TABOOS AND CURSES
Variety of taboos—The totem taboo—The permanent taboo—The inherited
taboo—The temporary taboo—Circumcision taboo—Canoe-maker’s
taboo—Mourner’s taboo—Cursing a wife—Taboo of sympathy—Father’s
curse on a child—Kicking a person’s foot—Various curses—Different
oaths—Giving tokens.
Taboos are the prohibitions and restrictions put on things and actions
by the witch-doctor during and after an illness, by the family totems,
and temporarily by the individual himself. They are the “thou shalt
nots” of fetishism. To disobey them is to risk dire consequences to
health of body, to success in expeditions, and to one’s luck. Among the
Boloki the outraged spiritual powers are supposed to avenge themselves
on the breakers of the taboo. The taboos send their ramifications into
every part of native life, thought, and action. There is not a single
article of food that is not taboo to someone, there is not a place that
has not been tabooed at some time or other, and there is not a possible
action that has not been, or is not, affected by taboo. When a
witch-doctor tells his patient that he is not to eat goat’s meat, then
goat’s meat to that man is tabooed, forbidden, unlawful for that man to
eat; and should he break the taboo by eating goat’s meat, then he
believes that a serious relapse will follow and probably death.
The taboos are many and various, but most of them fall under the
following heads: The _totem taboo_ (called _mokumbu_) is not so evident
to the casual observer among the Bololi people, and I might say among
Congo people generally, as it is in other parts of the world. One family
that I know may not eat a certain snake, and another may not eat fowls.
If the men of these families kill and eat their totems they will become
thin and weak; the women will not only become thin but sterile; and the
pregnant woman who breaks her totem taboo will be delivered of a weak
child, who will remain thin and undersized all his life.
To another family a tree with small edible fruit (named _mwenge_) is a
totem. The tree must not be cut down, nor its fruit eaten, and if by any
mistake a woman of this family burns it while pregnant she carefully
saves the ashes, i.e. instead of throwing them away she puts them in a
special place apart from the usual heap of refuse, otherwise her child
will be born emaciated and weakly. Strange to say, the boys and girls of
the family before puberty may eat the fruit of this tree without any
evil consequences.
Another family has a plant with red leaves (called _nkungu_) as a totem.
When a woman of this family becomes _enceinte_ for the first time a
_nkungu_ is planted near the hearth outside the house, and it is never
destroyed, or the child will be born thin and weak and remain very small
and sickly. The healthy life of the children and family is bound up with
the healthiness and life of the totem tree as respected and preserved by
the family. The killing of a fowl by a member of the snake family, and
vice versa, does not affect the family whose totem it is.
When a free woman marries she takes her totem with her and observes not
only her own, but also her husband’s totem. And any child born to them
takes the totem of both parents until there is a family council of the
paternal and maternal branches, when it is generally arranged that the
child shall in future observe its father’s totem.
These notes contain all the information I could gather relating to their
totems; and I received the impression that the totem taboo is gradually
dying out. This is also the impression I have about the totems on the
Lower Congo, where one finds only a vestige of what was once probably a
potent factor in their family life.
Then there is the _permanent taboo_ (called _ngili_). This taboo is put
on any kind of food, as, “You must not eat goat’s meat”; or, on going to
a certain place, as, “You must not go across the river to a particular
island”; or, on performing a particular action, as, “You must always
drink sugar-cane wine through a reed, never straight out of a vessel of
any kind.” This taboo must be carefully observed by the person under it
as long as he lives or serious consequences will follow the breaking of
it, such as a return of the sickness from which the person was suffering
when placed under this taboo, or a loss of property and life, or the
sickness and death of a child.
Every kind of food is _ngili_ to someone, and it is no uncommon sound to
hear a person going through the town crying out: “Exchange for piece of
antelope.” That means that someone has come into possession of a portion
of antelope to whom it is taboo, so he (or she) is trying to exchange it
for fish or something else that is not taboo to him with someone to whom
antelope is not taboo.
This permanent taboo (_ngili_) is very frequently an inherited one. A
man has, say, elephantiasis and the “medicine man” says he is not to eat
either elephant or hippopotamus flesh (both these animals have stout
legs), and the man will pass on this taboo to his sons, who will
carefully observe it lest their legs become “swollen like an
elephant’s.”
