Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/224

 190 Ctistoms of the Lower Congo People,

Neither of the above-mentioned guilds has anything to do with either circumcision or puberty, as some suppose.

The first secret society is known as either the " ndembo '* or " nkita " or " nsi a fwa." " Ndembo " is probably a de- rivative of the verb " lemba," which means to deliver from the influence of evil and the spells of sorcery. It will be seen that those who enter ndembo do so to escape from an epidemic of sickness, or to cure themselves of some mal- formation or disease. The probable meaning of "nkita'* I cannot trace. " Nsi a fwa " means the country of the dead.

The ndembo guild was very widespread throughout the Lower Congo, but I never met with it anywhere on the Upper River. To start a ndembo society it was necessary to have an albino, who, whether a child, lad, or adult, was the acknowledged fetish head of it. The ostensible reason for starting a ndembo in a district was an epidemic of sickness, and the idea was to go into ndembo to die, and after an indefinite period, from a few months to two or three years, to be resurrected with a new body not liable to the sickness then troubling the countryside. Another reason for starting a ndembo was a dearth of children in a district. It was believed that good luck in having children would attend those who entered or died ndembo. But the underlying idea was the same, i.e. to get a "new body" that would be healthy and perform its functions properly.

The ndembo was always located in a large, dense forest, and the entrance to the stockade was a properly made gate of planks painted yellow and red. The site selected was surrounded with palings to keep out intruders, and was within easy access of water. The uninitiated might walk on the public roads across the forest, but, if they were found on the bye-paths or hunting in the forest, they were caught, flogged, and heavily fined, and sometimes killed. The uninitiated were not allowed to look upon those who were said to " die ndembo," and therefore, when the