The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1878-02-07

Mr.. Paul B. Du Chaillu lectured
Friday night at Association Hall,
New York, on the "Witchcraft and
Superstitions of Africa" T am
going to take you again, said he,
into the Jungle of Equatorial Africa.
Stanley met THAI Jungle ut the head
waters of the Congo he met there
the cannibals I saw md the dwarfs
l discovered. And what q Jungle
it is At the end Of each DAYS
journey I made, no negro could tell
mo where that vast forest ondcd
There ore great dangers thero, md
sometimes ono has to fight tho poo~
pie. 1t is not very pleasant to fight ;
it was not very pleasant for Stanley
but he had to fight or be killed.
The people are scattered in great
tribes, divided into clans and the
clans into families, the chiefs and
the old men making the laws
Three institutions are everywhe ere
prevalent-polygamy, slavery and
witchcraft. It is wonderful how
these people love to get married.
They marry all the time and never
get tired Of it. Some of them marry
as old as oighty-fve orninety years,
just as some Of us do at home, you
know. Laughter. Tho largest
number Of wives I have seen be.
longing to one man was about three
hundred, and when I asked him
how many children he had, he said
between six and eight hundred.
Two hundred moro OF less didn't
seem to trouble hira at all. The
wives ore not slaves, but their hus-
bands buy them when they are
three or four years old from their
fathers that is sort of dowry.
polygnmy is also political institu-
ton. The tribes are always at war,
and hence a man tries to get as
many wives as he can from the sur
rounding tribes, so as to have
friends among them. They have a.
great nohorrenco of blood relation
ship and no man is allowed to take
wife Of his oWa clan.
THEIR %1ToHoRArr AND cANNlDAL1sm.
The great curse OF that country
is it's superstitions, and it is very
hard to get Mt tho bottom facts
about tRa.r religious BELIEF. They
have two names which represent
our ideas OF God and the devil.
The devil is the source of all evil
and witchcraft. When u person is
sick he is bewitched by some one,
aad the sorcerer and sorceress have
to be killed. The doctors point
them out, and they have to swallow
poison to prove their innocence
This poison is the root of tree
called denao, belonging to the
strychnine order, but these doctors
take it and do not die. Here, if a
man scea the now moon over his
right shoulder, or his loft, it is
lucky or unlucky but there it is
rnlucky if he sees the new moon at
all, and on the day of the new moon
nobody dare 60 out of his hut. The
queen of witchcraft lives in tho
moon, aid the people of the world
arc the insects on which witchcraft
feeds, md when witchcraft is very
hungry she sends the plague and
kills moro people. Those who have
any connection with the spirit in
the moon are women and must be
in trance. Tho people are honest
in their beliefs, but Of course there
is jugglery among them, among
them. Among many tribes canni.
balisrn exists, but I think it is sort
of religious feust, as they do not kill
people purposely except prisoners
of war. AS among the Indians,
they have no mercy on those taken
in war. I made inquiries about this
cannibalism. I wanted to know
which were the best eating, women
or mon. They all agreed that the |
women were best. They didn't tell
mo anything new, for I knew that :
before. Laughter.J Their war
dance is perfectly terrible. They
cover themselves all over with war
paint and with clay that has been
saturated with tho 1ecavod Aaoh |