Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/538

474 and take some of them away by death. The people themselves do not like to be counted. They fear that counting will draw the attention of the evil spirits, and that they will die. A short time ago the Congo State officials, desiring to number the people for taxing purposes, sent an officer with soldiers to count them. The natives would have resisted him, but he had too many soldiers with him.

A cock crowing at the wrong hour is killed because it is an evil omen. From 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. are regarded as ill- omened hours for crowing.

If the "ntoyo" or blue plantain-eater chirps near a man's house early in the morning, it is a sign of death.

"Ta esakuba," to strike the foot against anything. If a man does this in the road it is regarded as a bad omen. If it happens, men on a journey will return to the nearest town and start again a few hours later, or next day. Some turn round and strike the object again with the foot to remove or undo the evil effects of the first striking. A man striking his foot on the way to a hunt will turn back, for he knows he will have no success. Men going to fight another town have to jump over the "medicine saucepan" of the nganga, and should one strike his foot against it he is forcibly restrained from going to the fight. To step over a person's body or legs will cause ill-luck to that person, and is most carefully avoided by all passing between men during a palaver. The man passing will shuffle his feet along the ground and thus avoid lifting them, so as not to be charged with bringing bad luck to any one.

Some natives think that this practice was common among the people, as there are traces of it yet to be found in the fact that men will drink the blood, and eat the livers, of