Then at times Layibirie, Quengueza’s heir, and his nephews, Quabi, Adouma, and Rapeiro, asked if there was any man that wanted to bewitch King Quengueza.
Olonga-Condo went on talking wildly, not answering the questions, which were repeated over and over again. At last he said—“Yes; some one is trying to bewitch the King.”
Then came the query, “Who?”
By this time the poor fellow was fortunately hopelessly tipsy, and incapable of reasonable speech. He babbled some unintelligible jargon, and presently the inquest was declared at an end.
No persons had been accused, hence nobody was to be killed. But sometimes these doctors do mention names, and one of these days I may give you an account of murders committed in the name of witchcraft.
MURDERS ON ACCOUNT OF WITCHCRAFT.
The mboundou is a dreadful poison,[[1]] one from which very few escape. Sometimes the veins of the victim will burst open, at other times blood will flow from his nose and eyes, and he drops dead a few minutes after drinking it. Hence the great power of the doctor. If a poor fellow is supposed to be a wizard, or to have bewitched the King or somebody else, he is forced to drink the mboundou whether he likes it or not. If the man dies, he is declared a witch; if he survives, he is declared innocent, and those who have accused him pay him a fine.
[1]. This mboundou pretty certainly belongs to a natural order that contains many venomous plants, viz., the Loganiaceæ; and, from the peculiar veining of the leaves, it is probably a species of Strychnos, belonging to that section of the genus which includes S. nux vomica.
The taste of the infusion is extremely bitter. I gave some of the roots to Professor John Torrey, of New York. In the book published by the Messrs. Harper, called “Explorations in Equatorial Africa,” I published the letter this able chemist wrote me on the properties of the mboundou.
The ordeal is much dreaded by the negroes, who often run away from home and stay away all their lives rather than submit to it, and will often rather enslave themselves to another tribe.