ACCUSATION OF PENDE, 4 167 
are gone. Where is Olenda? Where are the people of 
our once large clan? ‘They have all gone, to come no 
more to us. How isthis? Yor they were well before 
death got hold of them, and they could not have died un- 
less people had bewitched them. Where are our wom- 
- en who once danced and sang for us, who went on our 
plantations, who gave us food, who went fishing and gave 
us fish, and who bore children to us? They, too, have 
gone. The forest is full of dead men’s bones. How 
could this be, unless we have sorcerers among us?” 
The whole crowd of the two camps shouted with one ac- 
cord, ‘‘ How could men die unless they are bewitched ?” 
The dread of death was on the face of all; their eyes be- 
came wild, and they sought revenge, for none of them 
wanted to die. “There would be no death without aniem- 
ba,” they all shouted; “without aniemba there would be 
no sickness.” A little more, and the frenzied crowd of 
the two camps would have rushed forward and cut poor 
Pendé to pieces. The speaker who was speaking was 
considered one of their most powerful orators. He went 
on to say that he had had a dream—many others had the 
same dream—it was that Pendé had gone into the woods 
and stolen men’s bones. Yes, he was sure of it, for his 
dreams could not lie. They all shouted on the accuser’s 
side, ‘‘Our dreams can not lie! They must betrue. It 
must be so. Pendé has gone into the forest, and stolen 
men’s bones to make a monda fetich to kill us, and to 
prevent trade from coming to us.” Then a dead silence 
followed. Pendé came forward, and in a loud voice said, 
‘No, [have never done such a thing—I am not a wizard. . 
I will drink the mboundou if I am accused of being one.” 
He was sure he was not one—he would not die, and he 
