[168] The Banya, a lagoon extending to the south-east, parallel with the coast.
[169] The Mpungu is the gorilla. For Engeco (printed Encego in the earlier editions) we ought to read Nsiku, the native name for the chimpanzi, a larger variety of which is known as Chimpenso (Pechuel-Loesche, Loango Expedition, vol. iii, p. 248). P. Du Chaillu, the first European to kill a gorilla in his native haunts (Adventures in Equatorial Africa), declares Battell’s stories to be mere traveller’s tales, “untrue of any of the great apes of Africa.” Sir R. F. Burton (Two Trips to Gorilla Land, vol. i, p. 240) suggests that as Battell had not seen a gorilla, he may have confounded gorillas with bushmen.
[170] Misprint for Mayumbas?
[171] Dr. Pechuel-Loesche (D. Loango Exp., vol. iii, p. 302) says that native dogs do not bark, but that they often acquire the habit when living among European dogs. Most of them are mongrels, but there are some superior breeds trained for hunting. These dogs carry a wooden bell (ndibu) round the neck, the clatter of which scares the game. When the scent grows warm, the dogs begin to whine, and when the game is in sight they give tongue. After each beat the dogs sit down apart from the hunters, raise their heads, and howl for several minutes. Mr. Dennett, in a letter to me, confirms the barking (kukula, to bark) of the native dogs.
[172] See p. [82] for further information on this fetish.
[173] Neither Mr. Dennett, nor one of the officials in the French Colonial Office, thoroughly acquainted with the language, has been able to make sense out of this sentence. The latter suggests Ku Kwiza bukie lika, “I come for the truth!” For another version of this appeal, see p. 83. The sentence is evidently very corrupt.
[174] Circumcision is common in some districts, but no magical or mystic influence is ascribed to it (Bentley).
[175] For an account of the initiation into the guild called Ndembo, see Bentley’s Dictionary, p. 506.
[176] The custom of prohibiting certain food to be eaten, etc., is very common. Mpangu is the name for this taboo in the case of new-born infants; Konko, a taboo imposed in connection with an illness. The thing tabooed is called nlongo (Bentley).
[177] This refers no doubt to Sette, the river of which enters the sea in 2° 23´ S. The capital of the same name being fifty miles up it. Barwood is still exported, but no logwood.