MISSION TO BATTA. 
81 
thronged with persons coming to be baptized. 
Whole villages flocked to them at once, so that 
they were often obliged to spend days on the road 
for the purpose of admitting these numerous con- 
verts within the pale of the church. At length 
they arrived at Congo-Batta, the largest town in 
the province, and the theatre of a considerable 
trade. Here, too, they found thfeir ministration 
in such request, that they could scarcely find time 
for sleep or food. After nearly the whole city and 
neighbourhood had been baptized, they made a 
somewhat mortifying discovery* One part of the 
ceremony, according to the Romish ritual, consists 
in placing salt upon the mouth ; which circum- 
stance, as salt is here scarce, and an object of 
luxury, probably aided the alacrity with which 
the nation came to be baptized. As the fathers 
acquired a knowledge of the language, they dis- 
covered that the sole idea which the natives at- 
tached to the rite, was the eating of this small 
quantity of salt. Curia mungua^ to eat salt, was, 
in their language, the term for being baptized ; 
nor did the efforts to change either their language 
or their ideas upon this subject prove very suc- 
cessful. 
From Congo-Batta the fathers went to a town 
called simply Batta, the residence of the duke^ 
yet neither so large nor so wealthy as the one 
they had left. They were lodged without the 
VOL. I, F 
