220 
Life at Banza Nokki. 
shapes, strings of mucuna and poison-beans; 
carved images stuck over with feathers and 
tassels ; padlocks with a cowrie or a mirror set in 
them ; horns full of mysterious “ medicine iron- 
tipped poles ; bones ; birds’ beaks and talons ; 
skins of snakes and leopards, and so forth. We 
shall meet them again upon our travels. 
No man walks abroad without his protecting 
charms, Nkisi or Nkizi, the Monda of the Gaboon, 
slung en baudrier , or hanging from his shoulder. 
The portable fetish of our host is named “ Baka 
chya Mazfnga : Professor Smith (p. 323) makes 
“ Mazenga” to be “fetishes for the detection of 
theft.” These magiccz vanitates are prophylactics 
against every evil to which man’s frailty is heir. 
The missioners were careful not to let their Congo 
converts have anything from their bodies, like hair 
or nail parings, for fear lest it be turned to super¬ 
stitious use ; and a beard (the price of conversion) 
was refused to the “ King of Micocco.” Like 
the idols, these talismans avert ill luck, bachelor¬ 
hood, childlessness, poverty, and ill health ; they 
are equally powerful against the machinations of 
foes, natural or supernatural; against wild beasts, 
the crocodile, the snake, and the leopard ; and 
against wounds of lead and steel. They can pro¬ 
duce transformation ; destroy enemies ; cause rain 
or drought, fine or foul weather ; raise and humble, 
enrich and impoverish countries; and, above all 
