TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HIS KINGDOM IN CONGOLAND
AND TO
THOSE CO-WORKERS IN THE HOME-LAND
WHOSE GENEROSITY, PRAYERS AND KINDLY WORDS HAVE
SUPPORTED, STRENGTHENED AND ENCOURAGED
THEM ALL THESE YEARS, THIS BOOK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
PREFACE
A brass rod is the money of by far the larger number of the people on the Lower and Upper Congo. In thickness it is not quite so stout as an ordinary slate pencil, and varies now in length, according to the tribe using it, from five inches long on the Lower Congo to an indefinite length among the more distant tribes of Congo’s hinterland. Originally the brass wire was employed on the Congo for purposes of ornamentation, either of the person in the form of necklets, armlets, and anklets, or of articles they greatly prized and wished to decorate. It was beaten into ribbons and wound round the hafts of their favourite spears, paddles, and knives which were only used on gala days; or the wire was melted down, and, with much skill, made into personal ornaments. I have seen brass necklets weighing twenty-eight pounds, and have taken from a woman’s legs brass rings that weighed in the aggregate nearly sixty pounds. It is probable that at first this brass wire changed hands in lengths of several fathoms, and gradually pieces of a certain length were sold at a fixed value, and thus it became in due time the article of common exchange--the currency, the money of the country.
For a considerable time the writer has been interested in the folklore and anthropology of the people, and has made long and careful notes on such subjects, and some of this information he has worked into the story. For obvious reasons much must be left unwritten[[1]] in a popular book; but that which finds a place in the following pages can be accepted as perfectly trustworthy and true to Congo life. The missionary and other experiences are founded on fact, the views and prejudices of the natives are faithfully pourtrayed and are not exaggerated, and the native superstitions have, as shown here, resulted in innumerable cases of murder by ordeal, and the killing off of the most progressive natives, possessors of inventive genius, of irrepressible energy and of great skill--the best men, who would have been the leaders of their people and would have left them more advanced than they found them but for the witch-doctor and the ordeal.