278 | A-JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
the constantly-recurring question—“ Why does man so 
often make his religious ceremonies frightful?” In 
addition to the white chalky covering or paste which 
covers the naturally sooty skins of the Nkimba novitiates, 
they also decorate their heads, whenever they can afford 
it, with a curious wicker crown or cage, to which little 
eaudy strips of scarlet cloth or the feathers of bright- 
coloured birds are affixed. Then round their waists is a 
wide wooden hoop or girdle, often quaintly decorated with 
incised patterns, and from this depends a long and dense 
skirt of dried grass reaching nearly to the ankles, and 
being often extended from the body by means of an inner 
framework like a crinoline. Sometimes there are also 
tufts and sheaves of grass hanging from the shoulders or 
the neck, but this addition, I believe, marks the attain- 
ment of an advanced grade in initiation. 
A curious part of these semi-religious rites is the 
acquiring of a sacred mysterious language, which is 
taught by the nganga, who presides over these ceremonies, 
to the disciples who are being circumcised and gathered 
into the confraternity. This language is never taught to — 
females, and as yet no Kuropean has been able to examine 
its nature. I have heard men discoursing in it, as they 
do freely, and there were most of the Bantu prefixes and 
concords recognisable in their speech, though the actual 
words were unfamiliar. It might possibly be some older 
and more archaic form of Bantu language conserved for 
religious purposes—like the Sanskrit, the old Sclavonic, 
and the Latin—or it may be nothing more than an 
arbitrary transmoerification of words such as is found in 
the Mpongwe,* or in such artificial dialects as the 
Ki-nyume of Zanzibar. 
* « Among the elders of the tribe there is a form of speech called 
the ‘ Ewiria, or Dark Sayings,’ which cannot be understood by the 
uninitiated, although the council may be held in open assembly. It is 
formed by changing words in an arbitrary manner, and to no one is the 
secret confided who has not reached twenty-five years, and then under 
an oath of secrecy.” — Vide Cust’s ‘Modern Languages of Africa,’ 
p. 419, vol. ii. | 
| Vide Steere’s ‘ Handbook to the Ki-suahili Language.’ 
~~. ee 
