THE CONGO IN 1863. 
101 
Zambi-a-Nbi, or bad-God, drawing the fine distinction 
of European belief in a deity supremely good, who 
permits evil without participating in it. But the 
dualism of moral light and darkness, noticed by all 
travellers,* is a bond fide existence with Africans, and 
the missionaries converted the Angolan <£ Cariapemba ” 
into the Aryo-Semitic Devil. 
Zambi is the Anyambia of the Gaboon country, a vox 
et prceterea nihil. Dr. Livingstone (“First Expedition,” 
p. 641), finds the word general amongst the Balonda, 
or people of Lunda : with the “ Cazembes ” the word is 
“ Pambi,” or “Liza,” and “0 Muata Cazembe” (p. 297) 
mentions the proverb, “ Ao Pambi e ao Mambi (the King) 
nada iguala.” In the “ Vocabulario da lingua Cafrial ” 
we see (p. 469) that “ Murungo ” means God or thunder. 
It is the rudimental idea of the great Zeus, which the 
Greeks worked out, the God of ZEther, the eternal, 
omnipotent, and omniscient, “ who was, who is, and 
who is to come,” the Unknown and Unknowable, con- 
cerning whom St. Paul quoted Aristseus on Mars’ Hill. 
But the African brain naturally confused it with a some- 
thing gross and material : thus N zambi-a-N pungu is 
especially the lightning god. Cariambemba is, properly, 
Kadi Mpemba or Ntangwa, the being that slays man- 
kind : Merolla describes it as an “ abominable idol ; ” 
and the word is also applied to the owl, here as in 
Dahome the object of superstition. I could trace no 
sign of worship paid to the sun (Tangwa or Muinyi), 
but there are multitudes of minor gods, probably deified 
ghosts, haunting particular places. Thus, “Simbi” 
presides over villages and the “ Tacli Nzazhi,” or Light- 
ning Rock, near Boma ; whilst the Yellala is the abode 
of an evil being which must be propitiated by offerings. 
As usual amongst Fetish worshippers, the only trace of 
belief in a future state is faith in revenants — returning 
men or ghosts. 
Each village has an idol under a little wall-less roof, 
apparently an earthen pot of grease and feathers, called 
* Tuckey (p. 214), and tlie General Observations prefixed to the 
Diaries. 
