[178] His modern representative seems to be the Mani Kasoche on the Upper Ngonga, who was visited by Güssfeldt.
[179] Not to be taken literally, for Cão certainly touched at this bay.
[180] The usual designation for “Dwarf” is mbaka or kimbakabaka (the diminutive of mbaka), but Batumba (with which Battell’s matimba seems to be identical) is likewise applied to a dwarf person or thing (Bentley). In Angola, Matumbu means a far-off, unknown country (Cordeiro da Matta). Compare note, p. 52.
[181] “Marombos” seems to be a misprint for Mayumbas (see note, p. 55).
[182] The Mamboma is a sort of home secretary. He buries the Maloango, and summons the princes for the election of a successor. Mboma is the black python; boma means fear. Hence the title has been translated “Lord of Terror.”
[183] Mbundu, the powdered root of a species of strychnos, is administered to confessed witches accused of having caused the death of a person. If the accused be guilty, this poison causes him to lose all control over the sphincter urethræ; he discharges red urine profusely, runs a few paces, falls down and dies. An innocent person only discharges a few drops on a banana leaf (Pechuel-Loesche, Loango Exp., vol. iii, p. 188). Nkasa, prepared from the bark of Erythrophlaeum guineense, paralyses the action of the heart, but if thrown up at once, it will not kill (Dr. M. Boehr, Correspon. der Deutschen Afrik. Ges., vol. i, p. 332). It is administered to persons who deny being witches. (For a full account of such a trial, see Dennett, Seven Years Among the Fjort, p. 165.) In the case of minor offences, the ordeal of the hot matchet—bikalo, bisengo, or bau—is resorted to. The knife is passed thrice over the skin of the leg, and if it burns the accused is declared guilty (see also Dennett, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Fjort, p. 162). The Nganga is, of course, open to a bribe, and in the case of a chief the poison may be administered to a substitute—a dog or a slave—and the penalty commuted to a fine. See also Bentley’s Pioneering on the Congo, London, 1900.
[184] The poison administered in this case was nkasa, and not mbundu (see p. 80).
[185] Ndoki, a witch; undoki, that which pertains to witchcraft (Bentley).
[186] That is, Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World, bk. vii, ch. 10, dealing with Loango.
[187] Worthy Purchas grows quite incoherent in his indignation, but the reader will nevertheless be able to gather his meaning, and will appreciate his distinction between a Jewish priest and a heathen Nganga, both administering the same rite. He thus shares the opinion of the Roman Catholic missionaries who recognised the efficacy of native charms, but ascribed it to the Devil, whilst claiming greater potency for their crosses, relics, etc., deriving their potency from Heaven.