206 THROUGH ANGOLA 



hibitions and penances. There is the prohibition 

 or taboo of the partaking of some kind of food or 

 drink, or of entering a certain house or district, 

 or crossing some river or lake. Apart from any 

 totemic reason such prohibitions are used to cure 

 illness, to protect unborn children, to prevent 

 calamity or to end it. 



The witch doctor makes and breaks the taboo, 

 and thus can add another knot to the bonds in 

 which he holds his patients and clients. Some of 

 the penances are, however, self-inflicted, and bear 

 a close resemblance to penances imposed and 

 carried out by Christians. 



As an instance of fetish taboo rules I may 

 mention the following incident. 



On passing along the Longoe River in Angola 

 I came across a shady well-built village which had 

 been abandoned, and near it a miserable collec- 

 tion of huts without shade, where the Sova or 

 Chief, his family, and the villagers had temporarily 

 installed themselves. When the Chief was sent 

 for to come and see me in the old village where 

 I had taken up my quarters, he sent back a message 

 to say that he could not come then, as the fetish- 

 man had sent him away from the old village in 

 consequence of illness, and it was taboo to return. 

 I sympathized with the Chief's misfortune, and 

 was preparing to send him some venison as a 

 solace when, unable to resist the temptation, he 

 stole across the forbidden ground to look at my 

 meat supplies for himself. The Chief lost his 

 present of meat, as he had placer! the needs of his 

 stomach above his respect for a white man, and 



