Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/219

 Customs of the Lower Congo People. 185

to cure the complaint. He is consequently engaged at once and well paid. The European method of examining and questioning the patient is at first treated with super- cilious contempt by the natives, but in time they get to understand that we cannot help them unless they answer our questions fully and truthfully.

Should the patient not get better, but a series of abscesses break out, another nganga is sent for, called the " ngang' a moko." On arriving, he conducts an inquiry similar to the one sketched above, and, after due considera- tion, states whether the woman is suffering from natural causes or bewitchment. In the former case nothing is done except treating the abscesses with medicinal herbs, or some mess compounded by the nganga who happens to be called in to treat her. If, however, the ngang' a moko declares the woman to be bewitched, her friends may call in another nganga, who will shout to the " nxingi " (undeclared witch) to leave the woman alone, and will also threaten the said witch with all sorts of curses and imprecations. As the witch is supposed to be working through a human medium, the curses and impre- cations are to frighten the person who is being used as a medium.

The ngang' a moko may say that some evil spirit is troubling the woman. In that case her relatives resort to a nganga whose special business it is to appease spirits by sacrifices or frighten them away by threats, by firing guns at them and making hideous noises. Many a time in the years gone by have I heard the nganga, or a rela- tive of the sick person, go through the town in the dead of the night, beating an iron bell and calling on the witch to leave the sick woman alone, or means would be taken to discover and punish the witch if the patient died. I have also seen the nganga rushing about, shouting, howling, screeching, and firing his gun in the air to frighten the evil spirit that was distressing the woman. If, in spite