and just in the southern borders of Loango who are not allowed to eat out of the same dish as the Bavili, or people of Kakongo. Should one ask for food he must tell the people that he is Mavumbu, but as it is a great disgrace to admit this, such a one seldom does ask another for it. I know one or two very rich and important men in the country, whose names I will not mention, who are Mavumbu. But where these people came from I cannot find out, neither can I make out why they should be so cursed.[1]
[Plate XXIX. (p. 385), represents a Nail-fetish, one of several figures presented to the Exeter Museum by Mr. Dennett. It is two feet in height, carved from a single block of wood, with looking-glass eyes. It is painted red round the eyes, and wears a sackcloth muffler and a headdress of blue-green feathers. The charm-box in the stomach has been broken and many of the nails are gone, leaving holes only. We have to thank Mr. F. R. Rowley, F.R.M.S. (Curator), for the photograph, and Mr. Edwin Mollis for these particulars.—Ed.]
- ↑ Father T. Derouet informs me that the tribe the Bavili call Bakutu call themselves Bavumbu or Bahumbu, and that their greatest fetish (sic) is Ngo. Can these people be the family or tribe from which the Mavumbu have descended?
My linguister, Bayona, who has lived among these people, adds that when the father or prince of the tribe dies, his head (Father Derouet says his hands also) is allowed to remain in the water until all the flesh comes away from it, when it is kept in a hut apart, and carried with the family should it remove to some other part. His penis is also cut off and smoked and then worn as a charm by his first wife's eldest son.
