Swan, who was missionary for many years in the Congo Free State, thus describes the custom: 'If I were to ask the Yeke people why they do not eat zebra flesh, they would reply, 'Chijila, i.e., 'It is a thing to which we have an antipathy; or better, 'It is one of the things which our fathers taught us not to eat. So it seems the word 'Bashilang' means 'the people who have an antipathy to the leopard; the 'Bashilamba, 'those who have an antipathy to the dog, and the 'Bashilanzefu, 'those who have an antipathy to the elephant. In other words, the members of these stocks refuse to eat their totems, the zebra, the leopard, or the elephant, from which they take their names.
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