reason assigned for the custom was that the fire purged away any magic influence which the strangers might mean to exercise over the Khan.[1] When subject chiefs come with their retinues to visit Kalamba (the most powerful chief of the Bashilange in the Congo Basin) for the first time or after being rebellious, they have to bathe, men and women together, in two brooks on two successive days, passing the nights in the open air in the market-place. After the second bath they proceed, entirely naked, to the house of Kalamba, who makes a long white mark on the breast and forehead of each of them. Then they return to the market-place and dress, after which they undergo the pepper ordeal. Pepper is dropped into the eyes of each of them, and while this is being done the sufferer has to make a confession of all his sins, to answer all questions that may be put to him, and to take certain vows. This ends the ceremony, and the strangers are now free to take up their quarters in the town for as long as they choose to remain.[2] At Kilema, in Eastern Africa, when a stranger arrives, a medicine is made out of a certain plant or a tree fetched from a distance, mixed with the blood of a sheep or goat. With this mixture the stranger is besmeared or besprinkled before he is admitted to the presence of the king.[3] The King of Monomotapa (South- East Africa) might not wear any foreign stuffs for fear of their being poisoned.[4] The
- ↑ De Plano Carpini, Historia Mongoloriun quos nos Tartaros appellamus, ed. D’Avezac (Paris, 1838), cap. iii. § iii. p. 627, cap. ult. § i. x. p. 744, and Appendix, p. 775; “Travels of William de Rubriquis into Tartary and China,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, vii. 82 sq.
- ↑ Paul Pogge, “Bericht über die Station Mukenge,” in Mittheilungen der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland, iv. (1883-1885) 182 sq.
- ↑ J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours during an Eighteen Years’ Residence in Eastern Africa, p. 252 sq.
- ↑ Dapper, Description de l’Afrique, p. 391.
