[183] _Mbundu_, the powdered root of a species of strychnos, is administered to confessed witches accused of having caused the death of a person. If the accused be guilty, this poison causes him to lose all control over the _sphincter urethræ_; he discharges red urine profusely, runs a few paces, falls down and dies. An innocent person only discharges a few drops on a banana leaf (Pechuel-Loesche, _Loango Exp._, vol. iii, p. 188). _Nkasa_, prepared from the bark of _Erythrophlaeum guineense_, paralyses the action of the heart, but if thrown up at once, it will not kill (Dr. M. Boehr, _Correspon. der Deutschen Afrik. Ges._, vol. i, p. 332). It is administered to persons who deny being witches. (For a full account of such a trial, see Dennett, _Seven Years Among the Fjort_, p. 165.) In the case of minor offences, the ordeal of the hot matchet—_bikalo_, _bisengo_, or _bau_—is resorted to. The knife is passed thrice over the skin of the leg, and if it burns the accused is declared guilty (see also Dennett, _Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Fjort_, p. 162). The Nganga is, of course, open to a bribe, and in the case of a chief the poison may be administered to a substitute—a dog or a slave—and the penalty commuted to a fine. See also Bentley’s _Pioneering on the Congo_, London, 1900. [184] The poison administered in this case was _nkasa_, and not _mbundu_ (see p. 80). [185] _Ndoki_, a witch; _undoki_, that which pertains to witchcraft (Bentley). [186] That is, _Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World_, bk. vii, ch. 10, dealing with Loango. [187] Worthy Purchas grows quite incoherent in his indignation, but the reader will nevertheless be able to gather his meaning, and will appreciate his distinction between a Jewish priest and a heathen _Nganga_, both administering the same rite. He thus shares the opinion of the Roman Catholic missionaries who recognised the efficacy of native charms, but ascribed it to the Devil, whilst claiming greater potency for their crosses, relics, etc., deriving their potency from Heaven. [188] The poison ordeal, which required a woman suspected of infidelity to her husband to drink “bitter water” administered by the Jewish priest, is here referred to. This ordinance, of course, was not applicable in case of a similar offence charged against a husband (Numbers v, 12-31). [189] Valdez (_Six Years in Angola_, vol. ii, p. 130) calls this ordeal _quirigué tubia_ (_Kiriké tubia_), and says that the hot hatchet may be applied to any part of the person. The meaning of _kiri_ is truth; of _tubia_, fire. Purchas is evidently mistaken when he calls this procedure _Motamba_, for _tambi_ or _mutambi_ is a kind of funeral feast or wake. The body having been buried, and potsherds, pipes, and other articles placed on the grave, the mourners devour a roast pig, the skull of which is afterwards thrown into a neighbouring river.