The “medicine man” sat in the middle of the caravan, which stood round him with their bundles tied ready for the journey, and put the fetish image in front of him. The nganga spoke to the image, telling it to give the traders good luck on the road and at the trading-station. A man then held a fowl by the head and the “medicine man” took it by the body and cut its head off and let the blood drop on the image. After this the fowl was cooked and eaten outside the houses; and during and after this ceremony no one could enter a house or turn back from the road.
The fowl having been eaten, a shell was brought containing very small pieces of everything that was in the fetish bag of charms, and this shell was placed on the road by which the men had to travel to the coast. Every one in the caravan had then to step carefully over the shell, for if any one had touched it he would not have been allowed to proceed or he would die on the journey. Having passed safely over the shell of charms, we were not to look back or our luck would have been destroyed. Bakula performed these various rites in a very half-hearted manner, for he was losing faith in them.
As we were starting the members of our party shouted to the people left in the town: “Good health to you, and let no one follow us to give us bad luck in trading”; and those left behind said: “Good journey to you, and do not any of you return to bewitch us, or carry us to sell to the white traders.” The idea behind these requests was that any living person who is a ndoki, or witch, can visit a place by his nkwiya, or evil spirit, and take a person away, or work them great harm by his witchcraft. Hence they live in constant fear of each other, and all their charms, fetishes, and witch-doctors are employed in protecting them from one another. Before Bakula reached the shell his mother came hurrying towards him, and, pretending to spit on his face, said: “May you have all that you desire, may you have happiness and good luck, and may your words find favour with the people.” It was her mode of saying farewell to her son.
We were now fairly started on the road, and as all the omens were in our favour and the nganga had performed his ceremonies without the slightest hitch, everybody was in good spirits, and more ready to laugh and sing than grumble at the weight of the loads. Many points of etiquette had to be remembered as we passed through the numerous towns and villages on our road to the coast.
On passing through a village we were not allowed to let our sticks touch the ground or we should destroy the luck of that place and that would mean a heavy fine. While in the open country or bush many of the men hitched up their cloths (exposing their thighs) to give greater freedom to their legs; but on passing through a town they dropped their cloths out of respect to the town, or otherwise they would have been taken to the chief’s house and well beaten. In passing through any town every carrier was careful not to put his load on his head, as that was regarded as an exhibition of insolent pride, and would have aroused the anger of the towns-people, and a fight, with heavy fines, would have resulted. If we sat resting on the ground in any town we had to be careful not to shake off the dust from our cloths until we got outside the town, as such an action was regarded as putting a curse on the place.
Tolls had to be paid for using all bridges and canoes in crossing the larger rivers in our path; and a tax, according to the number of carriers and the value of their loads, was demanded by the overlords of the districts through which we passed. The non-observance of these customs and points of etiquette led sometimes to quarrels and fights between insolent travellers and insulted townsfolk.
On our arrival at the coast we were met by a native interpreter, who had visited our town and given Satu twenty pieces of cloth on the understanding that he was to have the privilege of selling our chief’s “trade produce” to one of the white traders. This interpreter showed us much hospitality, hoping thereby to be seller for the whole caravan.
The morning after our arrival we sorted Satu’s stuff into three lots--ten loads of ivory, eight loads of peanuts, and twenty-two loads of rubber. It was decided to sell the rubber first, so the men carried their loads to the trader’s store accompanied by the interpreter. The following conversation then took place, the white man and the interpreter talking Portuguese, and the native trader and the interpreter talking the vernacular--
Interpreter to white man: “How much for this rubber?”
The rubber was carefully examined and weighed.