A CONGO NATIVE SMOKING.
The women are content often with a rag for clothing. They wear a grass stem three inches long through the nose, and a dirty rag for an earring. The hair is matted with a mixture of oil and vegetable charcoal; and if a lady happen to be in mourning the same filthy compound is smeared over her face.
With the advent of white men this sad picture has begun to change. The Livingstone Inland Mission (American Baptists) and the International Association have stations among them; their transport and that of the Baptist Missionary Society (English) passes through the country. The people are coming forward as carriers; they sell their goats, fowls, etc., are getting cloth; and in this short time a change for the better is apparent. Here lies all the difference between the degraded and the higher types of the African. The intellect of the one is stagnant, while the other has everything to quicken it.
As children the better class will compare favourably with English boys; bright, sharp, anxious to learn, they push on well with their studies. Our schools are full of promise. At Stanley Pool the other day the boys were much concerned because a new boy had mastered his alphabet the first day. They all felt that he was too clever.
The future of these interesting people is full of the brightest hope. Give them the Gospel, and with it the advantages of education, and books to read; quicken within them tastes which will render labour a necessity and a pleasure; give them something high and noble to work and live for; and we shall see great and rapid changes. Christian Missions are no experiment. We have to deal with a vigorous race that will repay all that Christian effort can do on their behalf.
CHAPTER V.
The Religious Ideas of the Natives.
There is nothing that can be said to take the place of a religion throughout the whole region of the Congo. There is no idolatry, no system of worship; nothing but a vague superstition, a groping in the dark, the deepest, saddest ignorance, without a hope of light. The people have the name of God, but know nothing further about Him. The idea is not, however, of an evil being, or they would wish to propitiate him. A mild and gentle chief gets little respect or honour. A man who is hard and stern, reckless of life, is feared and respected. Hence, as they fear no evil from God, they do not trouble themselves about Him in any way—never even invoke Him. Perhaps it may be because they regard Him as beyond their reach and ken, or careless of them.
Nzambi, or some slightly modified form, such as Nyambi or Anyambie, is the name by which God is known over the explored regions of the western portion, while the Bayansi of the upper river use also Molongo, which is the same as Mulungu and Muungu of the east coast. Of the derivation of Nzambi we cannot speak definitely or even approximately. Suffice it to say that the word has a sense of greatness, and conveys a definite idea of a Supreme Being. It cannot be connected with a vague notion of sky, having nothing common with the word Ezulu (heaven).
There is a decided idea of personality, and the Congos generally speak of Nzambi-ampungu, the Most High (Supreme) God. The name of God is all that they know, and certainly they have no notion of any means of communication between God and man. They regard Him as the Creator, and as the sender of rain, but would never under any circumstances think of their voice being heard in heaven. So, having no helper, they betake themselves to charms to avert evil and for general protection.