Chap. XXII. 
A DIYIXEE 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 
wliich they pretend to be in communication with the Barimo. 
He then gave the oracular response, that the child was being 
killed by the spmt of a Portuguese trader, who once Hved 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 cliild of Captain Neves for the part he 
had taken in the affair. The diviner in liis response revealed the 
impression made on his own mind by the sale, and Likewise the 
native ideas of departed souls. As they give the wliites 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 clnld. The father quietly sent for 
a neighbour, and, though the diviner pretended to remain in his 
state of ecstacy, the brisk apphcation 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 
Em^opean wisdom; and though I deshed her to keep the child 
out of cmTents of wind, she preferred to follow her own custom, 
and even got it cupped on the cheeks. The coiisequence was 
that the cliild was soon in a dyiug state, and the father, wisliing 
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 wad 
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 land of screecliing sound, as an accom¬ 
paniment of the death wad. 
2 F 
