426 ETHNOLOGY. CaAP. XXT. 



and a council of elders is necessary before one is put 

 to death. In such cases the palavers are long, and 

 there must be a good majority for the sentence to be 

 carried out. The intricacies of the law are unknown 

 to them. A tooth for a tooth is their maxim. Wound- 

 ing and killing by accident are not recognised as 

 extenuating circumstances. If any one, by accident, 

 kills another, by the. falling of a tree which he 

 cuts down being the cause of the person's death, 

 he is killed. If a gun goes off by mishap and kills 

 any one, the man who held the gun is put to death. 

 According to their theory, the person causing such 

 accident has an aniemha (witchcraft), and must be 

 got rid of. But, though no one has a right to put 

 to death any fi^ee man (for every one may kill his 

 own slaves), woe to the man or woman who has in- 

 curred the displeasure or hatred of the head of the 

 family, for the latter is sure to bring, at some future 

 time, some witchcraft palaver, and then oblige him or 

 her to drink the much-dreaded mboundou, or, by his 

 influence, excite the superstitious fears of his people, 

 and get rid of them, either by selling them into 

 slavery, or by having them killed. Very few cases 

 occur in which the father of the family is made to 

 drink the mboundou, for he may compel any of his 

 people to drink it. Every one is under the protec- 

 tion of some one. If, by death, a negro is suddenly 

 left alone, he runs great risk of being sold into 

 slavery. Pretexts for such a deed are not found 

 wanting. Every one must have an elder to speak 

 his palavers for him, hence the young and the friend- 

 less cling to the elder, who is like a father to them 



