Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/266

 254 Mystical and Ceremonial Avoidance

object to furnish him with a seat. For instance, the chief of the Bushongo in southern Congoland would never sit on anything less important than one of his attendants or slaves. Another chief seemed to have used his wives for this purpose. These were powerful and warlike chiefs, and chiefs of authority. Among the High Nkundo was the same practice, and the privilege pertained to the head chief alone, except that on very special occasions apparently the head wife was also allowed a male slave to sit on. These privileges were undoubtedly intended to give some idea to all observers of the power and importance of the holders of the right, which certainly could not have been exercised without these attributes.

When the custom has died out perhaps its memory may be traced in the wooden seats carved in the shape of a man on all fours, such as have been found in some of the West India islands and supposed to be of Carib origin, an example of which is in the British Museum, and similar ones of present-day make which are made in the Northern Terri- tories of the Gold Coast.

Of somewhat different significance was the habit of a former big chief residing at Kasongo Nyembo in the head- waters region of the Congo, who made use of some of his wives to sleep on. Twelve of them were laid out alternately head and feet, and he lay on the top. No doubt this was only an example of an elderly man's search for a new sensation. Another custom of the same chief has again a different significance, though what it is cannot be deduced with any degree of certainty unless some similar practices can be reported. If the chief dreamed of his ancestors he was not allowed to go outside the enclosure of his house all day ; and if he emerged from his hut his female slaves had to lie on the ground for him to walk on. We have seen that a betrothed girl among the Nkundo had to step on objects of value, because, possibly, before marriage she was an object of high value. Dreaming of his ancestors