Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/53

 priests ordained at Loanda had from time to time visited the "congregations " at San-Salvador, in order to keep up a semblance of union between these communities and the rest of the Church. The names of those missionaries were inscribed on the trunk of a sacred tree standing in the centre of the town. But for some years a regular mission has again attached San-Salvador with the Catholic world. Baptist preachers are also endeavouring, although with no great success, to make, proselytes, especially among the slave children purchased from the surrounding tribes.

Under the influence of all these strangers some of the old superstitious

practices have disappeared, notably the ordeal of the poisoned cup; but polygamy still prevails, especially amongst the chiefs and rulers. The order of succession, which the missionaries had formerly endeavoured to make conformable to the Roman law, is not in the direct but the indirect line, from uncle to nephew, as amongst most African tribes. During the interregnum the executive authority is vested in a formidable dignitary bearing the title of Ma-Boma, or "Lord of Terror." The death of a king is accordingly regarded in a twofold sense as a national calamity. It is followed by a period of solemn mourning, during which all merrymaking, the dance and the song, are hushed in an all-pervading stillness.