does
+not inherit, by right, any of his goods because she herself, as a widow,
+is property. Sometimes she is given something, but only as a favor.
+
+If she runs away or escapes, her father or her family must return either
+her or the dowry paid for her.
+
+On the death of a woman after her marriage, a part of the money received
+for her is returned to the husband as compensation for his loss on his
+investment. If she has borne no children, nothing is given or restored to
+the husband.
+
+If a woman deserts her husband, her family is required to pay back the
+dowry. If the man himself sends her away, the dowry may be repaid on his
+demand and after a public discussion.
+
+There is no escape from marriage for a woman during her life except by
+repayment of the money received for her.
+
+Two men may exchange wives thus: each puts away his wife, sending her back
+to her people and receiving in return the money paid for her. With this
+money in hand each buys again the wife the other has put away; and all
+parties are satisfied.
+
+A father can force his daughter to marry against her will; but such
+marriages are troublesome, and generally end in the man putting the woman
+away.
+
+A daughter may be betrothed by her parents at any time, even at birth. The
+marriage formerly did not take place until she was a woman grown of twenty
+years; now they are married at fifteen or sixteen, or earlier.
+
+Marriage within any degree of consanguinity is forbidden. Marriage of
+cousins is impossible. Disparity of age is no hindrance to marriage: an
+old man may take a young virgin, and a young man may take an old woman.
+
+There are no bars of caste nor rank, except the social eminence derived
+from wealth or free birth.
+
+Only women are barred from marrying an inferior. That inferiority is not a
+personal one. No personal worth can make a man of an inferior tribe equal
+to the meanest member of a superior tribe.
+
+All coast tribes reckon themselves superior to any interior tribe; and, of
+the coast tribes, a superiority is claimed for those who have the largest
+foreign commerce and the greatest number of white residents.
+
+A man may marry any woman of any inferior tribe, the idea being that he
+thus elevates her; but it is almost unheard of that a woman shall marry
+beneath her.
+
+As a result of this iron rule, women of the Mpongwe and a few other small
+"superior" coast tribes being barred from many men of their own tribe by
+lines of consanguinity, and unable to marry beneath themselves, expect to
+and do make their marriage alliances with the white traders and foreign
+government officials. Their civilization has made them attractive, and
+they are sought for by white men from far distant points.
+
+Younger sons and daughters must not be married before the older ones.[2]
+
+5. _Courtship and Wedding._ The routine varies greatly according to tribe;
+and in any tribe, according to the man's self-respect and regard for
+conventionalities. A proper outline is: First, the man goes to the father
+empty-handed to ask his consent. The second visit he goes with gifts, and
+the father calls in the other members of the family to witness the gifts.
+On the third visit he goes with liquor (formerly the native palm wine, now
+the foreign trade gin or rum), and pays an instalment on the dowry; on the
+fourth visit with his parents, and gives presents to the woman herself. On
+a fifth occasion the mother of the woman makes a feast for the mother and
+friends of the groom. At this feast the host and hostess do not eat, but
+they join in the drinking. Finally, the man goes with gifts and takes the
+woman. Her father makes return gifts as a farewell to his daughter.
+
+On her arrival at the man's village they are met with rejoicing, and a
+dance called "nkanja"; but there is no further ceremony, and she is his
+wife.
+
+For three months she should not be required to do any hard work, the man
+providing her with food and dress. Then she will begin the usual woman's
+work, in the making of a garden and carrying of burdens.
+
+Weddings may be made in any season of the year. Formerly the dry season,
+or the latter part of the rainy, was preferred because of the
+plentifulness of fish at these periods, and the weather being better for
+outdoor sports and plays.
+
+The man is expected to visit his wife's family often, and to eat with
+them. Her mother feasts him, and he calls her parents to eat at his house.
+
+6. _Dissolution of Marriage._ By death of the husband. Formerly, in many
+tribes one or more of the widows were put to death, either that the dead
+might not be without companionship in the spirit world, or as a punishment
+for not having cared better for him in the preservation of his life.
+
+Formerly the women mourned for six months; now the mourning (_i. e._, the
+public wailing) is reduced to one month. But signs of mourning are
+retained for many months in dark, old, or scanty dress, and an absence of
+ornament.
+
+The mourning of both men and women begins before the sick have actually
+died. The men cease after the burial, but the women continue.
+
+All the dead man's property goes to his male relatives. On the death of a
+wife the husband is expected to make a gift to pacify her relatives.
+Formerly the corpse was not allowed to be buried until this gift was made.
+The demand was made by the father, saying, "Our child died in your hands;
+give us!" Now they make a more quiet request, and wait a week before doing
+so. Something must be given, even if the husband had already paid her
+dowry in full.
+
+Marriage can be dissolved by divorce at almost any time, and for almost
+any reason, by the man,--by a woman rarely. The usual reasons for divorce
+are unfaithfulness, quarrelling, disobedience, and sometimes chronic
+sickness. There are many other more private reasons. In being thus put
+away the woman has no property rights; she is given nothing more than what
+the man may allow as a favor. If the woman has children, she has no claim
+on them; they belong to the father. But if she has daughters who are
+married, she can ask for part of the money which the husband received for
+them. The man and the divorced woman are then each free to marry any other
+parties.
+
+7. _Illegitimate Marital Relations._ These are very common, but they are
+not sanctioned as proper. The husband demands a fine for his wife's
+infidelity from the co-respondent. Cohabitation with the expected husband
+previous to the marriage ceremonies is common; but it is not sanctioned,
+and therefore is secret.
+
+The husband of a woman who is mother of a child begotten by another man
+takes it as his own. If it be a girl, he (and not the real father) is the
+person who gives her in marriage and retains the dowry.
+
+8. _Domestic Life._ No special feast is made for the birth of either a son
+or a daughter, but there is rejoicing. During the woman's pregnancy both
+she and her husband have to observe a variety of prohibitions as to what
+they may eat or what they may do. They cohabit up to the time of the
+child's birth; but after that not for a long period, formerly three years.
+Now it is reduced to one and a half years, or less. This custom is one of
+the reasons assigned by men for the alleged necessity of a plurality of
+wives.
+
+During the confinement and for a short time after the birth, the wife
+remains in the husband's house, and is then taken by her parents to their
+house.
+
+Deformed and defective children are kept with kindness as others; but
+monstrosities are destroyed. Formerly in all tribes twins were regarded as
+monstrosities and were therefore killed,--still the custom in some tribes.
+In the more civilized tribes they are now valued, but special fetich
+ceremonies for them are considered necessary.
+
+In the former destruction of twins there were tribes that killed only one
+of them. If they were male and female, the father would wish to save the
+boy and the mother the girl; but the father ruled. A motherless new-born
+infant is not deserted; it is suckled by some other woman.
+
+A portion of the wearing apparel and other goods are placed in the coffin
+with the corpse. The greater part of a man's goods are taken by his male
+relatives. Formerly nothing was given to his widow; now she receives a
+small part. And the paternal relatives of the dead man give something to
+his maternal relatives.
+
+The corpse is buried in various ways,--on an elevated scaffold, on the
+surface of the ground, or in a shallow grave, rarely cremated. Formerly
+the burial could be delayed by a claim for settlement of a debt, but this
+does not now occur.
+
+No coast tribe eats human flesh. The Fang and other interior tribes eat
+any corpse, regardless of the cause of death. Families hesitate to eat
+their own dead, but they sell or exchange them for the dead of other
+families.
+
+The name given a child is according to family wish. There is no law.
+Parents like to have their own names transmitted; but all sorts of reasons
+prevail for giving common names, or for making a new one, or for selecting
+the name of a great person or of some natural object. A child born at
+midday may be called "Joba" (sun), or, at the full moon, "Ngande" (moon).
+A mother who had borne nine children, all of whom had died, on bearing a
+tenth, and hopeless of its surviving, named it "Botombaka" (passing away).
+
+Circumcision is practised universally by all these tribes. An
+uncircumcised native is not considered to be a man in the full sense of
+the word,--fit for fighting, working, marrying, and inheriting. He is
+regarded as nothing by both men and women, is slandered, abused, insulted,
+ostracized, and not allowed to marry.
+
+The operation is not performed in infancy, but is delayed till the tenth
+year, or even later. The native doctor holds cayenne pepper in his mouth,
+and, on completing the operation, spits the pepper upon the wound. Then
+seizing a sword, he brandishes it with a shout as a signal to the
+spectators that the act is completed. Then the crowd of men and women join
+in singing and dancing, and compliment the lad on being now "a real man."
+
+As natives have no records of births, they cannot exactly tell the ages of
+their children, or the time when a youth is fit to marry or assume other
+manly rights; but by the eighteenth or nineteenth year he is regarded with
+the respect due a man. He can marry even as early as fifteen or sixteen.
+
+There are no tests to which he is subjected as proof of his manhood.
+
+A woman may speak in a court of trial, for defence of herself or friends.
+She may also be summoned as a witness, but she has no political rights.
+
+Aged persons are not put to death, to escape the care of them; they are
+reasonably well provided for.
+
+
+III. SUCCESSION TO PROPERTY AND AUTHORITY.
+
+Only men inherit. The children of sisters do not inherit unless all the
+children of the brothers are dead.
+
+Slaves do not inherit.
+
+"Chieftains" (those chosen to rule) and "kings" (those chosen to the
+office) inherit more than their brothers, even though the ruling one be
+the younger.
+
+A woman does not inherit at any time or under any circumstances, nor hold
+property in her own right, even if she has produced it by her own labor.
+
+There is no supremacy in regard to age in the division of property. The
+things to be inherited are women (the widows), goods, house, and slaves.
+An equal division, as far as it is possible, is made of all these.
+
+The dead man's debts are to be paid by the heirs out of their inheritance,
+each one paying his part. There is no written will, but it is common for a
+man to announce his intention as to the division while still living.
+
+
+IV. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.
+
+The coast tribes and some of the interior have so-called "kings," who are
+chosen by their tribe to that office.
+
+There are family cliques for the accomplishment of a desired end, but
+these are overruled by the tribal king.
+
+There are headmen in each village with local authority; but they too are
+subject to the king, they having authority only in their own village.
+
+Quarrels and discussions, called "palavers," are very common. (A palaver
+need not necessarily be a quarrel; the word is derived from a Portuguese
+verb = "to speak." It comes from the old days of slavery; it was the
+"council" held between native chiefs and white slave traders, in the
+purchase of a cargo of slaves.)
+
+The headmen settle disputes about marriage, property rights, murders, war,
+thefts, and so forth. Their decisions may be appealed from to a chief, or
+carried further to the king, whose decision is final. Any one, young and
+old, male and female, may be present during a discussion. Usually only
+chosen persons do the speaking.
+
+Instead of a question being referred to a chief or king, a committee of
+wise men is sometimes chosen for the occasion. Public assemblages are
+gathered by messengers sent out to summon the people. The meeting is
+presided over by the king.
+
+
+V. SERVANTS.
+
+The domestic servants are slaves. Prisoners of war are also made to do
+service; but on the making of peace male prisoners are returned to their
+tribe; the female prisoners are retained and married. Slaves were bought
+from interior tribes. If a male child was born to slave parents, he was
+considered free and could marry into the tribe. If the slave mother died,
+the widower could marry into the tribe. If the slave father died, the
+widow was married by some man of the family who owned him. There are no
+slaves bought or sold now, but there is a system of "pawns,"--children or
+women given as a pledge for a debt and never redeemed. Their position is
+inferior, and they are servants, but not slaves.
+
+Also, if a prominent person (_e. g._, a headman) is killed in war, the
+people who killed him are to give a daughter to his family, who may marry
+her to any one they please.
+
+A pawn may be sent away by the holder to some other place, but he cannot
+be sold or killed; but the holder may beat him if he be obstreperous.
+
+During slavery days anything earned by a slave was taken to his master,
+who would allow him a share; also, at other times, the master would give
+the slave gifts. The slave could do paid labor for foreigners or other
+strangers, and was not necessarily punished if he did not share his wages
+with the master, but he would at least be rebuked for the omission. Women
+ruled their female slaves. For a slave's minor offences, such as stealing,
+the master was held responsible; for grave offences, such as murder, the
+slave himself was killed.
+
+Certain liberty was allowed a slave; he could attend the village or tribal
+palavers and take part in the discussion. If a slave was unjustly treated
+by some other person, his owner could call a council and have the matter
+talked over, and the slave could be allowed to plead his case.
+
+A slave man could hold property of his own; and if he were a worthy,
+sensible person, he could inherit.
+
+In a slave's marriage of a woman the custom of gifts, feasts, and so forth
+was the same as for a free man.
+
+If ill treated, he could run away to another tribe (not to any one of his
+own tribe), and would there be harbored, but still as a slave, and would
+not be given up to his former owner. A slave could become free only by his
+master setting him free; he could not redeem himself.
+
+
+VI. KINGSHIP.
+
+Kingship has connected with it the great honor that a son may inherit it
+if he is the right kind of man; but it is possible for him to be set aside
+and another chosen. A son may lose his place by foolishness and
+incompetency.
+
+Attempts to rule independently of the king are sometimes made by cliques
+composed of three or four young persons of the same age, who make laws or
+customs peculiar to themselves. There is no national recognition of them,
+nor are they given any special privilege.
+
+Kings have very little power over the fines or property of others. These
+are held, each man for himself; nor have they the right of taxation; but
+they have power to declare war, acting in concert with their people in
+declaring it and waging it. They administer justice as magistrates, decide
+palavers according to the unwritten law of custom, summon offenders, and
+inflict the punishment due.
+
+Their dwellings differ but little from those of other persons of like
+wealth and personal ability.
+
+When a palaver is called, the king sits as ruler of the meeting and does
+most of the talking. He provides food for those who come from a distance.
+
+A king may be blamed if a war he has declared ends disastrously. While a
+king's son expects to inherit the title and power, there is no invariable
+rule of succession; he cannot take the position by force. He must be
+chosen; but the choice is limited to the members of one family, in which
+it is hereditary.
+
+If the chosen person be a minor, another is selected (but of the same
+family) to act as regent. The "incompetency" which could bar a man from
+kingship, even though in regular succession, would be lack of stamina in
+his character. The king-elect must make a feast, to which he is to call
+all the people to eat, drink, and play for twenty days.
+
+There are no higher state forms among the coast tribes, as in civilized
+lands; no union among tribes; no feudal power nor vassals; no monarchy,
+nothing absolute; no taxation, no monopoly. Some of the interior tribes
+formerly had tributes and kingly monopoly of certain products.
+
+
+VII. FETICH DOCTORS.
+
+They still exist, but it can scarcely be said that they are a class. They
+have no organization; they have honor only in their own districts, unless
+they be called specially to minister in another place. They have power to
+condemn to death on charge of causing sickness. In their ceremonies they
+send the people to sing, dance, play, and beat drums, and they spot their
+bodies with their "medicines." Any one may choose the profession for
+himself; fetich doctors demand large pay for their services.
+
+
+[Illustration: NATIVE KING IN THE NIGER DELTA.]
+
+
+VIII. HOSPITALITY.
+
+A stranger is entertained hospitably. He is provided with a house and food
+for two weeks, or as much longer as he may wish to stay. On departing he
+is given a present. His host and the village headman are bound to protect
+him from any prosecution while he is their guest, even if he be really
+guilty.
+
+
+IX. JUDICIAL SYSTEM.
+
+Such a _system_ does not exist. Whatever rules there are are handed down
+as tradition, by word of mouth. There are persons who are familiar with
+these old sayings, proverbs, examples, and customs, and these are asked to
+be present in the trial of disputed matters.
+
+1. _Courts._ In the righting of any wrong the head of the family is to
+take the first step. If the offenders fail to satisfy him, he appeals to
+the king, who then calls all the people, rehearses the matter to them, and
+the majority of their votes is accepted by the king as the decision. The
+offenders will not dare to resist.
+
+There is no regular court-house. In almost all villages there is a public
+shed, or "palaver-house," which is the town-hall, or public reception
+room. But a council may be held anywhere,--in the king's house, in the
+house of one of the litigants, on the beach, or under a large shady tree.
+
+The council is held at any time of day,--not at night. There are no
+regular advocates; any litigant may state his own case, or have any one
+else do it for him. There are no fees, except to the king for his
+summoning of the case. There is sometimes betting on the result; though no
+stakes are deposited, the bets are paid. There is not much form of court
+procedure. All the people of a village or district, even women and
+children, according to the importance of the case, assemble. While women
+are generally not allowed to argue in the case, yet their shouts of
+approval or protest have influence in the decision, and encourage the
+parties by outspoken sympathy.
+
+If an accused person does not come voluntarily to court, the king's
+servants are sent to bring him. In the court the accused does not need to
+have some one plead for him, he speaks for himself. Accusers speak first,
+then the accused; the accusers reply, the accused answers; and the king
+and his aged counsellors decide. Witnesses are called from other places.
+As there is no writing among untaught tribes, the depositions are by word
+of mouth.
+
+Formerly the accused was subjected to the poison ordeal; indeed, the
+accuser also had to take the poison draught as a proof of his sincerity,
+and that his charge was not a libel. But this custom is no longer
+practised on the coast.
+
+There is no substitution of any kind, except in rare cases. A guilty
+person must bear his own punishment in some way.
+
+Oaths are common, and are used freely and voluntarily in the course of the
+discussion. A man who utters false testimony or bears false witness is
+expected to be thrust out of the assembly, but it is not always done.
+
+When an oath is required, there is no escape from it; he who refuses to
+swear is considered guilty. Sometimes, under bravado, he will demand to be
+given "mbwaye" (the poison test), hoping that his demand will not be
+complied with. When the test is produced, he may seek to escape it by
+refusing that particular kind and demanding another not readily
+obtainable. But his attempt at evasion is generally regarded as a sign of
+guilt.
+
+In court, parties are not obstinate in their opinion; they ask for and
+take advice from others.
+
+2. _Punishment._ If it be capital, the accusers are the executioners.
+Death is by various modes,--formerly very cruel, _e. g._, burning,
+roasting, torturing, amputation by piecemeal; now it is generally by gun,
+dagger, club, or drowning. For a debt that a creditor is seeking to
+recover, securities may be accepted. But if the accused then runs away,
+the person giving the security is tried and punished.
+
+A creditor does not usually attach the property of the debtor, though
+often, in the interior tribes, a woman is seized as hostage. If a long
+time elapses in deciding the matter, the debtor may be held as prisoner
+until the debt is paid. Formerly it was very common for the debtor's
+family's property, or even their persons, to be seized as security; and it
+still is common for a person of the debtor's tribe to be caught by the
+creditor's tribe, and detained until he is redeemed by his own people.
+
+The king of the prisoner's tribe is called to help release him. If the
+king himself become a captive, his people combine to collect goods for the
+payment, and meanwhile give other persons in his place to secure his
+immediate release. Sometimes differences are settled in a fight, by a
+hand-to-hand encounter.
+
+3. _Blood Atonement and Fines._ Revenge, especially for bloodshed, is
+everywhere practised. It is a duty belonging first to the "ijawe"
+(blood-relative), next to the "ikaka" (family), next to the "etomba"
+(tribe).
+
+The murdered man's own family take the lead,--in case of a wife, her
+husband and his family, and the wife's family; sometimes the whole
+"ikaka"; finally, the "etomba."
+
+A master seeks revenge for his slave or other servants. Formerly it was
+indifferent who was killed in revenge, so that it be some member of the
+murderer's tribe. Naturally that tribe sought to retaliate, and the feud
+was carried back and forth, and would be finally settled only when an
+equal number had been killed on each side,--a person for a person: a woman
+for a man, or _vice versa_; a child for a man or woman, or _vice versa_. A
+woman (wife of the man killed) does not take the lead in the revenge; his
+family must take the lead, her family must join in. They would be despised
+and cursed if they did not do so. The woman herself does not take part in
+this killing for revenge.
+
+The avenger of blood may not demit his duty until some member of the other
+tribe has been killed. If a thief has been killed for his theft, blood may
+be taken for his death. But when that one other life is taken, the matter
+is considered settled; it is not carried on as a feud.
+
+For a life taken by accident, a life is not required; but some penalty
+must be paid, _e. g._, a woman may be given as a wife. But, practically,
+in former times it was not admitted that "accidents" occurred; any
+misfortune was adjudged a fault.
+
+Formerly even the plea of self-defence was not accepted. Even idiotic or
+otherwise irresponsible persons were held responsible, though sometimes
+they were ransomed by payment of a woman and goods.
+
+At present blood is not always required, but formerly no money would have
+been accepted as a sufficient penalty. A man would have been despised for
+accepting it. There was no way of settlement except by bloodshed,--a life
+for a life,--except that, for the life of a woman, a woman and goods of a
+certain amount and kind might be accepted. When a woman was thus given for
+a murdered one, the living woman must not be old, but one capable of
+bearing children. Among the acceptable goods were sheep, goats, and
+pottery.
+
+A wound or a broken limb is paid for in goods. These must come not solely
+from him who caused the injury; his family, as fellow offenders, must
+assist in paying.
+
+The man who obtains the woman who is given for a woman killed, retains
+with her also part of the goods given with her, and part he shares with
+the family of the murdered one. If, in giving a woman for a murdered one,
+the offending family is unable to furnish also the required goods, they
+must sell another of their women in order to obtain those goods. The point
+is that they must give a woman _and_ goods; _two_ women will not suffice.
+
+The ceremonies in settlement of a blood-feud are as follows: The woman is
+paid in presence of both parties; then the goods are given, counted, and
+received. Then both parties retire. In the course of a week the parties
+receiving the woman and the goods call the other party, and produce a goat
+and kill it in their presence. It is divided equally, and given half to
+each party; and the feud is settled, as by a covenant of peace, over the
+divided goat (Gen. xv. 10). The woman thus given in settlement will be
+married to some one.
+
+The customs in her marriage are the same as for any other woman.
+Subsequently those who paid her as a fine may come and ask a portion of
+goods for her as a wife. Not that they have any claim on her as their
+daughter; but the man who has married her will give the goods they ask
+for, under the common belief that, unless he does so, the children born by
+her will die early, or at least will not come to years of maturity.
+
+All misdeeds and offences, even capital ones, may be condoned by a fine in
+goods, excepting only the murder of a man. This murderer must forfeit his
+life. These fines are paid with foreign goods, each offence having its own
+regulation price as a punishment.
+
+In general, the punishment for an injury is the same, whether the injured
+one be rich or poor. A man's "majawe" are held responsible if he refuses
+to make restitution. If they also refuse, the offended party await a
+suitable opportunity, and then seize some one and hold him as a hostage
+until he is redeemed, for the price of the original offence, every mite of
+it being then exacted.
+
+There is no right of asylum to any offender within the limit of his own
+tribe. In case of a man visiting, for any reason whatever, in the limits
+of another tribe one of whose members is a fugitive from justice into the
+limits of the visitor's tribe, this visitor may be seized, and his
+countrymen asked to extradite the criminal staying in their midst.
+
+Corporal punishment is administered publicly, the townspeople being called
+to witness it, so as to operate on their fears and cause them to dread the
+doing of deeds which may bring on them such a penalty.
+
+4. _Punishable Acts._ A person is punishable only for an injury committed
+intentionally, not by accident.
+
+For damages by cattle, the animal may be killed if the damage be
+considerable. The injured party may keep and eat the carcass, and the
+owner cannot recover for it. In this respect animals are treated as human
+beings, their lives being forfeit; and the owner's majawe are held
+responsible along with him.
+
+Punishments are rated according to the degree of the crime, in the order
+theft, adultery, rape, murder. Insults are not punishable by law; the
+insulted insults in return. If a fight results, and wounds are made during
+the fight, no fine is required.
+
+Kidnapping, incest, and abortion are not known.
+
+Under the slight duty owed to kings, treason can scarcely be said to
+exist. Its equivalent, the betrayal of tribal interests, is publicly
+rebuked, and a curse laid on the offender. If he be a servant, he is
+beaten and sent away.
+
+The disturber of the peace of a wedding is expected to express regret, but
+no calamity will follow because of the disturbance. The offence is not
+common.
+
+
+X. TERRITORIAL RELATIONS.
+
+The tribes have fixed settlements wherever foreign governments have not
+taken possession. Each man may choose for a garden a place that has not
+been already occupied. The land is common property for the tribe. But each
+ijawe may choose a separate place for itself.
+
+No man of a tribe has any claim on the soil other than is common to any
+other man of that tribe. He has, however, a claim greater than any
+stranger.
+
+1. _Tenure._ Land is held as common property; it is not bought or sold to
+a fellow-tribeman. It may be bought from the confines of another tribe,
+and it is sold to foreigners. A hunter is free to go anywhere, even into
+the territory of an adjacent tribe. If he kills game there, he does not
+have to divide. Bee trees and honey are free to any one. The sea is free
+for fishing only to the coast tribes.
+
+Every woman has a separate garden; even the wives of polygamists do not
+have gardens in common.
+
+Soil is free. A family, however, may settle in a limited district, and
+claim it as theirs as long as they live there; or, leaving it temporarily,
+if they return after a reasonable time, they may still claim it. They
+temporarily mark their places by trees or stones, as boundary lines. But
+there is nothing permanent. They prove their right to it by residing on it
+or making a garden from time to time. But their claim may be lost if the
+entire family leave it and go elsewhere. Such a place being vacated, and
+some one else wishing to occupy it, permission may be granted on formal
+application to the king. But if an occupant has deserted a place, and no
+one else has applied for it, he can resume it as his even after the lapse
+of years.
+
+Dwellers on any ground have right to all the trees of fruitage on it, _e.
+g._, palm-nuts, and other natural wild edible nuts. Wells are never dug.
+People depend on springs and streams. Springs are free, even though they
+be on land claimed by others.
+
+A man assists his wife in the clearing of the forest for a garden plot;
+but she and her servants attend to the planting, weeding, and other
+working of the garden itself.
+
+2. _Rights in Movables._ The tenant dweller on any particular lot of
+ground owns everything on it, except the ground itself. If a foreigner buy
+a piece of ground, he may or may not buy the houses, and so forth,
+according to agreement. The movables on any ground are houses, trees, and
+any vegetables planted.
+
+
+XI. EXCHANGE RELATIONS.
+
+There is no coin or metal currency, except among the coast tribes, where
+foreign governments have introduced it. Foreign trade-goods are everywhere
+the medium of purchase and exchange. But there is a sort of currency, in
+the shape of iron spear-heads and other forms resembling miniature
+hatchets, a certain number of which are given by interior tribes in the
+purchase of a wife. They are used only for this purpose, and are exchanged
+by the parties themselves for the foreign goods required in the dowry.
+
+They are manufactured by any village blacksmith from imported iron. They
+are not received or recognized by white traders.
+
+Formerly cowry shells were used, even by foreign traders, as a currency;
+and they are still so used in the Sudan. But in all coast tribes purchase
+and sale are effected by foreign-made calico prints, pottery, cutlery,
+guns, powder, rum, and a great variety of other goods.
+
+The natural products of the country--ivory, rubber, palm-oil,
+dyewoods--and many other native unmanufactured articles are exchanged for
+these goods. The natural products belong to the men. If a woman should
+find ivory, she cannot sell it; it belongs to her husband to barter it.
+
+Contracts are confirmed in various ways in different tribes. A common mode
+is to eat and drink together, as a sign that the bargain is closed; and it
+will not be broken. A contract cannot be broken after the price is agreed
+upon, even if only a part of the price is paid; the remainder is to be
+paid in instalments.
+
+If one overreaches another in a trade, he must take back the imperfect
+article or add to it. This is true, according to native law, among
+themselves. Any amount of overreaching and deception is practised toward
+foreigners in a trade, or to members of another tribe; and many foreigners
+are just as guilty in their dealings with the natives.
+
+Loans of trade-goods are constantly made, but the taking of interest
+therefor is not known. If a borrowed article, such as a canoe, is broken
+or lost, a new canoe must be given in its place. If the canoe is only
+injured and had been in want of repair, the borrower, on returning it,
+must repair it and also pay some goods. One going as surety for goods is
+held responsible.
+
+Pawning of goods is commonly practised everywhere.
+
+People are generous in making gifts to friends, or donations to the needy;
+but if a man who has been helped in time of distress subsequently
+increases in wealth, the one who helped him may demand a return of the
+original gift.
+
+
+[Illustration: ENGLISH TRADING-HOUSE.--GABUN.]
+
+
+XII. RELIGION.
+
+Religion is intimately mixed with every one of these aforementioned
+sociological aspects of family, rights of property, authority, tribal
+organization, judicial trials, punishments, intertribal relations, and
+commerce.
+
+Mr. R. E. Dennett, residing in Loango, has made a careful and philosophic
+investigation into the religious ideas of the Ba-Vili or Fyat nation and
+adjacent tribes bordering on the Kongo. The result of his research shows
+that the native tribal government and religious and social life are
+inseparably united. He claims to have discovered a complex system of
+"numbers" and "powers" showing the Loango people to be more highly
+organized politically than are the equatorial tribes, and revealing a very
+curious co-relation of those "numbers," governing the physical, rational,
+and moral natures, with conscience and with God.
+
+Some traces of the "numbers with meanings" are found in Yoruba, where, as
+described by Mr. Dennett, the division of the months of the year, the
+names of lower animals typical of the senses, and the powers of earth that
+speak to us represent religious ideas and relations. They err, therefore,
+who, as superficial observers, would brush away all these native views as
+mere superstition. They are more than mere superstition; though indeed
+very superstitious, they point to God.
+
+The particular exponent of religious worship, the fetich, governs the
+arrangements of all such relations. It will be discussed as to its origin
+and the details of its use in the subsequent chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE IDEA OF GOD--RELIGION
+
+
+Missionary Paul of Tarsus, in the polite exordium of his great address to
+the Athenian philosophers on Mars Hill, courteously tells them that he
+believes them to be a very "religious" people,--indeed, too much so in
+their broad-church willingness to give room for an altar to the worship of
+any new immanence of God; and then, with equal courtesy, he tells them
+that, with all their civilization, with all their eminence in art and
+philosophy, they were ignorant of the true character of a greater than any
+deity in their pantheon.
+
+Modern missionaries, also, in studying the beliefs and forms of worship of
+the heathen nations among whom they dwell, while they may be shocked at
+the immoralities, cruelties, or absurdities of the special cult they are
+investigating, have to acknowledge that its followers, in their practice
+of it, exhibit a devotion, a persistence, and a faithfulness worthy of
+Christian martyrs. They are _very_ "religious." Verily, if the obtaining
+of heaven and final salvation rested only on sincerity of belief and
+consistency of practice, the multitudinous followers of the so-called
+false religions would have an assurance greater than that of many
+professors of what is known as Christianity, and much of the occupation of
+the Christian missionary would be gone.
+
+I say _much_; but not all, by any means. For the feeling with which I was
+impressed on my very first contact with the miseries of the sociology of
+heathenism, entirely aside from its theology and any question of salvation
+in a future life, has steadily deepened into the conviction that, even if
+I were not a Christian, I still ought to, and would, do and bear and
+suffer whatever God has called or allowed me to suffer or bear or do since
+1861 in my proclamation of His gospel, simply for the sake of the
+elevation of heathen during their present earthly life from the wrongs
+sanctioned by or growing out of their religion. Distinctly is it true that
+"Godliness is profitable unto all things," not only for the life "which is
+to come," but also for "the life that now is." Those in Christian lands
+who have no sympathy for, or who refuse to take any interest in, what are
+known as "Foreign Missions," err egregiously in their failure to recognize
+the indisputable fact that they themselves are debtors for their
+possession of protected life, true liberty, and unoppressed pursuit of
+personal happiness, not to civilization as such, but to the form of
+religious belief called Christianity, which made that civilization
+possible. And by just so much as divine law has ordained us each our
+brother's keeper, we are bound to share the blessings of the gospel with
+those whom God has made of one blood with us in the brotherhood of
+humanity.
+
+A pursuit of this line of thought would lead me into an argument for the
+duty of foreign missions. That is not the direct object of these pages.
+True, I pray that, as a result of any reader's following me in this study
+of African superstition, his desire will be deepened to give to Africa the
+pure truth in place of its falsity. But the special object of my pen, in
+following a certain thread of truth, is to show how degradingly false is
+that falsity, in its lapse from God, even though I accord it the name of
+religion.
+
+For my present purpose it is sufficiently accurate to define theology as
+that department of knowledge which takes cognizance of God,--His being,
+His character, and His relation to His Cosmos. Whenever any intelligent
+unit in that Cosmos looks up to Him as something greater than itself,
+under what Schleiermacher describes as "a sense of infinite dependence,"
+and utters its need, it has expressed its religion. It may be weak,
+superstitious, and mixed with untruth; nevertheless, it is religion.
+
+When a study of God and the thoughts concerning Him crystallize into a
+formula of words expressing a certain belief, it is definitely a creed.
+When, under a human necessity, a creed clothes itself in certain rites,
+ceremonies, and formulas of practice, it is a worship. That worship may be
+fearful in its cruelty or ridiculous in its frivolity; nevertheless, it is
+a worship. Worship is essential to the vitality of religion; without it
+religion is simply a theory.
+
+Theology differentiates itself from other departments of knowledge, as to
+its source and its effects. For instance, in the study of geography, as to
+its effects, it is comparatively a matter of indifference whether we
+believe that the earth is flat or globular, like Booker T. Washington's
+teacher who in his district school was prepared to teach either,
+"according to the preference of a majority of his patrons"; or, in
+astronomy, whether we believe that the sun is the stationary centre of our
+planetary system, or whether, with the late Rev. John Jasper, we assert
+that the sun "do move" around our earth.
+
+But in theology it matters enormously for this present life, whether we
+believe the supreme object of our worship to be Moloch, and infinitely for
+our future life, whether Jesus be to us the Son of God.
+
+As to the source of theological knowledge, all our other knowledge is
+evolved, systematized, and developed by patient experiment and
+investigation. The results of any particular branch of human knowledge are
+cumulative, and are enlarged and perfected from generation to generation.
+But the source of our knowledge of God is not in us, any more than our
+spiritual life had its source in ourselves. It came _ab extra_. God
+breathed into the earthly form of Adam the breath of life, and he became a
+living creature, essentially and radically different from the beasts over
+which he was given dominion. Knowledge of God was thus an original,
+donated, component part of us. It grew under revelations made during the
+angelic communications before the Fall. Revelation was continued by the
+Logos along thousands of years, until that Logos himself became flesh and
+dwelt among us in visible form in His written word, and by His Comforter,
+who still reveals to us.
+
+I do not feel it necessary here to discuss, or even to express an opinion
+as to the evolution of the physical species. I know, simply because God
+says so,--and am satisfied with this knowledge,--that "in the beginning
+God created." As to _when_ that "beginning" was, there may be respectable
+difference of opinion; for it is only a human opinion that asserts _when_.
+Assertion may have apparently very reliable data; but these data often are
+like the bits of glass, factors in the geometric figures of a
+kaleidoscope, whose next turn in scientific discovery dislocates and
+relocates in an apparently reliable proof of the existence of another
+figure.
+
+As to _what_ it was that God created in that beginning, there may be also
+respectable difference of opinion. Whether, like Minerva, full armed from
+the head of Jove, Adam sprang into his perfect physical, mental, and moral
+manhood on the sixth of consecutive days of twenty-four solar hours each;
+or whether, created a weakling, he slowly grew up to perfect development;
+or whether life began only in protoplasm, and gradually differentiated
+itself into the forms of beasts, and finally into that of man,--back of
+all was a great First Cause that "created" in the "beginning." It is all a
+subject fearfully wonderful.
+
+"My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and
+curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my
+substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were
+written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none
+of them."
+
+But all such assertion, discussion, and attempt at proof I allow only to
+what is physical and finite, and is therefore a legitimate subject of
+assertion on merely physical data; for I do not desire to discuss, beyond
+simple mention, the Spencerian doctrine of evolution, that materialism
+which would make thought and soul only successions in a series (even if
+the highest and best) of evoluted developments. To account for the
+religious nature in man by evolution I regard as a thing that cannot be
+done. It is a tenable position held by evolutionists such as Dana,
+Winchell, and the late Professor Le Conte of California, that "at the
+creation of man the divine fiat asserted itself, and 'breathed into man
+the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' Immortality cannot be
+evolved out of mortality. If Spencerian evolution is true, either
+everything is immortal or nothing is immortal; man and vermin in this
+hypothesis go together."
+
+Man's soul came to him direct from God, a part of His own infinite life,
+in His "image," and like Him in His holiness. Man's thoughts of God were
+holy. The expression of them in words and acts was his practical religion,
+the visible, audible link that "bound" (ligated) him to God. In this there
+could be no evolution, unless that, in the many forms and ceremonies used
+in the expression of religious thought (which ceremonies constitute
+worship), there could be, and were, variation, change, development, or
+retrogression.
+
+Therefore I cannot accept the conclusions of those who in their study of
+ethnology claim to find that the religious beliefs of the world, and even
+the very idea of a Supreme Being, have been evolved by man himself _ab
+intra_. They claim that this evolution has been by primitive man, from low
+forms of beliefs in spiritual beings, through polytheism and idolatry, up
+to the conception of monotheism and its belief in the one living God. This
+process they claim to be able to follow on lines racial and national,
+under the civilizations of Chaldee, Greek, Roman, Teutonic, and other
+stocks.
+
+"Until some human being can be found with a conception of spiritual
+existences without his having received instruction on that point from
+those who went before him, the claim ... that primitive man ever obtained
+his spiritual knowledge or his spiritual conceptions from within himself
+alone, or without an external revelation to him, is an unscientific
+assumption in the investigation of the origin of religions in the
+world."[3]
+
+The rather I find, in my own ethnological observations during these more
+than forty years in direct contact with aboriginal peoples, that the
+initial starting-point of man's knowledge of God was by revelation from
+Jehovah himself. This knowledge was to be conserved by man's conscience,
+God's implanted witness,--a witness that can be coerced into silence, that
+may be nursed into forgetfulness, that may be perverted by abuse, that may
+be covered up by superimposed falsities, that may be discolored by the
+blackness of foul degradation, but which can never be utterly destroyed;
+which on occasions, like the Titans, arouses itself with volcanic force;
+which at God's final bar is to be His sufficient proof for the verities
+and responsibilities of at least natural religion ("natural" religion, a
+recognition of certain attributes of God as revealed in the works of
+nature). This knowledge of God, a treasure hid in earthen vessels, rightly
+used and cherished, was to grow and develop under subsequent divine
+revelation, so that man might become more and more like his divine
+original; or, if abused, neglected, or perverted, it would carry him even
+farther away from God.
+
+"Not alone those who insist on the belief that there was a gradual
+development of the race from a barbarous beginning, but also those who
+believe that man started on a higher plane, and in his degradation
+retained vestiges of God's original revelation to him, are finding profit
+in the study of primitive myths, and of aboriginal rites and ceremonies
+all the world over."[4]
+
+I do not impeach the sincerity of those students of primitive thought who
+teach that man in his religious beliefs has reached his present monotheism
+by progressive growths from polytheism, or that he has attained his
+present conception of the very existence of a Supreme Being by a gradual
+emergence from a state of ignorance in which even the idea of such a being
+did not exist; but I do discount the competency of many of the witnesses
+on whose testimony they base their conclusions.
+
+Whatever may be proved in a complete investigation by science into the
+arcana of nature,--of archaeology and other channels of research,--a
+reverent comparison of these results of finite intelligence will find them
+not inconsistent with the statements of God's infinite Word. Indeed, that
+Word was not written to make any definite statement on astronomy or
+geology, or any other human science. The only science of the Bible is that
+of man's relation to his divine Father; its only history a history of
+redemption, as promised to Eve and her seed, the Jewish nation, and as
+fulfilled in the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Apparent conflicts of the
+Bible with science are not always real; too often a claim is set up, based
+on a single observation, perhaps hastily made, and not verified by a
+comparison of the variable factors in that observation.
+
+I suppose that it is true that in the theology of even the worst forms of
+religion there is more or less truth, and almost equally true that in the
+theology of the best forms there may be somewhat of superstition. This is
+so because, as I believe, all religions had but one source, and that a
+pure one. From it have grown perversions varying in their proportion of
+truth and error.
+
+In this study of the African theologic ideas I shall endeavor to separate
+these two--the false and the true--into two divisions: First, Beliefs in
+God more or less true, which have had their birth in tradition of some
+divine revelation, which find at least faint echoes in human conscience,
+and which among exalted nations would be formulated into confessions,
+creeds, and articles of faith. Second, Animism or beliefs in vague
+spiritual beings, which, being almost pure superstitions, cannot, from
+their very nature, be accurately formulated, they being the outgrowth of
+every individual's imagination, and varying with all the variances of
+time, place, and human thought.
+
+Eliminating from any theology its superstitious element, we shall find
+the highest and truest religion. But if you eliminate from the theology of
+the Bantu African its superstition, you will have very little left; for,
+among the religions of the world, it comes nearest to being purely a
+superstition. So nearly is this true that travellers and other superficial
+observers and theorists have asserted that the religious beliefs of some
+degraded tribes were _simply_ superstitions, destitute of reference to any
+superior being.
+
+I can readily see how the reports of some travellers--even of those who
+had no prejudice against the Negro, the precepts of the Bible, or
+missionary work--could be made in apparent sincerity, when they state that
+native Africans have confessed of themselves that they had no idea of
+God's existence; also, their belief that some pygmy and other tribes were
+too destitute of intelligence to possess that idea,--that it either must
+be given them _ab extra_ by the possessors of a superior civilization, or
+must be developed by themselves as they rise in civilization.
+
+The difficulty about the testimony of these witnesses in this matter is
+that, being passers-by in time, they were unable--by reason of lack of
+ability to converse fluently, or absence of a reliable interpreter, or of
+being out of touch with native mode of thought or speech--to make their
+questionings intelligible.
+
+On the heathen side, also, the obsequious natives, unaccustomed to
+analytic thought, will answer vaguely on the spur of the moment, and often
+as far as possible in the line of what they suppose will best please the
+questioner. All native statements must be discounted, must be sifted.
+
+I am aware that some missionaries are quoted as having said or written
+that the people among whom they were laboring "had no idea of God." Even
+Robert Moffat is reported to have held this opinion. If so, it must have
+been in the earlier days of his ministry, under his first shock at the
+depth of native degradation, before he had become fluent in the native
+language, and before he had found out all the secrets of that difficult
+problem, an African's native thought. Such an unqualified phrase could be
+uttered by a missionary in an hour of depression, in the presence of some
+great demonstration of heathen wickedness, and in an effort to describe
+how very far the heathen was from God. That the heathen had no _correct_
+idea of God is often true.
+
+Arnot, who among modern African missionaries has lived most closely and
+intimately with the rudest tribes in their veriest hovels, writes:[5] "Man
+is a very fragile being, and he is fully conscious that he requires
+supernatural or divine aid. Apart from the distinct revelation given by
+God in the first chapter of Romans, there is much to prove that the
+heathen African is a man to whom the living God has aforetime revealed
+himself. But he had sought after things of his own imagination and things
+of darkness to satisfy those convictions and fears which lurk in his
+breast, and which have not been planted there by the Evil One, but by God.
+Refusing to acknowledge God,[6] they have become haters of God.[7] The
+preaching of the gospel to them, however, is not a mere beating of the
+air; there is a peg in the wall upon which something can be hung and
+remain. Often a few young men have received the message with laughter and
+ridicule, but I have afterwards heard them discuss my words amongst
+themselves very gravely. I heard one man say to a neighbor, 'Monare's
+words pierce the heart.' Another remarked that the story of Christ's death
+was very beautiful, but that he knew it was not meant for him; he was a
+'makala' (slave), and such a sacrifice was only for white men and
+princes."
+
+Lionel Decle,[8] who certainly is not prejudiced toward missionaries or
+the Negro, writes of the Barotse tribe in South Africa and their worship
+of ancestors: "They believe in a Supreme Being, Niambe, who is supposed to
+come and take away the spiritual part of the dead." This name "Niambe,"
+for the Deity, is almost exactly the same as "Anyambe," in Benga, two
+thousand miles distant.
+
+Illustrative of traveller Decle's haste or inexactitude in the use of
+language, he apparently contradicts himself on page 153, in speaking of a
+tribe, the Matabele, adjacent to the Barotse: "The idea of a Supreme Being
+is utterly foreign, and cannot be appreciated by the native mind. They
+have a vague idea of a number of evil spirits always ready to do harm, and
+chief among these are the spirits of their ancestors; but they do not pray
+to them to ask for their help if they wish to enter on any undertaking.
+They merely offer sacrifices to appease them when some evil has befallen
+the family."
+
+Perhaps he and other cursory travellers, in making such hasty assertions,
+mean that the native has no idea of the true character of God; in that
+they would be correct.
+
+The accounts which some travellers have given of tribes without religion I
+either set down to misunderstanding, or consider them to be insufficient
+to invalidate the assertion that religion is a universal feature of savage
+life.
+
+However degraded, every people have a religion. But they are children,
+babes in the woods, lost in the forest of ignorance, dense and more
+morally malarious than Stanley's forest of Urega. In their
+helplessness, under a feeling of their "infinite dependence," they cry out
+in the night of their orphanage, "Help us, O Paia Njambe!" Their
+forefathers wandered so far from him that only a name is left by which to
+describe the All-Father, whose true character has been utterly
+forgotten,--so forgotten that they rarely worship him, but have given such
+honor and reverence as they do render literally to the supposed spiritual
+residents in stocks and stones. "Lo! this only have I found, that God hath
+made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."
+
+Offering in the following pages a formulation of African superstitious
+beliefs and practice, I premise that I have gathered them from a very
+large number of native witnesses, very few of whom presented to me all
+the same ideas. Any one else, inquiring of other natives in other places,
+would not find, as held by every one of them, all that I have recorded;
+but parts of all these separate ideas will be found held by separate
+individuals everywhere.
+
+After more than forty years' residence among these tribes, fluently using
+their language, conversant with their customs, dwelling intimately in
+their huts, associating with them in the varied relations of teacher,
+pastor, friend, master, fellow-traveller, and guest, and, in my special
+office as missionary, searching after their religious thought (and
+therefore being allowed a deeper entrance into the arcana of their soul
+than would be accorded to a passing explorer), I am able unhesitatingly to
+say that among all the multitude of degraded ones with whom I have met, I
+have seen or heard of none whose religious thought was only a
+superstition.
+
+Standing in the village street, surrounded by a company whom their chief
+has courteously summoned at my request, when I say to him, "I have come to
+speak to your people," I do not need to begin by telling them that there
+is a God. Looking on that motley assemblage of villagers,--the bold, gaunt
+cannibal with his armament of gun, spear, and dagger; the artisan with
+rude adze in hand, or hands soiled at the antique bellows of the village
+smithy; women who have hasted from their kitchen fire with hands white
+with the manioc dough or still grasping the partly scaled fish; and
+children checked in their play with tiny bow and arrow or startled from
+their dusty street pursuit of dog or goat,--I have yet to be asked, "Who
+is God?"
+
+Under the slightly varying form of Anyambe, Anyambie, Njambi, Nzambi,
+Anzam, Nyam, or, in other parts, Ukuku, Suku, and so forth, they know of a
+Being superior to themselves, of whom they themselves inform me that he is
+the _Maker_ and _Father_. The divine and human relations of these two
+names at once give me ground on which to stand in beginning my address.
+
+If suddenly they should be asked the flat question, "Do you know
+Anyambe?" they would probably tell any white visitor, trader, traveller,
+or even missionary, under a feeling of their general ignorance and the
+white man's superior knowledge, "No! What do _we_ know? You are white
+people and are spirits; you come from Njambi's town, and know all about
+him!" (This will help to explain, what is probably true, that some natives
+have sometimes made the thoughtless admission that they "know nothing
+about a God.") I reply, "No, I am not a spirit; and, while I do indeed
+know about Anyambe, _I_ did not call him by that name. It's your own word.
+Where did you get it?" "Our forefathers told us that name. Njambi is the
+One-who-made-us. He is our Father." Pursuing the conversation, they will
+interestedly and voluntarily say, "He made these trees, that mountain,
+this river, these goats and chickens, and us people."
+
+That typical conversation I have had hundreds of times, under an immense
+variety of circumstances, with the most varied audiences, and before
+extremes of ignorance, savagery, and uncivilization, utterly barring out
+the admission of a probability that the tribe, audience, or individual in
+question had obtained a previous knowledge of the name by hearsay from
+adjacent more enlightened tribes. For the _name_ of that Great Being was
+everywhere and in every tribe before any of them had become enlightened;
+varied in form in each tribe by the dialectic difference belonging to
+their own, and not imported from others,--for, where tribes are hundreds
+of miles apart or their dialects greatly differ, the variation in the name
+is great, _e. g._, "Suku," of the Bihe country, south of the Kongo River
+and in the interior back of Angola, and "Nzam" of the cannibal Fang, north
+of the equator.
+
+But while it is therefore undeniable that a knowledge of this Great Being
+exists among the natives, and that the belief is held that he is a
+superior and even a supreme being, that supremacy is not so great as what
+we ascribe to Jehovah. Nevertheless, I believe that the knowledge of their
+Anzam or Anyambe has come down--clouded though it be and fearfully
+obscured and marred, but still a revelation--from Jehovah Himself. Most of
+the same virtues which we in our enlightened Christianity commend, and
+many of the vices which we denounce, they respectively commend and
+denounce. No one of them praises to me theft or falsehood or murder. They
+speak of certain virtues as "good," and of other things which are "bad,"
+though, just as do the depraved of Christian lands, they follow the vices
+they condemn. True, certain evils they do defend, _e. g._ (as did some of
+our New England ancestors) witchcraft executions, justifying them as
+judicial acts; and polygamy, considering it (as our civilized Mormons) a
+desirable social institution (but, unlike the Mormons, not claiming for it
+the sanction of religion); and slavery, regarded (as only a generation ago
+in the United States) as necessary for a certain kind of property. But
+theft, falsehood, and some other sins, when committed by others, their own
+consciences condemn,--closely covered up and blunted as those consciences
+may be,--thus witnessing with and for God.
+
+While all this is true, their knowledge of God is almost simply a theory.
+It is an accepted belief, but it does not often influence their life. "God
+is not in all their thought." In practice they give Him no worship. God is
+simply "counted out."
+
+Resuming my street-preaching conversation: Immediately after the admission
+by the audience of their knowledge of Anzam as the Creator and Father, I
+say, "Why then do you not obey this Father's commands, who tells you to do
+so and so? Why do you disobey his prohibitions, who forbids you to do so
+and so? Why do you not worship him?" Promptly they reply: "Yes, he made
+us; but, having made us, he abandoned us, does not care for us; he is far
+from us. Why should we care for him? He does not help nor harm us. It is
+the spirits who can harm us whom we fear and worship, and for whom we
+care."
+
+Another witness on this subject is the Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson.[9] Speaking
+of Africa and its Negro inhabitants, he says: "The belief in one great
+Supreme Being is universal. Nor is this idea held imperfectly or obscurely
+developed in their minds. The impression is so deeply engraved upon their
+moral and mental nature that any system of atheism strikes them as too
+absurd and preposterous to require a denial. Everything which transpires
+in the natural world beyond the power of man or of spirits, who are
+supposed to occupy a place somewhat higher than man, is at once and
+spontaneously ascribed to the agency of God. All the tribes in the country
+with which the writer has become acquainted (and they are not few) have a
+name for God; and many of them have two or more, significant of His
+character as a Maker, Preserver, and Benefactor. (In the Grebo country
+Nyiswa is the common name for God; but He is sometimes called Geyi,
+indicative of His character as Maker. In Ashanti He has two names: _viz._,
+Yankumpon, which signifies 'My Great Friend,' and Yemi, 'My Maker.') The
+people, however, have no correct idea of the character or attributes of
+the Deity. Destitute of (a written) revelation, and without any other
+means of forming a correct conception of His moral nature, they naturally
+reason up from their own natures, and, in consequence, think of Him as a
+being like themselves.
+
+"Nor have they any correct notion of the control which God exercises over
+the affairs of the world. The prevailing notion seems to be that God,
+after having made the world and filled it with inhabitants, retired to
+some remote corner of the universe, and has allowed the affairs of the
+world to come under the control of evil spirits; and hence the only
+religious worship that is ever performed is directed to these spirits, the
+object of which is to court their favor, or ward off the evil effects of
+their displeasure.
+
+"On some rare occasions, as at the ratification of an important treaty, or
+when a man is condemned to drink the 'red-water ordeal,' the name of God
+is solemnly invoked; and, what is worthy of note, is invoked _three times_
+with marked precision. Whether this involves the idea of a Trinity we
+shall not pretend to decide; but the fact itself is worthy of record. Many
+of the tribes speak of the 'Son of God.' The Grebos call him 'Greh,' and
+the Amina people, according to Pritchard, call him 'Sankombum.'"
+
+The following testimony I gather from conversations with the late Rev.
+Ibia j'Ikenge, a native minister and member of the Presbytery of
+Corisco, who himself was born in heathenism. He stated:
+
+That his forefathers believed in many inferior agencies who are under the
+control of a Superior Being; that they were therefore primitive
+monotheists. Under great emergencies they looked beyond the lower beings,
+and asked help of that Superior; before doing so, they prayed to him,
+imploring him as Father to help;
+
+That the people of this country believed God made the world and everything
+in it; but he did not know whether they had had any ideas about creation
+from dust of the ground or in God's likeness;
+
+That they believed in the existence, in the first times, of a great man,
+who had simply to speak, and all things were made by the word of his
+power. As to man's creation, a legend states it thus: Two eggs fell from
+on high. On striking the ground and breaking, one became a man and the
+other a woman. (Apparently there is no memory of any legend indicating the
+name, character, or work of the Holy Spirit.)
+
+That there is a legend of a great chief of a village who always warned
+people not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree. Finally, he himself ate
+of it and died;
+
+That there was no legend, but, among a few persons, a vague tradition of a
+once happy period, and of a coming time of good; but he knew of nothing
+corresponding to the story of Cain and Abel;
+
+That there is a fable that a woman brought to the people of her village
+the fruit of a forbidden tree. In order to hide it she swallowed it; and
+she became possessed of an evil spirit, which was the beginning of
+witchcraft; That there was some tradition of a Deluge (he was not aware
+of any about the Dispersion at the Tower of Babel);
+
+That all men believed they were sinners, but that they knew of no remedy
+for sin;
+
+That sacrifices are made constantly, their object being to appease the
+spirits and avert their anger;
+
+That many of the tribes are, and probably all, before they emerged on the
+seacoast, were cannibal (of the origin of cannibalism he did not know, but
+he was certain it had no religious idea associated with it[10]);
+
+That there was a legend that a "Son" of God, by name Ilongo ja Anyambe,
+was to come and deliver mankind from trouble and give them happiness; but
+as he had not as yet come, the heathen were no longer expecting him;
+
+That there was a division of time, six months, making an "upuma," or
+_year_, and a rest day, which came two days after the new moon, and was
+called Buhwa bwa Mandanda,--it was a day for dancing and feasting;
+
+That the dead were usually buried; but persons held in superstitious
+reverence, as twins, Udinge, etc., were not buried, but left at the foot
+of a ceiba, or silk-cotton tree, or other sacred tree;
+
+That burial-places are regarded with a mixed feeling of reverence and awe;
+
+That the immortality of the soul is believed in, but that there is no
+tradition of the resurrection of the body;
+
+That they believe God gave law to mankind, and that, for those who keep
+this law, there is reserved in the future a "good place," and for the bad
+a "bad place," but no definite ideas about what that "good" or that "bad"
+will be, or as to the locality of those places;
+
+That they believe in a distinction of spirits,--that some are _demons_, as
+in the old days of demoniacal possession, this distinction following the
+Jewish idea of diaboloi and daimonai.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+POLYTHEISM--IDOLATRY
+
+
+Civilization and religion do not necessarily move with equal pace.
+Whatever is really best in the ethics of civilization is derived from
+religion. If civilization falls backward, religion probably has already
+weakened or will also fall. The converse is not necessarily true. Religion
+may halt or even retrograde, while civilization steps on brilliantly, as
+it did in Greece with her Parthenon, and in Rome the while that religion
+added to the number of idols in the pantheon. Egypt, too, had her men
+learned in astronomy, who built splendid palaces and hundred-pillared
+Thebes the while they were worshipping Osiris. The dwellers before the
+Deluge had carried their civilization to a knowledge of arts now lost,
+while their wickedness and utter wanderings from God's worship caused the
+earth to cry out for a cleansing Flood.
+
+Whatever therefore may be true in the history of civilization--whether man
+was gifted, _ab initio_, with a large measure of useful knowledge which he
+had simply easily to put into practice; or whether, as a savage, primitive
+man had slowly and painfully to find out under pressure the use of fire,
+clothing, weapons of defence and offence, tools, and other necessary
+articles and arts--is not important here to be discussed. From whatever
+point of vantage, high or low, Adam's sons started, we know that they had
+at least tools for agriculture[11] and for the building of houses;[12] and
+that a few generations later, their knowledge of arts had grown from
+those which aided in the acquisition of the bare necessaries of life into
+the aesthetics of music and metallic ornamentation.[13]
+
+But religion did not wait that length of time for its growth. To the
+original pair in Eden, Jehovah had given a knowledge of Himself. They felt
+His character, they were told His will; and when they had disobeyed that
+will, they were given a promise of salvation, and were instructed in
+certain given rites of worship, _e. g._, offerings and sacrifice. They
+knew[14] the significance of atoning blood, and the difference between a
+simple thank-offering and a sin-offering. All this knowledge of religion
+was not a possession which man had attained by slow degrees. He started
+with it in full possession, while yet he was clothed only in the skins of
+beasts,[15] and before he knew how to make musical instruments or to
+fashion brass and iron. His religion was in advance of his civilization.
+Subsequently his civilization pushed ahead.
+
+What were the gradual steps before the Deluge, in the divergence of man's
+worship of God, is not difficult to imagine if we look at the history of
+the Chaldees, of the Hittites, and of the Jews themselves. Subsequent to
+the Deluge, from the grateful sacrifice of the seventh animal by Noah, to
+Abraham's typical offering of Isaac, it is not a very far cry to the
+butchery of Jephthah's daughter or the immolations to Moloch. A
+well-intended Ed[16] may readily become a schismatic Mecca. An altar of
+Dan is soon furnished with its golden calf.
+
+With this as a starting-point, _viz._, that the knowledge of himself was
+directly imparted to man by Jehovah, and that certain forms of worship
+were originally directed and sanctioned by Him, I wish in subsequent pages
+to follow that line of light through the labyrinths of man's wandering
+from monotheism into polytheism, idolatry, and even into crass fetichism.
+
+Abstract faith is difficult. It is so much easier to believe what we see,
+to have faith assisted by sight. Even such faith is not without its
+blessing, but "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
+believed."[17] Memory is assisted by visible signs; whence the art of
+writing,--in its usefulness so far beyond the Indian's wampum belts.
+Merely oral law is apt to be forgotten, or its requisitions and
+prohibitions become hazy.
+
+As the years passed by, and nations, after the dispersion from the tower
+on the plain of Shinar, diverged more and more, not only in speech and
+writing but also in customs, their religious thought began to vary from
+the simple standard of Adam and Noah. Between those small beginnings of
+variation and the gulf-like depth of the fetich, there are three
+successive steps.
+
+First, retaining the name of and belief in and worship of Jehovah, mankind
+added something else. They associated with Jehovah certain natural
+objects. This, it is readily conceivable, they could do without feeling
+that they were dishonoring Him. They could not see Him; in their
+expression of their wants in prayer they were speaking into vague space
+and heard no audible response. The strain on simple unassisted faith was
+heavy. The senses asked for something on which they could lean. Very
+reasonable, therefore, it was for the pious thought, in speaking to the
+Great Invisible, to associate closely with His name the great natural
+objects in which His character was revealed or illustrated the,--sun,
+shining in strength and beneficently giving life to plants and the comfort
+of its warmth to all creation; the moon, benefiting in a similar though
+less prominent way; the sky, from which spake the thunder; the mountain,
+towering in its solemn majesty; the sea, spread out in its inscrutable
+immensity. All these illustrating some of Jehovah's attributes,--His
+power, goodness, infinity,--without impropriety associated themselves in
+man's thought of God, were named along with His name, and were looked upon
+with some of the same reverence which was accorded to Him. In all this
+there was no conscious departure from the worship of the one living and
+true God. The position to which these great natural objects were gradually
+elevated relatively to God, in the thought of the worshipper, was not as
+yet blasphemous, or in any intentional way derogatory to Him. But the evil
+in this elevation of nature into prominence with God was that there was no
+limit to the number of objects or the degree of their elevation. From the
+dignified use of sun, moon, sky, and sea, by unconscious degradations
+animals became the objects of worship--the bull, the serpent, and the cat
+(each illustrative of some attribute), and thence finally objects that
+were frivolous, ridiculous, or disgusting, which nevertheless were each
+the exponent of some principle. Even the indecencies of Phallic worship
+had found their dignified beginning in an attempt to honor the great
+principle of life in nature's procreative processes.
+
+But there came a time, in the multiplying of the objects illustrative of
+God's attributes, when they, by their very numbers, minimized divine
+dignity. Their constant, visible, tangible presence to the senses began
+not simply passively to represent God, but actively to personify Him, and
+Jehovah was subdivided. He was still the great God; but these others were
+given not only a name, but a personality which shadowed Him and dishonored
+Him, by admitting them to fellowship with Him, and regarding Him as no
+longer alone the great I Am. Though supreme, His supremacy was not
+exclusive; it was comparative. He was over others, who also were gods,
+with whom He shared His power, and to whom was to be given somewhat of His
+worship. He was not indeed denied, but He was dishonored. He became only
+one of the many gods along with Baal and Ashtaroth. But the worship of Him
+was not abandoned. He was worshipped along with these others, as One among
+many. And finally polytheism had become the belief of the world, except of
+the many scattered small communities which, with their priests of the Most
+High God, like Melchisedek and Job, held the true light from extinction.
+"Jehovah" became a name for the Deity of a nation; each nation, while
+reverencing its own god, not denying power to that of another nation.
+Man's little thought was trying to localize the Deity in its own small
+tribal limits.
+
+Philistia worshipped its Dagon, but it feared and made trespass offerings
+to Jehovah of the Ark of Israel's Covenant.[18]
+
+Nebuchadnezzar, startled by a vision of a Son of God in the flame of his
+fiery furnace, in an hour of repentance could decree that the God of
+Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego should not be spoken against.[19] This was
+the second step in religion's retrograde movement. The personified natural
+objects were actually worshipped. No longer considered simply as
+_representatives_ of God, they were actually given a part of God's place,
+and were worshipped as God. The prayer was not, "Jehovah, hear us, for the
+sake of Baal, through whom we plead!" nor "O Baal, present our petition to
+Jehovah!" but, flatly and directly, "O Baal, hear us!"
+
+Having reached in their religious thought this position of a belief in
+many gods, it was a natural and logical result that worship was to be
+rendered to them all. The sacrifices that had been offered to Jehovah
+alone were divided for service to other gods. But it was the same
+religious sentiment, in both monotheist and polytheist, that prompted the
+rendering of prayer, sacrifice, and other service. The same sense of an
+"infinite dependence" that had led arms of weak faith to lay hold for help
+on that which was nearest and most obvious, operated with the heathen who
+had wandered from God, in his petition to his many gods, just as it had
+operated originally with the worshipper of the true God. The sentiment was
+right, the principle was good; only, its application was wrong,--sometimes
+fearfully wrong. Man's religious nature is a force. There are other forces
+in nature that belong to other domains than religion. They are good forces
+if well applied; they become engines of destruction if misapplied or
+applied in excess.
+
+In all history no misapplied force has wrought more fearful evil than the
+religious. It made holy even the atrocities of the Inquisition; it
+ordained a Te Deum for the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.
+
+Similarly mankind found not only justification but propriety in the human
+sacrifices to Moloch, and in the holocausts of the Aztec civilization. If
+in giving a gift of thanks, tribute, admiration, or fear to a human
+friend, ruler, or employer, we choose that which is good and best in our
+own eyes, so as to win the favor of the being to whom it is given, much
+more would we strive to please the god in whose power lies our life,
+health, and prosperity. It was a logical result, therefore, in choosing
+for sacrifice on great emergencies, to select the best-beloved child.
+Moloch would be pleased and propitiated by such a valuable gift. The more
+that the human love was renounced in the agony of the parents' view of
+their child's dying struggle, the more favorable would be the response to
+the worshipper. Under this misapplied religious force an Iphigenia is
+logical, and the Hindu infant cast to Gunga's wave a fitting offering in
+the agonized mother's eyes. But how fearfully mistaken! The religion that
+recognizes and directs such abuse is a "false religion," as compared with
+Christianity; not in the sense that it has nothing good in it, but in the
+falsity of the objects of its worship and in the cruelty of the rites
+employed in that worship. In the genera of the sciences there is only one
+species of religion, but that one species has many varieties. In this
+sense Calvin is correct if, in speaking of the "immense welter of errors"
+in which the whole world outside of Christianity is immersed, "he regards
+his own religion as the true one and all the others were false." The
+function of a comparative study of religions is to point out the
+connecting line of truth running through the mass of error. Back of all
+the cruelty and error and falsity in polytheism lie the proper sense of
+need, the natural feeling of helplessness in the great emergencies of
+life, and the commendable desire to honor the Being known under different
+names as Jehovah, Moloch, Jupiter, Allah, Budh, Brahm, Odin, or Anyambe;
+to which Being His children all over the world looked up as the
+All-Father. But the _descensus Averni_ from the One living and true God
+soon multiplied gods, dividing among many the attributes that had been
+centred in the One, and finally carried man's religious thought so far
+from God that only His name was retained, while the trust which had
+belonged to Him alone was scattered over a multitude of objects that were
+not even dignified with the name "gods." Worship of ancestors was
+established. Great human benefactors, heroic human beings, were deified
+and canonized. The whole air of the world became peopled with spiritual
+influences; literally "stocks and stones" became animated with demons of
+varying power and disposition; and fetichism erected itself as a kind of
+religion.
+
+I see nothing to justify the theory of Menzies[20] that primitive man or
+the untutored African of to-day, in worshipping a tree, a snake, or an
+idol, originally worshipped those very objects themselves, and that the
+suggestion that they represented, or were even the dwelling-place of, some
+spiritual Being is an after-thought up to which he has grown in the lapse
+of the ages. The rather I see every reason to believe that the thought of
+the Being or Beings as an object of worship has come down by tradition and
+from direct original revelation of Jehovah Himself. The assumption of a
+visible, tangible object to represent or personify that Being is the
+after-thought that human ingenuity has added. The civilized Romanist
+claims that he does not worship the actual sign of the cross, but the
+Christ who was crucified on it; similarly, the Dahomian, in his worship of
+a snake.
+
+Rev. J. L. Wilson, D.D.,[21] says of the condition of Dahomy fifty years
+ago, that in Africa "there is no place where there is more intense
+heathenism; and to mention no other feature in their superstitious
+practices, the worship of snakes at this place [Whydah] fully illustrates
+this remark. A house in the middle of the town is provided for the
+exclusive use of these reptiles, and they may be seen here at any time in
+very great numbers. They are fed, and more care is taken of them than of
+the human inhabitants of the place. If they are seen straying away, they
+must be brought back; and at the sight of them the people prostrate
+themselves on the ground and do them all possible reverence. To kill or
+injure one of them is to incur the penalty of death. On certain occasions
+they are taken out by the priests or doctors, and paraded about the
+streets, the bearers allowing them to coil themselves around their arms,
+necks, and bodies. They are also employed to detect persons who have been
+guilty of witchcraft. If, in the hands of the priest, they bite the
+suspected person, it is sure evidence of his guilt; and no doubt the
+serpent is trained to do the will of his keeper in all such cases. Images,
+usually called 'gregrees,' of the most uncouth shape and form, may be seen
+in all parts of the town, and are worshipped by all classes of persons.
+Perhaps there is no place in Africa where idolatry is more openly
+practised, or where the people have sunk into deeper pagan darkness."
+
+Also, of the people on the southwest coast at Loango: "The people of
+Loango are more addicted to idol worship than any other people on the
+whole coast. They have a great many carved images which they set up in
+their fetich houses and in their private dwellings, and which they
+worship; but whether these images represent their forefathers, as is the
+case among the Mpongwe (at Gabun), is not certainly known."[22]
+
+Having thus followed the religious thought of mankind in its divagation
+from monotheistic worship of the true God, down through polytheism and
+idolatrous sacrifices, to the worship of ancestors, we have reached a
+third stage, where the worship of God is not only divided between Him and
+other objects, but, a step beyond, God Himself is quietly disregarded, and
+the worship due Him is transferred to a multitude of spiritual agencies
+under His power, but uncontrolled by it.
+
+The details of this stage in the religious worship known as fetichism will
+be considered in the following chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN AFRICAN RELIGION
+
+
+The belief in spiritual beings opens an immense vista of the purely
+superstitious side of the theology of Bantu African religion.
+
+All the air and the future is peopled with a large and indefinite company
+of these beings. The attitude of the Creator (Anyambe) toward the human
+race and the lower animals being that of indifference or of positive
+severity in having allowed evils to exist, and His indifference making Him
+almost inexorable, cause effort in the line of worship to be therefore
+directed only to those spirits who, though they are all probably
+malevolent, may be influenced and made benevolent.
+
+
+I. ORIGIN.
+
+The native thought in regard to the origin of spirits is vague;
+necessarily so. An unwritten belief that is not based upon revelation from
+a superior source nor on an induction from actual experience and
+observation, but that is added to and varied by every individual's fancy,
+can be expressed in definite words only after inquiry among many as to
+their ideas on the subject. These, I find, coincide on a few lines; just
+as the consensus of opinion on any subject in any community will find
+itself running in certain channels, influenced by the utterances of the
+stronger or wiser leaders.
+
+1. It appears, therefore, that some of the spirits seem to have been
+conterminous with the life of Paia-Njambi in the eternities. An eternity
+past, impossible as it is for any one to comprehend, is yet a thing
+thinkable even with the Bantu African, for he has words to express
+it,--"peke-na-jome," ever-and-beyond, "tamba-na-ngama,"
+unknown-and-secret.
+
+Away back in that unknown time existed Paia-Njambi. Whence or how, is not
+asked by the natives; nor have I had any attempt even of a reply to my own
+inquiries. He simply existed. They are not sufficiently absurd to say that
+He created Himself. To do that He would need to antedate Himself. I have
+met none who thought sufficiently on the subject to worry their minds, as
+we in our civilization often do, in effort to go back and back to the
+unthinkable point in time past when God was not. Indeed so little is the
+native mind in the habit of any such research that I can readily perceive
+how their "We don't know" could easily be misunderstood by a foreign
+traveller, scientist, or even missionary, as a confession that "they did
+not know God,"--a statement which is true, but not the equivalent of, or
+synonymous with, that traveller's assertion that the native _had no idea
+of a God_. The native thought, wiser than ours, simply and unreasoningly
+says, "He is, He was." Conterminous with Him in origin there may have been
+some other spirits. This has been said to me by a very few persons with
+some hesitation. But if those spirits were indeed equal in existence with
+Njambi, they were in no respect equal to Him in character or power, and
+had no hand in the creation of other beings. In the Mpongwe tribe at Gabun
+one writer, Rev. J. L. Wilson, D.D., fifty years ago, thought the belief
+existed that "next to God in the government of the world are two spirits,
+one of whom, Onyambe, is hateful and wicked. The people seldom speak of
+Onyambe, and always evince displeasure when the name is mentioned in their
+presence. His influence over the affairs of men, in their estimation, does
+not amount to much; and the probability is that they have no very definite
+notions about the real character of this spirit." His character would be
+indicated by his name, O-nya-mbe (He-who-is-bad). This name has sometimes
+been used by missionaries to translate our word "devil." Perhaps the idea
+of the word itself came from long-ago contact of this coast tribe with
+foreigners.
+
+2. A second and more recognized source of supply to the company of spirits
+is original creation by Njambi. While this origin is named by some, I have
+not found it believed in to any very great extent. Even those whom I did
+find believing it had very vague ideas as to the mode or object of their
+creation. Of the Creation of mankind, and even of the Fall, almost all of
+the tribes have legends, more or less distinct, and with a modicum of
+truth, doubtless derived from traditions coinciding with the Mosaic
+history; but of a previous creation of purely spiritual beings I have
+found no legend nor well-defined story. If such specially created spirits
+exist at all, their relation to Njambi is of a very shadowy kind; they
+are, indeed, inferior to Him, and are in theory under His government in
+the same sense that human beings are. But Njambi, in His far-off
+indifference in actual practice, does not interfere with or control them
+or their actions. They are part of the motley inhabitants of "Njambi's
+Town," the place of the Great Unknown, as also are all the other living
+beasts and beings of creation. They also have their separate habitat, and
+pursue their own devices, generally malevolent, with the children of men.
+
+3. But the general consensus of opinion is that the world of spirits is
+peopled by the souls of dead human beings. This presupposes a belief in a
+future life, the existence of which in the native mind some travellers
+have doubted. I have never met that doubt from the native himself. While I
+do not impute to the travellers referred to any desire, in their efforts
+at describing the low grade of intelligence or religious belief of certain
+tribes, to misrepresent, I fully believe they were mistaken, their mistake
+arising from misunderstanding. It is not probable that they met, in the
+course of their few years, what I have not met with in a lifetime. It is
+probable that natives had expressed to them a doubt, or even ignorance, of
+a general resurrection, and may have said to them, as a few have said to
+me, "No, we do not live again; we are like goats and dogs and
+chickens,--when we die that is the end of us." Such a statement is indeed
+a denial of the resurrection of the body, but it is not a denial of a
+continued existence of the soul in another life. The very people who made
+the above declaration to me preserved their family fetich, made sacrifices
+to the spirits of their ancestors, and appealed to them for aid in their
+family undertakings. The few who have expressed a belief in transmigration
+did not consider that the residence of a human spirit in the body of a
+beast was a permanent state; it was a temporary condition, assumed by the
+spirit voluntarily for its own pleasure or convenience, and terminable at
+its own will, precisely as human spirits during their mortal life are,
+everywhere and by all, believed capable of temporarily deserting their own
+human body and controlling the actions of a beast. This belief in
+transmigration, though not general, has been found among individuals in
+almost all tribes.
+
+It being thus generally accepted that all departed human souls become
+spirits of that future that is all around us, there is still a difference
+in the testimony of intelligent witnesses as to who and what, or even how
+many, of these souls are in one human being. (1) Ordinarily, the native
+will say in effect, "I am one, and my soul is also myself. When I die, it
+goes out somewhere else." (2) Others will say, "I have two things,--one is
+the thing that becomes a spirit when I die, the other is the spirit of the
+body and dies with it." (This "other" may be only a personification of
+what we specify as the animal life.) But it has frequently occurred that
+even intelligent natives, standing by me at the side of a dying person,
+have said to me, "He is dead." The patient was indeed unconscious, lying
+stiff, not seeing, speaking, eating, or apparently feeling; yet there was
+a slight heart-beat. I would point out to the relatives these evidences of
+life. But they said: "No, he is dead. His spirit is gone, he does not see
+nor hear nor feel; that slight movement is only the spirit of the body
+shaking itself. It is not a person, it is not our relative; _he_ is dead."
+And they began to prepare the body for burial. A man actually came to me
+on Corisco Island, in 1863, asking me for medicine with which to kill or
+quiet the body-spirit of his mother, whose motions were troubling him by
+preventing the funeral arrangements. I was shocked at what I thought his
+attempt at matricide, but subsequently found that he really did believe
+that his mother was dead and her real soul gone.
+
+Such attempt to distinguish between soul-life and body-life has not
+infrequently led to premature burial. The supposed corpse has sometimes
+risen to consciousness on the way to the grave. A long-protracted sickness
+of some not very valuable member of the village has wearied the
+attendants; they decide that the body, though mumbling inarticulate words
+and aimlessly fingering with its arms, is no longer occupied by its
+personal soul; _that_ has emerged. "He is dead"; and they proceed to bury
+him alive. Yet they deny that they have done so. They insist that _he_ was
+not alive; only his body was "moving." Proof of premature burial has been
+found by discoveries made in the practice of a custom which is observed
+when a village has been afflicted with various troubles after the death of
+one of its members. The villagers, after ineffectual efforts to drive away
+the evil influences that are supposed to cause these troubles, decide that
+the spirit of some dead relative is dissatisfied about something, and
+order the grave to be opened and the bones rearranged or even thrown into
+the river or sea. On opening the grave, corpses that had been buried in a
+recumbent position have been found in a sitting position. It is possible
+for one thus prematurely buried to change posture in a dying struggle;
+for, mostly, heathen graves are shallow, and are hastily and not always
+completely filled in.
+
+(3) Another set of witnesses will say that, besides the personal soul and
+the soul of the body, there is a third entity in the human unit, namely, a
+dream-soul. That it is which leaves the body on occasions during sleep,
+and, wandering off, delights itself by visiting strange lands and strange
+scenes. On its return to the body its union with the material blunts its
+perceptions, and the person, in his efforts to remember or tell what he
+has seen, relates only the vagaries of a dream,--a psychological view
+which, under the manipulation of a ready pen, could give play to fantasies
+pretty, romantic, not unreasonable, and not impossible.
+
+Some who are only dualists, nevertheless, believe in the wanderings of
+this so-called dream-soul, but say that it is the personal soul itself
+that has gone out and has returned. Both dualists and trinitarians add
+that sometimes in its wanderings this soul loses its way and cannot find
+its body, its material home; should it never return, the person will
+sicken and die.
+
+(4) A fourth entity is vaguely spoken of by some as a component part of
+the human personality, by others as separate but closely associated from
+birth to death, and called the life-spirit. Some speak of it as a
+civilized person speaks of a guardian angel. Regarded in that light, it
+should not be considered as one of the several _kinds_ of souls, but as
+one of the various _classes_ of spirits (which will be discussed in a
+subsequent chapter). To it worship is rendered by its possessor as to
+other spirits,--a worship, however, different from that which is performed
+for what are known and used as "familiar spirits." Others speak of the
+vague life-spirit as the "heart." The organ of our anatomy which we
+designate by that name, they call by a word which variously means "heart"
+or "feelings," much like our old English "bowels," the same word being
+employed equally to designate a physical organ and a mental state.
+Considering the organic heart as the seat (or a seat) of life, the natives
+believe that by witchcraft a person in health can be deprived of his
+life-soul, or "heart"; that he will then sicken; that the wizard or witch
+feasts in his or her magic orgy on this "heart," and that the person will
+die if that heart is not returned to him.
+
+
+II. NUMBER.
+
+But whatever this human soul may be, whether existing in unity, duality,
+trinity, or quadruplicity, all agree in believing that it adds itself, on
+the death of the body, as another to the multitudinous company of the
+spirit-world. That world is all around us, and does not differ much in its
+wants and characteristics from this earthly life, except that it is free
+from some of the limitations to which material bodies are subject. In that
+spirit-world they require the same food as when on earth, but consume only
+its essence; the visible substance remains. They are possessed of all
+their human passions, both bad and good. Men expect to have their wives
+with them in that future, but I have never heard the idea even named, that
+there is procreation by spirits in that after-world. Not having believed
+during this life in a system of reward and punishment, they have no belief
+in heaven or hell. All the dead go to Njambi's Town, and live in that new
+life together, good and bad, as they lived together on earth. The "hell"
+spoken of by some of my informants, I believe, is not a native thought; it
+was probably engrafted on the coast tribes by the Portuguese Roman
+Catholic missionaries of three hundred years ago.
+
+If therefore the spirits consist almost entirely of the souls of departed
+human beings, how immense their number! Equal in number with all the dead
+that have passed from this life in the ages gone by, excepting those who
+have gone permanently into the bodies of new human beings. That form of
+metempsychosis is believed in. Occasional instances of belief of
+transmigration into the body of a lower animal do not necessarily include
+the idea of a permanent residence there, or that the departed soul has
+lost its personality as a human being and has become the soul of a beast.
