THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 317 



FATAL SUPERSTITIONS. 



IN the Cassanga country, which adjoins that of Mungongo, the 

 people are extremely superstitious, and pray to a god whom they 

 call Barimo. They believe that the spirits of the dead, instead 

 of taking up their abode in remote regions, remain always with 

 the tribe and spend their time in vexing the living. A person 

 accused of witchcraft must consent to undergo the ordeal of 

 drinking a tea made from an infusion of a poisonous tree ; if the 

 first dose nauseates and causes the stomach to reject it, the 

 accused must drink again, so that death is certain. The same 

 superstitious ideas being prevalent through the whole of the 

 country north of the Zambesi, seems to indicate that the people 

 must originally have been one. In sickness, sacrifices of fo\vls 

 and goats are made to appease the spirits. It is imagined that 

 they wish to take the living away from earth and all its enjoy- 

 ments. When one man has killed another a sacrifice is made, 

 as if to lay the spirit of the victim. A sect is reported to exist 

 who kill men in order to take their hearts and offer them to the 

 Barimo. The chieftainship is elective from certain families. 

 Among the Bangalas of the Cassanga valley the chief is chosen 

 from three families in rotation. A chief's brother inherits in 

 preference to his son. The sons of a sister belong to her brother ; 

 and he often sells his nephews to pay his debts. By this and 

 other unnatural customs, more than by war, is the slave-market 

 supplied. The prejudices in favor of these practices are very 

 deeply rooted in the native mind. Even at Loanda they retire 

 out of the city in order to perform their heathenish rites without 

 the cognizance of the authorities. Their religion, if such it may 

 be called, is one of dread. Numbers of charms are employed to 

 avert the evils with which they feel themselves to be encompassed. 



DREAD OF WHITE MEN. 



AMONG nearly all the nations of South Africa the sight of a 

 white person excites terror. In the villages the dogs run away 

 with their tails between their legs, as if they had seen a lion. 

 The women peer from behind the walls till he comes near them, 



