A general name—No sacrifices to them—Preventive charms—Thief’s charm and antidote—Charm for rendering the owner attractive—Helpful charms in war—Modes of dealing with witchcraft—Certain charms for certain spirits—For success in fishing—To detect a murderer—To preserve goats in health—Giving ordeal to a son.

The general name for fetish, charm, amulet, talisman, mascot, etc., is bonganga; and this is also the word for the skill or art of the medicine man—that which constitutes him a member of the profession. It is, however, difficult to decide whether this skill arises from his own inherent intuitions or is imparted to him by his own powerful fetish—the word bonganga favours both views. The prefix “bo” can indicate the thing into which a medicine man has put his power, hence a charm, fetish, etc.; and it also denotes a noun of quality, and thus points to the skilfulness, art, etc., or that quality by which the witch-doctor is able to perform his magic. It is very probable that both views are necessary for a complete understanding of the word—it is a thing into which the medicine man has put his power, and it is also the skill, art, power, etc., by which he imparts it and by which he works as a witch-doctor.

No offerings are presented to charms, and there is no mode of refreshing them as on the Lower Congo; but when a charm does not act as it should the owner takes it back to the medicine man to have some more “medicine” put into it, as it is thought that the old has become ineffective through being played out. Images are not used among the Boloki, but various articles are employed to conserve the fetish power imparted to them.

The charms belonging to the witch-doctors have been handed down from time immemorial and the various “doctors” make the amulets, charms, etc., for the people. The larger the fee the more powerful the charm.

In writing about the Boloki charms it is very difficult to classify them, for they so frequently overlap each other in their operations. I have collected the names of a large number of their charms, etc., and when describing some of them I shall have to repeat a little of the information given under the heading of “Medicine Men and their Magic”; but I will avoid more repetition than is necessary to put the reader in touch with the supposed powers of the charm.

There are those charms that help them in dire distress, and among the most potent of them is the ekando, which really means a snag hidden under the water. The owner of this charm can cause a snag to break the canoe of his pursuing enemies. In the excitement of a chase the paddlers do not always look where they are going and will run on a hidden snag, and the impact will split the canoe and the charm has the credit for it. Many trees topple from the bank into the river, and by and by the jagged end of a large branch will be just under water as the river rises and falls, and this favours the belief in the powers of the ekando charm. I have been nearly thrown out of my canoe two or three times from running on a covered snag, and they are a source of considerable danger to river steamers.

The owner of this charm has the power also to call on the hippopotami and crocodiles to help him when hard pressed by his foes. Hippopotami quite unintentionally, in coming up to breathe, overturn a canoe; and crocodiles have the trick of coming up suddenly by the side of a canoe and causing the paddlers to start so violently that they upset the canoe. The crocodile takes a man and goes off.

Another charm with curious power is the “fetish axe” (ekoko). The possessor when desirous of eluding his enemies takes the “axe” in his hand and beats an island with it, whereupon the island splits and he passes through the opening, which at once closes behind him, and he is safe. The numerous creeks and inlets favour this superstition.

Another charm on much the same lines as the two already mentioned, is the jelo or sandbank. The lucky owner of this charm, when escape from the enemy is otherwise impossible, will take a handful of sand and throw it towards his pursuers, and a sandbank will immediately form and stop their progress until the owner of the jelo charm is far beyond their reach. The innumerable and ever-changing sandbanks in the river favour this belief.

On one occasion the folk were much troubled by steamers calling at Monsembe, the crews of which took every opportunity of robbing the people. The natives therefore decided to employ this charm by making a series of sandbanks across the channels, thus preventing the approach of steamers. I informed them that we were expecting our steamer the Peace, and they must not shut her out or we should run short of provision and barter goods.

“We will leave an opening for your steamer,” they assured me as they continued the ceremony.

A couple of days afterwards a State steamer came in sight, the very kind of steamer they wanted to keep out. “How did that steamer pass your sandbanks?” I quietly asked.

“Oh,” they replied nonchalantly, “some mischievous boy must have bewitched our line of sandbanks and caused several openings.” I have never found them lacking a loophole out of difficulties of this kind.

There are various preventive charms to maintain them in good health, to ward off the return of a sickness, preserve them from wounds, and to protect their property. A cross-stick on uprights (called mokando), rubbed with red camwood powder and arranged with a noose to catch witches that try to enter a house or village, is regarded as a health-preserver to a household and to a community. Or a medicine man can take certain stalks, or anything else to hand, and after putting a charm into it he can lay it along or across any path, and neither witch nor disembodied spirit desiring to commit evil in the village will be able to cross this charm (jeko) into the village.

