Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/503

 The Congo Medicine-Man. 461

12. Ngang' a nkamba. This is a female nganga who exercises her functions in cases of pregnancy to ensure a good and easy delivery and a healthy child. ^^

13. Ngang' a nkisi, — inkisi, fetish, charm, amulet). When a child is born under unusual circumstances, i.e. by presen- tation of the legs, or the mother has dreamed of the ximbi (water spirits), a ceremony already described is observed.^^

14. Ngaiig a mbansangola has a fetish which is the most powerful and most feared of all the fetishes in the cata- logue. It is a wooden image, and is retained in the possession of its nganga. A private person can buy a sole fetish, or any one of the others, but no private individual may own a mbanzangola fetish. If a person desires to cause pain, disease, or death to another, he goes to a iiganga of this fetish, and, having paid a fee, drives in a nail or a knife where he wants his enemy to feel the pain, A knife stabbed in a vital part means a painful death to the man's enemy. A nail in the shoulder, elbow, or knee would mean excruciating agony in one of those joints, and indicates that the man does not want to kill his enemy, but only wishes him to have rheumatism, abscesses, or some other minor ailment. The mbanzafigola images are often found stuck over with nails, knives, and other sharp instru- ments. This is probably the only fetish image in connection with which there is no white art practised. It is neither a preventive fetish nor a curative one, but is always used to inflict pain.

1 5- Ngang' a lembe, — {lemba, to tame, soothe, make gentle). This nganga is called upon to ratify unconditional peace between towns or chiefs that have been making war on each other.^'* If a man has killed another by accident, he has to pay a small sum of money to deceased's family. The homicide is then taken to this ngatiga, who procures

^^Vol. xix., p. 419, '•■'Vol. XX., pp. 477-S.

i^Vol. XX., p. 37.