Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/529

 Customs of the Lower Congo People. 465

sing a chorus, " Luvemba luampene o moyo o njela Ngoyo," (literally, naked chalk life on the Ngoyo road). Ngoyo is Kabinda, a country north of Congo, and this ceremony and song are said to have been introduced by a Kabinda nganga, who visited this country. The original sense has been lost. If the Mbambi fetish is used, the chorus sung is, "Ngwa e tembwa 'yi, mbambi yuna" (Oh! these storms, that Mbambi fetish). Again the real meaning is lost, and perhaps some of the original words. As the drum is beaten the nganga drives the fetish power into the sick man, and he, being excited by the drumming, rattling, and singing, jumps on the nearest roof, tears handfuls of grass from it, and leaps off and on the roof like a madman. The nganga puts some juice from the "lemba-lemba" leaves and " nsangalavwa" stems on him to soothe and quieten him. He is then supposed to get better. Having had the fetish power put into him, he himself becomes a nganga, and can practise curing others. When a woman comes under the sway of the fetish power she becomes a female nganga, and is called "nengudi."

This " ekinu " dance is performed at the christening ceremony of a spirit child when the " ngang' a nkisi " is called to remove the evil that may be in the child because of its spirit nature. (See " Water Spirits " below.)

There is also a similar dance and ceremony observed over girls with the names of Nkenge and Nsona, and boys with the names of Lubaki and Mbaki, but the reason for the observance of the ceremony in their case is lost. " Nkenge " and " Nsona " are names of market days, and are given to such girls as are born on either of those days. There must be something special about some of the four days of their week, as in some districts they never bury on either Nkenge or Konzo, but only on Nsona and Nkandu. There are, therefore, children born on certain days who require an all-night dance to free

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