Congo life and folklore

by John H. Weeks

Bakula was shown over the house, the school, the medicine-store and other places, and made to feel perfectly at home. He visited the boys’ house, and quickly struck up an acquaintance with two or three lads. He asked them innumerable questions, pried into every possible nook and corner, and finally concluded that Tonzeka was right and Old Plaited-Beard wrong. Before hurrying back to his party he bade good-bye to the white man, and was asked to come and spend a day or two with him when his business with the King was completed. This he readily promised to do.

About the middle of the afternoon a messenger called us to the King. Bakula at once picked up the twenty pieces of cloth, which were wrapped in a blanket, and followed Old Plaited-Beard, who strutted grandly in front filled with an enormous sense of his own importance. The others came on behind, and the goats and the pig brought up the rear.

We made our way towards the middle of the town, where the King’s lumbu, or enclosure, was situated. We passed between fences to the “judging place,” or mbaji a Kongo, in the centre of the town, where a huge, wide-spreading tree stood, beneath the shadows of which all important palavers were held. Crossing this “town square,” we came to the first entrance of the King’s lumbu, which was a miniature maze, as we had to negotiate four fences before arriving at the central space where the King’s house stood.

On entering the first opening, we turned to the left, then right, then right again, and found another opening in the fence; then by turning again to the right we worked our way back to a position near the first opening, where we found the third opening in the third fence, then turning to the left and again to the right, there was the opening leading into the courtyard immediately in front of the King’s house. There we waited and sent the messenger to tell the King we had reached the last entrance.

After standing there a short time we received permission to advance, and found ourselves in an open space about fifteen by twenty yards in extent, with the front door of the “palace” before us. Old Plaited-Beard and those who were unencumbered with the presents fell upon their knees, stretched their bodies forward in a profound bow, put their palms together, rubbed their little fingers in the dust, which they smeared on their foreheads and temples, and then clapped their hands three times--not by hitting the palms together, but by arching their hands.

After this obeisance they arose to their feet and walked to the front of the house, where they fell again on their knees and repeated the former ceremony of homage. Again rising they entered the house, and advancing to within two or three yards of the King they fell on their knees and performed the third and last act of their homage.

The King showed his acceptance of the homage by putting the palms of his hands across each other in such a way that the fingers of the right hand were placed well above the thumb and index finger of the left, and he waved the extended fingers up and down. If the King had not received our homage thus, but had thrust out his foot and wriggled his toes, the sooner we had retreated from his presence and returned to our town the better it would have been for us. It would have been a sign that the King was angry with us, wished to insult us, and was meditating mischief.

As native houses go the King’s “palace” was large, being about eighteen feet wide by twenty-five feet long. The walls were of planks, and the roof of grass. Along one wall was a high, wide shelf covered with ewers, basins, decanters, china images of dogs, men, and women gaudily coloured, jugs, plates, and common vases--the profits of trading and presents from chiefs and others. Beneath the shelf were various trunks, undoubtedly full of trade cloth and other treasures.

I afterwards heard that the King’s bedroom was next to the one we were in, and beyond that the houses for his twenty-five wives.

We found the King sitting on a low seat covered with blankets, rugs and pillows. His full title was Dom Pedro V, Ntotela, Ntinu a Kongo, i. e. Dom Pedro V, Emperor, King of Congo. His personal name was Elelo, and I afterwards learned that his sobriquet was: Weni w’ezulu, or, The Great One of Heaven.