Life at Banza Nokki. 
217 
children till their arms were tired. Many lived for 
years in the country, learning the language and iden¬ 
tifying themselves with their flocks. Yet the most 
they ever effected was to make their acolytes re¬ 
semble the Assyrians whom Shalmaneser trans¬ 
planted to Assyria, who “ feared the Lord and served 
their graven images” (2 Kings, xvii. 33-41). Their 
only traces are the word “ Deus,” foully perverted 
like the Chinese “joss and an occasional crucifix 
which is called cousa de branco —white man’s 
thing. Tuckey was justified in observing at 
Nokki that the crucifixes, left by missioners, were 
strangely mixed with native fetishes, and that 
the people seemed by no means improved by the 
muddle of Christian and Pagan idolatry. 
The system is at once complicated and unset¬ 
tled. There is, apparently, the sensus numinis; 
the vague deity being known as Nzambi or 
Njambi, which the missionaries translated into 
God, as Nganna Zambi—Lord Zambi. Merolla 
uses Zambiabungu, and in the vocabulary, Zabi- 
ambunco, for the “ Spirit above” (Zambi-a-npungo): 
Battel tells us that the King of Loango was called 
“ Sambee and Pango, which mean God.” The 
Abbe Proyart terms the Supreme “ Zambi,” and 
applies Zambi-a-n-pongou to a species of malady 
brought on by perjury. He also notices the 
Manichsean idea of Zambi-a-Nbi, or bad-God, 
drawing the fine distinction of European belief in 
