STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RULERS. 279 
The civil judges sat under trees, each having a large staff in 
his hand as an insignium of office. Incorruptible they were not, but 
still no one ever appealed against their decisions, and it is said never 
even complained of their injustice; but this is not in human nature, 
and must only mean that no one was ever heard to do so in public, 
and that for very special private reasons of his own. 
As in more civilized nations, war is the great parent of taxa¬ 
tion, the king being obliged to maintain a large standing army, and 
to keep it in good humor by constant largesses, for a large standing 
army is much like fire—a useful servant, but a terrible master. 
The army is divided into regiments, each acting under the 
immediate command of the chief in whose district they live, and 
they are armed, in a most miscellaneous fashion, with any weapons 
they can procure. In these times the trade guns are the most valued 
weapons, but the.native swords, bows and arrows, spears, and 
knives, still form the staple of their equipment. As to uniform, 
they have no idea of it, and do not even distinguish the men of 
the different regiments, as do the Kaffirs of Southern Africa. 
THE RELIGION OF THE CONGO NEGRO. 
The ancient religion of the Congo Negro is simply polytheism, 
which they have suffered to degenerate into fetishism. There is 
one monotheistic sect, but they have gained very little by their 
religion, which is in fact merely a negation of many deities, with¬ 
out the least understanding of the one whom they profess to wor¬ 
ship—a deity to whom they attribute the worst vices that can 
degrade human nature. 
The fetish men or priests are as important here as the mara¬ 
bouts among the Mandingoes, and the chief of them, who goes by 
the name of Chitome, is scarcely less honored than the king, who 
finds himself obliged to seek the favor of this spiritual potentate, 
while the common people look on him as scarcely less than a god. 
He is maintained by a sort of tithe, consisting of the first-fruits of 
the harvest, which are brought to him with great ceremony, and 
are offered with solemn chants. The Congo men fully believe that 
