THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. — 979 
A Nkimba before initiation is called ‘“‘ Munegwala,’ and 
afterwards “Tungwa.” I cannot guess at the etymology 
of these terms in any way, unless a suggestion of a far-off 
relationship with “ Longwa ’—to be taught, to learn—be 
of any use. 
These Nkimba are not met with among the Congo 
tribes farther inland than Isangila. Between the latter 
places and Manyanga there are many eunuchs in the 
large villages, who seemed to be attached to a vague 
phallic worship, with which is intricately connected a 
reverence for the moon. When the new moon appears, 
dances are performed by the eunuchs, who sacrifice a 
white fowl, which must always be-a male—in its honour. 
The bird is thrown up into the air and torn to pieces as it 
falls to earth. I was told that in former days a human 
victim was offered up on these occasions, but that in later 
times a white fowl had been substituted. | 
Naturally, with an imaginative people that refers the 
explanation of all physical problems to the action of 
anthropomorphic spirits, diseases are supposed to be due 
to the malice of demons, who are represented materially, 
as the embodification of the malady they incite. There 
is a small-pox bogey, a fever-spirit, and in certain temples 
about Manyanga you may come across a loathsome 
representation of the foul demon who is supposed to have 
inflicted syphilis on the unhappy natives, who bring 
offerings to his shrine with a view of appeasing his cruel 
ravages. , | 
Little or no notion of the healing art is present; 
medicines are represented by vague potions and powders, 
delivered without any reference to their antiseptic qualities, 
but merely in regard to their hidden potentialities of 
magic. The patient undergoes such heroic treatment at 
times that he may be cured on the principle that one ill 
drives out another. His friends also, by offering at the 
shrine, by the intercession of the nganga, by loud wailing 
supplications, seek to appease the disease demon’s malice ; 
while on the other hand, with the instinctive feeling that 
it is “somebody’s” fault and that “some one” ought to 
