THE NJAMBAI FEAST. 151 
sions she nods her head. She is said to talk quite fre- 
quently—as might, indeed, be expected. She is very 
highly venerated by the people. Before her stood plan- 
tains, sugar-cane, and a piece of antelope. The people 
were dancing around her, singing most furiously and 
drumming with tremendous force. They were so much 
excited and so much in earnest that their bodies were 
bright and shiny; for the oil their skin naturally pos- 
sesses comes out so abundantly that one might have 
thought they had dipped themselves init. The perfume 
was not particularly pleasant, igs I had become accus- 
tomed to it. 
How wild the scene, how wild the men as they danced 
round! They looked almost like demons. Sometimes a 
single man would come forth and dance before the idol, 
making the most horrid contortions possible, and, speak- 
ing to her, would vanish again. This idol belonged to 
the clan of which Mbango was the chief, and had been in 
their possession as far back as they had any remembrance. 
The clan of Mbango includes half a dozen large villages 
within a circuit of thirty miles; hence the idol of the clan 
- remains with him. But that night there was no nodding ~ 
and no talking of the idol. The people began to be 
frightened, and their ignorant doctors were at their wits’ 
end, and did not know what to do. 
On the night of the two following days there was a 
dead silence and a great darkness: no fire was allowed 
in the village, no torch could be lighted. The only 
light was mine, and that was closely shut up in my hut. 
What a strange scene! Not a voice could be heard; 
for he who should have dared to talk would have proba- 
bly paid with his life for his rashness. 
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