"Indâ is an association whose membership is confined to the adult male population. It is headed by a spirit of that name, who dwells in the woods, and appears only when summoned by some unusual event,--at the death of a person connected with the order, at the birth of twins, or at the inauguration of some one into office.... If a distinguished person dies, Indâ affects great rage, and comes the following night with a large posse of men to seize the property of the villagers without discrimination. He is sure to lay hands on as many sheep and goats as are necessary to make a grand feast, and no man has any right to complain.... The institution of Indâ, like that of Mwetyi, is intended to keep the women, children, and slaves in subjection." "Njěmbě is a pretty fair counterpart of Indâ, but there is no special spirit nor any particular person representing it." Its power resides in the society as a body, and rests on the threat of the employment of fetich medicines to injure recalcitrant persons. Only women are admitted to it. A very considerable fee is demanded for admission to membership. Formerly it was considered an honor to be allowed to be initiated; now, to perpetuate itself, it compels young women to enter it, especially if they have made derogatory remarks about Njěmbě. The initiation then becomes a kind of punishment. Strange to say, young women thus compelled to enter accept the society, and become zealous to drag others in. The initiation occupies about two weeks, and is accompanied with harsh treatment. Njěmbě has no special meeting-house. They assemble in a cleared place in the centre of a jungle, where their doings are unseen by outsiders by night or day. Nothing is known of their rites, except that they dance in a nude state, and the songs of their dances are openly heard, and are often of the vilest character. "They pretend to detect thieves, to find out the secrets of their enemies," to direct women in pregnancy, and in other ways claim to be useful. "The object of the institution originally, no doubt, was to protect the females from harsh treatment on the part of their husbands." As a rule, the Mpongwe women say that every woman should be in the Njěmbě Society; so, at a certain age of a girl, they decide that she shall "go in." But she is not always put through all the ceremonies at once. She may be subjected to only a part of the initiation, the remainder to be performed at another time. The special occasion for an initiation may be perhaps because the spirit of some recently dead member wants a new one to take her place; or if any young woman has escaped being initiated during her youth or if she is charged with having spoken derisively of Njěmbě, she may be seized by force and compelled to go through the rite.