(^HAP. XTY. CEREMONY OF THE MPAZA. 21?> 



The custom altogether is a very strange one, but 



it is by no means pecuHar to the Ishogos, although 



this is the first time I witnessed the doings. The 



negroes of this part of Africa have a strange notion 



or superstition that when twins (mpaza) are born, one 



of them must die early ; so, in order, apparently, to 



avoid such a calamity, the mother is confined to her 



hut, or rather restricted in her intercourse with her 



neighbours, until both the children have grown up, 



when the danger is supposed to have passed. She is 



allowed during this time to go to the forest, but is 



not permitted to speak to any one not belonging to 



her family. During the long confinement no one 



but the father and mother are allowed to enter the 



hut, and the woman must remain chaste. If a 



stranger goes in by any accident or mistake, he is 



seized and sold into slavery. The twins themselves 



are excluded from the society of other children, and 



the cooking utensils, water vessels, &c., of the family 



are tabooed to everybody else. Some of the notions 



have a resemblance to the nonsense believed in by 



old nurses in more civilized countries ; such as, for 



instance, the belief that when the mother takes one 



of the twins in her arms something dreadful will 



happen if the father does not take the other, and so 



forth. 



The house where the twins were born is always 

 marked in some way to distinguish it from the 

 others, in order to prevent mistakes. Here in 

 Yengue it had two long poles on each side of the 

 door, at the top of which was a piece of cloth, and at 

 the foot of the door were a number of pegs stuck in 



T 