+
+But the idea of reappearance in the body of a newly born child was
+formerly believed in, especially in regard to white people. Thirty years
+ago I wrote:[23] "Down the swift current of the Benita, as of other rivers
+on the coast, are swept floating islands of interlaced rushes, tangled
+vines, and water-lilies that, clinging to some projecting log from the
+marshy bank, had gathered the sand and mud of successive freshets, and
+gave a precarious footing for the pandanus, whose wiry roots bound all in
+one compact mass. Then some flood had torn that mass away, and the
+pandanus still waving its long, bayonet-like leaves, convolvuli still
+climbing and blooming, and birds still nesting trustfully, the floating
+island glided past native eyes down the stream, out over the bar, and on
+toward the horizon of broad ocean. What beyond? Native superstition said
+that at the bottom of the 'great sea' was 'whiteman's land'; that thither
+some of their own departed friends found their happy future, exchanging a
+dusky skin for a white one; that there white man's magic skill at will
+created the beads, and cloth, and endless wealth that came from that
+unknown land in ships, in whose masts and rigging and sails were
+recognized the transformed trees and vines and leaves of those floating
+islands. When on the 12th of July, 1866, a few with bated breath came to
+look on my little new-born Paull, the only white child most of the
+community had seen, and the first born in that Benita region, the old
+people said, 'Now our hopes are dead. Dying, we had hoped to become like
+you; but verily ye are born as we.'"
+
+Not long after I had arrived at Corisco Island in 1861 I observed among
+the many people who came to see the new missionary one man who quietly and
+unobtrusively but very steadily was gazing at me. After a while he
+mustered courage and addressed me: "Are you not my brother,--my brother
+who died at such a time, and went to White Man's Land?" I was at that time
+new to the superstitions of the country; his meaning had to be explained
+to me. His thought of relationship was not an impossible one, for many of
+the Bantu Negroes have somewhat Caucasian-like features. I have often seen
+men and women at the sight of whom I was surprised, and I would remark to
+a fellow-missionary: "How much this person reminds me of So-and-so in
+America!" This recognition of resemblance of features to white persons
+living in America was the third step in my acquaintance with native faces.
+At first, all Negro faces looked alike. Presently I learned differences;
+and when I had reached the third step, I felt that my acquaintance with
+African features was complete.
+
+
+III. LOCALITY.
+
+The locality of these spirits is not only vaguely in the surrounding air;
+they are also localized in prominent natural objects,--caves, enormous
+rocks, hollow trees, dark forests,--in this respect reminding one of
+classic fauns and dryads. While all have the ability to move from place to
+place, some especially belong to certain localities which are spoken of as
+having, as the case might be, "good" or "bad" spirits. It is possible for
+a human soul (as already mentioned in this chapter) to inhabit the body of
+a beast. A man whose plantation was being devastated near Benita by an
+elephant told me, in 1867, he did not dare to shoot it, because the spirit
+of his lately deceased father had passed into it. Also a common
+objurgation of an obstreperous child or animal is, "O na nyemba!" (Thou
+hast a witch.)
+
+Their habitats may be either natural or acquired. Natural ones are, for
+the spirits of the dead, in a very special sense, the villages where they
+had dwelt during the lifetime of the body; but the presence of the spirits
+of the dead is not desired. It is one of the pitiable effects of African
+superstition that its subjects look with fear and dread on what the
+denizens of civilization look with love and tender regret. We in our
+Christian civilization cling to the lifeless forms of our dead; and when
+necessity compels us to bury them from our sight, we bid memory call up
+every lineament of face and tone of voice, and are pleased to think that
+sometimes they are near us. But it is a frequent native practice that on
+the occasion of a death, even while a portion of the family are wailing
+and to all appearances passionately mourning the loss of their relative,
+others are firing guns, blowing trumpets, beating drums, shouting and
+yelling, in order to drive away from the village the recently disembodied
+spirit. On consideration, it can be seen that these two diverse
+demonstrations are sincere, consistent, and, to the natives, reasonable.
+With natural affection they mourn the absence of a tangible _person_ who,
+as a member of their family, was helpful and even kind; while they fear
+the independent existence of the invisible thing, whose union with the
+physical body they fail to recognize as having been a factor in that
+helpfulness and kindness. This departed spirit, joining the company of
+other departed spirits, will indeed become an object of worship,--a
+worship of principally a deprecatory nature; but its continued presence
+and immediate contact with its former routine are not desired. In
+Mashonaland the native fears death by accident or human enmity. "But a
+greater dread than this is of a visitation of evil by the spirit of a
+departed friend or relative whom he may have slighted while living."
+
+A village in Nazareth Bay, the embouchure of one of the mouths of the
+Ogowe River, is called "Abun-awiri" ("awiri," plural of "ombwiri," a
+certain class of spirits, and "abuna," abundance).
+
+Large, prominent trees are inhabited by spirits. Many trees in the
+equatorial West African forest throw out from their trunks, at from ten to
+sixteen feet from the ground, solid buttresses continuous with the body of
+the tree itself, only a few inches in thickness, but in width at the base
+of the tree from four to six feet. These buttresses are projected toward
+several opposite points of the compass, as if to resist the force of
+sudden wind-storms. They are a noticeable forest feature and are commonly
+seen in the silk-cotton trees. The recesses between them are actually used
+as lairs by small wild animals. They are supposedly also a favorite home
+of the spirits.
+
+Caverns and large rocks have their special spirit inhabitants. At Gabun,
+and also on Corisco Island, geological breaks in the horizontal strata of
+rock were filled by narrow vertical strata of limestone, between which
+water action has worn away the softer rock, leaving the limestone walls
+isolated, with a narrow ravine between them. These ravines were formerly
+reverenced as the abodes of spirits.
+
+When I made a tour in 1882, surveying for a second Ogowe Station, I came
+some seventy miles up river from my well-established first station,
+Kangwe, at Lambarene, to an enormous rock, a granite boulder, lying in the
+bed of the river. The adjacent hillsides on either bank of the river were
+almost impassable, being covered with boulders of all sizes, and a heavy
+forest growing in among and even on them. This great rock had evidently in
+the long past become detached by torrential streams that scored the
+mountainside in the heavy rainy season and had plunged to its present
+position. The swift river current swirled and dashed against the huge
+obstruction to navigation, making the ascent of the river at that point
+particularly difficult. Superstition suggested that the spirits of the
+rock did not wish boats or canoes to pass their abode. Nevertheless,
+necessities of trade compelled; and crews in passing made an ejaculatory
+prayer, or doffed their head coverings, in respect, but with the fear that
+the "ascent" in that part of the journey might be for "woe," whence they
+called the rock "Itala-ja-maguga," which, contracted to "Talaguga," I gave
+as a name to my new station, erected in 1882 in the vicinity of the rock.
+During my eight subsequent years at the station I did, indeed, meet with
+some "woe," but also much weal. And the missionary work of Talaguga,
+carried on since 1892 by the hands of the Societe Evangelique de Paris,
+has met with signal success.
+
+Capes, promontories, and other prominent points of land are favorite
+dwelling-places of the spirits. The Ogowe River, some one hundred and
+forty miles from its mouth, receives on its left bank a large affluent,
+the Ngunye, coming from the south. The low point of land at the junction
+of the two rivers was sacred. The riverine tribes themselves would pass it
+in canoes, respectfully removing their head coverings; but passage was
+forbidden to coast tribes and other foreigners. Portuguese slave-traders
+might come to the point; but, stopping there, they could trade beyond only
+through the hands of the local tribe (evidently superstition had been
+invoked to protect a trade monopoly). A certain trader, Mr. R. B. N.
+Walker, agent for the English firm of Hatton & Cookson, headquarters at
+Libreville, Gabun, in extending his commercial interests some forty years
+ago, made an overland journey from the Gabun River, emerging on the Ogowe,
+on its right bank, _above_ that sacred point. Ranoke, chief of the Inenga
+tribe, a few miles below, seized him, his porters, and his goods, and kept
+them prisoners for several months. Mr. Walker succeeded in bribing a
+native to carry a letter to the French Commandant at Libreville, who was
+pleased to send a gunboat to the rescue. Incidentally it furnished a good
+opportunity to demonstrate France's somewhat shadowy claim to the Ogowe.
+After the rescue a company from the gunboat proceeded to the Point and
+lunched there, thus effectually desecrating it. Mr. Walker made peace with
+his late captor, and established a trading-station at the Inenga village,
+Lambarene. For years afterward, natives still looked upon that Point with
+respect. My own crew in 1874 sometimes doffed their hats; but before I
+left the Ogowe in 1891, a younger generation had grown up that was willing
+to camp and eat and sleep there with me, on my boat journeys.
+
+Graveyards, of course, are homes of spirits, and therefore are much
+dreaded. The tribes, especially of the interior, differ very much as to
+burial customs. Some bury only their chiefs and other prominent men,
+casting away corpses of slaves or of the poor into the rivers, or out on
+the open ground, perhaps covering them with a bundle of sticks; even when
+graves are dug they are shallow. Some tribes fearlessly bury their dead
+under the clay floors of their houses, or a few yards distant in the
+kitchen-garden generally adjoining. But, by most tribes who do bury at
+all, there are chosen as cemeteries dark, tangled stretches of forest,
+along river banks on ground that is apt to be inundated or whose soil is
+not good for plantation purposes. I had often observed, in my earlier
+African years, such stretches of forest along the river, and wondered why
+the people did not use them for cultivation, being conveniently near to
+some village, while they would go a much longer distance to make their
+plantations. The explanation was that these were graveyards. Such
+stretches would extend sometimes for a mile or two. Often my hungry meal
+hour on a journey happened to coincide with our passing just such a piece
+of forest, and the crew would refuse to stop, keeping themselves and
+myself hungry till we could arrive at more open forest.
+
+In Eastern Africa it is believed that "the dead in their turn become
+spirits under the all-embracing name of Musimo. The Wanyamwezi hold their
+Musimo in great dread and veneration, as well as the house, hut, or place
+where their body has died."[24]
+
+Beyond the regularly recognized habitats of the spirits that may be called
+"natural" to them, any other location may be _acquired_ by them
+temporarily, for longer or shorter periods, under the power of the
+incantations of the native doctor (uganga). By his magic arts any spirit
+may be localized in any object whatever, however small or insignificant;
+and, while thus limited, is under the control of the doctor and
+subservient to the wishes of the possessor or wearer of the material
+object in which it is thus confined. This constitutes a "fetich," which
+will be more fully discussed in another chapter.
+
+
+IV. CHARACTERISTICS.
+
+The characteristics of these spirits are much the same as those they
+possessed before they were disembodied. They have most of the evil human
+passions, _e. g._, anger and revenge, and therefore may be malevolent. But
+they possess also the good feelings of generosity and gratitude; they are
+therefore within reach of influence, and may be benevolent. Their possible
+malevolence is to be deprecated, their anger placated, their aid enlisted.
+
+Illustration of malevolence in their character has already been seen in
+the dread connected with deaths and funerals. The similar dread of
+graveyards in our civilized countries may rest on the fear inspired by
+what is mysterious or by those who have passed to the unknown, simply
+because it and they are unknown. But, to superstitious Africa, that
+unknown is a certainty, in that it is a source of evil; the spirit of the
+departed has all the capacity for evil it possessed while embodied, with
+the additional capacity that its exemption from some of the limitations of
+time and space increases its facilities for action. Being unseen, it can
+act at immensely greater advantage for accomplishing a given purpose.
+Natives dying have gone into the other world retaining an acute memory of
+some wrong inflicted on them by fellow-villagers, and have openly said,
+"From that other world I will come back and avenge myself on you!"
+
+In any contest of a human being against these spirits of evil he knows
+always that whatever influence he may obtain over them by the doctor's
+magic aid, or whatever limitations may thus be put on them, they can
+never, as in the case of a human enemy, be killed. The spirits can never
+die.
+
+Sometimes the word "dead" is used of a fetich amulet that has been
+inhabited by a spirit conjured into it by a native doctor. The phrase does
+not mean that its spirit is actually dead, but that it has fled from
+inside of the fetich, and still lives elsewhere. Then the native doctor,
+to explain to his patient or client the inefficacy of the charm, says that
+the cause of the spirit's escape and flight is that the wearer has failed
+to observe all the directions which had been given, and the spirit was
+displeased. The dead amulet is, nevertheless, available for sale to the
+curio-hunting foreigner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN AFRICA--THEIR CLASSES AND FUNCTIONS
+
+
+Inequalities among the spirits themselves, though they are so great,
+indicate no more than simple differentiations of character or work. Yet so
+radical are these varieties, and so distinct the names applied to them,
+that I am compelled to recognize a division into classes.
+
+
+CLASSES AND FUNCTIONS.
+
+1. _Inina, or Ilina._ A human embodied soul is spoken of and fully
+believed in by all the tribes. It is known in the Mpongwe tribes of the
+Gabun country as "inina" (plural, "anina"); in the adjacent Benga tribe,
+as "ilina" (plural, "malina"); in the great interior Fang tribes, as
+"nsisim."
+
+This animating soul, whether it be only one, or whether it appear in two,
+three, or even four forms, is practically the same, that talks, hears, and
+feels, that sometimes goes out of the body in a dream, and that exists as
+a spirit after the death of the body. That it has its own especial
+materiality seems to be indicated by the fact that in the Fang, Bakele,
+and other tribes the same word "nsisim" means not only soul but also
+shadow. The shadow of a tree or any other inanimate object and of the
+human body as cast by the sun is "nsisim."
+
+In my first explorations up the Ogowe River, in 1874, as in my village
+preaching I necessarily and constantly spoke of our soul, its sins, its
+capacity for suffering or happiness, and its relation to its divine Maker,
+I was often at a loss how to make my thoughtless audience understand or
+appreciate that the nsisim of which I was speaking was not the nsisim cast
+by the sun as a darkish line on the ground near their bodies. Even to
+those who understood me, it was not an impossible thought that that dark
+narrow belt on the ground was in some way a part of, or a mode of
+manifestation of, that other thing, the nsisim, which they admitted was
+the source of the body's animation. So far defined was that thought with
+some of them that they said it was a possible thing for a human being to
+have his nsisim stolen or otherwise lost, and still exist in a diseased
+and dying state; in which case his body would not cast a shadow. Von
+Chamisso's story of Peter Schlemehl, "the man who lost his shadow," in
+actuality!
+
+So few are the special activities by which to distinguish anina from other
+classes of spirits, that I might doubt whether they should properly be
+considered as distinct, were it not true that the anina are all of them
+embodied spirits; none of them are of other origin. As disembodied
+spirits, retaining memory of their former human relationships, they have
+an interest in human affairs, and especially in the affairs of the family
+of which they were lately members.
+
+2. _Ibambo_ (Mpongwe; plural, "abambo"). There are vague beings, "abambo,"
+which may well be described by our word "ghosts." Where they come from is
+not certainly known, or what locality they inhabit, except that they
+belong to the world of spirits. Why they become visible is also unknown.
+They are not called for, they are only occasionally worshipped; their
+epiphany is dreaded, not reverenced.
+
+"The term 'abambo' is in the plural form, and may therefore be regarded as
+forming a class of spirits instead of a single individual. They are the
+spirits of dead men; but whether they are positively good or positively
+evil, to be loved or to be hated, or to be courted or avoided, are points
+which no native of the country can answer satisfactorily. Abambo are the
+spirits of the ancestors of the people of a tribe or race, as
+distinguished from the spirits of strangers. These are the spirits with
+which men are possessed, and there is no end to the ceremonies used to
+deliver them from their power."[25]
+
+The ibambo may appear anywhere and at any time and to anybody, but it has
+no message. It rarely speaks. Its most common effect on human lives is to
+frighten. It flits; it does not remain in one spot, to speak or to be
+spoken to. Indistinctly seen, its appearances are reported as occurring
+mostly in dark places, in shadows, in twilight, and on dark nights. The
+most common apparitions are on lonely paths in the forest by night.
+
+To all intents and purposes these abambo are what superstitious fears in
+our civilization call "ghosts." The timid dweller in civilization can no
+more tell us what that ghost is than can the ignorant African. It is as
+difficult in the one case as in the other to argue against the unreal and
+unknown. What the frightened eye or ear believes it saw or heard, it
+persists in believing against all proof. Nor will ridicule make the belief
+less strong. However, the intelligent child in civilization, under the
+hand of a judicious parent or other friend, and relying on love as an
+expounder, can be led to understand by daylight, that the white bark of a
+tree trunk shimmering in uncertain moonlight, or a white garment flapping
+in the wind, or a white animal grazing in the meadow, was the ghost whose
+waving form had scared him the night before. His superstition is not so
+ingrained by daily exercise but that reason and love can divest him of it.
+But to the denizen of Fetich-land superstition is religion; the night
+terror which he is sure he saw is too real a thing in his life to be
+identified by day as only a harmless white-barked tree or quartz rock.
+
+3. A third class of spirits is represented by the name _Ombwiri_. The
+"ombwiri" (Mpongwe; plural, "awiri") is certainly somewhat local, and in
+this respect might be regarded as akin to the ancient fauns and dryads,
+with a suggestion of a likeness to the spirits resident in the dense oak
+groves and the massive stones of the Druid Circle. But the awiri are more
+than dryads. They are not confined to their local rock, tree, bold
+promontory, or point of land, trespass on which by human beings they
+resent. The traveller must go by silently, or with some cabalistic
+invocation, with bowed or bared head, and with some offering,--anything,
+even a pebble. On the beach, as I bend to pass beneath an enormous tree
+fallen across the pathway, I observe the upper side of the log covered
+with votive offerings,--pebbles, shells, leaves, etc.,--laid there by
+travellers as they stooped to pass under. Such votive collections may be
+seen on many spots along the forest paths, deposited there by the natives
+as an invocation of a blessing on their journey.
+
+"The derivation of the word 'Ombwiri' is not known. As it is used in the
+plural as well as in the singular form, it no doubt represents a class or
+family of spirits. He is regarded as a tutelar or guardian spirit. Almost
+every man has his own ombwiri, for which he provides a small house near
+his own. All the harm that he has escaped in this world, and all the good
+secured, are ascribed to the kindly offices of this guardian spirit.
+Ombwiri is also regarded as the author of everything in the world which is
+marvellous or mysterious. Any remarkable feature in the physical aspect of
+the country, any notable phenomenon in the heavens, or extraordinary
+events in the affairs of men are ascribed to Ombwiri. His favorite places
+of abode are the summits of high mountains, deep caverns, large rocks, and
+the base of very large forest trees. And while the people attach no
+malignity to his character, they carefully guard against all unnecessary
+familiarity in their intercourse with him, and never pass a place where he
+is supposed to dwell except in silence. He is the only one of all the
+spirits recognized by the people that has no priesthood; his intercourse
+with men being direct and immediate."[26]
+
+These spirits are sometimes spoken of with the nkinda and olaga (Mpongwe;
+plural, "ilaga"). They all come from the spirits of the dead. These
+several names indicate a difference as to kind or class of spirit, and a
+difference in the work or functions they are called upon to exercise. The
+ilaga are spirits of strangers, and have come from a distance.
+
+While the ombwiri is indeed feared, it is with a respectful reverence,
+different from the dread of an ibambo. Ombwiri is fine and admirable in
+aspect, but is very rarely seen; it is white, like a white person. Souls
+of distinguished chiefs and other great men turn to awiri. The fear with
+which the native regards massive rocks and large trees--the ombwiri
+homes--need not be felt by white people, who are themselves considered
+awiri, without its being clearly understood whether their bodies are
+inhabited by the departed spirits of the Negro dead, or whether some came
+from other sources.
+
+The awiri are generally favorably disposed, especially to their former
+human relatives; but it is necessary to gratify them with religious
+services constituting an ancestral worship. While some of them reside in
+great rocks or trees, others dwell in rivers, lakes, and seas.
+
+Awiri, if they love a person and desire to favor him or her, have the
+special power to grant a gift desired by most Africans, _viz._, the birth
+of children. The awiri live mostly in the region of their own former human
+tribe. It is possible, however, for them to go everywhere; but they
+usually remain within their old tribal limits. If, however, a tribe should
+remove or become extinct, their awiri would still remain in that region,
+and would affiliate with the new people who might come to occupy the
+deserted village sites.
+
+Awiri have a period of inactivity, the cold dry season of four months (in
+western Equatorial Africa), May to September. At that time they become
+very small, inactive, and almost lifeless (a condition of hibernation,
+somewhat like that of bears; or of inertia, as when a snake casts its
+skin?).
+
+4. There is another class of spirits called _Sinkinda_ (singular,
+"nkinda"), some of whom are the spirits of people who in the ordinary
+stations of life were "common," or not distinguished for greatness or
+goodness. Others of these sinkinda are of uncertain origin, perhaps demons
+whom Njambi had created, but to whom He had never given bodily existence.
+
+Almost all sinkinda are evilly disposed. They come to the villages on
+visits to warm themselves by the kitchen fires or out of curiosity to see
+what is going on, and sometimes, temporarily, to enter into the bodies of
+the living, especially of their own family. The entrance of a nkinda into
+a human body always sickens the person. It may enter any one, even a
+child. If many of them enter a man's body, he becomes crazy.
+
+Sometimes the nkinda, when asked who he is, says: "I am a spirit of a
+member of your own family, and I have come to live with you. I am tired of
+living in the forest with cold and hunger. I wish to stay with you."
+
+Often when people are sick with fever or cold, the diagnosis is made that
+some nkinda has come on a visit. If it is of the same family as those whom
+it is visiting, it comes and goes from time to time, to please itself; but
+it is never, like an uvengwa, visible.
+
+Sometimes these sinkinda are called "ivavi" (sing. "ovavi," messenger).
+They come from far and bring news, _e. g._, "An epidemic of disease is
+coming," or "A ship is coming with wealth." Sometimes the news thus
+brought proves true. (Is this our modern spiritualism?) In such cases the
+coming of the nkinda is regarded as a blessing, in that it warns the
+living of evil or brings them wealth. The information is always carried by
+the mouth of some living member of the family. If these sinkinda are asked
+by a non-possessed member of the family, "Where do you live?" the reply
+is, "Nowhere in particular. But at evenings we gather about your town, to
+see you and join in your dances and songs. We see you, though you do not
+see us."
+
+5. _Mondi._ There are beings, "myondi" (Benga; singular, "mondi"), who are
+agents in causing sickness or in either aiding or hindering human plans.
+These spirits are much the same as those of the fourth class, except that
+in power they seem to be more independent than other spirits. But they are
+not always simply passive in the hands of the doctor; they are often
+active on their own account, or at their own pleasure, generally to
+injure. They are worshipped almost always in a deprecatory way. They often
+take violent possession of human bodies; and for their expulsion it is
+that ilaga, sinkinda, and awiri are invoked. They are invoked especially
+at the new moons, but also at other times, particularly in sickness. The
+native oganga decides whether or no they be myondi that are afflicting the
+patient. When the diagnosis has been made, and myondi declared to be
+present in the patient's body, the indication is that they are to be
+exorcised.
+
+A slight doubt must be admitted in regard to these myondi, whether they
+really do constitute a distinct class, or whether any spirit of any class
+may not become a myondi. The name in that case would be given them, not as
+a class, but as producers of certain effects, at certain times and under
+certain circumstances.
+
+The powers and functions of the several classes of spirits do not seem to
+be distinctly defined. Certainly they do not confine themselves either to
+their recognized locality or to the usually understood function pertaining
+to their class. These powers and functions shade into each other, or may
+be assumed by members of almost any class. But it is clearly believed that
+spirits, even of the same class, differ in power. Some are strong, others
+are weak. They are limited as to the nature of their powers; no spirit can
+do all things. A spirit's efficiency runs only on a certain line or lines.
+All of them can be influenced and made subservient to human wishes by a
+variety of incantations.
+
+There are other names which, while they belong to spirits, apparently
+indicate only peculiarities in spiritual manifestations, and not
+representatives of a class.
+
+1. There may enter into any animal's body (generally a leopard's) some
+spirit, or, temporarily, even the soul of a living human being. The animal
+then, guided by human intelligence and will, exercises its strength for
+the purposes of the temporary human possessor. Many murders are said to be
+committed in this way, after the manner of the mythical German wehr-wolf
+or the French loup-garou.
+
+This belief in demoniacal possession of a lower animal must not be
+confounded with the equally believed transmigration of souls. The former
+is widespread over at least a third of the African continent. In
+Mashona-land "they believe that at times both living and dead persons can
+change themselves into animals, either to execute some vengeance, or to
+procure something they wish for; thus, a man will change himself into a
+hyena or a lion to steal a sheep and make a good meal off it; into a
+serpent to avenge himself on some enemy. At other times, if they see a
+serpent, it is one of the Matotela tribe or slave tribe, which has thus
+transformed himself to take some vengeance on the Barotse."[27]
+
+2. Another manifestation is that of the uvengwa. It is claimed to be not
+simply spiritual, but tangible. It is the self-resurrected spirit and body
+of a dead human being. It is an object of dread, and is never worshipped
+in any manner whatever. Why it appears is not known. Perhaps it shows
+itself only in a restless, unquiet, or dissatisfied feeling. It is white
+in color, but the body is variously changed from the likeness of the
+original human body. Some say that it has only one eye, placed in the
+centre of the forehead. Some say that its feet are webbed like an aquatic
+bird. It does not speak; it only wanders, looking as if with curiosity.
+
+My little cottage at Batanga is a mile and a half from the three chief
+dwellings of the station. One afternoon in 1902 I went to the station,
+leaving my cook and his wife in charge of the cottage. When I returned
+late at night, he asserted that an uvengwa had come there. A few yards in
+front of the door of the house is a mango tree with its very dense dark
+foliage. The trunk is divided a few feet from the ground. The light from
+the open door streamed into a part of the front yard, leaving the tree
+trunk in dark shadow. The woman going out of the door had started back,
+screaming to her husband that she saw an uvengwa standing in the crotch of
+the tree and peering around one of the branches. The husband went to the
+door. He asserted to me that he also had seen the form. In their terror,
+neither of them made any investigation. Possibly a chalk-whitened thief
+had taken advantage of my absence to prowl about. But the two witnesses
+rejected such a suggestion; they were sure it was a visitor from some
+grave.
+
+3. Other spiritual manifestations are spoken of as the personal
+guardian-spirit and the family guardian-spirit. These do not constitute a
+separate class, but are the special modes of operation adopted by the
+ancestral spirit or spirits in the protection of their family. Its
+description belongs properly to a later chapter under the name of the
+Family Yaka fetich.
+
+The manner of invocation of all these five classes of spirits, in the case
+of obscure diseases, is very much the same now as what Dr. Wilson
+described fifty years ago. What he saw on the Gabun River tallies with
+what I also saw thirty years ago at Benita, and subsequently in the Ogowe.
+Even at Gabun, in the present day, though the Mpongwe have been
+enlightened, the same ceremonies are kept up by other tribes, the Shekani
+and Fang, who have emerged on the coast at Libreville.
+
+"Sick persons, and especially those that are afflicted with nervous
+disorders, are supposed to be possessed by one or the other of these
+spirits. If the disease assumes a serious form, the patient is taken to a
+priest or a priestess, of either of these classes of spirits. Certain
+tests are applied, and it is soon ascertained to which class the disease
+belongs, and the patient is accordingly turned over to the proper priest.
+The ceremonies in the different cases are not materially different; they
+are alike, at least, in the employment of an almost endless round of
+absurd, unmeaning, and disgusting ceremonies which none but a heathenish
+and ignorant priesthood could invent, and none but a poor, ignorant, and
+superstitious people could ever tolerate.
+
+"In either case a temporary shanty is erected in the middle of the street
+for the occupancy of the patient, the priest, and such persons as are to
+take part in the ceremony of exorcism. The time employed in performing the
+ceremonies is seldom less than ten or fifteen days. During this period
+dancing, drumming, feasting, and drinking are kept up without intermission
+day and night, and all at the expense of the nearest relative of the
+invalid. The patient, if a female, is decked out in the most fantastic
+costume; her face, bosom, arms, and legs are streaked with red and white
+chalk, her head adorned with red feathers, and much of the time she
+promenades the open space in front of the shanty with a sword in her hand,
+which she brandishes in a very menacing way against the bystanders. At the
+same time she assumes as much of the maniac in her looks, actions,
+gestures, and walk as possible. In many cases this is all mere
+affectation, and no one is deceived by it. But there are other cases where
+motions seem involuntary and entirely beyond the control of the person;
+and when you watch the wild and unnatural stare, the convulsive movements
+of the limbs and body, the unnatural posture into which the whole frame is
+occasionally thrown, the gnashing of the teeth, and foaming at the mouth,
+and supernatural strength that is put forth when any attempt is made at
+constraint, you are strongly reminded of cases of real possession recorded
+in the New Testament.
+
+"There is no reason to suppose that any real cures are effected by these
+prolonged ceremonies. In certain nervous affections the excitement is kept
+up until utter exhaustion takes place; and if the patient is kept quiet
+afterwards (which is generally the case), she may be restored to better
+health after a while; and, no matter how long it may be before she
+recovers from this severe tax upon her nerves, the priest claims the
+credit of it. In other cases the patient may not have been diseased at
+all, and, of course, there was nothing to be recovered from.
+
+"If it should be a case of undissembled sickness, and the patient become
+worse by this unnatural treatment, she is removed, and the ceremonies are
+suspended, and it is concluded that it was not a real possession, but
+something else. The priests have certain tests by which it is known when
+the patient is healed, and the whole transaction is wound up when the
+fees are paid. In all cases of this kind it is impossible to say whether
+the devil has really been cast out or merely a better understanding
+arrived at between him and the person he has been tormenting. The
+individual is required to build a little house or temple for the spirit
+near his own, to take occasional offerings to him, and pay all due respect
+to his character, or to be subject to renewed assaults at any time.
+Certain restrictions are imposed upon the person who has recovered from
+these satanic influences. He must refrain from certain kinds of food,
+avoid certain places of common resort, and perform certain duties; and,
+for the neglect of any of these, is sure to be severely scourged by a
+return of his malady. Like the Jews, in speaking of the actions of these
+demoniacs, they are said to be done by the spirit, and not by the person
+who is possessed. If the person performs any unnatural or revolting
+act,--as the biting off of the head of a live chicken and sucking its
+blood,--it is said that the spirit, not the man, has done it.
+
+"But the views of the great mass of the people on these subjects are
+exceedingly vague and indefinite. They attend these ceremonies on account
+of the parade and excitement that usually accompany them, but they have no
+knowledge of their origin, their true nature, or of their results. Many
+submit to the ceremonies because they are persuaded to do so by their
+friends, and, no doubt, in many cases in the hope of being freed from some
+troublesome malady. But as to the meaning of the ceremonies themselves, or
+the real influence which they exert upon their bodily diseases, they
+probably have many doubts, and when called upon to give explanation of the
+process which they have passed through, they show that they have none but
+the most confused ideas."[28]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FETICHISM--ITS PHILOSOPHY--A PHYSICAL SALVATION--CHARMS AND AMULETS
+
+
+Even during the while that man was still a monotheist, as seen in a
+previous chapter, he had eventually come to the use of idols which he did
+not actually worship, by the making of images simply to _represent_ God;
+he had not yet become an _idolater_.
+
+Subsequently, in his farther lapse away from God, when he began to render
+worship to beings other than God, fashioned images to represent them also,
+and actually worshipped them, he became a polytheist and an idolater.
+
+When he had wandered still farther, and God was no longer worshipped, the
+knowledge of Him being reduced to a name, a multitude of spiritual beings
+were substituted in place of God, and religion was only animism.
+
+Farther on, when it seemed desirable to provide local residence for these
+spirits, as had been done for God Himself in temples and costly images,
+the material objects used for that residence were no longer matter of
+value and choice; anything and any place was sufficient for a spirit's
+habitat. Neither dignity, beauty, nor strength was any longer a factor in
+the selection. For these objects did not represent the deities in any way
+whatever. They were simply local residences. As such, a spirit could live
+anywhere and in anything. This is bald fetichism. The thing itself, the
+material itself, is not worshipped. The fetich worshipper makes a clear
+distinction between the reverence with which he regards a certain material
+object and the worship he renders to the spirit for the time being
+inhabiting it. For this reason nothing is too mean or too small or too
+ridiculous to be considered fit for a spirit's _locum tenens_; for when
+for any reason the spirit is supposed to have gone out of that thing and
+definitely abandoned it, the thing itself is no longer reverenced, and is
+thrown away as useless.
+
+The selection of the article in which the spirit is to reside is made by
+the native "uganga" (doctor), who to the Negro stands in the office of a
+priest. The ground of selection is generally that of mere convenience. The
+ability to conjure a free wandering spirit into the narrow limits of a
+small material object, and to compel and subordinate its power to the aid
+of some designated person or persons and for a specific purpose, rests
+with that uganga.
+
+Over the wide range of many articles used in which to confine spirits,
+common and favorite things are the skins and especially the tails of
+bush-cats, horns of antelopes, nut-shells, snail-shells, bones of any
+animal, but especially human bones; and among the bones are specially
+regarded portions of skulls of human beings and teeth and claws of
+leopards. But, literally, anything may be chosen,--any stick, any stone,
+any rag of cloth. Apparently, there being no limit to the number of
+spirits, there is literally no limit to the number and character of the
+articles in which they may be localized.
+
+It is not true, as is asserted by some in regard to these African tribes
+and their degraded form of religion, that they worship the actual material
+objects in which the spirits are supposed to be confined. Low as is
+fetichism, it nevertheless has its philosophy, a philosophy that is the
+same in kind as that of the higher forms of religion. A similar sense of
+need that sends the Christian to his knees before God to ask aid in time
+of trouble, and salvation temporal and spiritual, sends the fetich
+worshipper to offer his sacrifice and to ejaculate his prayer for help as
+he lays hold of his consecrated antelope horn, or as he looks on it with
+abiding trust while it is safely tied to his body. His human necessity
+drives him to seek assistance.
+
+The difference between his act and the act of the Christian lies in the
+kind of salvation he seeks, the being to whom he appeals, and the reason
+for his appealing. The reason for his appeal is simply fear; there is no
+confession, no love, rarely thanksgiving.
+
+The being to whom he appeals is not God. True, he does not deny that He
+is; if asked, he will acknowledge His existence. But that is all. Very
+rarely and only in extreme emergencies, does he make an appeal to Him; for
+he thinks God so far off, so inaccessible, so indifferent to human woes
+and wants, that a petition to Him would be almost in vain. He therefore
+turns to some one of the mass of spirits which he believes to be ever near
+and observant of human affairs, in which, as former human beings, some of
+them once had part.
+
+As to the character of the salvation sought, it is not spiritual; it is a
+purely physical salvation. A sense of moral and spiritual need is lost
+sight of, although not eliminated. This is an index of the distance the
+Negro has travelled away from Jehovah before he finally reached the
+position of placing his trust in a fetich. By just so much as he seems to
+himself living in a world crowded with unseen but powerful spiritual
+beings (with whom what a Christian calls "sin" has no reprehensible moral
+quality), by just so much he seems to have lost sight of his own soul and
+its moral necessities.
+
+The future is so vague that in the thought of most tribes it contains
+neither heaven nor hell; there is no certain reward or rest for goodness,
+nor positive punishment for badness. The future life is to each native
+largely a reproduction, on shadowy and intangible lines, of the works and
+interests and passions of this earthly life. In his present life, with its
+savagery and oppression and dominance of selfish greed and right of might,
+goodness has no reward. It is badness which in his personal experience
+makes the largest gains. From this point of view, while some acts are
+indeed called "good" and some "bad" (conscience proving its simple
+existence by the use of these words in the record of language), yet
+conscience is not much troubled by its possessor's badness. There is
+little sense of the sinfulness of sin. There is only fear of possible
+human injury by human or subsidized spiritual enemies. This is all the
+salvation that is sought.
+
+It is sought by prayer; by sacrifice, and by certain other ceremonies
+rendered to the spirit of the fetich or to other non-localized spirits;
+and by the use of charms or amulets.
+
+These charms may be vocal, ritual, or material.
+
+(1) The vocal are the utterance of cabalistic words deprecatory of evil or
+supplicatory of favor, which are supposed in a vague way to have power
+over the local spirits. These words or phrases, though sometimes coined by
+a person for himself or herself (and therefore like our slang having a
+known meaning), are often archaisms, handed down from ancestors and
+believed to possess efficiency, but whose meaning is forgotten. In this
+list would be included long incantations by the magic doctors and the
+Ibata-blown blessing.
+
+(2) Certain rites or ceremonies are performed for almost every child at
+some time during his or her infancy or youth, or subsequently as occasion
+may demand, in which a prohibition is laid upon the child in regard to the
+eating of some particular article of food or the doing of some special
+act. It is difficult to get at the exact object for this "orunda."
+Certainly the prohibited food or act is not in itself evil; for all but
+the inhibited individual may eat of the food or commit the act as they
+please. Most natives blindly follow the "custom" of their ancestors, and
+are unable to give me the _raison d'etre_ of the rite itself. But I gather
+from the testimony of those best able to give a reason that the prohibited
+article or act is literally a sacrifice, ordained for the child by its
+parents and the magic doctor, as a gift to the governing spirit of its
+life. The thing prohibited thus becomes removed from the child's common
+use and is made sacred to the spirit. It is therefore a sacrament. Any use
+of it by the child will thenceforth be a sacrilege which would draw down
+the spirit's wrath in the form of sickness or other evil, and which can be
+atoned for only through expensive ceremonies and by gifts to the magician
+interceding for the offender.
+
+Anything may be selected for an orunda. I do not know the ground for a
+selection. Why one child, perhaps a babe too young to have eaten of the
+to-be-prohibited thing, should be debarred forever from eating a chicken,
+or the liver or any other particular part, or any portion at all, of a
+goat or an ox or any other animal, I do not know. But that orunda is
+thenceforth faithfully complied with, even under pangs of hunger. It is
+like a Nazarite's vow.
+
+I have a strong suspicion that where the orunda laid on a woman is a
+matter of meat, superstition has played into the hands of masculine
+selfishness, and denies to women the choice meat in order that men may
+have the greater share. My suspicion rests on almost positive evidence in
+the case of some prohibitions to the women of the Bulu and other Fang
+tribes of the interior.
+
+On a boat journey in the Ogowe River, about 1878, I camped on the edge of
+a forest for the noon meal. My crew of four, members of the Galwa and
+Nkami tribes, had no meat. They needed it, for they had rowed hard and
+well. For myself, I had only a small chicken. I was satisfied with a
+portion of it, and gave the rest to the crew. It would make at least a
+tasty morsel for each, with their manioc bread. Three of them thanked me;
+the fourth did not touch his share. I felt slightly vexed, thinking my
+favor was not appreciated, and I asked the cause of his apparent
+sullenness. He said he did not dare to eat of the fowl, as it was orunda
+to him.
+
+On another journey, in 1876, a young man whom I had picked up as extra
+hand in my boat's crew, when at the noon mealtime we stopped under the
+shade of a spreading tree by the river's bank, instead of respectfully
+leaving me alone with my lunch in the boat, and going ashore where the
+others were eating, wanted to remain in the boat, his orunda being that
+when on a journey by water his food should be eaten only over water.
+
+Two Ogowe chiefs, near whose villages was anchored the small river steamer
+"Pioneer," on which I was passenger, in 1875, came aboard, and in
+drinking a glass of liquor with the captain, one of them held up a piece
+of white cloth before his mouth, in order that strangers' eyes might not
+see him swallow. That was his orunda, probably. Perhaps also the hiding of
+his drinking may have had reference to the common fear of another's "evil
+eye."
+
+The other, having taken a mouthful, wet his finger in his mouth, drew the
+wet finger across his throat, and then blew on a fetich which he wore as a
+ring on a finger of the other hand. I do not know the significance of his
+motion across his throat. The blowing was the Ibata-blessing,--an
+ejaculatory prayer for a blessing on his plans, probably of trade.
+
+This word "orunda," meaning thus originally _prohibited from_ human use
+(like the South Sea "taboo"), grew, under missionary hands, into its
+related meaning of _sacred_ to spiritual use. It is the word by which the
+Mpongwe Scriptures translate our word "holy." I think it an unfortunate
+choice; for the missionary has to stop and explain that orunda, as used
+for God, does not mean the orunda used by mankind. In the translation of
+the Benga Scriptures the word "holy" was transferred bodily, and we
+explain that it means something better than good. To such straits are
+translators sometimes reduced in the use of heathen languages!
+
+(3) The charms that are most common are material, the fetich,--so common,
+indeed, that by the universality of their use, and the prominence given to
+them everywhere, in houses and on the person, they almost monopolize the
+religious thought of the Bantu Negro, subordinating other acknowledged
+points of his theology, dominating his almost entire religious interest,
+and giving the departmental word "fetich" such overwhelming regard that it
+has furnished the name distinctive of the native African religious system,
+_viz._, fetichism. "Fetich" is an English word of Portuguese origin. "It
+is derived from feitico, 'made,' 'artificial' (compare the old English
+fetys, used by Chaucer); and this term, used of the charms and amulets
+worn in the Roman Catholic religion of the period, was applied, by the
+Portuguese sailors of the eighteenth century, to the deities they saw
+worshipped by the Negroes of the West Coast of Africa.
+
+"De Brosses, a French savant of the last century, brought the word
+'fetichism' into use as a term for the type of religion of the lowest
+races. The word has given rise to some confusion, having been applied, by
+Comte and other writers, to the worship of the heavenly bodies and of the
+great features of Nature. It is best to limit it to the worship of such
+natural objects as are reverenced, not for their own power or excellence,
+but because they are supposed to be occupied each by a spirit."[29]
+
+The native word on the Liberian coast is "gree-gree"; in the Niger Delta,
+"ju-ju"; in the Gabun country, "monda"; among the cannibal Fang, "bian";
+and in other tribes the same respective dialectic by which we translate
+"medicine." To a sick native's thought the adjuvant medicinal herb used by
+the doctor, and its associated efficiency-giving spirit invoked by that
+same doctor, are inseparable. In the heathen Negro's soul the fetich takes
+the place, and has the regard, which an idol has with the Hindu and the
+Chinese.
+
+"A fetich, strictly speaking, is little else than a charm or amulet, worn
+about the person, and set up at some convenient place, for the purpose of
+guarding against some apprehended evil or securing some coveted good." In
+the Anglo-African parlance of the Coast fetiches are called by various
+names, but all signify the same thing. Fetiches may be made of anything of
+vegetable, animal, or metallic nature, "and need only to pass through the
+consecrating hands of a native priest to receive all the supernatural
+powers which they are supposed to possess. It is not always certain that
+they possess extraordinary powers. They must be tried and give proof of
+their efficiency before they can be implicitly trusted."[30]
+
+A fetich, then, is any material object consecrated by the "oganga," or
+magic doctor, with a variety of ceremonies and processes, by virtue of
+which some spirit becomes localized in that object, and subject to the
+will of the possessor.
+
+Anything that can be conveniently carried on the person may thus be
+consecrated,--a stone, chip, rag, string, or bead. Articles most
+frequently used are snail-shells, nut-shells, and small horns of gazelles
+or goats. These are used probably because of their convenient cavities;
+for they are to be filled by the oganga with a variety of substances
+depending, in their selection, on the special work to be accomplished by
+the fetich. Its value, however, depends not on itself, nor solely on the
+character of these substances, but on the skill of the oganga in dealing
+with spirits.
+
+There is a relation between these selected substances and the object to be
+obtained by the fetich which is to be prepared of them,--for example, to
+give the possessor bravery or strength, some part of a leopard or an
+elephant; to give cunning, some part of a gazelle; to give wisdom, some
+part of a human brain; to give courage, some part of a heart; to give
+influence, some part of an eye; and so on for a multitude of qualities.
+These substances are supposed to lure some spirit (being in some way
+pleasing to it), which thenceforward is satisfied to reside in them and to
+aid the possessor in the accomplishment of some one specific wish.
+
+In preparing a fetich the oganga selects substances such as he deems
+appropriate to the end in view,--the ashes of certain medicinal plants,
+pieces of calcined bones, gums, spices, resins, and even filth, portions
+of organs of the bodies of animals, and especially of human beings
+(preferably eyes, brain, heart, and gall-bladder), particularly of
+ancestors, or men strong or renowned in any way, and very especially of
+enemies and of white men. Human eyeballs (particularly of a white person)
+are a great prize. New-made graves have been rifled for them.
+
+These are compounded in secret, with the accompaniment of drums, dancing,
+invocations, looking into mirrors or limpid water to see faces (human or
+spiritual, as may be desired), and are stuffed into the hollow of the
+shell or bone, or smeared over the stick or stone.
+
+If it be desired to obtain power over some one else, the oganga must be
+given by the applicant, to be mixed in the sacred compound, either crumbs
+from the food, or clippings of finger nails or hair, or (most powerful!)
+even a drop of blood of the person over whom influence is sought. These
+represent the life or body of that person. So fearful are natives of power
+being thus obtained over them, that they have their hair cut only by a
+friend; and even then they carefully burn it or cast it into a river. If
+one accidentally cuts himself, he stamps out what blood has dropped on the
+ground, or cuts out from wood the part saturated with blood.
+
+Sitting one day by a village boat-landing in the Benita region, about
+1866, while my crew prepared for our journey, I was idly plucking at my
+beard, and carelessly flung away a few hairs. Presently I observed that
+some children gathered them up. Asking my Christian assistant what that
+meant, he told me: "They will have a fetich made with those hairs; when
+next you visit this village, they will ask you for some favor, and you
+will grant it, by the power they will thus have obtained over you."
+
+The water with which a lover's body (male or female) is washed, is used in
+making a philter to be mingled secretly in the drink of the loved one.
+
+While, as I have already stated, it is true that anything portable may be
+used either as the receptacle in which the spirit is to be located or as
+the substance or "medicine" to be inserted in it, I wish to insist that in
+the philosophy of fetich there is always a reason in the selection of all
+these articles,--a reason which it is often difficult for a foreigner to
+discover,--an apparent fitness for the end in view.
+
+Arnot[31] refers to this: "Africans believe largely in preventive
+measures, and their fetich charms are chiefly of that order. In passing
+through a country where leopards and lions abound, they carefully provide
+themselves with the claws, teeth, lips, and whiskers of those animals, and
+hang them around their necks, to secure themselves against being attacked.
+For the same purpose the point of an elephant trunk is generally worn by
+elephant hunters. The bones from the legs of tortoises are much valued as
+anklets, in order to give the wearers endurance, reminding one of the
+fable of the tortoise. The lower jaw-bone of the tortoise is worn by
+certain tribes as a preventive against toothache. The spine bones of
+serpents are strung together with a girdle as a cure for back-ache."
+
+A recent visitor to the Gabun country, in the "Journal of the African
+Society," makes this criticism: "When a white man or woman wears some
+trinket strung about them, they call it an amulet or charm. They ascribe
+to it some virtue, and regard it as a sacred (?) thing; but when an
+African native wears one, white men call it 'fetich,' and the wearer a
+savage or heathen." This defence of the Negro is gratifying, but the
+criticism of the white man is not quite just. There is this radical
+difference: to the African the "fetich" is his all, his entire hope for
+his physical salvation; he does not reckon on God at all. The civilized
+man or woman with a "mascot" is very foolish in his or her belief in luck,
+but their mascots never entirely take God's place.
+
+I met at Gabun about 1895 the same criticism from the mouth of a partly
+educated Sierra Leone Negro, who, though a professing Christian, evidently
+was wearing Christianity hypocritically. His well-educated Mpongwe wife
+was a member of my church. It was discovered that she had a certain fetich
+suspended in her bedroom. It was necessary to summon her before the church
+session; she explained that it was not hers, but her husband's, and
+disclaimed belief in it. She was rebuked for allowing it in her room. The
+husband, hearing of the rebuke, wrote me an angry letter justifying his
+fetich. He said in substance:
+
+"You white people don't know anything about black man's 'fashions.' You
+say you trust God for everything, but in your own country you put up an
+iron rod over your houses to protect yourselves from death by lightning;
+and you trust in it the while that you still believe in God; and you call
+it 'electricity' and civilization. And you say it's all right. I call this
+thing of mine--this charm--'medicine'; and I hung it over my wife's bed to
+keep away death by the arts of those who hate her; and I trust in it while
+still believing in God. And you think me a heathen!" It was explained to
+him that in the use of the lightning-rod white men reverently recognized
+God in His own natural forces, but that his fetich dishonored God, ignored
+Him, and was a distinct recognition of a supposed power that was claimed
+to be able to act independently of God; that I trusted to the
+lightning-rod under God, while he trusted to his fetich outside of God.
+
+For every human passion or desire of every part of our nature, for our
+thousand necessities or wishes, a fetich can be made, its operation being
+directed to the attainment of one specified wish, and limited in power
+only by the possible existence of some more powerful antagonizing spirit.
+
+This, hung on the plantation fence or from the branches of plants in the
+garden, is either to prevent theft or to sicken the thief; hung over the
+doorway of the house, to bar the entrance of evil; hung from the bow of
+the canoe, to insure a successful voyage; worn on the arm in hunting, to
+assure an accurate aim; worn on any part of one's person, to give success
+in loving, hating, planting, fishing, buying, and so forth, through the
+whole range of daily work and interests.
+
+Some kinds, worn on a bracelet or necklace, are to ward off sickness. The
+new-born infant has a health-knot tied about its neck, wrist, or loins.
+Down to the day of oldest age, every one keeps on multiplying or renewing
+or altering these life talismans.
+
+If of the charge at Balaklava it was said, "This is magnificent, but it is
+not war," I may say of these heathen, "Such faith is magnificent, though
+it be folly." The hunter going out, certain of success, returns
+empty-handed; the warrior bearing on his breast a fetich panoply, which he
+is confident will turn aside a bullet, comes back wounded; every one is
+some day foiled in his cherished plan. Do they lose their faith? No, not
+in the system,--their fetichism; but in the special material object of
+their faith--their fetich--they do. Going to the oganga whom they had paid
+for concocting that now disappointing amulet, they tell him of its
+failure. He readily replies: "Yes, I know. You have an enemy who possesses
+a fetich containing a spirit more powerful than yours, which made your
+bullet miss its mark, which caused your opponent's spear to wound you.
+Yours is no longer of use; it's dead. Come, pay me, and I will make you a
+charm containing a spirit still more powerful."
+
+The old fetich hitherto jealously guarded, and which would not have been
+sold for any consideration, is now thrown away or sold to the foreign
+curio-hunter.
+
+A native heathen Akele chief, Kasa, my friend and host in the Ogowe, in
+1874, showed me a string of shells, bones, horns, wild-cat tails, and so
+forth, each with its magic compound, which he said could turn aside
+bullets. In a friendly way he dared me to fire at him with my
+sixteen-repeater Winchester rifle. I did not believe he meant it; but, on
+his taking his stand a few paces distant, he did not quail under my steady
+aim, nor even at the click of the trigger. I, of course, desisted,
+apparently worsted. Two years later, Kasa was charged by an elephant he
+had wounded, and was pierced by its tusks. His attendants drove off the
+beast; the fearfully lacerated man survived long enough to accuse twelve
+of his women and other slaves of having bewitched his gun, and thus
+causing it only to wound instead of killing the elephant. On that charge
+four of the accused were put to death.
+
+Both men and women may become aganga on voluntary choice, and after a
+course of instruction by an oganga.
+
+"There is generally a special person in a tribe who knows these things,
+and is able to work them. He has more power over spirits than other men
+have, and is able to make them do what he likes. He can heal sickness, he
+can foretell the future, he can change a thing into something else, or a
+man into a lower animal, or a tree, or anything; he can also assume such
+transformations himself at will. He uses means to bring about such
+results; he knows about herbs, he has also recourse to rubbing, to making
+images of affected parts of the body, and to various other arts. Very
+frequently he is regarded as inspired. It is the spirit dwelling in him
+which brings about the wonderful results; without the spirit he could not
+do anything."[32]
+
+
+[Illustration: FETICH DOCTOR. (The triangular patch of hair is the
+professional tonsure.)]
+
+
+Though these magicians possess power, its joy has its limitations; for,
+becoming possessed by a familiar spirit, through whose aid they make their
+invocations and incantations and under whose influence they fall into
+cataleptic trances or are thrilled with Delphic rages, if they should
+happen to offend that "familiar," it may destroy them by "eating" out
+their life, as their phrase is. On Corisco Island, in 1863, a certain man
+had acquired prominence as a magic doctor; he finally died of consumption.
+His friends began a witchcraft investigation to find out who had "killed"
+him. A post-mortem being made, cavities were found in the lungs. Ignorant
+of disease, they thereupon dropped the investigation, saying that his own
+"witch" had "eaten" him.
+
+Captain Guy Burrows, a British officer, formerly in the service of the
+Kongo Free-State, left it unwilling to be a participant in the fearful
+atrocities allowed by the King of Belgium; and he has recently made a
+scathing exposure of the doings of Belgian agents that have made the Kongo
+a slave-ground of worse horrors than existed in the old days of the export
+slave-trade. He thus jocularly describes what he saw of fetich at the town
+of Matadi on the Kongo, where there is an English Baptist Mission:
+"Outside the small area, under the direct influence of the mission, there
+is but one deity,--the fetich. The heathen in his blindness, in bowing
+down to wood and stone, bows, as Kipling says, to 'wood for choice.' He
+carves a more or less grotesque face; and the rest is a matter of taste. I
+came across one figure whose principal ornament consisted of a profusion
+of ten-penny nails and a large cowrie shell.[33] But anything will do; an
+old tin teapot is another favorite fetich decoration. I have generally
+found that the uglier they are, the more they seem to be feared and
+reverenced.
+
+"The fetich is sometimes inclined to be a nuisance. On one occasion I
+wanted to build an out-house at the far end of a plantation, where tools
+and other implements might be stored. I was told by the chief, however,
+that this was fetich ground, and that terrible misfortunes would follow
+any attempt to build on it. I tried to get some closer idea of the fetich,
+but could get no more material information than a recital of vague terrors
+of the kind that frighten children at night. So I began building my
+out-house, during the course of which operation some monkeys came and sat
+in the trees, highly interested in the proceedings. In some indefinite way
+I gathered that the fetich power was regarded as being invested in these
+monkeys, or that they were the embodiment of the fetich idea, or anything
+else you please. But I could not have my work interfered with by the
+ghosts of a lot of chattering apes, and the fears of those big children
+the natives; so I witch-doctored the monkeys after an improved recipe of
+my own,--I shot the lot. Thereafter the spell was supposed to be lifted,
+and no farther objections were raised; but the empty cartridge cases were
+seized upon by the men as charms against any further manifestations in the
+same place. I am glad to say none occurred; the spell I had used was too
+potent!"
+
+Captain Burrows was probably an efficient administrator. But, like many
+foreigners, he evidently chose to ride, rough shod, over natives'
+prejudices, regarding them as idle superstitions, and unable or unwilling
+to investigate their philosophy. I see, however, from his story, that he
+had gotten hold of a part of the truth. That ground on which he desired
+to build was probably an old graveyard. The native chief very naturally
+did not wish it to be disturbed. Monkeys that gather on the trees in the
+vicinity of a graveyard are supposed to be possessed by the spirits of
+those buried there. An ordinary individual would have been forcibly
+prevented had he attempted what Captain Burrows did. He had a foreign
+government at his back, and the natives submitted. Their dead and their
+monkeys, sacred _pro tempore_, had succumbed to the superior power of the
+white man's cartridges. Their only satisfaction was to retain the empty
+shells as souvenirs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FETICH--A WORSHIP
+
+
+Worship is an eminent part of every form of religion, but it is not
+essential to it. True, most religions have some form of worship. But a
+belief would still be a religion, even if it were so insignificant or so
+degraded or so indifferent as not to care to express itself in rites or
+ceremonies.
+
+Fetichism, whose claim to a right to be reckoned as a religion some have
+been disposed to dispute, expresses itself by most of the visible and
+audible means used in the cults of other forms of religion.
+
+The motives also that prompt to the performance of religious rites are not
+to enter into the question whether the beliefs associated with them are
+worthy to be dignified by the name "religion." Motives may vary widely,
+_e. g._, love in an evangelical Christian, pride in a Pharisee, sensual
+lust in a follower of Islam and in a Mormon, and fear in the fetich
+worshipper. Those motives, mixed perhaps with other considerations, are
+the dominant factor in the government of the religious life of each.
+
+We have already seen in the previous chapter that the religious thought of
+the believer in fetichism does not concern his soul or its future. The
+evils he would escape are not moral or spiritual. The sense of a great
+need that makes him look for help outside of himself is not based on a
+desire to obey God's will, but on his and some spirit's co-relation to the
+great needs of this mortal life.
+
+The salvation sought being a purely physical one, the thoughts that direct
+the use of means to that end are limited to physical needs, and largely
+to physical agencies. But not entirely: for one of these agencies, as
+already mentioned in the previous chapter, is prayer; other agencies are
+sacrificial offerings, and the use of amulet charms, or talismans, known
+as fetiches.
+
+1. _Fetich Worship as performed by Sacrifice and other Offerings._
+Sacrifice is an element in all real worship, if by sacrifice, in the
+widest sense, may be understood the devoting of any object from a common
+to a sacred use, and this irrespective of the actual value of the gift (as
+is the case also with Chinese paper imitation money scattered around the
+grave, in Chinese funerals). The intention of the giver ennobles it; the
+spirit being supposed in some vague way to be gratified by the respectful
+recognition of itself, and even to be pleased sometimes by the gift
+itself.
+
+(1) Thus the stones heaped by passers-by at the base of some great tree or
+rock, the leaf cast from the passing canoe toward a point of land on the
+river, though intrinsically valueless, and useless to the ombwiri of the
+spot, are accepted as acknowledgments of that ombwiri's presence.
+
+"All day we kept passing trees or rocks on which were placed little heaps
+of stones or bits of wood; in passing these, each of my men added a new
+stone or bit of wood, or even a tuft of grass. This is a tribute to the
+spirits, the general precaution to insure a safe return. These people have
+a vague sort of Supreme Being called Lesa, who has good and evil passions;
+but here (Plateau of Lake Tanganyika), as everywhere else, the Musimo, or
+spirits of the ancestors, are a leading feature in the beliefs. They are
+propitiated, as elsewhere, by placing little heaps of stones about their
+favorite haunts. At certain periods of the year the people make
+pilgrimages to the mountain of Fwambo-Liamba, on the summit of which is a
+sort of small altar of stones. There they deposit bits of wood, to which
+are attached scraps of calico, flowers, or beads; this is to propitiate
+Lesa.
+
+"After harvest, for instance, they make such an offering. So when a girl
+becomes marriageable, she takes food with her, and goes up to the
+mountain for several days. When she returns, the other women lead her in
+procession through the villages, waving long tufts of grass and
+palms."[34]
+
+(2) Other gifts are supposed to be actually utilized by the spirit in some
+essential way. In some part of the long single street of most villages is
+built a low hut, sometimes not larger than a dog-kennel, in which, among
+all tribes, are hung charms; or by which is growing a consecrated plant (a
+lily, a cactus, a euphorbia, or a ficus). In some tribes a rudely carved
+human (generally female) figure stands in that hut, as an idol. Idols are
+rare among most of the coast tribes, but are common among all the interior
+tribes. That they are not now frequently seen on the Coast is, I think,
+not due to a lack of faith in them, but perhaps to a slight sense of
+civilized shame. The idol has been the material object most denounced by
+missionaries in their sermons against heathenism. The half-awakened native
+hides it, or he manufactures it for sale to curio-hunters. A really valued
+idol, supposed to contain a spirit, he will not sell. He does not always
+hide his fetich charm worn on his person; for it passes muster in his
+explanation of its use as a "medicine."
+
+That idol, charm, or plant, as the case may be, is believed for the time
+to be the residence of a spirit which is to be placated by offerings of
+some kind of food. I have seen in those sacred huts a dish of boiled
+plantains (often by foreigners miscalled "bananas") or a plate of fish.
+This food is generally not removed till it spoils. Sometimes, where the
+gift is a very large one, a feast is made; people and spirit are supposed
+to join in the festival, and nothing is left to spoil. That it is of use
+to the spirit is fully believed; but just how, few have been able to tell
+me. Some say that the "life" or essence of the food has been eaten by the
+spirit; only the form of the vegetable or flesh remaining to be removed.
+
+(3) Blood sacrifices are common. In any great emergency a fowl with its
+blood is laid at that low hut's door. In time of great danger, an expected
+pestilence, a threatened assault by enemies, or some severe illness of a
+great man or woman, a goat or sheep is sacrificed.
+
+At the entrance to a village the way is often barred by a temporary light
+fence, only a narrow arched gateway of saplings being left open. These
+saplings are wreathed with leaves or flowers. That fence, frail as it is,
+is intended as a bar to evil spirits, for from those arched saplings hang
+fetich charms. When actual war is coming, this street entrance is
+barricaded by logs, behind which real fight is to be made against human,
+not spiritual, foes. The light gateway is sometimes further guarded by a
+sapling pinned to the ground horizontally across the narrow threshold. An
+entering stranger must be careful to tread over and not on it.
+
+In an expected great evil the gateway is sometimes sprinkled with the
+blood of a sacrificed goat or sheep. The flesh is not wasted; it is eaten
+by the villagers, and especially by the magic doctor. Does not this look
+like a memory of a tradition of the Passover and its paschal lamb? And
+does it not suggest some thought of a blood atonement?
+
+(4) I have not actually seen, or even heard of human sacrifices in the
+tribes I have personally visited. But on the adjacent Upper Guinea Coast,
+until ten years ago, there were human sacrifices to the sacred crocodiles
+of the rivers of the Niger Delta. In the oil rivers of that same coast
+there was, until recently, an annual sacrifice (as in the ancient Nile
+days) of a maiden to the river spirits of trade, for success in foreign
+commerce.
+
+Treaties with foreign civilized nations have now prohibited this
+sacrifice, but the maiden has not gained much in the change. Instead of
+one being sacrificed to a brute crocodile to please the spirit of trade,
+hundreds are prostituted to please brutal, dissolute foreigners.
+
+The thousands of captives butchered at the "annual custom" of Dahomey were
+claimed by its successive kings, in their answer to the protests of the
+ambassadors from civilized nations, to be required as offerings to the
+safety of the nation, the omission of which would be punished by the loss
+of the king's own life. Fearful as that annual barbarity was, I do not
+think that those kings should properly be called "bloodthirsty." It was
+their religion. All the more dreadful the religion that called for such
+deeds!
+
+Here, again, the question presents itself whether Africa has gained much
+in the substitution of wicked white representatives of civilization for
+the heathen black representatives of fetichism. The Kongo River was
+rescued from the cruelties and loss of life in the foreign slave-trade,
+only to be subjected to greater cruelties, in its miscalled "Free State,"
+under the control of Belgium, at the hands of men like Major Lothaire.
+
+The following remarks of Menzies[35] on the use of sacrifice by primitive
+man are descriptive of the interior tribes of Africa to-day: "Sacrifice is
+an invariable feature of early religion. Wherever gods are worshipped,
+gifts and offerings are made to them of one kind or another. It is in this
+way that, in antiquity at least, the relation with the deity was renewed,
+if it had been slackened or broken, or strengthened and made sure.
+Sacrifice and worship are, in the ancient world, identical terms. The
+nature of the offering and the mode of presenting it are infinitely
+various, but there is always sacrifice in one form or another. Different
+deities of course receive different gifts; the tree has its roots watered,
+or trophies of battle or of the chase are hung upon its branches; horses
+are thrown into the sea. But of primitive sacrifice generally we may
+affirm that it consists of such food and drink as men themselves partake
+of. Whether it be the fruit of the field or the firstlings of the flock
+that is offered at the sacred stone, whether the offering is burnt before
+the god or set down and left near him, or whether he is summoned to come
+down from the sky or to travel from the far country to which he may have
+gone, it is of the materials of the meal that the sacrifice consists. In
+some cases it appears to be thought that the god consumes the offering, as
+when Fire is worshipped with offerings which he burns up, or when a
+fissure in the earth closes upon a victim; but in most cases it is only
+the spirit or finer essence that the god enjoys; the rest he leaves to
+men. And thus sacrifice is generally accompanied by a meal. The offering
+is presented to the god whole, but the worshippers help to eat it. The god
+gets the savor of it which rises in the air towards him, while the more
+material part is devoured below."
+
+The testimony of travellers in other parts of Africa, distant thousands of
+miles from the West Coast, show that the practice of offerings is almost
+identical all over the southern third of the continent, the lines of
+latitude of Bantu tribes being conterminous with their language and their
+religion.
+
+Arnot[36] says that in South Africa, "when going to pray, the Barotse make
+offerings to the spirits of their forefathers under a tree, bush, or grove
+planted for the purpose; and they take a larger or a smaller offering,
+according to the measure of their request. If the offering be beer, they
+pour it upon the ground; if cloth, it is tied to a horn stuck in the
+ground; if an ox be slaughtered, the blood is poured over the horn, which,
+in fact, is their altar." (Ps. cxviii. 27.)
+
+In that same region, among the Barotse, "Nothing of importance can be
+sanctified without a human sacrifice, in most cases a child. First the
+fingers and toes are cut off, and the blood is sprinkled on the boat,
+drum, house, or whatsoever may be the object in view. The victim is then
+killed, ripped up, and thrown into the river."
+
+Decle also[37] describes the religious habits of the Barotse tribes of
+Southern Central Africa: "They chiefly worship the souls of their
+ancestors. When any misfortune happens, the witch doctor divines with
+knuckle-bones whether the ancestor is displeased, and they go to the grave
+and offer up sacrifice of grain or honey.... They also bring to the tombs
+cooked meats, which they leave there a few minutes and then eat. When they
+go to pray by a grave, they also leave some small white beads. Whilst an
+Englishman was journeying to Lialui, he passed near a little wood where
+there lay a very venerated chief. The boatmen stopped, and having
+sacrificed some cooked millet, their headman designated a man to offer up
+a prayer, which ran thus: 'You see us; we are worn out travellers, and our
+belly is empty; inspire the white man, for whom we row, to give us food to
+fill our stomachs.'"
+
+Among the Wanyamwezi, "Every chief has near his hut a Musimo hut, in which
+the dead are supposed to dwell, and where sacrifices and offerings must be
+made. Meat and flour are deposited in the Musimo huts, and are not, as
+with many other peoples, consumed afterwards. The common people also have
+their Musimo huts, but they are smaller than that of the chief, and the
+offerings they make are, of course, not so important as his."
+
+The Wanyamwezi being great travellers, they have numberless ways of
+propitiating the Musimo. "The night before starting they put big patches
+of moistened flour on their faces and breasts. On the way, if by chance
+they are threatened with war or any other difficulty, some of them go on
+ahead in the early morning for about a hundred yards along the path over
+which they are about to travel. Then they place a hand on the ground, and
+throw flour over it in such a manner as to leave the impression of a hand
+on the soil. At the same time they 'wish' hard that the journey may go off
+well. On the march, from time to time each of them will deposit in the
+same spot a twig of wood or a stone in such a way that a great heap gets
+collected. If they halt in the midst of high grass each will plait a
+handful of grass, which they tie together so as to make a kind of
+bower.[38] In the forest, if they are pressed for time, each will make a
+cut with a blow of a hatchet in a tree; but if they have time, they will
+cut down trees, lop off the branches, and place these poles against a big
+tree; in certain places I have seen stacks of hundreds of them around a
+single tree. Sometimes they will strip pieces of bark from the trees, and
+stick them on the branches, and at others they will place a pole supported
+by two trees right over the path. On it they will hang up a broken gourd,
+or an old box made of bark. On some occasions they will even erect a
+little hut made of straw to the Musimo on the road itself; but this is
+usually done when they are going on a hunting expedition, and not on a
+journey. Near the villages, where two roads meet, are usually found whole
+piles of old pots, gourds, and pieces of iron.[39] When a hunter starts
+for the chase, he prays to the Musimo to give him good luck. If he kills
+any big game, he places before the hut of his Musimo the head of the beast
+he has killed, and inside a little of the flesh."[40]
+
+2. Just as worship is an eminent part of religion, prayer is usually a
+chief part of religious worship. But in fetichism, though it undeniably
+has a part, it is not prominent, and not often formal or public. It plays
+a less obvious and less frequent part than either sacrifices or the use of
+charms.
+
+"Prayer is the ordinary concomitant of sacrifice; the worshipper explains
+the reason of the gift, and urges the deity to accept it and to grant the
+help that is needed. The prayers of the earliest stage are offered on
+emergencies, and often appear to be intended to attract the attention of
+the god who may be engaged in another direction. The requests they contain
+are of the most primary sort. Food is asked for, success in hunting or
+fishing, strength of arm, rain, a good harvest, children, and so forth.
+They have a ring of urgency; they state the claims the worshipper has on
+the god, and mention his former offerings as well as the present one; they
+praise the power and the past acts of the deity, and adjure him by his
+whole relationship to his people (and also to his enemies) to grant their
+requests."[41]
+
+Fetich prayer may be and is offered without restriction by any one, young
+or old, male or female; but to my knowledge it is seldom used by the
+young. A very intelligent woman, a member of my Batanga church, tells me
+that when she was a child she possessed a fetich supposed to be very
+valuable, which she had inherited from her father. She says that when she
+would be going into the forest or where she expected difficulty or danger
+or trouble or was anxious for success, she would hold the fetich in her
+hand, and with eye and thought directed toward it and the spirit it was
+supposed to contain, would utter a short petition for aid and protection.
+
+But practically formal prayer is rarely made. Ejaculatory prayer, however,
+is made constantly, in the uttering of cabalistic words, phrases, or
+sentences adopted by or assigned to almost every one by parent or doctor.
+They are uttered by all ages and both sexes at any time, as a defence from
+evil, on all sorts of occasions,--_e. g._, when one sneezes, stumbles, or
+is otherwise startled, etc.
+
+The prayers which I have heard were of adults. On a journey, about 1876,
+stopping for a night in a village on the Ogowe River, I saw the venerable
+chief stand out in the open street. He addressed the spirits of the air,
+begging them, "Come not to my town!" He recounted his good deeds--praising
+himself as just, honest, and kind to his neighbors--as reason why no evil
+should befall him, and closed with an impassioned appeal to the spirits to
+stay away.
+
+At another time, about 1879, in another Ogowe village, where a man's son
+had been wounded, and a bleeding artery which had been successfully closed
+had just broken open again, and the hemorrhage, if not promptly checked,
+would probably be fatal, the father ran out of the hut, wildly
+gesticulating towards the sky, saying, "Go away! go away! O ye spirits!
+why do you come to kill my son?" And he continued for some time in a
+strain of alternate pleading and protestation.
+
+In another case I saw a woman who rushed into the street objurgating the
+spirits, and in the next breath humbly supplicating them, who, she said,
+were vexing her child that was lying in convulsions.
+
+Observe that while these were distinctly prayers, appeals for mercy,
+pathetic, agonizing protestations, there was no praise, no love, no
+thanks, no confession of sin,--only a long, pitiful deprecation of evil.
+
+There are also prayers of blessing. Parents in farewells to their
+children, or a chief to his parting guest, or any grateful recipient of a
+valued gift, will take the head or hand of the child, guest, or donor, and
+saying, "Ibata!" (blessing), or adding a cabalistic ejaculation, will
+sometimes "blow" a blessing. From this custom has arisen the statement in
+some books of travel that it was an African mode of honoring a guest to
+spit on his hand. It is true that the sudden and violent expulsion of the
+breath in "blowing" the "Ibata" from the tip of the tongue is apt to be
+followed by an ejection of more or less saliva, but the kernel of the
+custom lies in the prayer of blessing accompanying the act.
+
+In auguries made by the mfumu, or witch-doctor, among the Wanyamwezi, "the
+mfumu holds a kind of religious service; he begins by addressing the
+spirits of their forefathers, imploring them not to visit their anger upon
+their descendants. This prayer he offers up kneeling, bowing and bending
+to the ground from time to time. Then he rises, and commences a hymn of
+praise to the ancestors, and all join in the chorus. Then, seizing his
+little gourds, he executes a _pas seul_, after which he bursts out into
+song again, but this time singing as one inspired."[42]
+
+3. The third mode of worship has been already mentioned in a previous
+chapter, _viz._, the use of charms or fetiches. This is the mode most
+frequently used; and to the descriptions of their forms of preparation and
+manner, universality, and the various effects of their use, the following
+chapters are devoted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE FETICH--WITCHCRAFT--A WHITE ART--SORCERY
+
+
+Hundreds of acts and practices in the life of Christian households in
+civilized lands pass muster before the bar of aesthetic propriety and
+society, and even of the church, as not only harmless and allowable, but
+as commendable, and conducive to kindness, good-will, and healthful social
+entertainment; but in the doing of these acts few are aware of the fact
+that some of them in their origin were heathenish and in their meaning
+idolatrous, and that long ago they would have brought on the doer church
+censure.
+
+Norse legends and Celtic and Gaelic folk-lore abound in superstitions that
+were held by our forefathers in honor of false gods and demons. Their
+Christian descendants, to the present generations in Great Britain and the
+United States, delight our children with the beautifully printed fairy
+tale, forgetting, or not even knowing, that once, long ago, that tale was
+a tale of sin. The superstitious peasant of Germany, Ireland, and other
+European countries, while as at least a nominal son of the church he
+worships God, fears the machinations of trolls and the "good little
+people," and wards off their dreaded influence by vocal and material
+charms,--a practice for which the African Negro just emerging from
+heathenism is debarred church-membership. The practice is common to the
+three,--the untaught heathen, the ignorant peasant, and the enlightened
+Christian,--but its significance differs for each. To the Christian it is
+only a national or household tradition, without religious or moral
+significance, and his belief in the power of the charm is seldom seriously
+held. To the peasant the practice is also a tradition; it is not his
+religion, but he thinks that somehow under the divine Providence, in whom
+he believes and whom he worships in the church, it will be conducive to
+his physical well-being. But to the heathen it is a part of his religion,
+and leads to the exclusion of the true God, whom he does not know, or at
+least does not worship.
+
+In our Christian homes, around the Christmas tree, with all its holy,
+happy thoughts, we decorate with the holly bush and we hang the mistletoe
+bough, never thinking that the December festival itself was originally a
+heathen feast, and that our superstitious forefathers spread the holly as
+a guard against evil fairies, and hung the mistletoe as part of the
+ceremonies of a Druid's human sacrifice.
+
+The superstitious African Negro does precisely the same thing to-day,
+because he believes in witchcraft; the holly bush not growing in his
+tropical air, he has substituted the cayenne pepper bush. The witch or
+wizard whom he fears can no more pass over that pepper leaf with its red
+pods than the Irish fairy can dare the holly leaf with its red berries.
+Superstitious acts are thus rooted in us all, heathen and Christian, the
+world over; only with this great difference,--that to the Christian they
+bear no religious or even moral significance; to the heathen their entire
+_raison d'etre_ is that they are his religion, or rather part of his
+worship in the practice of his religion.
+
+In emerging from his heathenism and abandoning his fetichism for the
+acceptance of Christianity, no part of the process is more difficult to
+the African Negro than the entire laying aside of superstitious practices,
+even after his assertion that they do not express his religious belief.
+From being a thief, he can grow up an honest man; from being a liar, he
+can become truthful; from being indolent, he can become diligent; from
+being a polygamist, he can become a monogamist; from a status of ignorance
+and brutality, he can develop into educated courtesy. And yet in his
+secret thought, while he would not wear a fetich, he believes in its
+power, and dreads its influence if possibly it should be directed against
+himself. Some church-members thus believing and fearing do wear fetiches,
+claiming that their use is simply defensive. In their moral thought they
+make a distinction, which to them is clear and satisfactory in the present
+stage of the enlightenment of their conscience, between the defensive and
+the offensive use of the fetich,--the latter is a black art; the former is
+a white art. Only the heathen and non-Christian element of the community
+practise the black art. They ignore not God's existence, but deny that He
+plays any part in the economy of human life. They believe in evil spirits,
+and that they themselves can have association with them, by which they may
+obtain power for all purposes; they use enchantments to obtain that power;
+and having it, or professing to have it, they exercise it for the
+gratification of revenge or avarice, or in other ways to injure other
+persons. They become, in heart, murderers; and if occasion serve, by
+poison or other means, are willing to become actual murderers. The
+community regards them as criminals, and executes them as such when it is
+proved that they used black art to accomplish the death of some one who
+has recently died.
+
+The Christian, of course, will practise none of the black arts, but
+believing in their existence and power as permitted to the Evil One under
+the divine government, he is willing to allow himself to use, as a
+counter-influence, a fetich of the white art in self-defence.
+
+The discussion of the morality of this white art is often a difficult
+question in the church sessions in the discipline of some offending
+church-member. Few of the natives have emerged so far into the light as to
+stand squarely and fully with the missionary in his civilized attitude
+toward this question of the allowability of a fetich charm under any
+circumstances. Even the missionary, if he is wise and would not be unjust,
+will look with the leniency of charity on an offence of this kind in the
+case of a convert only lately come out of heathenism, which he would not
+or should not exercise toward a fortune-teller or hoodoo practitioner
+under the broad light of civilization.
+
+In electing men as ruling elders in the church session, or accepting
+candidates for the gospel ministry, while a certain degree of
+intellectuality is desired, and a certain amount of education required, we
+look first and always for the quality of their moral fibre, whether or not
+it be untrammelled by the fetich cult.
+
+A rare and noble example of utter freedom from any such superstitious bias
+was the late Rev. Ibia ja Ikenge. From his youth, believing in,
+using, and practising fetich white art, when he became a Christian his
+conversion was so clear and decided that he was soon made a ruling elder,
+was accepted as a candidate, grew up to licensure as a probationer,
+subsequently reached ordination to the ministry, and finally became pastor
+of the Corisco church of his own Benga tribe. Honored during his
+ministerial life by all classes, foreigners and natives, he died regretted
+by all, even by the heathen whose sins he had unsparingly denounced. But
+there are few so morally clear as he.
+
+A few years ago, while I was in charge of the Gabun church, in the Mpongwe
+tribe, at the oldest station and outwardly the most civilized part of the
+mission, I was surprised by a charge of witchcraft practice laid against a
+very ladylike woman who was one of my intimate native friends. I had known
+her from her childhood; had admired her intelligence, vivacity, and
+purity; had unfortunately helped her into a disastrous marriage from
+which, as her pastor, I afterwards rescued her with legal grounds for
+divorce; and subsequently she had married a Sierra Leone man who professed
+to be a Christian. It was discovered that she had hanging over the doorway
+in her bedroom a fetich regularly made and bought from a fetich doctor. On
+trial of the case, she denied that it was hers, stated that it was her
+husband's, admitted that she knew of its existence and use, that she
+allowed it to be placed in the usual spot for warding off evil spirits,
+and was not clear in denial of belief that it might be of some use to her
+in that way.
+
+My three ruling elders looked on the case more lightly than even I was
+charitably disposed to do, and my own duty as a judge was obscured by my
+friendship for the accused. It was a great pain for me to have even to
+rebuke a lady I had so loved and trusted. She kept her anger wonderfully
+under control while in the session meeting; but she resented the rebuke,
+broke our friendship, and subsequently sought to injure me by slander. If
+there was any doubt about her complicity with the fetich, there was no
+doubt about the fact of her effort to injure me. I did not prosecute her
+(as I would have done had she slandered any one else), lest I be suspected
+of making my position of session moderator an engine for personal revenge.
+She subsequently made a noble reparation. She still affirms that she does
+not believe in fetich, and remains in "good standing" in the church, while
+occasionally hanging a charm on her garden fence for its "moral effect" on
+trespassers.
+
+Lately a fellow missionary told me that in a conversation with certain
+natives, professed Christians, they admitted their fear lest their
+nail-clippings should be used against them by an enemy, and candidly
+acknowledged that when they pared their nails they threw the pieces on the
+thatch of the low roof of their house.
+
+The missionary was surprised, and, perhaps with a little suspicion or
+perhaps as a test, turning to a man present who had remained silent during
+the discussion, said, "And you?--what do you do with your parings?" He
+honestly replied, "I throw them on the roof!" And this man is an elder,
+and had been advanced to be a local preacher. There is no expectation of
+his ordination, for though he can preach a good sermon, he is lacking in
+all other abilities desirable in a minister. He is probably fifty years of
+age, and for forty years has been in mission employ of some kind, and
+living in the mission household much of that time. But this mission
+association has not been to him the benefit it would have been to almost
+any one else; for, being of slave origin, he seemed to prefer to keep
+aloof from the free-born, grew up without companionship, and is extremely
+secretive. Though a Christian and a good man, he had not opened his inner
+life to all the ennobling influences of the light.
