He became suspicious of his dearest friends. His nearest relatives, he thought; were those who wanted to get rid of him in order to get his wives, slaves, ivory, and goods. What a terrible superstition this belief in witchcraft is! The father dreads his children, the son his father and mother, the man his wife, and the wives their husbands. A man fancies himself sick; he imagines the sickness has been brought upon him by those who want him out of the way, and at last becomes sick through his fears. At night he fancies himself surrounded by the _aniemba_ who are prowling round his huts, and that evil spirits are ready to enter into him as he comes out; and if this should happen he believes that disease and death are surely near. So Quengueza covered himself with fetiches, and every day invoked the spirits of his ancestors—Igoumbai, Ricati, Kombi, and Niavi (his mother)—to protect him from the _aniemba_. How strangely his voice sounded in the silence of the night! One could not but be awed by it. Every morning he told the wonderful and frightful dreams he had—for these people believe in dreams—and he was so convinced that the village was full of wicked sorcerers, that at last the whole people became infected by his fears, each one thinking that his life was at stake. Hence the _ouganga_, Olanga-Condo, had been ordered by the King to drink the _mboundou_, and then tell the names of the sorcerers. The leading people of Goumbi had met, and protested that no one wanted to bewitch their king; they all wanted him to live to the end of time. Now they all sat in a circle on the ground; each man had a short stick in his hand; and Olanga-Condo was to take his position in the centre and drink the _mboundou_ in their presence. [Sidenote: _HOW THE MBOUNDOU IS MADE._] In the mean time I had assisted in the operation of making the _mboundou_, an operation which the drinker does not witness. A few red roots of the plant called by them the _mboundou_ were brought in, and the bark was scraped off by several of the natives into a vessel; into this a pint of water was poured, and in about a minute fermentation took place, and the beverage effervesced almost like champagne. The water soon became quite red, and was the very color of the bark when the effervescing ceased. Two of Olanga-Condo’s friends were present during this operation to see that all was fair. [Illustration: DRINKING THE MBOUNDOU.] When the mixture was ready Olanga-Condo came, went to the centre of the circle, and the bowl containing the poison was banded to him: without faltering for a single moment, but full of faith, he emptied the bowl at one draught.