A forked stick (mutumu) is carried by a man who has had rheumatism as a charm against the return of the complaint; but if the stick is touched by anyone else, or broken, the man will have a serious relapse. A brass ring with a few wood knots threaded on it, or a piece of string with knots tied in it, are both used for curing and for preventing diarrhœa, especially in children.

The mpete is a charm to preserve the owner from being wounded in a fight, but for it to be effective the owner’s wives must remain faithful while he is at the war. This name is also given to the brass ornaments on a State officer’s helmet and uniform, as the natives when first they saw them thought they were charms worn by the white men to preserve them from wounds, and not as decorations or insignia of rank. There is also a charm that is supposed to render the owner invulnerable to all weapons used in fights and quarrels.

A native does not own very much property, but what little he has he desires to keep, so there are charms for that purpose. A plantain stalk bound with the proper medicine is a charm to preserve its owner’s canoe from being swamped in a storm. It is not necessary to have it (the mokombe) in the canoe at the time, for it can act through any reasonable distance of space. The python charm (nguma) is regarded as a powerful charm for protecting wealth and slaves; and should either be lost it has the reputation of restoring them quickly to their owner.

There is a general charm (nseka) for preserving property from robbery and destruction. It is made of anything according to the preference of its user, as shells, leaves, skins, etc. Such a charm is frequently carried through the town to notify that something has been stolen and to bring a curse on the thief, and then it is partly made of the same material as the thing stolen. Charms are placed round the farms to mark the boundaries of a field belonging to one woman from that of another, and also to protect the produce from thieves. The charms then employed seem to be almost anything; but those most frequently seen are large univalve snail shells, bivalve shells like mussels, pieces of cactus, bits of rags, old calabashes, etc., these are all tied on sticks stuck in the ground and the charms dangle to and fro in the breeze.

When a woman runs away, her husband takes her nail-parings and hair-cuttings, which he has gathered for this and other purposes, to a medicine man, who puts them into a skin with medicine and returns them to him. The husband with this charm in his possession takes a leaf, spreads it on the closed fist of his left hand and strikes it with the palm of his right hand, and says: “If my wife stops to eat at the place to which she has run, let her die quickly.” The same ceremony is performed to ensure the return of a runaway slave, or to inflict harm on anyone with whom the owner of this special charm (named likunda) has quarrelled; consequently natives carefully destroy all their hair-cuttings and nail-parings so that no one may gain power over them.

The thief has a charm—a simple yellow pigment—to rub on his temples to help him steal cunningly and successfully; but if a man desires to protect his property from this kind of thief he procures a very long, broad-bladed knife with curved points, and on this he smears stripes of yellow pigment, and then a serious sickness will come upon the robber who steals from the owner of such a powerful charm (named lingundu). This charm is also used for two other purposes: when it is put near the door of a sick man it will kill the witch that tries to enter; and a medicine man also uses it to cut the soul (elimo) in half to cause the death of his client’s enemy. As the yellow pigment renders the thief invisible, so it also renders the knife invisible, so that the witch not seeing it blunders on it and fatally cuts itself; and the soul cannot see it, and can be executed by it when in the hands of the witch-doctor.

How does a native account for a man (or woman) being successful in his undertakings, fortunate in his circumstances, and acceptable and popular with folk generally? Well, the secret of it is that he has a charm (named montala) which operates powerfully in his favour. It is a bundle, a horn, or a hollow piece of bamboo with medicine in it. It renders its owner very attractive to women, to slaves, and to the people, and thus he is successful. Handsome, healthy, prosperous men are supposed to be what they are on account of the benefits bestowed by this charm.

When a son or daughter is about to leave home for another town, or to travel and trade, the father or near relative chews the leaves of a certain shrub, spits them out on to another leaf and mixes some camwood powder with the mess, and the son, or daughter, has to rub a little of this mixture (makako) on his body every day, otherwise he will not find favour with those among whom he may live or travel. Neither a son, nor a daughter, will travel without his charm. The ingredients of the love-charm, or philtre, have already been given (see the chapter on Medicine Men), and also the methods of effectively employing them.

It is also necessary, according to the native view of life, to have charms to help them in war, in rows, and among their enemies. There is a class of charms that enables them to go into the midst of their foes and yet escape, although they wish to capture them. By one charm the native bewitches the enemy; by another he excels the enemy in craftiness and cunning; by another he overawes and fascinates them so that they forget their hatred; and by another he becomes invisible to them. Each man patronizes his own particular charm, some having more faith in one than in another. There is also a charm, specially procured from a spirit and costing a goodly fee, that always enables its owner to capture one or more prisoners in a fight, and then helps him to disappear with his captives if too closely pursued by the enemy. The mud-fish is called njombo, and this name is given to a charm that imports the slippery characteristics of the eel-like mud-fish. The owner of this useful charm is as difficult to hold as an eel, and consequently it is much in demand by fighters and thieves, as it enables them to slip out of the hands of their captors.