Milk is tabooed by all and regarded with great abhorrence. Anyone
drinking it is considered unclean (_bosoto_) for several days, and is
not allowed to eat with his family. They may touch milk, for they milk
our goats and sheep and carry it to us without suffering any defilement,
but it must not touch their lips. A house boy of mine was known to have
drunk some water out of a milky glass, and he was not permitted to eat
with his family for five days. The natives could give no reason for
this, but only stated that it was their custom. The eating of raw eggs
is also tabooed by all, and the breaker of this taboo is not allowed to
eat with his family for a few days. They eat well-cooked eggs no matter
how unsavoury they may be through age. I may say in passing that the
more ancient an egg is the better it is liked by the native, and they do
not appreciate our preference for fresh eggs. If a native gives an aged
egg to a white man as an expression of gratitude it does not mean that
he is giving it because it is bad and worthless to himself, but because
it is to him better than a fresh egg, and he thinks it is so to you
until he learns better, and then he will bring fresh ones.
The _temporary taboo_ (_mungilu_) covers a large number of different
circumstances that, according to the native view of life, call for a
taboo. During pregnancy a woman is placed under a taboo, generally that
she is not to eat a certain kind of food—not the same article of food to
every woman, but according to the momentary whim of the “doctor”—and
this she observes until the medicine man removes it either on the birth
of the child or when it is weaned, or the first time the child has its
hair cut.
Some pregnant women are told not to throw the ashes of their fires away
until their children reach the age of twelve or fourteen. The ashes are
therefore carefully gathered and put into a special place. These women,
however, belong to families which have trees and shrubs for totems, and
for fear of scattering the ashes of their totem trees inadvertently
burnt they have to put all the ashes of their fires in a particular
place, thus honouring all ashes to avert the possibility of being
disrespectful to the ashes of their totem trees.
A witch-doctor may say that on account of a certain sickness the patient
must not eat a particular kind of food, and the food he may eat must be
prepared in a special way, say, cooked in forest water and not in water
taken from the river. When, however, the man is better a feast is
prepared, and then all kinds of food are cooked in the ordinary way,
including the interdicted articles, and the patient partakes of them and
the prohibitions are removed.
Lads who have been circumcised must remain indoors until the wounds are
healed, and during that time they are not to eat the heads and tails of
fish. When a man is making a canoe he ties a piece of a cactus-like
plant to the log he is working, and while working on it he must not
drink any water, otherwise the canoe will leak. The charm also wards off
evil influences and keeps the canoe from warping. Members of a deceased
person’s family are forbidden to sleep for two or three weeks on their
ordinary beds, and must sleep on leaves spread on the ground. After the
mourning they have a drinking-bout of sugar-cane wine, to which all the
town is invited, after which they return to their ordinary sleeping-mats
on the raised frame. The prohibitions on fishermen and hunters have
already been mentioned.
Sometimes a man in a rage will put himself under a taboo. A wife by her
conduct has irritated him beyond all endurance, and at last in anger he
strikes on the ground with a stick, and says: “May I be cursed if ever I
eat food cooked by you.” He is now under a taboo (_mungilu_) not to eat
food from that woman’s hands. Such a mode of procedure will bring the
woman to her senses, for undoubtedly the taboo and curse go further than
the mere non-eating of food cooked by her. It means that he has put a
taboo on her and will have nothing more to do with her, or the curse
will come on him in the form of a severe disease.
By and by the woman is sorry for her conduct, and begs the husband to
remove himself from under the curse by removing the taboo of having
nothing more to do with her. Should he after a time relent, the curse is
removed by the following ceremony, which is called reversing, or
undoing, of the beating of the ground: A trench is dug while some women
sing: “Remove the curse, the curse of beating on the ground” (_Bondola
bondo mobondo bondo_). A spot of red camwood powder is rubbed on the
woman’s chest, or as they say, “over the heart,” the taboo and curse are
removed and the pair are reconciled.
Men and women to express their sympathy with a sick parent or relative
will make a vow, saying: “I will not eat fowls,” or, “I will not go to
_Lulanga_ until my father is better.” Should the father die, then the
person who made the self-imposed taboo must not eat any more fowls, or
must never go again to _Lulanga_. These vows are very carefully
observed, or a disease will result from breaking them.
