ABSTRACT
Nganga tell save the man he means shall succeed him in his office.
" The native doctors appear to know when the disease has become incurable and the life of the patient is merely a question of a few days, for once while I was at Chilinowango, on the lower Congo, I heard the village carpenter hammering nails into planks, and asked my servant what they were doing. ' Building Buite's coffin,' he said. 'What, is he dead?' said I. ' No, but he must die soon,' he answered. This statement was confirmed by the relations of Buite, who came to me for rum as my share towards his funeral expenses. Imagine my feelings when, shortly after this, Buite, swollen out of all likeness to his former self, crawled along to the shop and asked me for a gallon of rum to help him pay his doctor's bill.
