CHAPTER XIII.
DRINKING THE MBOUNDOU.—HOW OLANGA-CONDO COULD DO IT.—HOW THE MBOUNDOU IS MADE.—THE EFFECT OF THE POISON.
What a wild scene I beheld; one which had never been seen before by any white man!
Olanga-Condo, a mighty ouganga (doctor), was to drink the mboundou. What an awful poison this mboundou is! Nevertheless, Olanga-Condo could drink it; yes, he could drink it by bowlfuls, one of which was more than sufficient to kill any man or woman.
You will ask me, How is it that Olanga-Condo could drink this mboundou and that other people could not? I suppose he accustomed his body to it by drinking it little by little from his childhood, but of course he would not tell any one how he could drink it without being hurt.
The strange scene took place at Goumbi.
King Quengueza had a dream, and in that dream he saw that there were people who were aniemba (wizards), and who wished to take his life. So he rose in the morning possessed with the belief that such designs were entertained against him. His already stern countenance became harsher, and the good old chief began to dread those around him. It was useless for me to tell him that there were no such people as wizards, and that no living being had power to kill another by witchcraft.
He became suspicious of his dearest friends. His nearest relatives, he thought; were those who wanted to get rid of him in order to get his wives, slaves, ivory, and goods.
What a terrible superstition this belief in witchcraft is! The father dreads his children, the son his father and mother, the man his wife, and the wives their husbands. A man fancies himself sick; he imagines the sickness has been brought upon him by those who want him out of the way, and at last becomes sick through his fears. At night he fancies himself surrounded by the aniemba who are prowling round his huts, and that evil spirits are ready to enter into him as he comes out; and if this should happen he believes that disease and death are surely near.
So Quengueza covered himself with fetiches, and every day invoked the spirits of his ancestors—Igoumbai, Ricati, Kombi, and Niavi (his mother)—to protect him from the aniemba. How strangely his voice sounded in the silence of the night! One could not but be awed by it.
Every morning he told the wonderful and frightful dreams he had—for these people believe in dreams—and he was so convinced that the village was full of wicked sorcerers, that at last the whole people became infected by his fears, each one thinking that his life was at stake. Hence the ouganga, Olanga-Condo, had been ordered by the King to drink the mboundou, and then tell the names of the sorcerers.