It Necessitated His Dressing
Himself Up, And Likely Enough Fighting That Impudent Scoundrel Who
Was Engaged In Courting Her Too;
And above all serenading her at
night on the native harp, with its strings made from the tendrils of
a
Certain orchid, or on the marimba, amongst crowds of mosquitoes.
Any institution that involved being out at night amongst crowds of
those Lembarene mosquitoes would have to disappear, let that
institution be what it might.
The Igalwa are one of the dying-out coast tribes. As well as on
Lembarene Island, their villages are scattered along the banks of
the Lower Ogowe, and on the shores and islands of Eliva Z'Onlange.
On the island they are, so far, undisturbed by the Fan invasion, and
laze their lives away like lotus-eaters. Their slaves work their
large plantations, and bring up to them magnificent yams, ready
prepared ogooma, sweet-potatoes, papaw, etc., not forgetting that
delicacy Odeaka cheese; this is not an exclusive inspiration of
theirs, for the M'pongwe and the Benga use it as well. It is made
from the kernel of the wild mango, a singularly beautiful tree of
great size and stately spread of foliage. I can compare it only in
appearance and habit of growth to our Irish, or evergreen, oak, but
it is an idealisation of that fine tree. Its leaves are a softer,
brighter, deeper green, and in due season (August) it is covered -
not ostentatiously like the real mango, with great spikes of bloom,
looking each like a gigantic head of mignonette - but with small
yellow-green flowers tucked away under the leaves, filling the air
with a soft sweet perfume, and then falling on to the bare shaded
ground beneath to make a deep-piled carpet. I do not know whether
it is a mango tree at all, for I am no botanist: but anyhow the
fruit is rather like that of the mango in external appearance, and
in internal still more so, for it has a disproportionately large
stone. These stones are cracked, and the kernel taken out. The
kernels are spread a short time in the shade to dry; then they are
beaten up into a pulp with a wooden pestle, and the pulp put into a
basket lined carefully with plantain leaves and placed in the sun,
which melts it up into a stiff mass. The basket is then removed
from the sun and stood aside to cool. When cool, the cheese can be
turned out in shape, and can be kept a long time if it is wrapped
round with leaves and a cloth, and hung up inside the house. Its
appearance is that of almond rock, and it is cut easily with a
knife; but at any period of its existence, if it is left in the sun
it melts again rapidly into an oily mass.
The natives use it as a seasoning in their cookery, stuffing fish
and plantains with it and so on, using it also in the preparation of
a sort of sea-pie they make with meat and fish. To make this, a
thing well worth doing, particularly with hippo or other coarse
meat, reduce the wood fire to embers, and make plantain leaves into
a sort of bag, or cup; small pieces of the meat should then be
packed in layers with red pepper and odeaka in between. The tops of
the leaves are then tied together with fine tie-tie, and the bundle,
without any saucepan of any kind, stood on the glowing embers, the
cook taking care there is no flame. The meat is done, and a superb
gravy formed, before the containing plantain leaves are burnt
through - plantain leaves will stand an amazing lot in the way of
fire. This dish is really excellent, even when made with python,
hippo, or crocodile. It makes the former most palatable; but of
course it does not remove the musky taste from crocodile; nothing I
know of will.
The great and important difference between the M'pongwe, {167}
Igalwa, and Ajumba fetish, and the Fetish of those tribes round
them, consists in their conception of a certain spirit called O
Mbuiri. They have, as is constant among the Bantu races of South-
West Africa, a great god - the creator, a god who has made all
things, and who now no longer takes any interest in the things he
has created. Their name for this god is Anyambie, which when
pronounced sounds to my ears like anlynlae - the l's being very
weak, - the derivation of this name, however, is from Anyima a
spirit, and Mbia, good. This god, unlike other forms of the
creating god in Fetish, has a viceroy or minister who is a god he
has created, and to whom he leaves the government of affairs. This
god is O Mbuiri or O Mbwiri, and this O Mbwiri is of very high
interest to the student of comparative fetish. He has never been,
nor can he ever become, a man, i.e. be born as a man, but he can
transfuse with his own personality that of human beings, and also
the souls of all those things we white men regard as inanimate, such
as rocks, trees, etc., in a similar manner.
The M'pongwe know that his residence is in the sea, and some of them
have seen him as an old white man, not flesh-colour white, but chalk
white. There is another important point here, but it wants a volume
to itself, so I must pass it. O Mbuiri's appearance in a corporeal
form denotes ill luck, not death to the seer, but misfortune of a
severe and diffused character. The ruin of a trading enterprise,
the destruction of a village or a family, are put down to O Mbuiri's
action. Yet he is not regarded as a malevolent god, a devil, but as
an avenger, or punisher of sin; and the M'pongwe look on him as the
Being to whom they primarily owe the good things and fortunes of
this life, and as the Being who alone has power to govern the host
of truly malevolent spirits that exist in nature.
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