Life at Ban;za Nokki. 
221 
things, they are sovereign to make man brave in 
battle. Shortly before we entered Banza Nkaye a 
propitiation of the tutelary gods took place : Cox¬ 
swain Deane had fired an Enfield, and the report 
throughout the settlement was that our guns would 
kill from the river-bank. 
The Nganga of Congo-land, the Mganga of the 
Wasawahili and the Uganga of the Gaboon, ex¬ 
actly corresponds with M. Michelets Sorciere of 
the Middle Ages, “ physicienne,” that is doctor for 
the people and poisoner; we cannot, however, apply 
in Africa the adage of Louis XIII.’s day, “To 
one wizard ten thousand witches.” In the “ Muata 
Cazembe” (pp. 57, etpassim) we read “ O Ganga or 
O Surjao the magician is there called “ Muroi,” 
which, like “ Fite,” is also applied to magic. The 
Abbe Proyart opines of his professional brother, 
“ he is ignorant as the rest of the people, but a 
greater rogue,”—a pregnant saying. Yet here “ the 
man of two worlds ” is not Vhomme de revolution , 
and he suffices for the small “ spiritual wants ” of 
his flock. He has charge of the “ Kizila,” the 
“ Chigella” of Merolla and the “ Quistilla” of James 
Barbot —Anglice putting things in fetish, which 
corresponds with the Tahitian tapu or taboo. The 
African idea is, that he who touches the article, 
for instance, gold on the eastern coast of Guinea, 
will inevitably come to grief. When “ fetish is 
taken off,” as by the seller of palm wine who tastes 
