John H. Weeks

“ A great number of charms and fetishes were to be found in the town, and it seemed as though they had a charm for every imaginable circumstance of life. One man possessed a charm to protect his goods, and another had a charm to help him steal successfully; one owned a charm to bring him good luck in trading, and another wore a charm to aid him in cheating on the markets the folk with whom he traded. One man whom I saw had a charm to render him invisible that he might, unseen, hear conversations, and enter forbidden places to his own advantage ”

“ There were no foods for invalids, no dainties to tempt a patient’s appetite--the sick had either to eat what the robust and healthy ate or go without. Many patients have died of hunger rather than of the diseases from which they suffered.
The practice of the witch-doctor was sheer quackery, and rested more on the exorcism of evil spirits by magical charms, incantations and concoctions, than on a knowledge of physiology, disease and medicine. The wonder was that any one survived the various treatments, and, in fact, only the fittest and strongest did recover from serious illnesses. ”

“ There is a delightful absence of proportion in these stories, for in them mice and birds marry young women; a mouse carries the head of a leopard in his bag and brags that he has eaten nine leopards, and although he punishes the elephant and the buffalo he has to cry for help against the hyena; the gazelle eats whole pigs and goats; and a chameleon snarls and the elephant, leopard and other animals run away in terror. Nothing is strange or incongruous in a land where witch-doctors abounded, and were credited with performing wonders by their supposed magical powers. ”

“ I heard, too, that Mavakala was a skilled blacksmith, and had made good knives out of odd pieces of hoop iron taken from old cases, and bought, by him, from traders on the river; and had even made hoes and axes out of old bale iron. Many other clever things he had done, all of which were now by these superstitious people accepted as proofs of his witchcraft. He had awakened their jealousy by his energy and smartness in business; his skill and ingenuity in smithing had aroused their suspicions, and his prosperity had provoked their hatred. ”

“ Guns are fired, drums are beaten, the people dance and sing songs in honour of the slayer of Mfumu, and much palm-wine is drunk. The leopard is then flayed and eaten. Some ate the flesh believing they would become lithe, cunning and strong like the leopard, but others refused to eat it from a superstitious fear of spots--like the leopard’s--breaking out on their own skins.
The gifts presented by the various chiefs paid the expenses of the festivities, and Satu sat on this skin when he was invested with the high rank of a noble. ”

“ As the Buffalo was rushing away a Lion shouted out: “Where have you come from?” The Buffalo stopped and told him all his troubles. “Oh,” said the Lion, “give me an axe, I’ll marry her.” But the same thing happened to him, and to the Hyena, and to the Leopard also. They all cut at the tree, got tired, rested too long, and each ran away, saying: “I came to marry, but the girl is not worth the trouble.”
As the Leopard was bounding away, a Mouse asked him: “What is the matter?” and the Leopard growled out: “I went to marry a woman, but whoever marries her must fell the mahogany tree.” ”

“ The female members of his family, old and young, set up a howl of rage and grief--rage because the witch had killed their chief, grief because their relative was dead. The men fired off their guns to frighten away evil spirits, to give expression to their sorrow, and to inform the spirits in the great, mysterious forest town, whence all the souls of the dead go, that a great man was coming to join them. ”

“ Satu was about to condole with him, but there was a general movement towards the fires, for by now the saucepans were steaming with cooked food, and all the folk were eagerly anticipating the feast of pig and pudding. Satu turned these matters over in his mind, and remarked to one of his head men: “After all, there are some disadvantages in having a white man in one’s town, if he makes us uncomfortable in our hearts; and,” he continued, “I am not sure whether Tonzeka is bewitched by the white man, or is sharing profits with the white man in the sale of dead bodies.” ”

