Among Congo cannibals

by John H. Weeks

Another charm on much the same lines as the two already mentioned, is the jelo or sandbank. The lucky owner of this charm, when escape from the enemy is otherwise impossible, will take a handful of sand and throw it towards his pursuers, and a sandbank will immediately form and stop their progress until the owner of the jelo charm is far beyond their reach. The innumerable and ever-changing sandbanks in the river favour this belief.

On one occasion the folk were much troubled by steamers calling at Monsembe, the crews of which took every opportunity of robbing the people. The natives therefore decided to employ this charm by making a series of sandbanks across the channels, thus preventing the approach of steamers. I informed them that we were expecting our steamer the Peace, and they must not shut her out or we should run short of provision and barter goods.

“We will leave an opening for your steamer,” they assured me as they continued the ceremony.

A couple of days afterwards a State steamer came in sight, the very kind of steamer they wanted to keep out. “How did that steamer pass your sandbanks?” I quietly asked.

“Oh,” they replied nonchalantly, “some mischievous boy must have bewitched our line of sandbanks and caused several openings.” I have never found them lacking a loophole out of difficulties of this kind.

There are various preventive charms to maintain them in good health, to ward off the return of a sickness, preserve them from wounds, and to protect their property. A cross-stick on uprights (called mokando), rubbed with red camwood powder and arranged with a noose to catch witches that try to enter a house or village, is regarded as a health-preserver to a household and to a community. Or a medicine man can take certain stalks, or anything else to hand, and after putting a charm into it he can lay it along or across any path, and neither witch nor disembodied spirit desiring to commit evil in the village will be able to cross this charm (jeko) into the village.

A forked stick (mutumu) is carried by a man who has had rheumatism as a charm against the return of the complaint; but if the stick is touched by anyone else, or broken, the man will have a serious relapse. A brass ring with a few wood knots threaded on it, or a piece of string with knots tied in it, are both used for curing and for preventing diarrhœa, especially in children.

The mpete is a charm to preserve the owner from being wounded in a fight, but for it to be effective the owner’s wives must remain faithful while he is at the war. This name is also given to the brass ornaments on a State officer’s helmet and uniform, as the natives when first they saw them thought they were charms worn by the white men to preserve them from wounds, and not as decorations or insignia of rank. There is also a charm that is supposed to render the owner invulnerable to all weapons used in fights and quarrels.

A native does not own very much property, but what little he has he desires to keep, so there are charms for that purpose. A plantain stalk bound with the proper medicine is a charm to preserve its owner’s canoe from being swamped in a storm. It is not necessary to have it (the mokombe) in the canoe at the time, for it can act through any reasonable distance of space. The python charm (nguma) is regarded as a powerful charm for protecting wealth and slaves; and should either be lost it has the reputation of restoring them quickly to their owner.

There is a general charm (nseka) for preserving property from robbery and destruction. It is made of anything according to the preference of its user, as shells, leaves, skins, etc. Such a charm is frequently carried through the town to notify that something has been stolen and to bring a curse on the thief, and then it is partly made of the same material as the thing stolen. Charms are placed round the farms to mark the boundaries of a field belonging to one woman from that of another, and also to protect the produce from thieves. The charms then employed seem to be almost anything; but those most frequently seen are large univalve snail shells, bivalve shells like mussels, pieces of cactus, bits of rags, old calabashes, etc., these are all tied on sticks stuck in the ground and the charms dangle to and fro in the breeze.