The Nganga of Congo-land, the Mganga of the Wasawahili and the Uganga of the Gaboon, exactly corresponds with M. Michelet’s Sorciere of the Middle Ages, “physicienne,” that is doctor for the people and poisoner; we cannot, however, apply in Africa the adage of Louis xiii.’s day, “To one wizard ten thousand witches.”  In the “Muata Cazembe” (pp. 57, et passim) we read “O Ganga or O Surjao;” the magician is there called “Muroi,” which, like “Fite,” is also applied to magic.  The Abbe Proyart opines of his professional brother, “he is ignorant as the rest of the people, but a greater rogue,”—­a pregnant saying.  Yet here “the man of two worlds” is not l’homme de revolution, and he suffices for the small “spiritual wants” of his flock.  He has charge of the “Kizila,” the “Chigella” of Merolla and the “Quistilla” of James Barbot—­Anglice putting things in fetish, which corresponds with the Tahitian tapu or taboo.  The African idea is, that he who touches the article, for instance, gold on the eastern coast of Guinea, will inevitably come to grief.  When “fetish is taken off,” as by the seller of palm wine who tastes it in presence of the buyer, the precaution is evidently against poison.  Many of these “Kizila” are self-imposed, for instance a water melon may never enter Banza Nokki, and, though slaves may eat bananas upon a journey, the master may not.  Others refuse the flesh of a fowl until it has been tasted by a woman.  These rules are delivered to the young, either by the fetishman or the parents, and, when broken, they lead to death, doubtless often the consequence of strong belief.  The Nganga superintends, as grand inquisitor, the witch-ordeal, by causing the accused to chew red-wood and other drugs in this land ferax venenorum.  Park was right:  “By witchcraft is meant pretended magic, affecting the lives and healths of persons, in other words it is the administering of poison.”  European “Narratives of Sorcery and Magic” exactly explain the African idea, except in one point:  there the witch “only suffered from not being able to prove to Satan how much she burned to suffer for his sake;” here she has no Satan.  Both European and African are the firmest believers in their own powers; they often confess, although knowing that the confession leads directly to torture and death, with all the diabolical ingenuity of which either race was capable.  In Tuckey’s time a bargain was concluded by breaking a leaf or a blade of grass, and this rite it was “found necessary to perform with the seller of every fowl:”  apparently it is now obsolete.  Finally, although the Fetish man may be wrong, the fetish cannot err.  If a contretemps occur, a reason will surely be found; and, should the “doctor” die, he has fallen a victim to a rival or an enemy more powerful than himself.