Chap. XXII. A DIVINER THRASHED. 433 



Captain Neves' had since my passage westward shared a similar 

 fate. Another child died during the period of my visit. During 

 his sickness, his mother, a woman of colour, sent for a diviner in 

 order to ascertain what ought to be done. The diviner, after 

 throwing his dice, worked himself into the state of ecstacy in 

 winch they pretend to be in communication with the Barimo. 

 He then gave the oracular response, that the child was being 

 killed by the spirit of a Portuguese trader, who once lived at 

 Cassange. The case was this : — On the death of the trader, the 

 other Portuguese merchants in the village came together, and sold 

 the goods of the departed to each other, each man accounting for 

 the portion received, to the creditors of the deceased at Loanda. 

 The natives, looking on, and not understanding the nature of 

 written mercantile transactions, concluded that the merchants of 

 Cassange had simply stolen the dead man's goods, and that now 

 the spirit was killing the child of Captain Neves for the part he 

 had taken in the affair. The diviner in his response revealed the 

 impression made on his own mind by the sale, and likewise the 

 native ideas of departed souls. As they give the whites credit for 

 greater stupidity than themselves in all these matters, the mother 

 of the child came, and told the father that he ought to give a 

 slave to the diviner, as a fee to make a sacrifice to appease the 

 spirit and save the life of the child. The father quietly sent for 

 a neighbour, and, though the diviner pretended to remain in his 

 state of ecstacy, the brisk application of two sticks to his back 

 suddenly reduced him to his senses, and a most undignified flight. 

 The mother of this child seemed to have no confidence in 

 European wisdom ; and though I desired her to keep the cliild 

 out of currents of wind, she preferred to follow her own custom, 

 and even got it cupped on the cheeks. The consequence was 

 that the child was soon in a dying state, and the father, wishing 

 it to be baptized, I commended its soul to the care and compas- 

 sion of Him who said, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven." The 

 mother at once rushed away, and commenced that doleful wail 

 which is so affecting, as it indicates sorrow without hope. She 

 continued it without intermission until the child was buried. In 

 the evening her female companions used a small musical instru- 

 ment, which produced a kind of screeching sound, as an accom- 

 paniment of the death wail. 



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