“ That evening the chief of Manga sent a message to the chief of Lumu, and the messenger carried a gun, which he should not have done, so the Lumu people took the gun away from him on the plea that he was bringing force into their town.”
“How did you settle that palaver?” asked Satu.
“Well, you know,” replied Tonzeka, “that any pig found on another’s farm may be killed, and in some parts of the country the man who kills it can take half the flesh for the trouble of killing it, and to compensate him for the damage done to his farm; and the other half he sends to the owner of the pig. ”

“ Wo! and again the drums were beaten, guns fired, and ivory trumpets sounded until the very air seemed to quiver with discordant noises.
The Kapitau then instructed the new noble how he was to deport himself as a man of high rank. In future he must not, when walking, visiting, hunting or trading, carry anything except his walking-stick or gun. In fact, he was never again to carry anything like a boy or an ordinary man. Should any person meet him bearing any article, save his stick or gun, such a person may take away the said article and either keep it for himself or sell it. ”

“ The bridegroom-elect was a crafty old man who thoroughly recognized the advantage of an alliance with so great a family if he could coerce the girl into marrying him, or the possibility of making some money out of the breaking of the covenant should her uncle support her in her continued refusal of him.
He therefore feigned surprise when he was requested to release Sono from her betrothal to him, and asked in anger: “Was he not great enough to become a member of Satu’s family! Was he not a great man himself, and owned twelve wives! What objection had lord Satu to him?” ”

“ During this season it is very weird to see, night after night, great bush fires blazing in different directions. The sky is aglow with them, and you smell and breathe a smoky atmosphere for days. Bits of charred grass are carried by the winds in all directions, and the country looks dressed in black as though it were mourning with a great 202sorrow, and the sun, as though in sympathy with the earth, hides for days behind the clouds of ascended smoke.
During the hunts men are often wounded, and sometimes killed, by being mistaken for animals as they push through the rustling grass. ”

“ Large numbers flocked to them, paid their fees--five strings of beads for an adult, and two for a child--confessed their hatred, witchcraft, and evil thoughts, and received from the hands of the new cult of “medicine men” the peanut and palm-wine, and yearningly hoped that sickness had been banished from their district and death destroyed. But again they were quickly undeceived, for disease continued rampant and death entered hut after hut. ”

“ What a pride they seemed to take in their "House of God"! The walls were colour-washed and decorated with pictures 298of the life of Christ; the doors and windows, which were of native carpentry, were nicely painted, and the roof was of corrugated iron sheets that they had bought with their own hard-earned money. There stood their “House of God” on the finest site, in the very heart of the town.
What a contrast to Bakula’s little grass school-chapel that had been so ruthlessly destroyed by some of the very people who had laboured to erect this new building! ”

“ The visitors had come to transact business with the chief; consequently Satu’s fire was the centre that evening of a large and interested gathering. Men and lads crowded near the chief and visitors, while the women and girls hovered about the outskirts of the circle picking up such scraps of information as filtered through to them.
My owner, Bakula, was there, and put the first question, or rather series of questions: Who is this white man? What is he like? Where does he come from? What is he doing in this country? ”

“ The younger men and women, hearing the drums resounding with their rhythmical beating, went off to dance in the moonlight, and the drinking and dancing continued far into the night; pandemonium reigned, law and order were forgotten, and the stars looked down that night on a town that had changed into a pig-sty.
These orgies lasted three nights. Through the 31day the men lounged about, sleeping in the shade; the women did no work, but simply gathered firewood and water for cooking the evening feasts. ”

“ They think that the great forest town of spirits is conducted in the same way, and to ensure a welcome to the deceased they bury him just before sunset with much firing of guns, blowing of ivory trumpets, and beating of their drums.
Just as the burial rites were completed a white man, a State officer, arrived. He was greeted, and a house was cleared out, swept and given to him for the night. The white man walked freely about the town that evening and enjoyed the hospitality of the people. ”

“ He scouted the idea that because a man related what he had seen and heard that therefore he was a witch; and he soothed the old man by promising to oppose the white man.
There was no more talk that night about the coming white man, for very soon after Satu uttered the above diplomatic words the people separated, and went either to whisper their fears to each other around their own fires, or to spread their mats for sleep. Several times during that night women woke from horrid dreams, screaming that the white man had stolen their children, or was trying to throttle the souls out of them. ”