+
+A difficulty, admitted by the missionary in judging of the morality of the
+use of a fetich charm, is the explanation offered by the natives, even by
+some professedly Christian, that the charm is of the nature of a
+"medicine," and, generally, actually has medicines in it. It is known to
+the native that civilized and Christian therapeutics recognize a great
+variety of medicinal articles, solid and liquid, and that they are
+employed in a variety of ways,--as lotions, ointments, and powders; and
+that some are drunk, some are rubbed into the skin, and some are worn on
+the body,--_e. g._, a sachet of sulphur in skin diseases, or of pungent
+essential oils to fend off insects,--and that certain herbs whose scent is
+attractive to fish are rubbed on the fisherman's hook. The missionary
+knows, too, that certain native medicinal plants are used, and with
+efficiency, in precisely these ways and with precisely these reasons as,
+at least in part, the ground for their use.
+
+Truth gains nothing by an indiscriminate denunciation of all native
+"medicine"; for the native knows by the personal experience of himself and
+his observation of others that a given "medicine" has helped or cured
+himself and others. His belief in this case is not a mere theory; it is
+actual fact. The missionary loses in the native's respect, and in the
+native's trust in his judgment or the value of his word, if he asserts
+unqualifiedly that "native medicine" is "foolishness," especially if, as
+was the case before the desirability of medical missionaries was as
+generally recognized by the church as it now is, the missionary was able
+to give him no substitute for the magic doctor. The native Christian's
+sense of justice was aggrieved at being disciplined for the use of a
+medicine in sickness, which experience told him had been of benefit and in
+place of which the missionary offered him no other.
+
+The native's error in his judgment of the case and the missionary's
+justification of his position lay in the idolatrous ceremonies that are
+associated with the administration of the medicine. In the native's
+ignorant mind, and in the distress of his disease, he was unable to see a
+distinction between the therapeutic action of a drug and the mode of its
+administration. In fact, to him that mode may be as important a factor
+contributive to the desired result as the drug itself. In the heathen
+belief of the native doctor it is admittedly true that the administration,
+not the drug, is the important factor, both mode of administration and the
+drug itself deriving all their efficiency from a spirit claimed by the
+magician to be under his control, which is in some vague way pleased to be
+associated with the particular drug and those special ceremonies. The
+native doctor does not understand therapeutics as such. Some one of his
+ancestors happened to observe that a certain leaf, bark, or root exhibited
+internally proved efficient in cases where the symptoms indicated a
+certain disease which he had failed to cure by his dances, drums,
+auguries, and other enchantments. Not knowing the _modus operandi_ of the
+drug itself, he had jumped to the conclusion that he had finally happily
+found the adjuvant herb necessary to please the spirit for whom he had
+been making enchantments, without which herb the spirit had hitherto
+withheld its assistance. And ever afterward the secret of this particular
+drug was guarded by his family, the knowledge of its tree being handed
+down as an heirloom, the secret kept as jealously and carefully as the
+recipe for the proprietary medicine of any quack in civilized lands. In
+his medical ethics there was no _quae prosunt omnibus_.
+
+The dividing line of morality between the fetich doctor and the Christian
+physician is a narrow but deep chasm. The latter knows that, with all his
+skill in physiology and the infallibility of his drug's indication,
+results lie in the hand of God, with whom are the issues of life and
+death, who has sovereignly and beneficently endowed certain plants or
+minerals with properties befitting certain pathological conditions. The
+former ignores God, and firmly believes that his own enchantments have
+subsidized the power of a spirit, so that the spirit itself is to enter
+into the body of the patient, and, searching through his vitals, drive
+out the antagonizing spirit, which is the supposed actual cause of the
+disease. The etiology of disease is to the native obscure. His attempts at
+explanation are somewhat inconsistent; the sickness is spoken of as a
+disease, and yet the patient is said to be sick because of the presence of
+an evil spirit, which being driven out by the magician's benevolent spirit
+the patient will recover.
+
+The drug exhibited with the ceremonies by which the friendly spirit is
+induced to enter the body is entirely secondary and adjuvant, and is not
+supposed to be any more efficient in producing a cure than was the Old
+Testament incense of the Temple ritual in obtaining an answer to prayer.
+
+But the drug is often a really valuable medicine, and does cure the
+patient. Yet the native Christian must be forbidden to submit to its use,
+because of the invariably associated heathen ceremonies. The magician
+alone knows from what plant the drug came, and he positively refuses to
+administer it unless its associated ceremonies are carefully observed. For
+the Christian to consent to do that, is to "kiss the calves"[43] of
+idolatrous Israel, or to partake of the "meats offered to idols."[44]
+
+The manner of practising the white art by the magic doctor may be purely
+ritual without his making or the patient's wearing any material amulet,
+but the performance is none the less fetich in its character.
+
+According to the usual procedure an article is prepared with incantations
+referring to spiritual influences to be worn by the applicant either as a
+cure for an actually existing disease or any other expected danger, or,
+irrespective of disease, for the attainment of a desired object or for
+success in some cherished plan. Its application may be as limitless as the
+entire range of human desire.
+
+The first step in the process is the selection of an object in which to
+enclose the various articles deemed necessary to attract and please the
+spiritual being whose aid is to be invoked. In this selection it is not
+probable that superstitious or other moral consideration enters. It is
+simply a matter of taste as to shape or availability or convenience. The
+article usually chosen is a horn of a gazelle or young antelope, or of a
+goat. The ground for the choice is availability; those animals are common.
+The horns are preserved and are therefore always at hand. They are small,
+light, and easily carried. They are durable, not liable to rust and decay,
+as would be an article of vegetable origin, and they have a convenient
+cavity.
+
+The next step in the process is the selection of the substances which are
+to be packed into the hollow of the horn. These are of both animal and
+vegetable origin, but mostly vegetable. They may be very absurd to our
+civilized view, they may be disgusting and even filthy; but they are all
+ranked as "medicine," have actually some fitness to the end in view, as
+described in the previous chapter, and are to be as carefully regarded as
+are the ingredients of a physician's prescription by a druggist. Their
+absurdity must not militate against the view of them as "medicine," even
+to a civilized mind. We are not to forget that, all superstitious and
+fetich ideas aside, our own pharmacopoeia one hundred years ago
+contained animal products of supposed therapeutic value that were clumsy,
+annoying, and even disgusting. Indeed, it is only in very modern medicine
+that the profession have thought it worth while to regard the matter of
+agreeable look and pleasant taste. Homoeopathy, even if we do not all
+believe in it, must be given credit for at least eliminating nauseous
+taste from the attributes of a good medicine, even of an emetic.
+
+From the wide range of substances, mineral, animal, and vegetable, the
+magic doctor takes generally some plant. Indeed, so associated is the
+doctor's thought of a tree and some spirit belonging to it, that an
+educated and very intelligent native chief at Gabun who still clings to
+many heathen practices, of whom recently I asked an explanation of fetich
+from the native point of view, said sententiously, "A principle of fetich
+comes from trees." This carried to me very little meaning. I asked him to
+explain at length. He did so. He said that in the long ago, while still
+his ancestors knew of God and had not entirely forgotten to give him some
+kind of worship, their medicine men were botanists, and, like Solomon,
+"spake of trees." The herbs and barks they used were employed solely for
+their own intrinsically curative qualities. But as people became more
+degraded and "like people, like priest," the medicine men added a ritual
+of song, dances, incantations, and auguries by which to dignify their
+profession with mystery. As they grew in power, they added claims of
+spiritual influence, by which to impress their patients with fear and to
+exact obedience even from kings, until finally the idea of a spirit as the
+efficient agent in the cure was substituted for that of the drug itself,
+and fetich belief dominated all.
+
+The reason for the choice of one tree rather than another in a given case
+of sickness is almost impossible to find out. Perhaps there is a vague
+tradition of the fact that it was used long ago by those who first
+happened to discover that it had real medicinal quality, and the present
+generation continues to use it, though having forgotten what that quality
+was, or even that it had any intrinsic quality of its own, their etiology
+of disease assigning as the cause of all sickness the antagonistic
+presence of an evil spirit.
+
+The laity, heathen and Christian, positively do not know from what
+particular tree the leaf or piece of bark was obtained, and they would not
+be able to recognize it even if they were allowed to see it. They see only
+the dry powder or ashes. Even if the heathen laity were able to tell me,
+they will not do so. Even if they were bribed, I would have no certainty
+that they were showing me the plant that was actually used; for they would
+know that I would have no means of comparing specimens or of proving their
+deception. The native will tell foreigners many things for friendship or
+for regard, and he enjoys conversation with us; but superstition slams his
+heart's door shut when he is asked to reveal secrets of the spirits. His
+prompt thought is: "White man's knowledge has given him power. There is
+little left of land, authority, women, or wealth in my country that he has
+not seized. Shall I add to his power by telling him the secrets of my
+spirits?" Of course the magic doctor will not tell. That would be giving
+himself entirely away.
+
+Even Christian men and women who have inherited from a parent knowledge of
+some plant, and who use it rationally for its purely medicinal quality
+without any reference whatever to spiritual influences, can barely be
+induced to tell me of it. The fee they obtain is part of their means of
+living. They make honest "medicine" in the circle of their acquaintances
+for certain sicknesses for which their drug happens to be fitted. Of a
+cure for any other sickness they know nothing, and must themselves go to
+some one else who happens to possess the knowledge.
+
+Even by me my native friends--though with their personal respect or
+affection for me they would be willing to do much--do not like to be
+asked. They know that I, in asking for information, expect to utilize it
+in letters or lectures or books. Their secret would not be safe even with
+me, and it may die with them. One of the noblest of my native female
+friends at Gabun, a Christian, well educated, with only a minimum of
+superstition remaining, and no belief at all in fetich, inherited from her
+mother much botanical and medicinal knowledge. I observe her decocting a
+medicine for a sick friend, and I ask her, "What medicine is that?" She
+turns away her usually frank eyes and simply says, "Sijavi" (leaves).
+"Yes, I see they are leaves. But I asked you what they are. Where do you
+get them?" With eyes still turned away, she only says, "Go-iga" (in the
+forest). "Exactly; of course it's a plant. But is it a tree or a vine or a
+shrub, or what?" And she looks at me steadily, and quietly says, "Mi amie"
+(I don't know). I have long ago learned that "mi amie," though only
+sometimes true, is not always a lie. It is equivalent to our conventional
+"Not at home," or a polite version of, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell
+you no lies." From my friend it is a kind notification that the
+conversation had better be changed. It having reached this acute stage,
+the pursuance of it would be worse than useless. I talk about something
+else, and immediately she resumes her wonted cordiality.
+
+Probably the particular herb selected by the fetich-man does possess some
+therapeutic value (for cures are effected) of which he does not himself
+know. He knows that that plant was said by his ancestors to be the proper
+one to use in case of a certain sickness, but knowledge of the _raison
+d'user_ has been lost.
+
+The use of drugs in decoctions is less likely to be merely superstitious.
+The fresh leaves and barks are recognized. There is not likely to be a
+secret about them. Whatever of fetich is introduced in the case will be in
+the mode of administration.
+
+The next step, the admixture of the ingredients, is secret. They are
+ground or triturated, or reduced to ashes, and only the ash or charcoal of
+their wood is used. Among the common ingredients are colored earths,
+chalk, or potter's blue clays. Beyond the usual constituents constantly
+employed, there are other single ones, which vary according to the end to
+be obtained by the user of the fetich,--for one end, as elsewhere already
+mentioned, some small portion of an enemy's body; for another, an
+ancestor's powdered brain; for another, the liver or gall-bladder of an
+animal; for another, a finger of a dead first-born child; for another, a
+certain fish; and so on for a thousand possibilities. These ingredients
+are compounded in secret, and with public drumming, dancing, songs to the
+spirit, looking into limpid water or a mirror, and sometimes with the
+addition of jugglers' tricks, _e. g._, the eating of fire.
+
+The ingredients having been thus properly prepared, and the spirit,
+according to the magician's declaration, having associated itself lovingly
+with these mixed articles, they and it are put into the cavity of the
+selected horn or other hollow thing (a gourd, a nut-shell, and so forth).
+They are packed in firmly. A black resin is plastered over the opening.
+Perhaps also a twine is netted tightly on the top of it. A red
+paint--triturated red-wood mixed with palm or other oil--is daubed on it.
+While the resin is still soft, the red tail-feathers of the gray African
+parrot are stuck into it. This description is typical. It would be equally
+true if the chosen material object had no cavity, _e. g._, if it were a
+pebble or a piece of bark; in which case the sacred ingredients plastered
+on it would be held _in situ_ by the twine netting. A hole is bored in the
+apex of the horn, and it is hung by a string from the neck, arm, waist, or
+ankle of the purchaser, or from his door, roof, or garden fence; or from
+the prow of his canoe; or from any one of a hundred other points,
+according to the convenience of the owner or the object to be obtained by
+its use.
+
+Those objects may be, all of them, not only desirable, but commendable,
+even from a Christian point of view. In the exercise of the white art
+there is no ill-will to or malice against any other known person. The
+owner of the fetich amulet is only using, from his point of view, one of
+the known means of success in life,--somewhat as a business man in
+civilized lands uses his signs and tricks of trade to attract and
+influence customers.
+
+It is true that our native convert, in abjuring fetich and refraining from
+the white art, is at a disadvantage, humanly speaking, alongside of his
+heathen fellow, just as the honest grocer who does not adulterate his
+foods is somewhat at a disadvantage with the man who does.
+
+The heathen, armed with his fetich, feels strong. He believes in it; has
+faith that it will help him. He can see it and feel it. He goes on his
+errand inspired with confidence of success. Confidence is a large part of
+life's battle. If he should happen to fail, he excuses the failure by
+remembering that he had not obeyed all the minute "orunda" directions that
+the magician told him to follow. It is entirely in his power carefully to
+obey all directions next time; and then he cannot possibly fail! The
+Christian convert is weak in his faith. He would like to have something
+tangible. He is not sure that he will succeed on his errand. He goes at it
+somewhat half-hearted, and probably fails. His not very encouraging
+explanation is that God is trying his faith. That explanation is perhaps
+not the true one, but it is sufficient as his explanation. But it does not
+nerve him for the next effort; only the strong rise to overcoming faith.
+The weak ask the missionary whether they may not be allowed to carry a
+fetich only for "show." That "show" is for effect on a heathen competitor;
+for the moral effect on that competitor's mind,--that he should not think
+that the convert, in becoming a Christian, was at a disadvantage as to
+chances of success in the race with him. But that would be allowing even
+the "appearance of evil."
+
+It was actually true, in the early days of mission effort, that converts
+were oppressed by heathen under the idea that, as the gospel proclaimed by
+the missionary was a message of peace, all the "peace" was to be on the
+Christian's side, and that he dared not strike a blow even in
+self-defence. But we did not understand the angels' song of good-will as
+explained by the followers of George Fox, and by precept and example we
+allowed the use of force in the defence of right.
+
+As to the use of fetich by those who did not really believe in it, it was
+true that some Europeans, non-Christian men in their trade with the
+natives, seeing what a power the fetich was in the native thought, and
+knowing that it was exercised against themselves, deemed it a matter
+simply of sharp practice to adopt a fetich themselves, and play the native
+at his own game. To my knowledge this was done by an Englishman now dead.
+I was intimately acquainted with him; and though his morals were
+objectionable and his religion agnosticism, I enjoyed his society. He was
+a gentleman in manners, intelligent, well-read, interested, in common with
+myself, in African philology and ethnology, and his river steamers often
+generously helped me in my itinerations. His trade interests were large;
+he spoke the native language well, was practically acquainted with native
+customs and native mode of thought. He was a good hater and a firm
+friend, strict with subordinates to the point of severity, but on
+occasions free-handedly generous. Naturally such a character, while it
+made for him many friends, developed some enemies. A few hated him, most
+liked him, even while all feared him. To checkmate them on their own
+ground and to carry prestige in dealing with the heathen chiefs of wild
+tribes, he caused to be made for himself, and allowed it to be known in
+advance that he carried, a powerful fetich. The effect was very decided in
+increasing his power, influence, and trade success, so successful that I
+am not sure but that he grew himself to have some faith in it,--an
+illustration of the oft-noted fact in moral philosophy that non-Christian
+credulity often leads men's beliefs further than does Christian faith. The
+after history of my trader friend is a sad illustration of the wings that
+ill-gotten wealth develops. His fetich assisted in amassing a fortune
+several times over, but it did not retain it for him. He died in pitiful
+want.
+
+Practice of this white art holds all over South Africa and among all its
+tribes. "They believe in charms, fetiches, and witchcraft. The latter is
+the source of great dread to a Mashona, who fears that death or accident
+may overtake him through the instrumentality of some fellow-being who may
+perchance hold against him a grudge. For the purpose of avoiding these
+calamities, charms are worn about the person, usually around the neck.
+Divining bones or blocks of wood called 'akata' are thrown by the
+witch-doctors to discover a witch or evil spirit, and they are also
+employed to ascertain the probable results of a journey, a hunt, or a
+battle,--in short, any and all of the events of life."[45]
+
+"The tribes we have passed through seem to have one common religion, if it
+can be called by that name. They say there is one great spirit, who rules
+over all the other spirits; but they worship and sacrifice to the spirits
+of ancestors, so far as I can learn, and have a mass of fetich medicines
+and enchantments. The hunter takes one kind of charm with him; the
+warrior another. For divining they have a basket filled with bones, teeth,
+finger-nails, claws, seeds, stones, and such articles, which are rattled
+by the diviner till the spirit comes and speaks to him by the movement of
+these things. When the spirit is reluctant to be brought up, a solemn
+dirge is chanted by the people. All is attention while the diviner utters
+a string of short sentences in different tones, which are repeated after
+him by the audience."[46]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE FETICH--WITCHCRAFT--A BLACK ART--DEMONOLOGY
+
+
+The distinction sought to be made by the half-civilized Negro between a
+white art and a black art, as a justification of his practice of fetich
+enchantments, lies in the object to be obtained by their use. He vainly
+tries to find a parallel to them in Christian use of fire-arms,--proper
+for defence, improper for unprovoked assault. The black art he admits is
+wrong, its object being to kill or injure some one else; the white he
+thinks allowable, because with it he acts simply on the defensive. He
+wishes to ward off a possible blow of an unseen foe aimed at himself. He
+professes his intention not to strike or take otherwise active measures to
+injure any known person. After every allowance made, the distinction
+between the arts as moral and immoral is not a clear one. They differ only
+in their degree of immorality. The means both use are immoral, not
+justified by the possible goodness of the desired end, and not sanctified
+by the intention of the user. Both use fetiches. Fetich, if it has power
+at all, is not of God; if it is powerless, it is folly. Thus, in every and
+any case, it dishonors God.
+
+But whatever doubt there might have been as to the allowability of white
+art practice, there is no doubt as to the immorality of black art. It
+always contemplates a possible taking of life.
+
+The term "witchcraft," which attaches itself to all fetichism, localizes
+itself in the black art practice, which is thus pre-eminently known as
+"witchcraft." Its practitioners are all "wizards" or "witches." The user
+of the white is not so designated. He or she does not deny the use; it is
+open and without any sense of criminality in the eyes of the community,
+however much he or she may endeavor to suppress the fact from the
+knowledge of church officers. But a practitioner of the black art denies
+it and carries on his practice secretly.
+
+The above distinction is observed by travellers in other parts of Africa,
+as will be seen by the following quotations, which give also an
+interesting exposition of the ceremonies and practices of the black art in
+different regions:
+
+"Among the Matabele of South Africa," says Decle, "it is well understood
+that there were two kinds of witchcraft. One was practised by the
+witch-doctors and the king, such as, for instance, the 'making of
+medicine' to bring on rain, or the ceremonies carried out by the
+witch-doctors to appease the spirits of ancestors.[47] The other
+witchcraft was supposed to consist of evil practices pursued to cause
+sickness or death.
+
+"According to native ideas, all over Africa, such a thing as death from
+natural causes does not exist. Whatever ill befalls a man or a family, it
+is always the result of witchcraft, and in every case the witch-doctors
+are consulted to find out who has been guilty of it. In some instances the
+witch-doctors declare that the evil has been caused by the angry spirits
+of ancestors; in which case they have to be propitiated through the medium
+of the witch-doctors. In other cases they point out some one or several
+persons as having caused the injury by making charms; and whoever is so
+accused by the witchcraft doctor is immediately put to death, his wife and
+the whole of his family sharing his fate. To bewitch any one, according to
+Matabele belief, it is sufficient to spread medicine on his path or in his
+hut. There are also numerous other modes of working charms; for instance,
+if you want to cause an enemy to die, you make a clay figure that is
+supposed to represent him. With a needle you pierce the figure, and your
+enemy, the first time he comes in contact with a foe, will be speared.
+
+"The liver and entrails of a crocodile are supposed to be most powerful
+charms, and whoever becomes possessed of them can cause the death of any
+man he pleases. For that reason, killing a crocodile is a very heinous
+crime.[48]
+
+"While I was in Matabele-land, a crocodile was one day found speared on
+the bank of a river. The witch-doctors were consulted in order to find out
+who had been guilty of the deed; and six people were denounced as the
+offenders and put to death with their families.
+
+"Of witch-doctors there are two kinds.[49] The first deliver oracles by
+bone-throwing. They have three bones carved with different signs; these
+they throw up, and according to the position they assume when falling, and
+the side on which they fall, they make the prediction. The other kind
+deliver their oracles in a slow and very shrill chant. Both are supposed
+to be on speaking terms with spirits. They are in constant request, but
+are usually poorly paid. Their influence, however, is tremendous; and in
+Lo-Bengula's time their power was as great as, if not greater than, the
+king's. Lo-Bengula always kept two or three of them near him. Chief among
+their works was that of rain-making; this was done with a charm made from
+the blood and gall of a black ox. No witch-doctors, however, could make
+rain except by the orders of the king. It was a risky trade; for they were
+put to death if they failed in their endeavors to produce rain. Dreams are
+considered of deep significance by the witch-doctors. Madmen are supposed
+to be possessed of a spirit, and were formerly under the protection of the
+king.
+
+"One of the most remarkable ceremonies that used to be performed by the
+witch-doctors was that of 'smelling out' the witches (wizards?). On the
+first moon of the second month of the year all the various regiments
+gathered at Buluwayo, and held a big dance in which the king took part;
+usually, from 12,000 to 15,000 warriors assembled for this ceremony. After
+the dance the smelling of witches began. The various regiments being
+formed in crescent shape, the king took his stand in front surrounded by
+the doctors, usually women. Then began a slow song accompanied by a dance;
+they carried in their hand a small wand. Gradually the song and the dance
+became quicker; they seemed to be possessed. They rushed madly about,
+passing in front of the soldiers, pretending to smell them. All of a
+sudden they stopped in front of a man, and touching him with their wands,
+began howling like maniacs; the man was immediately removed and put to
+death. In this way hundreds of people were killed every year during the
+big dance. No one, however high his position, was protected against the
+mandate of the witch-doctors, usually the tools of the king, who found in
+this a way of getting rid of his enemies, or of doing away with those in
+high station whose loyalty he had reason to doubt. Other crimes are few
+except the ever-present witchcraft. To bewitch an enemy on the Tanganika
+plateau, you scatter a red powder round his hut and a white one near his
+door; this never fails to kill.
+
+"Ordeal by muavi is, of course, flourishing; with the enlightened
+modification that, if the accused does not die, he can recover damages
+from the accuser. In the Mambwe district the muavi is made of a poisonous
+bean."[50]
+
+The same "medicines," the same dances, the same enchantments used in the
+black art, are used in the professedly innocent white art; the chief
+difference being in the mission that the utilized spirit is entrusted to
+perform.
+
+Similarity in witchcraft practices is one of the several grounds held by
+ethnologists, as proving identity in origin of the African Negro and the
+Australian black. To quote from Dr. Carl Lumholtz's book, "Among
+Cannibals": "In the various [Australian] tribes are so-called wizards, who
+pretend to communicate with the spirits of the dead and get information
+from them. They are able to produce sickness or death whenever they
+please, and they can produce or stop rain and many other things. Hence
+these wizards are greatly feared. Attention is called to the influence of
+this fear of witchcraft upon the character and customs of the natives. It
+makes them bloodthirsty, and at the same time darkens and embitters their
+existence. An Australian native is unable to conceive death as natural
+except as the result of an accident or of old age; while diseases and
+plagues are always ascribed to witchcraft and to hostile blacks. In order
+to practise his arts against any black man, the wizard must be in
+possession of some article that has belonged to him. On Herbert River the
+natives need only to know the name of the person in question, and for this
+reason they rarely use their proper names in addressing or speaking of
+each other, but simply their class names. I once met a black man who told
+me that he personally had been the victim of strange wizards, and that
+ever since that time he had been a sufferer from headache. One afternoon
+many years ago, two wizards had captured and bound him; they had taken out
+his entrails and put in grass instead, and had let him lie in this
+condition till sunrise. Then he suddenly recovered his senses and became
+tolerably well; a result for which he was indebted to a wizard of his own
+tribe, who thus proved himself more powerful than the two strangers. The
+blacks call an operation of this kind kobi, and a man who is able to
+perform it, as a matter of course, is very much respected and feared."
+
+"The Ovimbundu race," says Arnot, "of Bihe and the country to the west are
+most enterprising traders and imitators of the Portuguese. They seem,
+however, to retain tenaciously their superstitions and fetich worship.
+
+"In Chikula's yard there is a small roughly cut image, which I believe
+represents the spirit of a forefather of his. One day a man and woman came
+in and rushed up to this image, dancing, howling, and foaming at the
+mouth, apparently mad. A group gathered round, and declared that the
+spirit of Chikula's forefather had taken possession of this man and woman,
+and was about to speak through them. At last the 'demon' began to grunt
+and groan out to poor Chikula, who was down on his knees, that he must
+hold a hunt, the proceeds of which must be given to the people of the
+town; must kill an ox, provide so many pots of beer, and proclaim a great
+feast and dance. Furthermore, all this was to be done quickly. The poor
+old man was thoroughly taken in, and in two days' time the hunt was
+organized.
+
+"Thus I find, as among the Barotse, that divining and prophesying, with
+other religious and superstitious means, are resorted to in order to
+secure private ends and to offer sacrifice to the one common god, the
+belly.
+
+"At another time a man came to Senhor Porto's to buy an ox. He said that
+some time ago he had killed a relation by witchcraft to possess himself of
+some of his riches, and that now he must sacrifice an ox to the dead man's
+spirit, which was troubling him. This killing by witchcraft is a thing
+most sincerely believed in; and on hearing this man's cold-blooded
+confession of what was at least the intent of his heart, it made me
+understand why the Barotse put such demons into the fire.
+
+"Among the Ovimbundu, old and renowned witches (wizards?) are thrown into
+some river, though almost every man will confess that he practises
+witchcraft to avenge himself of wrong done and to punish his enemies. One
+common process is to boil together certain fruits and roots, with which
+the wizard daubs his body, in order to enlist the aid of the demons; and
+the decoction is then thrown in the direction of the victim, or laid in
+his path, that he may be brought under the bewitching spell."[51]
+
+We quote again from Dr. J. L. Wilson, "Western Africa": "Witchcraft, and
+the use of fetiches as a means of protection against it, is carried to a
+greater extent here [Southern Guinea] than in Northern Guinea, owing, no
+doubt, to the greater imaginativeness of the people. The marvels performed
+by those who are supposed to possess this mysterious art transcend all the
+bounds of credulity. A man can turn himself into a leopard, and destroy
+the property and lives of his fellow-men. He can cause the clouds to pour
+out torrents of rain, or hold back at his pleasure.
+
+"A different article is used here for the detection of witchcraft from
+that used in Northern Guinea. The root of a small shrub, called akazya, is
+employed, and is more powerful than that used in the other section of the
+country. A person is seldom required to drink more than half a pint of the
+decoction. If it acts freely as a diuretic, it is a mark of innocence; but
+if as a narcotic, and produces dizziness and vertigo, it is a sure sign of
+guilt. Small sticks are laid down at the distance of eighteen inches or
+two feet apart, and the suspected person, after he has swallowed the
+draught, is required to walk over them. If he has no vertigo, he steps
+over them easily and naturally; but, on the other hand, if his brain is
+affected, he imagines they rise up before him like great logs, and in his
+awkward effort to step over them, is apt to reel and fall to the ground.
+In some cases this draught is taken by proxy; and if a man is found
+guilty, he is either put to death or heavily fined, and banished from the
+country. In many cases post-mortem examinations are made with the view of
+finding the actual witch; I have known the mouth of the aorta to be cut
+out of a corpse, and shown as unanswerable proof that the man had the
+actual power of witchcraft.[52] No one expects to resent the death of a
+relative under such circumstances. He is supposed to have been killed by
+his awkward management of an instrument that was intended for the
+destruction of others; and it is rather a cause of congratulation to the
+living that he is caught in a snare of his own," and that his own "witch"
+has killed him.[53]
+
+Not every one who uses white art is able also to use the black. Any one
+believing in fetich can use white arts, and not subject himself to the
+charge of being a wizard. Those who desire to go beyond the arts of
+defence, and gratify their revenge or any other passion by killing or
+injuring some one else, have generally to purchase the agency of a doctor
+or some one skilled in the black art. Should the means thus employed be
+efficient in causing a death (or seemingly so, by the coincidence of their
+use and the death itself) and the facts become known, both the doctor and
+the man who employed him would probably be put to death. Yet,
+inconsistently, the very men who would execute them have themselves used,
+or will some day use, these same black arts for the same murderous
+purpose, and the native doctors will continue in their risky business.
+
+And yet, again, inconsistently, every man and woman in the community
+dreads such a charge, and looks askance on those who are suspected of
+belonging to the Witchcraft Company. For there is such a society, not
+distinctly organized. It has meetings at which they plot for the causing
+of sickness or even the taking of life. These meetings are secret;
+preferably in a forest, or at least distant from a village. The hour is
+near midnight. An imitation of the hoot of an owl, which is their sacred
+bird, is their signal call. They profess to leave their corporeal body
+lying asleep in their huts, and claim that the part which joins in the
+meeting is their spirit-body, whose movements are not hindered by walls or
+other physical objects. They can pass with instant rapidity through the
+air, over the tree-tops. At their meetings they have visible, audible, and
+tangible communication with evil spirits. They partake of feasts; the
+article eaten being the "heart-life" of some human being, who, in
+consequence of this loss of his "heart," becomes sick, and will die,
+unless it be restored. The early cock-crowing is a warning for them to
+disperse; the advent of the morning star they fear, as it compels them to
+hasten back to their bodies. Should the sun rise upon them before they
+reach their corporeal "home," their plans would fail, and themselves would
+sicken. They dread cayenne pepper. Should its bruised leaves or pods have
+been rubbed over their body-home by any one during their absence, they
+would be unable to re-enter it, and would die or miserably waste away.
+
+The attitude of all missionaries toward executions on a charge of being a
+witch or a wizard has uniformly been distinctly in opposition to them. We
+characterize them as murder. The European governments which have taken
+possession of Africa also put down witchcraft, medicine-making, and
+execution of supposed witchcraft murderers with a strong hand. The natives
+submit under pressure of force, but unwillingly. Each man or woman is glad
+of the strong foreign power that protects himself or herself from being
+put to death on a witchcraft charge; but they each complain that the
+government does not execute, nor will allow them to execute, others
+against whom they make the same charge. It is undeniably true that were
+the European governments that have partitioned Africa to withdraw to-day,
+the witch-doctors, with poison ordeal and fetich killing and witchcraft
+execution, would promptly re-establish themselves and soon would become
+rampant again. The Christian churches and communities already established
+would barely hold their own, and would not have an influence extensive
+enough to restrain the forces of evil.
+
+I quote from a recent issue of a Freetown, Sierra Leone, newspaper, edited
+by a Negro, an article written by a Negro on this subject: "The subject of
+'witchcraft' has been agitating of late the minds of this community, and
+much sense and more nonsense has been heard from those who take upon
+themselves to elucidate the matter. It is a very difficult and delicate
+question to tackle at all times, especially when knowledge, which is
+always the foundation of eloquence, is absent. From the statement of Holy
+Scriptures we know that there is such a thing as witchcraft, and the
+theory is confirmed by the records of English history. It will be a most
+desirable thing if any person guilty of witchcraft could be convicted by
+means that would be convincing in the legal investigation of other crimes;
+it will save the community from many heart-burnings and mistakes.
+
+"A writer in a local journal recently made the assertion that in any case
+of poisoning in the cities of Europe, steps are taken to trace the poison
+by eminent physicians and detectives employed to hunt up the accused, but
+in our opinion the cases are not analogous. In the case of suspected
+poisoning post-mortem examinations by competent authorities will disclose
+the fact whether the deceased died of poisoning; unfounded, and in some
+instances gratuitous, assertions are not without proofs allowed to cloud
+the life of individuals. A _prima facie_ case once established, the
+suspect is pursued with the utmost vigor of the law.
+
+"In this colony [Sierra Leone] most deaths are attributed to the influence
+of witches, and accusation of witchcraft is at once made against
+individuals without attempt at obtaining evidence.
+
+"How can it be proved that there is a band of these wicked ones, so as to
+attach credence to the confession of a conscience-stricken member who
+implicates also a number of coadjutors? The problem is an intricate one,
+and requires thoughtful investigation."
+
+The slaves exported from Africa to the British possessions in the West
+Indies brought with them some of the seeds of African plants, especially
+those they regarded as "medicinal," or they found among the fauna and
+flora of the tropical West Indies some of the same plants and animals held
+by them as sacred to fetich in their tropical Africa. The ceiba, or
+silk-cotton tree, at whose base I find in Africa so many votive offerings
+of fetich worship, they found flourishing on Jamaica. They had established
+on their plantations the fetich doctor, their dance, their charm, their
+lore, before they had learned English at all. And when the British
+missionaries came among them with school and church, while many of the
+converts were sincere, there were those of the doctor class who, like
+Simon Magus, entered into the church-fold for sake of whatever gain they
+could make by the white man's new influence, the white man's Holy Spirit!
+Outwardly everything was serene and Christian. Within was working an
+element of diabolism, fetichism, there known by the name of Obeah, under
+whose leaven some of the churches were wrecked. And the same diabolism,
+known as voodoo worship, in the Negro communities of the Southern United
+States has emasculated the spiritual life of many professed Christians.
+
+It must be admitted, as to this whole matter of witchcraft belief and
+witchcraft murder and witchcraft execution, however wrong the Negro
+belief, his sense of justice is aggrieved by the attitude of the foreign
+missionary and the foreign government. Something should be allowed to that
+sense of justice. Both missionary and government err sometimes, in their
+judgment of individual or tribal crime and in their punishment of it, by
+arbitrarily following only civilized law and the civilized point of view;
+ignoring or not giving proper weight, in the make up of their judgment, to
+the degree to which the fetich enters as a factor in native motives and
+acts, and the power with which it influences native thought.
+
+In Matabele-land, South Africa, after the defeat and death of the king
+Lo-Bengula, and the occupation of his country by Great Britain, there was
+an outbreak, the cause of which was not fully appreciated until it was
+traced to the witch-doctors, who seized the occasion of the ravages of the
+rinderpest, which was at that time devastating the cattle of South Africa,
+to make use of their power. "Naturally they must have felt, more than
+anybody else, the occupation of Matabele-land by the whites, as it meant
+the disappearance of their former power. When the rinderpest broke out,
+they probably persuaded the natives, who understood nothing about an
+epidemic and attributed whatever ill befalls them to witchcraft, that it
+was the spirit of Lo-Bengula, which was dissatisfied with them and which
+caused their cattle to die. To appease Lo-Bengula's spirit, it was
+necessary to fight the whites. They, the witch-doctors, would make
+medicine to turn the bullets of the white men into water, so that the
+Matabele could not be hurt by them."[54]
+
+Similarly Great Britain with difficulty has suppressed several risings of
+the Ashantees, and the late so-called "Hut-Tax" rebellion in Sierra Leone.
+The actual force of the natives, in organization, arms, and skill, was
+almost ridiculous in its inferiority as compared with the thoroughly armed
+and disciplined troops of the British Empire; but the final result, though
+never doubtful, was attained with much loss of men and funds. The fetich
+doctor and fetich belief were a _vis a tergo_ with the native horde. Its
+value as a factor in the contest had not been reckoned on by the
+foreigner. Whatever motives influenced the native in the contest, in
+patriotism, cupidity, revenge, bravery, they were minor. The grand
+influence that nerved his arm and made him perfectly fearless in his
+assaults against weapons of precision, was his deep conviction, more
+complete than Christian faith, that he would win. Had not the fetich
+doctor told him so? Though there had been some apparent failures, in his
+belief they were only apparent. The real failure was in his own self, his
+not having followed minutely all the fetich directions. Those directions
+followed rightly in the next battle, he _could not_ fail.
+
+The faith of a Christian does not assure him, in any emergency of life,
+that he will be successful in his plan; it only certifies him that,
+whatever be the result, success or failure, of any single act or series of
+acts in life's drama, his own will must be subordinated to God's, who, if
+not granting his specific wish to-day, will overrule everything in the
+final _denouement_ for his best spiritual good.
+
+Similarly the heathen fetich, mixed with the fatalism of Islam, is an
+explanation of the splendid recklessness with which the followers of the
+Mahdi flung themselves against the sabres and maxims of General
+Kitchener's army at Omdurman.
+
+Faith in fetich is a power as long as its devotee believes in its
+infallibility. When that is gone, his flight or conquest is instant.
+Fetich power therefore cannot be invariably relied upon as a motive to
+action. It may sometimes be magnificent. Only Christian faith or civilized
+discipline can be sublime, as compared with it.
+
+But a fetich devotee who has lost his faith in his fetich could never have
+stood with Christian martyrs who knew perfectly well that within an hour
+they would be torn to pieces in the arena. Their sublime faith looked
+beyond that arena to the eternal promise. A fetich soldier who has lost
+his faith in his fetich could never have gone with those who stood head
+erect before certain death in the Alamo fort or who rode in the charge at
+Balaklava. Their elevated motives of patriotism, implicit soldierly
+obedience to order, and the sweet scent of human glory made them discount
+the value of their own blood. These were motives not only powerful in
+force, but great in character. The Negro's fetich faith is powerful, but
+never great.
+
+Something cognate to this in the comparison of the power and the greatness
+of a motive will explain the persistent fatuity of the Boer in protracting
+his contest with Great Britain. From the very first, whatever the world
+may have thought of essential right or justice in the case, the world knew
+that England would win. The Boer would have been wise to have accepted
+defeat earlier and made terms with a conqueror who generally has been
+magnanimous and rarely cruel, rather than invite, by guerilla warfare,
+measures severer, harsher, and possibly exterminative. The Boer is a
+Christian, but his faith was of the Mosaic kind that expected the God of
+battles to interfere visibly in his behalf. The president of the republic
+had preached that he would do so. The Boer looked on the president as a
+prophet, and believed him. But his faith was an unreasonable one; it was
+fatuous. His bravery, patriotism, marksmanship, and endurance could not
+avail. These all tell well for a martyrdom, if martyrdom were desirable or
+necessary, but they did not tell well for assertion of success.
+
+France, overcome by Germany, still was brave and patriotic; but she was
+wise in accepting the inevitable,--wiser than the Negro or the Boer.
+France believed in God; so did Germany. But the faith of neither was of
+the fetich kind. Nevertheless, the fetich faith is magnificent, even if it
+be fatuous.
+
+For the apparently cruel side of the black art, _viz._, the killing of
+those guilty of witchcraft, there is some allowance to be made.
+
+To the believer in fetich the killing is a judicial act. He does not call
+it a murder, but an execution; and he tries to justify it by an argument
+which even the missionary has to admit is correct if the Negro's premises
+in the argument are admitted. As we do not admit both of them, his
+argument falls. But it is difficult to show him that his second premise is
+wrong, and he is unconvinced.
+
+I have several times been thoroughly worsted in my discussion with native
+chiefs on this matter of witchcraft executions. In the early years of my
+missionary life, while resident on Corisco Island, I followed the practice
+of my predecessor, the Rev. J. L. Mackey, in the effort to prevent such
+executions, which were then (about 1863) common. We directed the native
+Christians to notify us of any death, and we would at once go to the
+village and endeavor to forestall the almost invariable witchcraft
+investigation. The headman, Kombenyamango, of an adjacent village, was a
+large, strong, influential, cruel man. There was so little about him to
+command my respect that I had shown him but slight deference. Having thus
+his _amour propre_ wounded, he was unfortunately not on very good terms
+with me. His aged mother had been failing in health for a long time, and
+finally had died. Her position, as mother of a chief, had given her much
+respect in native eyes. The concourse of mourners gathered from a distance
+was large. Feeling for her death was deep; threats of vengeance for her
+taking off were loud. I was soon informed that one of her female slaves
+had been seized under pure suspicion because of her proximity as the dead
+woman's servant. In her case as a means of finding whether or not she was
+guilty, there had been no ordeal test of drinking the mbundu poison. (On
+the Upper Guinea Coast it is sassa-wood; at Calabar, the Calabar bean; at
+the equator, the akazya leaf.) Under torture, being beaten and lacerated
+by thorn bushes, she had confessed herself guilty, was in chains, and was
+soon to be executed.
+
+On such occasions, on arriving at the village, there was often an effort
+on the part of the chief to deceive the missionary. The chief would either
+assert that he had had no intention of making a witchcraft investigation,
+or would consent now, in deference to his white friend the missionary, to
+abandon his intention, and would forbid any execution. But it would be
+revealed to us afterwards that at that very moment a victim was in chains
+in that very village, and had subsequently been secretly put to death.
+
+This day Kombenyamango, though receiving me with sufficient respect, was
+nonchalant. He did not lie. He promptly, in answer to my question, said,
+"Yes, I have a prisoner here, and I intend to put her to death." "Why?"
+"Because she has killed my mother!" I told him I did not believe his
+mother had died by unnatural means, and I preached to him the usual sermon
+on the Sixth Commandment. I was at that time young in my knowledge of
+native thought and fetich belief. I can see now that to every sentence of
+my address he could have said Amen, in his believing, as he did, that his
+mother had been murdered, and that this slave woman had broken the Sixth
+Commandment. But, after listening awhile, he became impatient, and said,
+"Look here! in your country, when a person kills your mother, don't you
+tie a rope about his neck and hang him up, and don't you say you are doing
+right in so doing?" "Yes." "Well, that's just what I am going to do to
+this woman, and I am right." "Yes, you would be right if she has killed
+your mother; but she has not. The bewitching with which you charge her is
+foolish." (As to the folly, I know now that that was a matter of opinion
+between him and me; and he had reason for his opinion.) He replied, "But
+she has confessed that she is guilty." "Quite possibly; but still a lie on
+her part, for she would say anything to obtain temporary relief from your
+torture." "But ask her yourself." "No use to do so in your presence; she
+is afraid of you, and she will not dare to speak to me or contradict you."
+"Well, then, I will bring her; and you take her off there among the
+plantains by yourself, and see what she will say." This sounded fair; but
+even so, I had my doubts, for she did not know me. Perhaps they would lie
+to her, and tell her I was confederate with her master, and would order
+her not to alter her confession. And she, in her dazed condition, was
+really not responsible for anything she might say. She was brought from a
+hut. She was in chains, and yet with her limbs free to walk. There was no
+possibility of her escape; nor of my being able to abduct her, had I been
+unwise enough to attempt it. I led her out of Kombenyamango's hearing, but
+still plainly in his sight, and kindly said to her, "Did you do this?" To
+my amazement, she said, "Yes." "But what did you do? If you say you killed
+her, how did you do it?" She described minutely how, being in attendance
+on the old woman, she was often vexed at her petulance, and had been
+beaten by her for small neglects; how, in her anger, she had desired her
+mistress's death; had collected crumbs of her food, strands of her hair,
+and shreds of her clothing; how she had mixed these with other substances,
+and had sung enchantments with drum and dance, aided by others; had tied
+all these things together on a stick which she had secretly buried at the
+threshold of the old woman's door, desiring and expecting that she should
+thereby die. By an unfortunate coincidence the old woman had died a month
+or two later; and the slave believed that what she had done had been
+efficient to accomplish the taking of life.
+
+Baffled, I returned to Kombenyamango, and admitted her confession. But I
+told him that, even so, both he and she were under a delusion; that what
+she had done had no efficiency for accomplishing a murder; that it was
+impossible. (Here again was a difference of opinion as to possibility; he
+believed his senses. In his life he had seen witchcraft mysteries; I had
+not.)
+
+It was useless, even inconsistent, to plead for mercy; I retired
+heartsick. I was morally certain the old woman had died a natural death.
+Yet this poor slave woman had had murder in her heart, and had tried to
+make her murderous thought effective. She was, before God, guilty. She had
+confessed herself, before man's bar, guilty. (Well for the thousands of us
+who know ourselves guilty in thought, that we are not to be held by our
+fellow-sinners as guilty in act!) I knew that she was really innocent, but
+I could not prove it. She was taken to sea in a boat, and decapitated; her
+remains were thrown into the sea.
+
+On another occasion, a year later, also on Corisco Island, a certain
+heathen headman of a village, Osongo, had died. A female slave who was
+suspected had fled. Her flight was regarded as proof positive of her
+guilt. Our mission premises had always been accorded by the native chiefs
+the right of sanctuary. A refugee for any offence could not be seized on
+our premises till we saw just reason for "extraditing" him. This slave
+woman had hidden herself in our jungle-thicket adjoining a forest; just
+where I did not know. Two freemen--my personal employees, good
+Christians--knew, and secretly at night with my connivance fed her. My
+school-girls also learned of it. Such a secret is difficult to hide. One
+of the girls, a niece of Osongo, revealed it to another of my workmen,
+Matoku, a slave also of Osongo, and a professed Christian. He, with the
+traitorous cowardice that makes many slaves informers on each other as a
+means of enhancing their own safety with their masters, revealed it to
+Ajai, Osongo's brother. Ajai, with a retinue of servants, came to visit me
+in my study. He, with a wily talk about the sadness of his brother's
+death, detained me, while the servants broke into the mission premises,
+and, led by Matoku, captured the woman, faint with her days and nights of
+exposure. I discharged Matoku from my employ, and dismissed the niece from
+school. But the heathen regarded these punishments as slight; they had
+obtained their object. My attempts to plead with Ajai for the woman's life
+were met with undisguised admission of his fixed purpose to kill her. With
+a family as prominent on the island and as wedded to heathenism as was
+Osongo's, and in face of the current that set against the woman, the
+influences I was able to employ, and which had at other times resulted in
+saving some lives accused of witchcraft, proved ineffectual. I was
+privately told that she was to be put into a boat and carried out to sea
+so as to prevent any interference I might possibly attempt. With a
+spy-glass I saw a native boat shoot rapidly out from beyond a point of
+land half a mile distant. The rowers rested on their oars when they
+reached deep water. She was seized; her head held over the gunwale, her
+throat cut, and her lifeless body cast into the sea.
+
+She had a son, a stout lad. Ajai, fearing that he might live to avenge his
+mother's death, had ordered him also to be killed as an accomplice with
+her in the bewitching of Osongo. The tragedy that was being enacted on the
+beach behind the point of land from which had issued the boat I did not
+see; but I was told that the lad was seized, his hands and limbs tied to a
+stake, where he was slowly burned to death. A crowd sat on the beach
+jeering him, and amused themselves by tying little packets of gunpowder to
+different parts of his body, enjoying the sight of his struggles as the
+packets exploded in succession.
+
+Undeniably there is much jugglery and conscious deception on the part of
+the magic doctors. How much they really believe in what they say or do no
+one has been able to discover; they assert that they are under
+supernatural influences, and have power given from supernatural sources.
+Rarely are any of this priest class converted to Christianity. A few have
+professed conversion, and have made a general acknowledgment of
+sinfulness; but they did not like to talk about their divinations; they
+called them "foolishness." But evidently there was something about those
+divinations of which they seemed ashamed and which they wished to forget.
+Only one have I met who would talk on the subject, and she believed she
+had been under satanic influence,--not simply as all wicked thoughts are
+satanic in their character and inspiration, but that she had actually been
+under satanic possession, and was given by the devil more than mere human
+power. Certainly, if there is in civilized jugglery, fortune-telling,
+clairvoyance, divining, spirit-rappings, theosophy, _et id omne genus_,
+nothing more than sleight of hand, alert observation of facial
+expression, and mind-reading, the African conjurer almost equals the
+civilized professional. The native magician does and tells some wonderful
+things. In one of my congregations an educated woman, a widow, who had
+only one child, a son grown to young manhood, had subsequently lived in
+succession with four other men, three of whom were white, who had either
+died or deserted her; and she supposed herself past child-bearing. She
+contracted a secret marriage with a white gentleman, but of it positively
+nothing was known or even suspected by any one. She confessed to me that
+one day, being a visitor in a distant place where she was not known, she,
+out of mere curiosity, hired a magician to divine her future. He looked
+into his magic mirror, and, among many other things which he could
+shrewdly have guessed in a quick study of her character as revealed in her
+looks, manner, and language, surprised her by describing a white man (whom
+he had never seen) who, he asserted, was deeply attached to her, and by
+whom she would become the mother of two children. She suppressed her
+surprise, and told him that though married four times, she had borne no
+child in eighteen years. He nevertheless asserted, "I see them in your
+womb."
+
+Within five years from that time she did have two untimely births by her
+white husband. She told me in her confession that he knew nothing of them,
+they being miscarriages. She had suppressed from him the fact of her
+pregnancy. When subsequently she united with the church, she made these
+revelations only to me as her pastor, to save herself from public rebuke.
+
+At another time a woman in Gabun became very anxious about a brother of
+hers who was trading on the Ogowe River, at a place at least three hundred
+miles distant; no news had come of him. Evil news always flies fast and is
+always spread publicly. She went to a magician. Divining, he said, "Your
+brother is dead." "But where? What? When did he die?" "Only recently. I
+see his body lying bleeding." And he described the wounds, the locality on
+the river, the time, and other details of a country where he had never
+been. Two months later news did come, and it agreed in time, place, and
+circumstances with the divination.
+
+Such things occur in civilized lands. They are accounted for without any
+reference to, or belief in, demoniac or even supernatural causes or
+influences. We call such recondite knowledge telepathy, and leave it for
+psychologists to study its character and application. It has no religious
+significance or use. The most devout Christian may believe in it or be
+subject to its operation. Other cases of telepathy in Africa I have been
+told of, that had no fetich nor any divination of magic doctor connected
+with them; but the natives attributed them to some unknown
+spirit-influence.
+
+An outcome of the witchcraft of fetichism, demonolatry, though not
+necessarily identical with demoniacal possession, intimately associates
+itself with it as a part of its development. For the Negro belief in such
+possession there is good basis. The Bible recognizes the possibility of
+human beings in their free agency making pacts with the devil, in virtue
+of which he was allowed, under divine administration, to share with them
+some of his supernatural power as prince of the power of darkness, and god
+of this world. Such pacts were condemned by Jehovah as unholy. Those who
+made them were called witches and wizards; such transgressors were
+directed to be destroyed. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"[55] (a
+command that does not necessarily prove that the professed diabolical
+compact was always a real one. The mere professing to have satanic
+companionship and aid was an offence heinous to Jehovah's theocratic
+government of his people.)
+
+But the witch of Endor[56] certainly was a reality; she did "bring up"
+real departed spirits; perhaps only on that one occasion, and then only by
+direct divine and not satanic power and will, and for a divine object. She
+herself seems to have been surprised[57] at the real success of
+divinations which formerly may have been, in her hands, only deceptions.
+
+My native heathen chiefs have good precedent for their witchcraft
+executions. New England history cannot wipe out the fact of the Salem
+witchcraft trials.
+
+Demoniac possessions in supposed lunatics are possible; they were actual
+and numerous in Palestine during the ministry of Christ. Satan was
+"loosed" with unusual power, that the Son of God in his contest with him
+could give to the world convincing proof of his divine origin and
+authority, even the devils being subject to him. If demoniacal possessions
+are possible during a term of years, they are equally possible for a few
+hours; they never were nor are made by Satan for a good purpose. God, in
+the days of Christ, for the special purpose of the time, overruled them
+for the defence of his kingdom; since then, in the hearts of evil men,
+their advent is only for evil and by evil.
+
+If in Christian lands the enchantments of the hoodoo are only jugglery and
+nothing else, it may be that Satan's power is limited under the broad
+light of Christianity. But in heathen lands, where for ages Satan's power
+has not only been accepted but also sought, I am disposed to believe that
+some apparent cases of lunacy are real possessions by Satan, in which
+cases both the physical disease and its associated mental aberration are
+the effect of the possession. In lunacy pure and simple the mental
+aberration is the effect of disease alone,--some mental or physical
+injury.
+
+The possibility of a permanent possession by Satan being admitted, it is
+easily possible that the fetich doctors or priestesses may be temporarily
+entered into by satanic power, and that some wonderful things they do and
+say while endowed with that power are used by the devil to blind men's
+minds against the truth.
+
+It may be, therefore, that the missionary in his contest with heathenism
+has literally to fight with the devil, with principalities and powers in
+high places, and needs weapons more subtle than Martin Luther's inkstand.
+If so, he puts his preaching and his work at a disadvantage in deriding
+the witchcraft side of fetichism, revealed in black art, as simply
+"folly," and reprehensible only as a superstition. It is more than that;
+it is wickedness,--spiritual wickedness in high places. While it is true
+that it has much that is mere jugglery and charlatanism, it is quite
+possible that it may have something that is diabolically real.
+
+But all this does not fully justify my Negro chief in putting to death his
+slave, who may or may not have been more than self-deceived and deceiving,
+who may or may not have had a temporary satanic possession, who may or may
+not have been guilty of murder before the bar of God or man. That chief
+and all his assistants in the execution, and all other users of the black
+art, had, in the beginning of their fetich life, been users of only the
+defensive white art; had inevitably grown into the use of the offensive
+black art, and in all probability at some time or other had used
+divinations, with and by the aid of witchcraft doctors, for the
+destruction of others in a similar way and under the same motives as those
+admitted by my poor slave woman.
+
+My chief's argument syllogized would be: Whoever kills should be killed;
+this woman has killed; therefore she should be killed. His first premise
+stands; but neither he nor any of his people had a right to use it;
+consistently, he and all his should themselves have been at the same bar
+with the woman; they either had done, or would some day be doing, just
+what they were charging her with doing. His second premise may or may not
+have been true; certainly, the only one who could know whether it was true
+was the accused herself, and she may have been self-deceived; and her
+confession should have no standing in court, having been forced under
+torture. I could not therefore admit his conclusion; and I think that, had
+the Master stood visibly on Corisco Island that day, He would have said,
+"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FETICHISM--A GOVERNMENT
+
+
+In civilization, under governments other than autocratic, law being made
+and executed, at least professedly, with the consent of the governed, all
+enactments find not only their justification, but also the possibility of
+their enforcement, in their support by public opinion. It is the general
+consensus as to the need of an enactment regarding certain conditions
+affecting the lives or happiness or rights of the majority, that
+crystallizes opinions into a form of words, and gives authority for the
+enforcement of the decisions expressed by those words.
+
+This is also partly true even under governments more or less despotic,
+where the will of the ruler, not of the ruled, is made the basis of law.
+Few despots are so utterly tyrannical as deliberately to arouse opposition
+on the part of their subjects. Even a Nero, who would refuse a petition if
+it happened to run counter to his whim or caprice of the day, would grant
+that same petition if it happened to coincide with his own whim of another
+day. Even he thought it desirable to pander to the public taste for the
+butcheries of the amphitheatre, not simply because he himself enjoyed
+them. Though he could initiate no measure for the real good of Rome, he
+recognized the necessity of responding to the cry, "panem et circenses."
+
+In all governments fear is recognized as one of the grounds for the
+enforcement of law. In even the freest nations and under the highest form
+of civilization the public opinion that administers law makes its demand
+partly in the interest of essential right, partly with the instinct of
+self-preservation against the forces of evil, and partly for the
+punishment of wrong. Punishment in itself is not reformatory; it is
+retributive; it is deterrent; it plays upon fear.
+
+In the native African tribal forms of government, while it would not be
+true to say that there is no justice in the customs they recognize, it is
+true that the only sentiment appealed to, in the enforcement and even in
+the enactment of supposed needed measures, is that of fear. Their religion
+being one of fear, it is therefore appealed to to lend its sanction and
+aid.
+
+"Fetiches are set up to punish offenders in certain cases where there is
+an intention to make a law specially binding; this refers more
+particularly to crimes which cannot always be detected. A fetich is
+inaugurated, for example, to detect and punish certain kinds of theft;
+persons who are cognizant to such crimes, and who do not give information,
+are also liable to be punished by the fetich. The fetich is supposed to be
+able not only to detect all such transgressions, but has power, likewise,
+to punish the transgressor. How it exercises this knowledge, or by what
+means it brings sickness and death upon the offender, cannot, of course,
+be explained; but, as it is believed in, it is the most effectual
+restraint that can possibly be imposed upon evil-disposed persons."[58]
+
+Among the Negro tribes of the Bight of Benin and the Bantu of the region
+of Corisco Island and of the Ogowe River, in what is now the
+Kongo-Francais, there was a power known variously as Egbo, Ukuku, and
+Yasi, which tribes, native chiefs, and headmen of villages invoked as a
+court of last appeal, for the passage of needed laws, or the adjudication
+of some quarrel which an ordinary family or village council was unable to
+settle.
+
+In those councils an offender could be proved guilty of a debt or theft,
+or other trespass, and when it was no longer possible for him by audacity
+or mendacity to persist in his assertion of innocence, he would yield to
+the decision of the great majority against him. But there was no central
+government to enforce that decision or exact from him restitution. The
+only authority the native chiefs possessed was based on respect due to
+age, parental position, or strength of personal character. If an offender
+chose to disregard all these considerations, an appeal was then made to
+his superstitious fear.
+
+Egbo, Ukuku, Yasi, was a secret society composed only of men, boys being
+initiated into it about the age of puberty. Members were bound by a
+terrible oath and under pain of death to obey any law or command issued by
+the spirit under which the society professed to be organized. The actual,
+audible utterance of the command was by the voice of one of the members of
+the society chosen as priest for that purpose. This man, secreted in the
+forest, in a clump of bushes on the outskirts of the village, or in one of
+the rooms of the Council House, disguised his voice, speaking only
+gutturally. The whole proceeding was an immense fiction; they believed in
+spirits and in the power of fetich charms, and they made such charms part
+of the society's ceremonies; but, as to the decisions, all the members
+knew that the decision in any case was their own, not a spirit's. They
+knew that the voice speaking was that of their delegate, not of a spirit.
+Yet for any one of them, or for any woman, girl, or uninitiated boy, to
+assert as much would have been death. And those men who would not have
+submitted to the same decision if arrived at in open council of themselves
+as _men_, and known before the whole village to be speaking only as men,
+would instantly submit when once the case had been taken to Ukuku's Court.
+They carried out that fiction all their lives. Let a man order his wives
+and other slaves to clear the overgrown village paths, they might hesitate
+to obey by inventing some excuse that they were too much occupied with
+other work, or that they would do it only when other people who also used
+the same path should assist; or if under the sting of a kasa-nguvu (lash
+of hippopotamus hide or manatus skin) they started to do the work, they
+might do it only partly or very unsatisfactorily. But let the man call in
+the other men of the village and summon a meeting of the society, the
+recalcitrants would submit instantly, and in terror of Ukuku's voice; much
+as they might possibly have suspected it was a human voice, they would not
+dare whisper the suspicion. They helped to carry on a gigantic lie. They
+taught their little children, both girls and boys, that the voice belonged
+to a spirit which ate people who disobeyed him. When the society walked in
+procession to or from their appointed rendezvous, they were preceded by
+runners who, with a well-recognized cry and with kasa-nguvu in hand,
+warned all on the path of the coming of the spirit. Women and children
+hastened to get out of the way; or, if unable to hide in time, they
+averted their faces. The penalty when a woman even saw the procession was
+a severe beating; that, however, might be commuted to a fine.
+
+About thirty-nine years ago, on the island of Corisco, the then
+headquarters of the Corisco Mission, there was a long-standing feud
+between the Benga tribe, inhabiting that island, and the Kombe tribe,
+dwelling at the mouth of the Eyo River, of the Benita country, fifty miles
+to the north. Benita was also a part of the mission field. The quarrel
+between the two tribes greatly obstructed our mission work. Missionaries
+were entirely safe in travel between the two places, respect being given
+them as foreigners, and their presence in a boat protected their crews;
+but it was often difficult to obtain a crew willing to go on the journey
+without the presence of a white man. The difficulties caused by the feud
+fell heavily also on the Benga people themselves. The island itself had no
+products for trade; ivory, dye-woods, and rubber came from the Benita
+mainland. Many Kombe women had married Benga men, and needed frequently to
+revisit their own country. Finally, to end the feud, it was agreed that
+the Kombe Ukuku Society, whose power was held in even greater fear than
+that of Benga, should come to Corisco and settle the affair.
+
+It was a day of terror at the Girls' Boarding School, of which I was then
+superintendent. As the long, blood-curdling yell of the forerunners on
+the public path, that ran only one hundred feet from the school dwelling,
+announced the approach of the procession, the girls fled, affrighted, to
+the darkness of the attic of the house. After the procession had passed,
+they ran away secretly in byways to their own villages, feeling safer in
+the darkness of their mother's huts than in the mission-house; for it had
+been reported that Ukuku, besides settling the tribal feud, intended to
+attack the mission work that had been successfully making converts among
+the Kombe, because any native who became a Christian immediately withdrew
+from membership in the society. It had therefore begun to feel a little
+anxious about its safety. I stood at my door and saw the procession pass;
+they saw me, but, because of my sex, they did not show any displeasure.
+They were painted with white and other colored chalks that gave a horrible
+expression to their faces; their look was defiant, and a hoarse, muttered
+chant had, even on myself, a depressing effect. I could well imagine that
+to a superstitious native mind the _tout ensemble_ would be terrifying.
+
+The procession on its way chose to pass over a road that had by use become
+somewhat public, but which was owned by the mission; it was only fifty
+feet past the front door of the house of the senior missionary, the Rev.
+James L. Mackey. Mrs. Mackey was standing at the door of the house; not
+being a Benga woman, she saw no reason why she should retire before Ukuku,
+and stood her ground. Ukuku went to their rendezvous in a rage, and the
+Kombe portion demanded the life of the woman who not only had not hidden
+her face in their presence, but had dared persistently to look upon them.
+This demand was modified by the Benga portion to a fine; its alternative,
+whipping, not even they daring to suggest for a white lady. This demand
+for a fine was actually brought to Mr. Mackey, who gave a dignified reply,
+pointing out that, as foreigners, white people were not subject to Ukuku;
+that Ukuku had trespassed on mission private property, and was itself
+responsible for being seen; that, as a Christian, in no case could he
+recognize the authority of Ukuku to order or fine him. In reply, Ukuku
+made the point that it was the government of the country, and that even
+foreigners were bound to obey law. (Corisco actually belonged to Spain,
+but Spain in no way exercised any visible authority over it.)
+
+They admitted their trespass on private property, but still demanded the
+fine. Mr. Mackey made no further reply; and of course, as a matter of
+conscience, refused to pay the fine. But it transpired afterwards that
+native friends, fearful lest matters should come to an ugly pass through
+his refusal, privately paid the fine themselves. The missionary, unaware
+of this, thought he had triumphed; really Ukuku had, but not
+unqualifiedly, for it was a shock to its power that it should have been
+disputed at all, even by a white man.
+
+About the same time a young slave man who was beginning to attend church
+with desire to become a Christian, was sitting in a village where was
+being held a meeting of the local Ukuku Society. The object of the meeting
+was to alarm and drive back to a more constant performance of fetich
+observances some of the villages on which heathenism was beginning to lose
+its hold. In the course of his oracular deliverances the Ukuku priest
+mentioned by name this young man. In his fresh zeal as a convert he made a
+protest; perhaps duty did not call for even that just at the time, but he
+even went beyond. As he was able to recognize the voice, though disguised,
+and knew who its owner was, he made a fatal mistake in saying, "You,
+such-a-one, I know who you are; you are only a man; why are you troubling
+me?" He was promptly dragged to the seaside and decapitated.
+
+While converts felt the propriety of abandoning their membership in the
+society and any participation in its ceremonies, the mission had not
+required of them nor deemed it desirable that they should make a
+revelation of its secrets. But it had occurred in the early history of the
+mission that one young man, Ibia, a freeman, member of a prominent
+family, had felt that in breaking away from heathenism and becoming a
+Christian he should cast off the very semblance of any connection with
+evil or even tacit endorsement of it. He knew the society was based on a
+great falsehood. As a lad he had believed Ukuku was a spirit; on his
+initiation he had found that this was not so; but loyal to his heathenism
+and to his oath, he had assented to the lie and had assisted in
+propagating it. He was known for the fearlessness of his convictions, and
+in his conversion he to a rare degree emerged from all superstitious
+beliefs. Few emerge so utterly as he. He therefore publicly began to
+reveal the ceremonies practised in the Ukuku meetings. At once his life
+was in danger. The two pioneer missionaries, Rev. Messrs. Mackey and
+Clemens, were men of exceptional strength of character and wise judgment,
+and had obtained a very strong hold on the respect and affection even of
+the heathen. Their influence, united with a small party of Ibia's own
+family and a few of the more civilized chiefs, was able to save his life,
+he being guarded in the mission-house until the fierceness of heathen rage
+should abate. But, though his enemies presently ceased from open efforts
+to kill him by force, they proclaimed that they would kill him by means of
+the very witchcraft power he was despising. They said they would concoct
+fetich charms which would destroy the life of his child, and that they
+would curse the ground on which he trod so that it should sicken his feet.
+Not long afterwards his infant child did die, and one of his feet for more
+than a year had a painful ulcer. The coincidence was startling, and
+somewhat triumphant for the heathen; but infant mortality is large even
+among natives, and phagedenic ulcers of the leg are very common. Ibia
+recognized his afflictions as a trial of his faith permitted by God. He
+came out of his fiery trial strong, and his life since has been that of a
+reformer, uncompromising with any evil, earning from his own people their
+ill-will by his scathing denunciations of anything that savored of
+superstition. He became the Rev. Ibia j'Ikenge, member of Corisco
+Presbytery and pastor of the Corisco church; and Ukuku has long since
+ceased to exist as a power on the island.
+
+Like all government intended for the benefit and protection of the
+governed, Ukuku, when it happened to throw its power on the side of right,
+was occasionally an apparent blessing. It could end tribal quarrels and
+proclaim and enforce peace where no individual chief or king would have
+been able to accomplish the same result. In this connection I quote from
+an editorial in a Sierra Leone newspaper:
+
+"Much of the ideas of our western civilization as to native African
+institutions have been crude and uninformed, based on misconception and a
+predisposition to consider such institutions as an outcome of barbarism
+and savagery, to be treated with unmitigated contempt. But as the light of
+modern researches is reflected on the question by sympathetic students who
+have brought an unprejudiced mind to bear on the subject, if haply they
+might discover the hidden truths underlying the fabric which age, custom,
+and intellect have combined to construct into a national system, it is
+becoming more and more apparent to those who are interested in the
+material progress of Africa and the Africans and who are believers in the
+fact that native races have a civilization of their own capable of
+development and expansion on right lines, that the study of such questions
+should be intelligently and scientifically pursued, and with a purpose to
+help those concerned in their onward progress towards the attainment of
+moral, social, and intellectual liberty.
+
+"That [some] native [governmental] institutions have wielded, and are
+wielding, a power for good in the several communities belonging to each
+distinctive tribe, is a fact that cannot be disputed or contested, in the
+past as well as in the present. The Aro of the Yorubas [in the Niger
+Delta], the Porroh of the Mendis [of Sierra Leone], and the Bondo of the
+mixed mass who inhabit Sherbro-land, have and exercise judicial functions
+exemplary and disciplinary in their effects. By their means law and order
+are observed to such an extent that many of the unrestrained and rowdy
+outbursts cowardly indulged in by so-called civilized communities and
+people are practically unknown.
+
+"These institutions are connected with and govern the agencies that work
+in the sociology of all communities, such as the marriage laws; the
+relation of children to parents and of sex to sex; social laws; the
+position of eldership and the deference to be paid to age and worth;
+native herbs and medicines, and the duties of the native doctor to the
+other members of the community."
+
+On one occasion in 1861 the Rev. William Clemens took a young Benga man
+from Corisco Island to locate him as evangelist in the bounds of a
+mainland heathen tribe where there was some doubt as to the young man's
+safety. The village chief, though a heathen and entirely uninterested in
+the religious aspect of the case, was alive to the fact that the presence
+among his people of this young protege of the white man would increase his
+tribal importance, and that his people themselves would derive a pecuniary
+benefit from even the small amount of money that would be spent on the
+evangelist's food. He therefore voluntarily offered to call an Ukuku
+meeting and have a law enacted that no one should machinate against the
+Benga's life by fetiches of any kind. Mr. Clemens declined the offer. If
+he accepted Ukuku's authority to defend him, he might some day be called
+on to submit to the same power as an authority to punish him. He wisely
+avoided an entangling alliance. He told the chief that he preferred to
+entrust his protege to his care and to rely on his promise rather than on
+Ukuku's. This compliment put the chief on his mettle; the evangelist's
+protection became to him a case of _noblesse oblige_.
+
+The power of this society was often used as a boycott to compel white
+traders as to the prices of their goods, using intimidation and violence
+after the manner of trades unions in civilized countries. This was true
+all along the West Coast of Africa wherever no white government had been
+established. It ceased at Libreville, in the Gabun country, after the
+establishment of a French colony in 1843, with a white governor, a squad
+of soldiers, police, and a gunboat. Also at other trade centres such as
+Libreville, Ukuku early lost its position, for the population was too
+heterogeneous and there were too many diverse interests. At the large
+trading-houses were gathered native clerks and a staff of servants as
+cooks, personal attendants, boatmen, etc., representing a score of tribes
+from distant parts of the coast. Whatever obedience they gave to similar
+societies in their tribes, they did not feel bound by the local one, to
+which they were strangers; and they were disposed, under a community of
+trade interests with their employers, to disregard the society of the
+local tribe, to many of whom they felt themselves socially superior.
+
+But at Batanga, in what is now the Kamerun colony of the German
+Government, the Ukuku Society forty years ago carried itself with a high
+hand. Batanga was not then claimed by any European nation, and the number
+of white men were few. Its trade in ivory was one of the richest on the
+West Coast of Africa,--so rich that the Batanga people became arrogant.
+Some of them disdained to make plantations of native food supply, and
+lived almost entirely on foreign imported provisions, taking in exchange
+for their abundant ivory barrels of beef, bags of rice, and boxes of
+ship's biscuit. It was a case of demand and supply. The native got what he
+wanted in goods, and the white man obtained the precious ivory. But in the
+competitions of trade, fluctuations in the market, and the growing demand
+of the natives for a higher price, there came days when some white man,
+seeing the margin of his per cent of gain becoming too narrow, refused the
+current price. Doubtless often the white men were arbitrary, not only in
+prices but also in other matters. Doubtless, also, the natives were often
+exorbitant in their demands. When the differences became extreme, the
+native chiefs called in the aid of Ukuku. The phrase was to "put Ukuku" on
+the white man's house. The trader was boycotted. He stood as under a major
+excommunication. No one should buy from, or sell to him. No one should
+work for him. He was deserted by cook, steward, washerman, and all other
+personal attendants. Sentinels stood on guard to prevent food being
+brought to him, or even to prevent his lighting a fire in his own kitchen
+if he should attempt to cook for himself.
+
+The white trader generally succeeded in breaking down the interdict put
+upon him by these means, _viz._ (1) He had in his house a supply of canned
+goods and ship's biscuit, with which he would not starve. (2) His Negro
+mistress almost always remained faithfully with him, secretly assisting
+him, divulging to him the plans of her own people,--as in the history of
+Cortes and the conquest of Mexico. She dared to do this, being tacitly
+upheld by her own family. The position of "wife" to a white man was
+considered by the natives an honorable one, and was sought by parents for
+their daughters. It was an exceptional source of wealth for them. (3) If
+other means failed, the trader could almost always break the boycott by
+bribes of rum. Time was money to him; often, indeed, in a malarial country
+it was life to him. Though time was worth nothing to the natives, the rum
+they had learned to love became a necessity to them. In cutting the white
+man from their ivory, they had cut themselves from the white man's rum. A
+judicious expenditure of demijohns in proper quarters generally enabled
+Ukuku to revoke his own law. Then, perhaps, the white man would make some
+slight concession.
+
+I had an experience of this kind in the Benita country in 1868. I had been
+there several years. There was growth in the desire for the good things
+that money can buy, but wages and prices had remained unchanged. I was
+obtaining all I needed of both labor and food without difficulty. Had I
+had any difficulty, I should naturally have offered more inducement. I was
+not aware that there was any discontent. None of my employees had asked
+for a rise, nor had people, in selling their produce, complained of the
+price I gave.
+
+
+[Illustration: ELEPHANTS' TUSKS AND PALM-LEAF THATCH. TWO HUNDRED MILES UP
+THE OGOWE RIVER.]
+
+
+Suddenly, one morning, a company of about twenty men, led by an ambitious
+heathen whose manner had always been dictatorial to me and to whom I had
+shown no favor, filed into the public meeting-room of our mission-house. I
+knew them all; none were in my employ, nor were any of them Christians.
+As if they thought it was hopeless to attempt to obtain anything from me
+by petition or respectful request, they seemed to have decided to stake
+all on a demand and threat. They suddenly and harshly began, "We've come
+to order you to change prices." Naturally I felt nettled and replied that
+I saw no reason why I should take orders from them. They rose in a rage
+and said, "Then we'll put Ukuku on you--(1) no one shall work for you; (2)
+no one shall sell you food or drink; (3) you shall not go yourself to your
+spring;" and with a savage yell they left the house. Instantly a great
+terror fell on the native members of my household. Those who were heathen
+dropped work and went to their villages. Those who were Christians came to
+me distressed, saying that they desired to obey me, but they feared the
+interdict. I relieved the situation for them by excusing them from further
+work "till I should call them," and refrained from ringing the call-bell
+at the usual work hour.
+
+With me were Mrs. Nassau, our child's nurse, my sister Miss I. A. Nassau,
+and two native girls, members of another tribe. Nurse was a foreigner, a
+Christian Liberian woman, who was not amenable to the interdict. Some of
+my Christian employees, though not working, remained on the premises. A
+few visitors came in the afternoon,--some, as sincere friends, to
+sympathize; some in curiosity, to see how we were feeling; and some as
+spies, to see what we were doing. The interdict, except as an expression
+of ill-will and a possible check to my mission work, did not trouble me.
+As to food, I had an ample supply of canned provisions, sufficient for a
+long siege. In refusing to sell me their native products, the people would
+miss more than I should. As to work, the cleaning of the premises was not
+pressing and could safely be neglected. As to drinking-water, enough could
+be caught from the roof in the almost daily rains. Food and labor were
+their own, to refuse if they chose. But the spring was on my premises and
+belonged to me. To refrain from going to it might be deemed cowardice; at
+least it would be obeying an order of what Ukuku claimed was a spirit. An
+order from men I might submit to under compulsion; to submit to this
+spirit went against my conscience. After prayer and consideration
+overnight, Mrs. Nassau fully agreed with me that it was right I should
+make a demonstration at the spring. In parting with her next morning, as I
+took up a bucket to go to the spring, she knew I might not return alive. A
+sandy path led through low bushes to the spring, several hundred yards
+distant. I saw no one on the way nor at the spring. I filled the bucket
+and was turning homeward, when a spy, armed with a spear, jumped out of
+his ambush and ordered me to leave the water. As I did not do so, but
+started to walk over the path, he stabbed at my back. I thrust the spear
+aside and faced him, but walking backward all the time kept my eye
+steadily on his. He feared my eye (most native Africans cannot stand a
+white man's fixed look) and did not attempt to stab me in front, but tried
+to spill the water in the bucket and stab me from behind. But the bucket
+and its contents I guarded, as he struck at it from right to left, by
+rapidly changing it from left to right with one hand and warding off the
+spear with the other. Still walking backward, and keeping my eye on him,
+the bucket and I reached the house in safety.
+
+He hastened to the native villages, whence soon I heard a great outcry. A
+company of Christian natives came in haste, saying that Ukuku was on his
+way to assault the house, and that they and other young men, even some who
+were not Christians, would fight for me against their heathen parents if I
+could provide them powder. I supplied them. Then they bade me hasten and
+fasten all doors and windows.
+
+The mission dwelling consisted of two houses joined by a covered
+veranda,--one, a one-storied bamboo; the other framed of boards, one and a
+half story. Mrs. Nassau was in the latter, closing it. Before I had
+finished closing the former, the enemies came, and I was alone in the
+bamboo house. Shots rattled against the walls. Through the chinks I could
+see the young men were guarding all entrances and firing. I think that in
+this difficult situation, defending me against their own people, they
+purposely fired wide, for no one was even wounded. But their armed stand
+checked the enemies, who then soon retired. In after years these were
+ashamed of their assault, and tried to minimize it, when it was related to
+new missionaries, by representing that they did not intend to kill me. I
+accepted that as a kindly after-thought. Certainly the spy at the spring
+intended, and tried hard, to kill me. Certainly, also, their gunshots left
+their marks on the walls of the bamboo house, and, for aught they knew,
+had penetrated the thin walls and might have struck me.
+
+That their interdict had been successfully broken, and that, too, by the
+aid of their own sons, was a great blow to the Ukuku party. It was the
+beginning of the end of its power. Four years later, while I was absent on
+my furlough, the number of the church-members having largely increased,
+two young men, themselves of strong character and imbued with the courage
+of my able successor at Benita, Rev. Samuel Howell Murphy, deliberately
+determined to "reveal Ukuku." They walked through a village street openly
+shouting to the women that "Ukuku is only a man." At once their lives were
+demanded; but so many of their companions stood up for them, and said to
+their fathers, "The day you kill those two you will have to kill all of
+us, for we all say also that Ukuku is only a person," that Ukuku was
+amazed. Nevertheless the society met. But when the members looked in each
+other's faces, each one knew that in voting to put to death the other
+men's sons, he was voting also against his own son. The society could have
+dared to kill one or two, but to kill a score! They shrank from it. Every
+one thought of his own son thus involved, and the great lie was exposed
+and died.
+
+In 1879, on the Ogowe River, at my interior station, Kangwe, near the town
+of Lambarene, one hundred and thirty miles up the course of the river, I
+had a similar experience with that same society, known there in the Galwa
+tribe by the name of Yasi.
+
+In my new work on the Ogowe, I pursued toward that society the same course
+I had followed with Ukuku at Benita. I preached simply the gospel of
+Christ; but it is true that the gospel touches mankind in all their human
+relations. I therefore was not silent about such sins as slavery and
+polygamy, any more than I would be silent about the sins of drunkenness or
+theft. All these were practices the evil of which in serious moments most
+natives would admit, however much they chose still to persist in them. But
+witchcraft was their religion; they believed in it. To attack it openly
+would only offend, and I would lose the personal influence which I was
+able to exercise in quiet, private discussions. Yasi, though a falsehood,
+was their government. To attack it would have simply emptied my church of
+every heathen auditor, and would have debarred any women or children from
+receiving further instruction. I could afford to bide my time, for the
+entering wedge of Christian principles to overthrow what I could never
+have removed by direct onslaught. In conversations with my heathen
+friends, the native chiefs, in their own houses, when no women or children
+happened to be present, I would expostulate with them against such a mode
+of government. I told them I would render them respect and even obedience,
+if as persons they should enact laws affecting me as a person, but that I
+could give neither respect nor obedience to what they knew I knew was a
+lie. They looked troubled, and replied, "Yes, that's so, but don't tell it
+to the women." And I did not. Nevertheless, in my untrammelled
+conversations in the mission-house with my own Christian male employees, I
+was not careful to be silent if our school-boys happened to be present;
+and these same employees in their own dormitories deliberately and
+intentionally told the boys of the falsities of their tribal
+superstitions. They were right. This was Christian principle, working as I
+desired it should. Inevitably there grew up a generation of lads who began
+to deride Yasi, and said that they would never join the society.
+
+There came one day a delegation of them led by two Christian young men,
+Mamba and Nguva, asking my permission to play a mock Yasi meeting. I asked
+them, "Will you dare to play that same play in your own villages?" "No, we
+would be afraid." "Then don't do here what you are unable to carry out
+elsewhere. I cannot defend you in your own villages. You are safe here;
+wait until you are stronger and more numerous. Just now your play will
+create confusion." Nevertheless they did play, with the result which I had
+foretold. The chiefs were deeply enraged. They "put Yasi" on my house,
+which meant that I was not to be visited nor sold any food. There was a
+report, also, that the mission premises were to be assaulted with guns.
