Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/448

 390 Bavili Notes.

in a hammock. His master called him ndoxi, and dared him to take nkasa}

" Let us take it together," said Xidiela. And they both went far away, where they were not known, and took the bark, and the master died and Xidiela escaped.

The above, of course, is merely a story ; the following, however, occurred not so long ago, which proves how near fiction is to fact (in the Bavili's mind).

Buite had been out fishing, and on his way home met the drunkard Mavungu, who asked him for some fish. Buite refused to give it, and Mavungu threatened to " do for him." Buite fell sick and died. Mavungu took nkasa and died. And it then turned out that the drunkard Mavungu had gone to his town in a rage and told his brother, who was also no friend of Buite's, that the latter had refused to give him fish. So they sought out one or two other Zindoxi, and they had determined to kill Buite. Buite falling sick called in an Nganga, who divined that he was bewitched, and that nothing could save him. When Buite died, Mavungu, who had thus been heard to threaten Buite, was accused of having been the cause of his death, and had to take nkasa, and died.

The Bavili say that supposing that Mavungu's brother had refused to join him in wishing the death of Buite, but on the contrary had said : " No ! Buite is not a bad fellow, and I do not wish him to die," Buite might have fallen sick, but would have soon got better.

XiNA (Prohibition).

These may be divided into nine classes.

1st class. — Ngo, the leopard, is the Xina of the people of Kongo (including the provinces south of the Kongo as well as Kakongo and Loango), and as such it is

^ The well-known ordeal draught.