Four weeks after my arrival in the Commi country my new settlement was built, and was exactly like my old settlement of Washington, a picture of which I gave you in my Apingi Kingdom, and I gave to it the name of Plateau, on account of the country being flat.
After the completion of my house there was great excitement in the settlement. Ranpano had declared that he could not enter my house; a doctor had told him that some person who was an aniemba, a wizard, had made a monda, a charm, and had put it under the threshold of the door of my house, so that if he entered my hut the witch or aniemba would go into him, and he would die.
I got furious at Ranpano's superstition, and said to him that, while he pretended to love me, he insulted me by not coming to see me. His answer was that he loved me. His people felt badly about it. Doctors were sent for; they drank the mboundou, and declared that it was true that some one wanted to bewitch him, and had put a monda under my door to kill him.
Immediately ceremonies for driving away the witch were begun. For three days they danced almost incessantly, making a terrible noise near my premises, which almost set me crazy; drums were beating day and night. At the end of the third day I heard suddenly a tremendous noise made with the drums, and a gun was fired at my door. Ranpano entered muttering invocations, and wild with excitement, and the people declared that the aniemba under my door that was to kill the king had been driven away.
CHAPTER V.
DEPARTURE OF THE MENTOR.—MR. AND MRS. THOMAS CHIMPANZEE.—THOMAS IN LONDON.—LEFT ALONE IN AFRICA.—DEPARTURE FROM PLATEAU.—A TORNADO.—NENGUÉ SHIKA.—TRACES OF GORILLAS.—NENGUÉ NCOMA.—KING OLENGA-YOMBI.—THE IPI.