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I could bear this no longer, and, starting up, said, "You deceive: the sun falls! just now I spoke: Koolyum, nganga dabbut garrum wangaga." Again he forced a laugh and said, "Surely, you play." I answered shortly, "Did I ever tell you a lie, Kaiber? I now speak the truth."
These rules are delivered to the young, either by the fetishman or the parents, and, when broken, they lead to death, doubtless often the consequence of strong belief. The Nganga superintends, as grand inquisitor, the witch-ordeal, by causing the accused to chew red-wood and other drugs in this land ferax venenorum.
The Nganga of Congo-land, the Mganga of the Wasawahili and the Uganga of the Gaboon, exactly corresponds with M. Michelet's 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."
One instance of another kind may be given. The word for the sun at Perth is nganga, whilst at Adelaide it is tin-dee; but the word used by the natives at Encounter Bay, South Australia, thirty-six miles from Adelaide, is ngon-ge, and the word used in the southern districts of Western Australia for the stars is tiendee: thus by extending the vocabularies of the two places the identity of the language is shown.
They claim the power of stopping rain by cursing the air, and of producing it by prayer, and by "a devout procession 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."
The Nganga or medicine man who, on such occasions, here as elsewhere, has the jus vitae et necis, was called in; he charged one of the sons with parricide by witchcraft, and the youth was at once pierced by the bayonets of his brothers. "Golden Frank" was peculiar in his ways.
The rival house is the Casa das Tinta, where nubile girls are decorated by the Nganga, or medicine-man, with a greasy crimson-purple pigment and, preparatory to entering the holy state of matrimony, receive an exhaustive lecture upon its physical phases.
Here all the free-born males are subjected to the wrongly called "Mosaic rite." They are now instructed by the Nganga in the practices of their intricate creed; they are taught the mysteries under solemn oaths, and, in fine, they are prepared for marriage.
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