Witchcraft plays a large part in native life, therefore we find among them various means of finding witches and counteracting their malignant powers. The simplest and cheapest method is to give a drink of water from the fetish bell to the suspected persons—the innocent are not hurt and the guilty one dies. Then there are the fetish saucepans of water used by the medicine men, in which the witches and evil spirits are supposed to appear and those proved guilty of witchcraft are destroyed. In each case the different spirits are called to the ordeal of the saucepan by the witch-doctor putting a leaf on the closed fist of his left hand and striking it with the palm of his right hand. If the leaf bursts, the spirits have heard and come at his bidding; but if the leaf does not break after three smacks, he desists, as the spirits are recalcitrant. When he wants a particular spirit he calls its name as he strikes the leaf.

When there is much sickness in a family the medicine man of the mat is sent for and he, after studying the matter, says: “There is a charm working against the family.” He erects his mat to form an enclosure and goes through a ceremony of much drumming and chanting, and by and by digs a hole inside his mat and gets out the charm (named ekundu), which is a saucepan containing animal and fish bones and brass links.

The pot and contents are said to belong to the evil spirit of a deceased relative who desires to trouble the family. The brass links, one or more, represent those members of the family who have been done to death by the evil spirit (mweta) since the decease of the wicked relative. (The medicine man knows how many have died in the family since the death of the said relative.) After removing the malignant charm from the ground, the evil spirit of the departed one has no more power over the family. Sometimes this ceremony is performed in the open, but it needs more cunning to deceive the spectators.

There are three charms that are regarded as being very acceptable and pleasing to the spirits of disease, so much so, that by a little persuasion the medicine man can coerce them to leave their patients and take up their residence in the charms provided for the purpose. The medicine man procures a four-foot post, removes its bark, shapes it bluntly at one end, and paints it yellow with spots of red and blue. This charm (etoli) is erected near the house of the person who is suffering from either debility, or rheumatism, or lumbago, or ague fever, and the spirit of the complaint goes into the post, and in order to keep it there, i.e. to avoid a relapse, the man throws some food on the roof, protecting the post from the weather, for the spirit to eat, and pours some sugar-cane wine over the post for the spirit to drink, and occasionally a little camwood powder is rubbed on the post to keep the spirit in a good humour. As these charm-sticks are the resting-places of spirits, the nicer they are made the better satisfied will the spirits be to reside in them instead of troubling the patient.

Besides the charm-post there are two charms made of saucepans for receiving the spirits of disease and holding them in pleasant captivity. They are both decorated with spots of yellow, blue, and red. One (the eboko) is simply filled with water from the bush, and the other (muntoka) has a number of small sticks in it. The former is used for retaining the spirit of a virulent form of sleeping-sickness, and the latter for that of a milder type. In both cases food, drink, and camwood are supplied to the spirits residing in them; and small roofs of grass are built over them to protect them from the weather. Especially in the case of the coverings for the saucepan charms, the protecting shelters look like miniature huts, and a casual observer could easily believe that they have something to do with ancestral worship, whereas they are simply the dwelling-places of disease-giving spirits, and are charms to protect their owners from having serious relapses.

When a man is very unsuccessful in spearing fish, although his opportunities have been good, he thinks that this lack of success is due to a pregnant woman in his family who has not performed the rites called mumbamba, in which small cuts are made on certain parts of the body and camwood powder and medicine are rubbed into them. When this ceremony is observed his luck will change, so he thinks. If, however, he cannot discover such a woman in his family, he believes that there is one who is hiding the fact, and consequently the charm is against him. This is often a way of covering one’s ill-success.

Murder is a very rare occurrence among the Boloki, i.e. secret murder. I never heard of a case during the fifteen years I was with them. Open fights and murder were not at all infrequent, but I suppose that there must have been cases of secret murder, or they would not have a ceremony (called moselo) for detecting the murderer. This fetish ceremony is performed in two ways: (a) A relative takes the nail-parings and hair-cuttings of the murdered man to the witch-doctor, who makes some medicine with them, after which he says that the man was murdered by someone in the village. A saucepan of water is taken and placed on the ground in the said village, and each inhabitant holds his or her hand over it, and the one whose shadow is seen at the bottom of the saucepan is the murderer. (b) The nail-parings and hair-cuttings of the murdered man are rolled in palm gossamer, tied and laid on the ground, as representing the unknown murderer, in front of the witch-doctor, who says: “If this man eats, or drinks, or walks in this country again, let him be cursed by this ceremony.” Then the witch-doctor brings his knife down and cuts the bundle (moselo) in half. If shortly after this a person becomes suddenly ill of a serious complaint and dies, he is regarded as guilty of the murder, and his death is taken as a proof that the spell has worked.

