380 JOURNEY TO THE COAST. Chap. XIX. 



August 1st — ?yrd. AYe remained at Mokenga three 

 days, as we all required rest, and I had another 

 motive for staying in the great pleasure which it 

 gave to the villagers who had been so kind to us. 

 Mokounga, I was sorry to find, suffered greatly from 

 sore legs ; they were much swollen, and discharged 

 a quantity of watery humour. It was fortunate that 

 the rumour about my causing sickness in every one 

 who came in contact with me had not reached these 

 Ishogo people. Mokounga told us that the disease 

 in his legs made its appearance two or three days 

 after he left me on the outward journey, and he 

 attributed it, as usual, to some one having bewitched 

 him through jealousy of my friendship. On the 

 night of my arrival there was a slow beating of 

 drums and mournful singing in one of the houses of 

 the village — a sign that some one lay dead there. I 

 was told it was a woman who died three days pre- 

 viously : the next morning the corpse was carried 

 away to the cemetery in the woods. I was pleased 

 to find that the j^eople here were not so much afraid 

 of death as the tribes nearer the sea ; they do not 

 abandon a village when a death occurs. Indeed, the 

 villages are so large that this custom would be very 

 difficult to keep up. Mokenga is, I think, the most 

 southerly village of the Ishogo tribe, who occupy a 

 narrow territory extending for about 150 miles from 

 the north-west to the south-east, running nearly 

 parallel to the large Ngouyai river. The country 

 of this tribe must begin very near the banks of the 

 Rembo Okanda. 



The Ashango occujiy about the same length of ter- 



