FETICH-FAITH IN WESTERN AFRICA. 803 



have seen only a few of the white race, as a fetich, and is feared by them, 

 especially by their women and children, as if he were a ghost. On a 

 journey between Isangile and Manzanger I saw a negro who had cov- 

 ered his whole body with white colors. He was a senator of that se- 

 cret society of which the N'ganga is chief. These people speak their 

 own secret language, and exercise to a certain extent over the other 

 negroes the office of policemen. Every negro has to turn away from 

 them, because it is believed that the women and children, at least, who 

 look upon one w r ill die. In Wunde I saw in the fetich-house the life- 

 size photograph of a white woman sewed upon a red cloth. It was, 

 as I afterward learned, a part of the effects of a servant of the asso- 

 ciation who had died on the Congo. I especially remarked, while I 

 was living on the Congo, that photographs are among the things which 

 the negroes most readily steal, and that they take them whenever they 

 can get their hands upon them. 



A few words, now, on the fetich - doctor or medicine - man, the 

 N'ganga of the negro, who is also his priest, physician, and chief-jus- 

 tice. If auy one in the village dies, the negroes, who can not com- 

 prehend that any one should die a natural death, believe that he must 

 have been killed by enchantment or by the evil influence of some 

 other person ; in short, that another person was the cause of his death. 

 It is the N'ganga's business to find out who this person is. He con- 

 sults with the spirits by moonlight, and communicates the result of 

 his interview to the people. The accused person is then subjected to 

 the trial by cassa. Cassa is the bark of a large tree, the Erythrophtce- 

 um Guineense {Leguminosce Ccesalpincece), and contains a very strong 

 poison. The delinquent is forced to drink a solution of this bark, 

 which has been prepared by the N'ganga. If he vomits the draught up 

 immediately, he is innocent ; but, if it remains in his stomach, he 

 must die. In this case the negroes never wait for the operation of the 

 poison, but fall upon him with sticks and stones, or drive the life out 

 of him in some still more savage way. The issue of the trial by cassa 

 of course lies with the N'ganga, and, if the delinquent can pay enough, 

 that functionary will probably save his life. At one time, the king 

 of a village on the upper Kuilu was very sick. The N'ganga quietly 

 ordered a grand dance, with immense noise, to drive away the evil 

 spirits of the royal sickness. The whites, who had a station in the 

 vicinity, could not sleep at night for the din, and therefore, calling up 

 the N'ganga, offered him several pieces of cloth if he would stop the 

 dance. The N'ganga took the cloth, and there was no more dancing. 

 Such is the N'ganga, the great medicine-man of the negroes. If any one 

 asks whether the missions, of which there are now several on the 

 Congo, can not exert an influence on the fetich-faith of the negroes, 

 I would answer that an influence is possible, but only, I believe, by 

 substituting for the present fetiches other Christian objects such as I 

 saw in the French mission at Laudana, where the converted youth 



