Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/77

Rh From the preceding pages the reader can gather what a Lower Congo native must believe in order to live a quiet, unpersecuted life, and also those matters about which he may show indifference without risk of being regarded as a monster worthy of death.

As regards totemism, after very careful enquiries I have come to the conclusion that, while it may very probably have been at one time in vogue in this region, the only indication of such prevalence still surviving is to be found in certain tribal names, of which up to the present I have been able to procure the following:—

"Esi kia ntu mia nzenze," or the people belonging to the heads of the mole-cricket (nzenze). The people are proud of the name because the "nzenze" always sticks its head up, even when being cooked, but they hunt, cook, and eat the mole-cricket.

"Esi kimfulu," or the tortoise people, who catch and eat tortoises.

"Esi kinanga," or the cowrie people, who live in a town near Kitovola.