Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/495

 The Congo Medicine- Man. 453

the ngang' a nioko is called in7 Should she say there is no special witchcraft in the matter, another ngang' a W7ika is called ; should she say, however, that witchcraft is at work, some one goes through the village night after night calling on the witch to desist from his evil practices or he will be surely punished. (The ngang' a moko is also often required to discover a thief) Should the patient still not regain his health, another nganga is called, viz.: —

3. Ngang'' a bitodi. This nganga calls on the spirits, and, having the trick of throwing his voice in different directions, answers himself in assumed tones, and will keep up a conversation with the evil spirits, exhorting them to leave the sick man alone. Sometimes he will chase the said spirits out of the town, and, getting them near the bush, will fire his gun repeatedly at them to drive them away. (Cf No. 9 below.) The following is another method of this nganga : — In 1909 a man named Kiala of Wombe was ill with a cough and bad chest, and on the complaint growing worse the ngang' a bitodi was called to discover what retarded the patient's recovery. On arrival in the town the nganga took his fetish and locked himself in a house. He told the people that they would see the house shake as they heard the voices of the spirits {nkwiyd) talking to him. The fetish bitodi spoke and the spirits answered, and the voices of young men, old men, young women, and old women were heard in conversation. After a long consultation between the bitodi and the spirits, the nganga came out and said, — " When the brother of the sick man married, he did not give any palm wine to his wife's family, and consequently this sickness has come as a punishment for breaking a country custom." The nkwiya also said through the nganga, — " One or two of the three sisters of the sick man had an evil spirit (ndoki), and they all three must bless the patient so as to remove the evil influence." The three sisters one by one took their sick

^Vol. XX., p. 185.