Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/521

 NOTES ON SOME CUSTOMS OF THE LOWER CONGO PEOPLE.

BY THE REV. JOHN H. WEEKS, 27 YEARS BAPTIST MISSIONARY ON THE CONGO.

{Continued from p. 311.)

Games.

There are not many games known to the natives. Hockey is played all over the Lower Congo, and in some parts of the Upper Congo. They are intensely fond of the game. No matter how long their journey, or heavy their loads, the lads, a {&v^ minutes after they arrive at a resting place, look round for a suitable piece of ground, and, if they can find it, will start a game of hockey. At Wathen Station, where they have a fine open space for their playground, they play hockey at every available opportunity. They put a great amount of energy into the game. On moonlight nights they play " mbele " (described below). This is played by both sexes joining together, and to the beat of their drums and singing. The game led to so much adultery and its attendant " palavers," that, when the Christian Church was formed here, the native members desired that there should be rules to the effect: — (i) That no members of the Church should play mixed "mbele," i.e. the males should play by themselves, and the females by themselves in another part of the town ; and (2) that, as the drums badly excited them, the game should be