NARRATIVE OF BATTEt. 
139 
ner. The great Giaga sits on a stool, surrounded 
by a multitude of wizards and women. The 
wizards then take a white powder, with which 
they paint over his forehead, temples, belly, and 
breast, accompanying the operation with *' long 
" ceremonial and enchanting speeches." At 
length the wizard brings the Giaga's Casangala, 
a weapon resembhng a hatchet, and bids him 
be strong, for his mokisso is with him. A 
male child is then brought before the Giaga, 
which he kills, and immediately sets out, in full 
confidence of overcoming his enemies. Their 
discipline is very severe, and those who have 
turned their backs on an enemy, are immediately 
put to death. When open force fails, they have 
recourse to ambuscade ; by their superior skill in 
which, they seldom fail to prevail in the end. 
The Giagas are also mentioned by Lopez, who 
describes them as inhabiting the mountains be- 
hind Congo, and particularly about the lake 
which gives rise to the Zaire. In the time of a 
king, whom he calls Don Alvaro, they made an 
incursion into the kingdom, and swept all before 
them. The king sought refuge in an island of 
the Congo, where he remained till the Giagas 
had consumed every thing that was to be found 
in the kingdom, and were constrained to seek 
elsewhere for other booty. Merolla asserts, that 
he saw, without the capital, shambles, where 