A person therefore can be under four taboos, viz.: (1) The totem taboo
(_mokumbu_) of his family. (2) The taboo (_ngili_), because of a serious
illness and the desire to avert a relapse. (3) The inherited taboo (also
_ngili_), to avoid a complaint from which the father suffered. (4) The
temporary taboo (_mungilu_) of anger and sympathy.
This may be the best place in which to mention their curses, for they
are often interwoven with their taboos. A very common curse employed on
most occasions is to strike on the ground with a stick, and at the same
time mention the name of the person cursed; and the person thus cursed
will have a very bad form of dysentery, and the curser may say: “May I
be cursed if ever I do such and such a thing”; thus the curser will
become subject to the disease should he break his word.
A person curses an adult relative in the following manner: He rubs his
thighs, bends down, and turns his back towards the one to be cursed and
shouts: “Be accursed.” This is also done in the face of an enemy as an
insolent curse on them. Early morning is said to be the best time for
making it effective. I have seen this performed several times, and the
person so cursed has hurled his knife or spear at the curser.
A father, or guardian, curses his child by words, and then the child
will neither grow properly nor become wise or rich; but this is only
resorted to on great provocation. Should the child become penitent and
apologize for his evil ways, he takes a large fish or monkey or a goat
to his father and begs him to remove the curse. The father accepts the
present, and then chewing the stem of a certain shrub (called
_munsangasanga_), he expectorates the pieces out on to the palm of his
child’s hand, saying; “What I said I said in anger, and I now remove the
curse.” The child is comforted and the two are reconciled.
To kick or touch a person accidentally, while passing him, with the foot
is equivalent to cursing him. The person must turn round and slightly
kick again the person whom he touched with his foot, otherwise bad luck,
etc., will come upon the person kicked. Where we apologize they kick
again, and the phrase used for the second kick means, “to reverse the
effects of the first kick.” They are exceedingly careful not to touch a
person with the foot in passing—that brings bad luck, and not to step
over a person—that is an insult. A person moving out of a sitting crowd
of folk shuffles his feet along the ground so as to avoid stepping over
anyone, and will tell those squatting around to draw their feet up out
of the way so as not to touch them.
There are other curses used by old and young alike during fits of
passionate anger, as, “May you die by witchcraft”; or, “May you die by
euphorbia poison”; or, “Cry for your mother,” i.e. May your mother die.
The last is a curse bitterly resented, and is only uttered when a person
is greatly exasperated. When a person is undergoing any ordeal test he
repeatedly uses the word _ngambu_, which means: “If I am guilty, let the
ordeal work against me; but if I am innocent, then let my accuser be
accursed and die.” The _ngambu_ curse is greatly dreaded by all natives.
Promises and oaths are ratified by each contracting party putting a
curse on the other should he break his oath; and illness and bad luck
are often regarded as due to unfaithfulness to one’s oath. Sometimes
taboos are put on one another by the contracting parties, and so long as
the taboos are carefully observed they are reckoned as faithful to their
promises and oaths. This is specially so in the covenant of
blood-brotherhood, and to disregard the taboo is to court either death
or some great disaster. Many of their folk-lore stories are illustrative
of the evil consequences resulting from the breaking of
blood-brotherhood taboos.
Oaths are freely used by the Boloki in their conversation, and such
liars are they that they feel it necessary to back their statements
with, “I swear it” (_ndai_). The commonest form of oath is, “Cut my
throat” (_tena nkingu_), and is always accompanied by the speaker
wetting his finger and drawing it across his throat. “By my mother”
(_nta mama_), and “By my father” (_nta tata_) are very strong oaths and
are felt to be binding on the user of them, otherwise disaster will
follow if the statements to which they are affixed are not true, or the
promises to which they are attached are not fulfilled. “Truly so, by my
mother” (_bwele unko mama_), and “Truly so, by my father” (_bwele unko
tata_), are not regarded as being so strong as the former two, but they
infer that the speaker pledges himself that his words are true,
otherwise his mother or father will suffer.
A piece of stick, tin, or anything handy is cut into pieces, and each
combatant or disputant takes a portion as a token that all matters of
dispute are finished, and he who again starts one of the old quarrels
calls down a curse upon himself. This cutting of a token (_tena ndanga_)
is also done by the party who loses a case. He gives a portion of the
cut token as an earnest of the payment of expenses, and of the fine
imposed by those who judged the case, and if he does not redeem it he is
under a curse and will suffer accordingly.
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