+The loss of food supply was a serious difficulty. I did not need any for
+myself and sister, nor for the two young missionaries, both of them laymen
+who were visiting me from a sea-coast station, and who could not
+understand the case in all its aspects, for they had never met with the
+society's power; it did not exist at their station, having been broken
+before they came to Africa. But how was I to feed thirty hungry
+school-boys? I had to send most of them away to their distant homes down
+the river; and my canoes returned with a temporary food supply that they
+had been able to buy at places on the route where news of the interdict
+had not as yet been officially carried.
+
+The dozen young men who remained with me I armed with guns obtained from a
+neighboring trading-house, and I posted sentinels every night to guard
+against sudden assault. I went to the native villages and met a council of
+several chiefs. They seemed desirous to keep on friendly terms with
+myself, but they were angry at their own children. They took me to task
+for my warlike preparations. These I told them were for defence, that I
+would use the guns only when they compelled me to do so. Then they
+complained that I had taught their children to disobey them. I denied,
+stating that one of the greatest of God's commands which I had taught them
+was to honor their parents. But I added that the Father in Heaven claimed
+priority even to an earthly parent; and how could children really honor
+parents who were persistently deceiving them about Yasi, who they knew was
+only a person? They winced, and looking towards some women who were
+passing by, said, "Don't speak so loud, the women will hear you." They
+made another complaint, _viz._, that I was trying to change their customs;
+they bade me leave them alone in their customs; I could keep my white
+customs, and they would keep theirs. I frankly told them that I would be
+pleased to see some of their customs which were evil changed, but that
+neither I nor any other missionary could compel them to change; that,
+nevertheless, these customs would be changed in their and my own lifetime.
+They were terribly aroused, and swore, "Never! never! You can't change
+them." "No, not I; but they will be changed." "Never! Who can or who will
+do it?" "Your own sons." "Then we will kill our own sons."
+
+They seemed to transfer their anger against me to their own children. The
+interdict against my house was not formally removed, but it was not
+rigidly enforced. I no longer felt it necessary to post sentinels at
+night, and secretly, at night, a sister of one of these very chiefs sold
+me food for my family. But the heathen rage spread down the river to the
+villages of the disbanded school children and native Christians. One of
+these, Nguva, was seized, chained, and offered to Yasi "to be eaten." He
+was rescued by a daring expedition made by my two lay missionary visitors,
+who went in my six-oared gig with my twelve enthusiastic young native
+Christian workmen. They went fifteen miles down river, were secretly
+directed by one of the little school-boys to the village where Nguva was
+chained in stocks, assaulted the village at the mid-afternoon hour, when
+almost all the men were away, cut Nguva from the stocks, and brought him
+in triumph to my house. But in their retreat up the river they had for a
+distance of five miles been subjected to a fusillade of native guns from
+both sides of the river. The river was wide, and they kept in mid-stream,
+and no one was injured. But the consequences of that resort to arms made
+me much trouble after my visitors had safely returned to their seaside
+station. According to native law, I, and not my guests, was held as the
+responsible party, and the affair was not satisfactorily settled until
+some months afterward.
+
+My prophecy came true; less than ten years later little children were
+playing Yasi as amusement in the village streets. Nguva became an elder in
+the church. He is now dead. His chain is a trophy in the Foreign Board's
+Museum, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
+
+Mamba still lives, working faithfully as a church elder and evangelist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE FETICH--ITS RELATION TO THE FAMILY
+
+
+In most tribes of the Bantu the unit in the constitution of the community
+is the family, not the individual. However successful a man may be in
+trade, hunting, or any other means of gaining wealth, he cannot, even if
+he would, keep it all to himself. He must share with the family, whose
+indolent members thus are supported by the more energetic or industrious.
+I often urged my civilized employees not to spend so promptly, almost on
+pay-day itself, their wages in the purchase of things they really did not
+need. I represented that they should lay by "for a rainy day." But they
+said that if it was known that they had money laid up, their relatives
+would give them no peace until they had compelled them to draw it and
+divide it with them. They all yielded to this,--the strong, the
+intelligent, the diligent, submitting to their family, though they knew
+that their hard-earned pay was going to support weakness, heathenism, and
+thriftlessness.
+
+Not only financial rights, but all other individual rights and
+responsibilities, were absorbed by the superior right and duty of the
+family. If an individual committed theft, murder, or any other crime, the
+offended party would, if convenient, lay hold of him for punishment. But
+only if it was convenient; to this plaintiff justice in the case was fully
+satisfied if any member of the offender's family could be caught or
+killed, or, if the offence was great, even any member of the offender's
+tribe.
+
+Families recognized this custom as proper, and submitted to it; for the
+family expected to stand by and assist and defend all its members,
+whether right or wrong. Each member relied upon the family for escape from
+personal punishment, or for help in their individual weakness or
+inability.
+
+In getting a wife, for instance, no young man had saved up enough to buy
+one. His wages or other gains, year after year, beyond what he had
+squandered on himself, had been squandered on members of his family. The
+family therefore all contributed to the purchase of the wife. Though he
+thenceforth owned her as his wife, the family had claims on her for
+various services and work which neither he nor she could refuse.
+
+If in the course of time he had accumulated other women as a polygamist,
+and, subsequently becoming a Christian, was required to put away all but
+one (according to missionary rule), it was difficult for him to do so, not
+because of any special affection for the women involved in the dismissal,
+nor for pity of any hardship that might come to the women themselves.
+True, they would be a pecuniary loss to him; but his Christianity, if
+sincere, could accept that. And the dismissal of the extra women does not,
+in Africa, impose on them special shame, nor any hardship for
+self-support, as in some other countries. The real trouble is that they
+are not his to dismiss without family consent. The family had a pecuniary
+claim on them, and the heathen members thereof are not willing to let them
+go free back to their people. If this man puts them away, he must give
+them to some man or men in the family pale who probably already are
+polygamists. The property must be kept in the family inheritance. Thus,
+though attempting to escape from polygamy himself, this man would be a
+consenting party in fastening it on others. His offence before the church
+therefore would still be much the same.
+
+For such concentrated interests as are represented in the family, there
+naturally would be fetiches to guard those interests separate from the
+individual fetich with its purely personal interests.
+
+Respect for the family fetich is cognate to the worship of the spirits of
+ancestors. Among the Barotse of South Africa, for this worship, "they have
+altars in their huts made of branches, on which they place human bones,
+but they have no images, pictures, or idols."
+
+Among the Mpongwe tribes of Western Equatorial Africa, "the profound
+respect for aged persons, by a very natural operation of the mind, is
+turned into idolatrous regard for them when dead. It is not supposed that
+they are divested of their power and influence by death, but, on the
+contrary, they are raised to a higher and more powerful sphere of
+influence, and hence the natural disposition of the living, and especially
+those related to them in any way in this world, to look to them, and call
+upon them for aid in all the emergencies and trials of life. It is no
+uncommon thing to see large groups of men and women, in times of peril or
+distress, assembled along the brow of some commanding eminence or along
+the skirts of some dense forest, calling in the most piteous and touching
+tones upon the spirits of their ancestors.
+
+"Images are used in the worship of ancestors, but they are seldom exposed
+to public view. They are kept in some secret corner, and the man who has
+them in charge, especially if they are intended to represent a father or
+predecessor in office, takes food and drink to them, and a very small
+portion of almost anything that is gained in trade.
+
+"But a yet more prominent feature of this ancestral worship is to be found
+in the preservation and adoration of the bones of the dead, which may be
+fairly regarded as a species of relic worship. The skulls of distinguished
+persons are preserved with the utmost care, but always kept out of sight.
+I have known the head of a distinguished man to be dissevered from the
+body when it was but partly decomposed, and suspended so as to drip upon a
+mass of chalk provided for the purpose. The brain is supposed to be the
+seat of wisdom, and the chalk absorbs this by being placed under the head
+during the process of decomposition. By applying this to the foreheads of
+the living, it is supposed they will imbibe the wisdom of the person whose
+brain has dripped upon the chalk."[59]
+
+In the Benga tribe, just north of the equator, in West Africa, this family
+fetich is known by the name of Yaka. It is a bundle of parts of the bodies
+of their dead. From time to time, as their relatives die, the first joints
+of their fingers and toes, especially including their nails, a small
+clipping from a lobe of the ear, and perhaps snippings of hair are added
+to it. But the chief constituents are the finger ends. Nothing is taken
+from any internal organ of the body, as in the composition of other
+fetiches. This form descends by inheritance with the family. In its honor
+is sacredly kept a bundle of toes, fingers, or other bones, nail
+clippings, eyes, brains, etc., accumulated from deceased members of
+successive generations. This is distinctly an ancestor worship.
+
+"The worship of ancestors is a marked and distinguishing characteristic of
+the religious system of Southern Africa. This is something more definite
+and intelligible than the religious ceremonies performed in connection
+with the other classes of spirits."[60]
+
+What was described by Dr. Wilson as respect for the aged among the tribes
+of Southern Guinea forty years ago, is true still, in a large measure,
+even where foreign customs and examples of foreign traders and the
+practices of foreign governments have broken down native etiquette and
+native patriarchal government. "Perhaps there is no part of the world
+where respect and veneration for age are carried to a greater length than
+among this people. For those who are in office, and who have been
+successful in trade or in war, or in any other way have rendered
+themselves distinguished among their fellow-men, this respect, in some
+outward forms at least, amounts almost to adoration, and proportionately
+so when the person has attained advanced age. All the younger members of
+society are early trained to show the utmost deference to age. They must
+never come into the presence of aged persons or pass by their dwellings
+without taking off their hats and assuming a crouching gait. When seated
+in their presence, it must always be at a 'respectful distance,'--a
+distance proportioned to the difference in their ages and position in
+society. If they come near enough to hand an aged man a lighted pipe or a
+glass of water, the bearer must always fall upon one knee. Aged persons
+must always be addressed as 'father' (rera, lale, paia) or 'mother' (ngwe,
+ina). Any disrespectful deportment or reproachful language toward such
+persons is regarded as a misdemeanor of no ordinary aggravation. A
+youthful person carefully avoids communicating any disagreeable
+intelligence to such persons, and almost always addresses them in terms of
+flattery and adulation. And there is nothing which a young person so much
+deprecates as the curse of an aged person, and especially that of a
+revered father."
+
+The value of the Yaka seems to lie in a combination of whatever powers
+were possessed during their life by the dead, portions of whose bodies are
+contained in it. But even these are of use apparently only as an actual
+"medicine," the efficiency of the medicine depending on the spirits of the
+family dead being associated with those portions of their bodies. This
+efficiency is called into action by prayer, and by the incantations of the
+doctor.
+
+"In some cases all the bones of a beloved father or mother, having been
+dried, are kept in a wooden chest, for which a small house is provided,
+where the son or daughter goes statedly to hold communication with their
+spirits. They do not pretend to have any audible responses from them, but
+it is a relief to their minds in their more serious moods to go and pour
+out all the sorrows of their hearts in the ear of a revered parent.
+
+"This belief, however much of superstition it involves, exerts a very
+powerful influence upon the social character of the people. It establishes
+a bond of affection between the parent and child much stronger than could
+be expected among a people wholly given up to heathenism. It teaches the
+child to look up to the parent, not only as its earthly protector, but as
+a friend in the spirit land. It strengthens the bonds of filial affection,
+and keeps up a lively impression of a future state of being. The living
+prize the aid of the dead, and it is not uncommon to send messages to them
+by some one who is on the point of dying; and so greatly is this aid
+prized by the living that I have known an aged mother to avoid the
+presence of her sons, lest she should by some secret means be despatched
+prematurely to the spirit world, for the double purpose of easing them of
+the burden of taking care of her, and securing for themselves more
+effective aid than she could render them in this world.
+
+"All their dreams are construed into visits from the spirits of their
+deceased friends. The cautions, hints, and warnings which come to them
+through this source are received with the most serious and deferential
+attention, and are always acted upon in their waking hours. The habit of
+relating their dreams, which is universal, greatly promotes the habit of
+dreaming itself, and hence their sleeping hours are characterized by
+almost as much intercourse with the dead as their waking hours are with
+the living. This is, no doubt, one of the reasons of their excessive
+superstitiousness. Their imaginations become so lively that they can
+scarcely distinguish between their dreams and their waking thoughts,
+between the real and the ideal, and they consequently utter falsehood
+without intending, and profess to see things which never existed."[61]
+
+All that is quoted above from Dr. Wilson is still true among tribes not
+touched by civilization. What he relates of the love of children for
+parents and the desire to communicate with their departed spirits is
+particularly true of the children of men and women who have held honorable
+position in the community while they were living. And it is also all
+consistent with what I have described of the fear with which the dead are
+regarded, and the dread lest they should revenge some injury done them in
+life. The common people, and those who have neglected their friends in
+any way, are the ones who dread this. The better classes, especially of
+the superior tribes, hold their dead in affectionate remembrance.
+
+I have met with instances of the preservation of a parent's brains for
+fetich purposes, as mentioned above by Dr. Wilson. As honored guest, I
+have been given the best room in which to sleep overnight. On a flat
+stone, in a corner of the room, was a pile of grayish substance; it was
+chalk mixed with the decomposed brain-matter that had dripped on it from
+the skull that formerly had been suspended above. I then remembered how,
+on visiting chiefs in their villages, they frequently were not in the
+public reception-room on my arrival, but I was kept awaiting them. They
+had been apprised of the white man's approach, had retired to their
+bedrooms, and when they reappeared, it was with their foreheads, and
+sometimes other parts of their bodies, marked with that grayish mixture.
+The objects to be attained were wisdom and success in any question of
+diplomacy or in a favor they might be asking of the white man.
+
+Around the doctor and his power is always a cloak of mystery which I have
+not been able to solve entirely, and of which the natives themselves do
+not seem to have a clear understanding. The other factors in their fetich
+worship have to them a degree of clearness sufficient to make them able to
+give an intelligible explanation. It is plain, for instance, that the
+component parts of any fetich are looked upon by them as we look upon the
+drugs of our _materia medica_. It is plain, also, that these "drugs" are
+operative, not as ours, by certain inherent chemical qualities, but by the
+presence of a spirit to whom they are favorite media. And it is also clear
+that this spirit is induced to act by the pleasing enchantments of the
+magic doctor. But beyond this, what? Whence does the doctor get his
+influence? What is there in his prayer or incantation greater than the
+prayer or drum or song or magic mirror of any other person? For,
+admittedly, he himself is subject to the spirits, and may be thwarted by
+some other more powerful spirit which for the time being is operated by
+some other doctor; or he may be killed by the very spirit he is
+manipulating, if he should incur its displeasure.
+
+Belief in the necessity of having the doctor is implicit, while the
+explanation of his _modus operandi_ is vague, and he is feared lest he
+employ his utilized spirit for revenge or other harmful purpose. A patient
+and his relatives who call in the services of a doctor are therefore
+careful to obey him, and avoid offending him in any way.
+
+The Yaka is appealed to in family emergencies. Suppose, for instance, that
+one member has secretly done something wrong, _e. g._, alone in the
+forest, he has met and killed a member of another family, devastated a
+neighbor's plantation, or committed any other crime, and is unknown to the
+community as the offender. But the powerful Yaka of the injured family has
+brought disease or death, or some other affliction, on the offender's
+family. They are dying or otherwise suffering, and they do not know the
+reason why. After the failure of ordinary medicines or personal fetiches
+to relieve or heal or prevent the continuance of the evil, the hidden Yaka
+is brought out by the chiefs of the offender's family. A doctor is called
+in consultation; the Yaka, is to be opened, and its ancestral relic
+contents appealed to. At this point the fears of the offender overcome
+him, and he privately calls aside the doctor and the older members of the
+clan. He takes them to a quiet spot in the forest and confesses what he
+has done, taking them to the garden he had devastated, or to the spot
+where he had hidden the remains of the person he had killed. If this
+confession were made to the public, so that the injured family became
+aware of it, his own life would be at stake. But making it to his Yaka,
+and to only the doctor and chosen representatives of his family, they are
+bound to keep his secret; the doctor on professional grounds, and his
+relatives on the grounds of family solidarity. The problem, then, is for
+the doctor to make what seems like an expiation. The explanation of this,
+as made to me, is vague. I am uncertain whether the Yaka of the injured
+family is to be appeased or the offender's own Yaka aroused from dormant
+inaction to efficient protection, or both. The Yaka bundle is solemnly
+opened by the doctor in the presence of the family; a little of the dust
+of its foul contents is rubbed on the foreheads of the members present; a
+goat or sheep is killed, and its blood sprinkled on them, the while they
+are praying audibly to the combined ancestor-power in the Yaka. These
+prayers are continued all the while the doctor, who makes his incantations
+long and varied, is acting. The sanctifying red-wood powder ointment is
+rubbed over their bodies, and the Yaka spirit having eaten the life
+essence of the sacrificed animal, its flesh is eaten by the doctor and the
+family. The Yaka bundle is tied up again, and again is hidden away in one
+of their huts, care being taken to add to it from the body of the member
+who next dies. The curse that had fallen on them is supposed to be wiped
+out, and the affliction under which they were lying is believed to be
+removed.
+
+Recently (1901) a Mpongwe man had gone as a trader into the Batanga
+interior. He was sick at the time of his going, one of his legs being
+swollen with an edematous affection, so much so that people in the
+interior, natives of that part of the country, and fellow-traders,
+wondered that he should travel so far from his home in that condition. He
+said he was seeking among different tribes for the cure he had failed to
+obtain in his own tribe. Later on, he died. He happened to die alone,
+while others who lived with him, one of them a relative, were temporarily
+out of the house. The suddenness of the death aroused the superstitious
+beliefs of the relative, and he rushed to the conclusion that it had been
+caused by black art machinations of some enemy. But of the whereabouts or
+the personality of that enemy he had not even a suspicion. He cut from the
+dead man's body the first joints of his fingers and all the toe-nails, put
+them in the hollow of a horn, and closed its opening, intending to add its
+contents to his family Yaka when he should return to Gabun. Then he waved
+the horn to and fro toward the spirits of the air, held it above his head,
+and struck it on the back of his own neck, uttering at the same time an
+imprecation that as his relative had died, so might die that very day,
+even as he had died, the unknown enemy who had caused his death.
+
+There is another family "medicine," still used in some tribes, that was
+formerly held in reverence by the Banaka and Bapuku tribes of the Batanga
+country of the German Kamerun colony. It was called "Malanda." For
+description of it see Chapter XVI.
+
+Another medicine similar to the Yaka in its family interest is called by
+the Balimba people living north of Batanga, "Ekongi." The following
+statement is made to me by intelligent Batanga people who know the
+parties, and who believe that what they report actually occurred.
+
+At Balimba, in the German Kamerun territory, lived a man, by name Elesa.
+He possessed a little bundle containing powerful fetich medicines, so
+compounded that they constituted the kind of charm known as Ekongi. Like
+Aladdin's lamp, and almost as powerful, it warned him of danger, helped
+him in all his wishes, assisted him in his emergencies, and when he was
+away from it, as it was hidden in one of his chests in his house, caused
+him to be able to see and hear anything that was plotted against him. Only
+he could handle it aright; no one else would be able to manage it.
+
+A brother-in-law of Elesa, husband of his sister, knew of this Ekongi, and
+asked Elesa to loan it to him in order that he also might be successful in
+some of his projects.
+
+Now, the peculiarity of the Ekongi medicine is that it acts for and
+assists only the family of the person who owns it. Elesa refused his
+brother-in-law, telling him that as they did not belong to the same
+family, he would not know what to do with a strange Ekongi, nor would
+Ekongi be willing to answer a stranger.
+
+The brother-in-law knew perfectly well that this was the manner of all
+Ekongi medicine; but he was so covetous and so foolishly determined that
+he hoped that in some way this Ekongi might be of use to him if only he
+could possess himself of it.
+
+One day Elesa went off into the forest on a hunting trip, leaving his
+Ekongi safely locked in a chest in his house. The brother-in-law obtained
+a number of keys, and going secretly to Elesa's house, tried them on the
+various chests stored in the back room. Finally a key fitted, and a lock
+turned. Suddenly the lid flew up, and out of the now opened chest jumped
+the little Ekongi bundle, followed by all the goods that had been packed
+in the chest; and these spread themselves at his feet,--yards of cloth,
+and hats, and shirts, and coats, and a multitude of smaller articles. He
+rejoiced at the success of his effort. His covetousness overcame him. He
+said to himself that he would put back Ekongi into the chest, would lock
+it, gather up all this wealth and carry it away; and no one would see
+them, or know that the chest had been opened by him.
+
+He started to step forward, but his feet were held fast by some invisible
+power. He tried to stoop down to lay hold of some of the goods within
+reach, but his arms and back were held fast and stiff by the same
+invisible power. And he realized that he was a prisoner in Ekongi's hands.
+
+Off in the forest Elesa, in his chase, was enabled by his Ekongi to see
+and know what was going on in his house. He saw his brother-in-law's
+attempt at theft, and that his unlawful eyes had looked on the sacred
+Ekongi. He abandoned the chase that day, and came back in great anger to
+his house. There was his brother-in-law rooted to the spot on which he
+stood, the chest open and empty, and the goods scattered on the floor.
+
+Elesa controlled his anger, and at first said nothing. He quietly took a
+chair from the room out into the street and sat down on it, opposite to
+the doorway, as if on guard. Then he spoke: "So! now! You have looked on
+my Ekongi! And you have tried to steal! I will not speak of the shameful
+thing of stealing from a relative.[62] That is a little thing compared
+with the sin you have done of looking on what was not lawful for your
+eyes. We are of different families. I will punish you by taking away my
+sister, your wife. You shall stand there until you agree to deliver up
+your wife, and also an amount of goods equal to what you paid for her."
+The brother-in-law began to plead against the hard terms, and offered to
+put his father into Elesa's hand instead of the wife. But Elesa insisted.
+
+The brother-in-law's father, at a distant village, possessed also his own
+family Ekongi, which enabled him to see and know what was being said and
+done at Elesa's house. He was angry at the hard terms demanded; according
+to native view, he would defend any one of his family, even if he were in
+the wrong. A native eye does not look at essential wrong or right; it
+looks at family interest. His son's attempt at theft did not disturb him.
+It was enough that Elesa had seized his son as prisoner. He snatched up
+his spear, and hasted away to quarrel with his marriage relative Elesa.
+
+On reaching the house, he saw his son still standing helpless, and Elesa
+seated, still pressing his hard terms on him. The father said to Elesa,
+"You are not doing well in this matter. Let my son go at once!"
+
+Elesa refused, saying, "He wanted that which was sacred to me. He has
+looked upon it and has desecrated it. I will not agree that the angry
+Ekongi shall let him go free. He shall pay his ransom." After a long
+discussion Elesa changed his terms, and demanded a money substitute of one
+thousand German marks in silver ($250). The father also receded from his
+demand that the son should be released unconditionally. And after further
+discussion the father, having saved both his son and himself from the
+first terms of the ransom, returned again to the question of a person
+instead of money, and offered his daughter in marriage instead of the
+$250. Elesa accepted. He picked up the now satisfied Ekongi, and put it
+back into the chest; and all the scattered goods followed it, drawn by its
+power. And when the lid was again closed down and locked, the
+brother-in-law felt his limbs suddenly released from constriction, and was
+able to walk away.
+
+This was gravely told me by my cook, a member of the Roman Catholic
+church, and was endorsed by a woman of my own church, who was present
+during the recital.
+
+My friend the late Miss Mary H. Kingsley, on page 273 of her "Travels in
+West Africa," mentions an incident which shows that she had discovered one
+of these Yaka bundles, though apparently she slid not know it as such and
+suspected it to be a relic of cannibalism. It is true, however, that she
+did come in contact with cannibalism. She had been given lodging in a room
+of a house in a Fang village in the country lying between the Azyingo
+branch of the Ogowe River and the Rembwe branch of the Gabun River. On
+retiring at night, she had observed some small bags suspended from the
+wall. "Waking up again, I noticed the smell in the hut was violent, from
+being shut up, I suppose, and it had an unmistakably organic origin.
+Knocking the end off the smouldering bush-light that lay burning on the
+floor, I investigated, and tracked it to those bags; so I took down the
+biggest one, and carefully noted exactly how the tie-tie (rattan rope) had
+been put around its mouth; for these things are important, and often mean
+a lot. I then shook its contents out in my hat for fear of losing anything
+of value. They were a human hand, three big toes, four eyes, two ears, and
+other portions of the human frame. The hand was fresh, the others only
+so-so and shrivelled. Replacing them, I tied the bag up, and hung it up
+again." It was well she noticed a peculiarity in the tying of the
+calamus-palm string or "tie-tie." A stranger would not have been put in
+that room of whose honesty or honor there was doubt. White visitors are
+implicitly trusted that they will neither steal nor desecrate.
+
+Another family medicine in the Batanga region is known by the name of
+Mbati. An account of the mode of its use was given me in 1902 by a Batanga
+man, as occurring in his own lifetime with his own father. The father was
+a heathen and a polygamist, having several wives, by each of whom he had
+children. One day he went hunting in the forest. He observed a dark object
+crouching among the cassava bushes on the edge of a plantation. Assuming
+that it was a wild beast wasting the cassava plants, he fired, and was
+frightened by a woman's outcry, "Oh! I am killed!" She was his own niece,
+who had been stooping down, hidden among the bushes as she was weeding the
+garden. He helped her to their village, where she died. She made no
+accusation. The bloodshed being in their own family, no restitution was
+required, nor any investigation made. The matter would have passed without
+further comment had not, within a year, a number of his young children
+died in succession; and it began to be whispered that perhaps the murdered
+woman's spirit was avenging itself, or perhaps some other family was using
+witchcraft against them. A general council of adjacent families was
+called. After discussion, it was agreed that the other families were
+without blame; that the trouble rested with my informant's father's
+family, which should settle the difficulty as they saw best, by inflicting
+on the father some punishment, or by propitiation being made by the entire
+family. The latter was decided on by the doctors. They gathered from the
+forest a quantity of barks of trees, leaves of parasitic ferns, which were
+boiled in a very large kettle along with human excrement, and a certain
+rare variety of plantain, as small as the smallest variety of banana. To
+each member of the family present, old and young, male and female, were
+given two of these unripe plantains. The rind does not readily peel off
+from unripe plantains and bananas; a knife is generally used. But for this
+medicine the rinds were to be picked off only by the finger-nails of those
+handling them, and then were to be shredded into the kettle in small
+pieces, also only by their finger-nails. A goat or sheep was killed, and
+its blood also mixed in. This mess was thoroughly boiled. Then the doctor
+took a short bush having many small branches (a tradition of hyssop?), and
+dipping it into the decoction, frequently and thoroughly sprinkled all the
+members of the family, saying, "Let the displeasure of the spirit for the
+death of that woman, or any other guilt of any hidden or unknown crime, be
+removed!" The liquid portion of the contents of the kettle having been
+used in the propitiatory sprinkling, the more solid pottage-like debris
+was then eaten by all members of the family, as a preventive of possible
+danger. And the rite was closed with the usual drum, dance, and song. My
+informant told me that at that time, and taking part in the ceremonies,
+was his mother, who was then pregnant with him. The Mbati medicine seems
+to have been considered efficient, for he, the seventh child, survived;
+and subsequently three others were born. The previous six had died. Though
+two of those three have since died, in some way they were considered to
+have died by Njambi (Providence), _i. e._, a natural death; for it is not
+unqualifiedly true that all tribes of Africa regard all deaths as caused
+by black art. There are some deaths that are admitted to be by the call of
+God, and for these there is no witchcraft investigation.
+
+The father also is dead. My informant and one sister survive. They think
+the Mbati "medicine" was satisfactory, notwithstanding that the sister
+believes that their father was secretly poisoned by his cousins, they
+being jealous of his affluence in wives and children.
+
+The last step in the Mbati rite is the transplanting of some plant. A
+suitable hole having been dug at one end, or even in the middle of the
+village street, each person takes a bulb of lily kind, probably a crinum
+or an amaryllis, such as are common on the rocky edges of streams, and
+pressing it against their backs and other parts of their body, and with a
+rhythmic swaying of their bodies plant it in the hole. Thereafter these
+plants are not destroyed. They are guarded from the village goats by a
+small enclosure, and should at any time the village remove, the plants are
+also removed and replanted on the new site. Such plants are seen in almost
+every village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE FETICH--ITS RELATIONS TO DAILY WORK AND OCCUPATIONS AND TO THE NEEDS
+OF LIFE
+
+
+In the great emergencies of life, such as plagues, famines, deaths,
+funerals, and where witchcraft and black art are suspected, the aid or
+intervention of special fetiches is invoked, as has been described in the
+Yaka and other public ceremonies. The ritual required in such cases is
+often expensive, as money is needed for the doctor's fee, for purchase of
+ingredients and other materials for the "medicine," and in the
+entertainment of the assemblage that always gather as participants or
+spectators.
+
+There is also loss in time, little as the native African values time, and
+slow as he is in the expedition of any matter. Houses that should be
+erected and gardens that should be planted are neglected while the rite to
+be performed is in hand. It may require even a month. During that time
+either the favorable season for building or planting may have passed, or
+the work has only partly been completed. The division of the seasons into
+two rainy (of three months each) and two dry (a short hot and a long cool)
+make it desirable, as in the temperate zones, for certain work to be done
+in certain seasons.
+
+But for the needs of life, day by day, with its routine of occupations,
+whose outgoings and incomings are known and expected, the Bantu fetich
+worshipper depends on himself and his regular fetich charms, which,
+indeed, were made either at his request by a doctor (as we would order a
+suit of clothes from a tailor), or by himself on fetich rule obtained from
+a doctor; and when paid for, the doctor is no longer needed or
+considered. The worshipper keeps these amulets and mixed medicines hanging
+on the wall of his room or hidden in one of his boxes. But he gives them
+no regular reverence or worship, no sacrifice or prayer, until such times
+as their services are needed. He knows that the utilized actual spirits
+(or at least their influence), each in its specific material object, is
+safely ensconced and is only waiting the needs of its owner to be called
+into action.
+
+These needs come day by day. Almost daily some one in the village is
+hunting, warring, trading, love-making, fishing, planting, or journeying.
+
+_For Hunting._ The hunter or hunters start out each with his own fetich
+hanging from his belt or suspended from his shoulder; or, if there be
+something unusual, even if it be not very great, in the hunt about to be
+engaged in, a temporary charm may be performed by the doctor or even by
+the hunters themselves. This is the more likely to be done if there is an
+organized hunt including several persons. Such ceremonies preliminary to
+the chase are described by W. H. Brown[63] as performed by an old
+witch-doctor among the Mashona tribe: "Fat of the zebra, eland, and other
+game was mixed with dirt and put into a small pot. Then some live coals
+were placed on the grease, which caused it to burn, so that clouds of
+thick smoke arose. The huntsmen sat in a circle around the pot, with the
+muzzles of their old flint-locks and cap-guns sticking into the smoke. In
+unison they bent over and took a smell of the fumes, and at the same time
+called out the name of the 'medicine' or spirit they were invoking, which
+was Saru, saying thus, 'Saru, I must kill game; I must kill game, Saru!
+Now, Saru, I must kill game!'
+
+"After this performance was finished, each of the candidates in turn sat
+down near the doctor, to be personally operated upon by him. He placed a
+bowl of medicated water upon the huntsman's head, and stirred it with a
+stick while the latter repeated the names of all the kinds of game he
+wished to kill. This was to ascertain whether or not the hunt was to be
+successful. If any of the water splashed out and ran down over the
+patient's head and face, success was assured. If not a drop had left the
+bowl, then the huntsman might as well have laid aside his gun and assegai,
+for his efforts would have been doomed to failure."
+
+Among the Matabele of Southeast Africa, "when they are about to start for
+the chase, they arrange themselves in a circle at sunset, and the doctor
+comes with the bark of a tree filled with medicine, and with his finger
+marks the chiefs on the forehead, in order to give them authority over the
+animals."
+
+_For Journeying._ No journey of importance is made without preparation of
+a fetich, to which more forethought and time and care are given than to
+the preparation of food, clothing, etc., for the way. Arnot[64] describes
+the process: "On behalf of a caravan to start for Bihe, Msidi and his
+fetich priests have been at work a whole month, preparing charms and so
+forth. The process in such a case is first to divine as to the dangers
+that await them; then to propitiate with the appointed sacrifices to
+forefathers (in this case two goats were killed); afterwards to prepare
+the charms necessary either as antidotes against evil or to secure good.
+The noma or fetich spear to be carried in front of the caravan, with
+charms secured to it, was thus prepared. The roots of a sweet herb were
+tied around the blade; then a few bent splinters of wood were tied on,
+like the feathers of a shuttle-cock. In the cage thus formed, there were
+placed a piece of human skin, little bits of the claws of a lion, leopard,
+and so forth, with food, beer, and medical roots; thus securing,
+respectively, power over their enemies, safety from the paws of fierce
+animals, food and drink, and finally health. A cloth was sewn over all,
+and finally the king spat on it and blessed it. After all these
+performances they set out with light hearts, each man marked with sacred
+chalk."
+
+"Before starting on a journey a man will spend perhaps a fortnight in
+preparing charms to overcome evils by the way and to enable him to destroy
+his enemies. If he is a trader, he desires to find favor in the eyes of
+chiefs and a liberal price for his goods."
+
+
+[Illustration: WAR CANOE.--CALABAR, WEST AFRICA.]
+
+
+_For Warring._ So implicit is African faith in signs, charms, and
+auspices, that when the sign before going into war is inauspicious, the
+natives' hopelessness of success sometimes makes them seem almost
+cowardly. Among the people of Garenganze in Southeast Africa, "when the
+chiefs meet in war, victory does not depend on merely strength and
+courage, as we should suppose, but on fetich 'medicines.' If some men on
+the side of the more powerful chief fall, they at once retire and
+acknowledge that their medicines have failed, and they cannot be induced
+to renew the conflict on any consideration."[65]
+
+Among the Matabele, "before a war the doctors concoct a special medicine,
+and taking some of the froth from it, mark with it the forehead of those
+who have already killed a man."
+
+A native of Batanga recently described to me the war-fetich as formerly
+prepared by his people. The medicine for it is arranged for thus. A house
+is built at least several hundred yards from the village. There will be
+present no one but the doctor, who eats and sleeps there while he is
+arranging with the spirits and deciding on the medicine. After two days he
+tells the people that he has finished it, that his preparations are ready,
+and that they must assemble at his house. He tells them to bring with them
+a certain shaped spear with prongs. Men have already gathered in the
+village, to the number of several hundred, waiting for the war. The doctor
+chooses from among them some man whom he sends to the forest to get a
+certain ingredient, a red amomum pod. (It contains the "Guinea grains," or
+Malaguetta pepper, which taste like cardamom seeds, which a century ago
+were so highly valued in Europe that only the rich could buy them.) Then
+the doctor and the man, leaving the crowd, go together to the forest with
+knife and machete and basket. They may have to go several miles in order
+to find a tree called "unyongo-muaele." The doctor holds the chewed amomum
+seeds in his mouth, and blows them out against the tree, saying,
+"Pha-a-a! The gun shots! Let them not touch me!" The assistant holds the
+basket while the doctor climbs the tree and rubs off pieces of loose bark
+which are caught in the basket as they fall. They then go on into the
+forest to find another tree named "kota." There he blows the chewed seeds
+in the same way saying the same,--"Pha-a-a! Thou tree! Let not the bullets
+hit me!" And the assistant, with basket standing below, catches the bark
+scraped down as the doctor climbs this tree.
+
+They return to the village and enter the doctor's house. No women or
+children may enter the house or be present at the ceremonies. The men
+bring into the house a very big iron pot, and the doctor says, "This is
+what is to contain all the ingredients of the medicine." Then the doctor,
+with two other men, takes that spear by night, leaving all the other men
+to occupy themselves with songs of war, while the townspeople are asleep;
+they go to the grave of some man who has recently died. They dig open the
+grave, and force off the lid of the coffin. The doctor thrusts the spear
+down into the coffin into the head of the corpse. He twirls the spear
+about in the skull, so as to get a firm grip on it with the prongs of the
+spear. He changes his voice, and speaking in a hoarse guttural manner
+says, "Thou corpse! Do not let any one hear what I say! And do not thou
+injure me for doing this to you!" When the spear is well thrust into the
+skull, he stoops into the grave, and with a machete cuts off the head. He
+goes away carrying the head on the spear-point. While doing all this, he
+wears not the slightest particle of clothing. They go back to the village
+to the doctor's house; and there they catch a cock, and in the presence of
+the crowd the doctor twists (not cuts) off its head. The blood of the cock
+is caught in a large fresh leaf. He takes the fowl to the big pot, and
+lets some of its blood drip into it. The head of the corpse is also put
+into the pot, with water, and all the other ingredients, including the
+spear. The bullets of the doctor's gun are also to go into the pot, which
+is then set over a fire.
+
+After the water has boiled the doctor takes a furry skin of a bush-cat,
+and all the hundreds of men stand on one side in a line. He dips the skin
+into the pot, and shakes it over them. As he thus sprinkles them, he lays
+on them a prohibition, thus: "All ye! this month, go ye not near your
+wives!" All that month is spent by them practising war songs and dances.
+
+Then the doctor takes the blood that was collected on the leaf, and mixes
+it with powdered red-wood. This mixture is tied up with the human head in
+a flying-squirrel's skin. He hangs this bundle up in the house over the
+place where he sits. The body of the fowl next day is torn in pieces, not
+cut with a knife, and placed in a small earthen pot with njabi oil (the
+oil of a large pulpy forest fruit), and nganda (gourd) seeds. An entire
+fresh plantain bunch is cut, and successive squads of the men peel each
+man his small piece with his finger-nails. These also they shred with
+their nails, part into the pot, and part on a plantain leaf, as the pot is
+small, and all the pieces will be added as the contents of the pot are
+gradually reduced. The doctor himself lifts the pot from the fire, and
+first eats of the mess, and then gives each of the men, with his hand, a
+small share.
+
+When all have finished eating, he opens the bundle that had been tied in
+the squirrel skin, and with the fibrous inner bark of a tree,
+kimbwa-mbenje (from which formerly was made the native bark-cloth),
+sponges the red rotten stuff on their breasts, saying, "Let no bullet come
+here!" Then, led by the doctor, they march in procession to the town.
+There he tells the people of the town to try to shoot him, explaining that
+he does not wish any one to be in doubt of the efficacy of the charm. As
+he leads the procession, he holds the bundle in his hand, shouting, "Budu!
+hah! hah! Budu! hah! hah!" The "hah" is uttered with a bold aspiration.
+This is to embolden his followers. ("Budu! hah!" does not mean anything;
+it is only a yell.) The people are terrified, though he is still shouting
+to them to fire at him. He is safe; for he leads the procession to where
+is stationed a confederate, who does fire at him point blank from a gun
+from which the bullets have been removed. It is a triumph for him! The
+crowd see that not only he does not fall dead, but he is not even wounded!
+The charm has turned aside the bullets!
+
+The townspeople are then invited to join the procession. They stand up
+with the doctor and his crowd, and dance the war-dance. When the dancing
+is ended, he takes the bundle and anoints all the townspeople, even the
+women and children. And the men go to their war, sure of victory. But the
+doctor himself does not go; he remains safely behind, saying that it is
+necessary for him to watch the bundle in his house. Defeat in the war is
+easily explained by saying that some one in the crowd had spoiled the
+charm by not obeying some item in the ritual.
+
+_For Trading._ One method is described to me by a Batanga native who had
+seen it used by a certain man of his tribe. This man obtained the head of
+a dead person who had been noted for his intelligence. This he kept hidden
+in his house, lying in a white basin. To assure himself that it should be
+seen by no one else, he built a small hut in the behu (kitchen-garden),
+detached from his dwelling, and into which none but himself and wife
+should enter. There he kept the head in its basin. When he had occasion to
+go to a white man's trading-house to ask for goods or any other favor, he
+first poured water into this basin, mixed it with the decomposed brain
+that had oozed from the skull, and washed his cheeks in this dirty water.
+He also took some brain-matter, mixed it with palm-oil, and rubbed it over
+his hands. Then, on his going to the trading-house, when the white man
+shakes hands with him and looks on his face, he will be pleased and
+generously disposed, and will grant any request made.
+
+My informant told me that when he was a lad he assisted his father in
+using another method. His father was intimate with white men, trading
+extensively with them in ivory. To increase his credit, he set out to make
+a new fetich. He called the son to accompany him to the forest, and handed
+him a basket to carry. They searched among the trees until they found two
+growing near together, but bent in such a way toward each other that their
+trunks crossed in contact, and were rubbed smooth by abrasion; and when
+violently rubbing, in a storm, gave out a creaking sound. In that
+mysterious sound inhered the fetich power. He chose the trees, not for any
+value in their kind, but because of their singular juxtaposition and their
+weird sounds. He gathered bark from these trees, and the son carried the
+basketful back to their village. The father fixed the time of arrival and
+point of entrance so that they should not be seen as they came to their
+house. He then went out to the behu (kitchen-garden) and plucked four ripe
+plantains (mehole); and gathered leaves of a certain tree, by name "boka."
+An earthen pot containing water and pieces of the twin-tree bark was set
+over the fire, and into the pot were finely sliced the mehole and the boka
+leaves. To these were added a certain kind of fish, by name "hume," a
+bottle of palm-oil, gourd seeds, and ground-nuts. All these were
+thoroughly boiled together. When they were sufficiently boiled, he lifted
+off the pot from the fire, not by his hands, but by clasping its hot sides
+with his feet, as he sat on a low stool, and placed it on the ground.
+Sitting by it, he held his face over it, with a cloth thrown over his
+head, thus inhaling the steam. He remained in this steam bath for about an
+hour.
+
+At food time he cut two pieces of leaves from plantains, spread them on
+the ground and sat on them, and ate the mess that was in the pot. While
+eating, he uttered into the pot adjurations, _e. g._, "Let no one, not
+even a Mabeya tribesman, hinder me from the white man's good-will! When I
+go some day to make my request to the white man, let him grant it!" When
+he had finished eating, he told his son to carry the pot into an inner
+room and deposit it in a large box, which the father opened for that
+purpose. The pot was not washed; it still contained the remains of the
+pottage. He told his son to reveal to no one what they had done.
+
+That very day he heard that his trade friend in the adjacent inferior
+Mabeya tribe had obtained an ivory tusk for him. He at once started out
+alone to meet his friend on the way, so as to be sure that it would not be
+carried to some one else; but not as on other ordinary journeys. He was to
+look neither to the right nor to the left (as if watchful of possibly
+ambushed enemies), nor to look back, even if called by name; but with eye
+straightforward, to walk steadily to the goal. Before starting, he had
+rubbed some of the pottage mess on his hand and tongue. On reaching the
+Mabeya village, his friend did not hesitate or haggle about the price, but
+promptly told him to take the tusk. Before selling it to the white trader,
+he scraped some ivory flakes from the outside of the tusk, put them into a
+decanter with two bottles of rum (before foreign liquor was known, native
+plantain beer was used) and pieces of the twin-tree bark. When
+subsequently he had occasion to go to the trading-house, he first drank a
+little from this decanter.
+
+Another Bwanga-bwa-Ibama, or trade medicine, is concocted as follows: A
+man who decides to make one for himself does not allow any one but his
+wife to know what he is about to do. He gathers from the forest leaves of
+a tree, by name "kota," the skin of a flying-squirrel (ngunye), from some
+dead person the nail from the fourth or little finger (of either hand),
+and the tip of the tongue, some drops of his wife's menses, a solution of
+red-wood powder, and the long tail-feathers of a forest bird, by name
+"kilinga." He then provides himself with an antelope's horn. Having burned
+the squirrel skin, he puts its ashes into the horn, mixed with the
+above-named articles, including the feather, whose end is allowed to stick
+out. Then, with the gum of the okume, or African mahogany tree, he closes
+the mouth of the horn, as with a cork, to prevent the liquid contents from
+escaping. This horn he suspends by a string from his neck or shoulder
+whenever he takes it with him on a journey. He uses it in his trade
+dealings with both whites and blacks. Before beginning a bargain or asking
+a white trader or another person for gifts of goods, he secretly pulls out
+the feather through the soft gum, and rubs a little of the liquid on the
+end of his nose. When this fetich is not in use, it is hidden in his
+bedroom or other private part of his house. But no one, not even his own
+family, is allowed to know where it is kept.
+
+Among the Mpongwe tribes of the equator in West Africa there are trade
+medicines that involve actual murder. One of these is called "Okundu."
+Like modern spiritualism, it seeks to employ a human medium to communicate
+with the dead; but it is unlike spiritualism in that the medium must
+actually be killed before he can go on his errand.
+
+In the case of a man who seeks to become wealthy in trade and goes to a
+magic doctor for that purpose, the doctor tells him of the different kinds
+of medicine, and some of the most important things required for each. The
+seeker may choose what he is able and willing to do. For Okundu medicine
+it is required that the seeker shall name some one or more of his
+relatives who he is willing should die, and that their spirits be sent to
+influence white traders or other persons of wealth, and make them
+favorably disposed toward the seeker, so that they may employ him in
+positions of honor and profit. If the seeker hesitate to do the actual
+murder, the doctor, by his black art, is to kill the person nominated and
+send him on his errand. If the fear should occur to the seeker that
+perhaps the murdered relative, instead of devoting himself in the
+spirit-world to the trade interests of his murderer, should attempt to
+avenge himself, the subject is dismissed by the doctor's assurance that
+either the spirit shall not know that the death of its body was premature,
+or that he will overrule it for the desired purpose.
+
+I know, personally, a Mpongwe man still living in Gabun who is believed to
+have done this Okundu. He is of prominent family, and had held lucrative
+service with white traders. His fortunes began to wane; he fell into debt,
+and white men began to doubt him and hesitated to entrust him. Though
+wearing the dress of a civilized gentleman, he is a heathen at heart. He
+had a little slave boy. The child suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
+Those who asked questions received evasive and contradictory answers. A
+very reliable native told me that it was known that this man had been
+communicating with an Okundu doctor, and many believed that the child had
+been put to death. But no one dared to say anything openly, and there was
+not sufficient proof on which to lay an information before the French
+governor, only a mile distant.
+
+Another Mpongwe trade medicine is Mbumbu (which means "rainbow"). Old
+tradition said that the rainbow was caused by a forest vine which a great
+snake had changed to the form of the sun-colored arc. The seeker of wealth
+is aided by the doctor to obtain a piece of this rainbow, which he keeps
+in secret, and can carry hidden with him. By it he is able at any time to
+kill any one of his relatives whom he may choose (of course unknown to
+them) and send their spirits off to induce foreign traders to give him a
+store of goods (the children's pot of gold at the rainbow's end?).
+
+_For Sickness._ Among the Mpongwe and adjacent tribes there are three
+kinds of spirits invoked, according to the character of the disease. These
+are Nkinda, Ombwiri, and Olaga.
+
+It is clear that these, as explained in a previous chapter, are names of
+spirits, but the same names (as in the case of other fetich mixtures) are
+given to the medicines in whose preparation they are invoked. But my
+informants differed in their opinions whether these names indicate
+different kinds of spirits, or only a difference in the functions or works
+done by them. One very intelligent and prominent native at first seemed
+uncertain, but subsequently said that "Nkinda" indicated the spirits of
+the common dead; "Ombwiri" the spirits of distinguished dead, kings, and
+other prominent men; and "Olaga," a higher class, who had been admitted to
+an "angelic" position in the spirit-world. All, however, asserted that all
+these are spirits of former human beings. Which kind shall be invoked
+depends on the doctor's diagnosis of the disease.
+
+
+[Illustration: NATIVES TRADING IN PLANTAINS AND BAMBOO BUILDING
+MATERIALS.--GABUN.]
+
+
+Take the case of some one who has been sick with an obscure disease that
+has not yielded to ordinary medication: the doctor begins his
+incantations with drum and dance and song. This is sometimes kept up all
+night, and in minor cases the patient is required to join in these
+ceremonies. But in the more mystic Nkinda, Ombwiri, and Olaga the sick
+person sits still, being required to do so as a part of the diagnosis. For
+if after a while the patient shall begin to nod his head violently, it is
+a sign that a spirit of some one of these three classes has taken
+possession of him. The doctor then takes him to a secret place in the
+forest, and asks the spirit what kind it is, and what the nature of the
+disease. The reply, though made by the patient, is not supposed to be his,
+but the spirit's who is using his mouth. Really the sick, dazed,
+submissive patient does not know what he is saying. After this diagnosis
+the doctor goes to seek plants suitable for the disease. By chance the
+patient may recover. If he does not, the doctor asserts that the spirit
+had misinformed him, and the ceremony must be performed again.
+
+One of the physical signs indicating that Olaga, rather than Nkinda or
+Ombwiri, is the medicine to be used, is vomiting. Hemorrhages from the
+lungs would be included in the Olaga diagnosis.
+
+"Among the Mashonas of South Africa a 'medicine' used is a small antelope
+horn called 'egona,' in which was a mixture of ground-nut oil and a
+medicinal bark known as 'unchanya.' The concoction is taken out on the end
+of a stick termed 'mutira,' and administered to the patient by dropping it
+into his ear. The doctor stated that it was a sure cure for headache.
+
+"Another horn, four inches long, called 'mulimate,' was for the purpose of
+cupping and bleeding, and is used in this wise: An incision is made with a
+knife into the body, the large end of the horn is placed over the wound;
+then a vacuum is formed by the doctor's sucking the air out through an
+opening at the little end. The small hole is closed with wax, and the horn
+is left until it has become filled with clotted blood. This is the process
+of curing rheumatism and other maladies, which are supposed by the
+Mashonas to be literally drawn out with the blood. Bleeding is practised
+extensively; and I have seen natives bled from arms, legs, body, and head
+until they were so exhausted that weeks were required for their recovery.
+
+"Another important instrument was a brush made of a zebra's tail, among
+the hairs of which were tied many small roots and herbs possessing various
+medicinal properties. One of the remedies was known as 'gwandere,' and,
+taken internally, was a sure cure for worms, so the doctor stated. The
+brush was called 'muskwa,' this being the name of any animal's tail. The
+doctor demonstrated its use by operating upon a man in my presence. He
+placed some powdered herbs in a bowl of water, then dipped the brush in,
+and sprinkled the patient. Next, he performed several magic evolutions
+with the brush around the patient's body, at the same time repeating, 'May
+the sickness leave this person!' and so forth. The doctor told me that
+after this operation the patient was certain of recovery, unless some
+witch or spirit intervened to prevent it or to cause his death."[66]
+
+_For Loving._ Love philtres are common, even among the civilized and
+professedly Christian portion of the community. Philtres are both male and
+female. If a woman says to herself, "My husband does not love me; I will
+make him love me!" or if any woman desires to make any man love her, she
+prepares a medicine for that purpose. This charm is called "Iyele." The
+process is as follows: First, she scrapes from the sole of her foot some
+skin, and lays it carefully aside. Next, when she has occasion to go to
+the public latrine at the seaside or on the edge of the forest, she washes
+her genitals in a small bowl of water, which she secretly carries to her
+house. Then, with a knife, she scrapes a little skin and mucous from the
+end of her tongue. These three ingredients she mixes in a bottle of water,
+which is to be used in her cooking.
+
+The most attractive native mode of cooking fish and meat is in jomba
+("bundle"). The flesh is cut into pieces and laid in layers with salt,
+pepper, some crushed oily nut, and a little water. These all are tied up
+tightly in several thicknesses of fresh green plantain leaves, and the
+bundle is set on a bed of hot coals. The water in the bundle is converted
+into steam before the thick fleshy leaves are charred through. The steam,
+unable to escape, permeates the fibres of the meat, thoroughly cooking it
+without boiling or burning.
+
+When the above-mentioned woman cooks for the man, her husband, or any
+other for whom she is making the philtre, the water she uses in the jomba
+is taken from that prepared bottle. This jomba she sets before him, and he
+eats of it (unaware, of course, of her intention, or of the special mode
+of preparation). It is fully believed that the desired effect is
+immediate; that, as soon as he has finished eating, all the thoughts of
+his heart will be turned toward this woman, and that he will be ready to
+comply with any wish of hers. No objection to her, or to what she says,
+coming from any other person in the village, male or female, will be
+regarded by him.
+
+I know a certain Gabun woman who boasted of her power, by the
+above-described means, to cause a certain white man whom she loved (but
+who was not her husband) to do anything at all that she bade him.
+
+Also a small portion from that bottle may be poured (secretly) into the
+glass of liquor that is to be drunk by a favored guest. This is practised
+alike on visitors, white or black.
+
+The process of making a love charm by a man is more elaborate. The
+ingredients are more numerous and require more time in their collection.
+Having fixed his desire on some woman, he decides in his heart, "I am
+going to marry such and such a woman in such and such a village!" But he
+keeps his intention entirely secret. He proceeds to make the male charm
+called "Ebabi." (I do not know the origin of this word; it looks as if it
+belonged to the adjective "bobabu" = soft, which is a derivative of the
+verb "babaka," to yield, to consent, to soften.) The first ingredient is
+coconut oil, which is poured into a flask made of a small gourd or
+calabash. Then, going to the forest, he gathers leaves of the bongam tree.
+Another day he will go again to the forest, and find leaves of the bokadi
+tree. Then he plucks some hairs from his arm-pits, and puts them and the
+bruised leaves, with some of his own urine, into the flask. This flask he
+then suspends from his kitchen roof above the itaka frame or hanging-shelf
+that in almost all kitchens is placed above the fire-hearth. It remains
+there in the smoke for ten days. Then taking it down, he inserts into it,
+tip downward, a long tail-feather of a large bird called "koka." He is
+ready then for his experiment. Any day that he chooses to go to seek the
+woman, he first draws out the feather, with whatever of the mixture clings
+to it, and wipes it on his hands. His hands he then rubs over his face
+rapidly and vigorously, saying, "So will I do to that woman!" He must
+immediately then start on his journey. This act of anointing his hands and
+face must have been his very last act before starting. And there are
+several prohibitions. He must have thought beforehand of all things needed
+to be done or handled, for after the anointing he must not touch any other
+thing. In taking the gourd-flask from above the hanging-shelf he must not
+touch the shelf. He must not rub or scratch his head. He must not handle a
+broom. He must not shake hands with any one on the path to the woman's
+village. All these prohibitions are in order that the anointed mixture may
+not be rubbed off, or its effect counteracted by contact with anything
+else. When he reaches the woman's village, he goes directly to her, and
+clasping her on the shoulder, he rubs his hands downward on her arm,
+saying, "You! you woman! I love you!" Instantly the medicine is operative,
+and she is willing to go with him.
+
+If it is only a love affair, she goes secretly. If he offers her marriage,
+there is first the amicable settlement by the council that is then held by
+the woman's family as to the amount of the dowry to be paid for her.
+Presents having been given to her by him, the woman goes with the man
+without further objection. On reaching his house, he points out to her the
+gourd-flask hanging in the kitchen, and tells her, "Let that thing alone."
+But he does not inform her what it is; nor does she know or suspect that
+it is anything more than an ordinary fetich. Nor does any one else know;
+for no one had been allowed to see him perform any part of the several
+processes of the ritual in compounding the charm.
+
+_For Fishing._ The prescription for making the fetich for success in
+fishing is as follows: Go in the morning early, while the rest of the
+villagers are asleep, to an adjacent marsh or pond. (Almost all African
+villages are built on or near the bank of some stream or lake.) Find a
+place where pond-lilies are growing. Wade into the pond, bend low in the
+water, and pluck three lily-pads. There are water-spiders, called
+"mbwa-ja-miba" (dogs of the water), generally running over the surface of
+the water at such places; catch four of them. Gather also leaves of
+another water-plant called "ngama." All these articles leave in the
+village in a safe place. When other fishers come in from the sea, go to
+the beach to meet them; and if they have among their catch a certain fish
+called "hume," having three spines, beg or buy it. This you are to dry
+over the fire. Watch the daily fishing until some one has killed a shark;
+obtain its heart, which also is to be dried. Take also a plate full of
+gourd seeds (nganda) and some ground-nuts (mbenda); also five "fingers" of
+unripe plantains cut from the living bunch on the stalk, and a tumblerful
+of palm-oil. All these above-named ingredients are to be mixed in one pot
+(which must be earthen) and are to be cooked in it. While the mess is
+boiling, sit by, face over the pot, in the steam rising from it, and speak
+into the pot, "Let me catch fish every day! every day!" No people are to
+be present, or to see any of these proceedings. Take the pot off the fire,
+not with your hands, but by your feet, and set it on the ground. Take all
+your fish-hooks, and hold them in the steam arising from the pot. Take a
+banana leaf that is perfect and not torn by wind, and laying it on the
+ground, spread out the hooks on it. Then eat the stewed mess, not with a
+real spoon, but with a leaf twisted as a spoon. In eating, the inedible
+portions, such as fish-bones, skins, rind, and so forth, are not to be
+ejected from the mouth on the ground, but must be removed by the fingers
+and carefully laid on the banana leaf. Having finished eating, call one of
+the village dogs, as if it was to be given liberty to eat the remains of
+the mess. As the dog begins to eat, strike it sharply, and as the animal
+runs away howling, say, "So! may I strike fish!" Then kick the pot over.
+Take the refuse of food from the banana leaf, and the hooks, and lay them
+at the foot of the plantain stalk from which the five "fingers" were cut.
+Leave the pot lying as it was until night. Then, unseen, take it out into
+the village street, and violently dash it to pieces on the ground, saying,
+"So! may I kill fish!" It is expected that the villagers shall not hear
+the sound of the breaking of the vessel; for it must be done only when
+they are believed to be asleep. When the bunch of plantains from which
+those fingers were taken ripens, and is finally cut down for food by
+others, you are forbidden to eat not only of it, but of the fruit of any
+of its shoots that in regular succession, year after year (according to
+the manner of bananas and plantains), take the place of the predecessor
+stalk. You may never eat of their fruit.
+
+_For Planting._ Planting is done almost entirely by women. If a woman says
+to herself, "I want to have plenty of food! I will make medicine for it!"
+she proceeds to gather the necessary ingredients. She takes her ukwala
+(machete), pavo (knife), short hoe (like a trowel), and elinga (basket),
+and goes to the forest. She must go very early in the morning, and alone.
+She gathers a leaf called "tube," another called "injenji," the bark
+of a tree called "bohamba," the bark also of elamba, and leaves of bokuda.
+Hiding them in a safe place, she goes back to her village to get her
+earthen pot. Returning with it to the forest, she makes a fire, not with
+coals from the village, but with new, clean fire made by the two
+fire-sticks. These, used by natives before steel and flint were
+introduced, require often an hour's twirling before friction develops
+sufficient heat to cause a spark. The sparks are caught on thoroughly
+dried plantain fibre. Then she builds her fire. She goes to some spring or
+stream for water to put in the pot with the leaves and barks, and sets it
+on the fire. All this while she is not to be seen by other people. When
+the water has boiled, she sets the pot in the middle of the acre of ground
+which she intends to clear for her garden until its contents cool. In the
+meanwhile she goes to some creek and gets "chalk" (a white clay is found
+in places in the beds of streams). She washes it clean of mud and rubs it
+on her breast. Then she takes the pot, and empties its decoction by
+sprinkling it, with a bunch of leaves, over the ground, saying, "My
+forefathers! now in the land of spirits, give me food! Let me have food
+more abundantly than all other people!" Then she again sets the pot in the
+middle of the proposed plantation. She takes from it the tube leaves
+and puts them into four little cornucopias (ehongo), which she rolls from
+another large leaf of the elende tree. She sets these in the four corners
+of the garden. Whenever she comes on any other day to work in the garden,
+she pulls a succulent plant, squeezes its juice into the ehongo; and this
+juice she drops into her eye. To be efficient, this medicine has a
+prohibition connected with it, viz., that during the days of her menses
+she shall not go to the garden.
+
+When her plants have grown, and she has eaten of them, she must break the
+pot. Having done so, she makes a large fire at an end of the garden, and
+burns the pieces of earthenware so that they shall be utterly calcined. It
+is not required that she shall stay by the fire awaiting that result. She
+may, if she wishes, in the meanwhile go back to her village. She takes the
+ashes of the pot, mixes them with chalk in a jomba (bundle) of leaves,
+which she ties to a tree of her garden in a hidden spot where people will
+not see it.
+
+Another strict prohibition is required of her by the medicine, _viz._,
+that she is not to steal from another woman's garden. If she break this
+law, her own garden will not produce. The jomba is kept for years, or as
+long as she plants at that place, and the chalk mixture is rubbed on her
+breast at each planting season. From time to time also, as the leaves of
+the jomba decay or break away, she puts fresh ones about it, to prevent
+the wetting of its contents by raid or its injury in any other way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FETICH--SUPERSTITION IN CUSTOMS
+
+
+The observances of fetich worship fade off into the customs and habits of
+life by gradations, so that in some of the superstitious beliefs, while
+there may be no formal handling of a fetich amulet containing a spirit,
+nor actual prayer or sacrifice, nevertheless spiritism is in the thought,
+and more or less consciously held.
+
+In our civilization there are thousands of professedly Christian people
+who are superstitious in such things as fear of Friday, No. 13, spilled
+salt, etc. In my childhood, at Easton, Pa., I was sent on an errand to a
+German farmhouse. The kind-hearted Frau was weeding her strawberry bed in
+the spring garden-making, and was throwing over the fence into the public
+road superfluous runners. I asked permission to pick them up to plant in
+my own little garden. She kindly assented, and I thanked her for them,
+whereupon she exclaimed, "Ach! nein! nein! Das ist no goot! You say, 'Dank
+you'; now it no can grow any more!" I was too young to inquire into the
+philosophy of the matter. Surely she would not forbid gratitude. I think
+the gist of what she thought my error was, that I had thanked her for what
+she considered a worthless thing and had thrown away. I do not think she
+would have objected to thanks for anything she valued sufficiently to
+offer as a gift.
+
+The difference between my old Pennsylvania-Dutch lady and my "Number 13"
+acquaintances, and my African Negro friend is that to the former, while
+they are somewhat influenced by their superstition, it is not their God.
+To the latter it is the practical and logical application of his religion.
+Theirs is a pitiable weakness; his a trusted belief.
+
+It would be impossible to enumerate all the thousands of practices
+dominated by the superstitious beliefs of the Bantu,--practices which
+sometimes erect themselves into customs and finally obtain almost the
+force of law. Many of these are prevalent all over Africa; others are
+local.
+
+
+RULES OF PREGNANCY.
+
+Everywhere are rules of pregnancy which bind both the woman and her
+husband. During pregnancy neither of them is permitted to eat the flesh of
+any animal which was itself pregnant at the time of its slaughter. Even of
+the flesh of a non-pregnant animal there are certain parts--the heart,
+liver, and entrails--which may not be eaten by them. It is claimed that to
+eat of such food at such a time would make a great deal of trouble for the
+unborn infant. During his wife's pregnancy a man may not cut the throat of
+any animal nor assist in the butchering of it. A carpenter whose wife is
+pregnant must not drive a nail. To do so would close the womb and cause a
+difficult labor. He may do all other work belonging to carpentering, but
+he must have an assistant to drive the nails.
+
+In my early years on Corisco Island, and while I was expecting to become a
+father, I was one day superintending the butchering of a sheep. It was not
+necessary that I should actually use the knife; that was done by the cook;
+but I stood by to see that the work was done in a cleanly manner, and that
+in the flaying the skin should be rolled constantly away, so that the hair
+should not touch the flesh. In the dissection I assisted, so that the
+flesh should not be defiled by a carelessly wounded entrail. My servant
+was amazed, and said my child would be injured. He was still more shocked
+when Mrs. Nassau herself came to urge haste and to secure the liver for
+dinner.
+
+Among the station employees on Corisco in 1864 was an ex-slave, a recent
+convert, whose freedom had been purchased by one of the missionaries. The
+native non-Christian freemen begrudged him his position as a mission
+employee; for his wages were now his own, and could no longer be claimed
+by his former master. Some of his fellow-servants, freemen, put off on
+him, as much as they could, the more menial tasks. It was incumbent,
+therefore, on the missionaries to see that he was not oppressed by his
+fellows. Clearing of the graveyard was a task no one liked to have
+assigned to him; and it was often thrown on poor Evosa. One day a newly
+arrived missionary, the Rev. George Paull, the noblest of my associates
+these forty years, who just then knew little of the language or of native
+thought or custom, ordered Evosa to take his hoe and clean the cemetery
+path. Evosa bluntly said, "Mba haye!" (I won't). "You won't! You refuse to
+obey me?" "Mba haye!" "Then I dismiss you." Evosa went away, much cast
+down. Some of his fellow-Christians came to me saying they were sorry for
+him, and asked me to interfere. "But," I said, "he should obey; the work
+is not hard." "Oh! but he can't do it!" "Why not?" "Because his wife is
+pregnant." Immediately I understood. Evosa may not have believed in the
+superstition, but for all that, if he did the work and subsequently there
+should be anything untoward in his wife's confinement, her relatives would
+exact a heavy fine of him. We had not required our converts to disregard
+these prohibitions, if only they did not actually engage in any act of
+fetich worship. I was careful to say nothing to the natives that would
+undermine my missionary brother's authority; but privately I intimated to
+Mr. Paull that I thought that if he had been fully aware of the state of
+the case, he would not have dismissed the man. He was just, and reversed
+the dismissal. Evosa was pardoned also for the bluntness of his refusal;
+it was a part of his slavish ignorance. In conclusion, I warned him that
+he should have explained to Mr. Paull the ground of his refusal, and
+should have asked for other work. He had not supposed that the white man
+did not know; and the asking of excuse is a part of politeness that has to
+be taught. Almost every new missionary makes unwise or unjust orders and
+decisions before he learns on what superstitious grounds he is treading.
+Not all are willing to be rectified as was my noble brother Paull.
+
+In the burial of a first-born infant the lid of the coffin is not only not
+allowed to be nailed down, but it must not entirely cover the corpse; a
+space must be left open (generally above the child's head); the
+superstition being that if the coffin be closed, the mother will bear no
+more children.
+
+
+OMENS ON JOURNEYS.
+
+Almost every traveller in Africa, in publishing his story, has much to say
+about the difficulties in getting his caravan of porters started on their
+daily journey. His detailed account of slowness, disobedience, and
+desertions is as monotonous to the reader as they were distressing to
+himself. Did he but know it, the fault was often largely his own. The man
+of haste and exactitude, that has grown up on railroad time-tables,
+demands the impossible of aborigines who never have needed to learn the
+value of time. Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, and even Latin diligence expects too
+much of the happy-go-lucky African. The traveller fumes, and frets, and
+works himself into a fever. He would gain more in the end if he would
+_festina lente_. He would save himself many a quarrel or case of
+discipline (for which he earns the reputation of being a hard master; and
+for which, further on in the journey, he may be shot by one of his
+outraged servants) if he only knew that superstition had met his servant,
+as the angel "with his sword drawn" met Balaam's ass, "in a narrow place";
+and that servant could no more have dared to go on in the way than could
+that wise ass who knew and saw what his angry master did not know.
+
+Mr. R. E. Dennett, for many years a resident in Loango among the Bavili
+people, and author of "Seven Years among the Fjort," recognizes this in "A
+Few Signs and Omens," contributed recently to a Liverpool weekly journal,
+"West Africa." What he says of the Fyat (Fiot) tribes is largely true of
+all the other West African tribes. "They have a number of things to take
+into consideration, when setting out upon a journey, which may account
+for many of those otherwise inexplicable delays which so annoy the white
+man at times when anxious to start 'one time' for some place or other.
+
+"The first thing a white man should do is to see that the Negro's fetiches
+are all in order; then, when on the way, he must manage things so that the
+first person the caravan shall meet shall be a woman; for that is a good
+sign, while to meet a man means that something evil is going to happen.
+Then, to meet the bird Kna that is all black is a bad sign; while the Kna
+that has its wings tipped with white is a good sign.
+
+"The rat Benda running across your path from left to right is good; from
+right to left fairly good; should it appear from the left and run ahead in
+the direction you are going, 'Oh! that is very good!' but should it run
+towards you, well, then the best thing for you to do is to go back; for
+you are sure to meet with bad luck!
+
+"See that your men start with their left foot first, and that they are
+'high-steppers'; for if their left foot meet with an obstacle, and is not
+badly hurt, it is not a bad sign; but if their right foot knocks against
+anything, you must go back to town.
+
+"See that you do not meet that nasty brown bird called Mvia, that is
+always crying out, 'Via, via'; for that means 'witch-palaver,' and strikes
+consternation into your people. Nobody likes to be reminded of his sins or
+witch deeds, and be condemned to be burnt in the fire; and that is what
+'via' means.
+
+"Then there is that moderately large bird with wings tipped with white
+called 'Nxeci,' also reminding one of 'witch-palaver,' and continuously
+crying out, 'Ke-e-e,' or 'No.' You had far better not start.
+
+"Take care also to shoot the cukoo o Nkuku before it crosses your path;
+for if you allow it to pass, you had better return; it is a bad omen.
+
+"Then, concerning owls: see that your camp at night is not disturbed by
+the cry of the Kulu (spirit of the departed), that warns you that one of
+you is going to die; or that of the Xi-futu-nkubu, which means that you
+may expect some evil shortly. On the other hand, let the Mampaulo-paulo
+hoot as much as it likes; for that is a good sign.
+
+"Then look out that the snake Nduma does not cross your path; for that is
+a sign of death, or else of warning to you that you should return and see
+to the fetich obligations the iron bracelet Ngofu reminds you of. Examine
+your men, and ask those who wear the bracelet the following questions:
+Have you eaten the flesh of anything (save birds) on the same day that it
+was killed? Have you pointed your knife at any one? Did you know your wife
+on the Day of Rest (Nsana, Sunday)? Have you looked upon a woman during a
+certain period of the month? Have you eaten those long 'chilli' peppers
+instead of confining yourself to the smaller kinds?
+
+"You must send those who have not the bracelet, together with those who
+have not been true to ngofu, back to town, to set this 'palaver' right.
+Take great care of your fowls, and see that you have no ill-regulated cock
+to crow between 6 P. M. and 3 A. M., as that means that there is a palaver
+in town to which your men are called, so that it may be settled at once.
+
+"Then, there is that large bird Knakna, whose cry warns your men that
+there is something wrong with the fetich Mabili ('the east wind,' on the
+gateway at the east entrance to each town), and this knowledge will hang
+as a dead weight on all their energies until they have just run back to
+town to see what the matter may be.
+
+"Get your men to sleep early, lest they should see the 'falling stars';
+for it means that one of their princes is about to die, and that is
+disquieting. Then don't let it thunder out of season; for that portends
+the death of an important prince.
+
+"And if you determine to go out fishing, and meet the rat Benda (as above
+noted), go or not, as the signs command you. If you meet the bird Mbixi
+that sings 'luelo-elo-elo,' go on your way rejoicing; or when the little
+bird Nxexi, true to nature, sings 'xixexi,' all is well; but when it
+sings, 'tietie,' go back, for you will catch nothing.
+
+"Then there is the wild dog Mbulu; well, that must not cross your path at
+starting. You laugh? Well, so did Nyambi, the brother of my headman,
+Bayona; and what happened? Nyambi had come down from the interior with his
+master; and after a short stay was ordered back to his trading post, his
+master saying that he would follow him shortly. A friend handed him a son
+of his for him to educate, and to attend upon him; in fact, to be his
+'boy.' Everything being ready, he set out from Loango; and the first thing
+they met on the road was the wild dog. Now Nyambi was a plucky Bantu and
+took no notice of this warning, but continued on his way. On reaching the
+forest country in Mayomba, the boy entrusted to him ran away. Nyambi, true
+to his trust, came after him back to his town, to see that the boy was
+once more placed in the care of his father, and so to avoid any further
+complications. Then he once more started on his way, and, nearing the
+forest country again, was bitten severely on the foot by a snake. He tied
+a rag around his leg just under the knee, and another just above his
+ankle, and squeezed as much blood as he could from the wound itself. Then
+he hobbled into the nearest town, and waited there for assistance from his
+family, to whom he had at once despatched a messenger. They sent men and
+women to bring him back to Loango, where he arrived in a very weak
+condition, and with a fearful sore on his foot,--an awful warning to all
+those who will not take the omens sent to them in earnest! What! you still
+laugh? Well, there is no hope for you; you are too persistent, and have
+not read the story of the rabbit and the antelope, and of the trap laid
+for the former.[67] And if you keep on laughing at these superstitions of
+the natives, don't blame any one if they call you a 'rabbit,' and refuse
+to follow you in your wanderings through their land. Most haste is very
+often worst speed in Africa; and the white man who ignores all but
+physical difficulties does well to stay his impatient hand when about to
+strike his most provoking and apparently dilatory black carrier, who is
+beset by endless moral obstacles retarding his progress as no physical
+difficulties can."
+
+When I was beginning my pioneering of the Ogowe River in
+September-November, 1874, I had with me one Christian coast native. I
+completed my canoe's crew with four heathen Galwa, placed myself under the
+patronage of the Akele chief Kasa, resided in his village, and bought from
+him a site, Belambila, for my mission station, about a mile distant from
+him. Daily I went with my crew in the canoe to work at the building of a
+temporary house on the Belambila premises. One day a water-snake crossed
+the canoe's bow, and I struck at it. The Christian looked serious, and the
+four heathen laid down their paddles. It was sufficiently disastrous that
+the snake had crossed our path; I had made matters worse by attempting to
+injure it. They said, "You should not have done that." "Why?" "Because
+somewhere and sometime it will follow us and will bite us. Let us go back
+to Kasa's." I refused, and insisted on our proceeding with the day's work.
+I might better have yielded to their request. It was as if I were under an
+Ancient Mariner's curse. My snake was as bad as his albatross. My men
+either could not or would not. Everything went wrong. They worked without
+heart and under dread. What they built that day was done with so many
+mistakes that I had to tear it down. I did not fully appreciate at that
+time, but I do not now think that they were intentionally disobedient or
+recalcitrant. Just as well compel a crew of ignorant sailors to start
+their voyage on a Friday. The fear of ominous birds and other animals is
+over all Africa. In Garenganze, according to Arnot, "many have a
+superstitious dread of the horned night-owl. Its cry is considered an evil
+omen, which can only be counteracted effectually by possessing a whistle
+made out of the windpipe of the same kind of bird.
+
+
+[Illustration: TRAVELING BY CANOE.--OGOWE RIVER.]
+
+
+"Jackals, wild dogs, also are very much disliked. The weird cry of one of
+these animals will arouse the people of a whole village, who will rush out
+and call upon the spirit-possessed animal to be quiet and leave them, or
+to come into the village, and they will feed and satisfy it.
+
+"When travelling, they are careful to notice the direction this animal may
+take. Should its cry come from the direction in which they are going, they
+will not venture a step farther until certain divinations have been
+performed that they may learn the nature of the calamity about to befall
+them."[68]
+
+The chameleon is an object of dread to all natives wherever I have lived.
+I have never met, even among the most civilized, any man or woman who
+would touch one. For friendship, or to make a sale, they would bring it to
+me at the end of a long stick, in my various efforts at zoological and
+other collections.
+
+The millepedes they also dread. I handle them with impunity, and my little
+daughter, on the Ogowe, in 1888 did so too, under my example. But her
+young Negro companions soon made her afraid. True, the adult millepede
+ejects a dark liquid which stained my hands and which natives said was
+poisonous if taken internally. (That I never tested.)
+
+A native friend, one of my Batanga female church-members, a sincere
+Christian, of bright mind but limited education, told me recently (1902)
+of her belief in the chameleon as a bad omen. She was visiting relatives a
+dozen miles north. Word was sent her to return, as another relative, a
+woman in my Bongaheli village, was dangerously ill. Her host told her to
+go, and advised her to gather on the way a certain fern, parasitic on
+trees, that is used medicinally in the disease of which the woman was
+sick. My friend started on her day's journey, came to the tree, and was
+about to pluck the ferns when she observed a chameleon clasping the tree;
+it stood still and looked at her. She instantly left the tree, abandoned
+the ferns, went back to tell her host that a chameleon was in possession
+of them and had stared at her, and that it was useless to gather the
+medicine, for she was sure their relative was dead. And she resumed her
+journey, coming back to Bongaheli in order to attend the mourning. It was
+true; the relative was dead, and the mourning had begun. Her belief was
+not shaken when I reminded her that that chameleon was only doing just
+what all chameleons do when they are not walking, and when confronted by
+any one. They all clasp the branch on which they happen to be, and stare
+at their supposed pursuer, if unable to escape.
+
+
+LEOPARD FIENDS.
+
+Formerly a strange superstition said that on him who should kill a leopard
+there would come an evil disease, curable only by ruinously expensive
+ceremonies of three weeks' duration, under the direction of the Ukuku
+(Spirit) Society. So the natives allowed the greatest ravages, until their
+sheep, goats, and dogs were swept away; and were aroused to self-defence
+only when a human being became the victim of the daring beast. The carcass
+of a leopard, or even the bones of one long dead, were not to be touched.
+
+While I was living at Benita, about 1869, the losses by leopards became so
+great that, in desperation, some of the braver young men, under my
+encouragement, determined that the depredator should be caught. (Nothing
+was just then said about what should be done with it when caught.) A trap
+was built in one of the villages, and baited with a live goat. Soon a
+leopard was entrapped. What to do with it was then the question. Some
+favored leaving it alone till they could ask permission of Ukuku to kill
+it, even if they had to pay heavily for the permission. Others, who had
+heard me laugh at their superstition, proposed that I should be asked to
+shoot it. They came at night; I willingly and promptly went with my
+Winchester repeating rifle, which could easily be thrust into the chinks
+between the logs of which the trap was built. When the animal was shot,
+came the question, Who should remove it? None would touch it. Among my
+employees were two young men of another tribe with whom that superstition
+did not exist. With their aid I lifted the carcass upon a wheelbarrow, and
+took it to a place where I could comfortably skin it. Some objected to my
+retaining the skin. They wanted the whole animal put out of sight. But the
+majority agreed that the skin should be my compensation for my rifle's
+service. Then a deputation carefully followed me out on the prairie, to
+see that the spot where the skinning was to be done was not near any of
+their frequented paths. After the flaying was complete, what was best to
+do with the carcass? The majority objected to its being buried, fearing to
+tread over its grave. So I sent the two young men in a canoe, to sink the
+carcass out in the river's mouth toward the sea. Even then there were
+those who for two weeks afterward would eat no fish caught in the river.
+
+With this fear of the leopard was united a superstition similar to that of
+the "wehr-wolf" of Germany, _viz._, a belief in the power of human
+metamorphosis into a leopard. The natives had learned, from foreigners who
+were ignorant of the fact that there are no tigers in Africa, to call this
+leopard fiend a "man-tiger." They got their fears still more mixed by a
+belief in a third superstition, _viz._, that sometimes the dead returned
+to life and committed depredations. This belief was not simply that
+disembodied spirits (mekuku) returned, but that the entire person, soul
+and body (ilina na nyolo), rose temporarily from the grave, with a few
+changes (among the rest, that the feet were webbed). Such a being, as
+mentioned in a previous chapter, was called "Uvengwa." At one time, while
+I was at Benito, intense excitement prevailed in the community: doors and
+shutters were violently rattled at night; marks of leopard's claws
+scratched doorposts; their tracks lay on every path; women and children in
+lonely places saw their flitting forms, in the dark were knocked down by
+their spring, or heard their growl in the thickets. It was difficult to
+decide, in hearing these reports, whether it was a real leopard, a leopard
+fiend, or only an uvengwa. To native fear, they were practically the same.
+I felt certain that the uvengwa was a thief disguised in a leopard skin.
+Under such disguise murders were sometimes committed. By bending my thumb
+and fingers into a semi-closed fist, I could make an impression in the
+sand that exactly resembled a leopard's track; and this confirmed my
+conclusions as to the real cause of the phenomenon.
+
+The pioneer of the Gabun Mission, Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson, in 1842, found
+the wehr-wolf superstition prevalent among all the tribes of Southern
+Guinea. The leopard "is invested with more terror than it otherwise would
+have, by a superstitious apprehension on the part of the natives, that
+wicked men frequently metamorphose themselves into leopards and commit all
+sorts of depredations, without the liability or possibility of being
+killed. The real leopard is emboldened by impunity, and often becomes a
+terrible scourge to the village he infests. I have known large villages to
+be abandoned by their inhabitants, because they were afraid to attack
+these animals on account of their supposed supernatural powers."
