Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/462

 404 Bavili Notes.

Mbambi snapped at the Nkawla and devoured it. The skin of this lizard is found in the basket of bilongo in the Bibila.

Nkabi, the saddleback antelope : ku kabika ncitu tnuntu li monio ku kabika buala buandi kutunga (as) the antelope leaves the woods to die (so) when the man leaves his town stockade he also dies. The word kaba is to divide. The horns of this antelope form the symbol of the parting of the ways, signifying, " We are all from one stock and agree together along one road until we come to the parting of the ways." The horns are found in the Bibila.

Nsexi {Seci or Saci) a kind of gazelle that is also known by the name Kinkuba (an axe) and Kirnpiti (half a matchet). What a beautiful yet deceitful and undutiful animal this is, is well shown in the stories Nos. 4 and 19 in Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort. Its head and horns are found in the Bibila.

Nvuli (the water-buck). Its head and horns are found in the Bibila.

Ngulnbu, the pig. Ngnhtbii Ngidu Mbakala ke ku mana Mayaka, it is the pig that steals the manioc (in the market). After certain palavers, certain household fetishes like Mpundnt are washed in the blood of the pig. Its dried blood also enters into many bilongo. It is the head of the pig that enters the Bibila.

Xingolo Xinyundu the otter. Xingolo xin yunda, Xibango Ngola Maci. This saying is a figurative way of implying that the wife should satisfy the desire of her husband. The skin of the otter is used in the place of the proverbial fig-leaf as a sporran. All princes in their visits to the Bibila wear this skin.^

^ There are two kinds of skins worn in this way by the Fjort ; nkanda ndici a wild cat skin, and xin;:;oli xinyundu., the otter skin. Those who wear these skins are considered to-day very decent people, but there is one thing about them that one must always bear in mind, and that is, when you take them off don't pull them downwards, but take care to pull them upwards between the belt and the cloth ; otherwise you will have no children.