Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/362



fetish figure on the right hand of Pl. XIX., 8⅛ inches in height and 11⅛ inches in its central circumference, was brought by a Christian convert to an evangelist in charge of a sub-station near Bolobo, in order that it might be destroyed. The convert had inherited it from his father, and the great central reddish mass is a result of its invocation, during many years, by its two owners in the manner described below. The evangelist has now removed, and I cannot get in touch with him at present, but the following particulars are, I believe, correct.

The wooden figure which forms the basis of the fetish originated amongst the Bateke people living somewhat south of Bolobo on the left bank of the Congo. The scoring on the cheeks shows the Bateke tribal mark. Whenever such wooden images are seen in the possession of the Bobangi, Moye, or other tribes in this neighbourhood, they have almost invariably been bought from the Batende, who obtain them in turn from the more distant Bateke. A little socket has probably been cut in the abdomen of the figure, and in this recess some "medicine"—such as a mixture of leaves or a compound of chalk and pigments—has been placed, and covered by a little piece of mirror. For the purpose of comparison, another Congo fetish figure has been photographed, at the side of that from Bolobo, in which the medicine is enclosed in a separate box attached to the front of the figure by bent-over nails.