+
+At Gabun, about 1865, there still remained a jungle on one side of the
+public road that constituted the one street of the town of Libreville, as
+it followed the curve of the bay for three miles. There were frequent
+alarms and occasional murders along lonely parts of that road. The natives
+believed that the leopard fiend was a beast; the French commandant
+believed it was a human being. He had the jungle cut away. Since then, no
+mangled bodies have been found there.
+
+Among the Garenganze people, in 1884, Mr. Arnot often chid them "for their
+want of bravery in not hunting down the many wild animals that prey around
+their towns, carrying off the sick people, and frequently attacking and
+seizing solitary strangers. They excused themselves by explaining that
+these wild animals are really 'men of other tribes,' turned, by the magic
+power they possess, into the form of lions, panthers, or leopards, who
+prowl about to take vengeance on those against whom they are embittered.
+In defending this absurd theory, one man said it was not possible for a
+Luba and a Lamba man to go out into the country together without one
+stealing a march on his neighbor, getting out of sight, and returning
+again in the form of a lion or leopard, and devouring his travelling
+companion. Such things, they say, are of daily occurrence amongst them;
+and this foolish superstition leads them not only to tolerate the wild
+animals about, but almost to hold them sacred."
+
+This particular superstition still exists extensively. As late as 1898, it
+is stated of the Barotse of Southeast Africa: "They believe that at times
+both living and dead persons can change themselves into animals, either to
+execute some vengeance or to procure something that they wish for: thus a
+man will change himself into a hyena or a lion in order to steal a sheep,
+and make a good meal off it; into a serpent, to avenge himself on some
+enemy. At other times, if they see a serpent, it is one of the 'Matotela'
+or slave tribe, which has thus transformed himself to take some vengeance
+on the Barotse."[69]
+
+
+LUCK.
+
+There exists a custom, even among the civilized, for the seller of an
+article to hold back a small portion after his price has been paid. When I
+first met with this custom, I was indignant at what seemed like stealing;
+and yet it was so open, and without any attempt at concealment, that I was
+amazed. One who brought for sale a bunch of plantains twisted off and took
+away one of its "fingers." Another who had just been paid for a peck of
+sweet potatoes deliberately picks off one tuber. Another who brought a
+gazelle for sale would not complete the bargain till I had consented that
+he might remove the gall-bladder and a portion of the liver. I learned
+that all these were for "luck": in order that the garden whence came that
+plantain bunch or potato should be blessed with abundance; and the
+hunter, that he might be successful in his next hunt. The gazelle is
+credited with being a very artful animal, the cunning being located
+especially in the liver.
+
+One might ask why, if those pieces are so needed for luck, the owner did
+not take them before selling, and while they were still his own and under
+his entire control. I do not know their exact thought; but the statement
+was that the chances of good luck were greater if the pieces of plantain,
+potato, meat, etc. were abstracted after the article had actually passed
+out of the seller's possession.
+
+On the Ogowe, at Lake Azyingo, in 1874, I was present at the cutting up of
+a female hippopotamus which a hunter had killed the night before. By favor
+of the native Ajumba chief, Anege, I was allowed to see the ceremonies.
+They were many; of most of them I did not understand the significance; and
+the people were loath to tell me, lest I should in some way counteract
+them. Even my presence was objected to by the mother of the hunter (he,
+however, was willing).
+
+After the animal had been decapitated, and its quarters and bowels
+removed, the hunter, naked, stepped into the hollow of the ribs, and
+kneeling in the bloody pool contained in that hollow, bathed his entire
+body with that mixture of blood and excreta, at the same time praying the
+life-spirit of the hippo that it would bear him no ill-will for having
+killed it, and thus cut it off from future maternity; and not to incense
+other hippopotami that they should attack his canoe in revenge. (Hippos
+are amphibians, but are generally killed in the water.) He kept choice
+parts of the flesh to incorporate into his luck fetich.
+
+Mr. Arnot mentions the same custom in Garenganze: "One morning I shot a
+hyena in my yard. The chief sent up one of his executioners to cut off its
+nose and the tip of its tail, and to extract a little bit of brain from
+the skull. The man informed me that these parts are very serviceable to
+elephant hunters, as securing for them the cunning, tact, and power to
+become invisible, which the hyena is supposed to possess. I suppose that
+the brain would represent the cunning, the nose the tact, and the tip of
+the tail the vanishing quality." The stomach of the hyena is valued by the
+Ovimbundu (of Southwest Africa) as a cure for apoplexy.
+
+
+TWINS.
+
+Mr. Arnot states that in Garenganze "cases of infanticide are very rare.
+Twins, strange to say, are not only allowed to live, but the people
+delight in them." Though they are not regarded as monstrosities deserving
+death, as among the Calabar people on the West Coast, it is nevertheless
+considered necessary that certain preservative ceremonies should be
+performed on the infants and their parents.
+
+Mr. Swan, an associate of Mr. Arnot, describes a ceremony he was
+unexpectedly made to share in while on a visit to the native king Msidi:
+"My attention was drawn to a crowd of folk, mostly women, who approached,
+singing and ringing a kind of bell. They formed in lines opposite to us.
+In front of the rest were a man and woman, each holding a child not more
+than a few days old. I learned that the little ones were twins, the man
+and woman holding them being the happy parents, who had come to present
+their offspring to the king. They wore nothing but a few leaves about
+their loins,--a hint to Msidi, I suppose, that they would like some cloth.
+
+"After chanting a little, an elderly woman came forward, with a dish in
+her left hand and an antelope's tail in her right. When she reached Msidi,
+I was astonished at her dipping the tail in the dish and dashing the
+liquid over his face. Msidi's wife had a like dose. But my surprise
+increased when she came to us and gave us a share. What was in the dish I
+cannot say, but it struck me as possessing a very disagreeable odor. This
+discourteous creature was the Ocimbanda (fetich doctor). She did not cease
+her dousing work till she had favored all sitting around. The king then
+went into the house, and his wife came out with some cloth, which she
+tied around the mother's waist; and then a piece of cloth was given to the
+husband. The friends had brought some native beer; and when Msidi came
+out, he went to one of the pots, filled his mouth, spouting the beer in
+his wife's face; she did the same to him, after which the spouting became
+general.... They told me it was their custom to act thus when twins are
+born."
+
+In the Benga tribe, thirty-five years ago, I observed that if one of a
+pair of twins died, a wooden image was substituted for it on the bed or in
+the cradle-box, alongside of the living child. I strongly suspected
+Animism in the custom; but some Christians explained that the image was
+only a toy, so that the living babe should not miss the presence of an
+object resembling its mate.
+
+Names of twins are always the same, in the same cognate tribes. In Benga
+they are always Ivaha (a wish) and Ayenwe (unseen). These names are
+given irrespective of sex. But not every man or woman whom one may meet
+with these names is necessarily a twin. They may have inherited the name
+from ancestors who were twins.
+
+All over Africa the birth of twins is a notable event, but noted for very
+different reasons in different parts of the country. In Calabar they are
+dreaded as an evil omen, and until recently were immediately put to death,
+and the mother driven from the village to live alone in the forest as a
+punishment for having brought this evil on her people.
+
+In other parts, as in the Gabun country, where they are welcomed, it is
+nevertheless considered necessary to have special ceremonies performed for
+the safety of their lives, or, if they die, to prevent further evil.
+
+In the Egba tribes of the Yoruba country they become objects of worship.
+As in other parts of Africa where twins are preserved, they are given twin
+names; which, of course, differ in different languages. Among the Egbas
+the first-born is Taiwo, _i. e._, "the first to taste the world," and the
+other Kehende, _i. e._, "the one who comes last."[70] About eight days
+after their birth, or as soon as the parents have the money for the
+sacrificial feast, they invite all relatives on both sides, neighbors and
+friends together. Various kinds of food are prepared, consisting chiefly
+of beans and yams. A little of each kind of food is set apart with some
+palm-oil thrown upon it, and the small native plates or basins containing
+it are set before the children in their cradle. They are then invoked to
+protect their mother from sickness, to pity their parents and remain with
+them, to watch over them at all times. I quote in this connection the
+following from a West African newspaper:
+
+"After the ceremony an elderly man or woman who has been a twin is called
+upon to split the kola nuts, in order to find out whether the children
+will live or die. This is their way of asking the god or goddess to answer
+their requests (and it is singular that this throwing of kolas may be done
+repeatedly until the reply is favorable to the inquirer). Thus: if a kola
+nut is split into four parts in throwing it down, they say, "You Idol,
+please foretell if the children will live long or die." If all the four
+pieces of the kola fall flat on their backs, or all flat with their faces
+to the ground, or if two of them fall with their faces downward and the
+other two upward, then in each of those cases the reply is favorable, and
+it means they will live long and not die. But if three pieces of the kola
+should turn their faces to the ground and only one fall flat on its back,
+or if the three pieces should turn their faces upward and only one
+downward, the reply is unfavorable, and it means that the children will
+die before long. In such cases they continue throwing the kola nut
+indefinitely until they obtain their wish; or, in rare cases of total
+failure, the subject of inquiry is reserved till a future time, when they
+hope the idol may speak more favorably. Thus, twin children are worshipped
+every month.
+
+"In some cases, where the parents have the means, an invitation goes round
+to as many twins as they can get to partake of the sacrificial feasts. Of
+course, the people enjoy themselves at the feast.
+
+"The twins have everything in common; they eat the same kind of food and
+wear the same dress. If one of them should die, the mother is bound to
+make a wooden image to represent the dead child. This kind of image is
+generally about a foot in length, and is made of Ire wood, which is
+flexible and durable. It is carved in such a manner as to represent the
+human anatomy."
+
+These images, substitute for a dead twin, are used very extensively among
+all the tribes of Africa. Various reasons are given for their use: that
+the surviving twin shall not be lonely; that the departed one may be sure
+it is not forgotten; and other reasons. The images are retained as family
+fetiches, to ward off evil from the mother.
+
+"If both children should die, the mother must have two wooden images, and
+regard them as her living children; she worships them every morning by
+splitting kola nuts and throwing down a few drops of palm-oil before them.
+Of course, the occasional feasts follow in their due course, and as
+oftentimes as she may happen to see them in her dreams.
+
+"If they should live, and both are males, they make engagements and marry
+at the same time. If one is male, and the other is female, their dowry
+must be given the same day; the parents believe that if things done for
+them are not alike or do not go together, one will soon die."[71]
+
+
+CUSTOMS OF SPEECH.
+
+Superstition mingles in customs of speech. There is the custom of Kombo,
+existing to-day. Something about the act of sneezing is considered
+uncanny. A phrase or a cabalistic word, intended as an adjuration or a
+protestation in the nature of a prayer for protection or blessing, is very
+commonly ejaculated by one who sneezes and sometimes when one stumbles.
+(In the old despotic days of native kings, in the Benito region, if a
+king, on first emerging from his house in the morning, should happen to
+stumble, he would order the nearest person in sight to be killed.) That
+word is uttered by an adult for himself, by a parent or other relative
+for an infant child. It may be an archaism whose meaning has been
+forgotten. Generally the Kombo is an epigrammatic phrase invented by the
+individual himself, and to be used only by him.
+
+Sometimes, instead of a phrase, the single word "Kombo!" as representing
+the custom, is uttered.
+
+Some forty years ago the ejaculation, before the invariable "Mbolo"
+salutation was uttered, that was used by visitors to the Mpongwe king on
+the south side of the Gabun estuary, was, "What evil law has God made?"
+The response was, "Death!" Little as the heathen natives liked to talk of
+death, their use of that word to their king was in the nature of a good
+wish that he might escape the universal law. And the "Mbolo!" (gray hairs)
+that followed was a wish that he might live to have gray hairs.
+
+His son, an educated man and a nominal Romanist, is now saluted quite as
+formally, but the ejaculation has been changed to a more respectful and
+Christian recognition of God.
+
+
+OATHS.
+
+Blasphemy of the Divine name, so fearfully common in professedly Christian
+countries, is almost unknown to the African heathen. Though the native
+name for God, Anyambe, is improperly used in names of persons (which is
+not intended for disrespect), it is not often actually blasphemed. An
+equivalent blasphemy, is occasionally practised in the misuse of the name
+of their great and sacred spirit-society. In the Benga tribe "Saba?" and
+"Sabali?" used interrogatively, mean only "True?" "Is that so?"; but, used
+positively, they are of the nature of an oath, especially when the
+society's name (Ukuk) was added: "Saba n' Ukuku" (True! by Ukuk!).
+
+On the Ogowe River, in the Galwa tribe, the name of that society was
+Isyoga, more commonly spoken of as Yasi. In the initiation into it the
+neophytes were taught a long and very solemn adjuration, that could be
+uttered only among the initiated, as an oath; but they were allowed
+commonly to use simply its title "Yasi," the utterance of that one word
+being accompanied by a downward sweep of the right hand over the left arm
+from shoulder to hand. It was not permitted to women to speak this word.
+
+In no tribes with which I have lived was this "By-the-Spirit" oath used so
+much as among the Galwa of the Ogowe. It became monotonously frequent, in
+and out of season, in all conversations and on the slightest assertion or
+the simplest excitement.
+
+I became very tired of "Yasi! Yasi! Yasi!" and that sweep of the right
+hand, for the doing of which the canoe paddle or a tool was laid down.
+And, by the way, the more of a liar a man was, the more frequent and
+vociferous was he in his persistent use of "By Yasi!"
+
+
+TOTEM WORSHIP.
+
+Totem worship is found in Africa, though nothing at all to the extent to
+which it existed among the Indian tribes of the United States, and
+especially Alaska.
+
+In Southern Africa it exists among the Bechuanas (who, however, are not
+pure Bantu); not in the form of carving and setting up poles in their
+villages, but in the respect which different clans give to certain
+animals, _e. g._, one clan being known as "buffalo-men," another as
+"lion-men," a third as "crocodile-men," and so forth. To each clan its
+totem animal is sacred, and they will not eat of its flesh. In some parts
+this sanctity is regarded as so great that actual prayer and sacrifice are
+made to it. But in most of the Bantu tribes this totem idea does not exist
+as a worship. Indeed, the animal (or part of an animal) is not sacred to
+an entire clan, but only to individuals, for whom it is chosen on some
+special occasion; and its use is prohibited only to that individual. Only
+in the sense that it may not be used for common purposes is it "sacred" or
+"holy" to him.
+
+
+TABOO.
+
+"Taboo" is a Polynesian term, and indicates that which man must not touch
+because it belongs to a deity. The god's land must not be trodden, the
+animal dedicated to the god must not be eaten, the chief who represents
+the god must not be lightly treated or spoken of. These are examples of
+taboo where the inviolable object or person belongs to a good god, and
+where the taboo corresponds exactly with the rule of holiness. But
+instances are still more numerous, among savages, of taboo attaching to an
+object because it is connected with a malignant power. The savage is
+surrounded on every side by such prohibitions; there is danger at every
+step that he may touch on what is forbidden to him, and draw down on
+himself unforeseen penalties.[72]
+
+This idea exists very largely in the Gabun and Loango coasts: as described
+in a previous chapter, the custom is there called "orunda"; _e. g._, such
+and such an animal (or part of an animal) is "orunda," or taboo, to such
+and such a person.
+
+The Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries to the Kingdom of Kongo, more
+than two hundred and fifty years ago, found this custom "of interdicting
+to every person at their birth some one article of food, which they were
+not through life, upon any consideration, to put into their mouths. This
+practice was regarded [by those Roman Catholic priests] as specially
+heathenish, and was unconditionally" forbidden.
+
+Explanation may here be found why a church which two hundred years ago had
+baptized members by the hundreds of thousands, with large churches, fine
+cathedrals, schools, colleges, and political backing, and no other form of
+Christianity to compete with it, shows in Kongo to-day no results in the
+matters of civilization, education, morality, or pure religion. Its
+baptism was only an outward one, the heathen native gladly accepting it as
+a powerful charm. For each and all his heathen fetiches the priest simply
+substituted a Roman Catholic relic. The ignorant African, while he learned
+to bow to the Virgin, kept on worshipping also fetich. The Virgin was only
+just another fetich. The Roman Catholic priests were to him only another
+set of powerful fetich doctors. They commanded that, instead of the
+orunda, "the parents should enjoin their children to observe some
+particular devotion, such as to repeat many times a day the rosary or the
+crown, in honor of the Virgin; to fast on Saturdays; to eat no flesh on
+Wednesdays; and such other things as are used among Christians."
+
+A similar substitution was made in the case of a superstition of the Kongo
+country which exists universally among all African tribes to-day, _viz._,
+"to bind a cord of some kind around the body of every new-born infant, to
+which were fastened the bones and teeth of certain kinds of wild animals."
+In place of this, the Roman Catholic records enjoin "that all mothers
+should make the cords with which they bound their infants, of palm-leaves
+that had been consecrated on Palm Sunday, and, moreover, guard them well
+with other such relics as we are accustomed to use at the time of
+baptism."
+
+Thus the heathen, in becoming a baptized "Christian," left behind him only
+the name of his fetich ceremonies. Some new and professedly more powerful
+ones were given him, which were called by Christian names, but which very
+much resembled what he had been using all his life. His "conversion"
+caused no jar to his old beliefs, nor change in its practice, except that
+the new fetich was worshipped in a cathedral and before a bedizened altar.
+
+
+BAPTISM.
+
+Forty years ago, on Corisco Island, I found the remains of a custom which
+resembled baptism.[73] Before that time it was very prevalent in other
+parts of the Gabun country, whose people probably had derived it, like
+their circumcision, from East Africa and from Jewish traditions. As
+described at that time, "a public crier announces the birth, and claims
+for the child a name and place among the living. Some one else, in a
+distant part of the village, acknowledges the fact, and promises, on the
+part of the people, that the new-born babe shall be received into the
+community, and have all the rights and immunities pertaining to the rest
+of the people. The population then assemble in the street, and the
+new-born babe is brought out and exposed to public view. A basin of water
+is provided, and the headman of the village or family sprinkles water upon
+it, giving it a name, and invoking a blessing upon it, such as, that it
+may have health, grow up to manhood or womanhood, have a numerous progeny,
+possess much riches, etc."[74] The circumcision of the child is performed
+some years later.
+
+
+SPITTING.
+
+The same Benga word, "tuwaka," to spit, is one of the two words which mean
+also "to bless." In pronouncing a blessing there is a violent expulsion of
+breath, the hand or head of the one blessed being held so near the face of
+the one blessing that sometimes in the act spittle is actually expelled
+upon him.
+
+This blessing superstition exists among the Barotse of South Africa (whose
+dialect is remarkably like the Benga). "Relatives take leave of each other
+with elaborate ceremony. They spit upon each other's faces and heads, or,
+rather, pretend to do so, for they do not actually emit saliva. They also
+pick up blades of grass, spit upon them, and stick them about the beloved
+head. They also spit on the hands: all this is done to warn off evil
+spirits. Spittle also acts as a kind of taboo. When they do not want a
+thing touched, they spit on straws, and stick them all about the
+object."[75]
+
+
+NOTICE OF CHILDREN.
+
+Recently (1903), in passing through a street of Libreville, I saw several
+women sitting on the clay floor of the wide veranda of a house. In their
+arms or playing on the ground were a number of children. I was attracted
+by their gambols, and stopped on my way, and having saluted the mothers, I
+began to notice the children. The women knew me by sight, but I was a
+stranger to most of them. I thought they would be pleased by attention to
+their children. There were seven of them; and I exclaimed, "Oh! so many
+children!" And I began counting them, "One, two, three, four--" But I was
+interrupted by a chorus from the mothers, of "No! no! no! Stop! That is
+not good! The spirits will hear you telling how many there are, and they
+will come and take some away!" They were quite vexed at me. But I could
+not understand why, if spirits can see, they would not know the number
+without hearing my count. Perhaps my enthusiastic counting brought the
+number more obviously to the attention of the surrounding spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+FETICH--ITS RELATION TO THE FUTURE LIFE--CEREMONIES AT DEATHS AND FUNERALS
+
+
+When a heathen Negro is sick, the first thing done, just as in civilized
+lands, is to call the "doctor," who is to find out what is the particular
+kind of spirit that, by invading the patient's body, has caused the
+sickness.
+
+This diagnosis is not made by an examination and comparison of the
+physical and mental symptoms, but by drum, dance, frenzied song, mirror,
+fumes of drugs, consultation of relics, and conversation with the spirit
+itself. Next, as also in civilized lands, must be decided the ceremony
+particular to that spirit, and the vegetable and mineral substances
+supposed to be either pleasing or offensive to it. If all those cannot be
+obtained, the patient must die; the assumption probably being that some
+unknown person is antagonizing the "doctor" with arts of sorcery.
+
+Fearing this, all the family relatives and friends come, having been
+informed by a messenger of the state of the case. They speak to and try to
+comfort the sick, as would be done in civilization. But to believers in
+fetich their coming means more than that. They have come from distant
+places as soon as the news had spread that their relative was seriously
+ill, without waiting for summons. Their coming is, indeed, a necessary
+mark of respect for the sick; but it may happen, too, in case of the sick
+man's dying, that it would be a proof for them of their innocence if a
+charge should come up of witchcraft as the cause of death. The neglect to
+make this prompt visit of condolence would be resented by the sick should
+he recover, or, in case of his death, in the days when witchcraft arts
+were more common, would have been held as a proof that the absentee had
+purposely absented himself, under a sense of guilt.
+
+In the sick man's village there already has been a slight wailing the
+while that he is dying. Before life is extinct, and while yet the sick may
+still be conscious though speechless, a low wail of mourning is raised by
+the female relatives who have gathered in the room.
+
+These visitors have sat quietly in the sick-room while the patient was
+still conscious. To a foreigner that quiet is very strange in its
+oppressive silence and in the stolidity of faces (at other times
+expressive), whose very reason for being present is supposed to be the
+expression of sympathy. Only a few assist in the making of food or
+medicine for the patient, even when the medicines are not fetich. All the
+others are spectators, smoking, lounging, dozing, or, if conversing,
+speaking in a low tone. At the first report that death has actually come,
+the women break into a louder wail.
+
+But about a quarter of an hour is spent by some of the old members of the
+family, testing to see whether life is really extinct. When that fact is
+fully certified to the crowd in the street, the wailing breaks forth
+unrestrainedly from men, women, and children. The moment that death is
+declared, grief is demonstrated in screams, shrieks, yells, pitiful
+supplication, and extravagant praise by the entire village.
+
+Shortly after this first frantic outburst quiet is ordered, and the
+arrangements for burial begin. The body is bathed and the limbs are
+straightened. The stomach is squeezed so as to make the contents emerge
+from the mouth in order that decomposition may be delayed and the body
+kept as long as possible. The time will vary according to the necessity of
+the case and the social position of the dead. Usually the corpse is
+retained only one day; but in case of a prominent person as many as five
+days, and in case of kings in some tribes, _e. g._, of Loango, the rotting
+corpse, rolled in many pieces of matting, is retained for weeks.
+
+When the washing and vomiting have been done, the corpse is dressed in its
+finest clothing. The bed-frame is often enlarged so that many of the
+chief mourners may be able to sit on it.
+
+The body is generally taken from the bed and laid on a piece of matting on
+the floor. The chief female mourner is given the post of honor, to sit
+nearest to the dead, holding the head in her lap.
+
+During the time until the burial the women keep bending the joints of the
+corpse to prevent the body becoming stiff. The day before the burial (but
+if in haste, on the very day of the death) the coffin is made. During the
+making the mourning which had been resumed is again bidden to cease, in
+order that the spirit may be pleased with the wooden house that is being
+constructed for it. For the same reason the wailing is again intermitted
+while the grave is being dug. Those who are digging it must not be called
+off or interrupted in any way. When begun, the job must be continued to
+completion.
+
+After the grave is completed, when they leave it and go to arrange the
+coffin, they must put into the excavation some article, _e. g._, a stick
+of wood, as a notice to any other wandering spirit not to occupy that
+grave.
+
+When all these preparations are complete, the corpse is laid in the
+coffin, and some goods of the deceased, such as pieces of cloth and other
+clothing, are stuffed into it for his use in the other world. If the
+deceased was addicted to smoking, a pipe and tobacco are laid in the
+coffin, or if accustomed to spirituous drink, some liquor is often placed
+there, either native palm-wine or foreign rum.
+
+Recently, while the Rev. F. S. Myongo, a native clergyman, was visiting on
+Corisco Island, he saw a mother put into a coffin a bundle of salt for her
+daughter to eat in the future world.
+
+If the deceased was a rich man, the people of his mother's side do not
+allow him to be buried without their first being given a part of his
+property by the people of the father's side.
+
+If there be a suspicion that he has been killed by witchcraft, and yet not
+enough proof to warrant a public charge and investigation, the relatives
+take amomum seeds (cardamom), chew them, and put them into the mouth of
+the dead, as a sign that the spirit shall itself execute vengeance on the
+murderer, and that the survivors will take no further steps. It is a
+_nolle prosequi_ of a judicial case.
+
+All being ready, the lid of the coffin is nailed down, except in the case
+of a first-born only child, as has been stated.
+
+In former days, before coffins were used, the bamboo tatta of the
+bed-frame, the pandanus leaf mat, palm-fibre mosquito-net, and other
+bedding were all rolled about the corpse as it lay, and were buried with
+it.
+
+While the corpse is being arranged in the coffin, the women have resumed
+their wailing. The coffin is lifted by strong men and hurriedly taken to
+the grave, the locality of which varies in different tribes,--sometimes in
+the adjacent forest, sometimes in the kitchen-garden of plantains
+immediately in the rear of the village houses, sometimes under the clay
+floor of the dwelling-house. With the men who are carrying the coffin may
+go some women as witnesses.
+
+Formerly also slaves carried boxes of the dead man's goods, cloth,
+hardware, crockery, and so forth, to be laid by the body, which in those
+days was not interred, but was left on the top of the ground covered with
+branches and leaves.
+
+In carrying the coffin to the grave it must not be taken through the
+village street but by the rear of the houses, lest the village be
+"defiled." As a result of such "defilement," all sorts of difficulties
+will arise, such as poor crops from the gardens and short supplies of
+fish.
+
+The coffin is laid with the face of the dead looking eastward. During the
+interment people must not be moving about from place to place, but must
+remain at whatever spot they were when the coffin passed, until the burial
+is completed.
+
+The digging of the grave, the carrying of the coffin, and the closing of
+the grave are all done only by men. When these have finished the work of
+burial, they are in great fear, and are to run rapidly to their village,
+or to the nearest body of water, river or lake or sea. If in their running
+one should trip and fall, it is a sign that he will soon die. They plunge
+into the water as a means of "purification" from possible defilement. The
+object of this purification is not simply to cleanse the body, but to
+remove the presence or contact of the spirit of the dead man or of any
+other spirit of possible evil influence, lest they should have ill-luck in
+their fishing, hunting, and other work.
+
+During the time of these burial and other ceremonies the women have
+refrained from their mourning.
+
+Women who have babes must not go along the route that was taken in the
+carrying of the coffin, lest their children shall become sick.
+
+When all parties have returned from the grave, the wailing is resumed.
+They all mark their faces with ashes, and then begins the regular official
+kwedi (mourning). During the continuance of this, pregnant women and
+mothers with young children are not allowed to come near lest evil happen
+to them. To prevent any possibility of the just-departed spirit injuring
+any children of the village, leaves of a common weed, kalakahi, are laid
+on their heads.
+
+The day after the funeral a decoction is made of the bark of a well-known
+tree, bolondo. With it the doctor sprinkles the people, their houses,
+their utensils and weapons, and the two entrances to the village. During
+the ceremony the people are shouting an ejaculatory prayer, "Goods!
+Possessions! Wealth! Do not allow confusions to come to us!" this is
+distinctly a petition that the spirit should bring to them goods or help
+them to obtain wealth; "Let us have food!" and many other similar cries
+for good things. What remains in the vessel of the decoction of bolondo
+bark after the general sprinkling is carried to the ends of the village
+street, and emptied there, as a prevention against the entry of evil
+spirits.
+
+Also there is made a mixture of scrapings of bolondo, powdered red-wood,
+and chalk. This is rubbed on the cheeks of the people to keep off the evil
+spirits. It is rubbed also, for that same purpose, on the walls of
+houses.
+
+The cutlass (machete) and native hoe that was used in the digging of the
+grave are washed with the bolondo decoction after having been left exposed
+to rain over night.
+
+Then one of the houses of the village is chosen as the ndabo ya kwedi
+(house of mourning). The mourners are to sit only in that house. If they
+should eat in any other house, the spirit of the dead would come and eat
+with them and would make them sick. During the days of kwedi the men go in
+the mornings to fish; while they are away at the work, the weeping is
+intermitted lest in some way it spoil the fishing.
+
+The bedstead in the house of mourning must be constantly occupied, even
+during the daytime, by some persons sitting there, lest the spirit come to
+take any vacant space; and the house itself must not, by day or night, be
+without some occupant. The near relatives, when one has occasion to go out
+of that house, must not go unaccompanied, lest the spirit follow them and
+attempt to resume earthly companionship and thus injure them.
+
+If it was a great man who has died, an occasional dance is held during the
+prescribed mourning time to please his spirit, which is supposed to be
+walking around and observing what is done.
+
+The kwedi formerly lasted a month, or, for a prominent person, a month and
+a half.
+
+People who while they were living were supposed to have witch power are
+believed to be able to rise in an altered form from their graves. To
+prevent one who is thus suspected from making trouble, survivors open the
+grave, cut off the head, and throw it into the sea,--or in the interior,
+where there is no great body of water, it is burned; then a decoction of
+the bolondo bark is put into the grave. (The bolondo is a poison; even a
+little of it may be fatal.)
+
+When affairs are going wrong in the villages, and the people do not know
+the cause, offerings of food and drink are taken to the grave to cause the
+spirit to cease disturbing them, and prayers are made to it that it may
+the rather bless them.
+
+If the deceased was a very important person, the kwedi is interrupted on
+the fifth day, for the selection of his successor as chief or king. This
+ceremony is called "ampenda" (glories). The successor is placed on the
+vacant seat or "throne"; and songs are sung in his praise. But first, a
+herald is sent to the forest, or wherever the burial was made, to call the
+dead to come and dispute his right to the throne, if he be not really
+dead. The herald stands and calls on the dead by name, "Such an one!" This
+he does slowly once, twice, thrice, until five times. He returns, and
+reports to the waiting assembly, "He is really dead. I called five times,
+and he did not answer." Then, this herald, standing in the street before
+all the people, praises the dead for all his good deeds, and blames for
+some of his bad ones. He turns to the chosen successor sitting on the
+throne, and asks pardon for the candor he is about to exercise: "To-morrow
+I will bow to you and take off my hat, but to-day I will tell the whole
+truth about you." Turning to the crowd, he says, "The man who is gone was
+good, and he has given us this new man. We hope that he too will be good.
+You all help me now to tell him his bad points." Then, addressing the new
+chief, he specifies, "You have a bad habit of so and so." And the crowd
+responds affirmatively, "Bad! cease it!" After this, when the herald has
+ended his own list of rebukes, any one else may call him aside and tell
+him of any other evil of which he knows, and ask him to direct the new
+king to reform it. This ceremony was particularly observed by the
+Mpongwe-speaking tribes of the Gabun country. In the presence of the
+domination by foreign governments, but little of it now exists there or in
+any other tribes to the north.
+
+In the improvised songs and ejaculations of the kwedi period the goodness
+and greatness of the dead are recounted. The praise is fulsome,
+exaggerated, and often preposterously untrue. Some declare their
+hopelessness of ever again seeing any joy. Supplications are shrieked by
+others for the departed to come back and reanimate the dead body. By most
+the wailing is a song in moans. Men tear their garments; women dishevel
+their hair; all take off their ornaments, and disfigure their faces with
+ashes or clay. The female relatives reduce their clothing to a minimum of
+decency. In all tribes formerly, and in some interior tribes still, the
+wives are made naked, and compelled to remain so for months, especially if
+they were known not to have been as submissive as is expected in the
+slavery of savage African marriage.
+
+During my early days in the Ogowe, about 1876, a native Akele chief, Kasa,
+who had been my patron at my first residence in the Ogowe, Belambila, died
+after I had removed to my second station, Kangwe. I made a ceremonious
+visit of respect and condolence about a month after his death, for Kasa,
+though a heathen and often cruel, to me had been true and helpful. His
+family appreciated the compliment of my visit. I looked around the room,
+and missed his wives. I did not know that they had been divested of all
+clothing. I asked for them. A man hastened to go out and call them. I
+wondered somewhat at the delay in their coming. I was afterward told that
+though they were accustomed to the disgrace of nakedness before native
+eyes, they did not wish to meet mine, for I had always treated them
+respectfully. A half-dozen of them sidled into the room, each carrying in
+their hands, as their only protection, a plate, and quickly huddled
+together in a corner of the room. I as quickly dismissed them, telling
+them I had not known of the rule under which they were living.
+
+In the Batanga interior, among the Bulu-Fang tribe, where women at all
+times wear scarcely any clothing, most widows are still required to go
+perfectly naked, sometimes for a whole year.
+
+All this wailing and mourning, while sincere on the part of some, is by
+most simply a yielding to the contagion of sympathy. By some it is a mere
+formality, and with many even a pretence.
+
+In the older days, before Christianity had obtained any influence, or
+before foreign governments had exercised power to force away barbarous
+rites and compel civilized ones, when almost every death was regarded as
+due to the exercise of black art, and was always followed by a witchcraft
+investigation and by the putting to death of from one to ten so-called
+"witches" and "wizards" (in the case of kings, fifty to one hundred), no
+one, except the doctor and his secret councillors, knew on whom suspicion
+for the death might fall, and all were quick to be demonstrative in their
+grief, whether real or feigned, as a means of warding off the dreaded
+accusation against themselves.
+
+Though those witchcraft executions have ceased wherever foreign power
+exists, the wailing is still as demonstrative, either as a sign of real
+grief or as a mere custom; and the mourning after burial continued for
+weeks (or even months) is an enormous evil. Wives and husbands abandoning
+their duties to their own villages; children either slighted at their own
+homes or idly helping to swell the confusion at the town of mourning; men
+neglecting their fishing, and women neglecting their gardens,--all these
+visitors are an expensive draft on the hospitality and resources of the
+town of kwedi, or on their other relatives who may happen to be living
+near. Inevitably there is not enough food for all, and they stanch their
+hunger by immoderate drinking of foreign alcoholic liquors.
+
+After the first paroxysms of grief, in a few days the mourning is reduced
+to a perfunctory wail by the women for a short time each morning and
+evening. The remainder of the day is spent in idle talk, which always runs
+into quarrels; and the nights in dances, which generally end in dissolute
+revelry. A month of mourning lays up a list of assignations and intrigues
+that result in trials for adultery and broken marriage relations.
+
+The feelings in the hearts of the mourners are very mixed. The outcry of
+affection, pleading with the dead to return to life, is sincere, the
+survivor desiring the return to life to be complete; but almost
+simultaneous with that cry comes a fear that the dead may indeed return,
+not as the accustomed embodied spirit, helpful and companionable, but as a
+disembodied spirit, invisible, estranged, perhaps inimical, and
+surrounded by an atmosphere of dread imparted by the unknown and the
+unseen. The many then ask, not that the departed may return, but that, if
+it be hovering near, it will go away entirely.
+
+Few were those who during the life of the departed had not on occasions
+had some quarrel with him, or had done him some injustice or other wrong,
+and their thought is, "His spirit will come back to avenge itself!" So
+guns are fired to frighten away the spirit, and to cause it to go off to
+the far world of spirits, and not take up a residence in or near the town
+to haunt and injure the living.
+
+Nevertheless, the kwedi is kept up, if for nothing else than to satisfy
+the self-complacence of the dead. It is believed that the dead, sometimes
+dissatisfied with the extent or character of the mourning ceremony, have
+returned and inflicted some sickness on the village, for the removal of
+which other ceremonies have to be performed.
+
+Thus far acts which are dictated by natural feelings, good and otherwise,
+have been dealt with; but there are a multitude of other ceremonies,
+varied in different tribes and never the same in any one tribe, which are
+performed under the direct influence of religious duty as well as
+superstitious fear. What has been thus far described is especially true of
+the Mpongwe, Benga, and Batanga tribes of western Equatorial Africa,
+typical for most Bantu tribes of the continent. The following quotations
+afford a comparison of the burial customs of savages in other regions with
+those I have observed:
+
+Lumholtz,[76] describing the burial customs of Australia, writes: "The
+natives in the neighborhood of Portland Bay, in the southwestern part of
+South Australia, cremate their dead by placing the corpse in a hollow tree
+and setting fire to it.... The natives of Australia have this peculiarity,
+in common with the savages of other countries, that they never utter the
+names of the dead, lest their spirits should hear the voices of the living
+and thus discover their whereabouts. There seems to be a widespread belief
+in the soul's existence independently of matter. On this point Fraser
+relates that the Kulie tribe (Victoria) believes that every man and animal
+has a muriep (ghost or spirit) which can pass into other bodies. A
+person's muriep may in his lifetime leave his body and visit other people
+in his dreams. After death the muriep is supposed to appear again, to
+visit the grave of its former possessor, to communicate with living
+persons in their dreams, to eat remnants of food lying near the camp, and
+to warm itself by the night fires. A similar belief has been observed
+among the blacks of Lower Guinea. On my travels I, too, found a widespread
+fear of the spirits of the dead, to which the imagination of the natives
+attributed all sorts of remarkable qualities. The greater the man was on
+earth, the more his departed spirit is feared.... An old warrior who has
+been a strong man and therefore much respected by his tribe, is, after his
+death, put on a platform made with forked sticks, cross-pieces, and a
+sheet or two of bark; he is hoisted up amidst a pandemonium of noise,
+howling, and wailing, besides much cutting with tomahawks, and banging of
+heads with nolla-nollas. He is laid on his back with his knees up, like
+the females, and the grass is cleared away from under and around. The
+place is now for a long time carefully avoided, till he is quite
+shrivelled, whereupon his bones are taken away and put in a tree.
+
+"The common man is buried like a woman, only that logs are put over him,
+and his bones are not removed. Young children are put bodily into the
+trees.
+
+"The fact that the natives bestow any care on the bodies of the dead is
+doubtless owing to the fear of the spirits of the departed. In some places
+I have seen the legs drawn and tied fast to the bodies, in order to hinder
+the spirits of the dead, as it were, from getting out to frighten the
+living. Women and children, whose spirits are not feared, receive less
+attention and care after death.
+
+"In several tribes it is customary to bury the body where the person was
+born. I know of a case where a dying man was transported fifty miles in
+order to be buried in the place of his nativity. It has even happened
+that the natives have begun digging outside a white man's kitchen door,
+because they wanted to bury an old man born there. In Central Queensland I
+saw many burial-places on hills. Such are also said to be found in New
+South Wales and in Victoria. These burial grounds have been in use for
+centuries, and are considered sacred.
+
+"In South Australia and in Victoria the head is not buried with the body,
+for the skull is preserved and used as a drinking-cup. It is a common
+custom to place the dead between pieces of bark and grass on a scaffold,
+where they remain till they are decayed, and then the bones are buried in
+the ground.
+
+"In the northern part of Queensland I have heard people say that the
+natives have a custom of placing themselves under these scaffolds to let
+the fat drop on them, and that they believe that this puts them in
+possession of the strength of the dead man.
+
+"A kind of mummy dried by the aid of fire and smoke, is also found in
+Australia; male children are most frequently prepared in this manner. The
+corpse is then packed into a bundle, which is carried for some time by the
+mother. She has it with her constantly, and at night sleeps with it at her
+side. After about six months, when nothing but the bones remain, she
+buries it in the earth. Full-grown men are also sometimes carried in this
+manner, particularly the bodies of great warriors."
+
+W. H. Brown, in "On the South African Frontier," describes a burial in
+Mashona-land: "When a member of the community dies, he or she, as the case
+may be, is usually buried under a shelf of rock in a reclining position,
+with arms folded and legs doubled up. In some districts, where heaps of
+rocks are scarce, I have seen graves made in large ant-heaps. As a rule, a
+small canopy or thatched roof is built over the grave, and under this it
+is common to see placed, as an offering, a pot of beer and a plate of
+sadza. The beer evaporates, and the ants eat the sadza; but, to the
+Mashona mind, the disappearance is due to supernatural causes. At the
+burial the near relatives of the deceased cry aloud. I was camping one
+night near a village where a child died. The obsequies took place next
+morning between dawn and sunrise. The mother cried loudly while the
+ceremony was proceeding, but her wailing ceased soon after the funeral,
+and there was no more noise made over it. I went into the village about
+two hours later, and saw some men, women, and children quietly sitting
+around the hut in which the death had taken place, and looking very
+solemn. The child was about two weeks old, and the cause of death was
+attributed by the Mashonas to the fact that the mother had not given beer
+to her grandfather when he wanted it at his death.
+
+"If a woman's husband dies, and she afterwards procures another, the new
+man takes up his abode in the hut of the dead one, becomes owner of his
+assegais and battle-axes, and assumes his name. Whether or not the second
+husband is supposed to enter into possession of the spirit of the
+deceased, I could not discover. Some Mashonas have told me that they
+believe that the spirits of their departed relatives enter the bodies of
+animals, particularly those of lions.
+
+"At the end of the lunar month during which a death has taken place, the
+surviving partner, man or woman, kills a goat, and its meat is cooked, as
+well as quantities of other food, and a large amount of Kaffir beer is
+brewed. The people gather from the neighboring kraals, and an all-night
+feast and dance ensue.
+
+"Monthly 'dead-relative dances,' which are called 'machae' are very
+common; and if no one has been accommodating enough to die during the
+month, the feast and dance may be held in honor of some one who departed
+years before."
+
+A similar dance is held in the Gabun region of West Africa, partly as a
+consolatory amusement for the living, near the close of whatever
+prescribed time of mourning. It is called "Ukukwe" (for the spirit), as if
+for the gratification of the hovering spirit of the dead; but in many
+places in that region this dance has lost all reference to or for the
+dead, or even any connection with a time of mourning, and has become
+simply a common amusement.
+
+In the Bihe country of Southwest Africa,[77] "death is surrounded by many
+strange and absurd superstitions. It is considered essential that a man
+should die in his own country, if not in his own town. On the way to
+Bailundu, shortly after leaving Bihe territory, I met some men running at
+great speed, carrying a sick man tied to a pole, in order that he might
+die in his own country. I tried to stop them; but they were running, as
+fast as their burden would allow them, down a steep rocky hill. By the
+sick man's convulsive movements I could see that he was in great pain,
+perhaps in his death throes; hence the great haste. If a Bailundu man dies
+in Bihe, the Bihe people have to pay the Bailundu heavily for the shameful
+conduct of the Bihe demons in killing a stranger; and _vice versa_.
+
+"When a man dies at home, his body is placed on a rude table, and his
+friends meet for days round the corpse, drinking, eating, shouting, and
+singing, until the body begins actually to fall to pieces. Then the body
+is tied in a fagot of poles and carried on men's shoulders up and down
+some open space, followed by doctors and drummers. The doctors demand of
+the dead man the cause of his death, whether by poison or witchcraft; and
+if by the latter, who was the witch? Most of the deaths I have known of in
+Negro-land were from pulmonary diseases, but all were set down to
+witchcraft. The jerking of the bier to and fro, causing the men bearing it
+to stumble hither and thither, is taken as the dead man's answer; thus, as
+in the case of spirit-rapping at home, the reply is spelled out. The
+result of this enquiry is implicitly believed in; and, if the case demands
+it, the witch is drowned."
+
+Among the Barotse of South Africa[78] "funerals take place at night, and
+generally immediately after death, while the body is still warm. If the
+person, when alive, possessed the skin of an animal, they wrap the body in
+it, and also in a plain mat, and then bury it near the hut. But death
+inspires them with a mortal terror, and thus the hut of the dead man is
+nearly always abandoned. Anything that has been used for the burial, such
+as the wood on which the corpse was carried, is left near the grave. It is
+the fashion to display great external signs of grief, howls and cries of
+lamentation and the like. Formerly the graves of chiefs were distinguished
+by elephant tusks turned toward the east. All cattle belonging to the
+deceased are killed; and any animal of which he was particularly fond,
+such as the cow whose milk he drank, is killed first. They bury in the
+kraal itself those who died in the kraal; but whenever it is possible, the
+dying are taken out and laid in the fields or forest. There are two
+reasons for this: first, they think that away from other people is a
+better chance of the invalid making a recovery; and, secondly, wherever
+the person dies he must be buried; therefore, if possible, far from their
+habitations. When a man dies, visits of condolence are paid to the
+relatives, the visitors bringing a calf or a head of cattle as a mark of
+sympathy, which is killed and eaten as a kind of consolation. The night
+after the funeral is passed in tears and cries. A few days later, the
+doctor comes and makes an incision on the forehead of each of the
+survivors, and fills it with medicine, in order to ward off contagion and
+the effect of the sorcery which caused the death. They place on their
+tombs some souvenir of the profession or vocation of the defunct; for
+example,--if he had been a hunter, horns or skins; if a chairmaker, a
+chair; and so on. Over the grave a sacred tree is planted. The tree is a
+kind of laurel called 'morata.'... A man will kill himself on the tomb of
+his chief; he thinks, as he passes near by, that he hears the dead man
+call him and bid him bring him water. These natives believe in
+transmigration of the soul into animals; thus, the hippopotamus is
+believed to shelter the spirit of a chief. Nevertheless, they do not
+appear very clear that the soul cannot be in two places at once; else, if
+a chief has become a hippopotamus in the Zambesi, why should one slay
+one's self to bring water to his tomb?"
+
+Perhaps Decle was not aware of a widespread belief in a dual soul,
+consisting of a "spirit," that, as far as known, lives forever in the
+world of spirits, and a "shadow" that for an uncertain length of time
+hovers around the mortal remains. Some, as already mentioned in a previous
+chapter, also name a third entity, the "life,"--that which, being "eaten"
+by sorcerers, causes the living being to sicken, and which the sorcerer,
+if detected, can be compelled to return to its owner. Miss Kingsley
+thought also she had discovered a belief in a fourth entity, the
+"dream-soul." But this, though doubtless believed in as that which
+sometimes leaves the sleeping body and goes on distant wanderings, is the
+same as the "spirit," during whose temporary absence the body continues
+its breathing and other physical motions, in virtue of the presence of its
+second and third soul-entities.
+
+The funeral practices of all the tribes, with very few exceptions, over
+all Africa, however much they may and do vary, contain all of them, as
+shown by the preceding quotations, a decided belief in, and fear of, the
+intelligent and probably inimical activity of the spirits of their dead.
+They include also the custom of the burial with the dead man of more or
+less of his property, together with the destruction of such things as
+cannot be conveniently placed in the grave,--clothing, crockery, utensils,
+wives, slaves, trees of fruitage, etc.
+
+Even among the civilized and enlightened, while of course there would be
+no excessive destruction of property, nor murder of widow or slave, an
+extravagant amount of wearing apparel is stuffed into the coffin (which is
+sometimes made large for that purpose) as a sign of the importance of the
+dead, and of the sacrifice the love and grief of the living are willing to
+make.
+
+The residence of the transmigrated spirit is probably not a permanent one.
+The Wa-nya-mwesi of East Africa "believe in transmigration both during
+life and after it. Thus, according to them, a sorcerer can transform
+himself into a wild animal to injure his enemies; but in such cases the
+change is not permanent, and the soul does not remain in its new
+habitation."[79]
+
+Leaving out of view the immense difference, caused by the absence of
+Christianity, in the moral life of native Africa, as compared with that of
+the United States, there is no one thing that more painfully strikes me,
+in the low civilization of the former, than their customs for the dead. It
+would occupy too much space to recount at length all the reasons the
+natives give for their sometimes apparently heartless ceremonies. The true
+explanation lies in their belief in witchcraft and their fear of spirits.
+
+From the testimony of travellers, burial customs are much the same all
+over Africa. What I have written is my personal knowledge of what prevails
+on the West Coast, in the equatorial regions, and especially in the
+portion lying along the course of the Ogowe River,--a river that was first
+brought to public notice through the writings of Paul Du Chaillu, the
+journeys of a British trader, Mr. R. B. N. Walker, and subsequently by the
+thorough explorations of Count P. S. De Brazza.
+
+There are in Africa social distinctions of rich and poor, higher and lower
+classes, just as there are, and always will be, all the world over, the
+claims of communism to the contrary notwithstanding. These distinctions
+follow their subjects to the grave,--just as, in our own civilization, one
+is laid in the sculptured cemetery and another in the Potter's Field.
+
+The African burial-grounds are mostly in the forest, in the low-lying
+lands and tangled thickets along the sea-beach, or the banks of rivers.
+Hills and elevated building-sites are reserved for villages and
+plantations. If a traveller, in journeying along the main river of the
+country, observes long reaches of uncleared thickets, he will probably be
+correct in suspecting that these are burial-grounds. His native crew will
+be slow to inform him of the fact or to converse on the subject, unless to
+object to an order to go ashore there.
+
+Some of the interior tribes bury all their dead under the clay floors of
+their houses. The living are thus actually treading and cooking their food
+over the graves of their relatives.
+
+This mode of burial is reserved as a distinction, in the case of some
+coast tribes, for a very few of their honored chiefs, or for a specially
+loved relative.
+
+Over or near the graves of the rich are built little huts, where are laid
+the common articles used by them in their life,--pieces of crockery,
+knives, sometimes a table, mirrors, and other goods obtained in foreign
+trade. Once, in ascending the Ogowe, I observed, tied to the branches of a
+large tree extending over the stream from the top of the bank, a wooden
+trade-chest, five pitchers and mugs, and several fathoms of calico prints.
+I was informed that the grave of a lately deceased chief was near, that
+these articles were signs of his wealth, and were intended as offerings to
+spirits to induce them to draw to the villages of his people the trade of
+passing merchant vessels.
+
+A noticeable fact about these gifts to the spirits is that, however great
+a thief a man may be, he will not steal from a grave. The coveted mirror
+will lie there and waste in the rain, and the valuable garment will flap
+itself to rags in the wind, but human hands will not touch them. Sometimes
+the temptation to steal is removed by the donor fracturing the article
+before it is laid on the grave.
+
+Actual interment is generally given to all who in life were regarded as at
+all worthy of respect. Native implements for excavating being few and
+small, the making of a grave is quite a task; it is often, therefore, made
+no deeper than is actually sufficient for covering the corpse. This,
+according to the greatness of the dead or the wealth of the family, is
+variously encased. Sometimes it is placed in a coffin made of the ends of
+an old canoe; or, more shapely, of boards cut from the canoe's bottom and
+sides; or, even so expensively as to use two trade-boxes, making one long
+one by knocking out an end from each and telescoping them.
+
+Sometimes the corpse is cast out on the surface of the ground, and perhaps
+a pile of stones or brushwood gathered over it. Sometimes it lies
+uncovered. Sometimes they are cast into the river.
+
+Many years ago, I was ascending the Ogowe River in my boat, painfully
+toiling against the current. I had unwisely refused the wish of my crew to
+stop for our mid-day meal at a desirable ulako (camping-ground), as the
+hour was too early; and I determined to go on, and stop at some other
+place. But I regretted presently; for, instead of finding forest and high
+camping-ground, we came to a long stretch of papyrus swamp; and, after
+that, to low jungle. We pulled on for another mile, the sun growing
+hotter, along the unsheltered bank, and we growing faint with hunger as
+the hour verged to noon. Becoming desperate, I directed the crew to stop
+at the very first spot that was solid enough for foothold, intending to
+eat our dry rice without fire. Presently we came to a clump of oil-palms.
+Their existence showed solid ground, and I seized the rudder and ran the
+boat ashore. The crew objected, hungry though they were, that "it was not
+a good place"; but they did not mention why. I jumped ashore, however, and
+ordered them to follow, and gather sticks for fire. As they were rather
+slow in so doing, and I overheard murmuring that "firewood is not gotten
+from palm trees" (which is true), I set them an example by starting off on
+a search myself.
+
+I had not gone far before I found a pile of brushwood, and, rejoicing at
+my success, I called out to the crew to come and carry it. While they were
+coming, I stooped down and laid hold of an eligible stick. But an odor
+startled me; and the other sticks that I had dislocated falling apart,
+there was revealed a human foot and shin, which, from the ornaments still
+remaining about the ankle, I suppose was a woman's. My attendants fled;
+and I re-embarked in the boat, sufficiently unconscious of hunger to await
+a late meal that was not cooked until we reached a comfortable village a
+short distance beyond. My crew then explained their slowness to obey me at
+that clump of palm trees, by saying that they knew it looked like a
+burying-place.
+
+A less respectful mode of burial (if, indeed, the term be not a misnomer)
+is applied to the poor, to the friendless aged who have wearied out the
+patience of relatives by a long sickness, and to those whose bodies are
+offensive by a leprous or otherwise ulcerous condition. Immediately that
+life seems extinct (and sometimes even before) the wasted frame is tied up
+in the mat on which it is lying, and, slung from a pole on the shoulders
+of two men, is flung out on the surface of the ground in the forest, to
+become the prey of wild beasts and the scavenger "driver" (Termes
+bellicosa) ants.
+
+Of one tribe in the upper course of the Ogowe, I was told, who, in their
+intense fear of ghosts, and their dread of the possible evil influence of
+the spirits of their own dead relatives, sometimes adopt a horrible plan
+for preventing their return. With a very material idea of a spirit, they
+seek to disable it by beating the corpse until every bone is broken. The
+mangled mass is hung in a bag at the foot of a tree in the forest. Thus
+mutilated, the spirit is supposed to be unable to return to the village,
+to entice into its fellowship of death any of the survivors.
+
+Some dead bodies are burned, particularly those of criminals. Persons
+convicted on a charge of witchcraft are "criminals," and are almost
+invariably killed. Sometimes they are beheaded. I have often had in my
+possession the curved knives with which this operation is performed.
+
+Sometimes torture is used: a common mode is to roast the condemned over a
+slow fire, which is made under a stout bed-frame built for the purpose. In
+such a case almost the entire body is reduced to ashes. When I was
+clearing a piece of ground at Belambila in the Ogowe in 1875, for the
+house which I afterward occupied, my workmen came on a pile of ashes,
+charcoal, and charred bones, where, they assured me, a criminal had been
+put to death.
+
+A barely mentionable method of disposal of the bodies of the dead is to
+eat them. That is possible only in a cannibal country. That it was actual
+was known among the Gabun Fang fifty years ago, and among my Ogowe Fang
+twenty-five years ago. None ate of their own dead; adjacent towns
+exchanged corpses. Women were not allowed to partake. The practice was
+confined to the old men. One such was pointed out to me at Talaguga in
+1882. He robbed graves for that purpose.
+
+Among the coast tribes of the Gabun region of West Africa cremation is not
+known, nor are corpses thrown out on the ground. Under the influence of
+foreign example, the dead are coffined, more or less elaborately,
+according to the ability of the family; and the interment is made in
+graves of proper depth. In some of these tribes a locality of low, dark,
+tangled forest, not suitable as site for a village or for a plantation, is
+used as a public cemetery.
+
+Among the tribes of Batanga in the German Kamerun territory, though the
+people are civilized, the old unsanitary custom of burying in the
+kitchen-gardens immediately in the rear of the village, and sometimes
+actually in the clay floor of the dwelling itself, is still kept up, even
+by the more enlightened natives. The Christians are not in numbers
+sufficiently large in any family to control all the burial ceremonies of
+its dead members. The strange spectacle is therefore presented of a
+mixture of Christian ritual and fetich custom. In my own experience at
+funerals of some children of church-members at Batanga, the singing of
+hymns of faith and hope by the Christian relatives alternated with the
+howling of half-naked heathen death-dancers in an adjoining house. And
+when I had read the burial service to the point of beginning the march of
+the procession to the grave, perhaps only a few rods distant, the heathen
+remained behind; and while I was reading the "dust to dust" at the
+grave-side, they would be building a quick fire of chips and dried leaves
+on the exact spot where the coffin had last stood in the village street.
+The ashes they would gather and incorporate into their family fetiches, to
+insure fertility to the mother and other near female relatives of the dead
+child.
+
+Also, in the Gabun region, there is the remains of a custom, practised
+especially by the Orungu tribe of Cape Lopez, of a pretended quarrel
+between two parties of mourners on a question whether or not the burial
+shall actually be made, even though there is no doubt that it will be, and
+the coffin is ready to be carried. This contest concluded, a second
+quarrel is raised on a question as to which of two sets of relatives, the
+maternal or the paternal, shall have the right to carry it. Very recently
+this actually occurred at the town of Libreville, and on the premises of
+the American Presbyterian Mission, the fight being shamefully waged by
+young men who formerly had been professing Christians. They had been given
+permission to bury a young man in our Protestant cemetery. The missionary
+in charge of the station heard a great hubbub on the path entering the
+mission grounds, as if a fight was in progress. Going to investigate, he
+found an angry contest was being carried on, under the old heathen idea
+that the spirit of the dead must see and be pleased by a demonstration of
+a professed desire to keep him with the living, and not to allow him to be
+put away from them. The contest of words had almost come to blows, and the
+victors had set up a disgraceful shout as they seized the coffin to bring
+it to the grave.
+
+Another custom remains in Gabun,--a pleasant one; it may once have had
+fetich significance, but it has lost it now, so that Christians may
+properly retain it. Just before the close of the kwedi, friends (other
+than relatives) of the mourners will bring some gift, even a small one,
+make a few remarks appropriate to it and to the circumstances of the
+receiver, and give it to his or her mourning friend. It is called the
+"ceremony of lifting up," _i. e._, out of the literal ashes, and from the
+supposed depths of grief. For instance, if the gift be a piece of soap,
+the speech of donation will be, "Sit no longer in the dust with begrimed
+face! Rise, and use the soap for your body!" Or if it be a piece of cloth,
+"Be no longer naked! Rise, and clothe yourself with your usual dress!" Or
+if it be food, "Fast no longer in your grief! Rise, and strengthen your
+body with food!"
+
+
+[Illustration: A CIVILIZED FAMILY.--GABUN.]
+
+
+As to the status of the departed in the spirit-world, though all those
+African tribes from old heathen days knew of the name of God, of His
+existence, and of some of His attributes, they did not know of the true
+way of escape from the evils of this present life, of any system of reward
+and punishment in the future life, nor of any of the conditions of that
+life. That they had a belief in a future world is evidenced by survivors
+taking to the graves of their dead, as has been described in the preceding
+pages, boxes of goods, native materials, foreign cloth, food, and
+(formerly) even wives and servants, for use in that other life to which
+they had gone. Whatever may have been supposed about the locality or
+occupations of that life, the dead were confidently believed to have
+carried with them all their human passions and feelings, and especially
+their resentments. Fear of those possible resentments dominated the living
+in all their attempts at spiritual communication with the dead.
+
+As to the locality of the latter, it was not believed that all of them
+always remained in that unknown other world. They could wander invisibly
+and intangibly. More than that, they could return bodily and resume this
+earthly life in other forms; for belief in metempsychosis is a common one
+among all these tribes. The dead, some of them, return to be born again,
+either into their own family or into any other family, or even into a
+beast.
+
+Who thus return, or why they return, is entirely uncertain. Certainly not
+all are thus born again. Those who in this present life had been great or
+good or prominent or rich remain in the spirit-world, and constitute the
+special class of spirits called "awiri" (singular, "ombwiri").
+
+But these awiri are at liberty to revisit the earth if they choose,
+taking a local habitation in some prominent natural object, or coming on
+call to aid in ceremonies for curing the sick. Other spirits, as explained
+in a previous chapter, are sinkinda, the souls of the common dead; and
+ilaga, unknown spirits of other nations, or beings who have become
+"angels," all of these living in "Njambi's Town."
+
+As to Father Njambi Himself, the creator and overseer of all, both living
+and dead, every kind of spirit--ombwiri, nkinda, olaga, and all sorts of
+abambo--is under His control, but He does not often exercise it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+FETICHISM--SOME OF ITS PRACTICAL EFFECTS
+
+
+DEPOPULATION.
+
+One of the effects of witchcraft beliefs in Africa is the depopulation of
+that continent. Over enormous areas of the country the death rate has
+exceeded the birth rate. Much of Africa is desert--the Sahara of the
+north, and the Kalahari of the south--with estimated populations of only
+one to the square mile. Another large area is a wilderness covered by the
+great sub-equatorial forest,--a belt about three hundred miles wide and
+one thousand miles long, with an estimated population of only eighteen to
+the square mile (among whom are the Pygmy tribes); and these not scattered
+uniformly, but gathered chiefly on the banks of the watercourses, the only
+highways (except narrow footpaths) through that dismal forest.
+
+The entire population of Africa, including all nationalities,--Copts of
+Egypt, Moors and Berbers of the north, Arabs of the east, Abyssinians,
+Pygmies, and Cannibals of the centre, Negroes, both Bantu and Negroid, of
+the west, south, centre, and east,--probably do not number two hundred
+million. Of these, the Negroes probably do not amount to one hundred
+million. German authorities variously estimate the population of their
+Kamerun country at from two to five million, and they have been vigorously
+reducing it by their savage punitive expeditions in the interior. The
+French authorities of the Kongo-Francais estimate theirs at from five to
+ten million.
+
+The population of the great Kongo River was much overestimated after the
+opening of that river by Stanley. Its people were massed on the river
+banks, and gave an impression of density which subsequent interior travel
+has not verified. To walk slowly in an hour over a mile of road that
+constitutes the one street of a town; to count the huts, and allot such or
+such a number to each, would give a sufficiently accurate census of one
+thousand or perhaps two thousand to that town. But that place is the
+centre of travel or traffic of that region. A half-day's journey on any
+radius from that town through the surrounding forest would confront the
+traveller with scarcely any other evidences of human habitation. Towns of
+the thousands are not the usual sight; rather the villages of one hundred,
+and the hamlets of twenty, excepting in the Sudan, in the Yoruba and other
+countries of the Niger, and in the large capitals of Dahomey and other
+Guinea kingdoms. There walled cities of from fifty to one hundred thousand
+inhabitants are known.
+
+These congested districts help to lift the average that would be made low
+by the paucity in the wilderness and desert portions. Probably the
+population of the entire continent was much greater two hundred years ago.
+Depopulation was hastened by the export slave-trade. Livingstone estimated
+that, on the East Coast, for every slave actually exported, nineteen
+others died on the way. The foreign slave-trade has long ceased, except
+from the Upper Nile down through Egypt and Arabia, and from the Sudan
+across the Sahara to Morocco. But far worse than Arab slave-trade are the
+diabolical atrocities, committed during the last fifteen years and
+actually at the present time, in the Kongo, under white officers of the
+miscalled "Free State," and with the knowledge and allowance of the King
+of Belgium.
+
+But, aside from all these and other civil and political causes, the fetich
+religion of Africa has been a large part of its destruction. It has been a
+Moloch, whose hunger for victims was never satisfied: as illustrated in
+the annual sacrifice of hundreds and thousands by the priests of the kings
+of Dahomey and Ashanti; and the burial victims at the funerals of great
+kings, as in Uganda and all over the continent. If the destruction of such
+human victims is not so great to-day as it was twenty years ago, due to
+enlightenment by Christian missions and forceful prohibition by civilized
+governments, the spirit of and disposition to destruction is not
+eradicated; it is only suppressed. It is so deep seated and ingrained as a
+part of religion, that it is among the very last of the shadows of
+heathenism to disappear after individuals or tribes are apparently
+civilized and enlightened. Under transforming influences the native has
+been lifted from dishonesty to honesty, from untruth to truth, from
+immorality to virtue, from heathenism to Christianity; and yet there still
+clings to him, though he no longer worships the fetich, a belief in and
+fear of it. The presence of foreign governments can and does prevent
+witchcraft murder for the dead; but if these governments were withdrawn
+from English Sierra Leone, French Kongo-Francais, and other partitions of
+Africa, the witchcraft ordeal and murder would be at once resumed. And no
+wonder. Inbred beliefs, deepened by millenniums of years of practice, are
+not eliminated by even a century of foreign teaching. Costume of body and
+fashion of dress are easily and voluntarily changed; not so the essence of
+one's being.
+
+Under the assurance that a consecrated charm can be made for the
+accomplishment of any purpose whatever, it results that almost every
+native African heathen, in hours of fear or anger or revenge, has made, or
+has had made, for himself amulets, or has performed rites intended to
+compass an injury to, and perhaps the death of, some other person. Should
+that other die, even as long a time as a year afterward, it will be
+believed that that fetich amulet or act caused the death.
+
+It follows, therefore (although even heathen natives do, in rare cases,
+say of a death, "Yes, Anzam took this one," _i. e._, that he died a
+natural death), that almost universally at any death which we would know
+as a natural one, surviving relatives and friends make the charge of
+witchcraft, and seek the witch or wizard, by investigation involving, in
+the trial, torture, or ordeal by poison, fire, or other tests. For every
+natural death at least one, and often ten or more, have been executed
+under witchcraft accusation.
+
+I have pleaded for the lives of accused when I believed them innocent, and
+whenever I was informed that an investigation was in progress, I said to
+the crowd assembled in the street, "When you kill these three people
+to-day, do I see three babies born to take their place in the number of
+the inhabitants of your village?"
+
+The Balengi on the Benita River, among whom I travelled in 1865-70, were
+then a large tribe. It is now very small, exterminated largely by
+witchcraft murders for the dead. The aged, defenceless, and slaves are
+generally selected as victims. But no one is secure. Relatives of a chief
+who during his life may have seemed envious of his power, are often
+suspected and put to death.
+
+For the determination of a doubtful cause of decease post-mortems are
+made, but not on any rational basis or with any knowledge of anatomy. In
+the autopsy of an ordinary person the object is to find among the bowels
+or other internal organs some sign which the doctor-priest may declare to
+be the path of the supposed sorcery-injected destroying spirit. In case of
+a magician, the object is to see whether his own "familiar" had "eaten"
+him. Cavities in the lungs are considered proof positive that one's own
+power has destroyed him. The fimbriated extremities of the fallopian tubes
+of a uterus are also declared to be "witch." Their ciliary motions on
+dissection are regarded as a sign that the woman was a witch. In proof,
+the native doctor said to me, "See! those are the spirit-teeth. Don't you
+see how they move and extend in desire to catch and eat?" It was in vain
+that I declared to him that if that was true then every woman all over the
+world was a witch, and that he was bound to go ahead and kill them all;
+for that God had made no woman without those things. (Was this "doctor's"
+idea the same reason for which the old anatomists called those fimbriae
+"morsus Diaboli"?)
+
+In Garenganze, among the Barotse,[80] "the trial for witchcraft is short
+and decisive. If one man suspects another of having bewitched him,--in
+fact, if he has a grudge against him,--he brings him before the council,
+and the ordeal of the boiling pot is resorted to. My proposal is that if
+they consider it a fair trial of 'whiteness' or 'blackness' of heart, as
+they call it, then let both the accuser and the accused put their hands
+into the boiling water. The king is strongly in favor of this proposal,
+and would try any means to stop this fearful system of murder which is
+thinning out many of his best men; but the nation is so strongly in favor
+of the practice that he can do nothing. An old friend of mine, Wizini, who
+took quite a fatherly care and interest in me, for some peculiar reason of
+his own, was charged with witchcraft. He pleaded earnestly to be spared
+the terrible trial, and was reprieved because of his years, but banished
+from his people and country for life, for no other reason than that a
+neighbor had an ill feeling against him. Had he been first to the king
+with his complaint, he might have gotten his neighbor burned or banished
+instead of himself.... Their punishments are very cruel. Burning alive is,
+among the Barotse, a common occurrence; also tying the victim hand and
+foot and laying him near a nest of large black ('driver') ants, which in a
+few days pick his bones clean."
+
+But it is well to repeat my own qualification of most statements about
+"African" customs, which Arnot makes in connection with the above, that,
+"when manners and customs are referred to, the particular district must be
+borne in mind. Africa is an immense continent, and there is as much
+variety in the customs of the different tribes as in their languages.
+Certain tribes take delight in cruelty and bloodshed; others have a
+religious fear of shedding human blood, and treat aged people with every
+kindness, to secure their good-will after death. By other tribes the aged
+would be cast out as mere food for wild animals."
+
+The testimony of Decle[81] as to the tribes of South-Central Africa is:
+"You would suppose that the African expected everybody to live forever,
+since his one explanation of death is an immediate recourse to witchcraft.
+It is hardly an exaggeration to say that every natural death entails a
+violent one as its consequence. Along with witchcraft and the inevitable
+accusation of sorcery when one dies, goes the custom of 'muavi,' the
+ordeal by poison.... It is plain what complete domination this practice
+has got over the native mind. The reason is that he thoroughly believes in
+its efficiency. My own porters have constantly offered to submit to the
+ordeal on the most trivial charges. Of course, this thorough belief in
+'muavi' hands the native over completely defenceless to the witch doctor.
+The doctor can get rid of anybody he likes to. Besides this, he is a kind
+of public prosecutor; that is to say, that when he accuses any man or
+woman of sorcery, he is not obliged, like any ordinary accuser, to take
+the poison himself."
+
+The "ordeal" or test of the innocence of a person accused of practising
+witchcraft or of having caused the death of any one (except in places
+where Christianity has attained power), is almost the same now as that
+described by Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson, and subsequently by Du Chaillu, as
+existing fifty years ago on the entire West Coast of Africa. On the Upper
+Guinea coasts it is called the "red water." "It is a decoction made from
+the inner bark of a large forest tree of the mimosa family." At Calabar a
+bean was used, an extract of which since has been employed in our
+pharmacopoeia, in surgical operations of the eye.
+
+In the Gabun country the bark and leaves of a small tree called "akazya"
+are used. Farther south, in the Nkami (miswritten, "Camma") country, it is
+called "mbundu."
+
+The decoction itself is supposed to have almost sentience,--an ability to
+follow, in the various organs of the body, like a policeman, and detect
+and destroy the witch-spirit supposed to be lurking about.
+
+Accused persons sometimes even demand that they be given the ordeal. This
+an innocent person could fearlessly do, feeling sure of his innocence,
+and thinking, as any honest person in a civilized country charged with
+theft would feel, that it was perfectly safe to have his house searched,
+sure that no stolen article was secreted there. So here the ignorant
+native is willing to take this poison, not looking on it as what we call
+"poison."
+
+People who know that they have at times used witchcraft arts will
+naturally be unwilling to undergo the test; but if the charge is made
+after a death, an accused is compelled to drink. "If it nauseates and
+causes him to vomit freely, he suffers no injury, and is at once
+pronounced innocent. If, on the other hand, it causes vertigo, and he
+loses his self-control, it is regarded as evidence of guilt; and then all
+sorts of indignities and cruelties are practised on him.... On the other
+hand, if he escapes without injury his character is thoroughly purified,
+... and he arraigns before the principal men of the town his accusers, who
+in their turn must submit to the same ordeal, or pay a large fine to the
+man whom they attempted to injure.... There is seldom any fairness in the
+administration of the ordeal. No particular quantity of the 'red water' is
+prescribed." The doctor, by collusion and family favoritism, may make the
+decoction very weak; or, influenced by public feeling inimical to the
+accused, he may compel him to swallow a fatal amount; or he may save his
+life by a subsequent emetic.[82]
+
+
+CANNIBALISM.
+
+African cannibalism has been regarded as only a barbarism; but for many
+years I have strongly suspected that it had some connection with the
+Negro's religion. It may be a corollary of witchcraft.
+
+Decle intimates the same:[83] "I do not mean such cannibalism as that of
+certain Kongo tribes, or of the Solomon Islanders, who kill people to eat
+them, as we eat game. With such tribes I did not come in contact. But
+there is another form of cannibalism less generally known to Europeans,
+and perhaps even more grisly, which consists in digging up dead bodies to
+feast on their flesh. This practice exists largely among the natives in
+the region of Lake Nyasa.[84] I know of a case in which the natives of a
+village in this region seized the opportunity of a white man's presence to
+break into the hut of one of these reputed cannibals, and found there a
+human leg hanging from the rafters. This incident shows that cannibalism
+is practised; but also that it is not universal with the tribes among whom
+it is found, and is condemned by the public opinion of those who do not
+practise it. But public opinion in Africa is not a highly developed
+power.... The real public opinion is witchcraft. And, indeed, in the case
+of cannibalism, the real public opinion tends to shield the perpetrators,
+because they are reputed to be sorcerers of high quality."
+
+Rev. Dr. H. C. Trumbull, in his "Blood Covenant" (1893), while gathering
+testimony from all nations to illustrate his view of the universality of
+blood as representing _life_, and the _heart_ as the seat of life, as a
+part of the religious rite of a covenant, comes incidentally on this same
+idea of cannibalism as having a religious significance, or at least, as I
+have expressed above, as a corollary of witchcraft. This will explain why
+the African cannibal, in conquering his enemy, also eats him; why the
+heart is especially desired in such feasts; and why the body of any one of
+distinguished characteristics is prized for the cannibal feast. His
+strength or skill or bravery or power is to be absorbed along with his
+flesh.
+
+Trumbull[85] quotes from Reville, the representative comparative
+religionist of France: "Here you will recognize the idea so widely spread
+in the two Americas, and indeed almost everywhere amongst uncivilized
+people (nor is it limited to the uncivilized), that the heart is the
+epitome, so to speak, of the individual,--his soul in some sense,--so
+that to appropriate his heart is to appropriate his whole being."
+
+A constant charge against sorcerers in West African tribes is that they
+have made a person sick by stealing and eating the sick one's "heart," and
+that the invalid cannot recover till the "heart" is returned.
+
+Also, see Trumbull:[86] "The widespread popular superstition of the
+Vampire and of the ghoul seems to be an outgrowth of this universal belief
+that transfused blood is revivifying. The bloodless shades, leaving their
+graves at night, seek renewed life by drawing out the blood of those who
+sleep, taking the life of the living to supply temporary life to the
+dead.... An added force is given to all these illustrations of the
+universal belief that transferred blood has a vivifying power, by the
+conclusions of modern medical science concerning the possible benefits of
+blood-transfusion. The primitive belief seems to have had a sound basis in
+scientific fact."
+
+Histories of our American Indians are full of incidents showing how the
+heart of a captive who in dying had exhibited bravery in the endurance of
+torture, was promptly cut in pieces and eaten, to absorb his courage.
+
+"The Ashanti fetichmen of West Africa, apparently acting on a kindred
+thought, make a mixture of the hearts of enemies mingled with blood and
+consecrated herbs, for the vivifying of the conquerors."
+
+"In South Africa, among the Amampondo, one of the Kaffir tribes, it is
+customary for the chief, on his accession to authority, to be washed in
+the blood of a near relative, generally a brother, who is put to death on
+the occasion, and has his skull used as a receptacle for blood."[87]
+
+
+SECRET SOCIETIES.
+
+Another outcome of witchcraft belief is the formation of secret societies,
+both male and female, of crushing power and far-reaching influence,
+which, in one aspect of their influence, the governmental, were the only
+authority, before the intrusion of foreign powers, which could settle a
+fierce personal dispute or enforce intertribal peace. But their
+possibilities for good were overbalanced by their actualities of evil.
+
+Among these societies I have, in a previous chapter, mentioned as
+governmental agencies the Egbo of the Niger Delta, Ukuku of the Corisco
+region, and Yasi of the Ogowe. There is also in the Gabun region of the
+equator, among the Shekani, Mwetyi; among the Bakele, Bweti; among the
+Mpongwe-speaking tribes, Inda and Njembe; and Ukuku and Malinda in
+the Batanga regions.
+
+A detailed account of the ceremonies of an initiation into Malinda is
+contained in Chapter XVI.
+
+In a previous chapter I have mentioned my own coming in contact with Ukuku
+and Yasi.
+
+All these societies had for their primary object the good one of
+government, for this purpose holding the fetich in terror; but the means
+used were so arbitrary, the influences employed so oppressive, and the
+representations so false, that they almost all were evil. Most of them are
+now discontinued as a tribal power by the presence of foreign governments,
+the foreign power having actually come in conflict with some of them, as
+in the case of England recently with the Aro of Nigeria; or, where they
+still exist, they have degenerated to mere amusement, as Ukukwe, in Gabun;
+or are kept up as a traditional fashion, as Njembe.
+
+But they all exist, as described by Rev. Dr. Wilson a generation ago, and
+are at this very present among the tribes of the interior, where foreign
+government is as yet only nominal.
+
+Mwetyi "is a great spirit, who is supposed to dwell in the bowels of the
+earth, but comes to the surface of the ground at stated seasons, or when
+summoned on any special business. A large flat house of peculiar form is
+erected in the middle of the village for the temporary sojourn of this
+spirit. The house is always kept perfectly dark, and no one is permitted
+to enter it, except those who have been initiated into all the mysteries
+of the order, which includes, however, almost the whole of the adult male
+population of the village.... When Mwetyi is about to retire from a
+village, the women, children, uninitiated lads, and any strangers who may
+be there at the time, are required to leave the village."
+
+"Inda is an association whose membership is confined to the adult male
+population. It is headed by a spirit of that name, who dwells in the
+woods, and appears only when summoned by some unusual event,--at the death
+of a person connected with the order, at the birth of twins, or at the
+inauguration of some one into office.... If a distinguished person dies,
+Inda affects great rage, and comes the following night with a large posse
+of men to seize the property of the villagers without discrimination. He
+is sure to lay hands on as many sheep and goats as are necessary to make a
+grand feast, and no man has any right to complain.... The institution of
+Inda, like that of Mwetyi, is intended to keep the women, children, and
+slaves in subjection."
+
+"Njembe is a pretty fair counterpart of Inda, but there is no
+special spirit nor any particular person representing it." Its power
+resides in the society as a body, and rests on the threat of the
+employment of fetich medicines to injure recalcitrant persons. Only women
+are admitted to it. A very considerable fee is demanded for admission to
+membership. Formerly it was considered an honor to be allowed to be
+initiated; now, to perpetuate itself, it compels young women to enter it,
+especially if they have made derogatory remarks about Njembe. The
+initiation then becomes a kind of punishment. Strange to say, young women
+thus compelled to enter accept the society, and become zealous to drag
+others in. The initiation occupies about two weeks, and is accompanied
+with harsh treatment. Njembe has no special meeting-house. They
+assemble in a cleared place in the centre of a jungle, where their doings
+are unseen by outsiders by night or day. Nothing is known of their rites,
+except that they dance in a nude state, and the songs of their dances are
+openly heard, and are often of the vilest character.
+
+"They pretend to detect thieves, to find out the secrets of their
+enemies," to direct women in pregnancy, and in other ways claim to be
+useful.
+
+"The object of the institution originally, no doubt, was to protect the
+females from harsh treatment on the part of their husbands."
+
+As a rule, the Mpongwe women say that every woman should be in the
+Njembe Society; so, at a certain age of a girl, they decide that she
+shall "go in." But she is not always put through all the ceremonies at
+once. She may be subjected to only a part of the initiation, the remainder
+to be performed at another time.
+
+The special occasion for an initiation may be perhaps because the spirit
+of some recently dead member wants a new one to take her place; or if any
+young woman has escaped being initiated during her youth or if she is
+charged with having spoken derisively of Njembe, she may be seized
+by force and compelled to go through the rite.
+
+The entire process so beats down the will of the novices and terrorizes
+them, that even those who have been forced into it against their will,
+when they emerge at the close of the rite, most inviolably preserve its
+secrets, and express themselves as pleased.
+
+Just before the novices or "pupils" are to enter, they have to prepare a
+great deal of food,--as much as they can possibly obtain of cassava, fish,
+and plantains. Two days are spent, before the ceremonies begin, in cooking
+this food. They make big bundles of nganda (gourd seed) pudding, others of
+ground-nuts and odika (oily kernel of the wild mango), pots of odika and
+fish boiled, boiled hard plantains, and ripe plantains beaten into rolls
+called "fufu." This food is to be eaten by them and the older members of
+the society the first night.
+
+Those older ones, as a part of the hazing which they always practise,
+deceive the new ones by advising them in advance: "Eat no supper this
+evening. Save up your appetite. All this food you have prepared is your
+own, and you will be satiated at the feast to-night." This is said in
+order to play a hard joke on them. But sometimes a more tender-hearted
+relative will pity them, and will privately warn them to eat something,
+knowing that they will be up all night, and that the older members intend
+to seize and eat what these "pupils" had prepared for themselves, allowing
+the latter to be faint with hunger.
+
+That evening the society goes into the adjacent jungle, the spot selected
+including a small stream of water. There they clear a small space for
+their ceremonies. They dance all night, part of the time in this camp, and
+part of the time in the street of the town, but always going back to the
+camp at some early morning hour.
