On a boat journey in the Ogowe River, about 1878, I camped on the edge of a forest for the noon meal. My crew of four, members of the Galwa and Nkâmi tribes, had no meat. They needed it, for they had rowed hard and well. For myself, I had only a small chicken. I was satisfied with a portion of it, and gave the rest to the crew. It would make at least a tasty morsel for each, with their manioc bread. Three of them thanked me; the fourth did not touch his share. I felt slightly vexed, thinking my favor was not appreciated, and I asked the cause of his apparent sullenness. He said he did not dare to eat of the fowl, as it was orunda to him. On another journey, in 1876, a young man whom I had picked up as extra hand in my boat's crew, when at the noon mealtime we stopped under the shade of a spreading tree by the river's bank, instead of respectfully leaving me alone with my lunch in the boat, and going ashore where the others were eating, wanted to remain in the boat, his orunda being that when on a journey by water his food should be eaten only over water. Two Ogowe chiefs, near whose villages was anchored the small river steamer "Pioneer," on which I was passenger, in 1875, came aboard, and in drinking a glass of liquor with the captain, one of them held up a piece of white cloth before his mouth, in order that strangers' eyes might not see him swallow. That was his orunda, probably. Perhaps also the hiding of his drinking may have had reference to the common fear of another's "evil eye." The other, having taken a mouthful, wet his finger in his mouth, drew the wet finger across his throat, and then blew on a fetich which he wore as a ring on a finger of the other hand. I do not know the significance of his motion across his throat. The blowing was the Ibâtâ-blessing,--an ejaculatory prayer for a blessing on his plans, probably of trade. This word "orunda," meaning thus originally _prohibited from_ human use (like the South Sea "taboo"), grew, under missionary hands, into its related meaning of _sacred_ to spiritual use. It is the word by which the Mpongwe Scriptures translate our word "holy." I think it an unfortunate choice; for the missionary has to stop and explain that orunda, as used for God, does not mean the orunda used by mankind. In the translation of the Benga Scriptures the word "holy" was transferred bodily, and we explain that it means something better than good. To such straits are translators sometimes reduced in the use of heathen languages!