322 The Slaver and the Missionary 
against the teeth and bones of animals, and cloth 
made from the rind of certain trees carried 
as preservatives from disease and supernatural 
influences : even banners in burial-places are 
“ superstitious and blamable.” They claim the 
power of stopping rain by cursing the air, and of 
producing it by prayer, and by “ a devout proces¬ 
sion to Our Lady of Pinda,” a belief truly worthy 
of the Nganga; and a fast ship is stranded that 
“ men may learn to honour holidays better. ,, When 
the magicians swear falsely they either burst like 
Judas or languish and die—“ a warning to be more 
cautious how they jest with God.” An old hag, 
grumbling after a brutish manner, proceeds to 
bewitch a good father to death by digging a hole 
and planting a certain herb. The ecclesiastic 
resolved to defeat her object by not standing long 
in one place. He remembers the saying of the 
wise man, “ Mulier nequam plaga mortis ; ” and at 
last by ordering her off in the name of the Blessed 
Trinity and the Holy Virgin, '‘withal gently 
blowing towards her,” she all of a sudden giving 
three leaps, and howling thrice, flies away in a 
trice. The Bolungo or Chilumbo oath or ordeal 
is, of course, a “hellish ceremony.” Demons play 
as active a part in Africa as in China. The Por¬ 
tuguese nuncio permits the people in their simpli¬ 
city to light candles before and to worship the so- 
called “ Bull of the Blessed Sacrament,” that by 