+
+On the second day they come to town, dance there a little while, and then
+go back to the forest. They beat constantly and monotonously, without
+time, a short straight stick on a somewhat crescent-shaped piece of board
+(orega) that is slightly concave on one side. It makes a clear but not
+a musical note; is heard quite far, and is the distinctive sign of the
+Njembe Society. No other persons own or will strike the orega
+music.
+
+In the part of the ceremonies that are public in the village street, a man
+is invited to assist by beating on a drum, a matter in which women here
+are not expert. This drum does not exclude the orega, several of which
+may be beaten at the same time; at least one must be kept sounding during
+the whole two weeks by one or another of the candidates, or if these
+become exhausted, by some other member of the society.
+
+One of the first public preparations is the bending of a limber pole
+(ilala) as an arch, or two branches, their tops woven together, over the
+path entering the village. They are wreathed with lycopodium ferns, and at
+their bases are stuck a young, short, recently half-unfolded palm-leaf,
+painted with Njembe dots of white, red, and black. At the distance
+of a few hundred feet may be another ilala; indeed, there may be several
+of them on the way to the camp.
+
+While dancing during the first few days, the society occupies itself with
+preparations, unknown to the public, for their "work" in the camp. Thither
+come older members from afar, especially those related to the candidates.
+
+Certain women skilled in the Njembe dances and rules are called
+"teachers." The first step which an already initiated member takes to
+become a "teacher" is to find and introduce a new recruit, with whom she
+must again go through all the rites of initiation more severely than at
+her first experience. She makes herself perfect in the lessons impressed
+on her by impressing them on the new pupil. The prospective "teacher" has
+thus to endure, in this second passage through the rites, all and more
+than is put on the novice. Little as is known of these rites, it is
+certain they are severe.
+
+In the singing, each song is known by its own descriptive motions. The
+motion mentioned is to be actually performed, however difficult or
+immodest it may be. Generally the immodest portions are reserved for the
+seclusion of their camp; but the words sung at the camp can be heard at
+the village, so that all hear them,--men, women, and little children.
+
+One common public song has for its refrain, "Look at the sun"; while that
+song is being danced, the candidate must gaze steadily at the hot sun,
+even if it be blinding. Most of the "rules" (and the teacher may invent as
+many new ones as she chooses) are purposely hard in order to make the
+candidate suffer, and as part of the process of breaking her will, and
+ensuring secrecy by a reign of terror.
+
+Also most of the nights the candidate (or several of them if there are a
+number) must spend hours in keeping a fire burning in some part of the
+forest. That fire, once started, must be kept burning day and night during
+the whole two weeks. A girl who in ordinary times would be afraid to go
+out into the forest alone at night, will, under the Njembe
+initiation, go out in storm and rain to see that the fire is not
+extinguished. Sometimes the teacher will lighten the task for her by
+accompanying her; or some one, pitying, will help to gather the dead wood
+with which the fire is kept smouldering.
+
+There are also rules for the breaking of which there are fines, _e. g._,
+"When you are dancing in public during the initiation, do not laugh
+aloud." Another rule is that no salutation is to be given or received, nor
+the person or even the clothing of a visitor touched by a candidate.
+
+The teacher must be quick to imitate, in this her second "degree" or
+passage through the rites, the rapid motions of the skilled older one who
+is teaching her and her new recruit.
+
+In order to increase the severity, the pupil, though she may be already
+wearied, is required to repeat her dance before every newcomer or
+spectator. The teacher will start the beat of the orega and take a few
+steps of the dance, and then stop and rest comfortably, the tired pupil
+taking the orega and continuing the dance.
+
+If pupils are sulky or shy, their teacher and other older members will
+scold them: "Go on! dance! You may not stand or rest there! Go on! You!
+this girl with your awkwardness! Do you own the Njembe?" Sometimes a
+pupil is sulky or stubborn, or, disheartened, begins to cry. No mercy is
+shown her. Others, in anxiously trying to follow motions, will make absurd
+mistakes, and bring down on themselves the derision of the spectators.
+Some pupils really like the dancing, and endeavor to learn quickly. Such
+as these are praised: "This one knows, and she will some day be a
+teacher."
+
+It is expected that the relatives of the pupils will be present and
+encourage them with some little gifts.
+
+It is remarkable how well the secrets of the society are kept. No one has
+ever been induced to reveal them. Those who have left the society and have
+become Christians do not tell. Foreigners have again and again tried to
+bribe, but in vain. Traders and others have tried to induce their native
+wives to reveal; but these women, obedient to any extent on all other
+matters, maintain a stubborn silence. Nothing is known outside of the
+society of their doings in their camp, except that they are all naked, lay
+aside all modesty, make personal examinations of each other's bodies, sing
+phallic songs, and indulge in the hardest, severest, and most violent
+insults and curses heaped up in assumed wrath as jokes on each other. It
+is really a school in which to learn the fine art of using insults and
+curses which will be utilized outside the society, upon other persons on
+occasions of real anger. No man can equal these women in their volubility
+and bitter tirades when really angry. It is Billingsgate in its glory.
+
+After keeping up the ceremonies for a number of days, the society chooses
+one for their "last." The day preceding it, they go out in procession with
+baskets, kettles, and basins, from village to village, still singing, the
+song being adapted for their errand of begging, and still beating the
+orega, to get offerings of food, or gifts of rum, tobacco, plates, and
+cloth. (In a civilized religious worship this would be the taking up of
+the collection.) At each village on their route any member of the society
+will direct one of the new pupils to dance, as an exhibition of her
+recently acquired ability. She does not hesitate, but asks, "Which dance?"
+The teacher replies, "I will show you," and starting a few steps measured,
+she stops, and the designated pupil takes it up.
+
+During the initiation the pupils are required to go bare-footed; and if
+they have been wearing dresses, the dresses are taken off and only a
+native cloth worn. But a slight concession has occasionally been made in
+favor of some mission-school girls when forced into Njembe, who,
+accustomed to dresses, were allowed to wear them when walking in this
+public collecting procession.
+
+The night of the day on which they come back from this collecting of gifts
+is the "last night." Dancing is then done by all, both by the teachers and
+the pupils.
+
+It is not known who is leader. One is spoken of as the "Mother," but it
+is not known who she is. The chief teacher is seen whenever they come from
+their camp, and is known by the colored chalk markings different from
+others.
+
+
+[Illustration: NJEMBE. FEMALE SECRET SOCIETY.--MPONGWE, GABUN.]
+
+
+The next morning, the morning of the "last day," all go out fishing, young
+and old, along the river or sea beach. This fishing is done among the
+muddy roots of the mangrove trees. They gather shell-fish of different
+kinds. But whatever they do or do not obtain, they do not return till each
+one has caught a small common snake which lives in holes at the mangrove
+roots. The sound of the orega (which is still constantly beaten) seems
+to act as a charm, and the snake emerges from its hole and is readily
+caught; or the hand is boldly thrust into the hole in search of the
+reptile. In starting out on this fishing the new members do not know that
+they are to handle snakes. They go as on a happy fishing excursion.
+Really, it is their final test. They are told to put their hands into
+these holes, and not to let go of the "fish" they shall seize there. The
+novice obeys, but presently screams in alarm as she feels a snake-like
+form wriggling about her hand. Her teacher terribly threatens her; she
+begs to be excused, dares not let go, and is compelled to pull out the
+snake twining about her arm. They all then return to the camp, each with
+her snake in her basket. It is not known what is done with these snakes.
+
+The teacher is to be paid for her services. As the pupils come from
+different villages, each one has to ask her teacher's permission to go to
+her relatives to collect the fee. This is done a few days before the final
+day. They are allowed to go, but with an escort to watch them that they
+break no rule of the initiation. They do not go into the houses, nor do
+they speak. They stand in the street. Those who escort them have to do the
+talking, thus: "We have come to collect our money, as the Njembe
+will soon be done." If they get a plenty, the pupils are glad; otherwise
+they have to stand in the hot sun uncovered, except by their crown-like
+wreath of lycopodium fern. It is a trying and humiliating position for any
+girl whose people are poor or unwilling. She must stand there till some
+one of her people shall contribute what the escort deems sufficient.
+
+Having collected each her fee for the teacher, the pupils go back to her
+at the village, and seat themselves on the ground under the eaves of the
+houses on one side of the street, each with her pile of goods near her.
+The teacher eyes these piles, and selects the girl who apparently has the
+most, to be the first to begin to pay. Just previous to this, stalks of
+amomum are laid down in the street, parallel to each other, about eighteen
+inches apart, in number according with the teacher's random guess of the
+number of articles in the chosen pile. Then she lays the articles of the
+pile, one by one, on the amomum stalk. Then another of the teachers seizes
+the hand of the girl who owned these goods, and swinging her from side to
+side, runs with her rapidly over that line of goods, herself stepping
+carefully on the interspaces, but apparently trying to confuse the girl
+into stepping on and breaking some one of the articles, _e. g._, a mirror
+or a plate. This ordeal safely passed, the goods of that girl are accepted
+and put aside near the teacher. The goods of each of the other new girls
+are treated in the same way, and laid, one by one, on the amomum stalks.
+
+The number of some girl's articles may not equal the standard set by the
+first, and there may be not enough to cover every stalk. In that case the
+teacher will allow some article, _e. g._, a head of tobacco-leaves, to be
+opened and its separate leaves used to piece out the number. Nevertheless,
+she will demand that something be added. It is an anxious time for the
+pupils, watching to see whether their fee is accepted. Sometimes the
+teacher, seeing that a girl's pile of goods is small, will not even
+attempt to count or divide it, but, looking at it, sneeringly says, "I see
+nothing here! Sit you there in the sun till some one brings you more!"
+
+The last act of the "last day," before adjourning, is a public dance
+called Njega (Leopard). For that, the members of the society, and most
+spectators, dress up in fine clothes. It is performed in the afternoon,
+and visitors go to see it. The "Leopard" is done by the teachers, two at a
+time. All these pairs must have their faces painted, each in a different
+style, no piece of skin left untouched.
+
+In beginning the Leopard dance, one of the pair imitates a leopard
+sneaking around the corners of the houses; while the other one, waiting,
+has collected perhaps a dozen of the members as her "children," whom she
+as their "mother" is to guard from the "leopard." This teacher-mother
+begins a song, "Children! there is the leopard in shape of a person,"
+adding as a refrain the word, "Mbwero! mbwero! mbwero!" which is repeated
+rapidly as a warning that the leopard is coming, ending with, "my
+children!" They sing, and step backward and forward to a drum
+accompaniment. While these "children" are in great pretended excitement,
+the leopard is advancing slowly, steadily, and nearer from the ogwerina
+(rear of the houses) into the street, with extended tongue, and growling.
+When the mother sees this, her dance step grows quicker, and she backs and
+motions to her children behind her, they imitating all her steps. The
+leopard advances with a swaying step in time with the music, and then
+suddenly dashes forward, and catches one of the children, and sets her
+aside. This is kept up by the leopard till most of the children are
+caught, only one or two being left. The mother then seems very much
+exhausted, with a sad slow step; but the leopard at last catches the
+others. Now that her children are all dead, the mother is aroused to fury.
+The conflict remains between her and the leopard. And "mother" must
+finally kill "leopard." The dance becomes very much more rapid; the two
+approach nearer and nearer. Mother has a stick like a sword, and finally
+she kills leopard with a light blow. This coup is received by a shout from
+the spectators of "o-lo-lo!"
+
+Then another pair are selected to go through the parts of mother and
+leopard again. Sometimes one will refuse to act, or to be mated with the
+other one. Then, like a singer in civilized lands, she is met with
+entreaties from the crowd, "Do act! You know so well how to do it!" And
+then she yields. If at the last there is remaining only one teacher who
+has not done the act, one of those who has already performed will mate
+with her.
+
+At night, the last work of the society is to put out their fire. If the
+leader has come from a distant village, she wants to go, and she will
+extinguish the fire that night; or, if she lives near, she may choose to
+wait several days longer. But during that time the dancing and singing are
+not kept up, for the society has adjourned.
+
+Whatever else is unknown of the objects of Njembe, it is known that
+it is a government. It was formerly much more powerful than it is now. At
+Libreville, Gabun, thirty years ago, no woman dared to speak against it.
+Mission school-girls, feeling themselves secure on the mission premises,
+sometimes in their school-girl talk foolishly made disparaging remarks
+about it. When this reached the ear of Njembe, those girls would
+some day be caught when they were visiting their villages, and forced
+through the rites. Parents did not dare interfere, and missionaries had no
+authority to do so.
+
+In one case, however, a missionary did make a successful interference. The
+girl did not belong to Mpongwe (the tribe of Gabun); she was a slave-waif
+that had been picked up by the mission, and therefore, in a sense, the
+mission's daughter. The senior missionary, Rev. William Walker, was a
+tall, powerful, utterly fearless man, and his custom was always to carry a
+heavy cane. That day, the Njembe lessons that were being given to
+the abducted girl had only begun in the village street; she had not yet
+been taken to their secret camp. Mr. Walker strode among the women and
+laid hold of the unresisting girl. When some women attempted to drag her
+away, he brought down his cane heavily at random over any head or shoulder
+within reach of his long arm; and the girl was glad to be led back to the
+mission. The rescue was successful. Mr. Walker's use of force was
+justifiable as against Njembe's forcible abduction of the girl; and
+his parental position in the case would have justified him if the women
+had made any complaint against him before the local French magistrate on
+charge of assault.
+
+In a somewhat similar case, more recently, Njembe sued a missionary,
+he having assaulted them when they refused to remove their distressingly
+noisy camp from a too great proximity to the mission grounds. The
+magistrate dismissed the case, resenting Njembe's existence as a
+secret society, and its assumption of exercise of governmental authority.
+
+Recently also a native man was successful in thwarting Njembe. A
+certain native Christian woman had escaped being forced into Njembe
+during her youth; and by her being very much in mission employ during her
+adult years, Njembe had ceased to threaten her. Her daughter, of
+about eighteen years of age, though not a Christian, had also, by her
+mother's care of her, escaped, though often threatened. A cousin of this
+daughter had been put through the rite while her father was away on a
+journey. And now this cousin was trying to induce the daughter to enter.
+The daughter refused, and perhaps may have made some slighting remark.
+This remark her cousin reported to Njembe; and some intimations were
+made that the young woman would be seized. The father of the cousin had
+formerly been a church-member, is educated and gentlemanly. Though he had
+fallen away from the church, he had no desire to see his niece dragged
+down. He spoke severely to his daughter about the excitement she was
+trying to raise, and threatened to call in the aid of the French Chief of
+Police. The firm stand taken by him and also by the young woman's mother
+was efficient in preventing her seizure by Njembe. Both these
+parents are of unusual strength of character and advance in civilization.
+Without their efficient backing, this young woman would have been forced
+into Njembe.
+
+Rev. J. L. Wilson,[88] wrote of Njembe almost fifty years ago:
+"There is no spirit, so far as is known, connected with this association,
+but all its proceedings are kept profoundly secret. The Njembe make
+great pretensions, and as a body are really feared by the men. They
+pretend to detect thieves, to find out the secrets of their enemies; and
+in various ways they are useful to the community in which they live, or,
+at least, are so regarded by the people. The object of the institution
+originally, no doubt, was to protect the females from harsh treatment on
+the part of their husbands; and as their performances are always veiled in
+mystery, and they have acquired the reputation of performing wonders, the
+men are, no doubt, very much restrained by the fear and respect which they
+have for them as a body."
+
+Most of the above description is, after so many years, true now, except
+that the power of and respect for the society is lessened by the
+permeating leaven of a Christian mission and by the dominance of a foreign
+government; but even in that same region, in portions where these two
+forces are not in immediate contact with the community, Njembe still
+is feared.
+
+It is true, also, that there is no special spirit belonging to
+Njembe, but when the society has occasion to investigate a theft or
+other crime, it invokes the usual ilaga and other spirits.
+
+It is also still true that in the tribes where Njembe exists women
+have much more freedom from control by men than in tribes where it does
+not exist. But even if it has been thus a defence to women against man's
+severity, it undeniably has been an injury to them by its indecent
+ceremonies and phallic songs. Such things may make men fear them, but also
+make it impossible for men to respect them.
+
+Those songs I myself have heard when the Njembe camp was in a jungle
+near to a village. The male generative organ was personified, and, in the
+song addressed to it, the name of a certain man, who was known by the
+singers to be at that very time in the adjacent village, was tauntingly
+referred to. Even immoral men were overwhelmed with shame at the
+shamelessness of the women. And yet those same women, when their
+Njembe adjourned, resumed in their individual capacities their usual
+apparent modesty which, as a collective body, they had cast aside. Little
+has been printed of Njembe's secret proceedings more than Dr. Wilson
+wrote fifty years ago.
+
+Paul Du Chaillu makes a short statement that he was allowed to witness a
+part; and he describes a hut containing a few almost nude old women
+sitting around some skulls and other fetiches. Doubtless he saw what he
+asserts. But, unusual as were his opportunities, and large as was his
+personal influence with his "Camma" (Nkami) native chiefs, it is positive
+that what was shown him was only a little of Njembe, if indeed it
+was Njembe at all.
+
+Other white men, with, indeed, perhaps less tact than he, but of greater
+money power and larger trade opportunities, failed to see anything.
+
+Some twenty-five years ago two Germans (now dead) trading in the Gabun
+determined secretly to spy out Njembe.
+
+The merchant, the head of the trading-house, was a well-educated
+gentleman, and his clerk was an active, intelligent young man. Both knew
+native customs well, and both spoke the Mpongwe language fluently. Each
+had a native wife, and being generous and liberal-handed, had many native
+friends; but they had been unable to bribe any Njembe women, even
+their own wives, to reveal anything.
+
+One dark night when the society was in session in a small jungle not far
+from their trading-house, they went secretly and cautiously through the
+bushes. They had not approached near enough to the circle of women around
+the camp-fire to actually recognize any of them (it would have been
+difficult to recognize their painted faces even by daylight); and they
+really did not see anything of what was being done. Somehow their approach
+was discovered, either by information treacherously carried from some one
+in their retinue of household servants, or by being seen by one of the
+pickets of the camp, or by the breaking of a branch as they crept through
+the trees, or, possibly, by their white odor carried on the wind,--odor
+which to Africans is almost as distinct as is Negro odor to the white
+race.
+
+Njembe raised a frenzied cry, and started to seize them. The two men
+fled desperately through the thick bushes. The clerk was recognized, and
+his name was called out, and the other was assumed to be his employer.
+They escaped to the safety of their house. Njembe did not dare
+assault it, French policemen being within call; but next day word was sent
+by the society denouncing them both, laying a curse on them, and plainly
+saying that they should die. If the threat had been that the means of
+death would be magic, these gentlemen would have laughed; but the women
+did not hesitate to say that they would poison them in their food. This
+would be entirely possible, even without collusion among the several men
+and boys that ranged from steward to cook and waiters as their household
+servants; though, if need were, some of these servants would sooner be
+treasonable to the white master than dare to refuse Njembe. The case
+was serious. The older man, as a dispenser of wealth to the entire
+community, was, even in Njembe's eye, too valuable to be killed; his
+wife, herself a Njembe woman, interceded for him, and the curse was
+removed from him on the payment of a large fine. But the curse was doubled
+over the poor clerk. Njembe would listen to no appeal, nor accept
+any bribe for him, as they had actually seen him at their camp.
+
+It is a fact that shortly after this this clerk did fall into a decline,
+with strange symptoms which no doctor understood nor any medicines seemed
+to touch. He became weaker and weaker, and his life was despaired of.
+Njembe openly boasted that it was killing him.
+
+I do not know why an appeal was not made to the local French authorities.
+Perhaps because the merchant did not wish to give more publicity to his
+escapade; perhaps because it would be difficult to prosecute a society, no
+individual Njembe woman appearing to be responsible.
+
+To save his clerk, the merchant offered to pay a very large sum.
+Njembe having had a partial revenge, having demonstrated its power,
+and standing victorious before the community, was induced to accept. It
+was never known publicly how much was paid. The curse was withdrawn, and
+the clerk immediately began to recover; but it was some months before the
+evil was entirely eradicated from his system.
+
+Beyond Dr. Wilson's and Du Chaillu's short statements about Njembe,
+I have seen nothing else in print, except the mere mention of the
+existence of the society by several African travellers. What I have
+written in the above I have obtained piecemeal at various times from
+different men and women, Christian and heathen; but all of them spoke with
+hesitation, and under promise that I should mention no names.
+
+
+POISONING FOR REVENGE.
+
+There are native poisons. It is known that sometimes they are secretly
+used in revenge, or to put out of the way a relative whose wealth is
+desired to be inherited. This much I have to admit, as to charges of
+"bewitching" and so-called "judicial executions," therefore, that in the
+case of some deaths they are actual murders, and that the perpetrator
+deserves to be executed. But it is rare that the proof of guilt is clear.
+I have to be guarded in my admission of an accused person's guilt, lest I
+give countenance to the universal belief in death as the result of fetich
+agencies. I explain to my native questioner: If what the accused has done
+in fetich rite with intent to kill had any efficiency for taking away
+life, I allow that he shall be put to death; if he made only fetiches,
+even if they were intended to kill, he is not guilty of this death, for a
+mere fetich cannot kill. But if he used poison, with or without fetich,
+then he is guilty.
+
+But even so, the distinction between a fetich and a poison is vague in the
+thought of many natives. What I call a "poison" is to them only another
+material form of a fetich power, both poison and fetich being supposed to
+be made efficient by the presence of an adjuvant spirit.
+
+Not all the deaths of foreigners in Africa are due to malaria. Some of
+them have been doubtless due to poison, administered by a revengeful
+employee. Very many white residents in Africa treat their servants in
+oppressive and cruel ways. Even those who are not cruel are often
+autocratic and arbitrary. In a country that has little law to hinder, and
+no public opinion to shame them, some white men treat the natives almost
+as slaves, cheating them of their wages, cursing, kicking, striking,
+beating, and otherwise maltreating and even mutilating them. Some are kind
+and just; but even they are at times severe in enforcing their authority.
+So it could occur that even a kindly-disposed foreigner might have his
+life attempted by an evil-disposed employee whose anger he had aroused.
+
+In general, the Bantu natives of Africa are patient, long-suffering, and
+not easily aroused to violence, but taking their revenge, if finally their
+endurance is exhausted, by robbing their master of his goods or otherwise
+wasting his trade; abandoning him in sickness, so that he dies really of
+neglect, or, when his boat upsets in the surf of the sea, making no effort
+to rescue him.
+
+The Bantu tribes are less revengeful and more amiable than the Negroes of
+Upper Guinea, or the tribes of Senegal and of the Sudan, with their
+mixture of Arab blood and Mahometan beliefs.
+
+An English traveller recently, in the Igbo country of Nigeria, in
+discussing the native belief in occult forces, says: "It is impossible for
+a white man to be present at their gatherings of 'medicine men,' and it is
+hard to get a native to talk of such things; but it seems evident to me
+that there is some reality in the phenomena one hears of, as they are
+believed everywhere in some degree by white men as well as black. However
+that may be, the native doctors have a wide knowledge of poisons; and if
+one is to believe reports, deaths from poison, both among white and black
+men, are of common occurrence on the Niger. One of the white man's often
+quoted proverbs is, 'Never quarrel with your cook'; the meaning of which
+is that the cook can put something in your food in retaliation if you
+maltreat him.
+
+"There is everywhere a belief that it is possible to put medicine on a
+path for your enemy which, when he steps over it, will cause him to fall
+sick and die. Other people can walk uninjured over the spot, but the
+moment the man for whom the medicine is laid reaches the place, he
+succumbs, often dying within an hour or two. I have never seen such a case
+myself; but the Rev. A. E. Richardson says he saw one when on the journey
+with Bishop Tugwell's house-party. He could offer no explanation of how
+the thing is done, but does not doubt that it is done. Some of the best
+educated of our native Christians have told me that they firmly believe in
+this 'medicine-laying.'"
+
+The most distinct instance of attempt at poisoning which I have met was
+related to me in March, 1902, by Mr. H. L. Stacey, of the English
+trading-house of J. Holt & Co. Ltd. I took the following statement from
+his own lips, and he gave me liberty to use it publicly. He has since
+died, and his death was sudden.
+
+Mr. Stacey was a gentleman of courteous manner and of good education;
+fearless, universally kind, and generally just in his treatment of the
+natives. He was a Christian in his belief, and endeavored to be one in his
+life. His truthfulness is beyond doubt, thus making his statement entirely
+reliable.
+
+He had his headquarters at Bata, with native sub-traders scattered north
+and south and up the Benita River, some twenty-three miles south of Bata.
+There came to him for employment a Lagos man, by name Croly or Crowley. He
+spoke English well, could read and write, had quite a display of manner,
+and made himself very useful by his apparent devotion, faithfulness, and
+honesty. All this deceived Mr. Stacey, who thought he had obtained a
+valuable servant; and rewarded him by giving him a sub-factory at Lobisa,
+a few miles up the Benita River. To have a factory of one's own is the
+goal of the ambition of every white trader's employees.
+
+Mr. Stacey had also a Benga sub-trader on the river at Senje, some ten
+miles above Lobisa. This Benga went to Bata and reported to Mr. Stacey
+that Crowley was wasting his goods in riotous living and extravagant
+giving. While the Benga was away, Crowley falsely told the native Fang,
+who had been paid in advance by the former to collect india-rubber for
+him, that the Benga had been dismissed, was in jail, and would never come
+back, and induced them to sell to himself the rubber they had collected
+for the Benga. When the Benga returned to his post, and asked his Fang to
+pay their debt, they told him of the deception Crowley had practised on
+them. There was, therefore, a triangular quarrel, the Benga suing the Fang
+for their debt to him, the Fang denouncing Crowley for his cheat, and
+Crowley angry at the Benga for informing Mr. S. on him.
+
+Just at this stage of affairs Mr. S. came on one of his usual visits of
+inspection to Senje. The Fang immediately sent secretly a deceptive
+message down to Crowley, saying that Mr. S. wished to see him. As soon as
+he came, the Fang began to fight him. Notwithstanding Crowley's dishonesty
+to him, Mr. S. magnanimously defended his life, locked him for safety in
+the Benga's bedroom, and then made the quarrel a quadrilateral by
+protesting to the Fang against their assaulting his premises. His
+contention with them was "talked" in public "palaver," and finally was
+amicably settled. During the "talk" a lad came to Mr. S. excitedly, saying
+that Crowley was spreading "medicine" in the bed of the Benga, with intent
+to kill the latter. This aroused again the indignation of the Fang. But
+Mr. S. laughed down their anxiety, telling them that he was not afraid of
+"medicine" (he thought it was only fetich); that fetich could not kill a
+white man; and that, to prove it, he would that night sleep in that bed,
+and the Benga should sleep elsewhere. When all was settled, he got Crowley
+quietly away, and sent him down river to his Lobisa house, with
+expectation of dismissal. At night Mr. S. awoke with a great pain in his
+abdomen, a great sense of constriction in his chest, skin hot, and body
+tortured with shooting pains. Only his head was clear and free from any
+distress. The symptoms were not those of malarial fever. The next day his
+limbs were paralyzed. The natives said that Crowley had scattered in the
+bedding and through the mosquito net a poisonous powder.
+
+Mr. S. was taken helpless in his canoe down river, on the way passing very
+near Lobisa, to a house on the sea-beach near the river's mouth. Believing
+that Crowley had attempted the life of the Benga, Mr. S., while lying
+sick, sent word to the adjacent Spanish Government Post for two soldiers
+to come and arrest Crowley. (Mr. S. had been informed that C. was on his
+way to him.) For C., when he saw Mr. S. lying sick in his passing canoe,
+surmised what had happened, and was afraid the Fang would follow him to
+Lobisa and assault him there. So he had closed his house and fled,
+following Mr. S. He was coming with a double purpose: first, to plead with
+Mr. S. against dismissal; second, as he promptly had heard of Mr. Stacey's
+sleeping in the poisoned bed and being sick, he feared arrest and was
+ready also to make the murder plan complete, if his plea for mercy was
+denied. To this end he came prepared with a handful of the powder.
+
+Before he had reached the house where Mr. S. was, the two soldiers had met
+and arrested him, and were taking him to jail. He asked permission first
+to be allowed to see his "master." So they brought him to the sick-room,
+where he made many protestations of friendship and devotion, and plead for
+mercy. Mr. S. rebuked the soldiers for hesitating in their duty, and for
+having brought their prisoner there, and bade them take him away to the
+magistrate; then he fell back on his pillow exhausted, and lay with closed
+eyes, only semi-conscious. The soldiers went out of the room, leaving C.
+clinging to the bed. He fell on his knees by Mr. S.'s head, as if still to
+beg for pardon. Mr. S. felt C.'s hand insinuated under the bed cover near
+his pillow, and suddenly opened his eyes, to find C.'s closed hand near
+his face. He struck away the hand. A quantity of dark powder fell on the
+pillow near his nose. Half suffocated, by an effort he shouted to the
+soldiers, who came and took C. away. Mr. Stacey's little waiter-boy, who
+had also come in at the shout, was horrified to see the poison-powder on
+the pillow. He snatched away the pillow, threw the powder out of doors,
+and told the soldiers. They, without waiting for official judgment at the
+Post, gave C. twenty-five lashes at once. Farther blows, twenty-five at a
+time, were given him while waiting in jail for Mr. S. to get well enough
+to appear against him. Subsequently the _Chef de Poste_ appointed a day
+for the hearing; but Mr. S., in his devotion to the trade interests of his
+employers, asked that the day be postponed, as his sub-traders needed just
+then much supervision. So the _Chef_ dismissed the matter, seeming to
+think that if Mr. S. regarded his trade as of more importance than the
+defence of his life, it was no business of the government to hold the
+prisoner; and took no farther interest in it.
+
+Having been given, in instalments, an aggregate of two hundred lashes, C.
+was discharged. He wandered about that region gathering a little food,
+without friends, feared and hated, and not allowed by some even to enter
+their villages.
+
+The reputation of the Lagos powder as a powerful agent in destroying life
+has been known for years among the equatorial coast tribes. Reports of it
+are well known among white men on the steamers. It is believed in, not as
+a superstition, nor as a fetich, but as a powerful poison. Clerks and
+other workmen from Lagos are not welcomed in the Gabun region, as are
+clerks from other parts of Upper Guinea, for fear of their carrying that
+poison with them.
+
+
+DISTRUST.
+
+As a result of the universal employment of fetiches in African tribes,
+there is no confidence between man and man. Every one is in distrust of
+his neighbor; every man's hand against his fellow.
+
+"The natives of Africa, though so thoroughly devoted to the use of
+fetiches, acquire no feeling of security in consequence of using them.
+Perhaps their only real influence is to make them more insecure than they
+would have been without them. There is no place in the world where men
+feel more insecurity. A man must be careful whose company he keeps, what
+path he walks, whose house he enters, on what stool he seats himself,
+where he sleeps. He knows not what moment he may place his foot or lay his
+hand upon some invisible engine of mischief, or by what means the seeds of
+death may be implanted in his constitution."[89]
+
+Because of this lack of confidence, the natural affections and the duties
+of the dearest relations are perverted. Wives afraid of husbands, and
+husbands afraid of wives; children afraid of parents, and parents afraid
+of children; the chief of the village uncertain of his people; and the
+entire community that must live and eat and associate together, living and
+eating and associating with a constant secretly entertained suspicion of
+each other.
+
+
+JUGGLERY.
+
+While in some of the rites performed by the native doctor-priest there is
+real diabolism, _i. e._, communication with Satan, and certain wonders are
+performed through the Prince of the Power of Darkness, I am disposed to
+believe that in most cases the "doctor" is self-deceived, certainly in
+many cases I believe him to be a deliberate deceiver. The native so-called
+"prophet" is probably an artful mind-reader; and the fortune-teller, like
+our own fortune-tellers, a skilful observer of the subject's tones,
+manner, and unguarded admissions in conversation which give ground for
+shrewd guessing.
+
+Arnot[90] says: "These professional diviners are no doubt smart fellows,
+arch-rogues though they be. The secret of their art lies in their constant
+repetition of every possibility in connection with the disaster they are
+called upon to explain until they finally hit upon that which is in the
+minds of their clients. As the people sit around and repeat the words of
+the diviner, it is easy for him to detect in their tone of voice or to
+read in their faces the suspected source of the calamity.
+
+"A man had a favorite dog which was attacked by a leopard, but succeeded
+in escaping with one of its eyes torn out. To ascertain the reason of this
+calamity, the owner sent to call one of these diviners. When he arrived,
+to test him, he was told that a disaster had befallen my acquaintance, and
+was asked to find out by divination what it was. The diviner with his
+rattles and other paraphernalia, and dances, and other movements to occupy
+attention, after the manner of jugglers, asked leading questions of the
+spirit he was professing to consult, but really he was watching the faces
+of his audience for their unconsciously given assent or dissent. Thus, in
+succession, he found that the misfortune, whatever it was, was not to a
+human being; then not to certain families; then to some object possessed
+by a certain man; then that it was not about an ox nor about a goat; then
+that it was about a dog; then, after certain other possibilities, was it
+connected with a leopard? So excited were the audience that they forgot
+that they had been 'giving themselves away,' and when the diviner asked
+the spirit, 'Was it a leopard?' they shouted with admiration at his
+supposed skill. After a whole day of such proceedings the diviner
+triumphed by announcing 'that the spirit of the father of one of the man's
+wives had been grieved at the man's long absence from his town and family,
+and had employed the leopard to tear the dog's eye as a gentle reminder
+that it was time he should go back to his own village.'"
+
+In connection with the Yoruba custom of parents of twins having images
+carved of their dead twins, "the carving of those images is a flourishing
+and money-making trade. If the parents of the dead child are in
+comfortable circumstances, the carvers tell them that they have seen in
+their dreams the dead twin, and that he or she has asked them to send such
+and such clothes, articles of food, money, etc.
+
+"Sometimes they say the twins appeared to them in the forest when they
+went to cut the Ire-wood to be carved, and bade them not to venture it. In
+such cases special sacrifices must be offered before taking any steps. In
+this way months pass before the carving is complete; during which time
+the carvers demand of the parents whatever they feel they are capable of
+supplying them with."[91]
+
+In the Corisco region, some thirty years ago, I knew a native sorcerer who
+achieved quite a reputation because he could perform the thimble-rig
+juggler-trick of making a leaf appear and disappear between two plates.
+
+One of my associates in the Ogowe, the late H. M. Bachelor, M.D., had
+brought with him from the United States a few tricks of "parlor magic." He
+quite astonished my school-children by swallowing and subsequently
+vomiting up a penknife, and by passing a threaded needle through the thigh
+of one of the boys. Dr. B. did the tricks so artistically that even I did
+not detect the deception about the penknife; and the boy solemnly asserted
+that he felt the needle travelling through his leg. The exhibition was a
+happy one in revealing to the natives how an evil-disposed sorcerer would
+be able to deceive them.
+
+A lady of the West African Mission of the American Board says: "I once
+witnessed the performance of a witch-doctor on one of my visits among the
+villages. The chief of the country was sick, and the doctor was giving him
+a massage treatment. By sleight of hand he seemed to draw from the
+patient's side chicken's claws, feathers, bones, sticks, pebbles, etc.
+Some "witch," it was supposed, had caused these things to grow in the
+man's body with intent to kill. It was evident to the astonished crowd
+which had gathered around, that their king would probably get well, now
+these things were removed. The doctor's bill was promptly paid,--a
+thousand balls of rubber, ten pieces of cloth, and a large pig. An ox was
+slaughtered, and a beer drink indulged in to celebrate the occasion and to
+appease any offended spirit."
+
+
+TREATMENT OF LUNATICS.
+
+The insane being supposed to be physically and mentally possessed by an
+intruding spirit, their actions are necessarily not considered to be the
+outcome of their own volitions. This view does not always, in the native
+mind, relieve a lunatic of the burden of the consequences of his acts.
+
+There is great diversity, therefore, in the treatment of the insane in
+different districts and in different tribes. In some regions a tribe holds
+to the following reasoning: This person is possessed by a spirit. That
+spirit is occupying his body and using his voice and limbs for some
+reason. If we interfere with this person's doings, then we will be
+interfering with the spirit and may bring evil on ourselves. Therefore it
+is considered proper to make offerings and some degree of worship to the
+incarnated spirit. But it is not true that the lunatic himself is an
+object of worship. The gifts and sacrifices are made solely to and for the
+spirit; the prayer of the petitioners being that it may refrain from
+inciting the possessed person to do them evil, and in the hope that it may
+conclude to depart and leave the patient and them alone.
+
+In other places this same belief of possession leads to a very different
+logical conclusion. The thought is: This person is possessed by an evil
+spirit; if we allow him to remain, that evil spirit will do us only evil;
+let us put this man, who is thus being utilized for evil, out of the way,
+and perhaps in so doing we may get rid of the possessing spirit also. So
+the lunatic is put to death. The manner of death sometimes chosen is a
+cruel one, as if thereby the spirit itself might also be injured or
+incapacitated to do further evil. Observe that this cruelty is not
+directed against the demented human being, but against the indwelling
+spirit. The maniac in being put to death is sometimes beaten with clubs,
+sometimes burned, sometimes drowned, as if the evil possessing spirit
+might itself be fractured or charred or sunk.
+
+The forms of lunacy I have seen are mild, rarely maniacal. The lunatics I
+have met in the Gabun region were both men and women. Among women I have
+thought a cause was uterine complications; among both men and women,
+excessive use of tobacco; in two cases of men the cause was
+hashish-smoking. These last were characterized by a deep melancholy; all
+the others were marked by absurd hallucinations. Undeniably, in two cases
+in Gabun, the paroxysms were influenced by the stage of the moon.
+
+The only medication of which the natives know is exorcism by fetich with
+drum and dance, baths and purgatives. When a person is discovered to be
+crazy, he is taken to the doctor, who gathers medicinal barks and leaves,
+makes a very hot decoction, and puts it under a seat on which is placed
+the patient. Both seat and patient are covered by a cloth, and he is
+subjected to a severe sweating process. During this time the doctor calls
+out to the supposed possessing spirit, "Who are you? who are you?" Perhaps
+the sick man will say (his voice supposed to be under control of nkinda),
+"I am So-and-so." The doctor replies, "Eh! you So-and-so! leave him, or I
+will catch you and put you in prison." The prison is a section of
+sugar-cane stalk with its leaves twined together; and the doctor is
+believed to be able to confine the nkinda there. And it remains there
+indefinitely; but it may be released by the will of the doctor, who will
+choose to free it some day unless he is paid not to do so. Sometimes the
+crazy person has so many sinkinda that he becomes a maniac, losing all
+sense of shame or even of hunger. In such a case he is tied till he
+becomes quiet and the doctor announces that the sinkinda have all gone
+out. The patient is then washed, and the doctor with song and drum calls
+on good sinkinda to come and enter, and directs them to take care of the
+man's body.
+
+
+THE AMERICAN NEGRO VOODOO.
+
+When the Negro was brought to America as a slave, he brought with him a
+variety of African things, some good, some bad.
+
+When hurried upon the slave-ships in the Kongo or at Lagos, the slave tied
+into a little package, hung among his other fetich treasures, seeds of his
+favorite foods. At least one of these seeds survived, in the West Indies
+and thence to the United States, with a native name "gumbo." It is the
+okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), that exists all over Africa, and has spread
+over the United States.
+
+Ground-nuts--"pea-nuts" (Arachis hypogea), which botanists claim to be a
+native of South America--have been grown from time immemorial all over
+Africa, and, in the Loango country bordering on the Kongo River, by the
+Ashira and some other tribes are used as their staple article of food,
+rather than the plantain (Musa sapientum), or "manioc," cassava (Jatropha
+manihot). It is an important export from those regions and from the Gambia
+to-day. If the nut itself was not carried from Africa to America, its
+native name was; that name is "mbenda," and it was corrupted to "pindar"
+in parts of the Southern States.
+
+The evil thing that the slave brought with him was his religion. You do
+not need to go to Africa to find the fetich. During the hundred years that
+slavery in our America held the Negro crushed, degraded, and apart, his
+master could deprive him of his manhood, his wife, his child, the fruits
+of his toil, of his life; but there was one thing of which he could not
+deprive him,--his faith in fetich charms. Not only did this religion of
+the fetich endure under slavery; it grew. None but Christian masters
+offered the Negro any other religion; and, by law, even they were debarred
+from giving him any education. So fetichism flourished. The master's
+children were infected by the contagion of superstition; they imbibed some
+of it at their Negro foster-mother's breast. It was a secret religion that
+lurked thinly covered in slavery days, and that lurks to-day beneath the
+Negro's Christian profession as a white art, and among non-professors as a
+black art; a memory of the revenges of his African ancestors; a secret
+fraternity among slaves of far-distant plantations, with words and
+signs,--the lifting of a finger, the twitch of an eyelid,--that
+telegraphed from house to house with amazing rapidity (as to-day in
+Africa) current news in old slave days and during the late Civil War;
+suspected, but never understood by the white master; which, as a
+superstition, has spread itself among our ignorant white masses as the
+"Hoodoo." Vudu, or Odoism, is simply African fetichism transplanted to
+American soil.
+
+"It is almost impossible for persons who have been brought up under this
+system ever to divest themselves fully of its influence. It has been
+retained among the blacks of this country, and especially at the South,
+though in a less open form, even to the present day, and probably will
+never be fully abandoned until they have made much higher attainments in
+Christian education and civilization. In some of the plantations of the
+South, as well as in the West Indies, where there has been less Christian
+culture, egg-shells are hung up in the corners of their chimneys to cause
+the chickens to flourish; an extracted tooth is thrown over the house or
+worn around the neck to prevent other teeth from aching; and real
+fetiches, though not known by this name [perhaps "mascots"?], are used
+about their persons to shield them from sickness or from the effects of
+witchcraft."[92]
+
+While on a furlough in the United States in 1891, I visited a town in
+Southern Virginia, and by invitation of the Negro pastor of the African
+church addressed them on foreign missions. Somewhat at a loss what
+attitude to take toward a Negro audience in speaking to them of Africa, I
+candidly asked the pastor what I should say. He bade me speak exactly as
+if I was addressing an educated white assembly. I did so. In describing
+native African virtues and vices, I mentioned their fetichism, and
+remarked that it was the same that obtained in the United States; and lest
+my hearers might think I was personally attacking them, I added, "down
+South in Georgia and Louisiana." The bench of elders sitting just in front
+of me broke out, "And jist around hyar, too."
+
+I had read Cable's "Creole Tales." One of his characters is sick with a
+strange vague affection whose symptoms medicine had failed to reach. He is
+superstitious, and one morning he wakes in horror at finding a dead frog
+secreted under his pillow. That fetich was no novelist's conjecture; it
+was true to life. About 1894 or 1895, while I was alone in charge of Gabun
+Station, for three successive mornings when I opened the front door, I
+found a dried frog leaning against the threshold. I did not care enough
+about it to inquire its significance or to ascertain who put it there.
+Since then I have found that it is not used as a fetich by people of the
+Gabun region, but probably by Upper Coast people. I remember that at that
+time I had three Bassa workmen from Liberia whom I suspected of stealing
+and who then suddenly deserted my service. I think they placed the frog
+there, either to injure me or to prevent my following up their theft.
+
+
+FOLK-LORE.
+
+An attractive survival of African life in America are "Uncle Remus's"
+mystic tales of "Br'er Rabbit." They are the folk-lore that the slave
+brought with him from his African home, where in village hut and forest
+camp often have been told to my own ears similar weird personifications
+before Harris had actually written them. There being no rabbits in West
+Africa, "Br'er Rabbit" is an American substitution for "Brother" Nja
+(Leopard), or Brother Iheli (Gazelle), in Paia Njambi's (the Creator's)
+council of speaking animals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TALES OF FETICH BASED ON FACT
+
+
+The view-point of the native African mind, in all unusual occurrences, is
+that of witchcraft. Without looking for an explanation in what
+civilization would call _natural_ causes, his thought turns at once to the
+supernatural. Indeed, the supernatural is so constant a factor in his
+life, that to him it furnishes explanation of events as prompt and
+reasonable as our reference to the recognized forces of nature. Mere
+coincidences are often to him miracles.
+
+In the large mass of materials which I gathered from all native sources of
+information for the formulation of the philosophy of fetichism, as
+presented in the former part of this work, I found many remarkable tales
+some of whose incidents were probable, and which to me were explicable on
+natural grounds, but which my native friends believed were the effect of
+witchcraft power. I did not dispute them. To do so would either have
+closed their lips or made them omit the witchcraft element from any
+subsequent stories they might narrate to me. I thus secured these tales as
+a purely native product.
+
+I did not use a note-book, fearing that its presence would hamper the
+freedom of the story-teller, but listened carefully and wrote down the
+interview immediately at its close. Not all knew that I was writing for
+publication. That knowledge would have interfered with the simplicity of
+their utterances. Of my several informants, some were ignorant, some
+heathen, some Christian, only a few well educated. Of the most intelligent
+of my informants, two allowed me to take notes as they were speaking, and
+I really wrote from dictation; they considerately spoke slowly, so that I
+should miss nothing, while I wrote rapidly and at the same time had to
+translate their language into English. Of those two, one was able to give
+part of the interview in English. The thoughts in these stories are
+entirely native. So are most of the words. I tried to retain the
+narrators' own structure of sentences, sacrificing a little of English for
+the sake of native idioms. The prevalence of short words is due to my
+effort at exact translation of their own words. Occasionally I have used
+longer words of Latin origin because I had forgotten their word, and in an
+effort to repeat their idea. The shortness of the sentences is due to the
+natives' graphic and animated style of speaking. Long sentences are
+foreign to their mode of speech.
+
+The following two stories are illustrative of the native belief, mentioned
+in Chapter IV, that we possess not only our physical body, but also an
+essential or "astral" form, in shape and feature like the body. This form,
+or "life," with its "heart," can be stolen by magic power while one is
+asleep, and the individual sleeps on unconscious of his loss. If the
+life-form is returned to him before he awakes, he will be unaware that
+anything unusual has happened. If he awakes before that portion of him has
+been returned, though he may live for a while, he will sicken and
+eventually die. If the magicians who stole the "life" have eaten the
+"heart," he sickens at once, and will soon die.
+
+
+I. A WITCH SWEETHEART.
+
+A certain man loved a woman whom he expected to marry. He visited her
+regularly. Whenever he intended to visit her, he always notified her thus:
+"I will be coming such a day" or "such an hour." Then she would say,
+"Yes." But it happened on a particular day when he told her, "I'll be
+coming to-night," she said, "No, not to-night, wait till next night." He
+replied, "No, for I will come to-night." But she refused, "No, I do not
+want you to come to-night." Then he asked, "What is your objection?
+Hitherto you have let me come when I pleased. What is the matter
+to-night?" So she said, "I do not want you to come, because I will be
+absent to-night." "Where are you going?" he asked. To this she gave as
+answer only, "Don't come! I don't want you to come!" So the man said, "All
+right! I will not come. If you don't want me, then I'm not coming." So he
+left her, very much surprised at what she had said, and began to think
+something was going wrong; he thought he would like to know for himself
+what it was.
+
+This woman was one of those who belonged to the Witch Society, and engaged
+in its plays. But the man had not suspected this, and did not know that
+she was one of those who played.
+
+The native belief is that when a witch or wizard has seized some one to
+"eat" his "life" or do him other harm, if there be a non-society witness
+hidden or in the open, the odor of that witness weakens the witch power,
+and the attempt at witchcraft fails.
+
+This man, not suspecting the real state of the case, but in order to know
+what was going on with the woman, came softly and hid near her house,
+where he might be able to see whether any one went in or came out. Soon he
+heard the door of her house open. He saw her come out of the house without
+any clothing, and she quietly pulled the door to after her and closed it,
+and then walked away from the place. All this the man saw, but he said
+nothing. He stood outside waiting, waiting until she should return. After
+a long while, as he was tired standing, he thought he would go into the
+house and hide himself somewhere. It was not long after this that he heard
+a little noise outside, and looking through the apertures of the bamboo
+wall saw her and others with her, men and women. Some of them were
+carrying the form of a man on their shoulders. Others spread out on the
+ground green plantain leaves, and stretched the form on the leaves. Each
+of the party had a knife, and they began their work of cutting the form
+into pieces. While thus occupied, they saw that their knives would not
+penetrate. Some of them began to step around, peeping into recesses as if
+they were looking for something. Still trying to cut, their knives seemed
+dulled; no one of them could succeed in cutting out a single piece. So
+they stopped, and began to sharpen their knives, and again tried to cut,
+using more force in their efforts. They worked rapidly, for they had to
+hasten, as there were signs of approaching day.
+
+As they still were unable to make any incisions after the sharpening of
+the knives, they thought it very strange, and began to suspect that some
+one was near witnessing what they were doing. So some of them began to
+search in different directions; they sniffed to detect the odor of a
+person. This they did over and over again, and came back, and again
+sharpened their knives, and again they failed. And then they would again
+go around, sniffing for a human being.
+
+At last, as it was near morning, they had to give up their intention of
+cutting into this form. So they had to take it up again on their shoulders
+and carry it back to where they had brought it from, and lost their feast.
+
+Then the woman came back to her house, very much disappointed and excited.
+Though it was still dark, it was so near daybreak that she did not go to
+bed, but took a light, and began to hunt all through her house, having at
+last begun to suspect that perhaps her lover was there. Finally she found
+him where he was hiding. She was very angry, saying, "Who told you to come
+here? What brought you? And when did you come? Did I not tell you not to
+come to-night?" But he turned on her, saying, "But where have you yourself
+been? And what have you yourself been doing? I came here expecting to find
+another man here. But that is not what I saw!"
+
+She trembled, saying, "Have you been here a long time?" And he
+significantly said, "Yes, I have!" Then, furious, she said, "Now you have
+seen all that we were doing, and you have found me out! And as you have
+discovered that I am engaged in witchcraft, and lest you tell others about
+it, you shall see that I will put an end to your life! You shall not go
+out of this house alive!" So she pulled out her knife. But the man was
+quite strong, and though he had no weapon, made a hard fight. He was
+stronger than the woman, was able to get away from her, and left the house
+just before daylight.
+
+From that day their friendship was broken; neither cared again to see the
+face of the other. The man informed on the woman. But she was not
+prosecuted; for no one was able to make specific complaint that they had
+lost their "heart-life." That form had been restored to its person
+unrecognized and uninjured. No one out of the society, not even the victim
+himself, knew of the attempt that had been made on him.
+
+
+II. A JEALOUS WIFE.
+
+A man of the Orungu tribe in the Ogowe region had several wives, of whom
+the chief, commonly called the "queen" or head-wife, had no children. This
+was a grief to her and a disappointment to the husband. But one of his
+younger women, who had now become his favorite, had a baby, and the
+head-wife was jealous of her.
+
+The husband still retained the older one as the bearer of the keys and in
+direction of the other women, though he was beginning to doubt her, as he
+suspected her of witchcraft. But he said nothing about it, not being sure.
+
+It is believed that witches can enter houses without opening doors or
+breaking walls, and can do what they please without other people knowing
+of it at the time. So one night this man and his young wife were sleeping
+in the same bed with their little babe. Suddenly, after midnight, the
+mother happened to wake up startled. She missed her baby from the bed. She
+looked and looked all over the bed from head to foot, and did not find it.
+Then she was frightened, woke up her husband gently, and told him in a
+whisper, "The child is missing! I don't see the child!"
+
+The husband told her to get up and light a gum-torch (for there were coals
+smouldering on the clay hearth used as a fireplace), that they might look
+for the child. She did so, and both hunted, looking under the bedstead and
+elsewhere, but did not find the child. Then they examined the windows and
+door; for perhaps the child had been taken out by some one. The door and
+windows were all properly fastened. The mother was very much troubled; but
+her husband, keeping his own counsel, advised her not to scream or make a
+noise, but said, "Let us go back to bed, but not to go to sleep; and let
+the room be dark again." So the wife put out the torch, leaving the room
+in darkness; and they returned to bed. Then the husband said, "Maybe we
+can prove or see something before morning" (for he suspected); and he
+added, "Whoever or whatever has taken the child out so secretly, will
+secretly bring it back. So we must not sleep, but watch."
+
+So both lay awake in bed for a few hours. Then, just before morning, while
+it was still dark, they heard a little noise outside near the house, like
+the rustling of wings and the panting of breath. They were both anxious,
+and had their eyes wide open. Soon they saw the room flashed full of a
+bright light from the roof. [Witchcraft people are noted for having a
+light which they can thus flash.] Then the wife, as soon as she saw the
+light, quietly nudged her husband; and he returned the pressure, to let
+her know that he was aware, and also to intimate that she should continue
+silent as himself; and they pretended to be sleeping soundly.
+
+Soon they saw the figure of a woman descend from the low roof, but with no
+hole in the roof. The figure came to the bedside and lifted up the edge of
+the mosquito-net with one hand, in the other holding a child. As soon as
+she attempted to put the baby back in its place, between the father and
+mother, the father, as he was the stronger, and nearer to the figure on
+the outside of the bed, got up quickly, and seized both hands of the woman
+before she had time to let go of the child and escape from the room. He
+said aloud to the mother, "Get up! Your baby has been missing. Now light
+the light, and we will see the person face to face who has taken the child
+out!"
+
+The young mother did so, and they discovered that it was the head-wife who
+had brought in the child.
+
+Then, when the father felt the body of the babe, it was limp and burning
+with fever.
+
+As it was so near daylight the father did not delay, but began at once to
+make a fuss, and shouted for the people of the village to gather together.
+And he began a "palaver" (investigation) immediately. When all the people
+had assembled to hear the palaver, both the father and the mother related
+what had passed during the night, about their missing the child, and its
+return.
+
+The head-wife, being accused, was silent, having nothing to say for
+herself; for she was both ashamed and afraid to confess that she had been
+eating the life of the baby. But all the people knew that such things were
+done, and they believed that this woman had done with the baby whatever
+she wanted to do while she had it outside that night.
+
+Then the father of the child tied up the head-woman, and said to her, "Now
+I have you in my hands, I will not let you go until you give back the
+baby's life, and make it well again." [The belief is that if the
+"heart-life" has not been eaten the victim can recover.] This she was not
+able to do, for she had eaten its "heart." So the next day the baby died.
+And the husband executed that head-woman by cutting her throat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above incident was told me at Libreville by a very intelligent Mpongwe
+as having actually occurred in the Gabun region. It is fully believed that
+walls are no obstacle to the passage of the bodies of those possessing the
+power of sorcery. The "light" spoken of I have seen. I do not know what it
+was. From a small point it would flash with starlike rays. It was carried
+by a man, who disappeared when pursued. A Christian native told me that he
+once pursued it, and caught the bearer with a torch concealed in a hollow
+cylinder; the flashing was caused by his thrusting it in and out of the
+cylinder.
+
+
+III. WITCHCRAFT MOTHERS.
+
+(On an itineration in my boat on the Ogowe interior, in 1890, I came to a
+village of the Akele tribe, whose inhabitants were in an intense state
+of excitement. All the men were brandishing guns and spears or daggers;
+women were gesticulating and screaming; the loins of all were girded for
+fight; and a few only of the older men and some strangers were appealing
+for quiet.
+
+Among the latter was a native trader of the Mpongwe coast tribe. His trade
+interests made for peace. I knew him, as he had received some education in
+our Gabun school.
+
+I saw that in such confusion it would be useless to attempt to ask a
+hearing for my gospel message. I did not wait to inquire the cause of the
+day's commotion, and passed on to another village.
+
+Subsequently the Mpongwe man told me the story. Though slightly educated
+and enlightened, he was not a Christian and believed in fetiches. His
+account, therefore, was from the heathen standpoint. I cannot repeat his
+own wording, but the outline of the story is exactly his.)
+
+In that village were two slave women, each married to a free husband. Each
+was expecting to become a mother,--No. 1 in three months, and No. 2 in six
+months. They were friends; and, unknown to their husbands, were members of
+the Witchcraft Society, and were accustomed secretly to attend and take
+part in the society's midnight meetings and plays. Just what is the nature
+of those plays is not quite certain, but it is known that wild orgies of
+dancing constitute a part of them.
+
+These two women, that they might be freer for their dancing and other
+movements, were accustomed, in going to the meetings, to divest themselves
+temporarily of their unborn babes. This they were able to do by witchcraft
+power, in virtue of which the possessor can pass, or cause any one else
+to pass, uninjured through any material object, as a ray of light passes
+through glass.
+
+This they did on their way to the meeting-place on the edge of the forest.
+They laid their babes on the grass in a secluded spot, and resumed them on
+their return. As they did so, No. 1 observed that hers was a male, and No.
+2 that hers was a female. They did this many nights in succession.
+
+Subsequently No. 2 began to be envious of No. 1 in the possession by the
+latter of a male child. The husband of No. 2 had been very anxious for a
+son. She knew that if she could present him with a son he would be very
+proud, and would enlarge her position and privileges in the family. So,
+one night, she did not wait for her friend No. 1 to return with her, but,
+excusing herself from the play, came back on the path alone. Coming to
+where the two babes were lying, she deliberately exchanged her own girl
+for the boy of No. 1.
+
+The latter stayed very late at the play,--so late that, as she hasted
+home, fearful lest the morning light should find her on the path (a
+dangerous thing to a witch-player), on coming to where the babes had been
+deposited, she snatched up the remaining one without examining it, and,
+supposing it to be hers, resumed the natural possession of it.
+
+Shortly after this, the nine months of No. 1 were fulfilled, and she bore
+a child which, to her surprise, she saw was a female. She made no remark,
+as she immediately suspected what had been done. She waited three months,
+until the days of No. 2 also were fulfilled. At the birth of the child of
+No. 2 there was great rejoicing by the husband in the possession of a son.
+He made a great feast, and called together a large gathering of people.
+Among them was not invited the woman No. 1; for she and No. 2 were no
+longer friendly, though neither of them had said anything.
+
+In the midst of the rejoicings No. 1 made her appearance, though
+uninvited, and striding among the guests, went silently into the bedroom,
+carrying a three-months-old female babe. She went to the side of the bed
+of No. 2, laid down the female child, saying, "There's your baby!"
+snatched up the male infant, saying, "This is mine!" and strode out of the
+room into the street and on the way to her house.
+
+A scream from No. 2 startled the crowd of guests; word was passed that the
+boy was being stolen, and No. 1 was pursued and brought back; but she
+desperately refused to give up the boy. The whole village was at once
+thrown into confusion.
+
+That was the state of affairs on the day that I arrived there. My
+informant told me that he and others induced the crowd to quiet, by saying
+that the matter could better be settled by a talk than by guns, by sitting
+down in council than by standing up in fight.
+
+On being brought before the council or palaver, No. 1 was calm and firm.
+She still held to the boy-baby. She said she was willing to be judged, but
+demanded that No. 2 should also be made to confront the council. The sense
+of guilt of the latter made her weak and unable to face the friend she had
+wronged.
+
+Charged with stealing, No. 1 made a bold speech. She said, "Yes; I have
+taken my own! If that be stealing, I have stolen!" And then she told the
+whole truth of the witchcraft plays of herself and No. 2. The latter,
+overcome with shame for her crime, did not deny; she admitted all. And No.
+1 closed her defence by saying, "So this other woman has nothing about
+which to make complaint. She has her child, and I have mine, and that
+settles the matter."
+
+The crowd was amazed, and the husbands were ashamed at finding that their
+wives were witches. The husband of No. 2 was no longer disposed to fight
+after his wife had admitted that the boy-baby was not her own. The matter
+was dropped, as no one was really harmed. Neither husband was disposed to
+fine the wife of the other for her witchcraft, as both were guilty.
+
+The guests ate the feast, but the host had no satisfaction in its now
+useless expenditure except that it was considered sufficient reparation to
+the husband of No. 1 for his own wife's original theft.
+
+
+IV. THE WIZARD HOUSE-BREAKER.
+
+(The incidents narrated in the following three stories, The Wizard
+House-Breaker, The Wizard Murderer, The Wizard and his Invisible Dog, my
+informant asserted were actual occurrences; Nos. IV. and VI. occurring in
+the Gabun region, and the parties known. The witchcraft part of the
+stories consists in the strange light which wizards and witches are said
+to possess; it is under their control to display or hide, and it gives
+them power to overcome time and space. The scene of No. V. is on the Ogowe
+River.)
+
+There were a husband and wife who had been married a number of years. She
+had a child, a little boy. The husband had a brother; and this brother had
+taken a strong fancy to the woman, and wanted to possess her. Secretly he
+was asking her to live with him. But the woman always refused, saying,
+"No, I do not want it!" Then this brother's love began to change to anger.
+He cherished vexation in his heart toward the woman, and asked her, "Why
+do you always refuse me? You are the wife, not of a stranger, but of my
+brother. He and I are one, and you ought to accept me." But she persisted,
+"No, I don't want it!"
+
+The brother's anger deepened into revenge. He possessed nyemba (witchcraft
+power), and determined to use it.
+
+One day this woman had to go to her plantation; and she arranged for the
+journey, taking her little boy with her. Before she left the village to go
+to the plantation, she told the townspeople, "I will remain at the
+plantation for some days, to take care of my gardens; for I am tired of
+losses by the wild beasts spoiling my crops." But the other women said,
+"Ah! your plantation is too far; it is not safe for you to be by
+yourself." But she said, "I cannot help it; I have to go." She was brave,
+and persisted in her plan, and made all preparations. On a set day, with
+her basket on her back, her child on her left hip, and her machete in her
+right hand, she started. She went on, on, steadily; reached the
+plantation, and rested there the remainder of that day with her child.
+After her evening meal she shut the door of the hut and went to bed. The
+door was fastened with strings and a bar, for the plantation hamlets had
+no locks.
+
+She awoke suddenly about midnight, and thought she heard a noise outside.
+She listened quietly. Then she heard the sound again. Presently she
+discovered by the noise that some one was trying to climb upon the top of
+the hut, for the roof was low. Soon, then, she observed that this person
+was trying to break open the palm-thatch of the low roof. She still lay
+quietly. But she remembered a big spear which the husband always kept in
+one of the rooms of that hut; so she slowly got out of bed, and very
+softly went to the corner of the room where the spear was standing, and
+returned to bed with it.
+
+The breaking of the thatch continued. Soon she saw the room filled with a
+strange light, and then she saw a man trying to enter the roof head
+foremost. She bravely kept still, and watched his head and shoulders
+enter. She could not see his face, and did not know who he was. But she
+did not wait for certainty; she thrust the spear upward at the man's head.
+Immediately the figure disappeared, and she heard a heavy thud as he fell
+to the ground into the street outside.
+
+She now began to be frightened; she no longer felt safe, and dreaded what
+might happen before morning. So she began to get ready to return to town
+that very night. She girded her loin garment, fastened the cloth for
+carrying her child, took her machete, hasted out of the hut, and started
+for her village. In her fear she ran, and rested by walking. Thus,
+alternately running and walking, she reached the village so exhausted and
+weak with loss of sleep that when her husband's door was opened she fell
+fainting on the floor. He and others were alarmed, and asked, "What?
+What's the matter?" As soon as she was able to speak, she told the whole
+story. They asked her, "Did you see the person? Do you know him?" She
+said, "No; only one thing I know: it was a man, and he fell into the
+street."
+
+So, when daylight came, the husband and others went to the plantation to
+see whether they could find the man. When they reached the plantation,
+they were very much surprised to see that the man was this brother. He was
+lying dead, with the spear in his neck.
+
+The husband was not vexed at his wife for the death of his brother; he was
+pleased that she had so well defended herself.
+
+
+V. THE WIZARD MURDERER.
+
+(My informant asserted that this really happened in the Ogowe.)
+
+The parties are a husband and wife, their two little children, and a
+younger brother of the husband. One of the children, a boy, was a lad old
+enough to understand affairs.
+
+The brother-in-law loved the woman, and secretly tried to draw her
+affections to himself; but to all his solicitation she gave only
+persistent refusal. Thus matters went on, he asking and she refusing; and
+then his love turned to hatred.
+
+It happened one day that the husband and wife had a big quarrel of their
+own. The wife was so angry that she said she would leave him, take the
+children, and go to her father's house. But that home was far away, and
+could not be reached in one day. Other women tried to prevent her going,
+as she would have to spend the night in the forest on the way; but she
+insisted.
+
+Leaving her clothing and other goods, she started off with the two
+children, a little food, and her machete. Trying to make the journey in
+one day, she walked very fast. But when the sun had set, and soon darkness
+would fall, the lad said, "Mother, as we cannot reach there to-night,
+don't you think we'd better stop and arrange a sleeping-place before
+dark, and let the spot be a little aside from the public path?" The mother
+said, "Yes; that is good!" Then she gave the babe to the lad to hold,
+while she with her machete began to cut away bushes and clear the ground
+for a convenient sleeping-spot. After she had cut away some bushes, the
+lad watching her, saw that she was clearing a space larger than was needed
+for herself. He asked her, "Do you intend that we all shall sleep in that
+one place,--you and baby and I?" The mother said, "Yes." But he said,
+"Why, no! Fix two places,--I by myself, and you and baby in another
+place." The mother replied, "No, I cannot let you sleep alone in this
+forest; I want you near me." However, the lad insisted: "But if anything
+happens to us in the night, then we will be lost all together. I am not
+willing that we should be all in the same place."
+
+So the lad began to search for a place for himself, and came to a big tree
+which was not very far from his mother's chosen spot. He called her to
+him, and said, "I have found a good place. Just you clear for me behind
+this big tree, and dig a trench for me to lie in, just below the level of
+the ground." The mother did so.
+
+After the two spots were cleared, they ate their little evening meal, and
+night came. Then the lad said, "Now I go to lie in the trench, and you
+sprinkle leaves over me to hide me, and then you go to your
+sleeping-place. And if anything happens to me at night, I promise I will
+not cry out; I will remain silent. And you promise that if anything
+happens to you, you also will not cry out, nor call to me." The mother
+agreed, and both went to sleep.
+
+Not long after this, both were awakened by a strange flashing light, and
+the mother saw some one coming to the place where she was lying. Then the
+light was suddenly extinguished; and she saw a man near her, and
+recognized that he was her brother-in-law. She was exceedingly alarmed,
+knowing that he did not come with good intent. In her fright she hoped to
+gain time by pretending to be friendly with him. So she exclaimed, "Oh! My
+young husband! Now you have come after me, so that your brother's wife
+will not have to sleep in the forest alone. Now we will make friendship
+and be good friends." But he replied in anger: "Friends, you say? You
+shall see what kind of friends I will make with you to-night! You, the
+woman who hates me! Where is the lad?" She, determined to shield the
+child, said, "The lad did not come with me; he preferred to stay in town
+with his father." The man replied, "You are not telling me the truth. Tell
+me where the lad is!" But she persisted in her statement, "He is left in
+town with his father."
+
+Then the man walked about in search of the lad, going even very near to
+where he was lying awake in the trench. But the leaves hid him, and his
+uncle did not discern that the ground had been disturbed. Returning to the
+woman, he said, "Good! you are telling the truth. I don't see the lad. But
+now I am ready to attend to you. You shall see." So he approached the
+woman to seize her. She was so paralyzed with fear that she neither
+attempted to run away, nor, though her machete was lying near, did she lay
+hold of it. Even had she done so, she was too weak with her journey to
+defend herself. The man snatched up the babe that still was sleeping, and
+looking around for a rough, projecting root, violently flung the babe
+against it. It made no cry; and both he and the mother supposed it was
+instantly killed. Then he drew his machete, which he had made very sharp,
+and began to cut and slash the woman. She pleaded and cried for help; but
+there was no help near. She fell, covered with wounds, and died on the
+spot. All this the lad saw and heard. After killing the mother, the man
+began again to search for the lad, but did not find him; and, as it was
+now after midnight, he left the place to go back to town.
+
+Soon after he was gone, the lad, exhausted with terror and fatigue, fell
+asleep. But he awoke again in the early daylight. Arising from his trench,
+he went with grief and distress to see the two corpses. Looking at his
+mother's blood-covered form, he saw that she was dead. Looking at his
+baby brother lying on the root, he took up the little form, sobbing, "Only
+I am alive. Even this little child was not spared. Am I to go on my
+journey all alone?" Examining the limp body still further, it seemed still
+to show signs of life; and he said to himself, "I think I will try to save
+it. I am strong enough to carry it to my mother's people, to whom I shall
+tell this whole story."
+
+So he took up the cloth in which his mother had carried the child,
+adjusted it for himself, placed the unconscious form in it, and started on
+his journey. A short distance beyond brought him to a brook. Before he
+crossed it, he stooped to take a drink of water. Then examining the little
+body again, he felt that it was not stiff and was still warm. Said he,
+"Ah! perhaps it has a little life! I better give it a drink." So he tried;
+and the baby drank. He rejoiced. "So perhaps it will be alive. I better
+bathe it." And he did so. Then he crossed the brook, and journeyed on.
+Before he reached his grandfather's village, he crossed another brook, and
+bathed the babe, and gave it a drink as at the first brook.
+
+On his arrival at the village the people were surprised to see him without
+his mother. His grandfather at once wanted to know his story and why he
+had come there alone. Said he, "Please, before I tell my story, try to
+save this baby."
+
+After the people had looked to the baby's needs and saw that it might
+live, they gathered together to listen to what the lad had to say. When
+they had heard his account, they started back with him to find his
+mother's corpse. They took it up and carried it to her husband's village,
+there to hold palaver over the death. As soon as they reached the village,
+instead of announcing themselves as visitors to the husband, they went
+straight to the brother-in-law's house. They found him sitting in the
+veranda. They laid the corpse at his feet. This so startled him that a
+look of guilt showed on his face. Looking at the party who had brought the
+corpse, he saw among them the lad; and at once he felt sure that this lad
+had been a witness of his crime. He lost his self-control, and began to
+scold, "What do you put this thing at my feet for? Take it away!"
+
+Then all the townspeople gathered around him, being horrified at the news
+of the woman's death. The husband called them all to a council, and the
+palaver was held at his house. There the grandfather and the lad told the
+whole story.
+
+The brother-in-law began to enter a denial; but the husband said, "No, you
+are guilty! and because we are brothers, and we are one, the guilt is also
+mine; and I will confess for you. You are guilty. Your actions show it.
+Why did you become so angry as soon as you saw the corpse at your feet?"
+
+But the wife's family said to the husband, "We have no quarrel with you.
+We want only the person who killed our sister, and a fine of money for our
+loss."
+
+Then the husband said, "You are right; this man killed her. Take him, and
+for a fine take his slaves and other property. He has deliberately
+deprived me of a wife, and my children of a mother. Take all he owns." It
+was so done; and the assemblage dispersed.
+
+
+VI. THE WIZARD AND HIS INVISIBLE DOG.
+
+(This, my informant asserted, actually happened at the town of Libreville,
+Gabun.)
+
+One night a young woman was alone in her house. She was married; but, that
+particular night, the husband was absent.
+
+After she had gone to her bed for the night, she slept, but not very
+soundly. Half awake, she thought she heard something moving in the front
+reception-room (ikenga). She had lowered the lamp in her bedroom, but it
+still gave enough light for her to see. She slightly opened the
+mosquito-net on one side and began to look and listen. But she saw no one
+nor anything unusual in her room. But as the door between her bedroom and
+the reception-room was slightly ajar, she looked toward its opening, and
+thought she saw a figure moving in that room. She felt sure there was some
+one there. So she stepped softly out of the bed, and peeped through the
+narrow opening of the door. Sure enough, there was a man.
+
+She was frightened, but controlled herself. She was puzzled to know how he
+had got into that room, whose outer door she knew she had fastened before
+she went to bed. She crept quietly back to her bed, and then began to
+shout, "Who is that? How did you get in? I see you!" There was no answer.
+The figure ceased moving, and stood still. The woman again cried out, "Who
+are you? When did you come in? What do you want?" The man replied in a low
+voice, "It is I!" She rejoined, "Who is 'I'? Are you only 'me'? Who are
+you? How did you succeed in entering? Go out!" So he apparently opened the
+door and went out. She was so frightened that she did not immediately
+follow him, nor did she make a public outcry.
+
+Awhile afterward she recovered self-control, and arose and went into the
+outer room, and assured herself that the outside door was fast, as she had
+left it. She believed he had entered the closed door by witchcraft art.
+
+The next morning she told her village people the story; but she was afraid
+to mention the man's name (for she knew who he was), because many people
+thought he possessed power as a wizard, and she feared he would revenge
+himself on her. She told his name only to her mother.
+
+Not long afterward he came again to her house when she was alone at night,
+but did not enter. He came to the outside wall against which he knew her
+bedstead stood. Lying there, she could see his form through the cracks in
+the bamboo wall. She saw this as she happened to awake from sleep. She saw
+his figure standing still, and she heard a sound as of the tinkling of a
+bell moving about, such as natives tie to the necks of their dogs in
+hunting. The wizard had brought with him this time a small invisible beast
+to whose neck the invisible but audible bell was attached; and she heard
+a sound along the bottom of the wall, as if the animal was scratching a
+hole for its master's entrance. This time she was so alarmed that she
+screamed aloud to the people of the village; and then, through the chinks
+in the wall, she saw passing by in the street the figure of the same man.
+
+The very next day the woman began to be sick of a fever. For several days
+she was quite ill, and people began to be alarmed for her. Her sickness
+grew very much worse. Her people sent for a Senegal man, living in
+Libreville, who had quite a reputation as a doctor in that kind of
+sickness. When this doctor came, she was able to speak only in a low
+voice, and she recounted to him what had happened. He asked her to mention
+the precise spot on which the man had stood outside of the wall of her
+house. She described to her mother the particular spot, and the mother
+took the doctor to show him. He scraped up clay from the place and mixed
+it in a small bowl of cold water. He directed that after she had been
+given a bath morning and evening this muddy water should be rubbed over
+her body. She said that when it was thus rubbed over her skin, her flesh
+temporarily felt as if it was paralyzed.
+
+Her sickness continued more than a month, and then she recovered. Soon
+after her recovery the man who had attempted to enter her room, and who
+was suspected of having caused her sickness by witchcraft art, suddenly
+left Gabun, and went to another country.
+
+
+VII. SPIRIT-DANCING.
+
+Antyande, a Mpongwe woman of the town of Libreville, Gabun, is a leader of
+a company of ten or a dozen women in a certain native dance called
+"ivanga," which is performed only by women. Some dance it only as an
+exhibition of their gymnastic skill; others mix with it fetich and
+witchcraft arts, and claim that their movements are under spirit power.
+Antyande, more than the other women of the company, uses witchcraft in her
+performances. She seems almost to glide through the air, alighting on the
+knees of sitting spectators without giving them the impression of weight,
+gyrating on small stools without moving the stools from their position,
+and making many other wonderful physical contortions in an exceedingly
+graceful and easy manner. She even goes to graveyards at night,
+accompanied by three or four men and women, to get what they call the
+spirits of the dead. It is said by some of the men who have gone there
+with her that they do not understand what she does, but that it is so very
+strange and awful that they are afraid. The reason why she goes for these
+abambo (ghosts) of the graves is that she may be spry and alert, and able
+to do with her body whatever she pleases. She claims also to be
+accompanied by a leopard and a bush-cat that are visible to her but not to
+others. As these animals are noted for their quick and agile movements,
+and are under her witch-power control, they are able to impart to her
+these qualities.
+
+In January, 1902, she was dancing her ivanga, and there was a woman among
+the spectators who had been drinking to the point of intoxication. In her
+foolishness she determined to help Antyande by assuming to be directress
+to keep the spectators in order. But, being drunk, she could not do so;
+she only made disorder. In attempting to make matters straight she only
+made them crooked. Antyande asked her to get out of her way. Many, also,
+of the spectators begged the woman to cease interfering; but she would
+not, and finally she vexed Antyande by spoiling her movements in getting
+too close in front of her. Antyande's patience was exhausted, and she
+suddenly revealed a secret that astonished many even of her intimate
+acquaintances, saying, "Whoever is related to this drunken woman, please
+tell her to get out of my way while I am dancing, because my dance is not
+a mere gymnastic exercise. I have leopards and bush-cats about me, and if
+she comes too near me, and the tails of these animals should twist around
+her legs, then she will get a sickness: and if that happens, her people
+must not hold me responsible for it, for I have given you this warning."
+This surprised many of the people; for they had supposed she was nothing
+more than an unusually graceful dancer, and that her success was purely
+physical. Now, publicly, she admitted that the power in her limbs and body
+causing her graceful undulations was a supernatural one. So some of the
+women laid hold of the drunken woman, and induced her to get out of the
+way.
+
+
+[Illustration: EKOPE OF THE IVANGA DANCE.--GABUN.]
+
+
+While dancing, Antyande wears a wide belt called "ekope," which is made
+with white and red stripes, and adorned with fringes of small bells in
+bands like sleigh-bells. It is known that her ekope has been heard and
+seen moving as if in the rhythm of a dance in her own room when she was
+not visibly there. Those who heard the sound of its bells would think she
+was there practising the dance; but when they went to look, they saw it
+moving, but did not see her. A few months afterward, a report came at
+night to the villages that Antyande was very much excited and could not
+sleep; that she had gone to her room for the ekope, and that it was not
+there. So she began to make a great fuss, and begged her associates to
+keep watch and go with her to search for the missing ekope. Some of these
+friends were willing; others were not, and these went to their beds. She
+then went to other villages and told the people there: "My ekope has gone
+out on a promenade. Have you seen it?" These people were among the chief
+dancers of her band. But they told her they did not know where the ekope
+was. So she began to ejaculate a prayer: "Oh, please, you went out for a
+walk; come back to me, for if you do not return, then I am lost. It will
+be death to me." Just before daylight, as she was still wandering about
+with her friends, and singing ivanga songs to attract her ekope, suddenly
+she and two of her friends heard the tinkling of the bells among the
+bushes lining a certain road which passes by a Roman Catholic chapel. They
+all went in the direction of the sound of the bells, and entering a
+cluster of the bushes, they saw the ekope moving to and fro. She was so
+glad to see it, and she bade one of her companions to go and get it. But
+the woman was afraid, and refused, saying, "Me! Oh, no! Go and get it
+yourself!" So she went to it, singing her ivanga song, seized it, and
+brought it to her house.
+
+As she is noted for her grace and skill in that particular dance, another
+woman, by name Ekamina, asked her to give her power such as hers, as she
+also wished to be leader of another band of ivanga dancers. Antyande
+assented, saying, "Well, do you want spirits with it?" The other replied,
+"Yes, I want two." So the two women, with a young man to escort them, went
+at night to the graves and obtained the two desired spirits. It is these
+which give them spirit power. When under their influence, their bodies are
+thrilled with a new essence which makes them very light and causes them to
+act and speak as if insane. The two women came back to Antyande's village,
+and she performed all the magic ceremonies that Ekamina wanted.
+
+Some time after this, when Ekamina had practised much and had danced
+publicly several times, people began to say to her that she danced very
+well, and soon she was invited to give exhibitions in various places.
+
+One day it happened that the two women had arranged to dance on the same
+night, each with her own party, at villages quite distant from each other.
+Antyande asked Ekamina to give up her play for that night and join with
+her, "for," said she, "I want to make mine grand; and you wait for yours
+another day." But Ekamina was not willing. Antyande tried to get her to
+change her mind, and was very much displeased because she refused. Ekamina
+said, "I will not give up, for my dance is by special invitation at
+Anwondo village, so I have to go." (Libreville is three miles long; one
+end is called "Glass," and Anwondo is at the other end.) Ekamina lived at
+Glass, and on her way to Anwondo she had to pass the village of Antyande.
+The latter said to herself, "As Ekamina is not willing to do as I wish,
+and I was the one who gave her this power, I will watch her as she passes,
+and see what I will do." So, when Ekamina passed at night with her party
+to Anwondo, Antyande watched her chance as Ekamina neared her. She went
+behind her, and did some magic act which would make the latter powerless
+to dance and not be aware of her loss of power. When Ekamina reached
+Anwondo and commenced her play, she was not able to dance at all. She
+tried till midnight, and failed. She suspected that Antyande was the cause
+of the failure, for the latter had not been friendly since their
+unsatisfactory talk. So she took a portion of her party that same night
+back to Antyande's village, told the latter her trouble, and begged her,
+"Please, if you have taken away the power, give it back, so I may finish
+the dance to-night." Antyande said, "No; you would not listen to me. I am
+a chief dancer, and you are praised as the same. Go and dance!" Ekamina
+said, "But please give me back the power; I am not able to dance without
+it." Antyande replied, "No, go to the graveyard and get other spirits
+there for yourself." So there was no dance done by Ekamina that night.
