Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/230

 196 Ctistoms of the Lower Congo People.

assembles en masse to see the sight, and to welcome and receive relatives " back to life." Bye and bye the sound of music is heard, and the procession approaches, all the individuals in it being in bright, showy cloths, skins well dusted with red camwood powder, and with tassels of palm fibre dangling from their arms. The procession marches round the market with stolid, indifferent faces. In the crowd parents recognise their children in the procession, and boys and girls point out their sisters and brothers and excitedly call out their names, but not a face in the proces- sion gleams with recognition, not a muscle moves to express delight, for these " resurrected " ones are not supposed to know anything of their former life, or relatives and friends. Any one showing feeling or recognition is liable to a flog- ging, a heavy fine, and, in some cases, even death. So the procession solemnly passes round the crowd. There may be in the crowd a mother or a sister not seen for a year or more perhaps, but no sign must be made. Some scan the crowd for faces that are absent, for faces that will never again appear on the market-place, and the sorrow of death and bereavement pierces the heart of the initiated one in the procession, but no tear must fall, and no relaxation of the face be shown. At last the march round is finished, and the ngangas introduce the " resurrected " ones to their relatives and friends.

Those who "die ndembo" are not supposed to know anything that they knew previously. They pretend not to know their parents, or their brothers and sisters, or their relatives, friends, and former acquaintances. Their mother tongue is new to them. Their town, houses, roads, etc., are all supposed to be wiped clean from their minds. The ngangas introduce them to their parents, families, etc., tell them the names of the various people about them, show them about their towns, point out to them the various roads — this one to the river where you get water, this to the forest, this to the farms, and these to the different