PREFACE
A brass rod is the money of by far the larger number of the people on the Lower and Upper Congo. In thickness it is not quite so stout as an ordinary slate pencil, and varies now in length, according to the tribe using it, from five inches long on the Lower Congo to an indefinite length among the more distant tribes of Congo’s hinterland. Originally the brass wire was employed on the Congo for purposes of ornamentation, either of the person in the form of necklets, armlets, and anklets, or of articles they greatly prized and wished to decorate. It was beaten into ribbons and wound round the hafts of their favourite spears, paddles, and knives which were only used on gala days; or the wire was melted down, and, with much skill, made into personal ornaments. I have seen brass necklets weighing twenty-eight pounds, and have taken from a woman’s legs brass rings that weighed in the aggregate nearly sixty pounds. It is probablethat at first this brass wire changed hands in lengths of several fathoms, and gradually pieces of a certain length were sold at a fixed value, and thus it became in due time the article of common exchange--the currency, the money of the country.
For a considerable time the writer has been interested in the folklore and anthropology of the people, and has made long and careful notes on such subjects, and some of this information he has worked into the story. For obvious reasons much must be left unwritten[1]in a popular book; but that which finds a place in the following pages can be accepted as perfectly trustworthy and true to Congo life. The missionary and other experiences are founded on fact, the views and prejudices of the natives are faithfully pourtrayed and are not exaggerated, and the native superstitions have, as shown here, resulted in innumerable cases of murder by ordeal, and the killing off of the most progressive natives, possessors of inventive genius, of irrepressible energy and of great skill--the best men, who would havebeen the leaders of their people and would have left them more advanced than they found them but for the witch-doctor and the ordeal.
By writing under the guise of a Brass Rod, worn first round the neck of one owner and then round the arm of another, the writer has had more scope, and he hopes has been able to make the scenes from life more realistic than he could have done by the ordinary method. And the reader will find that the book deals much more largely with the people of the country--their habits, customs, views of life and superstitions--than with the scenery.
The book has been written during the intervals of deputational work; and its object is to lay clearly before the reader the ingrained prejudices, the curious views, the tremendous and all-pervading superstitions, and the mighty forces that have been arrayed against the introduction of Christianity into that benighted land, and how, in spite of such forces against it, the evangel of Jesus Christ has triumphed more wonderfully than our poor faith and often blundering efforts have deserved.
It is hoped that superintendents, Sunday-school teachers, leaders of Christian Endeavours and ofmissionary prayer-meetings may find that the reading aloud of some of these chapters will awaken in their scholars and hearers a deeper sympathy with missionary work, and that ministers and teachers will discover in the stories told around the Congo fire, which form the second part of this volume,new nailsupon which to hang old truths.
John H. Weeks.
Baptist Mission House,19 Furnival Street, Holborn.
Baptist Mission House,19 Furnival Street, Holborn.
Baptist Mission House,19 Furnival Street, Holborn.
Baptist Mission House,
19 Furnival Street, Holborn.