+
+
+VIII. ASIKI, OR THE LITTLE BEINGS.
+
+People believe that Asiki (singular "Isiki") were once human beings, but
+that wicked men, wizards and witches, or other persons who assert that
+they have memba (witchcraft powers), caught them when they were children
+and could not defend themselves, nor could their cries for help be heard
+when playing among the bushes on the edge of the forest. These wicked
+persons cut off the ends of the children's tongues, so that they can never
+again speak or inform on their captors. They carry them away, and hide
+them in a secret place where they cannot be found. There they are
+subjected to a variety of witchcraft treatment that alters their natures
+so that they are no longer mortal. This treatment checks their entire
+physical, mental, and moral growth. They cease to remember or care for
+their former homes or their human relatives, and they accept all the
+witchcraft of their captors. Even the hair of their head changes, growing
+in long, straight black tresses down their backs. They wear a curious
+comb-shaped ornament on the back of their head. It is not stiff or
+capable of being used as a comb, and is made of some twisted fibre
+resembling hair. The Asiki value it almost as a part of their life.
+
+These Asiki will sometimes be seen walking in paths on dark nights, and
+people meet them coming toward them. It is believed that in their meeting,
+if a person is fearless by natural bravery, or by fetich power as a wizard
+or witch, and dares to seize the Isiki and snatch away the "comb," the
+possession of this ornament will bring him riches. But whoever succeeds in
+obtaining that "comb" will not be allowed to remain in peaceful possession
+of it. The poor Isiki will be seen at night wandering about the spot where
+its treasure was lost, trying to obtain it again.
+
+It happened in the year 1901 that there was a report, even in civilized
+Gabun, about these Asiki,--that two of them were seen near a certain place
+on the public road at that part of the town of Libreville known as the
+"Plateau," where live most of the French traders and government officers.
+A certain Frenchman, who is known as a freemason, in returning from his 8
+P. M. dinner at his boarding-house to his dwelling-place, observed that a
+small figure was walking on one side of the road, keeping pace with him.
+He accosted it, "Who are you?" There was no answer; only the figure kept
+on walking, advancing and retreating before him.
+
+Also, a few nights later, a Negro clerk of a white trader met this small
+being on that very road, and near the spot where the Frenchman had met it,
+and it began to chase the Negro. He ran, and came frightened to his
+employer's office, and told him what had happened. His employer did not
+believe him, laughed at his fears, and told him he was not telling the
+truth. The very next night the Frenchman, the trader, and other white men
+and Negro women were sitting in conversation. The trader told the story of
+his clerk, whereupon the Frenchman said, "Your clerk did not lie; he told
+the truth. I have myself met that small being two or three times, but I
+made no effort to catch it." The women told him of the comb-ornament which
+Asiki were believed to wear, and of the pride with which Asiki regarded
+it, and the value it would be to any one who could obtain it. Then the
+Frenchman replied, "As the little being is so small, the very next time I
+see it I will try to catch it and bring it here, so that you can see it
+and know that this story is actually true."
+
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN LIBREVILLE, GABUN.]
+
+
+On a subsequent night they two--the Frenchman and the trader--went out to
+see whether they could meet the Isiki. They did not meet with it that
+night; but a few evenings later the Frenchman went alone, and met the
+Isiki near the place where it had first been seen. The Frenchman ran
+toward it and tried to catch it; but it being very agile eluded his grasp.
+But, though he failed to seize its body, he succeeded in catching hold of
+its "comb," and snatched it away, and ran rapidly with it toward his
+house. It did not consist of any hard material as a real comb, but was
+made of strands resembling the Isiki's hair, and braided into a comb-like
+shape. The little being was displeased, and ran after him in order to
+recover the ornament. Having no tongue, it could not speak, but holding
+out one hand pleadingly and with the other motioning to the back of its
+head, it made pathetic sounds in its throat, thus inarticulately begging
+that its treasure should be given back to it. On nearing the light of the
+Frenchman's house it retreated, and he showed the ornament to other white
+men and some native women. (So positive was my informant that the names of
+these men and women were mentioned to me.) He said to the trader, "You
+doubted your clerk's story. Have you ever seen anything like this in all
+your life?" They all said they had not. It was reported that many other
+persons hearing of it went there to see it.
+
+From that night the little being was often seen by other Negroes. It was
+always holding out its hand, and seemingly pleading for the return of its
+"comb." This made the Negroes afraid to pass on that road at night. The
+Frenchman also often met it; it did not chase him, but followed slowly,
+pleading with its hands in dumb show, and occasionally making a grunting
+sound in its throat. This it did so persistently and annoyingly that the
+Frenchman was wearied with its begging, and determined that the next night
+he would yield up the "comb." But he went prepared with scissors. He found
+the little being following him. He stopped, and it approached. He held out
+his hand with the ornament. As the Isiki jumped forward to snatch at it,
+the Frenchman tried to lay hold of its body; but it was so very agile
+that, though it had come so near as to be able to take the comb from the
+Frenchman's hand, it so quickly twisted itself aside as to elude his
+grasp. He however succeeded in getting his hands in its long hair, and
+snipped off a lock with his scissors. The Isiki ran away with its
+recovered treasure, and did not seem to resent the loss of a portion of
+its hair. This hair the Frenchman is said to have shown to his companions
+at their next evening conversation, and I was given to understand that he
+had sent it to France. It was straight, not woolly, and long.
+
+These Asiki are supposed not to die, and it is also believed that they can
+propagate; but so complete has been the parent's change under witchcraft
+power that the Isiki babe will be only an Isiki and cannot grow up to be a
+human being.
+
+It is asserted that Asiki are now made by a sort of creative power (just
+as leopards and bush-cats are claimed to be made, and used invisibly) by
+witch doctors.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am only writing these tales, I am not explaining them. Some of the
+statements in the above story are too circumstantial to be denied. But
+there is a wide margin for uncertainty as to what one might see after the
+conviviality of an 8 P. M. West African dinner. In my sudden leaving of
+Gabun in June, 1903, I had not time to interrogate the men and women named
+as having seen the Isiki's tress of hair.
+
+
+IX. OKOVE.
+
+(The incidents of this story really occurred, and independent of the
+fetich belief in okove power, are true. At the request of my native
+informant the names of the two tribes are suppressed, for the sake of the
+living descendants of the two kings.)
+
+There was an old king of one of the principal tribes of West Equatorial
+Africa who had great power and was held in great respect and fear; there
+was none other his equal.
+
+He had brothers and cousins. One of these cousins had a servant, a slave,
+who had been bought from an interior tribe. It happened that this man had
+not always been a slave, but in the tribe from which he had been sold he
+was a freeman. The charge on which he had been sold by his own tribe was
+that of sorcery and witchcraft murder, the death penalty for which had
+been commuted to sale into slavery. He was deeply versed in a mystery of a
+certain fetich or magic power called "Okove." He possessed it so
+powerfully that no one was able to overcome him in contests of strength,
+and people were greatly afraid of him.
+
+So his owners intended to get rid of him by selling him out of the
+country. To do this, they planned to catch him in the daytime; for he
+exercised his okove power chiefly at night, when he could change himself
+into a powerful being ready to overcome any one who should resist him.
+
+One night when this great king, who also possessed the okove power (though
+it was not generally known), went out to inspect, he saw a big tall man
+walking up and down near his premises. The king said to him, "Ho! who are
+you?" The man answered, "It is I." The king asked, "Who is I?" The man
+replied daringly, "I have already told you that I am I." So the king asked
+again, "Who are you? Where did you come from? And what are you doing
+here?" The man said, "I go everywhere, and do what I please at other
+people's places, and so I have come here." The king commanded him, "But,
+no, not at this place. This is mine. Go back to your own!"
+
+The slave gave answer, "No! that is not my habit. No one can master me!"
+
+The king again ordered him, "Go!" He flatly refused, "No!" The king then
+said plainly, "Are you not willing to leave my premises?"
+
+He replied, "No, I never turn away from any one. I go away when I please.
+When I am ready, I will go back to my place." At this the king,
+restraining himself, slowly said, "Be it so!" and turned away, leaving the
+slave standing in his yard.
+
+The next day the king sent word for his cousin the owner of the slave to
+come; to whom, when he had arrived at the house, the king told how he had
+seen the man at night. And he inquired, "What does he do? Why does he
+leave his place on the plantation and come to my place at night?" The
+cousin was surprised to hear this, exclaiming, "So! indeed! he comes here
+at night?" Then he went back to his house, and calling the slave, asked
+him about this matter. "Do you go around at night, even to the king's
+place?" The man said, "Yes." His master said, "Why do you do that? Do you
+hear of other lower-caste people daring to go to the king's at night?" He
+answered, "No; but it is I who do as I please." His master told him, "No;
+you better return to the plantation, and live among the other slaves." He
+replied "I will go, but not now." His master asked him, "But what are you
+waiting for?" He only repeated, "Yes; but not now."
+
+The very next night, on the king's going out as usual, he found this slave
+again at his place, and said to him, "So! you here again?" The man
+replied, "Yes; just what I told you last night, that I do what I please,
+and I can master anybody." Then the king said, "I warn you plainly, clear
+off from my place!" He replied, "No, I do not intend to clear out; but I
+am ready for a fight."
+
+The king asked, "You really want a fight with me?" The man answered, "Yes,
+I am ready for it." Said the king, "It is well."
+
+The fight began, each with his full okove power. In such contests, the
+power is able to change the contestants' bodies to many forms. The slave
+was quick in his use of them. His first change was to the form of a big
+gorilla. This also the king met. As the fight went on, the next form was
+into that of leopards. The fight went on, with frequent changes; the slave
+always being the first to change. After a while the slave seemed to be
+growing tired, and the king asked him, "Are you through?" He answered,
+"No, only resting." Again the fight was resumed. Finally, the slave took
+an eagle's form; the king did the same.
+
+Presently the slave seemed to hesitate, and the king said, "You said you
+wanted a fight. Well, let us go on with it." They continued; but the slave
+seemed to be exhausted, and the king said, "Now, are you willing to leave
+the place?" He answered, "No; my fatigue is not yet so great as to make me
+leave your place." The king had held his power in reserve, and had been
+tolerant of the man's audacity; but he now resumed his human form, took
+his gun (the slave had none), and aiming it, off it went, and wounded him.
+Being wounded, the slave had to acknowledge that he was overcome, and he
+had to go. When morning came, the slave was not able to get up to go about
+his work, and remained in bed. The gun-shot wound was a small one, and he
+was conscious that he was dying of some other cause. He sent some one to
+the master's house to ask him to come. When his master came, he said, "Ah!
+master! I have something to say to you. Please plead for me!" The master
+said, "Plead for you! For what?" The slave then told him, "I went around
+last night to the king's place. He told me to leave, and I was not willing
+to do so. So we had a great fight. And I am conquered. But please plead
+for me, that he may make me well."
+
+The master replied, "Did I not advise you not to go there, but rather to
+stay at your plantation?" He assented. "But please plead, and I will stay
+at the plantation."
+
+The master answered, "I do not think the king will be willing to help
+you." Nevertheless, being a cousin, he went privately to the king, and
+told him all that the slave had told him. The king refused, saying, "No,
+I am not going to do anything for him. He must die." The next day the
+slave was dead.
+
+
+(Another illustration of that king's okove power was narrated to me.)
+
+There had been ill-feeling between this king's tribe and an adjacent
+inferior tribe who had killed two of the king's chief men without cause,
+coming suddenly upon them at night in their fishing-camp. The king's
+people were very much troubled about it, and asked to be led to war. But
+the old king said, "You young people don't know anything. If you go to
+war, there will be much blood shed on both sides. Leave the matter with
+me. I will attend to it myself."
+
+So at night he went by himself to the town of the king of the offending
+tribe, and remained there waiting in ambush on the path. Early next
+morning four of the women belonging to that town had gone to their gardens
+with their baskets to get food. The old king followed them secretly. After
+all of them had filled their baskets, two lifted them upon their backs and
+started to return to their town. The other two were just stooping (as is
+the custom in lifting burdens, leaning forward on one knee in order to
+place their backs against the basket, with a strap passing around the
+basket and over their foreheads), when the king came behind then and
+struck their necks with his okove. They instantly died in that stooping
+position.
+
+The two women who had gone on ahead reached their town without knowing
+what had happened to the other two. They waited in town a long time for
+the two absent ones to come. But when they did not make their appearance,
+the people began to ask those women about the other two. They said they
+knew nothing about the delay, only that they had left them ready to come
+and preparing to lift their baskets. The townspeople, anxious because it
+was late in the day, went out to search for the women. They found them on
+the path, dead by their baskets. They examined their bodies for some mark
+or wound or sign of a blow. There was none. This very much perplexed them,
+for they did not suspect the cause of their death. They carried the dead
+bodies to town. The next night the king went again to that same town, and
+he happened to meet the other king at the boat-landing of the town. So the
+old king made complaint to the other why the servants of the latter had
+killed his two chiefs. The other made no reply, having no justification of
+what his people had done.
+
+Then the old king said, "As your people have done this, there is war
+between us"; and he struck him with his okove. And he added, "Do you know
+that I have already begun war with your people? Did you not find two of
+your women dead yesterday at your gardens? I killed them. But I am not
+through with you. I want you to pay a fine, and I want the man who killed
+my two chiefs, for the lives of the two women are not equivalent to those
+of my two chiefs."
+
+The other king felt he was conquered by some unseen power, and did not
+resist. He agreed to give up the murderer and pay a fine. The next day he
+had the murderer caught and brought before a council. He told them that
+the old king of the other tribe wanted the life of that man and a sum of
+money for the lives of his two chiefs.
+
+They began to collect on the spot goods and food of all kinds, and many
+things of little value, with which to make simply the appearance of a full
+canoe. They tied the prisoner, put him in the canoe, and went with him and
+the goods to the old king. He received them.
+
+But at night he went again to the other king, and began to rebuke him,
+saying that what he had sent was not sufficient. The other made a protest:
+"I have given you enough,--the lives of the two women, the one man, and
+goods equivalent to two more lives. I have thus given you five for your
+two."
+
+But the old king, in tribal pride, reckoned the sex and social position of
+his two men greater than any five of an inferior tribe, and said, "How
+dare you speak to me like that? You shall surely die!" He struck him with
+his okove, and went away.
+
+The next day the other king was not able to leave his bed and sent for
+many of his people to come, saying that he had a special word to speak to
+them. They came, and he told them all about the death of the two women,
+and all that had occurred between him and the old king. "And now," he
+said, "I am dying. We are overcome. It is useless to resist. I want you to
+remember, as long as the world stands, never to fight or quarrel with the
+tribe of that king."
+
+Then he turned his face to the wall and died.
+
+
+X. THE FAMILY IDOLS.
+
+(To a village on the St. Thome or left bank of Gabun Bay, or "River," away
+up a winding mangrove stream, and on the edge of the forest that was
+broken by pieces of prairie, I went, in February, 1903, to visit a friend,
+a sick Christian woman, who was in the care of a relative of hers named
+Adova.
+
+There were only five huts in the village. At the first one from the edge
+of the prairie, which was assigned to me in which to sleep, on a bench
+outside under the low eaves, was a roughly carved wooden idol, about
+fourteen inches in height. From the dressing of the hair of its head, I
+supposed it to be intended for a female. Its loins were covered with a
+narrow strip of cloth. Near it was what could scarcely be recognized as a
+dog, its head looking more like a pig's, and its tail more like an
+alligator's. The figures were chalked and painted; and near them were a
+few gourd utensils for eating and drinking, and some medicinal barks.
+
+Subsequently, at night, in a curtained-off corner of my room, I saw three
+low baskets, in each of which was a pair of wooden images not six inches
+high. They were chalked, and adorned with strips of various-colored cloth.
+In each basket also was a wooden hourglass-shaped article that seemed
+intended for a double bell. Pieces of medicinal barks filled up the spaces
+in the baskets. The images were relics of ceremonies held over twins born
+long ago in the family.
+
+At the other end of the village, in a very small roughly built hut, open
+on one side, were two other idols,--one, a male, standing and chalked and
+painted. The female in an ornamented box was not visible; near them was a
+nondescript animal.
+
+The story of these idols, as told me by my friend (who has since died), is
+more especially connected with this pair.)
+
+PART I. OKASI.
+
+It was made by a Loango man, a fetich doctor, very many years ago. The
+Mpongwe family that to-day owns these relics had sent south to Loango, to
+the Fiat or Ba-Vili tribe, to bring to Gabun for this special purpose this
+celebrated magician.
+
+When he arrived, the chief of the family who had summoned him went with
+him off to the forest, with all the medicines, and so forth, which the
+Loango man had brought. This occurred on that same left side of the
+"river" where I was visiting.
+
+The magician began to explain everything in the way of directions about
+the medicines that were to be put into the hollow of the abdomen of the
+idol (and which to-day is still covered by a small round mirror fastened
+over it). After explaining all these matters, he gave also all the orunda
+(prohibitions), _viz._: The idol must not be allowed to fall on its face;
+it must have a small hut for shelter from rain and sun: it must be given a
+light at night, at least of coals of fire. After this, he began to carve
+the idol. After making the male of the pair, and before making its female,
+he made a duplicate of the male, exactly like it, except that it was only
+an imitation without any magic power; and, instead of medicines, only
+powdered charcoal was put into the hollow in its abdomen, which, however,
+was to be covered with glass, exactly as the real one.
+
+When these two idols were finished, the two men, the magician and the
+chief of the family, went with them far into the forest. The Loango said,
+"I will put these here, and when we go back to your town I will give the
+power of olaga [a certain kind of spirit] to one of your women. If she
+receives it properly, she herself, without knowing our path, will come to
+this forest, and will make no mistake in choosing the real idol from the
+imitation; and she will bring it to me in the town." (It is a rule with
+the native sorcerers that if the one who aspires to the power should make
+a mistake in this choosing, she must pay a fine of from $60 to $100.)
+
+When all was arranged, the Loango man said, "Now let us go back to town."
+So they turned back. But when they had gone half of the way, he said to
+himself, "This Gabun man now knows everything, and where the idols are,
+and which is the real one. It is his sister who wishes to receive the
+power; he will go and tell her everything, and she will make no mistake,
+not by reason of her possessing power, but by his private information." So
+the Loango said, "Go you to the town, await me there; I will come soon."
+And he turned back into the forest by himself, took up the two idols from
+where he had laid them down, went in another direction and hid them there,
+and then returned to town.
+
+He then gave the power to the woman, and said, "Go and bring the olaga."
+She started, went with only a little power, and was going at random; but
+before she had gone half-way, she came under the full power. Then she
+turned her face right and left, and gave an olaga yell, seeking to know
+which way the power would lead her. At once then she knew which was the
+way; and she went running and shouting frantically, under the influence of
+this power, to the precise spot, and took up the real idol, making no
+mistake about the imitation one. Holding it aloft, she returned, shouting
+and dancing, under the Delphic frenzy. She entered the town singing and
+dancing in the street, and then laid the idol at the feet of the Loango
+man. He took it, and knew it was the right one. He then went to the forest
+and brought also the other, the duplicate. When he returned, he went with
+it and the real one to the ogwerina (backyard) to show to the Gabun man
+the slight difference in the two (which he knew by a private mark). In
+doing this he had to take off the little mirrors and show the difference
+between the medicines and the charcoal. And he again closed the mirrors.
+Then, just to test the woman, the magician said to her, "Go and bring me
+the idol I have left in the ogwerina." She went there, still under the
+power, and with a frenzied scream seized the right one and brought it to
+him. He was half glad and half disappointed; for had she mistaken, he
+would have received more money.
+
+Then the townspeople held a great dance, and the Loango taught them
+special songs for the olaga. The female of the pair of idols had also been
+made about the same time as the male, but with no special ceremony.
+
+All being finished, the magician named his fee for his services, was paid,
+and went back to Loango.
+
+This idol was intended as a family fetich, to protect the family at night,
+and to kill any one who would attempt to injure any of the members. The
+name of this male of the pair was Okasi.
+
+The name of the other one, that was under the eaves of the hut in which I
+slept, was Kaka-gi-bala-dyambo-gi-bala-ve. These are Shekyani words,
+and mean "A-great-log-may-rot-but-a-spoken-word-dies-never." That meant
+that if an enemy came and injured any one in the town, the wrong would
+never be forgotten and would surely be avenged. That idol might almost
+stand for a statue of Vengeance.
+
+The above proverb comes from a tale of a cruel old Shekyani chief.
+
+PART II. BARBARITY.
+
+Once there was a very powerful Shekyani chief named Ogwedembe. He had many
+sons and daughters and slaves and slave children and nieces and nephews.
+He had also a brother. His principal delight was in fighting and killing.
+
+Ogwedembe used to go out on excursions, and would say to his company, "Now
+we are out of town." That meant that all restraint was cast aside, and
+that he was ready to kill the first person they might meet, even without a
+cause.
+
+One day when they were out and were passing through a thick forest, they
+saw a man up a tree who had come for palm-wine and had filled two of the
+gourd-bottles used for that purpose. So Ogwedembe shouted to him, "Indeed!
+what are you doing there? Have you not heard that Ogwedembe and his
+brother are out of town? Come down quickly and meet us here!"
+
+The man did not dare disobey, and came down. Ogwedembe took the gourds,
+and said, "You may have one; I and my brother will drink the other." After
+the drinking, Ogwedembe stripped the man of his clothing, leaving him
+standing naked and trembling. In his terror the man did not attempt to
+escape.
+
+Ogwedembe drew his knife, and repeated his questions, "Who told you to
+come here? Did you not know that Ogwedembe and his brother were out in the
+forest? Now I will fix you; and you can carry the news to your town that
+Ogwedembe and his brother are in the forest."
+
+He then seized a portion of the man's body, and with his butcher-knife
+horribly mutilated him. The man started, bleeding, to go to his town, and
+died on the way.
+
+The section of country in which Ogwedembe's portion of the Shekyani tribe
+lived was south of Gabun, toward the Orungu people at the mouth of the
+Nazareth branch of the Ogowe River. Sometimes he and his brother would
+travel in their war canoes all the way from their place, and, passing
+Gabun, would go on northward to attack the Benga of Cape Esterias without
+cause and in sheer ruthlessness.
+
+Some of his daughters and sisters were married to Mpongwe chiefs at Gabun.
+At times his daughters and nieces would go and visit him. They would be
+received with firing of guns and other great demonstrations, and on
+leaving would be laden with presents.
+
+About twenty years ago one of his sisters, named Akanda, died in the prime
+of life. She lived at Gabun, her husband a Mpongwe. (She was the mother of
+Adova, my hostess, who is apparently about sixty years of age, and has a
+younger brother apparently about thirty years of age.) So, when that
+sister died, Ogwedembe came to Gabun, on the St. Thome side, to the
+funeral. My sick friend happened to be there at the time (for, by family
+marriage, she is a cousin to Adova) and saw the old chief.
+
+Ogwedembe, according to native custom, demanded of the husband a fine for
+his sister's death (as if due to lack of proper care of her). When that
+was paid, as a sign that no ill-will was retained, Ogwedembe was to give
+the widower another wife.
+
+During this discussion Ogwedembe kept saying, "I wish my sister had not
+been married to a Mpongwe, for it is not your custom to shed blood for
+this cause. But I feel a great desire to kill some one. If this had been a
+Shekyani marriage, I would have gone from town to town killing as I
+chose." The Mpongwe replied, "But we have no such custom." He answered,
+"Yes, I know that. I only said what I would like to do, though your tribal
+custom will not allow me to do it."
+
+His demand of a fine being finally yielded to and paid, to show his
+peaceful intentions, he gave the husband one of his daughters, a widow who
+had with her two children,--a son and a daughter,--and who afterward bore
+him other children.
+
+Ogwedembe's bloody instincts were suppressed at that funeral, and he
+remained awhile after the close of the mourning ceremonies, making
+friendly visits among his Mpongwe sons-in-law, and then went back to his
+Shekyani country.
+
+A short time after that the eldest daughter of that woman Akanda (my
+hostess Adova) and her husband Owondo visited Ogwedembe. He made a great
+welcome for them, with dancing and rejoicing of various kinds. Every day
+he sent his people to fish and hunt, to obtain food for Adova and the
+children she had with her.
+
+Before Adova left, Ogwedembe called his principal wife and his
+grandchildren, and said, "When I die, you who are here in Shekyani, do not
+remain here, but go to Gabun and live with Akanda's children all the rest
+of your life." When he finally died, they obeyed and came to St. Thome,
+of Gabun, bringing their idols with them.
+
+The one female image that was under the eaves of the house in which I
+slept was for guarding their families; but the three sets of twins were to
+prevent their mothers from becoming barren.
+
+PART III. THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY.
+
+(It was an ancient and universal custom that a refugee, by clasping the
+knees of the king of any other tribe, could claim his protection. The king
+was bound to accept the claim. The obligation he thus assumed was sacred.)
+
+While Adova was there at Shekyani country, visiting Ogwedembe, there came
+to him an Orungu man with a little slave boy, carrying a box. As soon as
+they entered the town, both of them came to Ogwedembe, and kneeling and
+clasping his feet, claimed his protection, and promised voluntarily to be
+under his authority.
+
+The old chief, without asking the cause of their flight or their reason
+for coming to him, assented, and summoned the town to make the Ukuku
+(Spirit-Society of Law) ceremony of installing the man and his slave boy
+as members of their Shekyani tribe.
+
+Adova and her husband were very kind to this adopted "brother," and he at
+once became exceedingly intimate with them.
+
+At night this new man had been assigned to the house occupied by
+Ogwedembe, in a room near him, so that he could watch him that he should
+not run away, now that he belonged to Ukuku. But it was not known that
+this man possessed all the power of nyemba (sorcery). Ogwedembe also had
+power for fighting, and a certain amount of knowledge that warned him not
+to be deceived by sorcerers.
+
+After two days, on the third night, this man rose, and tried to go to
+Ogwedembe's room, to put some witchcraft medicine on him. But Ogwedembe
+saw him coming, rose, seized his staff, walked toward the man in the
+darkness, and struck him violently on the head. The man fell. But neither
+of them uttered any word, nor made any outcry.
+
+Very early in the morning Ogwedembe got up, went out, and sat on the
+veranda of his house. He called to Adova, "Come, I want to tell you
+something." She came, and he said, "I had a bad dream last night. If any
+one comes to you to-day to ask you to make medicine for a sore head, do
+not do it." "Who is it?" she asked. He refused. "No, I will not tell you.
+But I know that before to-day is over some one will come to you, but do
+not help him."
+
+The Orungu got up late that day and looked and felt dull. When he left his
+room, he sent his boy to call Adova. The boy went. She came to him. He
+said, "Can't you find medicine for a headache? I did not sleep well. My
+head pains too much." She said, "I do not know a medicine for that kind of
+headache." The old chief was sitting near, and, looking significantly at
+the Orungu, said to Adova, "Yes, that is right."
+
+The next night the man said, "I do not wish to sleep here to-night. I will
+go to an adjacent village, and will be back in the morning." "Well, go,"
+assented Ogwedembe, "but be sure to be back in the morning." And the man
+said, "Yes."
+
+Scarcely had he left the town to go to the other village, when there came
+to Ogwedembe three people from a certain Orungu town carrying a message
+from their Orungu chief, thus: "The chief sent us, saying, 'Please give up
+this man who came to you and who claimed your protection. Give up the man.
+You do not know his habits; they are the habits of a worm that in eating
+spoils only the best. He, with his sorcery, always aims at killing the
+greatest. If you do not give him up, there will be war; for our chief has
+had this same demand made on him from a third chief whose people this man
+has been killing, and our chief will have to make war with you.'"
+
+Ogwedembe laughed. "You say 'war' to me? That is nothing to me. You cannot
+do it. War cannot touch me."
+
+When the message of the Orungu chief was being sent to Ogwedembe, some of
+the attendants on the delegation had awaited half-way on the route, and
+only the three had brought the message. Ogwedembe said to these three
+messengers, "Go and call your chief, and we will talk about it."
+
+The chief came. (All this while the man was away at the other village, not
+having kept his promise to return.)
+
+Ogwedembe said to the Orungu chief, "It is impossible. The law is sacred.
+I will not give him up." But in his heart he felt, "I am protecting a
+sorcerer who has tried to kill me; better I take the money for his
+extradition, and send him away." He and the chief went on discussing. The
+point was made that the sorcerer having himself broken his obligation, by
+attempting to injure his adopted father, relieved that father of his Ukuku
+duty of protection.
+
+Ogwedembe began to yield, and to name the number of slaves that should be
+given him as the price of giving up the man. The Orungu chief demurred to
+the price: "It is too much!" So Ogwedembe brought down the price to six
+slaves,--three slaves, and three bundles of goods equal to the price of
+three slaves. And it was so settled. Then the Orungu chief said, "I will
+go in haste to my town to get you the goods; but as to the three slaves,
+this man's boy must be counted as one of them."
+
+There was a dispute over this, Ogwedembe claiming that the boy was not
+guilty of any crime, and that his right to protection still existed. The
+Orungu insisted that the boy, being a slave, must follow the fortunes of
+his master, must be extradited as one with him, and then would of their
+own will be released by them from the penalty of his master's guilt.
+Ogwedembe consented. So the Orungu chief and his people went to get the
+goods, on the promise that Ogwedembe would have the man caught and ready
+to be delivered to them.
+
+At once Ogwedembe sent word to the man to fulfil his promise of returning
+to the town, and told his sons to be ready early next day to have the man
+caught and tied, ready for delivery on arrival of the goods.
+
+Next day Ogwedembe, seeing the man coming to him, came out of his house to
+meet him, and speaking ewiria (hidden meaning), called out to his people,
+"Sons, have you tied up the bundle of bush-deer meat?" "Oh yes, father,
+we'll have it ready just now," as they came running to him. Then they
+suddenly fell upon the man, dragged him inside the house, began to strip
+off his clothing, and tied him. He at once knew that there was no mercy,
+and he did not resist; but he said to his boy, "Call me Adova and her
+husband."
+
+But she knew he was naked, so she told her husband to go and hear what the
+man had to say. Owondo went, and the man said, "Owondo, I have no friends
+here; only you and Adova have been kind to me, so I call you my friend.
+Untie this small strip of cloth I have about my waist. I have four silver
+dollars there. I am going to die. These dollars are of no use to me; you
+and your wife take them. My box is in Adova's care; she must have the few
+things in it." So Owondo untied the girdle, took the money, and went out.
+
+Shortly afterward the Orungu people came, bringing the goods and slaves,
+and took away the man. He was taken by the three messengers to the
+half-way camp, where they had left their attendants. There were no houses
+there for shelter, and only their mosquito-nets as tents. They stopped
+there with the intention of passing the night, and next day of going on to
+their Orungu town.
+
+When it came evening they began to prepare their sleeping-places, and at
+bedtime one by one they went to lie down. A large branch from an
+overhanging tree fell very near the bed of one of the Orungu leaders,
+which was adjoining that of the sorcerer. So they all said, "Ah! we see
+what is being done by his arts. If this has begun so soon, who knows what
+will happen before morning? Let us start at once."
+
+So they all made ready that very night, and went out of the forest, down
+to the beach, and got into their boat (as they had come part of the way by
+sea).
+
+Not long after they had started the sea became very rough. Soon the boat
+capsized, broke to pieces, and all their goods were lost. They all escaped
+ashore, but the sorcerer was missing. They waited on the beach until
+daylight, and then found his loin cloth washed ashore. (His hands had been
+tied.) They believed that he had caused the storm, and was willing to die
+with them in the general destruction rather than survive to be put to
+death by the torture to which sorcerers were usually subjected.
+
+So these people sent back word to Ogwedembe and to the nearer villages to
+let them know what had happened to them, and they returned to their Orungu
+country by land.
+
+The little slave boy, who had been left with Ogwedembe as one of the three
+to be given as the price of extradition, was shortly afterward given by
+him as a present to the sick friend I was visiting that day. She stated
+that he was a most faithful servant and affectionate attendant on her
+infant daughter. He stayed with her, and died in her service a few years
+later, about 1883; and she mourned for him, for she had treated him, not
+as a slave, but as a son.
+
+
+XI. UNAGO AND EKELA-MBENGO.
+
+(In the presence of theosophy, telepathy, thought-transference,
+astrophysics, and wireless telegraphy, the following Benga legend has at
+least a standing-place. It was written more than forty years ago by an
+educated native in the Benga dialect. I translate it into English,
+preserving some of the native idiom.)
+
+Unago and Ekela were great friends. They lived, Unago at Mbini in Eyo
+(Benito River); Ekela at Jeke in Muni (the river Muni, opposite
+Elobi islands in Corisco Bay. The two rivers are at least forty miles
+apart; Ekela is supposed to make the journey in two hours.)
+
+They were accustomed, if one killed a wild animal, to send for the other.
+One day Unago killed a hog. Then he sent for his friend Ekela. He at Mbini
+said, "Oh, Chum Ekela! start you out very early in the morning hither.
+Come to eat a feast of pig." And his children would say, "Father, your
+friend at Jeke, and you right here, will he hear?" Said he, "Yes, he
+will hear." And so Ekela, off there, would say to his children, "Do you
+hear how my friend is calling to me?" His children answered, "We do not
+hear." Says he, "Yes, my friend has called me to eat pig there to-morrow."
+
+Before daybreak Ekela takes his staff and his fly-brush and starts. When
+the sun is at the point of shining at Corisco, he reaches Mbini. Unago
+says to his children, "Did I not say to you that he can hear?"
+
+And so they eat the feast; the feast ended, they tell narratives. In the
+afternoon Ekela says, "Chum, I'm going back." Unago says, "Yes."
+
+Having left him after escorting him part of the way, this one goes on, and
+that one returns. When Ekela, going on and on, reaches clear to
+Jeke, then day darkens. When his children see the lunch which he
+brings, then they believe that he has been at Mbini.
+
+
+A PROVERB: MANGA MA EKELA.
+
+(Manga means "the sea"; secondarily, "the sea-beach"; thirdly, by
+euphemism, "a latrine," or "going to a latrine." For the sea-beach is used
+by the natives for that purpose, they going there immediately on rising in
+the morning. They stay, of course, but a short time. If one should stay
+very long, this proverb would be used of him, because Ekela, when he went,
+stayed and made a journey of fifteen or twenty miles.)
+
+Ekela was accustomed, if he started out early to the seaside in the
+morning, to say, "I am going to manga"; then he went on and on, clear on
+to Hondo (a place at least fifteen miles distant). Passing Hondo, his
+"manga" would end only wherever he and his friend Unago met. There having
+told their stories, they then each returned. This one went to his village,
+and that one to his village. When Ekela was about to go back to his
+village, then he would leave his fly-brush at the spot where he and his
+friend had been; and when he would arrive at home, he would say to his
+children, "Go, take for me the fly-brush which was forgotten of me, there
+at the sea, on the place where I was. Follow my foot-tracks." When the
+children went, it was step by step to Hondo, and the foot-tracks were
+still farther beyond.
+
+The children, wearied, came back together unto their father, and said, "We
+did not see the brush." When he went another morning, then he himself
+brought it.
+
+
+XII. MALANDA--AN INITIATION INTO A FAMILY GUARDIAN-SPIRIT COMPANY.
+
+(Manjana was my cook at Batanga in 1902. He is a young married man with
+several small children. He is of a mild, kindly disposition, obliging and
+smiling, without much force of character, slightly educated, civilized in
+manner and dress, but without even a pretence of Christianity; at heart a
+heathen, though a member of the Roman Catholic church, into which he
+consented to be baptized as the means of obtaining in marriage his wife,
+who had been raised in that church.
+
+His Romanism sat lightly on him, for he voluntarily attended my Protestant
+evening-prayers, taking his turn with others in reading verses around in
+the chapter of Scripture for the day; then he liked to take part in the
+general conversation which followed about native beliefs and native
+customs.
+
+Yaka, or family fetich, is no longer, at Batanga, a matter of dread, even
+to the heathen; so Manjana was not afraid to tell me freely what happened
+when he was initiated into it as a lad. I wrote down his story hastily, as
+soon as he left that evening. I later wrote it out in full, while it was
+all fresh in my memory. I could not exactly reproduce his graphic native
+words, so I did not attempt them. The description is my own. But I
+followed exactly the line of his story, and used only his thoughts. He
+said:)
+
+"I knew that a house was being built on the edge of the forest, a short
+distance from our village. I and other lads and young men assisted the
+strong adult men who were building it. But I did not then know for what
+purpose or why it was being built. I remembered afterward that no girls or
+women were either assisting or even lounging about it, watching the
+process of building and chatting with the workmen, as when other houses
+were built. I did not know that they had been told not to look there. I
+remembered afterward that the house was located separately from the other
+houses of the village, but that did not just then strike me as strange.
+Somewhat similar houses had been built, as temporary sheds in making a
+boat or canoe. Such houses are built rapidly, and not with the same care
+as is used in the erection of dwellings. So it did not occur to me as
+noticeable that this house was finished in the short time of two weeks.
+One gable of it was left open.
+
+Nor did I connect its erection with the fact that a prominent man of our
+family had died just two weeks before. I know now that, in the manner of
+his death, or in things that happened immediately afterward, the elders of
+the family had seen inauspicious signs that made them fear that evil was
+being plotted against us. As I now know, some six or eight of our leading
+adult male members of the family had had a secret consultation, and had
+decided that Malanda should be invoked.
+
+I did not then know much about Malanda. I knew the name, that it was a
+power, that it was dreaded; but how or why I had not been told.
+
+I know now that while this house was being built one or two other men were
+carving an image of a male figure; also, that when the house was
+completed, that very night some of those elders had secretly disinterred
+the corpse that had been already two weeks in its grave, and had brought
+it to that house. There they had extracted two teeth, and had fastened
+them in the hollowed-out cavities representing the eyes of the image, and
+had hidden them there by fastening over them, with a common resinous gum
+of the forest, two small pieces of glass. And they had stood the image,
+painted hideously, on the cover of a large box, made of the flexible inner
+bark of a tree, at the closed end of the house.
+
+Then they had cut off the head of the corpse and had scooped out its
+rotten brains. These they had mixed with chalk and powdered red-wood and
+the ashes of other plants, and had tied up the mixture carefully in a
+bundle of dry plantain leaves. I already knew and had seen such things
+regarded as very valuable "medicine," used to rub on the forehead or other
+parts of the body. Then they had tied the headless corpse erect against a
+side wall of the house, keeping its arms extended by cross pieces of wood.
+
+The first that I knew that anything unusual was about to occur was early
+one morning, just after the completion of the house, when the voices of
+the elders were heard in the street, "Malanda has come!" The women and
+girls were frightened. They knew they were not to look at Malanda. And we
+lads were oppressed with a vague dread that subdued us from our usual
+boisterous plays. We knew the name "Malanda." It was a power, it was
+mysterious. Mystery is a burden; it might be for good or for evil.
+
+Immediately all the adult men went into the forest. In about an hour they
+returned, bearing on their shoulders a long, large log of a tree. They
+cast it into the middle of the street, facing the sun. The hour was about
+8 A. M.
+
+They sternly ordered about twenty of the young men and lads to sit down on
+the log. The mystery that had burdened me now fell heavier. Our mothers
+and sisters were afraid to look on us, even with sympathy. These men were
+our fathers and uncles and elder brothers, but their voices were harsh,
+their faces set with severity, their eyes had no light of recognition as
+relatives, and their hands handled us roughly. I was dazed and helpless in
+my own village and among my own relatives, but not a word of pity nor a
+look of even kindness from a single person! Each of the twenty also was
+too occupied with his own destiny to speak to a fellow victim. As far as
+our treatment was concerned we might have been slaves in another tribe.
+With no will of our own we blindly did as we were bidden.
+
+We were told to throw our heads back, bending our necks to the point of
+pain, and to stare with unblinking eyes at the sun. As the sun mounted all
+that morning, hot and glaring, toward the zenith, we were sedulously
+watched to see that we kept our heads back, arms down, and eyes following
+the burning sun in its ascent. My throat was parched with thirst. My brain
+began to whirl, the pain in my eyes became intolerable, and I ceased to
+hear; all around me became black, and I fell off the log.
+
+As each one of us thus became exhausted or actually fainted, we were
+blindfolded and taken to that house. On reaching it still blindfolded I
+knew nothing that was there. I smelled only a horrible odor. The same
+rough hands and hard voices had possession of me. Though blindfolded, I
+could feel that the eyes that were looking on me were cruel.
+
+It was useless to resist, as they began to beat me with rods. My outcries
+only brought severer blows. I perceived that submission lightened their
+strokes. When finally I ceased struggling or crying, the bandage was
+removed. The horror of that headless corpse standing extending its rotting
+arms toward me, and the staring glass eyes of the image overcame me, and I
+attempted to flee. That was futile. I was seized and beaten more severely
+than before, until I had no will or wish, but utter submission to the will
+of whatever power it might be, natural or supernatural, into whose hands I
+had fallen.
+
+When all twenty of us had been thus reduced to abject submission, we were
+treated less severely. Some kindness began to be shown. Our physical wants
+were looked after and regarded. Food and drink were supplied us. I
+observed an occasional look of recognition. I began to feel that I was
+being admitted into a companionship. There was something manly in the
+thought of being entrusted with a secret to which younger lads were not
+admitted and from which all of womankind were debarred. This gave me a
+sense of elevation. There were some people whom I could look down upon! It
+began to be worth while to have suffered so much. I began to be accustomed
+to the corpse of my relative. True, I was a prisoner; but the days were
+relieved by a variety of instructions and ceremonies practised over us by
+the doctor.
+
+At first we were, in succession, solemnly asked whether we were possessed
+of any witchcraft power ("o na jemba?" Have you a witch?) Elsewhere we all
+would have indignantly denied having any such evil doings. But in the face
+of that corpse, under the presence of the unknown power to which we were
+being introduced, in the hands of a pitiless inquisition, and with the
+obliteration of our own wills, we did not dare lie. Would not the power
+know we were lying? We told what we imagined to be the truth; some
+admitted, some denied.
+
+The Yaka bundle was opened; some of its dust was added to the
+brain-mixture (already mentioned). Of this compound an ointment was made.
+On the breasts of those who denied were drawn commendatory longitudinal
+lines of that ointment. On the breasts of those who admitted were drawn
+corrective horizontal lines with the same mixture. Instructions
+appropriate to our respective condition, as witch possessed or
+non-possessed, were given by the doctor.
+
+We were interested also in watching the digging of a pit in the floor of
+the house. When this had reached a depth of over six feet, a tunnel was
+driven laterally under one of the side walls, and opening out, a rod or
+two beyond, where a low hut was built to conceal it. Into this tunnel the
+doctor and three or four of the strongest of the elders carried the
+corpse, and left it there for about ten days, the doctor passing much of
+that time with it.
+
+After we had been in the house almost twenty days, although still
+confined, I did not feel that I was a prisoner; I was deeply interested in
+seeing and taking part in this great mystery. I no longer dreaded the
+dead. Even if physical pain were yet to be inflicted on me, I would take
+it gladly as the price of a knowledge which ministered to manly pride. I
+was being made a sharer in the rights and possession of the family
+guardian-spirit.
+
+A few days after this the corpse, now reduced almost to a skeleton, was
+brought up from the tunnel, and bisected longitudinally. The halves were
+laid a few feet apart, parallel and a short distance away from the two
+sides of the house. We were gathered in two companies against the walls,
+and were told to advance toward each other, carefully stepping over, and
+by no means to tread on, our half of the remains. And the two companies
+met in the centre.
+
+We now felt we were free, though not formally told so. We had made a
+fearful oath of secrecy. We preferred to remain and assist in the final
+order of the house. The doctor and elders now disarticulated the skeleton
+(for such it was, the man being dead now at least five weeks, and the
+decomposed flesh having almost all fallen away). The bones were put into
+the bark box on which stood the image. They were an addition to the
+contents of the Yaka, or family fetich. Then, at the close of three weeks'
+confinement in the house, we emerged in procession, the elders bearing the
+box and the image on the top, and proceeded to the village street. There
+the box and image were set; and a joyous dance was started with drum and
+song, with all the people of the village, male and female. A sheep or goat
+was killed, and a feast prepared. While the dance was going on, the elders
+around the box were bowing and praying to the image on their knees. From
+time to time a man would parade by, lifting his steps high and bowing low,
+and as suddenly erecting himself and strongly aspirating, "Hah! hah!" And
+the village was glad, for it felt sure no evil could now come to it. I was
+safe, and ready, at the next time of danger, to assist in torturing the
+next younger set of lads, for was I not a freeman of the family
+guardian-spirit?
+
+The box and image were stowed away in a back room of the village headman's
+dwelling, who would often take a plate full of food to it, as a sacrifice,
+and sometimes an offering of cloth or other goods; and the village felt
+safe.
+
+Nevertheless, the house was not torn down; it stood empty and unused. But
+if, even a year later, evil still fell on the village, the elders knew
+that something about the Malanda had not been rightly performed. And it
+must all be done over again with the next dead adult male (never a female)
+and with a new lot of neophytes.
+
+A woman may be subjected to a part of the above ceremonies if she is
+suspected of witchcraft, or if, on examination, she confess to using black
+art. To purge her of this evil, and to counteract the consequences of what
+she may have done, she is taken to the little hut over the end of the
+tunnel, and some of the above described ceremonies are performed over her;
+but she is never taken into the house, nor into the presence of the
+corpse.
+
+
+XIII. THREE-THINGS CAME BACK TOO LATE.
+
+(The following narrative was told me by a Batanga native Christian woman
+who, herself less than thirty years of age, is a great-granddaughter of
+the man one of whose wives was the witch of this story. I bade her, in
+giving me the account, to speak, not from her present Christian standpoint
+and her only slight superstitious bias, but from the full heathen
+view-point. The confusing mixture of singular and plural pronouns
+referring to the witch is an exact reproduction of my informant's words.)
+
+The great-grandfather was a heathen and a polygamist. He had four wives.
+One of them was a member of an interior tribe, the Boheba, more heathenish
+and superstitious than his own Batanga coast tribe. Unknown to him, she
+was a member of the Witchcraft Society, had power with the spirits, and
+they with her, attended their secret night meetings, and engaged in their
+unhallowed orgies.
+
+The husband, though not a member of the society, had acquired some
+knowledge of witchcraft art, and, though without the power to transform
+himself, as wizards did, was able to see and know what was being done at
+distances beyond ordinary human sight.
+
+One night she arose from her bed to go and attend a witchcraft play. She
+left her physical "house," the fleshly body, lying on the bed, so that no
+one not in the secret, seeing that body lying there, would think other
+than it was herself, nor would know that she was gone out. In her going
+out she willed to emerge as Three-Things, and this triple unit went off to
+the witchcraft play. The husband happened to see this, and watched her as
+she disappeared, saw where she went, and, though distant and out of sight,
+knew what she was doing. So he said to himself, "She is off at her play; I
+also will do some playing here; she shall know what I have done."
+
+Among the several things of which followers of witchcraft are afraid, and
+which weaken their power, is cayenne pepper. So this man gathered a large
+quantity of pepper-pods from the bushes growing in the behu
+(kitchen-garden), and bruised them in a mortar to a fine soft pulp. This
+he smeared thoroughly all over the woman's unconscious body as it lay in
+her bedroom. He left not the smallest portion of her skin untouched by the
+pepper,--from her scalp, and in the interstices of her fingers and toes,
+minutely over her entire body.
+
+Meanwhile, with the woman at her play, the night was passing. The witches'
+sacred bird, the owl, began its early morning warning hoot. She prepared
+to return. As she was returning, the first morning cock-crow also warned
+her to hasten, lest daybreak should find her triple unit outside of its
+fleshly "house." So the three came rushing with the speed of wind back to
+her village. Her husband was on the watch; he heard this panting sound as
+of a person breathing rapidly, and felt the impulse of their wind as she
+reached her hut and came in to re-enter their house.
+
+He saw her approach every possible part of the body, seeking to find even
+a minute spot that was not barred by the pepper. She searched long and
+anxiously, but in vain; and in despair they went and hid herself in a
+wood-pile at the back of one of the village huts, waiting in terror for
+some possible escape.
+
+All this the husband saw silently. When morning light finally came, he
+knew that this wife was dead, for her life-spirit had not succeeded in
+returning to its body within the specified time. It was therefore a dead
+body. But he said nothing about it to any one, and went off fishing.
+
+As the morning hours were passing while he was away and the woman's door
+of her hut was still closed, his children began to wonder and to say,
+"What is this? What is the matter? Since morning light our father's wife
+has not come out into the street." After waiting awhile longer, their
+anxiety and curiosity overcame them, and they broke in the door. There
+they saw the woman lying dead. They fled in fear, saying, "What is this
+that has killed our father's wife?" They went down to the beach to meet
+him as he returned from fishing, and excitedly told him, "Father, we have
+found your Boheba wife dead!" The man, to their surprise, did not seem
+grieved. He simply said, "Let another one of my wives cook for me; I will
+first eat." Still more to their surprise, he added, "And you, my children,
+and all people of the village, do not any of you dare even to touch the
+body. Only, at once, send word to her Boheba relatives to come."
+
+This warning he gave his people, lest any of them should sicken by coming
+close to the atmosphere that the witch had possibly brought back with her
+from her play.
+
+By the time he had finished eating, the woman's relatives had arrived.
+They were all heavily armed with guns and spears and knives, and were
+threatening revenge for their sister's death.
+
+The man quietly bade them delay their anger till they had heard what he
+had to say; and took them to the woman's hut, that they themselves might
+examine the corpse, leaving to them the chance of contamination.
+
+They examined; they lifted up the body of their sister, and searched
+closely for any sign of wound or bruise. Finding none, but still angry,
+they were mystified, and exclaimed, "What then has killed her?" And they
+seated themselves for a verbal investigation. But the man said, "We will
+not talk just yet. First stand up, and you shall see for yourselves." As
+they arose, the man said, "Remove all those sticks in that wood-pile. You
+will find the woman there." So they pulled away the sticks; and there they
+found Three-Things. "There!" said the husband, "see the reason why your
+sister is dead!" At that the relatives were ashamed, and said,
+"Brother-in-law! we have nothing to say against you, for our eyes see what
+our sister has done. She has killed herself, and she is worthy to be
+punished by fire." (Burning was a common mode of execution for the crime
+of witchcraft.)
+
+In her terror at being unable to get back into her mortal body, the
+Three-Things, all the while she was hidden in the wood-pile, had
+shrivelled smaller and smaller until what was left were three deformed
+crab-shaped beings, a few inches long, with mouths like frogs. These,
+paralyzed with fear, could not speak, but could only chatter and tremble.
+
+So the relatives seized these Three-Things, and also carried away the
+body; and, followed by all the people of the village, they burnt it and
+them on a large rock by the sea.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That rock I pass very often as I walk on the beach. At high tide it is cut
+off from the shore a distance of a few yards; at low tide one can walk out
+to it. It is only a few hundred yards from our Batanga Mission Station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+FETICH IN FOLK-LORE
+
+
+The telling of Folk-lore Tales amounts, with the African Negro, almost to
+a passion. By day, both men and women have their manual occupations, or,
+even if idling, pass the time in sleep or gossip; but at night,
+particularly with moonlight, if there be on hand no dances, either of
+fetich-worship or of mere amusement, some story-teller is asked to recite.
+All know the tales, but not all can recite them dramatically. The audience
+never wearies of repetition. The skilful story-teller in Africa occupies
+in the community the place filled in civilization by the actor or
+concert-singer.
+
+This is true all over Africa. In any one region there are certain tales
+common to all the tribes in that region. But almost every tribe will have
+tales distinctive to it. It is part of native courtesy to ask a visitor to
+contribute his local story to the amusement of the evening.
+
+Some of these tales are probably of ancient origin, as to their plot and
+their characters. I am disposed to give the folk-lore of Africa a very
+ancient origin. Ethnology and philology trace the Bantu stream from the
+northeast, not by a straight line diagonally to the southwest, but the
+stream, starting with an infusion of Hamitic (and perhaps Caucasian) blood
+in the Nubian provinces, flowed south to the Cape, and then, turning on
+itself, flowed northwestward until it lost itself at the Bight of Benin.
+That blood gave to the Bantu features more delicate than those of the
+northern Guinea Negro.
+
+That stream, as it flowed, carried with it arts, thoughts, plants, and
+animals from the south of Egypt. The bellows used in every village smithy
+on the West Coast is the same as is depicted on Egyptian monuments. The
+great personages mentioned as "kings" are probably semi-deified ancestors,
+or are even confounded with the Creator. It may not be only a coincidence
+that the ancient Egyptian word "Ra" exists in west equatorial tribes
+(contracted from "rera" = my father) with its meaning of "Lord," "Master,"
+"Sir." In these tales the name Ra-Mborakinda is used interchangeably with
+the Divine Name, Ra-Nyambe.
+
+But it is true that a doubt can be raised against the antiquity of some of
+the tales, in which are introduced words, _e. g._, "cannon," "pistol,"
+articles not known to the African until comparatively modern times. And in
+the case of a few, such as No. V., the origin is in all probability
+modern. In No. V. the reader at once turns in thought to "Ali Baba and the
+Forty Thieves." There the internal evidence is positive, either that the
+story was heard long ago from Arabs (or perhaps within the last hundred
+years from some foreigner), or there may have been an original African
+story, to which modern narrators have attached incidents of Ali Baba which
+they have overheard within the last fifty years from some white trader or
+educated Sierra-Leonian.
+
+But it would not necessarily condemn a tale's claim to antiquity that it
+had in it modern words. Such words as "gun," "pistol," "stairway,"
+"canvas," and others may be interpolations. It was probably true long ago,
+as is now the case, that narrators added to or changed words uttered by
+the characters. Where in the plot some modern weapon is named, long ago it
+was perhaps a spear, club, or bow and arrow. When Dutch and Portuguese
+built their forts on the African shore three hundred years ago, some
+bright narrator could readily have varied the evening's performance by
+introducing a cannon into the story. Such variations necessarily grew; for
+the native languages were not crystallized into written ones until the
+days of the modern missionary.
+
+In recitation great latitude is allowed as to the time occupied. Brevity
+is not desired. A story whose outline could be told in ten minutes may be
+spread over two hours by a vivid use of the speaker's imagination in a
+minute description of details. A great deal of repetition (after the
+manner of "This is the house that Jack built") is employed, that would be
+wearisome to a civilized audience, but is intensely enjoyed by the
+African, _e. g._, where the plot calls for the doing of an act for several
+days in succession, we would say simply, "And the next day he did the
+same." But the native lover of folk-lore will repeat the same details in
+the same words for the second and third and even fourth day. In my
+reporting I have omitted this repetition.
+
+I have purposely used some native idioms in order to retain local color.
+African narrators use very short sentences. Africans in many respects are
+grown-up children. One of their daily recognized idioms finds its exact
+parallel in the speech of our own children. Listen to a civilized child's
+animated account of some act. They repeat. The native does so constantly.
+He is not satisfied, in telling the narrative of a journey, by saying
+curtly, "I went." His form is, "I went, went, there, there," etc. His
+dramatic acting keeps up the interest of the audience in the twice-told
+tale.
+
+
+I. QUEEN NGWE-NKONDE AND HER MANJA.
+
+A king, by name Ra-Mborakinda, had many wives, but he had no children at
+all. He was dissatisfied, and was always saying that he wanted children.
+So he went to a certain great wizard, named Ra-Marange, to get help for
+his trouble.
+
+Whenever any one went on any business to Ra-Marange, before he had time to
+tell the wizard what he wanted, Ra-Marange would say, "Have you come to
+have something wonderful done?" On the visitor saying, "Yes," Ra-Marange,
+as the first step in his preparations and to obtain all needed power,
+would jump into fire or do some other astonishing act.
+
+So, this day, he sprang into the fire, and came out unharmed and strong.
+Then he told Ra-Mborakinda to tell his story of what he had come for.
+
+The king said, "Other people have children, but I have none. Make me a
+medicine that shall cause my women to bear children." Ra-Marange replied,
+"Yes, I will fix you the medicine; and after I have made the mixture, you
+must require all of your women to eat of it." So the wizard fixed the
+medicine, and the king took it with him and went home.
+
+His queen's name was Ngwe-nkonde; and among his lesser wives and
+concubines were two quite young women who were friends, one of whom lived
+with the queen in her hut as her little manja, or handmaid.
+
+As soon as Ra-Mborakinda arrived, he announced his possession of the
+medicine, and ordered all his women to come and eat of it. But Ngwe-nkonde
+was jealous of her young maid, and did not wish her to become a mother.
+So, early in the morning, she purposely sent the manja away to their
+mpindi (plantation hut) on a made-up errand, so that she might not be
+present at the feast.
+
+At the appointed hour the king spread out the medicine, and called the
+women to come. They each came with a piece of plantain leaf as a plate,
+and assembled to eat, and Ramborakinda divided out the medicine among
+them. Then the other of the two young women remembered her friend the
+manja, and observed that she was absent. So she quickly tore off a piece
+of her plantain leaf, and divided on it a part of her own share of the
+medicine, and hid it by her, to keep it for the manja, so that she could
+have it on her return from the mpindi. In the afternoon, when the manja
+returned, her friend gave her the portion of the medicine, and she ate it.
+Soon after this, all these women told Ra-Mborakinda that they expected to
+become mothers.
+
+After a few months he announced to them that he was going away on a long
+trade-journey and that he would not return until a stated time. He gave
+them directions that in the meanwhile they should leave his town and go to
+their parents' homes and stay there until his return.
+
+Now it happened that all these women had homes except the little manja;
+her parents were dead, but she remembered the locality of their deserted
+village.
+
+So Ra-Mborakinda left to go on his journey, and all the expectant mothers
+scattered to the homes of their parents, except the manja, who had to
+follow with the queen to her people's village. But soon after their
+arrival at Ngwe-nkonde's home, the latter began to treat her maid cruelly;
+and finally, in her severity, she said, "Go away to your own home and
+sojourn there," the while that she knew very well that her manja had no
+home. Her thought and hope were that the manja would perish in the
+wilderness.
+
+As the maid knew the spot where her home had been, she left Ngwe-nkonde's
+village, and started into the forest to go to her deserted village. On
+arriving there, she found no houses nor any remains of human habitation.
+But there was a very large fallen tree, with a trunk so curved that it was
+not lying entirely flat on the ground. Under this enormous log she sat
+down to rest, and it gave her shade and shelter. She accepted it as her
+place at which to live and slept there that night. When she awoke in the
+morning, she saw lying near her food and other needed things; but she saw
+no one coming or going. A few days later on awaking in the morning she saw
+a nice little house with everything prepared of food and clothing and
+medicines and such articles as would be needed by a mother for her babe.
+She stayed there, and in a few days gave birth to a man-child. Each day in
+the morning she found, prepared for her hand, food and other needed things
+lying near.
+
+So she stayed there a long time till her baby was able to creep. When the
+baby had grown strong, she knew it was the time that Ra-Mborakinda had
+appointed for the return of his women to his town. She finally gathered
+together her things for the journey next day. That night, before she had
+gone to sleep, suddenly she saw a little girl standing near her, and she
+heard a voice which she remembered as her mother's saying, "I give you
+this little girl to carry the babe for you. But when you go back to
+Ra-Mborakinda, do not allow anyone but yourself and this girl to carry the
+child; if you do, the girl will disappear." So the next morning they
+started on their journey, the young mother and baby and the girl-nurse.
+
+During this while each of the other women had also born her baby, and they
+were now preparing to return to Ra-Mborakinda's town. But of them all none
+had born real human beings, except the manja and her young friend. All the
+others had born monstrosities, like snakes, frogs, and other creatures.
+Ngwe-nkonde had born two snails, of the kind called "nkala." (It is a very
+large snail.)
+
+So that day Ngwe-nkonde was coming along with her nyamba (a long scarf)
+hung over her right shoulder, and her two snails resting in the slack of
+the scarf, as in a hammock, over her left hip, and supported by her left
+arm. When the manja reached the cross-roads, she found the queen waiting
+there. Her object in waiting there was to know whether her maid was still
+in existence.
+
+On seeing the manja, Ngwe-nkonde pretended to be pleased and said, "Let me
+see the child you have born;" and she stepped forward to take the baby
+away from the little girl-nurse. Manja, in her fear of her mistress and
+accustomed to submit to her, forgot to resist. Ngwe-nkonde saw that the
+babe was healthy and attractive, and she coveted it. She exclaimed, "Oh,
+what a nice child you have born! Let me help you carry it!" The moment she
+took the baby, the girl-nurse disappeared. Ngwe-nkonde deposited the babe
+in her scarf, and gave the two snails to her manja, saying, "You carry
+this for me!" She did this, intending to cause Ra-Mborakinda to think that
+the baby was her own; she had no intention to return it to its real
+mother; and the manja did not dare to complain.
+
+So they went onward on their journey to the king's town.
+
+All the women, as they arrived there, saluted each other, "Mbolo!" "Ai!
+mbolo!" "Ai!" and each told her story and showed her baby. Then they all
+brought their babies to the King Ra-Mborakinda, that the father might see
+his children. In the king's presence Ngwe-nkonde took out the baby boy
+from her scarf and placed it at her breast to nurse. But the child turned
+its head away and would not nurse, and did nothing but cry and cry. Poor
+little manja did not dare to claim her own, and she took no interest in
+the snails to show them to the king. For a whole day there was confusion.
+The baby boy persisted in rejecting Ngwe-nkonde's breast and kept on
+crying, and the snails were moaning.
+
+Not knowing what to make of this trouble, Ra-Mborakinda went again to
+Ra-Marange. The wizard laughed when he saw the king coming with this new
+trouble, for, by his magic power, he already knew all that had happened.
+"So!" he says, "you have come with another trouble, eh?" And at once he
+jumps into the fire, and emerges clean and strong.
+
+Then the king informed the wizard what his difficulty was. And Ra-Marange
+told him, "This is a small thing. It does not need medicine. Go you and
+tell all your women each to cook some very nice food; then, sitting in a
+circle, each must put the nice food near her feet. All the babies must be
+put in a bunch together in the centre, and you will see what will happen."
+
+So Ra-Mborakinda went back to his town and told the women to follow these
+directions. They all did so, except the queen and her manja. The former
+did not put the baby boy in the bunch of the other babies, but retained
+him on her lap, and tried to make him eat of her nice food. But he only
+resisted, and kept on crying, and the manja, in her grief and
+hopelessness, had not prepared any nice food, only a pottage of greens,
+which she thought good enough for her present unhappiness.
+
+The king seeing that the wizard's directions were not fully followed by
+the queen, compelled her to put the baby down in the company of the other
+creatures, and then he and all the mothers sat around watching what would
+happen.
+
+Soon all the children began to creep, each to its own mother. The two
+snails went to Ngwe-nkonde, and began to eat of her nice food. The little
+baby boy crept rapidly toward the manja, and began with satisfaction to
+eat of the poor food at its mother's feet.
+
+That was a revelation to the king and to all the other mothers. They were
+surprised and indignant that Ngwe-nkonde had been trying to steal the baby
+from the manja; Ra-Mborakinda deposed her from being queen. And the other
+women shouted derision at her, "Ngwe-nkonde! O! o-o-o!" and drove her from
+the town. She went away in her shame, leaving the two snails behind, and
+never returned.
+
+And the king made the manja queen in her place. And the story ends.
+
+
+II. THE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER.
+
+There was a married woman, a king's daughter, by name Maria, who was very
+beautiful. She had a magic mirror that possessed the power of speech,
+which she used every day, particularly when she desired to go out for a
+promenade. She would then take this mirror from its hiding-place, and
+looking at it, would ask, "My mirror! is there any other beautiful woman
+like myself?" And this mirror would reply, "Mistress! there is none."
+
+This she was accustomed to do every day until she became jealous at the
+very thought of ever having a rival.
+
+Subsequently she became a mother, and bore a daughter. She saw that the
+child was very beautiful, more so than even herself. This child grew in
+gracefulness; was amiable, not proud; and was unconscious of her beauty.
+
+When the daughter was about twelve years of age, the mother dreaded lest
+her child should know how attractive she was and should unintentionally
+rival her. She told her never to enter a certain room where she had her
+toilet. And the mother went on as formerly, looking into her mirror, and
+then going out to display her beauty.
+
+One day the daughter said to herself, "Ah! I'm tired of this prohibition!"
+So she took the keys, and opened the door of the forbidden room. She
+looked around, but not observing anything especially noticeable, she went
+out again, locking the door. And the next day, the mother went in as
+usual, and then went out for her walk. After the mother had gone, the
+daughter said again to herself, "No! there must be something special about
+that room. I will go in again and make a search." Looking around
+carefully, she noticed a pretty casket on a table. Opening it, she saw it
+contained a mirror. There was something strange about its appearance, and
+she determined to examine it. While she was doing so, the mirror spoke,
+and said, "Oh, maiden! there is no one as beautiful as you!" She put back
+the mirror in its place, and went out, carefully fastening the door. The
+next day, when the mother went as usual to make her toilet and to ask of
+the mirror her usual question, "Is there another as beautiful as I?" it
+replied, "Yes, mistress, there is another fairer than you."
+
+So she went out of the room much displeased, and, suspecting her daughter,
+said to her, "Daughter, have you been in that room?" The girl said, "No, I
+have not." But the mother insisted, "Yes, you have; for how is it that my
+mirror tells me that there is another woman more beautiful than I? And you
+are the only one who has beauty such as mine."
+
+During all these years the mother had kept the daughter in the palace, and
+had not allowed her to be seen in public, as she dreaded to hear any one
+but herself praised. Then the enraged mother sent for her father's
+soldiers, and delivering the girl to them, she commanded, "You just go out
+into the forest and kill this girl."
+
+They obeyed her orders, and led the girl away, taking with them also two
+big dogs. When they reached the forest, the soldiers said to her, "Your
+mother told us to kill you. But you are so good and pretty that we are not
+willing to do it. You just go your way and wander in this forest, and
+await what may happen."
+
+The girl went her way; and the soldiers killed the two dogs, so that they
+might have blood on their swords to show to the mother. Having done this,
+they went back to her, and said, "We have killed the girl; here is her
+blood on our swords." And the mother was satisfied.
+
+But in the forest the girl had gone on, wandering aimlessly, till she
+happened to reach what seemed a hamlet having only one house. She went up
+its front steps and tried the door. It was not locked, and she went in.
+She saw or heard no one, but she noticed that the house was very much in
+disorder; so she began to arrange it. After sweeping and putting
+everything in neat order, she went upstairs and hid herself under one of
+the bedsteads.
+
+But she did not know that the house belonged to robbers who spent their
+days in stealing, and brought their plunder home in the evening. When they
+returned that day, laden with booty, they were surprised to find their
+house in neat order and their goods arranged in piles. In their wonder
+they exclaimed, "Who has been here and fixed our house so nicely?"
+
+So they prepared their food, ate, drank, and slept, but they did not clean
+up the table nor wash the dishes.
+
+And the next day they went out again on their business of stealing.
+
+After they were gone, the girl, hungry and frightened, crept out of her
+hiding-place, and cooked and ate food for herself. Then, as on the first
+day, she swept the floors and washed up the dishes. And then she cooked a
+meal for the men to have it ready against their return in the late
+afternoon; and again she occupied herself with the arrangement of the
+goods in the rooms. Then she went back to her hiding-place.
+
+When the robbers returned that day and laid down their booty, they were
+again surprised to find not only their house in good order, but food ready
+on the table. And they wondered, "Who does all this for us?"
+
+They first sat down to eat; and then they said, "Let us look around and
+find out who does all this." They searched, but they found no one.
+
+The next day they armed themselves as usual to go out, leaving the table
+and their recent load of stealings in disorder.
+
+When they had gone, the girl again emerged from her hiding-place, and, as
+before, cooked, ate, washed up, swept, arranged, and prepared the evening
+meal.
+
+Again the robbers, on their return, were still more astonished, as they
+exclaimed, "Whoever does this? If it is a woman, then we will take her as
+our sister. She shall take care of our house and our goods, but none of us
+shall marry her; but if it is a man, he must be compelled to join in our
+business."
+
+The next day, when they were all going out on their ways, they appointed
+one of their number to remain behind, hidden, who should watch, and thus
+they should know who had been helping them.
+
+When they had gone, the girl, ignorant that one had been left to watch,
+came out of her hiding, and began to do as on the other days. When she
+went outdoors to the kitchen [kitchens here are all detached] to cook, the
+watcher came in sight. She was frightened, and began to run away; but he
+called out, "Don't be afraid! Don't run, but come here! What are you
+afraid of? You are not doing anything bad, you have been doing us only
+good. Come here!" She stood and said, "I was afraid you would kill me!"
+
+He came to her, saying, "What a beautiful girl to look at! When did you
+come here, and who are you?" So she told him her story. And when she had
+finished all the housework, she sat down with this man to await the coming
+of the others. When the others came and saw the two, they said to him, "So
+you found her?" He replied only, "Yes." Looking on her, they exclaimed,
+"Oh, what a beautiful girl!" To calm her excitement, they told her, "Do
+not be alarmed! you are to be our sister."
+
+So they took all their goods and put them in her care, and herself in
+charge of the house. Thus they lived for some time,--they stealing, and
+she taking care for them.
+
+But one day, at the palace, the wicked mother began to have some uneasy
+doubts whether her soldiers had really obeyed her orders to kill her
+daughter, and thought, "Perhaps the child was not really killed." She had
+a familiar servant, an old woman, very friendly to her. To her she
+revealed her story, and said, "Please go out and spy in every town. Look
+whether you see a girl who is very beautiful; if so, she is my daughter.
+You must kill her." The old woman replied, "Yes, my friend, I will do this
+thing for you." So she went out and began her spying.
+
+The very first place at which she happened to arrive was the robbers'
+house. There being no people in sight, she entered the house, and found a
+girl alone. On account of the girl's great beauty, she felt sure at once
+that this was her friend's daughter. The girl gave her a seat and offered
+hospitality. The old woman exclaimed, "Oh, what a nice-looking child! Who
+are you, and who is your mother?" The girl, not suspecting evil, told her
+story.
+
+Then the old woman said, "Your hair looks a little untidy. Come here, and
+let me fix it." The girl consented; and the old woman began to braid her
+hair. She had hidden in her sleeve a long sharpened nail. When she had
+completed the hair-dressing, she thrust the nail deeply into the girl's
+head, who instantly fell down, apparently dead. Looking at the limp body,
+the old woman said to herself, "Good for that! I have done it for my
+friend." And she went away, leaving the corpse lying there, and reported
+to the mother what she had done. The mother felt sure her friend had not
+deceived her.
+
+When the robbers returned that day, they found the girl lying dead. They
+were very much troubled. They began to examine the corpse, to find what
+was the cause of death, but they found no sign of any wound; and instead
+of the corpse being rigid, it was limp; there was perspiration on the head
+and neck. So they decided, "This nice life-looking face we will not put in
+a grave." So they made a handsome casket, overlaid it with gold, and
+adorned the body with a profusion of gold ornaments. They did not nail on
+the lid, but made it to slide in grooves. Supposing the body liable to
+decay, they placed the coffin outdoors in the air; and to keep it out of
+the reach of any animals, they hung it by the halliards of their
+flag-staff. Every day, on their going out and on their return, they pulled
+it down by the halliards, drew out the lid, and looked on the fresh,
+apparently living face of their "sister."
+
+One day while they were all out on their business there happened to stray
+that way a man by name Eserengila (tale-bearer), who lived at the
+town of a man named Ogula. Coming to the robbers' house, he saw no one;
+but he at once observed the hanging golden box. Exclaiming, "What a nice
+thing!" he hasted back to his master Ogula, and called him. "Come and see
+what a nice thing I have found; it is something worth taking!" So Ogula
+went with him, and Eserengila pulled down the gilded box from the
+flag-staff. They did not enter the house, nor did they know anything of
+its character; and they carried away the box in haste, without looking at
+its contents, to Ogula's, and put it in a small room in his house.
+
+Some days after it had been placed there Ogula went in to examine what it
+contained. He saw that the top of this coffin-like box was not nailed, but
+slid in a groove. He withdrew it, and was amazed to see a beautiful young
+woman apparently dead. Yet there was no look or odor of death. As she was
+not emaciated by disease, he examined the body to find a possible cause of
+death; but he found no sign, and wondering, exclaimed, "This beautiful
+girl! What has caused her to die?"
+
+He replaced the lid, and left the room, carefully closing the door. But he
+again returned to look at the beautiful face of the corpse; and sighed,
+"Oh, I wish this beautiful being were alive! She would be such a nice
+playmate for my daughter, who is just about her size." Again he went and
+shut the door very carefully. He told his daughter never to enter that
+room, and she said, "Yes"; and he continued his daily visits there.
+
+After many days Ogula's daughter became tired of seeing him enter while
+she was forbidden. So one day, when he was gone out of the house, she said
+to herself, "My father always forbids me this room; now I will go in and
+see what he has there." She entered, and saw only the gilded box, and
+exclaimed, "Oh, what a nice box! I'll just open it and see what is
+inside."
+
+She began to draw the lid out of its grooves, and a human head was
+revealed with a splendid mass of hair covered with gold ornaments. She
+withdrew the lid entirely, and saw the form of the young woman, and
+delightedly said, "A beautiful girl, with such nice hair, and covered with
+golden ornaments!" She did not know why the girl seemed so unconscious,
+and began to say, "I wish she could speak to me, so we might be friends,
+because she is only a little larger than I." So she gave the stranger's
+salutation, "Mbolo! mbolo!" As no response was made, she protested, "Oh, I
+salute you, mbolo, but you do not answer!" She was disappointed, and slid
+back the cover, and went out of the room. Something about the door aroused
+the suspicions of her father on his return to the house, and he asked her,
+"Have you been inside that room?" She answered, "No! You told me never to
+go there, and I have not gone." Next day Ogula went out again, and his
+daughter thought she would have another look at the beautiful face.
+Entering the room, she again drew out the lid, and again she gave the
+salutation, "Mbolo!" There was no response. Again she protested, "Oh, I
+speak to you, and you won't answer me!" And then she added, "May I play
+with you, and fondle your head, and feel your hair? Perhaps you have lice
+for me to remove?" [one of the commonest of native African friendly
+services among both men and women]. She began to feel through the hair
+with her fingers, and presently she touched something hard. Looking
+closely, she found it was the head of a nail. Astonished, she said, "Oh,
+she has a nail in her head! I'll try to pull it out!"
+
+Instantly, on her doing so, the girl sneezed, opened her eyes, stared
+around, rose up in a sitting posture, and said, "Oh, I must have been
+sleeping a long time." The other asked, "You were only sleeping?" And the
+girl replied, "Yes." Then Ogula's daughter saluted, "Mbolo!" and the girl
+responded, "Ai, Mbolo!" and the other, "Ai!"
+
+Then the girl asked, "Where am I? What place is this?" The other said,
+"Why, you are in my father's house. This is my father's house." And the
+girl asked, "But who or what brought me here?" Then Ogula's daughter told
+her the whole story of Eserengila's having found the gilded box.
+They at once conceived a great liking for each other, and started to be
+friends. They played and laughed and talked and embraced, and fondled each
+other. This they did for quite a while.
+
+Then the beautiful one was tired, and she said, "It is better that you put
+back the nail and let me sleep again." So the girl lay down in the box,
+the nail was inserted in her head, and she instantly fell into
+unconsciousness.
+
+Ogula's daughter slid back the lid, and went out of the room, carefully
+closing the door. She now lost all desire to go out of the house and play
+with her former companions. Her father observed this, and urged her to
+play and visit as she formerly had done. But she declined, making some
+excuses, and saying she had no wish to do so. All her interest lay in that
+room of the gilded box and beautiful girl. Whenever her father went out,
+she at once would go to the room, draw out the lid, and pull out the nail;
+her friend would sit up, and they would play, and repeat their friendship.
+Ogula's daughter, seeing that her friend's desire for sleep was weakness
+for want of food, daily brought her food. And the girl grew strong and
+well and happy.
+
+This was kept up many days without Ogula knowing of it.
+
+But it happened one day, when the two girls were thus sitting in their
+friendship, they continued their play and conversation so long that
+Ogula's daughter forgot the time of her father's return; and he suddenly
+entered the room, and was surprised to see the two girls talking. She was
+frightened when she saw her father. But he was not angry, and quieted her,
+saying, "Do not be afraid! How is it that you have been able to bring this
+girl to life? What have you done?"
+
+She told her father all about it, especially of the nail. Then Ogula sat
+down by the girl of the gilded box, and asked the story of her life. She
+told him all. Then he said, "As your mother is the kind of woman that
+sends people to kill, and I am chief in this place, I will investigate
+this matter to-morrow. I will call all the people of this region, and
+there will be an ozaza (palaver) in the morning; and you shall remain, for
+you are to be my wife."
+
+The next day all the country side were called,--the wicked mother, the
+soldiers, the old woman, and everybody else (except the unknown robbers).
+The palaver was talked from point to point of the history, and, just at
+the last, this beautiful girl walked into the assemblage, accompanied by
+Ogula's daughter.
+
+As soon as Maria saw her daughter enter, she started from her seat, looked
+at the old woman, and fiercely said to her, "Here is this girl again! not
+dead yet! I thought you killed her!" The old woman was amazed, but
+asserted, "Yes, and I did. I kept my promise to you!"
+
+Then the girl sat down, and Ogula bade her tell her entire story in the
+presence of all the people. So she told from the very beginning,--about
+the magic looking-glass, about the soldiers, about the robbers' house, and
+on till the stay in Ogula's house.
+
+Then all the people began to shout and deride and revile, and threaten
+Maria and the old woman. This frightened the cruel Maria and her wicked
+friend, and they ran away to a far country, and never came back again.
+
+So the beautiful young woman was married to Ogula, and was happy with his
+daughter as a companion.
+
+But the robbers, in their secret house, not having heard of the ozaza,
+kept on mourning and grieving for their lost sister, not knowing where
+she had gone or what had become of her. And so the story ends.
+
+(The above story is probably not more than two hundred or two hundred and
+fifty years old; the name "Maria" doubtless being derived from Portuguese
+occupants of the Kongo country.)
+
+
+III. THE HUSBAND WHO CAME FROM AN ANIMAL.
+
+Ra-Nyambie in his great town had his wives and sons and daughters, and
+lived in glory.
+
+He had a best-beloved daughter, by name Ilambe. There is a certain fetich
+charm called "ngalo," by means of which its possessor can have gratified
+any wish he may express. Ngalo is not obtainable by purchase or art; only
+certain persons are born with it. This Ilambe was born with a ngalo. While
+she was growing up, her father made a great deal of her and gave her very
+many things,--servants and houses, according to her wishes. When Ilambe
+had grown up to womanhood, she said, "Father, I will not like a man who
+has other wives. I shall want my husband all for myself." And the father
+said, "Be it so."
+
+As years went on, Ilambe thought it was time she should be married, but
+she saw no one who pleased her fancy. So she took counsel with her ngalo,
+thinking, "What shall I do to get a husband for myself?"
+
+She decided on a plan. Her father's people often went out hunting. One
+day, when they were going out, she said to them, "If you find some small
+animal, do not kill it, but bring it to me alive."
+
+So they went out hunting, and they found a small animal resembling a goat,
+called "mbinde" (wild goat). They brought it to her, asking pardon for its
+smallness, and said, "We did not find anything, only this mbinde." She
+took it, saying, "It is good." Then turning to one of the men, she bade
+him, "Just skin this very carefully for me"; and to another of the
+servants, "Bring me plenty of water, and put it in my bathroom for a
+bath." Each of these servants did as he was bidden,--this one flaying the
+animal, that one bringing the water. When the one had finished flaying,
+and brought the entire flesh to her, she said, "Just put it into this
+water for a bath." She left it there two days, soaking in the water. The
+skin she put in a fire, burned it to black ashes, and carefully saved all
+the ash. This she did not do herself, but told a servant to do it,
+cautioning him to lose none of it. When it was brought to her, she wrapped
+it up with care, and put it safely away so that none of it should be lost.
+
+On the third day she spoke to her ngalo, "Ngalo mine, ngalo mine, I tell
+you, turn this mbinde to a very handsome-looking man!" Instantly the
+mbinde was changed to a finely formed man, who jumped out of the bath-tub,
+dressed very richly.