“ The natives in their talk often use phrases from their stories which are quite sufficient to recall to the hearers the whole fable and its teaching, as “sour grapes” with us conjures up the fox looking with longing eyes at the fruit beyond his reach. Many of these concentrated sentences have become the proverbs of to-day, and the Lower Congo language is rich in such mots, and one could, in fact, gain a very clear idea of the Congo man’s philosophy from an analysis of the sentences culled from their stories which have become their maxims. ”

“ This ceremony completed, the witnesses went into Sono’s house and arranged the hearthstones, and instructed the bride in the duties of a wife.
The young chief, in anticipation of his marriage, had built a house for his new wife, because every wife had her own house in which to live and be mistress. The Congo man is too ’cute to put two women in one house; perhaps he has learned by bitter experience the unwisdom of it, and no matter how many wives he may be fortunate enough to marry, he builds a house for each, and one for himself. ”

“ The Gazelle tied up the bottom of his bag, the Nkumbi did the same; the Gazelle plucked the ripe plums, so did the Nkumbi. The ’cuteness of the Nkumbi was equal to the smartness of the Gazelle.
Says the Gazelle: “Let us throw some plums into that nest.” They did so, and roused the Squirrel, who cried out to the Leopard. The Leopard came quickly. “Come down here, and I’ll teach you,” he shouted.
“Oh no,” said the Gazelle, “my mother is able to teach me; but if you hear a thud, you will know it is I, and if a patter, it is my bag.” ”

“ CLOTH WEAVING.
BLACKSMITHS.
To him the teacher replied: “Supposing the white man had asked God to punish you and your 259people for driving him out of your town. Where would you be now? Not sitting there, but dead, without an opportunity of hearing of His great love. We will not ask God to punish them; but we will pray that He may do for these people what He has done for you, Satu, and your towns-folk: so change their hearts and superstitious thoughts about us that another day they will gladly invite us to stay in their town.” ”

“ I never heard before that God had given any laws for us to obey, because, as you know, we have no books; yet when we get drunk, or thieve, or lie, or do any other bad action, something inside tells us that they are wrong and condemns us; but we are not ashamed, because everybody does them. If he would give us medicine, and teach our boys and girls it would be all right, but when he talks God’s palavers I do not like him, for he makes my ‘heart stand up’ with fear. ”

“ Satu thanked his friend and said: "What you tell me about rubber coats and sheets quite accounts for the presence of traders in our country; but these ‘white men of God’ do not trade. Why are they here?" And a look of sly triumph came into his eyes as he continued: “They don’t buy rubber, they don’t deal in ivory, they don’t trade in anything, and, according to your own statement, they don’t even buy dead bodies. Why are they here? That is what I want to know?”
“That is the very question I put to this white man myself,” replied Tonzeka, "and I will try to give you his answer. ”

“ Earth was rammed round the stick, and the fetish was now completed, and ready to work.
But there was one prohibition that the luck-giver said must be scrupulously observed: nothing tied in a bundle could be brought into the town, or the charm would become ineffective, and its luck-giving power destroyed. Women returning with firewood must untie their bundles before reaching the fetish; men with bundles of thatching-grass must take off the bands; carriers with loads must either loosen all the cords, or make a wide detour to avoid the town; and the people must remove their girdles and belts. ”

“ Satu, on the other hand, was a keen, successful trader, and had accumulated a great amount of native wealth. Consequently, as a rich man and a noble, he was expected by public opinion to redeem his brother out of bondage. One of Satu’s first acts after his dignity was conferred on him was to take the fifty pieces of cloth, a calabash of palm-wine and a white goat; and, calling Bakula and others to carry the goods and accompany him as witnesses, went to the town where his brother was held in slavery. ”