When cassava roots are dug up from the farm they are put into a water-hole to soak for a few days until they become soft. Should a woman find that her roots are being stolen from the hole she takes a piece of gum copal, and fixing it in the cleft of a split stick she puts it on the side of her cassava hole, and at the same time calls down a curse on the thief. Should the thief be a man he will henceforth have no luck in fishing, and should it be a woman she will have no more success in farming.

Every canoe before being launched for the first time is struck on the stern by the maker or owner with his axe, “to take away the weight.” It will then be light to paddle, easy to beach or to launch, for its dead weight has been removed by the blow with the axe.

There is no distinct word for evil eye, but one person is able to bewitch (loka) the farm of another so that the produce, maize, cassava, sugar-cane, etc., will not grow. To counteract the effects of this bewitchment the owner of the farm calls a witch-doctor, who knocks a stake into the farm, and if a person is bewitching the farm the stake is supposed to enter that person, and she or he will soon die unless they abandon their wicked designs.

When through this same form of witchcraft goats die off, or will not breed, the owner seeks someone who for a consideration will look after them, and the owner will then pretend to sell them to him, so that the one who is bewitching them will stop his evil practices, as they now belong to someone else. It often happens that the goats being removed to new pastures become more healthy and breed, and this is sufficient proof that someone was formerly bewitching them. If, however, the owner cannot find anyone whom he can trust to look after his goats he calls a medicine man, who takes a young palm, splits it into two equal parts, and places one on each side of the road; and then when the witch spirit comes that way and passes between the pieces of palm it will become sick and die.

The general belief is that only one in the family can bewitch a member of the family; and who will go to the trouble of bewitching one of his own family unless he is to benefit by the death of the bewitched person? And who benefits by the death of a father or a brother? Why, the son or a brother. Consequently, when father is very ill, the son is regarded with suspicion, and after trying all other means, such as calling in the various medicine men to drive out the sickness, the patient will, as a last resort, give his son the ordeal, but not enough to kill him. Should he vomit it he is innocent, that is proved beyond doubt and no harm is done; but if he does not vomit the ordeal, and becomes dazed and stupid—well, he is simply the medium by which the occult powers are working on his relative, and the ordeal will clear such dangerous powers out of his system, and being no longer able to work through him as a medium the father or brother will recover. The lad is tended until the effects of the ordeal drug have passed away, then he is warned not to allow his body to be used again for such purposes and he is set free; and he is looked upon by his playmates in the village with as much curiosity as a boy just out of hospital with a broken leg. The boy’s excuse is, and it is readily accepted by all, that he was full of witchcraft and did not know it.

I know a case of a cheeky urchin who received a box on the ears from his uncle, and the youngster turned round and said: “I will bewitch you.”

Shortly afterwards the uncle fell sick, and in spite of remedies and “doctors” he continued ill; but at last he made the boy take the ordeal, and not vomiting it he was considered guilty of bewitching his uncle. The boy was well thrashed, and his father had to pay 200 brass rods to the medicine man for administering the ordeal. This punishment was inflicted not because the ordeal proved that the lad was guilty, but because of his insolent threat, and to teach him to let other folk alone. The uncle pulled up his houses and went to live at the other end of the town beyond the lad’s influence.

This uncle soon after married another wife, who had a young brother who was a scholar in my school. One day the uncle came asking me for this lad that he might give him the ordeal. I refused to hand him over for such a purpose, and “Besides,” I said, “he does not belong to your family,” for I had not heard of the marriage.

“Yes, he does,” the man replied; “I have married his sister, and he is bewitching me through his sister, who is now my wife. My nephew, who took the ordeal some time ago, says that he has passed on the witchcraft to my young brother-in-law.” It thus appears that a mischievous boy can say that he has passed on his witchcraft to another lad and so bring trouble on that youngster. This uncle was continually bothering me about these lads, and at last, to avoid further trouble, I sent them, with their full consent, to work on one of our other stations many miles down-river, and the uncle was much relieved.

The uncle in his new locality surrounded himself with many charms, but he did not live many years. He was not physically strong, and every charm he possessed was to guard him from a complaint, or to preserve him from witchcraft.