and the Mpongwe. 105 
brother. Doubtless many innocent lives have 
been lost by this superstition. But there is reason 
in the order, “ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to 
live,” without having recourse to the super¬ 
naturalisms and preternaturalisms, which have 
unobligingly disappeared when Science most wants 
them. Sorcery and poison are as closely united as 
the “ Black Nightingales,” and it evidently differs 
little whether I slay a man with my sword or I 
destroy him by the slow and certain torture of a 
mind diseased. 
The Mpongwe have also some peculiarities in 
their notions of justice. If a man murder another, 
the criminal is put to death, not by the nearest of 
kin, as amongst the Arabs and almost all wild 
people, but by the whole community ; this already 
shows an advanced appreciation of the act and its 
bearings. The penalty is either drowning or burn¬ 
ing alive : except in the case of a chief or a very 
rich man, little or no difference is made between 
wilful murder, justifiable homicide, and accidental 
manslaughter—the reason of this, say their jurists, 
is to make people more careful. Here, again, we 
find a sense of the sanctity of life the reverse of 
barbarous. Cutting and maiming are punished by 
the fine of a slave. 
And now briefly to resume the character of the 
Mpongwe, a nervous and excitable race of negroes. 
The men are deficient in courage, as the women 
