Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/497

 The Congo Medicine- Man. 455

the stolen article, secretly if possible, or openly rather than risk a terrible punishment. The nzaji curse is nullified in the following way : — The person or family under the ban tells the ngang' a nzaji to bring his image, and he pours some palm wine into the hole in the stomach of his image, stirs the wine well, and gives it to the person or persons to drink. This is called nua mbozo (to drink the mixture), and the mixture renders the participants immune from the above disease, and from death by lightning. If several members of a family die by nzaji, the family goes through the ceremony of marrying the nzaji fetish into their family, or one of the members of the family becomes a ngang a nzaji, and this is called timtuka nzaji (to come under the benign influence of nzaji). It is believed that, if nzaji belongs to the family, it will have pity on it. It must be remembered that, when the nzaji curse is put on a thief, the thief's family is included in the curse ; and, if the family has a strong suspicion that one of its members is the thief, they try to protect themselves in the above manner, and undoubtedly the thief often protects himself by taking advantage of the antidote.

6. Ngang' a mbainbi. This nganga by his fetish image gives syphilitic sores and deep-seated ulcers. A man living in a town near San Salvador had some syphilitic sores called nibadi which the ngangas could not heal, although many were engaged for that purpose. At last they said the sores were caused by the vibainbi fetish, and to cure the man it was necessary to make the mbanibi fetish a member of the sick man's family, when it would take pity on him. The ngang' a mbanibi was sent for, and on arriving he put his drum in the centre of the crowd that had collected in the middle of the town. A boy and girl were selected to represent the clan. The girl was put on the ground with her back supported by the drum, and the nganga beat away on his drum until the girl swayed to and fro with the rhythm of the beating ;