+
+Then Ilambe called one of her servants, and bade, "Go to my father, and
+tell him I wish the town to be cleaned as thoroughly and quickly as
+possible, because I have a husband, and I want to come and show him to
+you; so my father must be ready to greet us."
+
+The father summoned his servant Ompunga (Wind), who came, and at once
+swept up the place clean.
+
+Ilambe went out from her house with her husband, he and she walking side
+by side through the street on the way to her father's house. All along
+their route the people were wondering at the man's fine appearance, and
+shouting, "Where did Ilambe get this man?" When she reached her father's
+house, he ordered a salute of cannon for her. He was much pleased to see
+the man with the crowd of people, and received him with respect.
+
+Having thus visited her father, Ilambe returned to her own house with her
+husband, the people still shouting in admiration of him. The news spread
+everywhere about Ilambe's fine-looking husband, and there was great praise
+of them. They lived happily in their marriage for a while, but trouble
+came.
+
+Ilambe had a younger sister living still at her father's house. One day
+Ilambe changed her mind about having a husband all to herself, and
+thought, "I better share him with my younger sister." So she went out to
+her father to tell him about it, saying, "Father, I've changed my mind. I
+want my younger sister to live with me, and marry the same man with me."
+
+Her father, though himself having many wives, said, "You now change your
+mind, and are willing to share your husband with another woman. Will there
+be no trouble in the future?" She answered "No!" He repeated his question;
+but she assured him it would be agreeable. So she took her sister (without
+consulting the husband, as he was under her control, by power of her
+ngalo), led her to her house, and presented her as a new wife to her
+husband.
+
+They remained on these terms for some time without any trouble. But as
+time went on, the report about that handsome man went far, and finally
+reached Ra-Mborakinda's town. Another woman lived there, also named
+Ilambe, of the same age as the other, and she was unmarried. This Ilambe
+said to herself, "I am tired of hearing the report about this handsome
+man. I will go, though uninvited I be, and see for myself." So she tells
+her brother and some of his men, "Take me over there to that town, and I
+will return to-day." She told her father the same words: "I am going to
+see that man, and will return." When this Ilambe got to the other Ilambe's
+house, the husband was out, but the wife received her with great
+hospitality; and the two sisters and their visitor all ate together. Soon
+the husband came, and the wife introduced the visitor. "Here is my friend
+Ilambe come to see you." "Good," he said. Then it was late in the day, and
+the visiting Ilambe's attendants said to her, "The day is past; let us be
+going." But she refused to go, and told them to return, saying that she
+would stay awhile with her friend Ilambe.
+
+But really, in her coming she was not simply a visitor and sightseer; she
+intended to stay and share in the husband. As her brother was leaving, he
+asked, "But when will you return? and shall we come for you?" She said,
+"No; I myself will come back when I please." When the evening came, the
+hostess began to fix a sleeping-place for her visitor, showing her much
+kindness in the care of her arrangements.
+
+The second day the hostess observed something suspicious in the manner
+with which her husband regarded the visitor; he said to his wife, "Here is
+your friend. Speak to her for me. Are you willing to do that?" She looked
+at him steadily, and slowly said, "Yes." So at evening she spoke of the
+matter to her visitor, who at once assented.
+
+When Ilambe parted with her husband before retiring, she said to him, "Go
+with this new woman, but do not forget your and my morning custom." [That
+was their habit of rising very early for a morning bath.] He only said,
+"Yes." They all retired for the night.
+
+The next morning the hostess was up early as usual, and had her bath, and
+was out of her room, waiting. But the man was not up yet, nor were there
+any sounds of preparation in his room. So Ilambe, after waiting awhile,
+had to call to waken him. He woke, saying, "Oh, yes, yes, I'm coming!"
+
+The next day it was the same, he staying with the new Ilambe and rising
+late in the morning. The fourth day his wife said to him, "You have work
+to do, and you do not get up to do it till late." He was displeased at her
+fault-finding. When she saw that, she also was displeased.
+
+So when he went to the bathroom she followed him there. On the way she had
+secretly taken with her the roll of black powder she had kept from the day
+of his creation.
+
+While he was bathing, she turned aside, without his noticing it, and
+opening the roll of the powder, took out of it a little, and held it
+between her finger and thumb.
+
+While he was dressing, she came near, stooped down, and rubbed the powder
+on his feet. They suddenly turned to hoofs. He began stamping his hoofs on
+the floor, surprised, and saying, "Wife, what is this?" She said, "It is
+nothing. You have finished dressing. Go out." He began to plead; she
+relented, and by her ngalo's power changed the hoofs back to feet. They
+both went out of the room and had their breakfast, and that day passed.
+But at night he again abandoned his wife for the new Ilambe, and next
+morning he was up later even than on the previous days. He had to be
+called several times before he would awake. He began to grumble and scold,
+"Can't a person be left to sleep as long as he desires?" And when he and
+the new Ilambe came from that bedroom, she joined in the man's displeasure
+at his having been disturbed. He went for his bath. The wife followed, and
+used the powder as she had done the day before, turning his feet to hoofs.
+He begged and pleaded. She again forgave him, and fixed the feet again.
+And they two came out of the bathroom and had their breakfast as usual. He
+went to his work, and the day wore on. At night he again deserted his
+wife. The next morning there was the same confusion in arousing him as on
+the other days.
+
+His wife accompanied him to the bathroom as usual. While he was in the
+bath, and before he was done bathing, she left the room, and told the new
+Ilambe, "You sit down near the bathroom door. You will see him come out."
+The visitor replied, "It is well"; and she sat down. And Ilambe went into
+the bathroom again.
+
+When the man got out of his bath, as soon as he attempted to dress
+himself, Ilambe, without saying anything or making any complaint, went
+behind him, and having the whole roll of powder with her, she opened the
+bundle, flung it on his back, and said, "You go back to where you came
+from!" Instantly he was changed to a mbinde, and he began to leap about as
+a goat. Then Ilambe cried out to the other Ilambe at the door, "Are you
+ready to receive him? He's coming!" and she opened the door. Out ran the
+mbinde, leaped from the house, dashed through the town and off to the
+forest, the people shouting in derision, "Ha! ha! ha! So, indeed, that
+handsome man was the mbinde that was taken to Ilambe's house!"
+
+Then the wife said to the other Ilambe, "Did you see your man? Call him!
+That's he running off there!" The next day Ilambe said to the visitor,
+"Send word for your people that they may come for you."
+
+The following day they were sent for, and they came to Ilambe's house.
+After they had arrived, Ilambe sent word to her father, "Have your place
+cleaned, I am coming to enter a complaint." The father replied, "Very
+well!" Ompunga came and swept the place. Seats were prepared in the
+street. Ilambe summoned the visitor and her people, saying, "Let us all go
+to my father's house."
+
+So they went there, and Ilambe made her complaint, telling all from the
+beginning: how she obtained a husband; how the other Ilambe had come; how
+she received her kindly; how she even had been willing to share her
+husband with her, but how the new Ilambe had monopolized instead of simply
+sharing; and how things had become so bad that she had to send the man
+back to his beast origin. Turning to the visiting people, she said, "I
+have nothing more to say except that your sister Ilambe is not going back
+to your town, but has to be my slave all the days of my life."
+
+So the king's council justified her, and pronounced the judgment just. The
+people scattered to their homes. And the two sisters went to their house,
+with the other Ilambe as their slave.
+
+
+IV. THE FAIRY WIFE.
+
+In his great town, King Ra-Mborakinda, or Ra-Nyambie, lived in glory with
+all his wives and sons and daughters. Some of his great and favored sons
+had large business and great wealth. But there was one of the sons, named
+Nkombe, whose mother was not a favorite wife of the king, so this Nkombe
+was poor. Everything went against him, and his life was quite miserable;
+only, he had a gun, and he knew how to shoot; that was all. So he thought,
+"I'm tired of this kind of life. I better leave and go off by myself."
+
+He gathered together the few things that belonged to him,--a few plates
+and pots, and his gun and ammunition,--and went away. He went far into the
+forest, and with his machete began to clear a little place for a
+camping-ground (olako).
+
+He fixed up his camp, and next morning went out hunting. When he began to
+feel hungry, he turned back to cook his food. On his return he had fresh
+meat with him; this he cooked, set it on the table, and ate. After eating,
+he cleared off the table, washed the dishes, brushed up the floor, and the
+new meat that was left he put on the orala (drying-frame) for next day's
+use. So that day's work was done.
+
+Next day he again leaves the camp, and with his gun is off again to his
+hunting. At noon he comes back with his meat,--antelope, or wild pig, or
+whatever it may be. He cooks his food, eats; and that day's work is done
+just as the day before.
+
+So he did many days. After each day's work he was so tired and felt so
+lonely he wished he had a mother or some one to do for him.
+
+Unknown to him, since he had come to that olako, there was a woman named
+Ilambe, who belonged to the awiri (fairies), who secretly had observed all
+that he did. One day she thought to herself, "Oh, I am sorry for this man;
+I think that as I have the power I will turn myself into a human being and
+help him, for I do not like to see him suffer." So she said to herself,
+"To-day I will cause Nkombe to be unsuccessful, so that he shall kill only
+ntori (a big forest rat), and I will hide myself in ntori."
+
+So Nkombe hunted long and far that day, and saw nothing worthy of being
+shot. He was getting hungry, and murmured, "Ah! I have not been able to
+kill anything to-day." But presently he saw ntori pass by, and he said,
+"Well, I'll have to take this small animal, ntori!" He shot it, and took
+it with him to his camp. When he reached the olako, as he had other meat
+on the orala, and was in a hurry, after singeing and cleaning ntori, he
+threw it on the orala, and took the older dried meat, and began to cook it
+for his supper. He went on with his usual day's work, as it took only a
+little while to arrange ntori on the orala.
+
+Next day he went out as usual on his hunting journey. While he was away,
+and before he returned, Ilambe had crept out of the head of ntori. She
+brushed up the camp, and made everything neat and clean. She began to
+cook, taking meat from the drying-frame. She cooked it very nicely, and
+ate part,--her share, just enough to satisfy her appetite. Then she crept
+back into ntori's head, as she knew Nkombe must be about starting back.
+
+Late in the afternoon Nkombe returned with some wild meat. He took down
+dried meat from the orala, leaving his fresh meat unattended to, for he
+was in a hurry to cook, being hungry. He went to his little hut to get
+plate, kettle, and so forth. To his surprise, on the table was everything
+ready, food and plate and drink. He exclaimed, "What word is this? Where
+did this come from? Is this the work of my mother's spirit? She has pitied
+me and has come and done this. I wish I knew where she came from."
+
+This occurred during three successive days, just the same each day. Nkombe
+was puzzled. He wanted to find out, and decided to go to the great
+prophet, Ra-Marange. The prophet saw him coming, and greeted him, "Sale!
+(Hail) my son, sale!" "Mbolo," replied Nkombe. Ra-Marange continued, "What
+did you come for? What are you doing?" "I come for you to make medicine,
+that you may prophesy for me about a matter I want to find out."
+
+Ra-Marange said, "Child, I am old, and do not do such things now. I have
+given the power to Ogula-ya-impazya-vazya" [so called because his body was
+all-covered-by-a-disease-of-pimples]. "Well, where shall I go to him?" The
+prophet replied, "He is not far."
+
+Nkombe starts to go to Ogula-ya-impazya-vazya, who presently sees him
+coming. As soon as Nkombe reached him, Ogula-ya-impazya-vazya said, "If
+you come to me for medicine, good, for that is my only business; but if
+for anything else, clear off!" "Yes, that is what I came for."
+
+So Ogula-ya-impazya-vazya began to kindle his big fire. Nkombe was
+surprised, not knowing what was to be done with the fire. The next minute
+he sees Ogula-ya-impazya-vazya throw himself into the flames. Nkombe was
+startled and afraid, thinking, "Is this man going to kill himself for me?"
+The prophet rolled himself several times in the fire in order to get the
+power. Some of his pimples on his body burst in the flame; and he jumped
+out, ready with his power to do the medicine. He said, "Hah, repeat your
+story; I am ready!" Nkombe told all his story,--how he had worked for
+himself, and how for a few days past he had been helped by some one, and
+wanted to know who it was, if Ogula-ya-impazya-vazya would please tell
+him. "Hah, that's a small matter for me!" So the prophet told him, "You
+killed ntori for yourself a few days ago, and this being is a woman who
+has come to be your wife, and has hidden herself in ntori." "But," said
+Nkombe, "how shall I be able to catch her, so that she shall be a real
+woman, for I do not see her?"
+
+"I'll let you know how. Go back and hunt all the same for three days. On
+the fourth day go out as usual, but do not go hunting. Hide near the
+olako,--near, but not where you will be seen." Then the prophet gave
+Nkombe a prepared powder, and told him to keep it carefully. He gave him
+also a small cornucopia (ozyoto) full of a bruised medicinal leaf, and
+told him, "Go and put these two medicines in a secret place near your
+olako. On the fourth day have these two medicines with you where you hide.
+When you see her come out, and while she is doing your work, you will run
+and seize her, and say to her, "You are my wife." She will not understand
+your language, and will murmur and shake her head and resist. But when you
+hold her fast, sprinkle the powder all over her body. Then take the ozoto,
+and squeeze some of the juice in her nostrils, eyes, and mouth. She will
+begin to sneeze. Repeat the words, 'You are my wife, my wife!' Then she
+will understand you, and will yield."
+
+So Nkombe took the medicines, and obeyed directions; hid the medicines and
+hunted the three days, his heart bursting with anxiety to get the days
+done that seemed so long. At last the three days were over and the fourth
+day came.
+
+Now the woman, by the power that was with her, knew all these things; she
+knew she would be caught that day.
+
+After Nkombe had left in the morning with the medicines, had hidden
+himself, and was waiting for the hours to pass, the woman, hesitating on
+her fate, did not come out quickly as on the other days. But finally
+Nkombe saw the pieces of meat on the frames shake. And out of ntori's head
+came a beautiful woman with clean soft skin. He could hardly restrain
+himself. She went on with all the usual work,--cooking, and so forth. But
+that day she did not divide nor partake of the food, but put all of it on
+the table. When he saw she had finished, and was washing her hands
+preparatory to jumping back into ntori on the orala, he came out of the
+bushes, and stepping cautiously but rapidly, rushed to seize her. He
+caught her. She began to resist, and he followed the prophet's directions.
+The woman at first was murmuring and sobbing, and Nkombe was trying to
+calm her with the words "My wife." Finally, under the powder, she quieted.
+When the juice was dropped into her mouth, she was able to speak his
+language. She told him all her story,--how she had pitied him, and had
+entered into ntori, and everything else. "But," she said, "there is one
+more thing I must tell you. I have come indeed to be your wife, and I have
+the power to make you rich or poor, happy or unhappy. I will give you only
+one rule: Be good to me, and I will be so to you; but never say to me that
+I came from the low origin of a rat's head." Nkombe exclaimed, "No, no!
+You have done so much for me, I could never so humiliate you." "You speak
+well, but be very careful not to break your promise." So they ate and
+finished the day's work.
+
+Next day the woman wanted to build a town by word of her power. She said,
+"Mwe [Sir] Nkombe, surely you will not live in an olako all your life.
+Look for a site for a town, and mark it with stakes for its length and
+width." Nkombe was puzzled. He had a wife, but where would he get
+materials for a house; for he was as poor of goods as he was before? Being
+troubled, he made no reply to his wife, and did not go to mark a site. At
+night they retired, Nkombe still troubled about the building of a town;
+but Ilambe was smiling in her heart, for she knew what she would do. So
+she made him fall into a deep sleep. She went out at night a short
+distance, and chose a good town-site. She spoke to her ngalo (a
+guardian-spirit charm), "Ngalo mine, before morning I want to see all this
+place cleared, and covered with nice houses, and all the houses furnished
+and supplied with men and maid servants." And she returned to bed.
+
+Before daybreak everything was ready, as Ilambe desired. The ngalo had
+made the olako disappear, and Nkombe and wife were sleeping inside their
+nice house. When morning came, Nkombe did not know where he was, nor even
+on which side to get out of bed. He exclaimed, "What is this word?" "You
+are in your own house and in your own town." So both went out to inspect
+their town and their servants. Nkombe did not know how well to thank her,
+so glad was he.
+
+Later the wife became a mother, and a son was born. Nkombe called this
+first-born Ogula. Again, a daughter was born. Then the wife told her ngalo
+to bring ships of wealth. The next day ships were seen coming. Nkombe went
+on board and had a conversation with the captains. They stayed a few days,
+and then sailed away, leaving Nkombe a cargo of wealth. Another time ships
+came, and Nkombe went off on board as before; and these ships sailed away,
+also leaving wealth. Other children were born to them. Children of a fairy
+mother are called "aganlo"; they grow very fast, and are very wise.
+
+Other ships came. One day one comes, and Nkombe, having gone on board,
+has there a convivial time, stays all day, and returns nearly drunk. The
+wife says to him, "Nkombe, often you come from ships looking in this way,
+and I do not like it. I have spoken with you often, that if a food or a
+drink is not good in its effects, it is better to leave it off. But you do
+not care for my words." Nkombe, under the influence of liquor, was vexed
+with her, rebuked her, and began to use hard words with orawo (insult):
+"You--you--this woman who--but I won't finish it." Soon, however, he took
+up the quarrel again, saying, "A person can know from your manners that
+you came out of--" The wife said, "When you are drunk, you say half
+sentences; why hold back? Say what you want to say."
+
+He shouted angrily, "Yes, if I want to say it, I will say it! It was my
+own ntori that I killed. If I had not killed it, would you have come out
+of it?" Then Ilambe said, "Please repeat that; I do not quite understand
+you." He repeated it. She exclaimed, "Eh!" but said no more, and waited
+until morning, when he would be sober.
+
+So early in the morning she told him to get up, so that she could do her
+housework. She did the morning's work, washing things neatly but rapidly.
+Then she called her sons and daughters, and in their presence said to
+their father, "You said so-and-so yesterday; now I am off and with my
+children."
+
+Nkombe knew he had said the forbidden words. He pleaded for mercy; but she
+replied, "No, you broke your promise." The two elder children pleaded for
+their father: "It was only once. Though a bad thing, it cannot break a
+marriage. Forgive it." But the mother persisted, "No!" Then the two elder
+ones said they would not leave their father.
+
+So she said to him, "Now be thankful you have these two. If it was not for
+them, I would put you back where you were just as I found you; but for the
+sake of these two children, I leave some of my power with them." Then to
+those two she said, "You will call on me for help when you have need, and
+I will be near to help you."
+
+So she took the two younger ones, and said to their father, "As this place
+is quite open, Nkombe, sit you here and see me depart." Nkombe did so. He
+and the two older children watched the mother and the two younger ones
+walk down the path from the town. They went to the bank of the river, and,
+wading in, disappeared in the river depths.
+
+
+V. THE THIEVES AND THEIR ENCHANTED HOUSE.
+
+Ra-Mborakinda had his big town of men and women and children, all in good
+condition. But a kind of plague came upon the people suddenly, killing
+many. In a short time it destroyed most of the inhabitants, and finally
+but few were left.
+
+So one of the elder sons said to a younger one, "Let us flee for our
+lives!" This elder brother's name was Ogula, and the younger brother's
+name was Nkombe. When Ogula had thus said, "Let us flee for our lives,"
+Nkombe agreed. Ogula took as his servant a boy, and together with Nkombe
+they went out. They went aimlessly, not following any particular plan, but
+vaguely hoping to happen on any place.
+
+They went, went, wandering on, on, till they came to a small hut, almost
+too miserable for a dwelling. But in their extremity they said, "Oh! there
+is a house! Let us go to it; maybe we'll find shelter there." So they
+walked up to it, and, to their surprise, saw there an old man mending a
+piece of canvas.
+
+He saluted them, and asked them where they came from. They told their
+story, and Ogula asked the old man whether he would, of his kindness, give
+them shelter. He said, "Yes, if you are willing to do as I tell you; for
+living here is hard, and there is nothing to eat. I have to cut firewood
+and carry it to the city (osenge) far away, and sell it there. That
+city belongs to a big merchant."
+
+Ogula said, "Yes; we are willing." So the next day Ogula himself and
+Nkombe and their servant set themselves ready for work. After they had cut
+their firewood, they asked the old man the way to the city. He directed
+them. They went, sold their firewood, and brought food. This they did
+many times, cutting firewood and going to the city and buying food; and
+they each built a house of their own near the old man's hut.
+
+But after a while Ogula began to tire of this kind of life; so he said to
+himself, "If I only had a gun, I could go hunting. But even without the
+gun, I will go out and see what I can see." So he went out alone, not
+calling his brother or his servant to go with him. He went and went, on,
+on, for a half-day's journey, till he happened to come to a large house
+built in a very strange style, having no door at its side and with a flat
+roof. The place looked clean, as if kept in order by people. He approached
+cautiously; but looking around, he saw no one at all. He said to himself,
+"Who owns this place? Surely some one owns it, for it is so clean; but I
+see no one here. I won't leave this place to-day till I know who lives
+here." He decided to retire a little and climb up a tall tree overlooking
+the house and watch from there. He was very hungry, having had no food
+that day, but he still decided to wait and see what was about the house.
+
+After he had been up the tree a long while, late in the afternoon he saw a
+number of men coming. He saw one of them climb up the side of the house to
+the roof, where was a trap-door. All of the men had bundles of goods. The
+first one who had climbed to the roof spoke a few words to the door as he
+stood before it, and the two parts of the door flew open of themselves.
+Then the other men climbed up with their bundles, and went into the house.
+
+All this Ogula could see from his tree-top. He said to himself, "Now I am
+hungry, and must go, for I have seen enough to-day. I see that this house
+is occupied, and by men, and how they enter; it is enough for to-day." He
+thought it time to move before any of the people should come out of the
+house. He came down rapidly, and went back to the little hut of the old
+man.
+
+When he got to his own house, his brother Nkombe asked, "Where have you
+been all day?" Ogula said, "I was tired of working, and took a walk to the
+forest, and missed my way." But he did not tell his brother the story of
+what he had seen.
+
+Ogula then ate a little and went to bed, though it was not very late. He
+went thus soon to bed, for he wanted to go early next day to inspect the
+big house again. So, very, very early, before daylight, Ogula was up and
+off, for he did not wish his brother to ask him where he was going.
+
+He remembered the way to the big house, and went directly there. He
+climbed his tree. He looked and saw that the door of the house was open.
+He waited a little while, and then saw the men climbing out of the door.
+Their leader was the last; he spoke a cabalistic word, pressed his foot on
+the threshold, as the two sides of the door folded together, and it was
+closed.
+
+After they had been gone quite awhile, Ogula thought he would try to enter
+the house, first seeking what was the way to open it. He said to himself,
+"I know they have goods there, for I have seen them carried in." So he
+descended from the tree, and going to the house, climbed up the side. When
+he got to the top, he searched for something by which the door could be
+opened. He saw nothing like a key or lock or handle. Then he remembered
+the words he had heard the leader use, and thought, "Perhaps they were the
+means by which the door was opened." So he uttered the words, "Yaginla
+mie, ka nungwa, aweme!" (Obey me, and thyself open!) and, to his
+surprise, the door flew open. Then he went down the flight of steps
+leading below to the interior of the house. He was startled when he saw
+the room full of all kinds of money and goods and wealth that any one
+could wish to have. One could have taken away a great deal without its
+absence being noticed, so abundant was the amount.
+
+Ogula thought, "Isn't this fine! But I must be quick, lest the owners of
+this house catch me here." So he took a cloth, and put into it a few small
+articles and a quantity of cash. He tied up the bundle, went up the
+stairway, and walked out of the door which he had left open. At the top he
+remembered the word "Nunja!" (Shut!) which the leader had used for
+closing. He spoke it; and the door shut. He hasted away, and back to the
+hut of the old man. He did not enter it, but went to his own house and
+there hid the bundle. He told no one anything, neither the old man nor his
+servant nor even his brother. Soon the brother came over from his house,
+saying, "Brother! I looked for you this morning; you must have gone out
+very early." "Yes, I went out early, for I am tired of seeing so little;
+so I went out to see what I could see."
+
+The next day he did the same. On this trip he took not only money from the
+house, but some fine clothing for himself to wear. As before, on emerging
+at the top of the house, he spoke the word "Nunja!" the door closed, and
+he was away again, no one having seen him. When Ogula got back to his
+house, Nkombe asked him the same question of the day before, "Where have
+you been?" and he made only the evasive answer. But Nkombe began to be
+troubled. He feared something was wrong, and he determined to find out
+what was the matter. So he decided to get up next morning just as early as
+Ogula. The reason that Ogula did not tell Nkombe was because the latter
+had a bad jealous heart, and was very covetous of money. So early in the
+morning Ogula was off. He did not know that Nkombe had any thought of
+following him. But as soon as Nkombe saw Ogula start, he followed him
+cautiously, so that he might find out what his brother was doing.
+
+Ogula walked on straight and rapidly, and never looked behind, for he had
+no suspicion that he was being followed. When he got to the house, as
+usual he ordered the door to open, and descended inside. While he was
+beginning to select the things he wanted to take, to his surprise he saw
+Nkombe also descending the stairway. Ogula said, "Nkombe! what is this?
+Who showed you the way? Who told you to come here? I am troubled to find
+you here; for this will be the end of you! I knew it was not safe for you
+to come here. What I took was for us both."
+
+Nkombe said, "No! you hid it from me. I have found it now. I will be rich
+for myself." By this time Ogula had tied up his bundle ready to go out.
+But Nkombe was snatching up a large quantity from every side. Ogula said,
+"Nkombe! be quick! You do not know how to shut that door, and it will not
+be safe for us to be found here by those people." But Nkombe was not
+satisfied with one bundle, he was still gathering up other bundles. Ogula
+wearied of waiting and begging of Nkombe to come, so he said he must go
+and leave him, saying, "Now, Nkombe, it is not safe to wait longer. I have
+waited for you and begged you to leave with me; so I go alone. You cannot
+get out with all those bundles."
+
+But Nkombe would not listen. So Ogula went out, and spoke the word that
+closed the door, leaving Nkombe in the house. However, being anxious for
+his brother, Ogula did not go away, but climbed his tree to see what would
+happen.
+
+When Nkombe had entered the house, he had with him a big, sharp knife.
+
+Ogula waited outside till those people should come. Soon they came. The
+leader did as usual, being the first to climb to the house-top and to
+order the door to open. The door flew open, and the leader descended. As
+soon as he entered, he found another man, Nkombe, in the house. The leader
+asked, "Who are you, and how did you get in here?" Nkombe did not reply,
+but drawing his knife, plunged it into the leader's neck. With one outcry
+the man fell dead. By this time some of the other men had climbed up and
+were about to enter. When they got inside, they saw their leader lying
+dead, and this stranger standing armed. One of the men drew his pistol and
+shot Nkombe. [Observe the pistol; all these folk-lore stories disregard
+anachronisms or even impossibilities.] They carried his dead body to the
+roof, and threw it off to the ground. All this Ogula saw, looking from the
+tree-top down into the house.
+
+Then those people began to be perplexed and suspicious, saying, "This is
+not the work of only one, for we found the door closed on our arrival. So
+this person inside must have had some associate outside. How shall we find
+it out?"
+
+They began to plan, each one with his proposition. One said, "Let us go
+and bury the dead body." Another, "Let us leave it and go on with our
+business, and if on our return the body is missing, that will be a proof
+that a partner has taken it. Then we will get on the track and find where
+the body was taken." And they agreed that he whose plan proved successful
+should be their new leader. So they closed the door, left Nkombe's dead
+body lying, and went off on their usual business.
+
+After they had been gone quite a while, Ogula came down quickly from the
+tree. He tried to carry the body of his brother without dragging it so as
+not to leave any sign of a trail. And he did not follow the path, but
+walked parallel with it among the bushes. He hid the body, and then went
+away to his house. He called his servant, telling him that Nkombe was
+dead, and that he wanted him to come help bury the body. He did not call
+the old man, but only told him that his brother was dead.
+
+He and the servant went to the spot where he had left his brother's body.
+They carried it far into the forest, buried it, and then went back to
+their house.
+
+When the thieves came again to their house, they missed the dead body, so
+that part of their plan had proved true; and they said to the one who had
+proposed it, "You were right. You are our leader. What is your next
+order?" He said, "To-morrow we will not go out to do our business, but we
+will go out to hunt for this other man."
+
+The next day they went, and scattering searched on all paths to see
+whether they would meet with some one or see some house. Some of them who
+were on a certain path came to the huts of the old man and Ogula. The
+first person they saw was the old man sitting in his doorway. They stopped
+and saluted. They asked him a few questions, and then consulting together
+agreed to return to their house and come back next day, hoping to find out
+something from the old man. They went back to their house. Previous to
+this, from the time that Ogula had been stealing goods he had built with
+his servant a little village of his own some distance from the old man's
+hut. On this first coming of the thieves, Ogula, hidden in his house, had
+seen them, and he said to himself, "As they now know of this place, I
+better go away, for fear this thing be found out, and they kill me as they
+did my brother." So at night he left that house and went off to his
+village.
+
+In the morning of the next day, when the thieves came, they brought
+liquor, for they had planned that they would make this old man drunk, that
+he might talk when he was foolish with liquor.
+
+They came to the old man's and saluted him. They sat and conversed, asking
+him, "How many people are here? Are you always living alone?" At first he
+replied, "Yes, I live alone." "But you are so old, how do you get your
+food by yourself? Would you like to taste a nice drink? We are sorry for
+you in your lack of comforts." "Yes, I would like to taste it."
+
+So they opened their liquor, drank a little themselves, and gave to him.
+After he had drunk he became talkative, and began conversation again: "Oh,
+yes, you asked me if I lived alone. But not quite alone. There is a young
+man here." The thieves were glad to hear him talk, and gave him more
+liquor. He drank; they asked more questions, "You said there was another
+man with you; where is he?" Then the old man repeated the whole story of
+the coming of the brothers, to the death of one of them; and added, "A few
+days ago one of them came to tell me he was going to bury his brother; but
+I do not know when or how he died." So they asked the old man, "You know
+where he was buried?" "No." "But where is that living brother?" "Oh, he
+has just left me, and is gone to his new place not very far away. I have
+not been there, but you can easily find it."
+
+They consulted among themselves. "As this other man may hear of what we
+are about, we will go away to-day, disguise ourselves, and to-morrow seek
+for his place." So they all left.
+
+Next day two or three came disguised, and found Ogula's new house in the
+afternoon. He did not recognize their faces. He welcomed them as strangers
+and treated them politely. They asked, "Is this your house? Do you live
+alone?" He answered straightly, but did not mention his brother. But they
+felt they had enough proof of who he was, and left. But before they left
+they had observed the number and location of the rooms and the shape of
+the house. In the house was a large public reception and sitting room, and
+from it were doors leading to the servant's room and to a little entry
+opening into Ogula's room.
+
+The next day Ogula and his servant were doing their work of refining the
+gum-copal they had gathered for trade; it was being boiled in an enormous
+kettle. When this copal was melted, the kettle was set, with its
+boiling-hot pitchy contents, in that little entry. In the afternoon came
+the whole company of thieves, all disguised. They said, "We have come to
+make your acquaintance, and to relieve your loneliness by an evening's
+amusement." Ogula began to prepare them food. They sat at the food, eating
+and drinking; had conversation, and spent the evening laughing and
+playing. At night most of them pretended to be drunk and sleepy, and
+stretched themselves on the floor of the large room as if in sleep.
+
+Ogula also had been drinking, and said he was tired and would go to bed.
+But his servant was sober; he saw what the men were doing, and suspected
+evil. He thought: "Ah! my master is drunk, and these people are strangers.
+What will happen?" So when the lights were put out and he was going to
+bed, he left open the door of the little entry and locked the door of his
+master's room. After midnight the thieves rose and consulted. "Let us go
+and kill him." They arose and trod softly toward Ogula's room. Not quite
+sober, they missed the proper way, stepped through the open door of the
+little entry, and stumbled into the caldron of copal. It was still hot,
+and stuck to their bodies like pitch. They were in agony, but did not dare
+to cry out. They all were crawling covered with the hot gum, except the
+last man, who had jumped over the bodies of those who had fallen before
+him; and he ran away to their house.
+
+But Ogula was sleeping, ignorant of what was going on.
+
+In the morning the boy, who also had slept, on opening the house, found
+the kettle full of tarred limbs of dead human bodies. He knocked at
+Ogula's door and waked him. But Ogula said, "Don't disturb me, I am so
+tired from last night's revel." "Yes, but get up and see what has
+happened." Ogula came and saw. Then he told the lad that but for him he
+would have been dead. Ogula thenceforth took him as a brother. Then he and
+the boy had a big work of throwing out the bodies of the thieves. Ogula
+was not afraid of a charge of murder, for the thieves had tumbled
+themselves into the scalding contents of the kettle. He had enough wealth,
+and did not go again to the thieves' house.
+
+But that one man who had escaped was wishing for revenge, yet was afraid
+to come to Ogula's house by himself. Time went on. Ogula remained quiet.
+But his enemy still sought revenge, waiting for an opportunity.
+
+Gradually, too, Ogula had forgotten his enemy's face; for the thieves were
+many, and all disguised, and he would be unable to distinguish which one
+had escaped.
+
+On a time it happened that this thief went far to another country; and
+while he was there, Ogula also happened to journey to that very town. The
+lad had said, being now a young man, "May I go too?" "Yes, you may, for
+you are like a brother. You must go wherever I do." On the very second day
+in the town the two, Ogula and the thief, met. The thief recognized Ogula;
+but Ogula did not recognize him, and neither spoke; but the young man,
+with better memory, said to himself, "I have seen this man somewhere." He
+looked closely, but said nothing.
+
+The next day the thief made a feast. He met Ogula again on the street and
+saluted him, "Mbolo! I am making a feast. You seem a stranger. I would
+like you to come." "Yes; where?" "At such-and-such a place." "Yes, I will
+come. But this attendant of mine is good, and must be invited too." "Yes,
+I have no objections." Next evening the feast was held, and people came to
+it. The thief placed Ogula and his servant near himself. There was much
+eating and drinking. The thief became excited, and determined to kill
+Ogula at the table by sticking him with a knife.
+
+All the while that the thief was watching Ogula, the servant was watching
+the thief. Presently the latter turned slightly and began to draw a knife.
+The servant watched him closely. The thief's knife was out, and the
+servant's knife was out too. But the thief was watching only Ogula, and
+did not know what the servant was doing. Just as the thief was about to
+thrust at Ogula, the servant jumped and thrust his knife into the thief's
+neck. The man fell, blood flowing abundantly over the table. The guests
+were alarmed, and were about to seize the servant, who pointed at the
+drawn knife in the man's hand that had been intended for his master; and
+then he told their whole story.
+
+So the guests decided that there was no charge against Ogula and his
+servant, and scattered. The next day Ogula and his servant left. As he
+knew that that man was the last of the company of thieves, he said, in
+gladness, "Now! Glory!" Then he thought, "All that wealth is mine, since
+this last one who tried to take my life is dead."
+
+As he had seen enough of the world by travel, he decided to stay in one
+place. He would call people to live with him in a new town which he would
+build for them around that enchanted house of the thieves, which he took
+as his own with all its wealth. And he lived long in that house in great
+glory, with wife and children and retainers and slaves.
+
+
+VI. BANGA OF THE FIVE FACES.
+
+Ra-Mborakinda lived in his town with his sons and daughters and his glory.
+One son was Nkombe, and another Ogula, whose full name was
+Ogula-keva-anlingo-n'-ogenda (Ogula-who-goes-faster-than-water); but
+they were not of the same mother.
+
+Ogula grew up without taking any wife. He became a great man, with
+knowledge of sorcery. One day his father said to him, "Ogula, as you are a
+big man now, I think it is time for you to have a wife. I think you had
+better choose from one of my young wives." Ogula replied, "No, I will get
+a wife in my own way." So one day he went to another osenge
+(clearing) of a town which belonged to a man of the awiri (spirits; plural
+of "ombwiri"), _i. e._, one who possessed magic power, and obtained one of
+his daughters. Her name was Ikagu-ny'-awiri.
+
+He brought the girl home to his father's house, where she was very much
+admired as "a fine woman! a fine woman!" She was indeed very pretty. Then
+Ogula said to her, "As you are now my wife, you must be orunda (set apart
+from) to other men, and I will be orunda to other women, even if I go to
+work at another place." And she replied, "It is well."
+
+At another time Ogula said, "I think it better for us to move away from my
+father's town, and put my house just a little way off." After the new
+house was finished they moved to it, and lived by themselves. Ogula had
+business elsewhere that compelled him to be often absent, returning at
+times in the afternoons. Whenever Nkombe knew that Ogula was out, he would
+come and annoy Ikagu with solicitation to leave her husband and marry him.
+Ogula knew of this, for he had a ngalo (a special fetich) that enabled him
+to know what was going on elsewhere. The wife would say, "Ah, Nkombe! No,
+I know that you are my husband's brother; but I do not want you!" Then,
+when it was time for Ogula to return, Nkombe would go off. That went on
+for many days; Nkombe visiting Ikagu whenever he had opportunity, and the
+wife refusing him every time. It went on so long that at last Ogula
+thought that he would speak to his wife about it.
+
+So he began to ask her, "Is everything all right? Has any one been
+troubling you?" She answered, "No." He asked her again, and again she
+said, "No." Thus it went on,--Nkombe coming; Ogula asking questions; and
+the wife, unwilling to make trouble between the two brothers, denying.
+But one day the trouble that Nkombe made the wife was so great that Ogula,
+with the aid of his ngalo, thought surely she would acknowledge. But she
+did not; for that day, when he came and called his wife into their
+bedroom, and asked her, she only asserted weakly, "No trouble." Then he
+said, "Do you think I do not know? You are a good wife to me. I know all
+that has passed between you and Nkombe." And he added, "As Nkombe is
+making you all this trouble, I will have to remove again far from my
+father's town, and go elsewhere." So he went far away, and built a small
+village for himself and wife. They put it in good order, and made the
+pathway wide and clean.
+
+But in his going far from his father's town he had unknowingly come near
+to another town that belonged to another Ra-Mborakinda, who also had great
+power and many sons and daughters. One of the sons also was named Ogula,
+just as old and as large as this first Ogula. One day this Ogula went out
+hunting with his gun. He went far, leaving his town far away, going on and
+on till he saw it was late in the day and that it was time to go back.
+
+Just as he was about returning he came to a nice clean pathway, and he
+wondered, "So here are people? This fine path! who cleans it? and where
+does it lead to?" So he thought he would go and see for himself; and he
+started on the path. He had not gone far before he came to the house of
+Ogula. There he stood, admiring the house and grounds. "A fine house! a
+fine house!"
+
+When Ogula saw Ogula 2d standing in the street, he invited him up into the
+house. They asked each other a few questions, became acquainted, and made
+friendship; and Ogula kept Ogula 2d for two days as his guest. Then Ogula
+2d said, "They may think me lost, in town, after these two days. Thanks
+for your kindness, but I had better go." And he added, "Some day I will
+send for you, and you will come to visit me, that I may show you
+hospitality."
+
+Ogula 2d went back to his place. He had a sister who was a very
+troublesome woman, assuming authority and giving orders like a man. Her
+name was Banga-yi-baganlo-tani (Banga-of-five-faces). Though her father,
+the king, and her brother were still living, she insisted on governing the
+town. When any one displeased her, or she was vexed with any one, she
+would order that person to lie down before a cannon and be shot to pieces.
+The father was wearied of her annoyances, but did not know what to do with
+her.
+
+As Ogula 2d had left word with Ogula that he would invite him on another
+day, he did so. Ogula accepted; but as the invitation was only to himself,
+he did not take his wife, but went by himself, and was welcomed and
+entertained.
+
+When it was late afternoon, he was about to go back, but Ogula 2d said,
+"You were so kind to me; do not go back to-day. Stay with me." And Ogula
+consented.
+
+In asking Ogula to stay, Ogula 2d thought, "As his wife is not here,
+perhaps he will want another woman. I have my sister here; but if I first
+offer her, it will be a shame, for he has not asked for any one" [an
+actual native African custom, to give a guest a temporary wife, as one of
+the usual hospitalities. The custom is not resented by the women].
+
+All this while Ogula had not seen the sister. When they were ready for the
+evening meal, Ogula 2d thought it time to call his sister to see the
+guest. She fixed herself up finely, clean, and with ornaments. She came
+and sat in the house, and there were the usual salutations of "Mbolo!"
+"Ai, mbolo!" and some conversation.
+
+While they were talking, Banga had her face cast down with eyes to the
+ground. And when she lifted her eyes to look at Ogula, her face changed.
+From the time she came in till meal-time, she made a succession of these
+changes of her face, thinking that Ogula would be surprised, and would
+admire the changes, and expecting that he would ask her brother for her.
+
+She waited and waited; Ogula saw all these five changes of her face, but
+was not attracted. They went to their food, and ate and finished. And
+they talked on till bedtime; but Ogula had said nothing of love. Banga was
+annoyed and disappointed; she went to her bed piqued and with resentful
+thoughts.
+
+The next morning Ogula said it was time to go back to his wife. When he
+was getting ready to go, Banga said to him, "Have you a wife?"
+
+He answered, "Yes." She said, "I want her to come and visit me some day."
+And Ogula agreed. He went, and returning to his house, told his wife that
+Banga wanted to see her.
+
+After Ogula was gone, Banga asked her brother about Ogula's wife. "Is she
+pretty?" And he told her how finely the wife had looked. Banga was not
+pleased at that, was jealous, and waited till Ikagu should come that she
+might see for herself. "I will see if she is more beautiful than I with my
+five countenances." Subsequently Banga chose a day, and sent for Ikagu.
+She dressed for the journey, and Ogula, not being invited, took her only
+half-way.
+
+When Ogula's wife arrived, Banga saw that it was true that she was pretty,
+and of graceful carriage in her walking, and she did not wonder that her
+husband was charmed with her. But she hid her jealousy, and pretended to
+be pleased with her visitor. Ogula's wife did not spend the night there;
+when she thought it time to go, she said good-bye, and turned to leave.
+
+When she had gone, Banga was planning for a contest with her. She said to
+herself, "Now I see why that man made me feel ashamed at his not asking
+for my love,--because his wife is so beautiful. She shall see that I will
+have her killed, and I shall have her husband."
+
+So after a few days she sent word to Ogula's wife, "Prepare yourself for a
+fight, and come and meet me at my father's house."
+
+But the wife said to Ogula, "I have done nothing. What is the fight for?"
+Nevertheless, she began to prepare a fighting-dress, and before it was
+finished another messenger came with word, "You are waited for."
+
+So she said, "As it is not a call for peace, I had better put on a dress
+that befits blood." So she dressed in red. After she was dressed she
+started, and Ogula went with her, to hear what was the ground of the
+challenge.
+
+As soon as they got to the town, they found Banga striding up and down the
+street. Her cannon was already loaded, waiting to be fired. When Ogula
+wanted to know what the "palaver" was, Banga said, "I do not want to talk
+with you; I only want you to obey my orders."
+
+But Ikagu wanted to know what the trouble was, and began to ask, "What
+have I done?" Banga only repeated, "I don't want any words from you; only,
+you come and lie down in front of this cannon." Ikagu obeyed, and lay
+down, and Banga ordered her men to fire the cannon.
+
+By this time Ogula, by the power of his ngalo, had changed the places of
+the two women. When the cannon was fired, and the smoke had cleared away,
+the people who stood by saw Ikagu standing safe by her husband, and Banga
+lying dead. All the assembled people began to wonder, "What is this? What
+is this?"
+
+So Banga's father called Ogula, and said, "Do not think I am displeased
+with you at the death of my daughter; I too was wearied at her doings. So,
+as you are justified, and Banga was wrong, it is no matter to be
+quarrelled about."
+
+And Ogula 2d said to Ogula, "I am not vexed at you. You had done nothing.
+She wanted to bring trouble on you, and it has come on herself. I have no
+fight with you. We will still be friends. But do not live off in your
+forest village by yourself; come you and your wife to live in this town."
+
+So Ogula and his wife consented, and agreed to remove, and live with Ogula
+2d. And they did so without further trouble.
+
+
+VII. THE TWO BROTHERS.
+
+Ra-Mborakinda has his great town, and his wives, and his children, and the
+glory of his kingdom. All his women had no children, except the loved
+head-wife, Ngwe-nkonde (Mother of Queens), and the unloved Ngwe-vazya
+(Mother of Skin-Disease). Each of these two had children, sons, at the
+same time. The father gave them their names. Ngwe-nkonde's was Nkombe, and
+Ngwe-vazya's was Ogula. Again these two women became mothers. This time
+both of them had daughters. Ngwe-nkonde's was named Ngwanga, and
+Ngwe-vazya's was Ilambe. A third time these two bore children, sons, on
+the same day. These two sons grew up without names till they began to
+talk, for the father had delayed to give them names. But one day he called
+them to announce to them their names. What he had selected they refused,
+saying that they had already named themselves. Ngwe-nkonde's child named
+himself Osongo, and Ngwe-vazya's Obengi. And the father agreed.
+
+These two children grew and loved each other very much. No one would have
+thought that they belonged to different mothers, so great was the love
+they had for each other. They were always seen together, and always ate at
+the same place. When one happened to be out at mealtime, the other would
+not eat, and would begin to cry till the absent one returned. Both were
+handsome in form and feature.
+
+When Ngwe-vazya's people heard about her nice-looking little boy, they
+sent word to her, "We have heard about your children, but we have not seen
+you for a long time. Come and visit us, and bring your youngest son, for
+we have heard of him and want to see him."
+
+So she went and asked permission of Ra-Mborakinda, saying that she wanted
+to go and see her people. He was willing. Then she made herself ready to
+start. As soon as Osongo knew that his brother Obengi was going away,
+he began to cry at the thought of separation. He said, "I am not going to
+stay alone. I have to go too, for I am not willing to be separated from my
+brother." And Obengi said the same: "If Osongo does not go with us,
+then I will not go at all." Then Ngwe-vazya thought to herself, "No, it
+will not do for me to take Osongo along with me, for his mother and I are
+not friendly." And she told Osongo that he must stay. But both the boys
+persisted, "No, we both must go." So Ngwe-vazya said, "Well, let it be so.
+I will take care of Osongo as if he were my own son." And Ra-Mborakinda
+and Ngwe-nkonde were willing that Osongo should go.
+
+So they started and went; and when they reached the town of Ngwe-vazya's
+family the people were very glad to receive them. She was very attentive
+to both the boys, watching them wherever they went, for they were the
+beloved sons of Ra-Mborakinda. She was there at her people's town about
+two months. Then she told them that it was time to return home with the
+two boys. Her people assented, and began to load her and the boys with
+parting presents.
+
+They went back to Ra-Mborakinda's town, and there also their people were
+glad to see them return, for the children had grown, and looked well. The
+people, and even Ra-Mborakinda, praised Ngwe-vazya for having so well
+cared for the children, especially the one who was not her own.
+
+This made Ngwe-nkonde more jealous, because of the praise that
+Ra-Mborakinda gave, and because of the boys' fine report of their visit
+and the abundance of gifts with which Ngwe-vazya had returned. So
+Ngwe-nkonde made up her mind that some day she would do the same, that she
+might receive similar praise. She waited some time before she attempted to
+carry out her plan. By the time that she got ready to ask leave to go the
+boys had grown to be lads. One day she thought proper to ask Ra-Mborakinda
+permission to go visiting with her son. Ra-Mborakinda was willing, and she
+commenced her preparations.
+
+And again confusion came because of the two lads refusing to be separated.
+Osongo refused to go alone. But afterward he, knowing of his mother's
+jealous disposition, changed his mind, and said to Obengi, "No, I think
+you better stay." But Obengi refused, saying, "No, I have to go too."
+Osongo then told him the true reason for his objecting. "I said this
+because I know that my mother is not like yours. So please stay; I will
+be gone only two days, and will then come and meet you." But Obengi
+insisted, "If you go, I go." And Ngwe-nkonde said, "Well, let it be so; I
+will take care of you both."
+
+So they went. When they reached the town of Ngwe-nkonde's family, the
+people were glad to see them. She also was apparently kind and attentive
+to the lads for the first two days. On the third day she began to think
+the care was troublesome. "These lads are big enough to take care of
+themselves like men."
+
+She did indeed feel kindly toward Obengi, liking his looks, and she
+said to herself, "I think I will try to win his affections from his mother
+to myself." She tried to do so, but the lad was not influenced by her.
+When she noticed that he did not seem to care for her attentions, she was
+displeased, began to hate him, and made up her mind to kill him.
+
+All the days that the lads were there at the town they went out on
+excursions to the forest, hunting animals. As soon as they came back they
+would sit down together to chat and to eat sugar-cane [with African
+children a substitute for candy].
+
+Ngwe-nkonde knew of this habit. After she had decided to kill Obengi,
+on the next day she had the sugar-cane ready for them. She rubbed poison
+on one of the stalks, and arranged that that very piece should be the
+first one that Obengi would take. He had taken only two bites, and was
+chewing, when he exclaimed, "Brother, I begin to feel giddy, and my eyes
+see double! Please give me some water quickly!" Water was brought to him.
+He took a little of it. Others, spectators, became excited, and began to
+dash water over his face. But soon he fell down dead.
+
+Then Ngwe-Nkonde exclaimed to herself, "So I've been here only five days,
+and now the lad is dead. I don't care! Let him die!"
+
+By this time Osongo had become greatly excited, crying out, and repeating
+over and over, "My brother! Oh, my brother! Oh, my same age!" His mother
+said to him, "To-morrow I will have him buried, and we will start back to
+our town." Osongo replied to her, "That shall not be. He shall not be
+buried here. We both came together, and though he is dead, we both will go
+back together." The next morning Osongo said to his mother, "I know that
+you are at the bottom of this trouble. You know something about it. You
+brought him. And now he is dead. I charge you with killing him." She only
+replied, "I know nothing of that. We will wait, and we shall know."
+
+They began to get ready for the return journey, and some of the people
+said, "Let a coffin be made, and the body be placed there." But Osongo
+said, "No, I don't want that; I have a hammock, and he shall be carried in
+it." So they prepared the hammock, and placed in it the dead body.
+
+As to Ngwe-Nkonde, Osongo had her arrested, and held as a prisoner, with
+her hands tied behind her, and he took a long whip with which to drive
+her. And they started on their journey.
+
+On the way Osongo was wailing a mourning-song, and cursing his mother, and
+weeping, saying, "Oh, we both came together, and he is dead! Oh, my
+brother! Oh, my same age! Obengi gone! Osongo left! Oh, the children of
+one father! Osongo, who belongs to Ngwe-Nkonde, left, and Obengi, who
+belongs to Ngwe-Vazya, gone!" And thus they went, he repeating these
+impromptu words of his song, and weeping as he went. As they were going
+thus, while they were still only half-way on their route, a man,
+Eserengila (tale-bearer), one of his father's servants, was out in
+the forest hunting. He heard the song. Listening, he said to himself,
+"Those words! What do they mean?" Listening still, he thought he
+recognized Osongo's voice, and understood that one was living and the
+other dead.
+
+So he ran ahead to carry the news to the town before the corpse should
+arrive there. When he reached the town, he first told his wife about it.
+She advised him, "If that is so, don't go and tell this bad news to the
+king; a servant like you should not be the bearer of ill news." But he
+still said, "No, but I'm going to tell the father." His wife insisted,
+"Do not do it! With those two beloved children, if the news be not true,
+the parents will make trouble for you!" But Eserengila started to
+tell, and by the time he had finished his story the company with the
+corpse were near enough for the people of the town to hear all the words
+of Osongo's song of mourning.
+
+Obengi's father and mother were so excited with grief that their people
+had to hold them fast as if they were prisoners, to prevent them injuring
+themselves. The funeral company all went up to the king's house, and laid
+down the body of his son; and Osongo's mother, still tied, was led into
+the house.
+
+The townspeople were all excited, shouting and weeping. Some began to give
+directions about the making of a fine coffin. But Osongo said, "No, I
+don't want him to be put into a coffin yet, because when my brother was
+alive we had many confidences and secrets, and now that he is dead, I have
+somewhat of a work to do before he is buried. Let the corpse wait awhile."
+So he asked them all to leave the corpse alone while he went out of the
+town for a short time.
+
+Then he went away to the village of Ra-Marange, and said to him, "I'm in
+great trouble, and indeed I need your help." The prophet replied, "Child,
+I am too old; I am not making medicine now. Go to Ogula-y'-impazya-vazya,
+and repeat your story to him; he will help you."
+
+Ra-Marange showed him the way to Ogula-y'-impazya-vazya's place. He went,
+and had not gone far when he found it. Going to the magician, Osongo said,
+"I'm in trouble, and have come to you." As soon as he had said this,
+Ogula-y'-impazya-vazya made his magic fire, and stepped into it. Osongo
+was frightened, thinking, "I've come to this man, and he is about to kill
+himself for me"; and he ran away. But he had not gone far, when he heard
+the magician's nkendo (a witchcraft bell) ringing, and his voice calling
+to him, "If you have come for medicine, come back; but if for anything
+else, then run away." So Osongo returned quickly, and found that the old
+magician had emerged from his fire and was waiting for him. Osongo told
+his story of his brother's death, and said he wanted direction what to do.
+Ogula-y'-impazya-vazya gave him medicine for a certain purpose, and told
+him what to do and how to do it.
+
+When Osongo came back with the medicine, he entered his father's house,
+into the room where his brother's corpse was lying, and ordered every one
+to leave him alone for a while. They all left the room. He closed the
+door, and following the directions given him by Ogula-y'-impazya-vazya, he
+brought Obengi to life again.
+
+Now came a question what was to be done with Ngwe-nkonde, the attempted
+murderess. It was demanded that her throat should be cut, and that her
+body, weighted with stones, should be flung into the river. "For," said
+Osongo, "I will not own such a mother; she is very bad. Obengi's mother
+shall be my mother." It was decided so. And Ra-Mborakinda said to
+Ngwe-vazya, "You step up to the queen's seat with your two sons" (meaning
+Osongo and Obengi).
+
+And Ngwe-vazya became head-wife, and was very kind and attentive to both
+sons.
+
+And the matter ended.
+
+
+VIII. JEKI AND HIS OZAZI.
+
+Ra-Mborakinda had his town where he lived with his wives, his sons, his
+daughters, and his glory.
+
+Lord Mborakinda had his loved head-wife, Ngwe-nkonde, and the unloved one,
+Ngwe-lege. Both of these, with other of his wives, had sons and
+daughters. Ngwe-nkonde's first son was Nkombe, and she had two others.
+Ngwe-lege also had three sons, but the eldest of these, Jeki, was
+a thief. He stole everything he came across,--food, fish, and all. This
+became so notorious that when people saw him approach their houses they
+would begin to hide their food and goods, saying, "There comes that
+thief!"
+
+Jeki's grandfather, the father of his mother, was dead. One night, in a
+dream, that grandfather came to him, and said to him, "Jeki, my son,
+when will you leave off that stealing, and try to work and do other things
+as others do? To-morrow morning come to me early; I have a word to say to
+you." Jeki replied, "But where do you live, and how can I know the way
+to that town?" He answered, "You just start at your town entrance, and go
+on, and you will see the way to my place before you reach it."
+
+So the next morning Jeki, remembering his dream, said to his mother,
+"Please fix me up some food." [He did not tell her that the purpose of the
+food was not simply for his breakfast, but as an extra supply for a
+journey.] The food that was prepared for him was five rolls made of boiled
+plantains mashed into a kind of pudding called "nkima," and tied up with
+dried fish. When these were ready, he put them inside his travelling-bag.
+Then he dressed himself for his journey.
+
+His mother said, "Where are you going?" He evaded, and said, "I will be
+back again." So he went away.
+
+After he had been gone a little while, he came to a fork of the road, and
+without hesitation his feet took the one leading to the right. After going
+on for a while he met two people named Isakiliya, fighting, whose forms
+were like sticks. [These sticks were abambo, or ghosts. In all native
+folk-lore, where spirits embody themselves, they take an absurd or
+singular form, that they may test the amiability or severity, as the case
+may be, of human beings with whom they may meet. They bless the kind, and
+curse the unkind.] He went to them to make peace, and parted them; took
+out one of his rolls of nkima and fish, gave to them, and passed on. They
+thanked him, and gave him a blessing, "Peace be on you, both going and
+coming!" He went on and on, and then he met two Antya (eyes) fighting. In
+the same way as with the Isakiliya, he went to them, separated them, gave
+them food, was blessed, and went on his way.
+
+Again he met in the same way two Kumu (stumps) fighting, and in the same
+way he interfered between them, made peace, gave food, was blessed, and
+went on his journey. He went on and on, and met with a fourth fight. This
+time it was between two Poti (heads), and in the same way he made peace
+between them, gave a gift, was blessed, and went on.
+
+He journeyed and journeyed. And he came to a dividing of the way, and was
+puzzled which to take. Suddenly an old woman appeared. He saluted her,
+"Mbolo!" took out his last roll of nkima, and gave it to her. The old
+woman thanked him, and asked him, "Where are you going?" He replied, "I'm
+on my way to an old man, but am a little uncertain as to my way." She
+said, "Oh, joy! I know him. I know the way. His name is
+Re-ve-nla-ga-li." She showed him the way, pronounced a blessing on
+him, and he passed on. He had not gone much farther when he came to the
+place.
+
+When the old grandfather saw him, he greeted him, "Have you come, son?" He
+answered, "Yes."
+
+"Well," said the grandfather, "I just live here by myself, and do my work
+myself." And the old man made food for him. Then next day this grandfather
+began to have a talk with Jeki. He rebuked him for his habit of
+stealing. Jeki replied, "But, grandfather, what can I do? I have no
+work nor any money. Even if I try to leave off stealing, I cannot. I do
+not know what medicine will cause me to leave it off." Then said the
+grandfather, "Well, child, I will make the medicine for you before you go
+back to your mother." So Jeki remained a few days with his grandfather,
+and then said, "I wish to go back." The grandfather said, "Yes, but I have
+some little work for you to do before you leave." So Jeki said, "Good!
+let me have the work."
+
+The grandfather gave him an axe, and told him to go and cut firewood
+sufficient to fill the small woodshed. Jeki did so, filling the shed in
+that one day. The regular occupation of the old man was the twisting of
+ropes for the lines of seines. So the next day he told Jeki to go and
+get the inner barks, whose fibre was used in his rope-making. Jeki went
+to the forest, gathered this material, and returned with it to the old
+man.
+
+The next day the grandfather said to Jeki, "Now I am ready to start you
+off on your journey." And he added, "As you gave as reasons for stealing
+that you had neither money nor the means of getting it, I will provide
+that." Then the old man called him, took him to a brook-side, and reminded
+him that he had promised that he could make a medicine to cure him of his
+desire to steal.
+
+The grandfather began to cut open Jeki's chest, and took out his heart,
+washed it all clean, and put it back again. Then they went back to the
+grandfather's house. There he gave Jeki an ozazi (wooden pestle), and
+said, "Now, son, take this. This is your wealth. Everything that you wish,
+this will bring to you. Hold it up, express your wish, and you will get
+it. But there is one orunda (taboo) connected with it: no one must
+pronounce the word 'salt' in your hearing. You may see and use salt, but
+may not speak its name nor hear it spoken, for if you do things will turn
+out bad for you." "But," the old man added, "if that happens, I will now
+tell you what to do." And he revealed to him a secret, and gave him full
+directions. When the grandfather had finished, he led him a short distance
+on the way, and returned to his house. He had not prepared any food for
+Jeki for the journey, for he with the ozazi would himself be able to
+supply all his own wishes.
+
+Jeki goes on and on, and then exclaims doubtfully, "Ah, only this ozazi
+is to furnish me with everything! I'm getting hungry; so, soon I'll try
+its power." He went on a little farther, and then decided that he would
+try whether he could get anything by means of the ozazi. So he held it up,
+and said, "I wish a table of food to be spread for me, with two white men
+to eat with me." Instantly there was seen a tent, and table covered with
+food, and two white men sitting. He sat down with these two companions.
+After they had eaten, he spoke to the ozazi to cause the tent and its
+contents to disappear. They did so. This proved for him the power of his
+ozazi, and he was glad, and went on his way satisfied.
+
+Finally he reached his father's town, whose people saw him coming, but
+gave him no welcome, except his mother, who was glad to see him. But most
+of the people only said, "There! there is that thief coming again. We
+must begin to hide our things." After Jeki's arrival, in a few days,
+the townspeople noticed a change in him, and inquired of each other, "Has
+he been stealing, or has he really changed?" for shortly after his return
+he had told his mother and brothers all the news, and had warned the
+people of the town about the orunda of "salt." In the course of a few days
+Jeki did many wonderful things with his ozazi. He wished for nice
+little premises of his own with houses and conveniences, near his father's
+town, supplied with servants and clothing and furniture. These appeared.
+Soon, by the wealth that he possessed, he became master of the town, and
+ruled over the other children of his father. He obtained from that same
+ozazi, created by its power, two wives,--Ngwanga and Ilambe, who were
+loving and obedient. He also bought three other wives from the village,
+who were like servants to the two chief ones. He confided his plans and
+everything to the two favored ones who had come out of the ozazi.
+
+In the course of time he thought he would display his power before the
+people, and for their benefit, by causing ships to come with wealth. So he
+held up the ozazi, and said, "I want to see a ship come full of
+merchandise!"
+
+Presently the townspeople began to shout, "A ship! a ship!" It anchored.
+Jeki called his own brothers and half-brothers, and directed, "You all
+get ready and go out to the ship, and tell the captain that I will follow
+you." They made ready, and went on board, and asked, "What goods have you
+brought?" The captain told them, "Mostly cloth, and a few other things."
+They informed him, "Soon the chief of the town will come." And they
+returned ashore, and reported to Jeki what was on board. He made
+himself ready and went, leaving word for them to follow soon and discharge
+the cargo. The ship lay there a few days, and then sailed away. Then
+Jeki divided the goods among his brothers and parents, keeping only a
+small share for himself.
+
+Thus it went on: every few months Jeki ordering a ship to come with
+goods. As usual, he would send his brothers first, they would bring a
+report, and then he would go on board. Sometimes he would eat with the
+ship's company, sometimes he would invite them ashore to eat in his own
+house.
+
+All this time no one had broken the orunda of "salt." But, to prove
+things, Jeki thought he would try his half-brothers, and see what were
+their real feelings toward him. So the next time he caused ships to come
+with a cargo of salt only. At sight of the ships there was the usual shout
+of "A ship! a ship!" The brothers went aboard as usual, and found what the
+cargo was. The half-brothers returned ashore immediately, and began to
+shout when they neared Jeki's house, "The ships are full of salt!" He
+heard the word, and said to his mother and to his two chief wives, "Do you
+hear that?"
+
+The half-brothers came close to him, and exclaimed, "Dagula [Sir], the
+ships are loaded with nothing but salt, salt, salt, and the captain is
+waiting for you." Jeki asked again, as if he had not heard, "What is it
+the captains have brought?" And they said, "Salt." So he said, "Let it be
+so. To-day is the day. Good! You go and get ready, and I will get ready,
+and we shall all go together."
+
+Then the two chief wives looked very sorrowful, for they felt sure by his
+look and tone that something bad was about to happen.
+
+First he ordered a bath to be prepared for himself. It was made ready, and
+he bathed, and went to dress himself in the other room, where his goods
+were stored. When he had entered, he called his own two brothers and the
+two wives, and closed the door. He began to examine a few of his boxes.
+Opening a certain one, he said, "Of all my wealth, this was one of the
+first. Now I am going to die. But as it is always the custom, a few days
+after the funeral, to decide who shall be the successor and inheritor,
+when that day arrives, come and open this particular box. Do not forget to
+take the cloth for covering the throne of my successor from this box."
+
+Inside of that box was a small casket, holding a large black silk
+handkerchief. He kept the secret received from his grandfather, and did
+not tell them what would happen when they should come to get cloth from
+the box. They understood only that on the throne-day they were to open the
+big box and the little casket it contained. Then he told them, "Now you
+may go out." They went out. Jeki shut the door, and began to dress for
+the ships. But, before dressing, he took out the black silk handkerchief
+from the small box, and rubbed it over his entire body; and, carefully
+folding it, put it back again in the casket and closed it. Then he was
+ready to start. And they all went off to the ships, he with the ozazi in
+hand. He, with his own brothers, was in a boat following the boat of his
+half-brothers.
+
+He raised a death-song, "Ilendo! Ilendo! give me skill for a dance!
+Ilendo! Ilendo! give me skill for a play!" This he sang on the way,
+jumping from boat to boat. He said he would go on board the ships, but
+ordered all his brothers not to come. His plan was that they were to be
+only witnesses of his death. He boarded one of the ships, and went over
+the deck singing and dancing with that same Ilendo song. Then he jumped to
+the deck of the next vessel.
+
+As he did so, the first one sank instantly. On the second ship he sang and
+danced, and jumped thence to the third, the second sinking as the first.
+On the third ship he continued the song and dance; he remained on it a
+long while, for he caused it to sink slowly. When the water reached the
+vessel's deck, the brothers in the boats were looking on with fear. His
+own brothers began to cry, seeing the ship sinking, for they knew that
+Jeki would die with it. When it sank, the boats went ashore wailing,
+and took the news to the town.
+
+But the half-brothers were not really mourning; they were planning the
+division of Jeki's property. All the town held the kwedi (mourning);
+but after the fifth day the half-brothers told their father that it was
+time for the exaltation of a successor to Jeki, the ceremony of ampenda
+(glories). Ngwe-nkonde's first-born son, Nkombe, said, "I will be the
+first to stand on the throne, and my two brothers will be next." Jeki's
+two brothers refused to have anything to say about the division. They
+determined they would remain quiet and see what would be done. And the two
+wives of Jeki said the same.
+
+When the half-brothers came to the house of mourning, they began to
+discuss which of these two women they would inherit. Then one of the two
+wives said, "Oh, Ngwanga, we must not forget what Jeki told us about
+the box, now that the people are fixing for the ampenda!"
+
+So the two brothers of Jeki and the two women went inside the room,
+shut the door, and began to open the big box to take out the little
+casket. By this time the people outside had everything ready for the
+ceremony of the ampenda. The two women now opened the casket, took out the
+black handkerchief, and unfolded it. And Jeki stood in the middle of
+the room, with his ozazi in his hand. Their surprise was great; their joy
+extreme. In their joy they ran to embrace him.
+
+The people outside were very busy with their arrangements. Nkombe already
+had taken the throne, having painted his face with the little white mark
+of rule, and given orders to have the signal-drum beaten; and the crowd
+began to dance and sing to his praise.
+
+Jeki sent his youngest brother, Oraniga (last-born), saying, "Just go
+privately and tell my father about me, that I have come to life. And I
+want him to have the whole town swept, and to lay bars of iron along the
+streets for me to step on from this house to his. Say also that
+Ntyege (monkey) must continue his firing of guns and cannon; then I
+will come and meet my father."
+
+Oraniga did so; and the father said, "Good!" and Oraniga returned. The
+father gave the desired orders about the sweeping and the iron bars and
+the firing of cannon; but the people at the throne-house did not know of
+all this.
+
+Then Jeki and his two wives and two brothers dressed themselves finely
+to walk to the father's house, and marched in procession through the
+street. A few of the people saw them, wondered, and asked the drums to
+stop, exclaiming, "Where did they come from?" The procession went on to
+the father's house, and Ntyege kept on with the cannon firing.
+
+On reaching his father's house, Jeki told him he had something to say,
+and the father ordered the drum to cease. All the people were summoned to
+the father's house to hear Jeki's words. He said, "Father, I know that
+I am your son, and Nkombe is your son. You all know what Nkombe has done,
+for he was at the bottom of this matter; so now choose between him and me.
+If you love him more, I will go far away and stay by myself; but if you
+love me, Nkombe must be removed from this town."
+
+So the father asked the opinion of others. (For himself, he wanted to have
+Jeki.) Nkombe's own brothers said he ought to be killed, "for he is not
+so good to us as Jeki was." So they bound Nkombe, and tied a stone
+about his neck, and drowned him in the sea.
+
+And everything went on well, Jeki governing, and providing for the
+town.
+
+
+
+
+GLOSSARY
+
+
+A.
+
+Abuna, abundance.
+
+Aganlo, children of mixed mortal and fairy birth.
+
+Akazya, a poisonous tree.
+
+Amie, do not know.
+
+Anlingo, water.
+
+Antya (sing. intya), eyes.
+
+Anyambe, the Divine Name.
+
+Aweme, yourself.
+
+Ayenwe, unseen.
+
+
+B.
+
+Babaka, consent thou.
+
+Behu, kitchen garden.
+
+Benda, a kind of rat.
+
+Bian, medicine.
+
+Bobabu, soft.
+
+Bohamba, a certain medicinal tree.
+
+Boka, a certain medicinal tree.
+
+Bokadi, a certain medicinal tree.
+
+Bokuda, a certain medicinal tree.
+
+Bolondo, a poisonous tree.
+
+Bongam, a certain medicinal tree.
+
+Botombaka, passing away.
+
+Buhwa, day.
+
+Bwanga, medicine.
+
+
+D.
+
+Dagula, Mr., a title of respect.
+
+Diba, marriage.
+
+Diya, the hearth; a household.
+
+Diyaka, to live.
+
+
+E.
+
+Ebabi, a male love philtre.
+
+Egona, a small antelope horn.
+
+Ehongo, a cornucopia.
+
+Ekongi, a guardian-spirit fetich.
+
+Ekope, a girdle.
+
+Elamba, a certain medicinal tree.
+
+Elinga, a basket.
+
+Etomba, tribe.
+
+Evove, harlot.
+
+Ewiria, words of hidden meaning.
+
+
+F.
+
+Fufu, mashed, boiled ripe plantains.
+
+
+G.
+
+Go, to, in, at.
+
+Greegree (gris-gris), fetich amulet.
+
+Gumbo, okra.
+
+Gwandere, a medicine for worms.
+
+
+H.
+
+Haye, will not do.
+
+Hume, a certain fish.
+
+
+I.
+
+Ibambo (pl. abambo), ghosts.
+
+Ibata, a blessing.
+
+Iga, the forest.
+
+Iguga, woe.
+
+Iheli, a gazelle.
+
+Ijawe (pl. majawe), blood relative.
+
+Ikaka (pl. makaka), family name.
+
+Ilala, an arch; a stairway.
+
+Ilina (pl. malina), soul.
+
+Ina, my mother.
+
+Ininla (pl. anlinla), soul.
+
+Injenji, a certain leaf; fault.
+
+Isakiliya, kindling-wood.
+
+Isiki (pl. asiki), a dwarf changeling.
+
+Itaka, a kitchen hanging-shelf.
+
+Itala, a view.
+
+Ivaha, a wish.
+
+Ivenda (pl. ampenda), glory.
+
+Iyele, a female love philtre.
+
+
+J.
+
+Ja, of.
+
+Jaka, to beget.
+
+Joba, the sun.
+
+Jomba, meat cooked in a bundle of plantain leaves.
+
+Juju, an amulet.
+
+
+K.
+
+Ka, and you.
+
+Kasa, a lash.
+
+Keva, to surpass.
+
+Kilinga, a kind of bird.
+
+Kimbwa-mbenje, native bark-cloth.
+
+Kna, a kind of bird.
+
+Knakna, a large kind of bird.
+
+Koka, a large kind of bird.
+
+Kombo, a superstitious ejaculation.
+
+Konde, queen.
+
+Kota, a certain tree.
+
+Kulu, a kind of spirit.
+
+Kumu, a stump.
+
+Kwedi, time of mourning.
+
+
+L.
+
+Lale, my father.
+
+
+M.
+
+Mabili, an east-wind fetich.
+
+Mba, not I.
+
+Mbenda, ground-nut.
+
+Mbi, I.
+
+Mbinde, a wild goat.
+
+Mbolo, gray hairs; a salutation.
+
+Mbulu, a wild dog.
+
+Mbumbu, rainbow.
+
+Mbundu, poison ordeal.
+
+Mbwa (pl. imbwa), dog.
+
+Mbwaye, a poison test.
+
+Mehole, ripe plantains.
+
+Miba, water.
+
+Mie, me.
+
+Monda, witchcraft medicine.
+
+Mondi (pl. myondi), a class of spirits.
+
+Mpazya, skin disease.
+
+Mulimate, a small horn for cupping.
+
+Musimo, spirits of the dead.
+
+Muskwa, a medicinal brush.
+
+Mutira, a medicinal stick.
+
+Mvia, a kind of bird.
+
+Mwana, a child.
+
+Mwanga, a plantation.
+
+
+N.
+
+Na, with.
+
+Ndabo, house.
+
+Ndembe, young.
+
+Nduma, a kind of snake.
+
+Ngalo, a guardian-spirit charm.
+
+Ngama, a water plant.
+
+Nganda, gourd seeds.
+
+Ngande, moon.
+
+Ngofu, an iron fetich bracelet.
+
+Ngunye, a flying-squirrel.
+
+Nguwu, hippopotamus.
+
+Ngwe, mother.
+
+Njabi, a wild oily fruit.
+
+Njega, leopard.
+
+Nkala, a large snail.
+
+Nkanja, a marriage dance.
+
+Nkendo, a magician's bell.
+
+Nkinda (pl. sinkinda), a class of spirits.
+
+Nsana, Sunday.
+
+Nsinsim, a shadow.
+
+Ntori, a large forest rat.
+
+Ntyege, a monkey.
+
+Nungwa, open thou.
+
+Nunja, shut thou.
+
+Nyamba, a scarf slung over the right shoulder, in which to carry a babe.
+
+Nyemba, witchcraft.
+
+Nyolo, body.
+
+
+O.
+
+Odika, kernel of the wild mango.
+
+Oganga, doctor.
+
+Ogenda, a journey.
+
+Ogwerina, rear of a house.
+
+Okove, a powerful fetich.
+
+Okume, African mahogany tree.
+
+Okundu, a kind of fetich for trading.
+
+Olaga (pl. ilaga), a class of spirits.
+
+Olako, a camping place.
+
+Ombwiri (pl. awiri), a class of spirits.
+
+Ompunga, wind.
+
+Orala, a hanging shelf over a fireplace.
+
+Oraniga, last-born.
+
+Orawo, insult.
+
+Orega, the Njembe secret society drum.
+
+Orunda, a prohibition; taboo.
+
+Osenge, a cleared place in the forest.
+
+Ovavi (pl. ivavi), messenger.
+
+Owavi (pl. sijavi), a leaf.
+
+Ozyazi, a pestle.
+
+Ozyoto, a cornucopia.
+
+
+P.
+
+Paia, my father.
+
+Pavo, a knife.
+
+Peke, ever.
+
+
+R.
+
+Rera, my father.
+
+
+S.
+
+Saba, an oath.
+
+Sabali, an oath.
+
+Sale, hail!
+
+
+T.
+
+Tamba, the womb.
+
+Tube, a certain leaf.
+
+Tuwaka, bless; spit
+
+
+U.
+
+Udinge, a great person.
+
+Ukuku (pl. mekuku), spirit; secret society.
+
+Ukwala, a machete.
+
+Untyanya, a medicinal bark.
+
+Unyongo, a medicinal tree.
+
+Upuma, a period of six months.
+
+Utodu, old.
+
+Uvengwa, a phantom.
+
+
+V.
+
+Veya, fire.
+
+
+Y.
+
+Yaginla, _imperative_, hear thou.
+
+Yaka, a family fetich.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Gen. xxx. 15-16.
+
+[2] Gen. xxix. 26.
+
+[3] Trumbull, Blood Covenant, p. 311.
+
+[4] Trumbull, Blood Covenant, p. 4.
+
+[5] Garenganze, p. 79.
+
+[6] Rom. i. 28, margin.
+
+[7] Rom. i. 30.
+
+[8] Three Years in Savage Africa, p. 74.
+
+[9] Western Africa, p. 209.
+
+[10] I am strongly disposed to think that, in its origin, there was a
+sacrificial idea connected with cannibalism.--R. H. N.
+
+[11] Gen. iv. 2.
+
+[12] Gen. iv. 17.
+
+[13] Gen. iv. 21, 22.
+
+[14] Heb. xi. 4.
+
+[15] Gen. iii. 21.
+
+[16] Joshua xxii. 34.
+
+[17] John xx. 29.
+
+[18] 1 Sam. vi. 3.
+
+[19] Dan. iii. 29.
+
+[20] History of Religion, pp. 129 _et seq._
+
+[21] Western Africa, p. 207.
+
+[22] Wilson.
+
+[23] Crowned in Palmland, p. 234.
+
+[24] Decle.
+
+[25] J. L. Wilson.
+
+[26] J. L. Wilson.
+
+[27] Decle.
+
+[28] Wilson, Western Africa.
+
+[29] Menzies, History of Religion, p. 33.
+
+[30] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 212.
+
+[31] Garenganze, p. 237.
+
+[32] Menzies, History of Religion, p. 73.
+
+[33] Those nails were not mere "ornaments." They were the records of the
+number of persons who had been transfixed by death or disease under the
+power of that fetich idol. A similar custom is known in the West Indies
+and in the southern United States. For every pin stuck into a wax figure
+intended to represent the person to be injured, some sickness or other
+evil will fall on him. Wilkie Collins also utilized this superstition in
+his novel, "I say, No."--R. H. N.
+
+[34] Decle.
+
+[35] History of Religion, pp. 65, 69.
+
+[36] Garenganze, p. 77.
+
+[37] Three Years in Savage Africa.
+
+[38] I saw the same on the Ogowe.--R. H. N.
+
+[39] These piles I have found at almost every village I have visited.--R.
+H. N.
+
+[40] Decle, p. 346.
+
+[41] Menzies.
+
+[42] Decle.
+
+[43] Hosea xiii. 2.
+
+[44] Acts xv. 29.
+
+[45] Brown, On the South African Frontier, p. 113.
+
+[46] Arnot, Garenganze, p. 106.
+
+[47] This would be what I have denominated the "white art."--R. H. N.
+
+[48] In that part of Africa.--R. H. N.
+
+[49] Really, only a difference in administration.--R. H. N.
+
+[50] Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, pp. 152, 154, 294.
+
+[51] Arnot, Garenganze, p. 115.
+
+[52] And, similarly, I have known the fimbriated extremities of the
+fallopian tubes in a woman held up as a proof of her having been a witch.
+The ciliary movements of these fimbriae were regarded as the efforts of her
+"familiar" at a process of eating. The decision was that she had been
+"eaten" to death by her own offended familiar.--R. H. N.
+
+[53] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 398.
+
+[54] Brown, On the South African Frontier.
+
+[55] Ex. xxii. 18.
+
+[56] I Sam. xxvii. 11-15.
+
+[57] Verse 12.
+
+[58] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 275.
+
+[59] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 393.
+
+[60] Ibid.
+
+[61] Wilson, Western Africa.
+
+[62] To a native African that is a much greater wrong than stealing from
+other people, particularly from foreigners.--R. H. N.
+
+[63] On the South African Frontier, p. 214.
+
+[64] Garenganze, p. 207.
+
+[65] Arnot.
+
+[66] Brown, On the South African Frontier.
+
+[67] Tale 23, p. 93, my "Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Fjort."
+
+[68] Arnot.
+
+[69] Decle.
+
+[70] See "Niger and Yoruba Notes."
+
+[71] From a West African newspaper.
+
+[72] Menzies, History of Religion, p. 71.
+
+[73] See an illustration of it on p. 102 of my "Crowned in Palm-Land"; an
+infant is lying on a plantain leaf in the street.
+
+[74] Wilson, Western Africa.
+
+[75] Decle.
+
+[76] Among Cannibals, pp. 278-279.
+
+[77] Arnot, Garenganze, p. 116.
+
+[78] Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, pp. 74-79.
+
+[79] Decle.
+
+[80] Arnot, p. 76.
+
+[81] Three Years in Savage Africa, p. 512.
+
+[82] Wilson.
+
+[83] P. 513.
+
+[84] I know of its occurring on the Gabun and Ogowe rivers on the West
+Coast.--R. H. N.
+
+[85] P. 107.
+
+[86] P. 115.
+
+[87] Trumbull, p. 129.
+
+[88] Western Africa, p. 397.
+
+[89] Wilson, Western Africa.
+
+[90] Garenganze, p. 107.
+
+[91] Niger and Yoruba Notes.
+
+[92] Wilson.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not
+represented in this text version.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fetichism in West Africa, by Robert Hamill Nassau
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FETICHISM IN WEST AFRICA ***
+
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