[76] The so-called fetishes (from _feitiço_, a Portuguese word meaning sorcery) are not idols, but charms and amulets, generally known as _nkissi_, _nkishi_, or _mukishi_. There are _nkissi_ peculiar to a district, village, or family; charms and amulets to shield the wearer or possessor against all the evils flesh is heir to, and others enabling the priest or _nganga_ to discover crime or the cause of disease. The idea underlying the belief in the efficacy of these charms was very prevalent among our own ancestors, and the images, rosaries, crosses, relics, and other articles introduced by the Roman missionaries are looked upon by the natives as equivalent to their own _nkissi_. Even at the present day, images of S. Francis and of other saints may be seen in the collection of Royal Fetishes at S. Salvador, and a cross called _santu_ (Santa Cruz) “is the common fetish which confers skill in hunting” (Bentley, _Pioneering on the Congo_, vol. i, pp. 35, 36, 39). The images, according to Bentley, seen among the natives are not idols but receptacles of “charms” or medicine. As to a belief in witchcraft (_ndoki_, witch; _Kindoki_, witchcraft), it is not even now quite extinct among Christian people, boasting of their civilisation, for a reputed wizard was drowned at Hedingham in Essex in 1863, and a witch burnt in Mexico as recently as 1873. Matthew Hopkins, the famous witch-finder, cannot claim a higher rank than an African _nganga_, although his procedure was not quite the same. Nor can I see any difference between a fetish and the miraculous “bambino” manufactured in the sixteenth century, and kept in the church of S. Maria Aracœli, which a priest takes to the bedside of sick or dying persons, who are asked to kiss it to be cured, and whose guardians are at all times ready to receive the offerings of the faithful (see Dickens, _Pictures from Italy_). [77] Marginal note by Purchas:—“Of these Giagas read also Pigafetta’s _Book of Congo_, translated into English by M. Hartwell, and my _Pilgrimage_, l. 7. But none could so well know them as this author, who lived so long with them.” [78] The river Longa [Lungu] enters the sea in lat. 10° 20´ S. [79] A soba Calungo is shown on the most recent maps as residing north of the river Longa. [80] Perhaps we ought to read _Tunda_, the bush, the East. Lad. Magyar (_Reisen_, p. 378) has a chief Tunda in the country of the Sellas, and Falkenstein (_Loango Expedition_, p. 73) heard of a district Tunda, inland from Novo Redondo. [81] The Gonsa or Gunza (Ngunza) of Battell is undoubtedly the Coanza. A river Ngunza enters the sea at Novo Redondo. [82] _Shila_, nasty; _mbanza_, towns. [83] According to Duarte Lopez (_Pigafetta_, p. 55), the feathers of peacocks and of ostriches are used as a standard in battle. Hence, peacocks are reared within a fence and reserved for the king. [84] _Njilo_ (in Kimbundu), bird; _mukishi_, a charm. [85] See note, p. 51.