Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/232

 198 Customs of the Lower Congo People.

After a short time the excitement of the " resurrection '' and the interest in the resurrected passes away, and they are expected to know better, and are dealt with according to the laws of the district if they play any tricks.

In the Wathen district the ndembo goes by the name of " kimpasi."

In the ndembo drums and horn trumpets are not allowed, but a harp-like instrument is used called " nsa- mbi," shown in Plate XL, from a sketch made by Rev. F. Longland from a specimen in my possession. This nsambi must never be seen by the uninitiated. The strings are called " minza," and are made by scraping down the hard outer bark or casing of the palm tree. The player is called " nembimbi."

When at Mpalabala, a town near Matadi, in 1889, I had my first sight of the nkimba. I then saw six of the brother- hood quite near to the Mission Station, and heard their strange trill. Once I had to pay them blackmail to permit me and my carriers to pass. This I should not have done had not my carriers been returning by the same route a few days later without me, when they would have had to face alone the full vengeance of the nkimba guild, so that for their sakes I submitted to the toll.

Dr. Bentley in his Pioneering on the Congo, vol. i., p. 282, has the following account of the nkimba guild, which, as it contains all the information I have gathered, and more besides, I transcribe here in full.

" The nkimba custom appears to have been introduced from the coast in comparatively recent times, and spread up the river for 200 miles, and to fifty miles to the south of it. Its professed object is the suppression of witchcraft, and the catching of witches. It resembles Freemasonry in many respects, and, like its European ■cousin, delights in enshrouding itself with mystery.

" The initiatory fee is two dollars' worth of cloth, and two fowls. This paid, the novice presents himself at a ' home ' in the jungle away from the town. He is given a drug which stupefies him, and